News

By David Vine, UK SMB MD, Concur In July it was announced that The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills is set to formalise its support for SMEs and appoint a Small Business Commissioner. The announcement was met with some scepticism, as currently there are scant details about who the individual assuming this role will be, their remit and what powers they will be granted. There are concerns from some quarters that the new commissioner could end up in the...

By Jack Peat, TLE Editor If you ever find yourself hankering for a public execution, take a trip to a fancy wine bar in The City and have a go at defending the industrial action taken by London Underground workers over the Night Tube. It is, as I found out to my peril on Friday evening, the very definition of how to lose friends and alienate people. Not that I’m unfamiliar with the premise. Red wine has on many occasions...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent Lancaster-based hosting and web design agency, Nublue, have this month received the Living Wage Accreditation, demonstrating that they pay all of their staff above the country’s Living Wage.  The company have joined just a handful of local Living Wage businesses, and are among just a handful of technology companies in the North West to have received the accreditation. Championing the Living Wage and its benefits for both employees and their overall business model, Michael Ashworth,...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  We are making a rather heavy dent in the digital age now and there seems to be no sign of this progression slowing. Recently, we've been caught in a whirlwind of smart watches, fitness trackers, mobile payments, super drones and robots.  These new and slightly disconcerting branches of technology are not purely restricted to our personal lives though. Turns out there is a plethora of technological advancements for the workplace too. Technology today has a...

By Jonathan O'Brien, CEO of Red Sheet 1. Decide exactly what you need beforehand It sounds obvious, but knowing what you want to get out of a negotiation before you start is imperative. Sometimes it is very clear, sometimes there could be several possible but acceptable outcomes. Without a clear end goal, we risk putting ourselves in a ‘decide on the spot’ situation, finding we have been talked into things in the heat of the moment. 2. Do your homework...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  A new survey has revealed almost a third of British workers receive nothing from their bosses when they retire. The study of 2,000 retirees found 31 per cent of people were not given a leaving gift, with a leaving card as good as it gets for a further seven per cent. The average retirement gift was calculated to be just £2.17 for every year of work. Gift vouchers and flowers are the most common retirement gifts – while...

By Nick Joelson, Marketing Manager at Liberis Every small business owner knows it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to keep yourself afloat and ahead of the competition. According to recent research by Simply Business, there has been a 110% increase in the number of independent retailers launched in the last five years, suggesting it’s a great time for retailers to do business. However, research from The British Independent Retailers Association states there are more than 220,000 independent...

By Ron Delnevo, ATMIA Executive Director Europe Earlier this year figures were published by the Payments Council purporting to show the demise of coins and notes and the rise of the ‘cashless society’. The figures concluded that 48 per cent of payments were made in cash, with the remaining 52 per cent made up of non-cash payments. A ‘cashless society’ is one where we would forgo all cash and instead use electronic payment systems, like the much-hyped Apple Pay, to...

By Steve Taggart A recent report released by Green Park has revealed that the number of FTSE 100 executive directors of ethnic minority has dropped from six to four in the past year. Researchers carrying out the study from Green Park have identified this extreme imbalance as a so-called ‘diversity deficit’, which may come to some as a dramatic revelation after Business Secretary Vince Cable cautioned that companies must drive to deliver a diverse boardroom by the end of 2015....