As the Small Business Saturday campaign moves into its second decade in the UK, SME Magazine is profiling some of this year’s SmallBiz100 – a line-up of Britain’s 100 most impressive small businesses. As Michelle Ovens CBE, Director of Small Business Saturday UK, says: “The fantastic small businesses featured in this year’s SmallBiz100 sum up the incredible contribution that small firms make to our economy and local areas.” Here, SME Magazine catches up with Sarah White, above, founder of a photography business based in Chester, and hears about her business. Sarah, can you start by telling us ..read more

  Utilities remain a cost driver for a majority of small firms, according to new research by the Federation of Small Businesses. Its latest Small Business Index shows over 57% of small businesses cited utilities as the main cause for rising business costs in Q3 this year, down slightly from 62% the previous quarter. Memories of last year’s energy price crisis have not faded for small businesses, and this illustrates the need for firmer action from Ofgem to protect the small business community against mis-selling energy contracts and being trapped in unaffordable tariffs as we head in ..read more

Finding a trustworthy broker can be extremely challenging. There are numerous options, yet you cannot know for sure which one is suitable unless you give it a try. Besides, you can also find regulated brokers, but these usually come with limitations in terms of trading conditions and instruments.  Thus, an unregulated offshore forex broker seems like a much better opportunity. Still, you might worry about the safety of such an option. Can you trust an offshore broker that is not regulated? We recommend that you keep on reading to find out the answer.  Unregulated Offshore Forex Broke ..read more

Lord Mark Price, below, Founder of WorkL, on the introduction of using AI for employee performance reviews This week we’ve seen a Wall Street business leader announce that AI will now be used to facilitate employee performance reviews, a move that has created an avid debate – will Line Managers be surplus to requirements in the near future? For starters, this is a bank using AI to assess an employee’s performance, and given that banks already use AI across many areas, such as for detecting fraud, I’m not surprised by this latest sector development. It’s a time-cutting and cost-cutting exercise ..read more

Dr Helmut Schuster and Dr David Oxley, above are co-authors of A Career Carol: A Tale of Professional Nightmares and How to Navigate Them, published by Austin Macauley Publishers, available on Amazon In some respects, hybrid and remote work have been with us for ever. What has changed is the scale, context and, most importantly, the dynamics. The Evolving Context Over the past 20 years, remote work has been steadily increasing. Between 2006 and 2015, the number of people who worked at least partially ‘from home’ grew from 19%-24%. The main drivers here were greater virtual connectivity and a g ..read more

As the Small Business Saturday campaign moves into its second decade in the UK, SME Magazine is profiling some of this year’s SmallBiz100 – a line-up of Britain’s 100 most impressive small businesses. As Michelle Ovens CBE, Director of Small Business Saturday UK, says: “The fantastic small businesses featured in this year’s SmallBiz100 sum up the incredible contribution that small firms make to our economy and local areas.” Kate Rumsey is the owner of Rumsey’s, a family-owned artisan chocolate company which produces award-winning hand-made chocolate, running two chocolateries in Buckinghamshir ..read more

By Ivo Gueorguiev, below, co-founder of e-money institution Paynetics For several years, back-to-back crises have made growing and frankly, surviving as a business a challenge to say the least. Turbulence has been a constant, meaning SMEs have had to be agile and flexible to navigate unprecedented challenges. The sophistication of technology and innovative software has helped SMEs streamline operations. However, one issue remains – access to financial services. External sources of finance are becoming less accessible and affordable for SMEs. As the hurdles get higher, alternative sources are i ..read more

Reacting to Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, Shevaun Haviland, above, Director General of the BCC, said:  “We are pleased the Chancellor has listened to our calls to help businesses deal with the current economic challenges. Our Chamber network called on Jeremy Hunt to offer ‘much needed solutions to Britain’s investment problem’.  “Today’s statement provided some welcome remedies at a time when businesses of all sizes need certainty and security from the Government in the difficult months ahead. The decision to make full expensing permanent will be a boost to companies wanting to invest ..read more

Following the Autumn Statement, Marco Forgione, the Director General of the Institute of Export and International Trade, said: “The announcement of the extension of tax reliefs for freeports is exactly right and provides certainty for the businesses which were considering investing in them. Freeports now have the opportunity to take long-term decisions and play a key role in attracting more investment into the UK. The new investment zones, all focused around advanced manufacturing, will strengthen the UK’s position as a leading manufacturing nation. The announcements on national insurance, bus ..read more

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt today unveiled what he called a huge boost for British competitiveness in an Autumn statement for growth. He announced a series of measures with an “overall impact of £20bn a year within the decade – the biggest ever business boost for business investment in modern times”. Key to this was a series of measures such as the abolition of class two national insurance entirely, saving the average self-employed person £192 a year, as well as a one per cent cut in Class 4 national insurance from April – and a two per cent cut in employee national insurance contributions by ..read more