Podcasts about uk smes

Welcome to Monday Night Live Derek Arden with Karen Young Discuss LinkedIn Marketing Strategies Welcome to this week's exciting episode of Monday Night Live! Our host Derek Arden sat down with the brilliant Karen Young – Founder and CEO of Ethos Metrics – to discuss everything LinkedIn, marketing, and creative strategies for UK SMEs. Karen, with her 30 years of marketing experience across diverse sectors including British Airways and other leading companies, delivered a fun yet deeply informative presentation that left everyone inspired.

Jenny Faulkner and Gemma Archer discuss the FRC's 2025 campaign to support UK SMEs and how the market study presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for firms to have their say and impact the future of the audit profession from an SME perspective.For more information on this topic and more, please visit www.mercia-group.com for further details.

The UK's entry into CPTPP and increasing trade agreements with the Middle East and India mean exciting new opportunities for UK health tech companies. But breaking into new international markets isn't easy.In this episode, I speak with Suzie Ali-Hassan, International Business Director at ABHI, about:✅ The common mistakes UK SMEs make when expanding overseas✅ How the ABHI Middle East Accelerator helps businesses grow internationally✅ Why evidence and local partnerships are essential for success✅ Key trends shaping international health tech expansion

How to generate sales overseas?With only 11.9% of UK SMEs exporting their goods & services internationally, more support is needed to help businesses scale overseas. So, I wanted to hear from a founder who has generated millions in international sales. Thea Green MBE founded Nails.INC in 1999 at the age of 23 & has since revolutionised the UK nail care industry with her polishes & treatments. In 2013, Nails.INC was awarded a Queen's Award for Enterprise for international trade & today exports to over 20 countries. Keep listening to hear Thea's advice on how to get started with sales and then how to conquer exporting.Thea's advice: Concentrate on the customers' needsEnjoy working out what the next trend will beHave good PR when starting upFind the new angleIf you believe in it, you will be able to sell itKeep your standards highIt's easier to sell when there's a story to personalise the product and make it relevantListen to the customer and solve their problemsExcite the customerEngage with the customer and listen to themIt's essential to employ good sales peopleRenew your enthusiasm by concentrating on the aspects of the business you enjoyIt's helpful to consider your budget over the long termSales will be transformed when you become a brand; and when you do your first business overseasFF&M enables you to own your own PR & produces podcasts.Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, 2023 MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason.  Email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com or DM us on instagram @fallowfieldmason. FF&M recommends: LastPass the password-keeping site that syncs between devices.Google Workspace is brilliant for small businessesBuzzsprout podcast 'how to' & hosting directoryCanva has proved invaluable for creating all the social media assets and audio bites.MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod.  Link &  LicenceText us your questions for future founders. Plus we'd love to get your feedback, text in via Fan MailSupport the show

The £9 Billion Missing for UK SMEs - PLUS App News, Dan Cockerton and Johann Goree   Join John, Ryan, and Indi as they review John's creepy merch ideas, find out how SMEs are missing out on billions and share the latest app news, including updates from Adsum, Modulr, FreeAgent, and Firmcheck. Hear about Tide's strategic acquisition, Acumatica's new release, and more.   Plus, find out why Engager.app's Johann Goree is celebrating their big win at the Digital Disruptor Awards and what it takes to overcome major life hurdles to deliver an industry defining event.   And don't miss the banter, from bath time chat to ginger walrus facts, this episode has it all!   There's more info on the savings interest SMEs are missing out on and the Allica Bank report here: https://www.savingssqueeze.com/   00:00 Coming Up 02:04 Welcome   App News ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 09:25 Adsum Upcoming Beta Test 11:31 Modulr Batch Management Release 12:33 FreeAgent Binning Paper Notices 13:36 MTD Updates 20:18 Acumatica 21:45 Tide Acquiring Again   27:04 Allica - £9bn in missing interest 42:31 Overcoming huge obstacles, to do what's never been done before - Dan Cockerton 46:39 Where are the next tech innovations coming from? Release of the Year winner Johann Goree   01:03:00 Rate the podcast!

Sore heads after the Digital Disruptor Awards (or anticipated sore heads. It's like Back to The Future) This episode of Digi-Tools in Accrual World Podcast has it all! From the aftermath of our mind-blowing awards night to the mysteries of magnesium on feet (yes, you read that right). Indi experiments with deep sleep tactics, while Ryan clowns around about winning the 'BWAM of the Year.' Plus, we've got hot takes on Intuit's AI enhancements, ApprovalMax's new features, and Cin7's latest updates and Allica's next step on taking over the world. Don't miss Chris Downing from Sage and Vipul from Advanced Track giving the first of the post-award reactions. Vipul also gives a sneak preview of the future of outsourcing...   00:00 Keep it professional, John   App News ~~~~~~~~~~~ 07:09 Intuit Doubling Down on AI 12:10 ApprovalMax Releases 15:11 Cin7 Releases 19:09 Allica: Bridging the gap between UK SMEs and funding 22:42 Mid-Tier Migration Migraine Mitigation - iplicit   Awards Interviews: ~~~~~~~~~~~ 29:33 Double Downing 35:09 AdvanceTrack Announcement   41:58 Rate the pod!

Andrew Martin, Chairman & CEO, SMEBSMEB Is a new community banking service that aims to revolutionise banking in rural locations in UK, Europe, USA and beyond. The SME FinTech is an authorised payment institution, a principal member with Visa and Mastercard, and is licenced for open banking services. As a first step, SMEB [‘smeeb'] aims to address the void in banking services in the UK's rural locations, looking to create a payment microenvironment in rural communities, leveraging open finance to offer all payment options, including cash! Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence speaks to Andrew Martin, Chairman and CEO of SMEB. 

Are you interested in the connection between creative industries and cities? Summary of the article titled Creativity, cities and innovation from 2014 by Neil Lee and Andrés Rogríguez-Pose, published in the Environment and Planning A journal. This is a great preparation to our next interview with Julian O'Shea in episode 224 talking about the importance of creative people in cities. Since we are investigating the future of cities, I thought it would be interesting to see the link between creative industries, occupations and the innovation within cities. This article investigates the effects of creative industries and creative occupations on cities. As the most important things, I would like to highlight 3 aspects: Creativity is crucial for economic innovation, with creative occupations across various sectors playing a key role in fostering innovation, challenging the traditional focus on urban creative industries alone. There is no strong empirical evidence supporting the notion that urban settings, particularly larger cities, have a distinct advantage in driving innovation within creative industries and occupations. Policies that support creative roles across both urban and rural settings are needed, emphasizing the universal importance of creative occupations in enhancing innovation, rather than focusing solely on location-based advantages. You can find the article through this link. Abstract: The creative industries have long been seen as an innovative sector. More recent research posits that creative occupations are also a fundamental, but overlooked, driver of innovation. Theory also suggests cities are important for both creative industries and occupations, with urban environments helping firms innovate. Yet little empirical work has considered the links between creative industries, occupations, cities, and innovation at the firm level. This paper addresses this gap using a sample of over 9000 UK SMEs. Our results stress that creative industries firms are more likely to introduce original product innovations, but not those learnt from elsewhere. Creative occupations, however, appear a more robust general driver of innovation. We find no support for the hypothesis that urban creative industries firms are particularly innovative. However, creative occupations are used in cities to introduce product innovations learnt elsewhere. The results suggest that future work needs to seriously consider the importance of occupations in empirical studies of innovation. Connecting episodes you might interested in: No.002R - Intelligent cities: Variable geometries of spatial intelligence; No.041R - A 100 smart cities, a 100 utopias; No.076R - Smart innovative cities: The impact of smart city policies on urban innovation; You can find the transcript through ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠this link⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. What wast the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on Twitter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@WTF4Cities⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or on the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠wtf4cities.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ website where the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠shownotes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠are also available. I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in. Music by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lesfm ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pixabay⁠

On today's show, we discuss TeamLogic IT partnering with NinjaOne for endpoint management of over 100,000 devices, CISA reveals its 2024 cybersecurity priorities, and ArcServe discontinues cloud services and OneXafe Solo, shaking the MSP market. CoreView supports MSPs with a Microsoft 365 management platform. UK SMEs are increasingly relying on MSPs for cost effectiveness, with 62% of respondents utilizing MSPs. Some SMEs with uniform technology stacks may not need MSPs, but those with diverse resources like MacBooks can benefit from specialized services. Three things to know today 00:00 TeamLogic IT Partners with NinjaOne for Endpoint Management of Over 100,000 Devices02:59 CISA Unveils 2024 Cybersecurity Priorities to Counter Advanced Threats and Protect Critical Infrastructure05:43 Arcserve Shakes MSP Market with Sudden Discontinuation of Cloud Services and OneXafe Solo Supported by:  https://coreview.com/msp/   Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/ Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/ Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/ Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com Follow us on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftech

In this episode, we are joined by Matthew Bradley. Matthew is the founder of Tikto Capital, a private investment firm investing in and acquiring UK SMEs and tech businesses. Before Tikto, Matthew was the CIO and CFO of Forward Partners, a publicly-listed venture capital firm.  During the episode, Matthew shares valuable insights into his investment and deal origination strategy, how he pivoted to minority investments throughout last year (2023), and the importance of engaging with businesses that are genuinely open to selling. We also spent time discussing some interesting sectors Matthew has gone deep on and what his findings were.  It is always a great time chatting with Matthew and we hope you enjoy the conversation too! ------- If you are a searcher looking to acquire a great business, check out the Buy and Build Accelerator. The bootcamp curriculum is highly practical and developed and presented by former guests of the podcast: https://www.buyandbuildaccelerator.com/  Enjoy!

