Category: News

Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are under growing pressure to match the convenience offered by larger retailers, with nearly eight in ten (79%) saying their customers expect them to offer more than debit payments at checkout.

Small business owners within the Business Buzz network are absorbing rising costs, delaying investment and reconsidering recruitment rather than risk losing customers to further price rises, according to a new snapshot survey from the UK networking community.

Most small and mid-sized businesses run on a patchwork of spreadsheets, shared inboxes and off-the-shelf software that almost fits. It works until the business grows. Then orders get missed, data is entered twice and the one person who understands the master s

A small sale is most secure in the minutes after the customer agrees to buy, and a virtual terminal lets an entrepreneur collect payment inside that window. A conversation that ends with a promise to send an invoice gives the customer a week to reconsider or s

For most small businesses, comparison sites have become the default way to buy insurance. You enter a few details, scroll through a list of prices and pick the cheapest one that looks reasonable. It’s quick, and for a car it often works. For builders, el

A shop, café or takeaway downstairs with a flat upstairs is a familiar setup for small business owners and landlords. What is less obvious is that the two units may share a single water supply. Wave Utilities, a water retailer, notes that a business in

Warwickshire based agency AlphaQuad Digital Marketing has launched a series of free CPD approved workshops to help local businesses and individuals understand which digital channels deliver results, and where marketing investment is genuinely worthwhile.

For aspiring business owners, the fear of entrepreneurship often shows up right when decisions stop being theoretical and start carrying real consequences. Startup anxiety isn't a character flaw; it's the mind reacting to uncertainty, visibility, and the press

Small and medium enterprises in the food sector face constant pressure to adopt greener business habits. Modern customers actively seek out environmentally responsible cafes, pubs, and restaurants when choosing where to dine. However, busy owners rarely have s

If you run a small business, you probably don’t judge your marketing by website visits, click-through rates or “impressions”. You judge it by whether the phone rings. Yet most small businesses have no idea which of their marketing channels is

Artificial intelligence has quickly moved from experimentation to everyday business use. Many companies now rely on AI tools to draft content, summarise information, support customer interactions, analyse data, or automate selected tasks. Yet one important dis

HMRC’s latest benefit-in-kind figures record 920,000 employees taxed on a company car in 2024/25, up 80,000 in a single year and within sight of the 2016 peak, with fully electric cars now accounting for 51% of them.