Tag Archive for Opportunities

Hot Business News Today

How to win a £25,000 Business Boost grant for your small firm

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Simply Business has launched a £25,000 Business Boost grant for 2021.
It’s designed to help entrepreneurs launch a new business or help existing SMEs bounce back from challenges posed by Covid-19.
According to its own research, Simply Business found that:

The average UK start-up spends more than £22,756 in their first year
SMEs have lost £15,673 each so far in lost work and earnings due to the pandemic
In total, SME owners expect to lose £22,461 each on average, suggesting there are still losses to come, even despite the reopenings from the government
Over 840,000 SMEs are not sure their business will ever return to pre-pandemic trading levels
Over 2.2m SMEs (37 per cent) still haven’t been able to access government schemes and grants

How do I enter?
To enter, you’ll need to fill out a form on the competition website detailing why you think you deserve the grant. Judges will be focusing on:

Your story
A big dream
Positive social impact
Innovation

You must not have a turnover of over £500,000 or have received over £50,000 in private grant funding in the past two years – this doesn’t include government grants.
In the event that you are the winner, you must accept and agree to at least

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Hot Business News Today

Win a chance to sell into China with Alibaba

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Alibaba is giving UK small businesses the chance to get help growing their market into China.
Alibaba Group’s Tmall Global, the largest cross-border ecommerce platform in China, today announced the launch of the UK and Ireland edition of Go Global 11.11 Pitch Fest. The event will provide an opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses to be fast-tracked into the world’s biggest shopping event, Alibaba’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival.
Eligible brands can register to pitch their products to an Alibaba expert panel to receive valuable advice on how to grow their business in China. Selected businesses will also get marketing advice and be pitched to famous Chinese influencers.
Following on from the Success of Pitch Fest 2020, it will be opened up to British and Irish companies for the first time. The 2020 event saw more than 31,000 overseas brands taking part and, of those, 2,600 of those took part in 11.11 for the first time. During the 11-day period, $494m worth of goods from UK businesses were sold, showing strong demand for UK products among Chinese consumers.
All brands that apply will receive a follow up one-to-one consultation with a Tmall Global Expert and a bespoke report

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Hot Business News Today

Win a chance to sell into China with Alibaba

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Alibaba is giving UK small businesses the chance to get help growing their market into China.
Alibaba Group’s Tmall Global, the largest cross-border ecommerce platform in China, today announced the launch of the UK and Ireland edition of Go Global 11.11 Pitch Fest. The event will provide an opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses to be fast-tracked into the world’s biggest shopping event, Alibaba’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival.
Eligible brands can register to pitch their products to an Alibaba expert panel to receive valuable advice on how to grow their business in China. Selected businesses will also get marketing advice and be pitched to famous Chinese influencers.
Following on from the Success of Pitch Fest 2020, it will be opened up to British and Irish companies for the first time. The 2020 event saw more than 31,000 overseas brands taking part and, of those, 2,600 of those took part in 11.11 for the first time. During the 11-day period, $494m worth of goods from UK businesses were sold, showing strong demand for UK products among Chinese consumers.
All brands that apply will receive a follow up one-to-one consultation with a Tmall Global Expert and a bespoke report

Read more...

Hot Business News Today

TikTok launches entrepreneur competition with £5,000 cash prize

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
TikTok has announced the launch of the #BeYourOwnBoss competition, with a £5,000 cash prize.
The winning entrepreneur will also win mentoring sessions from high-profile entrepreneurs, marketing from TikTok and the Purposeful Project and a year of financial and business advice from Intuit QuickBooks.
How do I enter?
The competition invites potential business owners to submit a pitch in a TikTok. You need a TikTok account to enter. Your pitch video must be 30-60 seconds long and include the hashtag #BeYourOwnBoss and you must follow @simonsquibb. Alongside your video, you’ll need to fill out a form with a link to your video. Get your entries in by June 30, 2021. Ten finalists will be chosen by the judges to present their idea in more detail to the panel during a live TikTok finale.
Enter the competition here.
Simon Squibb, founder of The Purposeful Project, is a serial entrepreneur and investor. Alongside Simon, some of the judges taking part include:

Justine Roberts CBE – The founder and CEO of Mumsnet
Ben Francis – Founder and chief product officer of Gymshark
Jess Butcher MBE– Co-founder and CMO of Blippar
Alex Depledge – CEO and co-founder of Resi.co.uk
Mark Tilbury– Businessman and influencer who runs multiple seven-figure companies
Lisa Friedrich– Head of SMB, EU at TikTok

The UK government

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Hot Business News Today

How to win £20,000 in TV advertising with Sky Media’s SME100 scheme

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Sky Media has launched the SME100, a £2m support scheme for small businesses, including £20,000 in TV advertising.
What’s more, the 100 winning businesses will get a free 12-month superfast business broadband and digital phone package from Sky Connect, Sky’s new B2B telecoms business. The return of SME100 takes Sky’s contribution to more than £4.5m in advertising support for small businesses since the start of the pandemic.
Once selected, the winners will be put in touch with creative agencies in their local area to design and create their TV campaigns.
SME100 is open to any small business that has been running for at least a year in the UK and have up to 50 full-time employees. The businesses that are selected will be representative of the UK, both from a geographic and diversity perspective. Aligned with Sky’s 2025 targets, it is aimed that 20 per cent of winners will come from an ethnic minority background.
Businesses can nominate themselves online and will be selected by an internal board at Sky. All applicants to the scheme will also receive a £250 discount on any 24-month Sky Connect and digital broadband package.
To apply for the SME100 scheme and see