Tata's £4bn battery gigafactory and a £600m investment in BMW's MINI factory headline big investments and rising orders across manufacturing in 2023. But the pincer effect of high inflation, high interest rates and high demands from recovering OEMs is putting cash pressures on SMEs. Can they get the help they need to service the recovery and benefit from it, asks Will Stirling 2023 was a year of strained recovery for the manufacturing sector. After severe component supply delays caused by fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine War, 2023 edged back to normality – or a new, more expensive normal. But as the orders returned, crippling inflation and high interest rates bit hard. Tata Group delivered a wonderful present to British industry and the beleaguered Tory government when it confirmed it would invest £4bn in a new battery gigafactory in England, understood to be Somerset, with a £500m Treasury subsidy. With the near collapse of Britishvolt's plan to build a gigafactory in Blyth and no news of the proposed West Midlands battery plant, the huge investment brings jobs and shows the UK's viability to other volume electric vehicle battery makers. The big question: will the plant manufacture high-value battery components, or simply be a giant assembly plant for parts made abroad? Staying with automotive, BMW announced a huge £600m investment in the MINI factory near Oxford to build electric cars. Production of two new electric MINI models is due to begin in 2026. As well as safeguarding the 4,000 jobs across Mini's two UK sites, it was a relief to many observers who thought that post-Brexit BMW might offshore Mini production wholesale to Germany. It could be interpreted as a strong example of recent efforts, led by Germany, for easier trade arrangements between the UK and the European Union. Sustainability and carbon reduction have returned as the number one business agenda, or number two after surviving inflation. Whatever your politics on fossil fuel and renewable energy, drilling approval of the Rosebank oilfield will also bring hundreds of jobs and a fortune in tax revenue, although the government showed ill-judged myopathy when setting a low guaranteed price for new wind power electricity prices. This meant just a few MW of new wind farm licenses were purchased in the latest offshore wind auction with Greenpeace dubbing it ‘the biggest disaster for clean energy policy in the last eight years'. Also in September, business group Make UK's annual analysis of manufacturing numbers showed the UK is now the 8th largest manufacturing nation in the world. The media and social media went berserk, with ‘8th biggest' setting LinkedIn alight. The UK's margin over the new 9th placer, France, is small and the numbers are fluid, meaning while it's cause for celebration it should not be taken as a long-term sign of ladder climbing. The aerospace industry is recovering strongly. Global aviation capacity should exceed its 2019 record by the end of 2023, as the airline industry returns to long-run econometric trends. Passenger demand recovery as measured by ‘revenue-passenger-kilometres' is, industry insiders say, largely due to the reopening of China's domestic market. Aerospace business group ADS says there is now a record backlog of orders for aircraft and engines – over US$1 trillion out to 2031, meaning aircraft production is ramping up to previously unknown highs. Airbus directly employs nearly 12,000 across all its manufacturing divisions and was on track to hire hundreds more in 2023. The company indirectly supports 79,000 jobs in the UK. “Like many in the industry, Airbus has had to navigate operational complications stemming from lagging post-Covid factors, including availability of material and skilled resources,” is what Paul McKinlay, Senior Vice President and Head of Wing Major Component Assembly, Airbus told MTD exclusively. “[However]… our supply chain is still subject to the challenges of recession, inflation, energy price volatility and of course, geopolitical tensions. Saying that, we have progressed well across all business lines in 2023 and the demand for commercial aircraft remains strong as evidenced by more than 800 orders announced at the Paris Air Show this summer. He adds: “Airbus continues to invest in our supply chain network, spending £3.9bn on goods and services last year in the UK with around 3,000 suppliers right across the country, 50% of which were SMEs. This gives us a solid degree of resilience in our supply chain as we execute our ramp-up on all commercial aircraft programmes (A220, A320 family, widebody family). We announced that we intend to ramp up our A320 wing production in North Wales to an unprecedented 75 aircraft per month in 2026.” All good news, right? SMEs squeezed as production rates ramp-up The flipside of much higher production rates is pressure applied to SMEs in the supply chain – including MTD's readers. “In the supply chain, surviving the Covid-induced downturn was difficult; but as always predicted, for many smaller businesses surviving the upswing, with all the cash demands that brings, is at least as tough,” says industry veteran Andrew Churchill, of JJ Churchill in Market Bosworth. “Having cut employment during the downturn, a fifth of suppliers are now reporting vacancies and they have difficulty recruiting. There are currently 90,000 vacancies in the UK manufacturing sector.” He adds: “This, together with the much higher borrowing costs, higher energy bills, escalating raw material costs and often deferred capex investment means that many of the aerospace primes' suppliers will be the weak link when it comes to delivering the rate ramp-up.” It's a sadly familiar trend – the boom-bust cycle of the industry, while arguably far smoother today than the giddy 1980s-2010s, means SMEs struggle to grow into mid-sized companies with the critical mass and diversification to survive a big downturn without shedding staff and expertise. Despite the high vacancies, manufacturing created a lot of jobs in 2023. BAE Systems is on track to hire more than 2,600 new apprentices and graduates in 2023, a 43% increase on the careers intake in 2022. Manufacturing in the UK still employs 2.6 million people, which has remained reassuringly static for several years. It could be higher if the labour market was blessed with the skills and experience many engineering companies need. 2023 was disappointing for many companies and industry advocates who desperately want an industrial strategy with a long-term, 10+ year horizon. This elusive strategy, and a minister for manufacturing, have been heavily campaigned for on social media by people including Andrea Rodney, Managing Director at Hone-All Precision in Leighton Buzzard. Sadly, and staggeringly, the government “still fails to recognise the damage that the lack of a cogent long-term industrial strategy does to sector investment. The UK is the only major economy not to consider this as important,” Andrew Churchill says. In the automotive industry, all the numbers are up, up, up on 2022 – and praise the Lord. In August, the latest month with complete numbers, total car manufacturing was up nearly 12% on 2022 (to date), and car exports were up 14.4%. Commercial vehicles up 14.4% on 2022 to August, and exports were up 23%. Over 450,00 cars were built here in the first six months of 2023 (Source: all the SMMT). As reported in October, the rapid expansion of clean energy, electric cars and heat pumps means that energy-related CO2 emissions are likely to peak by 2025, according to the International Energy Agency. Lies, damned lies, and statistics. One can always find numbers to support your argument – or discredit it. While recovery is still the watchword for 2023, some numbers tell a different story. Figures and news from automotive, aerospace, medical and oil & gas sectors support the upswing. But the number of companies trading in manufacturing, across all sub-sectors, has fallen in 2023 since 2021 by 3% or 4,265 companies. That's a lot of firms to lose in two years. The biggest category for insolvencies: “Manufacture of fabricated metal products; except machinery and equipment. This is down 15% or a whopping 4,195 companies. It doesn't quite match the message of record order books in aerospace (aircraft and engines) and the storming return in automotive as seen above, as well as the high growth in electric vehicles – 23.2% of all new cars in the UK are either electric or plug-in hybrid,” says ZapMap. The curate's egg: Manufacturing in 2024 So will 2024 fare better than 2023? Paul McKinlay emphasises Airbus' strong pipeline, as it ramps up to 75 aircraft per month. “In being clear and communicative with our supply chain network about this pace, we're laying the groundwork for ensuring quality performance and missing parts reduction.” But he adds: “However, the challenges we've seen in 2023 are likely to bleed into 2024. We need to see greater support for our UK SMEs partners, giving them the financial security they need to scale operations. That's how the UK will be able to drive competitiveness over the next decade.” Andrew Churchill's 2024 glass is half-full, as he concludes: “Despite the ‘curate's-egg' that UK manufacturing represents, I remain optimistic. For the first time in six years, we have climbed the world ranking of manufacturing nations from 9th to 8th – overtaking France, 41% of all UK R&D is from the manufacturing sector and our goods account for an amazing 49% of total UK exports. Just think what we could achieve with a long-term industrial strategy, affordable and secure industrial energy, a full review of the Apprenticeship Levy and a clear path to helping manufacturers de-carbonise!” Just think…. Are you listening Sir Keir Starmer?

