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Negotiating The Workers’ Rights Minefield

Negotiating The Workers’ Rights Minefield

Raphael Prais March 9, 2017 ,

With so many businesses coming under scrutiny over the employment rights of their staff, small business owners would be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed and confused by the sheer volume of employer do’s and don’ts. The recent Pimlico Plumbers v Smith case is yet another interesting development, and will be viewed with much interest by small business owners. The ruling The Court of Appeal ruled that plumber Gary Smith was entitled to basic workers’ rights despite his contract with Pimlico Plumbers describing him as self-employed. He was considered to be employed for Equality Act purposes, meaning he was entitled to complain about discrimination towards his disability, and he was considered to be a worker with regards to receiving holiday pay and unauthorised deductions from wages. It was co... »

International Women’s Day: Inspiring Female Business Owners Share Their Thoughts

International Women’s Day: Inspiring Female Business Owners Share Their Thoughts

Shane Donnelly March 8, 2017

It’s International Women’s Day! So we thought, what better way to mark the occasion than to speak to some of the UK’s most inspiring female business owners - and get them to offer some pearls of wisdom for you to enjoy… Believe in yourself Claire Lister, managing director of Pitman Training Group: “Know your rights and be realistic but confident of your abilities. Make sure that you know what your rights are legally, and don’t let others make you question your abilities. Have more confidence in your opinions. We all know that when we’re tired and under pressure, probably the first thing to take a knock is our confidence. “If this happens, give yourself a pep talk, and develop a support network that will give you a good kicking if you don’t manage to pick up ... »

Optimising For Micro-Moments With Targeted Landing Pages

Optimising For Micro-Moments With Targeted Landing Pages

Alex Minchin March 3, 2017

Landing pages are an absolutely essential part of your inbound marketing mix, helping to provide a relevant, targeted and personalised experience tailored to your customer’s intent. For those of you who don’t know, a landing page is simply a web page that serves as the entry point for a website or particular section of a website. Hubspot conducted some research across 7,000 businesses and found that, whilst most companies don’t see an increase in leads when increasing their total number of landing pages from 1-5 to 6-10, companies do see a 55% increase in leads when increasing their number of landing pages from 10 to 15. Even more interesting is that this figure spikes massively when increased to 40 or more. This data also correlates to the number of leads generated. The data is hard... »

The Business Owner: Aidan Rushby, Movebubble

The Business Owner: Aidan Rushby, Movebubble

Shane Donnelly March 3, 2017

Name: Aidan Rushby, Company: Movebubble Location: Grays Inn Road, Holborn Proposition: London’s only renter dedicated property app Size: 20 Website: www.movebubble.com How is your business different from what’s already out there? Movebubble’s vision is to move the world’s renters, instantly anywhere! We have built a two-sided market place that enables renters and agents to transact in hours not days. Young professionals can download our app, book viewings in two taps, and secure a property in minutes at any time of the day, as if they have someone else managing their search for them. Agents never need to go to the office as they can manage the whole moving process on the go. We like to think we are in the business of helping renters move home not advertising! How did you finance your busin... »

The Business Owner: May Al-Karooni, Globechain

The Business Owner: May Al-Karooni, Globechain

Shane Donnelly February 24, 2017

Founders: May Al-Karooni Company. Globechain Location: London, UK Proposition: Online reuse platform that connects businesses, charities and people to enable them to reuse unwanted items Size: Globechain has well over 10,000 users (businesses and individuals) and over 1,000 corporates signed up to give away items via the platform. The company is bootstrapped and break-even, and is run single-handedly by May Al-Karooni, with no co-founder. Website: www.globechain.com How is your business different from what’s already out there? Globechain is a reuse platform that connects corporates who want to throw away items, with small businesses, charities and individuals interested in reusing. The business model is a Pay to Give, Take for Free model, where corporates pay to upload and give items, and ... »

Here’s What Your Employees Are REALLY Afraid Of

Lee Biggins February 22, 2017

According to recent research from CV-Library, nearly half (47.8%) of UK professionals admit to having fears in the workplace, with over a third (35.7%) believing that these fears have impacted their career. In fact, many workers admitted to suffering with anxiety, not applying for certain positions and turning down job offers as a result. These findings are very concerning, and as an employer it’s vital that you can recognise when these fears are getting all too much for your employees and help them to overcome their anxieties. So what exactly is holding professionals back, and how can you address this in your business? Making a mistake One in five workers (20.1%) said that their biggest workplace fear is making a mistake. While it is a horrible feeling knowing you’ve made an error, we are... »

The Business Owner: Christopher Vogt, BillFront

The Business Owner: Christopher Vogt, BillFront

Shane Donnelly February 17, 2017

Name: Christopher Vogt Company: BillFront Founders: Christopher Vogt and Gregor Dimitriou Location: London and Berlin Proposition: BillFront provides a new way for digital media companies to avoid the industry’s lengthy payment terms, which can sometimes be up to 120 days, and get faster access to their media revenues. Size: 15+ employees Website: www.billfront.com Describe your business model: BillFront provides a new way for digital media companies to avoid the industry’s lengthy payment terms, which can sometimes be up to 120 days, and get faster access to their media revenues. As programmatic buying rises within the digital advertising industry, BillFront can help media companies keep on top of their finances, while also simplifying the entire payments process. How is your business dif... »

Why Your Small Business Cannot Afford To Ignore Micro-Moments in 2017

Alex Minchin February 16, 2017

‘Micro-moments’ are the talk of 2017 within the digital marketing community, and your business should be taking note. Labelled by Google, micro-moments refer to the hundreds of interactions we (read: your customers) make each day with our mobile devices. Google believes that we “are seeing a fundamental change in the way people consume media”. These include actions such as checking the time or weather forecast, or using your phone as an alarm clock. How many of us wear watches but generally reach for our phones to check the time? I’d bet that I’m not the only one. Then, there are ‘those’ moments. The I want-to-know moments, I want-to-go moments, I want-to-do moments, and I want-to-buy moments—that really matter. These are what Google are referring to with the phrase ‘micro-moments’, and th... »

5 Ways You Can Increase Client Spend

Kelly Clifford February 15, 2017

Every product or service a business provides has a price associated with it, which represents what must be paid by a client to buy a product or benefit from a specific service. The price represents the sale value for that item. However, if a client buys more than one thing at the same time, then the sale value for that particular transaction is the sum total of all items purchased at that point. Below are my five key increasing client spend strategies: Strategy 1: Increase your prices This might seem a bit obvious so is easily overlooked, but by raising your prices you increase your average sale value. Clients will be paying you more for the same products or services every time they buy from you. This isn’t always an easy thing to do in reality and there may be market forces at play that p... »

How to Respond When a Lender Pulls The Plug

How to Respond When a Lender Pulls The Plug

Paul Davies February 13, 2017

There is nothing more frustrating as a busy small business owner than an unforeseen cash-flow problem causing your lender of choice to tighten the purse strings, or worse still, pull the plug. In the current climate of uncertainty, lenders are understandably cautious about lending money to businesses that lack a positive trading history or those that have breached their bank facilities previously. While banks will not necessarily want to pull any existing finance arrangements in these situations, they will probably not want to extend them. Your relationship with the lender Often the reason for a bank’s reluctance to lend more finance comes down to the nature of its relationship with the lender. If you’ve failed to communicate in an open and honest way about your performance and taken... »

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