Running a small food and drink brand can be an uphill battle. For challenger businesses, the obstacles are often less about the quality of the product and more about the systems, costs and practices surrounding it. When you are competing against much larger and better-funded businesses, even relatively small barriers can have a significant impact. Purple Pilchard asked a group of founders to name their single biggest business gripe. What came back was a collection of candid, considered and sometimes strongly worded responses that highlight some of the realities of trying to build a small food and drink brand in…

Frances Li, Founder and Director of Biscuit Recruitment, urges employers to think before accepting a friend referral, as well as what candidates should consider before working with a friend. Frances explains why a referral should open the door rather than carry someone through it, how employers can keep referrals fair and transparent, and what candidates should ask before accepting a friend’s recommendation. “Working with your best mate might sound like the ideal scenario, but it’s still worth asking yourself whether the role is genuinely right for you. If you end up in a position that isn’t the right fit, it can…

 After decades of young workers flocking to London and other major cities to start careers, new research suggests that Gen Z might be putting an end to the “brain drain” and looking for work closer to home. Polling from Coca-Cola Great Britain* found that almost half (47%) of Gen Z are looking to stay in their local communities after education, with proximity to family (44%) and a more affordable cost of living (27%) among the factors influencing their decisions. The findings point to a broader reassessment of what ambition looks like for Gen Z, with nearly three in five (58%)…

The second Water Efficiency Lab (WEL2) will award up to £5 million to innovators who develop tools and solutions that can help to identify and cut the 1 to 1.5 billion litres of water lost to leaks in homes and businesses every day. It is estimated that between 1 to 1.5 billion litres a day is lost to leaks in our homes and workplaces – equating to up to 547 billion litres a year and costing customers and businesses between £1-1.6 billion. This can include leaks from water pipes or fittings, including internal plumbing and external supply pipes within property boundaries.…

Dave Capper, CEO of Westfield Health  on what Andy Burnham’s approach to prevention, workforce health and economic inactivity could mean for SMEs and their employees. Andy Burnham takes office with a record from Greater Manchester that says a lot about his priorities. He founded the Good Employment Charter, pushed for a real Living Wage, and has consistently argued that good work, fair pay and prevention are fundamental to both productivity and public health. That’s a strong signal he’ll place workforce health closer to the centre of economic policy than his predecessors did. For employers, that’s a positive development. Burnham has long argued that health is shaped as much by the quality…

Hannah Haffield founded Make More Noise in 2015 with a clear ambition – to build a PR agency driven by strategy, commercial outcomes and measurable impact. A decade later, she reflects on the lessons behind its sustained growth, the importance of authentic storytelling in the age of AI, and why successful PR should build credibility, support business ambitions and create lasting value.  What first drew you to a career in public relations, and how did you start? I initially wanted to be a journalist. I’ve always been fascinated by people’s stories – how they got from A to B, or…

A Yorkshire entrepreneur has launched a new business to tackle one of the biggest frustrations facing agency owners, after spending 15 years battling the problem himself. Steve Pritchard, former owner of a successful SEO and digital PR agency, has developed a new B2B referral platform to help agencies grow through trusted recommendations, rather than having to rely on expensive and ineffective lead-generating methods. During his agency career, Steve worked with brands including GoCompare, giffgaff and BrewDog, but also experienced first-hand the challenge of building a consistent pipeline of quality opportunities. “Like most agency owners, we tried just about everything,” he…

As digital commerce becomes increasingly shaped by AI, automation and anonymous online interactions, knowing who you are dealing with has never been more important. Josh Rathour, founder of UNiDAYS, explains why verified identity is evolving from a compliance requirement into a competitive advantage for brands. Trust has always been the foundation of commerce, but in today’s digital world, trust is often assumed rather than proven. I first became aware of this when, years ago, my daughter was using a popular entertainment platform, and it became clear that multiple unverified people could access services intended for a younger audience. As a parent,…

Late payments are one of the biggest pressures facing small business owners, including tradespeople. While some customers will be open about delays, others stop responding altogether, leaving businesses unsure whether they are dealing with a communication breakdown, a dispute or payment avoidance. For many sole traders and small businesses, waiting on payment is more than just frustrating. A recent study, which explored tradespeople’s experience of working with homeowners, found that prompt payment was valued the most by 47% of the 500 UK tradespeople surveyed. With fuel, materials and other overheads continuing to rise, delayed invoices can quickly put pressure on cash…