Welcome to the Accounting Influencers Podcast, going live every Monday to 150 countries and 30,000 accounting practitioners, fintech specialists, and influencers in accounting, CPA, and bookkeeping.UK Special: AI Forecasting in Accounting: Chirag ShahIn this Accounting Influences Podcast, Rob Brown interviews Chirag Shah, the founder and CEO of Nucleus Commercial Finance, a UK-focused lender.Chirag discusses the challenges and opportunities in the financial space, particularly in lending and funding. He also talks about the importance of financial analysis and forecasting for businesses, emphasizing the need for businesses to understand their cash flow and plan effectively.The interview highlights the role of accountants and advisors in helping businesses make sound financial decisions and navigate uncertain economic conditions.Guest BioChirag Shah is the founder and CEO of Pulse, a visionary platform that empowers businesses, accountants, and business advisors with a tailored dashboard showcasing vital statistics and trends. With over two decades of experience in financial services, Chirag has consistently demonstrated his expertise. In 2011, he pioneered the establishment of Nucleus, a renowned alternative finance entity, offering flexible and personalized financial solutions for SMEs, regardless of their industry or growth stage.Recognizing the pressing economic challenges UK SMEs face, Chirag introduced Pulse in October 2022, a groundbreaking platform harnessing the power of AI for in-depth financial analysis, benefitting both businesses and accountants. Chirag's mission extends beyond enhancing the UK's business landscape; he is dedicated to assisting SMEs in honing their data comprehension skills to chart a path to success. Chirag's expertise encompasses the significance of forecasting, the key elements that constitute effective forecasts, and the selection of the proper forecasting tools.His vision for Pulse revolves around transforming it into a comprehensive forecasting tool, addressing the challenges SMEs encounter, elucidating Pulse's role, and exploring the far-reaching implications of AI in this context.For more information about Nucleus, visit https://nucleuscommercialfinance.com/To learn more about Pulse, https://mypulse.io/Season 4 Sponsors & Links◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢If you like the show, we'd appreciate a review on whatever platform you listen to. We'd love to get to know you!Main show website. For access to every single show with full shownotes: https://accountinginfluencers.com/podcastFor announcements of published shows, tag guests so you can build your network and offer feedback on the show: https://www.linkedin.com/company/accountinginfluencersFor videos of all podcast interviews and bonus video content: https://bit.ly/AI-youtubehttps://www.instagram.com/accinfluencershttps://twitter.com/accinfluencershttps://www.facebook.com/accountinginfluencersThanks to our sponsors:Accountex. Accountex will return to ExCeL London, UK. Bringing together 250+ top fintech companies and cutting-edge start-ups, visitors can browse new software and stay updated with the latest technology, tools and ideas in accountancy and finance. Alongside the exhibition, attendees will take away actionable tips from the CPD-accredited seminar programme,...

On this weeks episode of News & Views, The Fintech Times podcast team speaks about alternative finance being a lifeline for 70% of UK SMEs, Pension Support & Challenger Banks enabling 98% of APP fraud payments.

On this weeks episode of News & Views, The Fintech Times Podcast team speak about the Binance pause on UK services, payment cards longevity & UK SMEs struggling.

Have you heard of the prestigious Elite Business 100? Curious about the details, application process and most importantly, what's in it for you? Join me as I chat with Scott English, Brand Director at CEMG, to discuss all things EB100. Designed to shine a light on the crème de la crème of UK SMEs, we discover the application requirements and the serious multitude of benefits associated with nabbing a spot on the definitive EB100 list. But this episode is not only for SME owners - Scott also shares his wisdom that can be applied to any award entry. Without further ado, let's go Beyond the Bio. This podcast is brought to you by Moja. Moja is an award-winning modern PR agency working with entrepreneurs and senior executives to get you known in your industry. … Connect with Scott: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-english/ Elite Business: https://elitebusinessmagazine.co.uk/eb100 EB100 Applications: https://elitebusinessmagazine.co.uk/eb100-registration Let's connect: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-milliken Instagram: www.instagram.com/moja_sophie/ X/Twitter: www.twitter.com/Moja_Sophie

Opinion polls now suggest that about two-thirds of British people think that Brexit has failed. So was it all a terrible mistake? Gideon talks to FT colleague Peter Foster about his new book, What Went Wrong With Brexit: And What We Can Do About ItClip: BBCFree links to read more on this topic:UK SMEs not ready for ‘avalanche' of Brexit 2.0 rules and taxesLondon and the fight for its future as a fashion hubThe EU's transformations will reshape its ‘British question' too EU and UK to unveil €1bn in N Ireland funding to boost reconciliationSubscribe to The Rachman Review wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe.Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen TurnerRead a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do we want to live in places full of thriving businesses and social enterprises, and where people don't get trapped by exploitative lenders and loan sharks? Sounds good to me.Eleanor Russell is policy and programmes lead at Responsible Finance, which represents the UK's social purpose lenders (community development finance institutions, CDFIs). Their work has been covered extensively by media including the Guardian, Financial Times, BBC, Mail Online and elsewhere. I work with Responsible Finance and invited Eleanor on to discuss new figures about the social, economic and environmental impact unlocked by CDFIs, through increasing access to finance for people, businesses and social enterprises otherwise excluded from finance for a variety of reasons.This £248m sector worked with nearly 95,000 customers in 2022 – a 22% leap on the year before – creating and supporting thousands of businesses and jobs, and helping households avoid millions in interest compared with higher-cost lenders. Eleanor gives us more details.Also in this episode:Events:  Games Careers Week, from 19-25 June, which celebrates diverse pathways into a career in games for young people of all backgrounds; StartUp Meetup Sheffield on 30 May, and a "lunch with Claire Rimmer" event at Theatre Deli,  Arley Street, Sheffield, via the Social Enterprise Exchange programme. Claire is head of Operations at Sheffield-based creative arts organisation, CADS.Funding and support, including:Accelerating FemTech, an initiative aiming to support innovators to boost the development of technology solutions to address current challenges in women's health. Learn more and apply here.The Power to Change Community Business Trade Up programme (open now, deadline 26 June, details here) and the Discovery Fund (which opens for applications on 1 June and closes on 21 July 2023, details here).UK SMEs can apply to Innovate UK's Future Economy investor partnerships, (deadline 5 July 2023,, guidance and details here).An interview originally broadcast in March with David Hanney, CEO of Alpkit, a business which has thrived after CDFI finance.Timings:0- 2:55 Introduction2:55 New interview with Eleanor Russell15:29 Interview with David Hanney, CEO, Alpkit (recorded in March 2023)34:02 Events37:03 Support and funding for SMEs and social and community businesses40:42 Wrapping up

Vox Screens Stocks: John & Justin pick profitable small cap stocks below their NAV The stocks that populate this screen have to fit the following criteria: - Market Capitalisation: Maximum £250m - Price to Net Asset Value is less than 1 - Profitable - Positive Forecast Earnings Per Share Growth - Net Gearing is a maximum of 10% John's Pick is: Tandem Group #TND Tandem Group plc is a designer, developer, distributor and retailer of sports, leisure and mobility products listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM). The country of incorporation and the main country of operation is the United Kingdom. Justin's Pick is: Time Finance #TIME Time Finance's core strategy is to provide the finance that UK SMEs require to fund their businesses. It offers a multi-product range concentrating on asset, loan and invoice finance. While focussed on being an 'own-book' lender, the Group does retain the ability to broke-on deals where appropriate, enabling it to optimize business levels through market and economic cycles.

As a Chief People Officer, VP of People and Head of People, Milly Richardson has seen the reality of HR in UK SMEs. Perry sits down to dive into her top tips for pushing a ‘people agenda'.

