Tag Archive for Business Management

Hot Business News Today

General Election 2019: small business policies that could win your vote

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
The 2019 General Election is only a couple of weeks from now – and it’s one of the most heated votes in years.
Questions have been asked around who the real party for small business and what exactly is each one promising.
To help you de-fog these quandaries, we’ve sifted through the manifestos and pulled out key policies relating to entrepreneurs and small businesses.
The main areas we’ve covered are:

Late payments
Business rates
Skills and apprenticeships
Self-employed support
Employee rights
Finance
Other noteworthy policies

Links to each party’s manifestos are included in the table for you to take a further look.

 Late paymentsBusiness ratesSkills and apprenticeshipsSupport for the self-employedEmployee rightsFinanceOther noteworthy policies

ConservativeClamp down on late payments.‘Fundamental review of the system’ to reduce business rates.Introduce a £3bn national skills fund. This fund will provide
matching funding for individuals and
SMEs for high-quality education and
training.

Improve the working of the apprenticeship levy.

Invest almost £2bn to upgrade entire further education college estate. Will have 20 institutes of technology, connecting high-quality teaching in science, technology, engineering and maths to business and industry.
Launch a review into better support for the self-employed – improving access to finance and credit (especially mortgages), making tax system easier to navigate and how better broadband can boost

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Hot Business News Today

Gousto CEO, Timo Boldt: ‘We use the two types of algorithm Netflix is using’

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Welcome to the second series of Small Business Snippets, the podcast from SmallBusiness.co.uk.
Anna Jordan meets Timo Boldt, founder and CEO of recipe box service, Gousto. In this episode they talk ethics, personal data and the importance of managing yourself before you manage others.
Have a listen to it in the media player below.

Your browser does not support the
audio element.

 
You can also catch our episodes with:

Entrepreneur and The Apprentice 2018 candidate, Jackie Fast
Investor and former Dragon, Piers Linney
Investment fund manager, Nicola Horlick
Supermodel turned entrepreneur, Caprice

We’ve got podcast episodes from the first series looking at:

How one business owner’s mental breakdown caused her to see trolls from her past
How one entrepreneur hired a videographer to track their every move and build their business brand
How funding a business led one entrepreneur to stress-related alopecia
One entrepreneur’s first professional public speaking engagement
Adapting to UK life and learning English before starting a business
Securing seed funding
Finding the perfect head of customer care
Reaching a £1 million annual rate of return
Boosting client numbers from 30 to 850
Starting a brand new business from scratch

To find out more about Small Business Snippets, you can download the trailer.
If you want to listen to the podcast elsewhere, it’s

Read more...

Hot Business News Today

Brexit extension: ensuring your business is ready for the new deadline

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Originally written by Jo Thornley on Small Business
Brexit uncertainty is now very much, in US parlance, a ‘known unknown’ which will affect everyone in the UK in a variety of ways.
The good news is that now that the deadline has been pushed back to 31 January, you have more time to prepare.
Brexit opportunities and challenges
Preparing for withdrawal from the EU should be slightly easier for a small to medium-sized business simply because their smaller size means they can often respond faster and more flexibly than their corporate competitors. So as an astute entrepreneur you should try to stay alert to any such niche opportunities Brexit may send your way.
However, your chief concern will be to weather Brexit uncertainty as best you can. To do this successfully, your first and most vital step must be to keep yourself informed about political and economic Brexit developments at both macro and micro levels.
This will require 360-degree vigilance because some issues may directly affect your business trading, perhaps in the form of new legislation. Other issues may indirectly affect your cash flow by impacting upon your supply chain or by altering the priorities of your customer base.
Elsewhere, there may be other changes which affect

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Hot Business News Today

Jackie Fast: ‘I can say that I didn’t love being in The Apprentice house’

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Welcome to the second series of Small Business Snippets, the podcast from SmallBusiness.co.uk.
Anna Jordan talks to Jackie Fast, an entrepreneur, author, speaker and candidate on The Apprentice in 2018. We discuss building a business from home and how to get started with sponsorship.
Have a listen to it in the media player below.
You can also catch our episodes with investor and former Dragon, Piers Linney; supermodel turned entrepreneur, Caprice; and investment fund manager, Nicola Horlick.

Your browser does not support the
audio element.

We’ve got podcast episodes from the first series looking at:

How one business owner’s mental breakdown caused her to see trolls from her past
How one entrepreneur hired a videographer to track their every move and build their business brand
How funding a business led one entrepreneur to stress-related alopecia
One entrepreneur’s first professional public speaking engagement
Adapting to UK life and learning English before starting a business
Securing seed funding
Finding the perfect head of customer care
Reaching a £1 million annual rate of return
Boosting client numbers from 30 to 850
Starting a brand new business from scratch

To find out more about Small Business Snippets, you can download the trailer.
If you want to listen to the podcast elsewhere, it’s available on iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud and Spotify.
Remember

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Hot Business News Today

What small businesses think of the four-day working week

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Labour announced a raft of proposals during its party conference this year, including a reduction in the standard working week to 32 hours (four days) within the next decade.
The four-day working week isn’t a new idea, but it still sparks as much debate as ever.
Some see it as the panacea to our continuing productivity issues. In Britain we’ve long been lagging behind, which seems unusual as we have some of the longest working hours in Europe. Not by a huge amount, though – 42.5 hours a week versus 41.2 hours across the continent on average.
It then makes sense that most of the country’s workers would like to see a shorter working week.
YouGov research shows that 63pc of British people are in favour; we’re among the most enthusiastic of the seven nations surveyed (Britain, Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway). Additionally, almost a third (31pc) think it would make us more prosperous, compared to 19pc who believe the opposite (34pc say it would make no difference). Meanwhile, 45pc believe four-day weeks would make us more productive, compared to 21pc who think we’d be less productive.
The most striking stat is how much happier it

