Category: News

The first ten people you hire decide how the next hundred behave. A small business has no HR department to correct a bad early pattern, so the process has to do that job. Write the role before the advert, run the same structured interview for every candidate a

Chancellor John Healey has delivered his first Autumn Budget against a challenging backdrop of rising living costs, stubborn inflation and pressure on the public finances.

Since 31 March 2025, every organisation that processes, stores, or transmits cardholder data must comply with the full set of PCI DSS 4.0 requirements. That deadline included the so-called future-dated controls that the PCI Security Standards Council had grant

A healthy bank balance can make a business owner feel wealthier than they really are. Some of that money already belongs to next month’s payroll, the tax bill or suppliers who have not yet invoiced. Before thinking about investments, the first task is un

How to take learnings from business emergencies Business emergencies always seem to occur at the worst possible moment, and amid the chaos, it can be difficult or even impossible to find the learnings. However, with a considered approach when fixing the proble

Image by USDAgov on Wikimedia Commons A warehouse can feel short of space when the real difficulty is reaching stock efficiently. Fast-moving cartons, reserve pallets and awkward loads place different demands on the same floor. Before comparing rack heights or

Businesses measure sales, margins, costs and cash flow with increasing scrutiny. So why does marketing still get away with reporting impressions, engagement and website traffic? Here, Paul Houston, co-founder of Catalyst Marketing Agency, argues that SMEs need

Selling directly to customers offers many advantages for companies, especially small or medium-sized ones. But there are many factors to consider.

Small business debt collection rarely crosses an owner’s mind until an invoice goes unpaid, and then every owner knows the feeling. The work is done, the invoice went out weeks ago, and the money still hasn’t arrived. You send a polite reminder. Th

For many small and medium-sized businesses in the UK, the hardest part of growth is no longer finding customers. It is finding people. Care providers, engineering firms, hospitality groups, tech start-ups and professional practices all report the same thing: v

UK SMEs are highly sensitive to global market trends and news, both positive and negative. Factor in national macro environment trends, such as rising labour costs and the fact that UK profit warnings are near a two-year high, and it’s no wonder that fr

The backpack that has carried your laptop since the start of the business works fine on the train. Now the business is taking you into a bank, a buyer’s boardroom and an investor’s office, and the backpack does not fit those rooms. A founder’