Embedding ESG considerations by design is an imperative - and this must be from the network up! In this special we explore the vectors of ESG change, especially around Sustainability, from opportunities to challenges, notably the intention-action gap regards awareness and actualisation, alongside complexity, and lack of consistency and comparability in measurement. To explore exactly this, I am delighted to be joined by Sarwar Khan, Global Head of Digital Sustainability at BT Group who was recently placed 25th in the Corporate Knights Global 100 list of the world's most sustainable companies 2023. In particular, we focus on the launch of the Carbon Network Dashboard and the Digital Carbon Calculator to help organizations accelerate their net zero goals by measuring and reducing their Scope3 ICT emissions. Milestone moments indeed! Alongside this we explore the power of the ecosystem in affecting change, integrative business and sustainability strategy development, inclusive leadership and skills implications especially for CIO's, plus skills advice too! And beyond this, as always :) we talk action on all things Data and Tech For Good including the Digital Boost Mentorship program for UK SMEs.And we would love your thoughts on the show too - thanks for listening! Sally, Sarwar and the #TTT Team And please join us on Twitter to continue the conversation! @techradiotttToday's guest Sarwar on LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/in/khansarwarAnd our host Prof. Sally Eaves on Twitter @sallyeavesAnd LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/sally-eaves

A couple of years ago Laura had a big 'aha' moment, which led to her completely rethinking the direction she wanted her career to take. Being furloughed during the Covid lockdown from her role as Strategic Director for an Innovation Consultancy, gave her the time to reassess her priorities and decide she really wanted to leave a legacy. She now ploughs her time and boundless energy into helping businesses (and individuals) become much more aware of climate change and the effect they have on the environment. I hope you'll feel as inspired by Laura's story as I am. Further resources and links to topics discussed in this episode: 1. The Million Tree Pledge: https://www.milliontreepledge.org/ 2. Laura's collective forest for UK Micro Businesses: https://ecologi.com/glowinnovationlimited 3. The free Net Zero 360 online short course for UK SMEs: https://www.clean-growth.uk/net-zero-360/ 4. The CISL (Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership) Towards Net Zero short course: https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/education/learn-online/business-and-climate-change-towards-net-zero-emissions-online-short-course 5. Laura's website: https://www.glowinnovation.com/ 6. Laura's TEDx talk on "Facing into Climate Change as a Parent": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbDeDo6At-w&t=2s 7. Doughnut Economics and DEAL Lab (Kate Raworth's citizen action initiative): https://doughnuteconomics.org/ 8. Planet Cheltenham: https://planetcheltenham.org/ 9. Laura's Climate Cafe from COP27: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/laura-gelder-robertson-1129731_peoplenotpolluters-activity-6999934493826375680-7IMB?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop 10. Greta Thunberg's epic interview with Russell Howard: beans, memes and Climate Change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62ECkYYbPlA If you've been inspired to explore a career change of your own, check out my group & 1-2-1 career coaching at www.yescareercoaching.com

In this episode, our Network Development Manager, Matt Blakeley, talks to Ant Persse, chief executive of Saltare, about how they're working with SMEs to incentivise early payments along their supply chains to reduce late payments and keep cash flowing between businesses.It is estimated that 82% of businesses fail not because of lack of profit, but through lack of cash. Yet, studies suggest UK SMEs are currently waiting on almost £200bn tied up in unpaid invoices. Saltare is one of the Smart Manufacturing Alliance's partners, and members can get access to Saltare's innovative payment systems that incentivise early payments so that businesses can strengthen their working relationships and boost their growth thanks to more secure cashflow.

Sign up for my Daily Fintech or Daily Digital Banking Newsletters here. Check out my latest podcast episode below: This podcast episode is sponsored by YieldX. YieldX is transforming income investing to bring its benefits to all investors. With YieldX, the outcome is income. NEWS HIGHLIGHT Nuri filed for insolvency today, two months after the Berlin-based digital bank announced layoffs as it struggled with the rout in cryptocurrency prices, economic uncertainty, and difficult funding environment FINTECH NEWS #apple Apple Pay is now available in Malaysia with three supporting banks namely Maybank, AmBank Group and Standard Chartered Bank. #moversandshakers ComplyAdvantage named Andrew Davies as Global Head of Regulatory Affairs. Luno has announced the hiring of Thomas Tudehope who come in as Luno's Global Head of Policy #donedeal A new £1 billion fintech fund to accelerate the growth of promising UK scale-ups is to be backed by a group of senior industry figures Capify launched a £40m fund for UK SMEs, to help manage operations through difficult trading conditions. Link here. CreatorDAO raises $20 million, in an ambitious bet on the creator economy. Backers include Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Paris Hilton among others. Link here. Appital secured an additional £1.7 million investment from Frontline Ventures and various angel investors to bring technological innovation and automation to equity markets. Link here. Dezerv has bagged $21 million in a Series A funding round led by Accel Partners. Also participating in the round were existing investors Matrix Partners India and Elevation Capital. Link here.

Ewan Mackinnon is a Partner for Maven Capital Partners, a VCT, Private Equity and Property Fund Manager that provides funding to growth-focused UK SMEs and tax-efficient investment opportunities for investors What You will LearnHow to correct common mistakes made by PE firms and portfolio companiesHow Maven Capital Partners drive value creationHow the UK CPT works for MavenEducational resources for industry awareness Breakdown[00:51] Getting to know Ewan Mackinnon[04:13] One mistake PE firms or portfolio companies and actions to correct them[07:47] Model to drive value creation and new expertise into portfolio companies[09:16] Inspiration to move into PE[11:28] Challenges faced in business completion due to outside London set up[13:31] How UK's Venture Capital Trust Model works with Maven Capital Partners[16:14] Likes and Dislikes of the PE industry [20:47] Educational resources for the industry to check [24:17] Deal Flow for Maven Capital Partners[25:19] How to get in touch with Ewan Mackinnon[26:18] Side discussion with Ewan [Resources] Ewan Mackinnon's EmailEwan MAckinnon's Linkedin  ​​Thank you for tuning in!To get the newest Private Equity episodes, you can subscribe on iTunes or Spotify here.Lastly, if you have any feedback on the podcast or want to reach out to Alex with any questions, send an email to alex.rawlings@raw-selection.com.

In this episode of Vox Screens Stocks, John Hughman & Justin Waite pick two stocks from the Fallen Knives Screener. There are lots of ways of finding investment opportunities, but one of the most fruitful is to start your search by crunching stock market data. With thousands of listed companies, using tools to filter for certain financial characteristics can whittle the market down to a manageable number that you can use to focus your research efforts. Each week we'll use a variety of stock screening approaches to come up with a list of stocks which fit the criteria of this week's stock screener, then John & Justin will pick a stock from the list, explain what they like about it. We're calling this week's screen the 'Falling Knives Screen', because we're looking for companies whose shares have fallen a lot, but which may have been judged too harshly by the market. It's often said that you shouldn't try to catch a falling knife in investing. Tempting though it is to assume a company whose shares have sold off can't fall any further, evidence shows that negative momentum is a powerful force. A share that's fallen 90% can, mathematically, always fall another 90%, and there are plenty of nervous investors right now to force them down.   Nevertheless, when selling becomes indiscriminate, as it often does in a brutal bear market, babies sometimes get thrown out with the bathwater. And they're the stocks we're trying to find with this screen. In theory there will be lots to choose from. Of just over 2,000 companies listed on the stock market, 1,385 of them are in bear market territory, down by a fifth or more from their 1-year high. Within that, 488 – roughly a quarter - are down more than 50%. And 20 companies are members of the unenviable 90% club.   The reality, of course, is that a simultaneous bear market and economic recession will make it hard for many of them to recover – and for some, survival could be problematic too; run out of money in today's market and raising more may prove tricky.  So rather than looking only at share price performance, we've added some criteria to this screen that should help us identify companies with better than average financial stability, and weed out those that might run out of cash, or whose earnings are going obviously backwards. Here are the full criteria.  Share price down by a fifth or more from 1-year high Positive EPS growth last year and forecast Positive sales growth last year A PE ratio of between 5 and 15, to weed out true basket cases or those too richly priced Turning more than 90% of their operating profit into cash  Net debt to market capitalisation of less than 25% A market cap of less than £250m You should also look at the numbers in the context of recent commentary from the company, particularly the latest outlook statements - and a profit warning hidden in Supreme's results outlook statement today shows we need to be especially cautious over forecasts at the moment. Always remember, numbers alone can mislead.  John's Pick: UP Global Sourcing #UPGS  Retail shares have been hit hard by the prospect of recession, and homeware products provider  UP Global Sourcing (UPGS) is no exception. But it's strategy of breathing life into well-known but unloved brands is reminiscent of the succesful approach of Sports Direct - now Frasers - and it's got huge scope to increase its more efficient online channels, with plans to double the proportion of e-commerce sales to 30%. Operating margins in the high single digits aren't especially attractive, but returns on capital are good and the company - which has significant director ownership and pays a chunky dividend - has managed to navigate both Covid and the supply chain crisis without issuing any profit warnings. Justin's Pick: K3 Capital #K3C  K3 Capital Group (AIM:K3C) is a multi-disciplinary and complementary professional services group advising UK SMEs, with operations throughout the UK and overseas. Services provided by the Group fall into three key operating divisions: M&A Division, Tax Division & Restructuring Division. In a sense it's 'recession-proof', with its focus on corporate insolvencies likely to stand it in good stead as more companies run into financial difficulties, as recent research from peer Begbies Traynor suggests is likely. Growth forecasts are attractive, and it's quality metrics already look good, with mid-teens margins operating and ROCE above 20, and a decent dividend yield to boot. 

UK SMEs are struggling to operate efficiently as input costs are rising rapidly in the country, which is impacting their operating margin significantly. As a result, one in five SMEs is finding it difficult to pay their suppliers. In addition, one in four SMEs is facing late payments from their customers as they are also struggling with higher prices.   In this podcast, RIABU's Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi discuss how SMEs can focus on strengthening relationships with their customers by understanding their needs and wants, which can result in a faster collection of receivables and improved cash cycle. Read more about this topic here.  

