Business and Economics

From high tech to heavy industry, many of the world’s most successful businesses depend on credit to survive, operate and thrive. But an increasing number of businesses are letting credit take a backseat to prepaid business cards, at least when it comes to employee spending. Prepaid business cards, like the Prepaid Mastercard offered by icount, have become a popular alternative to credit cards for many UK businesses, both small and large. Companies tout their ability to reduce fraudulent spending as...

For any business owner, the key to success is simple: knowing where your money comes from and where it goes. Whether you sell a product or offer a service, having a deep understanding of your business’ finances gives you more power to make informed, effective decisions that fuel growth and help make each quarter more successful than the last. The stronger your understanding of your business’ finances, the more capably you’ll be able to operate and grow. Enter the forensic...

Following the emergence of quick-fire dating apps such as Tinder, happn and Grinder, a clever business app has taken off using the same premise that aims to build productive business relationships rather than fleeting encounters. Meet Shapr, a free networking app (iOS and Android) that suggests a daily batch of 10 to 15 nearby professionals who are also interested in expanding their professional networks. It’s like LinkedIn, but a lot cooler and much less formal. If a formalised ‘networking breakfast...

More than 4.5 million people across the UK are now self-employed, and the number of contractors continues to grow at a healthy rate every month, according to the Office for National Statistics. In today’s digital and connected business landscape, being your own boss is easier than ever before and there is a wealth of contract job roles available in nearly every sector. London would seem like an obvious hub for skilled professionals, but is it really that well suited for...

Retail giant Amazon has successfully completed the world's first delivery by drone. The driverless plane delivered the order in less than thirty minutes in Cambridgeshire. The billionaire founder of Amazon announced on Twitter that: "First-ever #AmazonPrimeAir customer delivery is in the books." Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon in 1994, claimed that it took just 13 minutes from click to direct delivery. The new service is known as Amazon Prime Air and promises to get packages to customers in 30 minutes...

Buckfast gets you fucked fast, as the saying goes. Well, it can also get you minted fast if you're a monk at Buckfast Abbey in Buckfastleigh, Devon. The Charity Commission tpday revealed Buckfast Abbey Trust's income for 2014/15 was £8.8m - mostly coming from its wine. Monks at the abbey have been making Buckfast wine - known as 'buckie' - since the 1920s. But thanks to Scotland's love of the drink, their profits have soared of late. The abbey trust is a shareholder...

Blockbuster profits for squalid working conditions; that is the face of modern capitalism after pictures emerged of Amazon staff living in tents in freezing conditions close to one of its distribution centres. How is it, I ask, that a multi-billion pound company who pay a pitiful amount of tax are able to get away with also paying wages so low that people struggle to cover basic living costs? With in-work poverty becoming rife and social care being cut back at a dramatic rate...

It is news that will panic many in the UK financial sector, it has been claimed that UK banks will be leaving the UK for Paris, once Brexit begins. Talks are in already at an “advanced’ stage, according to the French financial regulator. The secretary general of the AMF Benoit de Juvigny has said that UK banking institutions have been in touch asking for information about how they would be regulated if they made the move across the Channel. He...

How many times have you heard jargon such as VaR, IFA and AER and had no idea what on Earth people were talking about? When it comes to finances ignorance is bliss for most Brits, but it could be costing us a lot of money. A new report has found that two thirds of people could be losing out on cash because they don’t fully understand many financial terms, and 74 per cent say they feel completely bamboozled when talking to financial experts....