In this interview with SME Today magazine, Simon Shaw, CEO of London-based audience tech and media services company Fifty, explores how the high-stakes world of international sailing shaped his approach to leadership and recounts Fifty’s evolution from a garage experiment into a leading audience intelligence platform.  What does Fifty do? Fifty is an audience technology and media and marketing solutions company. For the past decade, it has used open-source, non-PII data from the web, social media and the wider digital ecosystem to understand the real audiences behind brands and organisations. The company combines human insight with AI-powered simulation to help…

Three frequent-flying business leaders have shared their tried-and-tested hacks for a smooth business trip experience.  Harvard Business Review data shows that CEOs spend more than half (53%) of their time travelling for work, often navigating fatigue and high stress alongside work demands. To help CEOs optimise their travel schedules and limit the negative side effects of frequent travel, the corporate travel experts at Booking.com for Business have gathered practical tips from experienced C-suites and business travel experts. Natália Honold, Co-founder of Lola Advisory Inc., who travels regularly for work between Brazil, the U.S., and other markets, comments: Build your itinerary geographically, not just…

By Minami Kanesawa, Co-founder of  WFH Jobs A recent Employment Tribunal ruling found that mandating that employees keep their cameras on during meetings may amount to disability discrimination – and leave employers liable for damages. In that case, a travel consultant with anxiety was told to keep her camera on during a remote training session, felt “overwhelmed” and had to log off. The tribunal found her employer should have allowed the camera-off adjustment straight away. Remote work is now firmly established, but many employers are tightening the rules around how it’s done, from camera-on mandates to pushback on home working itself. Recently, reports that Members of the Scottish Parliament were told to avoid regular remote working except…

Small businesses rushing to advertise on ChatGPT could end up making expensive marketing decisions unless they understand one major difference between AI search and Google, according to ecommerce SEO expert Thomas Phillips, Founder of DTC SEO. OpenAI has rolled out conversion-optimised advertising inside ChatGPT, allowing advertisers to optimise campaigns towards purchases, sign-ups and leads rather than simply paying for clicks. The platform has also introduced flexible campaign budgets, allowing spending to increase on days when its AI predicts stronger conversion opportunities. While the update has been widely viewed as ChatGPT’s biggest challenge yet to Google Ads, Phillips believes many businesses risk…

OpenAI has confirmed something that sounds like science fiction: one of its own AI agents “escaped” a secure test environment by exploiting an unknown vulnerability to reach the open internet, and autonomously hacked AI platform Hugging Face. OpenAI itself has called it “unprecedented.” Hugging Face’s CEO called it “mind-blowing.” This poses a question for small businesses: if the world’s best-resourced AI company can’t fully contain its own AI agents, what chance does a 20-50 person SME have? Why This Matters For SMEs SMEs don’t have OpenAI’s resources, red-teaming or incident response capability, yet they’re adopting the same category of autonomous AI tools, often without any of the guardrails. This…

Innerva is delighted to announce that it has transitioned to employee ownership through the creation of an Employee Ownership Trust. The move marks an exciting new chapter for the British designer and manufacturer of power-assisted exercise equipment. The transition will preserve Innerva’s values and culture, protect the long-term future of the business and the brand, and reward those who have played such an important role in its success. An Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) is a statutory trust that holds a controlling interest in a company on behalf of all employees, enabling businesses to remain independent while ensuring employees share in…

With the UK’s biggest reform to electricity settlement in decades now underway, energy experts are urging businesses to familiarise themselves with Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement (MHHS) and understand what it could mean for their future energy bills. While the changes won’t directly increase bills overnight, MHHS is expected to fundamentally change how business electricity is measured, billed and managed, rewarding organisations that better understand and optimise their energy usage. To help businesses prepare, the business energy experts at Utility Bidder have explained what MHHS is, how it could impact organisations, and the practical steps businesses should be taking now. Madeleine Porter, Head of Marketing at Utility Bidder,…