This week, we speak with Robert Felters, a partner of Wolfgang Capital, a private investment business investing in UK SMEs. In this episode, Robert discusses the challenges he faced when he first decided to acquire SMEs, his experience buying and running multiple businesses, how to source and structure deals, and the inventive way they incentivise employees by allowing them to share in profits. 

Andy Hollingworth, CEO of Toople #TOOP discusses their final results & outlook which shows revenues increasing by 9%, EBITDA by 19% & gross profit by 17%. Financial and Operational Highlights ·     Adjusted EBITDA* improvement of 32%, from (£1,305k) to (£881k) driven by lower distribution costs and overheads and virtual elimination of bad debt costs (64% improvement year on year when including impact of bad debt charges) ·      Gross profit increased by 22% to £1.06 million ·      Bad debt almost eliminated to just £55,000, decline from £1.1m in FY20 ·      Healthy year on year increase in Gross Margin increased from 25% to 35% o  Active cost management and control ·      administrative costs down by £360,000 year on year o  Overall decline in headline revenues by 12% from £3.44m to £3.01m, as a result of: o  proactive management of non-paying customers and elimination of bad debt problem; and ·      emphasis on DMSL business due to impact of Covid-19 on traditional Toople customer base ·     Number of new contract wins with wider array of SMEs, and expanded out to other organisations such a local city       council ·      Successful placing to raise £774,000 with substantial amount from largest investor Outlook and Current Trading ·      Improved financial performance and outlook inQ1 FY21 when compared to Q4 FY20: o  Revenues increased by 9% o  EBITDA improved by 19% o  Gross Profit increased by 17% About Toople PLC  Toople PLC is incorporated in the UK and listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.   The business currently trades under four main brands: toople.com; dmsluk.co.uk; broadbandandphones.co.uk; checkthatcompany.co.uk. Toople.com provides bespoke telecoms services for its fast growing target market of UK SMEs with between one and 500 employees.  Services offered by the Group include business broadband, fibre, EFM and Ethernet data services, business mobile phones, cloud PBX and SIP Trunking and Traditional Services (calls and lines) all of which are delivered and managed via the Group's proprietary software platform.  The Group's wholly owned subsidiary  DMS Holding (DMSL) provides unified communication services in the UK ranging from a single phone line to a multi-site unified comms VoIP platform, delivered via a network of telecoms and IT carriers and content providers across the UK including BT Business, BT Global Services, Gamma, EE, Vonage, TalkTalk Business and O2.  DMSL acts as a BT Premier re-seller for broadband connectivity, mobile and fixed voice and cloud services and is responsible for over 250,000 BT customers and over 400,000 Revenue Generating Units.  The Company also owns a telecoms price comparison website and a service offering company credit reference checking and reports.  These complement the Group's IT and telecoms services.

Social Value: everyone's talking about it and every public sector contract wants you to deliver it. But what is ‘Social Value' and why is it becoming increasingly important? In today's episode of The UK Bid Writer Podcast, Lyndsey Wray explains what Social Value is, why it matters and how the social value that many SMEs create naturally can be your biggest selling point. ----------------------------------------------- Links and timestamps: [01:16] Intro and recap of Series 1 [02:00] Why is Social Value a hot topic at the moment? https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2016/09/what-is-social-value-and-how-can-it-give-smaller-companies-the-edge-when-tendering/ [03:50] What is Social Value? https://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/ [04:45] Social value versus economic value [04:87] How can Social Value give smaller companies the edge? [06:31] How Social Value is ‘built in' to lots of SMEs by default [07:56] The wider impact of Social Value [08:39] Why bigger suppliers might not be able to live up to their claims [09:30] Tell the world about the Social Value your company creates [10:50] Use evidence of your Social Value impact in your bids ------------------------------------------------ You can now find me on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxxwjmW3Y3jSoZDu2NOdOrQ ------------------------------------------------ Visit https://ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs. As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She's also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more: About Lyndsey Wray Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. Contact Lyndsey ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

Nick Day is joined on The HR L&D Podcast by Bryan Seely!Bryan is someone who has advised the White House and is the only hacker and speaker who has successfully wiretapped the United States Secret Service and the FBI!Later that year same year, my guest also de-anonymized the highly valued mobile app, Secret, which put him on the front page of Wired.com, CNNMoney, CNET, Forbes, and the Washington Post — all in the same day!Seriously!That is because Bryan is a world-famous Security Keynote Speaker, Ethical Hacker, Author and Former US Marine who is joining us today to talk about the importance of cyber security.Bryan is passionate about fighting for consumers rights, privacy and educating the public about how to stay safe in a constantly changing technology landscape. He currently lives in Seattle with his 2 children and he now freelances as a cybersecurity consultant and advises John McAfee and his company MGT.Now with 81% of UK SMEs confirming that they had suffered a data breach or cyber-attack, with a considerable two in five (37%) admitting they had suffered multiple breaches – I was compelled to invite Bryan to the show – because Payroll in particular, is a department that is extremely vulnerable to cyber-attacks.In this “Protecting employees from Cyber Attacks & Cyber Fraud” episode with Bryan Seely on The HR L&D Podcast, we also explore:Bryan, you became one of the world's most famous hackers in 2014 – can you tell our listeners why?I understand the Secret Service called you a hero and praised your courage and integrity – What's the story?In the world of HR, why are we seeing increases in phishing scams, ransomware attacks, cyber fraud, recruitment scams and corporate espionage?For HR leaders, cyber and data security is a critical concern. With departments so vulnerable to attack, what can be done to better protect data?How likely is it that one of our listeners suffers a ransomware attack (spoiler alert: it is higher than you think)!What is going on inside the mind of a potential hacker or Cybercriminal?How do hackers decide who to attack and when?What are the key questions you would want to ask your software provider to give you the confidence that the employee data is secure?What advice would you give to help HR departments protect themselves and their employees from scam and phishing attempts?Why should HR and Talent Leaders be wary of fake LinkedIn profiles and how they can identify one?Cyber Fraud: The Web of Lies (available on Amazon) - we find out more about this best-selling book (and why everyone should read it)!Links highlighted in this “Protecting employees from Cyber Attacks & Cyber Fraud” episode are included below:Bryan Seely's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanthemapsguy/Bryan's website:

Chris Eastwood, co-founder and co-CEO at Penfold, sits down with Lloyd to talk about how his digital-based pension platform for self-employed workers and SME's. After entering the industry as a consultant with the Big Four, Chris leads now a UK-based fintech company that reached in 18 months 25,000 users with £25m of assets under management. The company is on a mission to give people more visibility and control over the environmental or social impact of their pension investments.In this episode, Lloyd and Chris discuss the motivations behind his journey to revolutionise the pension landscape, the opportunities to serve the UK SMEs and self-employed sectors, and Penfold's partnership with Starling Bank or Just Eat, reaching their 300k SMEs and 18k riders customer base. Later they delve into Chris' journey as an entrepreneur and the experience of leading a fintech company in midst of the COVID-pandemic.Follow Mana Search on TwitterFollow Mana Search on LinkedIn Episodes Highlights:01:32: Reaching 25,000 users in 18 months06:47: Building an end-to-end backend tech platform09:42: How can we track our old pension investments?13:37: Balancing the sustainability goals with performance21:18 Partnerships with Starling Bank and Just Eat30:05: Journey from management consultant, M&A to entrepreneurship40:01: Future plans 44:31: Chris' Mana

Three things to know today The security roundup https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-confirms-first-white-house-cyber-director https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-government-and-politics-d8c1e9958ad1e89eab83f44e6ca70a94 https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fake-darkside-gang-targets-energy-food-industry-in-extortion-emails/ https://developer-tech.com/news/2021/jun/18/google-latest-framework-aims-prevent-solarwinds-supply-chain-attacks/ https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7b3jm/genesis-market-buy-cookies-slack https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2021/06/19/new-windows-10-security-shock-as-1000-vulnerabilities-revealed/?sh=41040b6f36b https://www.msspalert.com/cybersecurity-research/banking-trojan-trickbot/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendpress&utm_campaign https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252502741/UK-SMEs-lack-capacity-to-fend-off-cyber-attacks https://www.ciodive.com/news/cisos-cios-mobile-security-threat/601937/ Words in job listings https://www.geekwire.com/2021/study-ranks-washington-biggest-abuser-jargon-job-ads-startup-ceo-tells-us-words-matter/ AND An update on right to repair https://uspirg.org/blogs/blog/usp/right-repair-shows-no-signs-slowing-down https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/18/first_federal_right_to_repair_bill/