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Hot Business News Today

What small businesses think of the four-day working week

by  •  • 0 Comments

Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Labour announced a raft of proposals during its party conference this year, including a reduction in the standard working week to 32 hours (four days) within the next decade.
The four-day working week isn’t a new idea, but it still sparks as much debate as ever.
Some see it as the panacea to our continuing productivity issues. In Britain we’ve long been lagging behind, which seems unusual as we have some of the longest working hours in Europe. Not by a huge amount, though – 42.5 hours a week versus 41.2 hours across the continent on average.
It then makes sense that most of the country’s workers would like to see a shorter working week.
YouGov research shows that 63pc of British people are in favour; we’re among the most enthusiastic of the seven nations surveyed (Britain, Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway). Additionally, almost a third (31pc) think it would make us more prosperous, compared to 19pc who believe the opposite (34pc say it would make no difference). Meanwhile, 45pc believe four-day weeks would make us more productive, compared to 21pc who think we’d be less productive.
The most striking stat is how much happier it

Read more...

Hot Business News Today

Piers Linney: ‘I was one of the first to do real tech on Dragon’s Den’

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Welcome to the second series of Small Business Snippets, the podcast from SmallBusiness.co.uk.
In this episode, Anna Jordan chats to Piers Linney, an entrepreneur, investor and former Dragon on Dragon’s Den. We discuss the most memorable pitches from the show as well as Piers’ first foray into entrepreneurship.
Listen to it in the media player below.

Your browser does not support the
audio element.

You can also catch our episodes with supermodel turned entrepreneur, Caprice and investment fund manager, Nicola Horlick.
We’ve got podcast episodes from the first series looking at:

How one business owner’s mental breakdown caused her to see trolls from her past
How one entrepreneur hired a videographer to track their every move and build their business brand
How funding a business led one entrepreneur to stress-related alopecia
One entrepreneur’s first professional public speaking engagement
Adapting to UK life and learning English before starting a business
Securing seed funding
Finding the perfect head of customer care
Reaching a £1 million annual rate of return
Boosting client numbers from 30 to 850
Starting a brand new business from scratch

To find out more about Small Business Snippets, you can download the trailer.
If you want to listen to the podcast elsewhere, it’s available on iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud and Spotify.
Remember to like us on

Read more...

Hot Business News Today

Piers Linney: ‘I was one of the first to do real tech on Dragon’s Den’

by  •  • 0 Comments

Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Welcome to the second series of Small Business Snippets, the podcast from SmallBusiness.co.uk.
In this episode, Anna Jordan chats to Piers Linney, an entrepreneur, investor and former Dragon on Dragon’s Den. We discuss the most memorable pitches from the show as well as Piers’ first foray into entrepreneurship.
Listen to it in the media player below.

Your browser does not support the
audio element.

You can also catch our episodes with supermodel turned entrepreneur, Caprice and investment fund manager, Nicola Horlick.
We’ve got podcast episodes from the first series looking at:

How one business owner’s mental breakdown caused her to see trolls from her past
How one entrepreneur hired a videographer to track their every move and build their business brand
How funding a business led one entrepreneur to stress-related alopecia
One entrepreneur’s first professional public speaking engagement
Adapting to UK life and learning English before starting a business
Securing seed funding
Finding the perfect head of customer care
Reaching a £1 million annual rate of return
Boosting client numbers from 30 to 850
Starting a brand new business from scratch

To find out more about Small Business Snippets, you can download the trailer.
If you want to listen to the podcast elsewhere, it’s available on iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud and Spotify.
Remember to like us on

Read more...

Hot Business News Today

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships: what are they and what can they do for you?

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Originally written by Paul Yeomans on Small Business
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) can help you develop new products, embed new skills and improve the efficiency of your business to increase profits.
KTP is an Innovate UK-funded programme that for the past 40 years has helped small businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within UK universities.
The types of projects undertaken via KTP are strategic and significant for the participating business: they are often central to their future growth and success and are undertaken in a fully professional way. These are not part-time projects or student/graduate placements.
How does a Knowledge Transfer Partnership work?
A full-time member of staff is jointly recruited by a company and a university to work on-site in the business but with access to university facilities. The projects also benefit from a team of academic experts, who regularly visit the company to work directly on the project, while project management support from Innovate UK and the university ensures that there are no grant claims for the company to manage as with other funding.
Many Government small business support initiatives have come and gone since the scheme began in the mid-1970s, but KTP

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Hot Business News Today

How to get a virtual assistant in the UK

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Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
If you are a solo founder, you know how critical it is to manage your time. And if you are a busy one, you’re all too familiar with the inbox and calendar management that eats up that precious time.
We feel for you — there must be a solution to get all these tasks done easily.
While you’d usually hire a full-time personal assistant (PA) to carry out these tasks, there’s a far more flexible, efficient and quality solution to the problem.
We’re referring to virtual assistants, of course.
Virtual assistants are expert remote freelancers that carry out PA tasks – they’re becoming increasingly popular thanks to their flexibility of remote work, pricing and their expertise in a niche industry or specific task.
Lucky for you, we’re here to help. Freelance marketplaces like Fiverr are the leading platforms for finding virtual assistant services.
Now, let’s dive into the specifics of virtual assistants.
Why do you need a virtual assistant (VA)?
We previously touched upon a growing multitude of small tasks that consume your time as a business owner.
I’m talking activities such as:

Inbox and calendar management
Travel booking and arrangements
Research and presentation slides in preparation for your meetings
Leads, follow-up calls and client management,

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