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Hot Business News Today

How to win £20,000 in TV advertising with Sky Media’s SME100 scheme

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Sky Media has launched the SME100, a £2m support scheme for small businesses, including £20,000 in TV advertising.
What’s more, the 100 winning businesses will get a free 12-month superfast business broadband and digital phone package from Sky Connect, Sky’s new B2B telecoms business. The return of SME100 takes Sky’s contribution to more than £4.5m in advertising support for small businesses since the start of the pandemic.
Once selected, the winners will be put in touch with creative agencies in their local area to design and create their TV campaigns.
SME100 is open to any small business that has been running for at least a year in the UK and have up to 50 full-time employees. The businesses that are selected will be representative of the UK, both from a geographic and diversity perspective. Aligned with Sky’s 2025 targets, it is aimed that 20 per cent of winners will come from an ethnic minority background.
Businesses can nominate themselves online and will be selected by an internal board at Sky. All applicants to the scheme will also receive a £250 discount on any 24-month Sky Connect and digital broadband package.
To apply for the SME100 scheme and see

Read more...

Hot Business News Today

Gumtree launches small business competition to win £10,000 cash prize

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Gumtree has announced a competition for small and micro businesses, giving them the chance to win up to £10,000 and a range of other prizes.
The Small Business Blast-Off competition from Gumtree UK, launched in partnership with Tide and supported by O2 Business, Builder.ai and SumUp, will help SMEs come out of lockdown and make the most of new opportunities as lockdown measures are eased.
What can I win?
There are a few different prizes up for grabs.
The winner will get:

£10,000 cash prize
Free Tide cashback upgrade for three months
A free Business Masterclass session with Tide
A free SumUp Air card reader
A free builder.ai app
12 months of free data, calls and texts from any handset on O2 Business
A free Gumtree Pro Account for three months
A display advertising campaign across Gumtree’s desktop, mobile web and app worth £3,000, including creative and production cost

Two runners up will get:

£5,000 cash prize
Free Tide cashback upgrade for three months
A free Business Masterclass session with Tide
A free SumUp Air card reader
A free builder.ai app
12 months of free data, calls and texts from any handset on O2 Business
A free Gumtree Pro Account for three months
A display advertising campaign across Gumtree’s desktop, mobile web and app

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Hot Business News Today

How to apply for public sector tendering as a small business

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Originally written by Melanie Bryan on Small Business
Demystifying public sector tendering
Would you like an introduction to a client who:

Spends around £284bn each year on goods and services?
Issues around 1,500 new contract opportunities each week?
Pays on time and won’t go bust?
Wants SMEs to be suppliers – awards around 59 per cent of contracts by value to small businesses?

Well, the good news is that you can – that client is the public sector. No wonder Lord Young named the public sector as the client to target for micro-businesses that want to grow.
Winning public sector contracts can also help stabilise your cashflow. For example, contracts for services are usually for at least a year and most small suppliers get paid within 30 days of submitting an accurate invoice and many are paid within 14 days.
And remember that public sector is quite wide; for example, it includes government, local authorities, NHS, police and fire services. There are also several other organisations who use similar procurement processes including universities, construction, and utility companies.
What’s more the public sector recognises that SMEs can offer better value, higher quality service, greater flexibility and can be more innovative than larger companies. Therefore it wants more to become suppliers and

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Hot Business News Today

How to apply for public sector tendering as a small business

by  •  • 0 Comments

Originally written by Melanie Bryan on Small Business
Demystifying public sector tendering
Would you like an introduction to a client who:

Spends around £284bn each year on goods and services?
Issues around 1,500 new contract opportunities each week?
Pays on time and won’t go bust?
Wants SMEs to be suppliers – awards around 59 per cent of contracts by value to small businesses?

Well, the good news is that you can – that client is the public sector. No wonder Lord Young named the public sector as the client to target for micro-businesses that want to grow.
Winning public sector contracts can also help stabilise your cashflow. For example, contracts for services are usually for at least a year and most small suppliers get paid within 30 days of submitting an accurate invoice and many are paid within 14 days.
And remember that public sector is quite wide; for example, it includes government, local authorities, NHS, police and fire services. There are also several other organisations who use similar procurement processes including universities, construction, and utility companies.
What’s more the public sector recognises that SMEs can offer better value, higher quality service, greater flexibility and can be more innovative than larger companies. Therefore it wants more to become suppliers and

Read more...

Hot Business News Today

How your rural business can get a £3,500 boost for better broadband

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Vouchers worth up to £3,500 will be available for rural small businesses to help cover the costs of installing gigabit broadband.
The next round of the UK Gigabit Voucher Scheme will launch on Thursday April 8 2021. From then, you will be able to check whether your premises is eligible to get a voucher, find a list of eligible suppliers and see which of those are active in your area. Please note that vouchers are only available through suppliers who are registered with the scheme.
What is a gigabit connection?
One gigabit is the same as 1,000 megabits and in order to get broadband at gigabit speeds, you need a full-fibre connection.
Will I be eligible?
Businesses will be asked to self-certify that they are a small or a medium-sized business. This means that your business must have:

Up to 249 employees and annual turnover no greater than £36m and/or
An annual balance sheet not exceeding £18m

You will asked to provide evidence of this status.
How does it work?
Once you’ve registered with your supplier they will request a voucher from the Government. You’ll then get an email asking if you’re happy to proceed. Your supplier will get to work on delivering

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