Andy Hollingworth, CEO at Toople discusses their Interim Results which saw an improvement in gross profit and gross margins. Toople PLC is incorporated in the UK and listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.   The business currently trades under four main brands: toople.com; dmsluk.co.uk; broadbandandphones.co.uk; checkthatcompany.co.uk. Toople.com provides bespoke telecoms services for its fast growing target market of UK SMEs with between one and 500 employees.  Services offered by the Group include business broadband, fibre, EFM and Ethernet data services, business mobile phones, cloud PBX and SIP Trunking and Traditional Services (calls and lines) all of which are delivered and managed via the Group's proprietary software platform.  In February 2020, Toople completed the acquisition of DMS Holding (DMSL).  DMSL commenced trading in 2002 and provides unified communication services in the UK, ranging from a single phone line to a multi-site unified comms VoIP platform, delivered via a network of telecoms and IT carriers and content providers across the UK including BT Business, BT Global Services, Gamma, EE, Vonage, TalkTalk Business and O2.  DMSL acts as a BT Premier re-seller for broadband connectivity, mobile and fixed voice and cloud services and is responsible for over 250,000 BT customers and over 400,000 Revenue Generating Units. The acquisition of DMSL has been transformational for Toople, as it also expanded the Group's reach into the UK residential market, which is experiencing a period of rapid change, as operational automation further develops and more people choose to (or are forced to) work from home. The Company also owns a telecoms price comparison website and a service offering company credit reference checking and reports.  These complement the Group's IT and telecoms services. All the Group brands seek to differentiate themselves by offering IT, telecoms and broadband solutions, with robust and reliable packages, that enhance a customers' business and are based on trust and transparency, with no hidden fees within pricing policies.  This provides customers with a clear understanding of cost and fixed prices for the duration of their contracts.

Is your brokerage fully maximising the support you can give your clients and any changes they have had to make to their process during COVID? Have you had to innovate your business in any way? What relief could you and your clients be eligible for? On today's episode, we're excited to be chatting to Director of Incentives and Reliefs at Markel, Justine Dignam. Justine is responsible for driving the development, growth and management of the tax incentives and relief division of Markel Tax. She joins us to discuss who, why, how, when and what is R&D Tax Relief and how it applies to the insurance industry.   LEARNING OBJECTIVES: There are tangible ways in which insurance brokers and clients of insurance brokers should be looking at their tax position. R&D Tax Relief is provided by the UK government and is one of the UK's most generous tax reliefs. There are 6 million businesses classified as UK SMEs and only 60,000 claim enough for R&D Tax Relief – this means a lot of businesses are not aware of this. If you've recently pivoted your business and you've had to develop processes, planning and testing into your development, it's worth having a conversation about R&D Tax Relief.   BEST MOMENTS: ‘'The analogy that I always work with is a little bit like if you've got heart condition and you went to your GP and said, I really feel that I've got a problem with my heart, you certainly wouldn't expect your GP to say ok, hop on the bed, and I'll take a look - you would expect that they would refer you to a cardiologist to give you specialist advice. That's how we work with our referral partners throughout the UK.''   ‘'Going back to that uncertainty, that's really very important because around that uncertainty is where the R&D kind of development work is incurred.''   ‘'If somebody has had a significant spend on a project where they've had to overcome some technical uncertainties or made advances in processes, then that's definitely worthy of a conversation. We can ascertain whether somebody's got a valid R&D claim within a 10-15 minute telephone conversation.''   RESOURCES: Justine Dignam's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justine-dignam-17423b16/ Justine's email address: Justine.dignam@markel.com   ABOUT THE GUEST Justine joined Markel in 2014 and has been responsible for leading the strategy and development of introducing tax incentives and reliefs to accountancy partners. Previously she has worked within the professional service and accountancy sector in senior positions and at partner level for many years. She has an Msc in Marketing Management, holds the CIM DipM qualification, is a Chartered Marketer and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.   ABOUT THE HOST Sarah Myerscough is the Sales and Marketing Director of Boston Tullis Group. The founder of The Insurance Brokers Podcast, she brings a wealth of marketing experience and a fresh perspective on marketing in the insurance sector. Boston Tullis works with insurance brokers to offer solutions to business development ceilings, particularly in the rapidly developing fields of video marketing and thought leadership. If you would like Sarah to help you develop an integrated marketing strategy, using state of the art concepts, then please book a free 20 min call via Calendly    Website: https://bostontullis.co.uk/ Evaluation Link: https://s.bostontullis.co.uk/s/podcastevaluation

Andy Hollingworth, CEO at Toople #TOOP discusses their Final Results and points to a positive 2021. Toople PLC is incorporated in the UK and listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. The business currently trades under four main brands: toople.com; dmsluk.co.uk; broadbandandphones.co.uk; checkthatcompany.co.uk. Toople.com provides bespoke telecoms services for its fast growing target market of UK SMEs with between one and 500 employees. Services offered by the Group include business broadband, fibre, EFM and Ethernet data services, business mobile phones, cloud PBX and SIP Trunking and Traditional Services (calls and lines) all of which are delivered and managed via the Group's proprietary software platform. In February 2020, Toople completed the acquisition of DMS Holding (DMSL). DMSL commenced trading in 2002 and provides unified communication services in the UK, ranging from a single phone line to a multi-site unified comms VoIP platform, delivered via a network of telecoms and IT carriers and content providers across the UK including BT Business, BT Global Services, Gamma, EE, Vonage, TalkTalk Business and O2. DMSL acts as a BT Premier re-seller for broadband connectivity, mobile and fixed voice and cloud services and is responsible for over 250,000 BT customers and over 400,000 Revenue Generating Units. The acquisition of DMSL was transformational for Toople, as it also expanded the Group's reach into the UK residential market, which is experiencing a period of rapid change, as operational automation further develops and more people choose to (or are forced to) work from home. The Company also owns a telecoms price comparison website and a service offering company credit reference checking and reports. These complement the Group's IT and telecoms services. All the Group brands seek to differentiate themselves by offering IT, telecoms and broadband solutions, with robust and reliable packages, that enhance a customers' business and are based on trust and transparency, with no hidden fees within pricing policies. This provides customers with a clear understanding of cost and fixed prices for the duration of their contracts.

Simon Bateman, CIO, Allica BankSpecialising in supporting UK SMEs, it took Allica Bank just 12 months to build the institution from scratch. Six months later, the pandemic hit. But Allica was lucky to the extent that it does not have a legacy backbook of loans to service. It has also been built with an API-led approach that, as CIO Simon Bateman of Allica Bank told Robin Amlôt of IBS Intelligence, confers certain advantages.

Today on Inside the Hive, we talk to an integrator who has a solution to help you get the best out of your business with an improvement of accuracy and precision, precision, precision at the forefront of their minds. I speak with Roger Holden, Director of True Position Robotics, who gives us a frank insight into working with UK SMEs, what solutions can help you improve your business efficiency and how technologies developed in the aerospace sector are helping advance other UK industries.

Justin is one of the most ebullient characters of the investing scene in the UK. His new venture is Regionally, a platform that aims to bring together regional business with regional investors, allowing vetted companies access to private capital in the range of £0.5m to £10m. This members' only online investment service could help play a key role in helping regional UK SMEs to scale up.

The Festival of Enterprise Part 2 BCL278 Business Showcases We continue our review of The Festival of Enterprise Part 2 which took place at the NEC. The Festival of  Enterprise is a is the yearly show for SMEs, business startups, and entrepreneurs. Business Connections Live TV and Racheal Taplins, Media March Maker Service presented the media hub at the show. Business Connections Live TV  interviewed a number of businesses and business owners to produce there Business Showcase Videos. These Business Showcase videos are featured on today's programme so enjoy The Festival of Enterprise Part 2. Your own Business Showcase Video – Find out more! If you would like a similar Business showcase for your business then call the studio on 01784 256777 or follow this link to our Business Showcase Application Page. What is The Festival of Enterprise The Festival of Enterprise is the fuel you need to get your business to where you want it to be. And sooner, rather than later Strategy can be sidetracked in the day to day running of a business, and scaling up takes the back seat as you end up dealing with piles of paperwork, projects going wrong, or dealing with your overflowing inbox. This shows in the statistics – according to the ScaleUp Institute, scaleups bring in £1.3tn of the £1.9tn generated by all UK SMEs. The remainder is brought in by millions of companies not making anywhere near as much of an impact as they could. There’s clearly more than a few secrets business owners need to learn about when it comes to growth. Fortunately, the Festival of Enterprise will reveal them all.

