Advice on growing your small and medium sized business, SME, in the UK. Hiring and managing staff and finance plus marketing all on one website
Athletes are not the only ones training ahead of London 2012 as today saw the launch of the Technology Lab; a miniature version of the 36 Olympic competition venues, with the IT systems for every sports event and venue being put through a series of tests over 200,000 hours to ensure the Games run smoothly.
Over half of businesses across the UK are unsure of what to expect in 2011. Mid-sized companies are the most bullish. Half declared themselves to be positive about the future, with smaller companies being more confident than large enterprises, with nearly half of SMBs questioned are looking forward to a good year.
At a time when the number of people starting a business is at a record high the small business publisher Brightword Publishing has launched a Start Up Kit to ease the process of going it alone.
There was a time when hiring a mother was a positive thing for employers. Mothers were seen as reliable, hardworking and trustworthy; after all they had a child to support. However according to a recent survey, it would appear that times have changed.
Nearly two thirds of UK businesses have admitted they do not provide a good level of support for their employees to volunteer. Despite strong demand from employees to engage more with their local communities, just over a third of business managers said they currently provide a good level of support, such as allocating staff a few hours a month to volunteer.
There is a worrying tendency that has developed over the years for a level of ‘being promoted to the level of your incompetence’ to become ever more widespread. We’re taking a look at public and motivational speakers and wondering what qualifies us for the title.
Customer service is a crucial way to differentiate your business and increase its robustness to weather out the current economic uncertainties. Rather than just examining best practice, examine and learn from any examples of poor customer service you experience yourself to stimulate improvements in your own business.
As the new year has arrived many businesses will be taking a fresh look at their operating costs in light of the tough financial conditions that 2010 had to offer, and which show no immediate signs of improving.
Follow these tips to ensure that your business doesn’t get the ‘call me back after Christmas’ objections, and make sure that in January you can still get hold of them!
The office Christmas party season will be in full swing this week, with 65% of workers attending on average two work events over the next few days. However this revelry will cost UK business £620 million, due to hung-over Britons pulling a ‘Hangover Sickie’.
Websites are no longer simply the online ‘face’ of a business. Customers expect more from a company’s website than a home page. To use an analogy of buying a house, how many people make a purchase based on how attractive they find the outside of a building? Buyers want to be able to enter a home, have a good look around and get a feel of a house, before making a purchase decision
In one of the largest UK settlements to date, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has settled with a media hosting company following an investigation into its use of unlicensed software. The investigation was launched after the BSA was tipped-off by a former employee. The company paid in excess of £100,000 in damages, in addition to paying a significant amount to purchase legal copies of Microsoft and Adobe software.
New research has revealed that nearly two million of UK small businesses are set to move to international markets over the next year, with a third claiming overseas economies are increasingly more welcoming to small businesses than here in the UK.
Let me explain why so many business owners and salespeople get the ‘call me back after Christmas’ objections, only to find in January that they can’t get hold of the person ever again!
If you don’t actively manage your customer base, you’ll end up diluting your resources for growth. If you want your company to grow you need to decide what sort of clients you want – so how do you pin point those that are worth keeping?
Need data that holds up in the boardroom — and the press? Trends Research is the UK's specialist SME research company, with a 750,000-strong panel and a 2,000-response minimum on every survey. AI-augmented analysis, headline-ready insights, and 38 years of trust built through Business Matters magazine. Trusted by Vodafone, BT, O2 and top UK PR agencies. From brief to deliverable in 10 working days — or 3 for press-led work. Request a quote today at https://trendsresearch.co.uk/