SMEs need to approach tendering for public or private sector contracts in a different way to larger organisations. I’m Lyndsey Wray, otherwise known as UK Bid Writer. As a specialist in SME tendering, I can show you how to take on the competition and win more contracts for your business. I’m recording my back catalogue of written resources and adding some new stuff into a series of 15 minute-or-less podcasts, designed to help UK SMEs like you find the right contracts to tender for, understand the processes involved and improve your bid writing and management skills. There’ll also be occasional, longer specials, looking into the hot topics of procurement in 2020 and beyond. Through this podcast, you’ll learn how to: • Improve your bid writing skills • Understand tender questions • Structure your answers effectively • Optimise your internal processes • Save time and relieve pressure, and • Produce high-scoring bids, time after time Subscribe now and let’s get started today. ----------------------------------------------- You can now find me on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxxwjmW3Y3jSoZDu2NOdOrQ ------------------------------------------------ Visit https://ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs. As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She’s also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more: About Lyndsey Wray Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. Contact Lyndsey ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

Mystical mazes of questions within questions, baffling rules and vague instructions. And all within ridiculous word limits. That’s right folks, it’s the ‘quality questions’ section of your tender! But don’t panic, all any tender really needs to know is: what you do, how you do it and why you do it better than anyone else. In today’s episode of The UK Bid Writer Podcast, Lyndsey Wray gives you the nuts and bolts of responding to the long-form questions at the most vital stage of a tender. ----------------------------------------------- Links and timestamps: [01:12] What this episode covers – and what it doesn’t [02:22] What kind of questions will you generally be asked? [02:40] Typical technical quality questions [03:25] Questions beyond the contract specification [03:50] A word about word limits [04:32] How word limits benefit you More about word limits: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2014/08/writing-to-word-limits-part-1-understanding-word-limits/ [05:41] Ad break: UK Bid Writer ‘Live Bid Coaching’. Find out more: https://ukbidwriter.com/coaching [06:38] How to use the question to develop a logical structure for your answer [08:00] Part one of my written series on ‘structure and narrative’: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2016/07/bid-writing-structure-narrative-part-1-the-foundations-of-a-great-tender-response/ [08:18] Adding further value to your answer [08:52] Expanding your answer [09:26] Keeping it simple [10:36] This one neat trick You can now find me on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxxwjmW3Y3jSoZDu2NOdOrQ ------------------------------------------------ Visit https://ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs. As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She’s also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more: About Lyndsey Wray Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. Contact Lyndsey ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

Our expert hosts, David Brear and Sarah Kocianski, are joined by some great guests to talk about the most notable fintech, financial services and banking news from the past week. This week's guests include: Megan Caywood - Managing Director, Barclays Zihao Xu - Investment Manager, Octopus Ventures Olivia Vinden - Head of Innovation UK, Alpha FMC We cover the following stories from the fintech and financial services space: Open Banking surpasses one million customers (04:17) Bo chief executive to step down (16:04) Revolut announces new savings account (27:15) UK SMEs chasing £50 billion in late payments (39:23) Ministers detail financial wellbeing plan (46:58) Tink raises an additional €90 million (53:46) BlackRock to shift away from fossil fuels (1:01:00) This episode is brought to you by FinovateEurope in Berlin on 11th – 13th February. Built around live, 7-minute demos of the latest fintech innovations, FinovateEurope is the continent’s premier fintech event. Network with more than 1200 senior-level attendees – with more than 50% from financial institutions. And gain insights from 150 expert speakers, who will be sharing their insights on the future of finance. For more information visit finovateeurope.com (https://bit.ly/37KUhoU), and quote VIP Code 11FS for a 20% discount on your registration. Love fintech? Then sign up for our newsletter, Fintech in Five. A snack-sized selection of the week's biggest stories, longer reads, soundbites and more. Just visit this link to sign up! 11fs.com/newsletter Fintech Insider by 11:FS is a podcast dedicated to all things fintech, banking, technology and financial services. Hosted by a rotation of 11:FS experts including David Brear, Simon Taylor, Jason Bates, Leda Glyptis and Sarah Kocianski and joined by a range of brilliant guests, we cover the latest global news, bring you interviews from industry experts or take a deep dive into subject matters such as APIs, AI or digital banking. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and please leave a review Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/fintechinsiders where you can ask the hosts questions, alternatively email podcasts@11fs.com! Special Guests: Megan Caywood, Olivia Vinden, and Zihao Xu.

Well, S Q’s me! Sorry. Anyway, today Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, breaks down the different sections of that common, yet daunting-looking procurement document, the ‘SQ’, or ‘Standard Questionnaire’. You’ll also hear a little bit about the history of the PQQ and what it was like to be a bid writer in ye olden times. Find out more in Episode 5 of the UK Bid Writer Podcast. ----------------------------------------------- Links and timestamps: What does an SQ look like? Here’s a PDF of the template itself: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/ukbidwriter_example_standardsq_template/ Here’s a link to the government guidance for how contracting organisations should use the SQ: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-816-standard-selection-questionnaire-sq-template ----- [01:47] The history of the SQ (and PQQ) [04:32] Always check before you copy & paste [05:52] The anatomy of an SQ (intro) [05:55] Part 1 Supplier Details [07:04] Part 2 Exclusion Grounds [07:56] Part 3 Selection Questions [09:08] The technical and professional ability section (references) [10:27] Pushing back through the clarifications process [11:30] Episode 6: Responding to quality questions [link to be updated when published] ------------------------------------------------ Visit ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/services As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She’s also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more about Lyndsey Wray: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/about/ Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. UK Bid Writer website: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/ Contact Lyndsey today: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/contact/ ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

OMG. What’s an ITT or a PQQ? An RFP or an SQ? Today Lyndsey Wray breaks down all the TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) you need to know. And why is a supplier portal like a box of chocolates? Find out in Episode 4 of The UK Bid Writer Podcast. ----------------------------------------------- Links and timestamps: [02:39] All the acronyms, explained [07:25] E5S1: The Anatomy of an SQ [link to be updated when published] [08:44] E3S1: What do points make? http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/729526192-ukbidwriter-what-do-points-make-e3s1.mp3 [08:50] E6S1: Responding to quality questions [link to be updated when published] [09:05] About supplier portals E1S1: Where and how to find tenders: https://soundcloud.com/ukbidwriter/where-and-how-to-find-tenders-e1-s1 Where to find tenders – the original list! https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2016/12/where-to-find-tenders-a-list/#list-of-links ------------------------------------------------ Visit ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/services As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She’s also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more about Lyndsey Wray: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/about/ Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. UK Bid Writer website: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/ Contact Lyndsey today: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/contact/ ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

As we head into the festive period, here's a few initial thoughts on how the recent UK election might affect 2020's procurement cycle, PLUS info on what's coming up on the podcast after the new year. ----------------------------------------------- Links and timestamps: [01:00] How might the election impact procurement over the coming months? [03:10] Recap of the series so far Links to previous episodes and related info: ukbidwriter.com/pod [04:14] Coming up in the second half of series 1 [05:15] What’s planned for series 2? [06:10] If you’ve got any comments, ideas or wish lists for future episodes, I’d love to hear from you: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/contact/ ------------------------------------------------ Visit ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/services As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She’s also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more about Lyndsey Wray: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/about/ Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. UK Bid Writer website: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/ Contact Lyndsey today: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/contact/ ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

One of the most baffling aspects of tendering is the points and weighting system. And what’s MEAT got to do with it? Here’s how to understand tender scoring and maximise points on every section of your bid. ----------------------------------------------- Links and timestamps: [02:25] Lowest cost Vs. MEAT, [03:31] The points scoring mechanism [05:46] A very simplistic four-step process to scoring the highest marks [07:42] What is weighting? [11:08] How do points and weighting work together? [12:16] A little bit of weighting weirdness What do points make? The original post *with easy to understand tables!*: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2014/05/what-do-points-make-confusion-mostly/ ------------------------------------------------ Visit ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/services As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She’s also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more about Lyndsey Wray: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/about/ Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. UK Bid Writer website: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/ Contact Lyndsey today: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/contact/ ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

Responding to tenders takes time and effort. It’s essential to have a clear idea of the types of contracts that are worth your company’s time and energy to bid on. In episode two of the UK Bid Writer Podcast series ‘The Essentials’, I show you how to create a flexible strategy to help you decide quickly and easily which contracts are right for your business and which ones you can safely ignore. ----------------------------------------------- Links and timestamps: [01:25] Why is a bid/no bid strategy important? [02:49] Common factors you should consider when developing your strategy [10:22] Want to know more about my coaching service? Find out more: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/coaching-lp1/ [11:21] Common dealbreakers that could put you out of the running [13:33] Social value – what is it and how can it give SMEs the edge? https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2016/09/what-is-social-value-and-how-can-it-give-smaller-companies-the-edge-when-tendering/ To bid or not to bid – the original post! https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2016/09/to-bid-or-not-to-bid-how-to-work-out-which-tenders-are-right-for-your-business/ ------------------------------------------------ Visit ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/services As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She’s also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more about Lyndsey Wray: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/about/ Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. UK Bid Writer website: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/ Contact Lyndsey today: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/contact/ ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

There’s no one single place to find all the contracts up for tender in the UK and across Europe! Frustrating, no? In episode 1 of my first UK Bid Writer Podcast series ‘The Essentials’, I show you how and where to find the best tenders for your business. ----------------------------------------------- Links: [04:21] TED (Tenders Electronic Daily): http://ted.europa.eu/TED/main/HomePage.do [04:40] Procurement thresholds (new thresholds will be in place for 2020; will update as they are published on Gov.uk): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0417-new-threshold-levels-2018 [05:42] Contracts Finder: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder [06:12] Guide to TED: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2014/12/finding-opportunities-how-to-use-ted-tenders-electronic-daily/ TED’s own video guides: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT5rARDev_rkQdFimoHlpv2Och1H0uBLs [07:10] To bid or not to bid – the original post [07:48] E2S1: To bid or not to bid – the podcast episode: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2016/09/to-bid-or-not-to-bid-how-to-work-out-which-tenders-are-right-for-your-business/ And finally……. [11:27] How to find tenders – The List!: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/2016/12/where-to-find-tenders-a-list/#list-of-links ------------------------------------------------ Visit ukbidwriter.com/pod ------------------------------------------------ Find Lyndsey on social – say Hi! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywray/ Twitter: twitter.com/UKBidWriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKBidWriter ------------------------------------------------ Through her 30+ year career, Lyndsey Wray, a.k.a UK Bid Writer, has gained more than 21 years total bid writing and management experience and has spent the last ten years offering independent consultancy, writing and training services exclusively to UK SMEs: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/services As a life-long contractor and independent consultant, Lyndsey has worked in almost every sector and industry you can imagine, in organisations from one-person start-ups to giant multinational corporations and everything in between. She’s also served her time on the other side of the procurement field. Learn more about Lyndsey Wray: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/about/ Through her UK Bid Writer brand and podcast, Lyndsey aims to de-mystify the world of procurement and tendering and help micro, small and medium sized businesses find and win great contracts. UK Bid Writer website: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/ Contact Lyndsey today: https://www.ukbidwriter.com/contact/ ------------------------------------------------ Support this podcast on Ko-fi! It'd be great to offer you more stuff: exclusives, freebies, discounts and more! https://ko-fi.com/ukbidwriter

If you’re spending your early mornings and late evenings chasing payments, you’re not alone. SMEs in the UK spend 56.4 million hours a year chasing overdue payments, most of which is done after hours. And at any given time an SME has nine outstanding payments.The phrase: “cash is oxygen” is often used to describe the small businesses, meaning they should get paid on time, all the time. But is it always the customer’s fault if payment doesn’t come on time? What can companies do to stop chasing payments?RIABU’s Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi talk about the need to manage your receivables and customers properly, and why if you find yourself always chasing payments, it’s always too late.

I’m recording my back catalogue of written resources and adding some new stuff into a series of 15 minute-or-less pod-posts, designed to help UK SMEs find the right contracts to tender for, understand the processes involved and improve their bid writing and management skills. Here’s a quick 5-minute taster (with bonus dogs from next door in the background

Oliver Prill is the CEO of Tide, a leading business banking provider for UK SMEs. Charles McManus is the CEO of ClearBank, the first new clearing bank in the UK in nearly 200 years.  Tide and ClearBank recently won a £60 million grant as part of the RBS remedies program, which we’ve discussed before on the podcast and which Charles describes to start us off. With the funding, Tide, backed by ClearBank, aims to achieve high single-digit market share in the UK SME banking market with its digital proposition.  In this conversation, we discuss Tide’s plans as well as the UK SME market in general. The first voice you’ll hear in the conversation after mine is Charles’s, followed by Oliver’s. You’ll hear us refer to the BCR, or Banking Competition Remedies, the body responsible for administering the remedies program. In addition to the insights we deliver through our podcast and newsletter, Rebank offers advisory services to fintechs, banks and corporates. Drawing on our experience starting, running and advising fintech businesses and our vast network of the most impactful fintech entrepreneurs, investors and innovators around the world, we help companies make sense of fintech, work through specific questions and optimize proposition and strategy. For more information about our services, please visit www.bankingthefuture.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Please welcome, Oliver Prill and Charles McManus.

Join Jonathan Richards, Clive Stone, Jacqui Mann and Marteka Swaby for Ep 2 of the People Project, where we look at how UK SMEs' tackle mental health at work. Listen here, head to Breathe or subscribe from your chosen podcast provider for the full story. We explore what triggers stress in the workplace, as well as the tools and training initiatives that are available for small businesses. Let's get started.

The FTSE 100 again underperforms it's European peers such as the German Dax as the chance of a longer Article 50 extension helps sterling rally. We also hear the team at ArchOver present their keynote speech at the UK Investor Magazine ISA & SIPP Forum. Discover how ArchOver are providing access to quality UK SMEs through their peer-to-peer lending services.Get more information on ArchOver below:https://www.archover.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today we have the great pleasure of catching up with Cristina Alba Ochoa, CFO, and Valentina Kristensen, Head of Marketing, of OakNorth, one of the UK's leading banks. You thought I was going to say leading challenger banks, which of course they are, but I think it's fair to say they're punching well above their weight. We sat down with OakNorth's co-founder Joel Perlman way back in episode 12, where we got into the founder's story. It's still a highly relevant conversation, and I'd encourage you to check it out. In the year and a half since we connected with Joel, OakNorth has been killing it. They broke even twenty-two months after launch, they've originated close to £1b in loans to UK SMEs, they've raised £250m at a billion dollar plus valuation....oh yeah, and they've built and launched a side hustle called Acorns that could be as big or bigger than OakNorth itself. No big deal. This was such a fun chat with two super smart, high energy women. I don't expect it will be the last time we have them on show. If you enjoy today's episode, share the love on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Thanks to everyone who signed up for the newsletter in the past week or two. Watch your inbox. Thank you very much for joining us today, please welcome, Cristina Alba Ochoa and Valentina Kristensen.

UK-Australian defence collaboration has always been strong, supported by a shared history, alliance, commonality of objectives and a deep understanding of purpose. Opportunities to capitalise on increased Australian government defence spending is attracting international interest from companies seeking to enter our domestic supply chain. The UK government and UK businesses are particularly active in this regards, leveraging the connectivity between our two nations to win defence work. Join Defence Connect host Phil Tarrant as he speaks with a range leading UK SMEs including Marine Data & IMI Critical Engineering, that are exploring business opportunities in Australia. http://www.defenceconnect.com.au

52% of UK SMEs based floodplains don't have flood cover! Insurers struggle to insure flood risk due to the difficulty of modelling and assessing the economic impact. Many people/businesses are unable to get insurance cover at all. Every year, globally, there are $50bn of flood caused economic losses of which only $9bn are covered by […]

Getting finance for a start up business has always been tough but with the Start Up Loans Company, the pain has been eased. In this Bulletin, looking back on the loans they made in 2016, which UK start up hotspot cities have taken advantage of the loans available? Different methods of calculating interest rates can make comparing finance options a challenge. We take a look at a new online tool from short term lender Fleximize, which can help you compare finance offers on a like-for-like basis. The latest SME Confidence Tracker survey from Bibby Financial Services reveals the top three challenges facing UK manufacturers. The top slot is taken by concern about rising prices but other constraints are also weighing heavy on the minds of UK SMEs.

With news that the Bank of England has reduced its Base Rate and an announce of a new scheme to get banks lending and businesses borrowing, in this edition of the Business Finance Bulletin we look at whether these will have the desired impact. We take a look at the findings from a survey carried out by the British Chamber of Commerce and Bibby Financial Services which reveals low awareness levels of the sources of alternative finance amongst UK SMEs. Have you been faced with writing off a debt owed to you following being hit by a late payment of an invoice? The latest Bibby’s SME Confidence Index suggests that too many businesses are writing off debts and the average sum involved is not small.

In this week’s Business Finance Bulletin podcast news from crowdlender Ratesetter on the formal launch of its small business loan product which, in the pilot stage, has already seen £250m distributed to UK SMEs. Staying with alternative finance we look at results from Close Bros latest quarterly Business Barometer which reveals that a significant number of businesses believe that alternative finance can help grow their business. Turning to traditional finance, we have news from Barclays Bank on a new fund to support lending to small businesses in Scotland. To close we have insights from Max Woodman of Catalyst Finance on how their Selective Invoice Discounting service can help alleviate cashflow problems.

In this episode of the Business Finance Bulletin a look at the latest statistics from the Bank of England which reveals the current level of borrowing by UK SMEs. Also a review of the key findings from the recent SME Finance Monitor Report which includes how many businesses are using external sources of finance, the type of SMEs accessing such finance and the number of businesses who are not borrowing at all. Marketinvoice, the online invoice discounter, has taken a look at late payment experiences across 80 countries and the results indicate that we have a lot of work to do in the UK to speed up payment. Are you planning to grow or change your business within the next three months? That’s the question posed to 1,021 businesses by Hitachi Capital as part of its regular British Business Barometer Report and the answer reveals that SMEs are now more cautious than before. And in the Business Finance Tip of the Week a signpost to a recently posted video which shows you how to calculate and use the Creditor Payment Ratio.