The B2B marketing and sales landscape is evolving rapidly and becoming more complex and challenging than ever before. Buyers are researching independently, buying committees are growing, inboxes are more crowded, and AI has made it easier than ever to send messages that seem efficient but feel forgettable. So, what does this new era mean for marketing and sales teams in 2026 and beyond? Rob Harlow, CEO of B2B lead generation agency Sopro, shares his insights: Outbound used to be simple. At Sopro, we’ve been doing this since 2015, and I was involved in email marketing for nearly a decade before…

For many UK SMEs, customs is something that happens somewhere between the supplier, freight forwarder and customs agent. The goods arrive. A declaration is submitted. Duty and import VAT are accounted for. The paperwork is filed away. And everyone gets on with running the business. That arrangement can work perfectly well. Customs intermediaries provide an important service and can take a significant administrative burden away from businesses that import and export regularly. But there is a difference between outsourcing a process and outsourcing responsibility. And that distinction is one that every SME involved in international trade should understand. HMRC’s guidance…

Capital Gains Tax increase isn’t a landlord tax. It’s an entrepreneur tax, and it’s bad for British business. There is a growing disconnect between the Government’s pro-business messaging and what business owners are experiencing on the ground.  Increasing or equalising Capital Gains Tax, alongside higher taxes affecting landlords and entrepreneurs, risks sending the wrong signal to the very people the UK needs to invest, build businesses and create jobs. Entrepreneurs already feel they are being asked to contribute more, whether through tax changes, increased National Insurance costs or the steady accumulation of so-called “stealth taxes”. If the ambition is to create…

Legal Update by Kelly Dickman, Associate in the Dispute Resolution team at Furley Page Solicitors.  Shareholders are the essence of any company. They are your investors and your owners all rolled into one and as such are never far from the thoughts of the Board. But while directors have a duty to ensure the success of the company and exercise reasonable care and skill in the management of the company; shareholders do not. There is no inherent duty placed upon a shareholder on their ascent to such a position. They are free to act as they wish towards the company…

The UK’s Standard Industrial Classification has undergone its first major revision since SIC 2007. The new UK SIC 2026 framework was finalised in April 2026 and is intended to better reflect the way the modern UK economy operates. For most SMEs, there is no need to make immediate changes. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has confirmed that SIC 2026 is not yet in operational use across its systems, with the earliest anticipated use in the UK National Accounts currently expected in the 2031 Blue Book. However, SIC codes are used for much more than official statistics. They also underpin…

As younger workers rethink long-term saving priorities, Penfold calls on the industry to make pensions more relevant and visible.  Recent Penfold research found that 42% of Gen Z are on track for retirement poverty at auto-enrolment. The findings, available in their full Gen Z report, also revealed that while many younger people aspire to retire earlier and achieve greater financial freedom, retirement can feel too distant to compete with more immediate financial priorities. This challenge has been brought into sharper focus by recent reports highlighting how younger workers are navigating financial pressures and increasingly prioritising more accessible and flexible savings…

Before starting his own business, Tarik Azirar, Founder of SupplementMe, spent seven years working in data and analytics. His job trained him to be suspicious of small samples, avoid drawing conclusions too early and look for evidence before changing course. Then he became a founder and discovered that early-stage businesses frequently require the exact opposite. He launched SupplementMe, a UK ecommerce supplement business, after redundancy in 2026. There was no large funding round or established customer base waiting for him. Like many small founders, he had to make decisions about stock, suppliers, fulfilment, pricing and marketing before the business had…

By Nicky Budworth, Head of Coaches at Touchstone Education Running a property portfolio means making business decisions every day, from assessing new investments and managing cash flow to keeping costs under control. Tenant selection is another of those decisions, but AI is making some of the risks involved much harder to spot. It is now easy to create convincing payslips, references and other false information – anyone can do it, making it harder for landlords to establish whether prospective tenants are who they say they are and can genuinely afford the property. Recent research from Goodlord suggests tenant fraud could…

Two months after the EU introduced its new €3 customs duty on low-value e-commerce imports, the immediate impact looks different from many pre-July forecasts. National charges expected to add to the cost have not materialised as anticipated, but UK retailers selling into Europe face another problem: the new duty changes the economics of returns and exchanges. With the golden quarter approaching and further customs requirements due later this year, retailers should be looking beyond the cost of getting an order into Europe and calculating what happens when it comes back. When the European Union introduced its new customs duty on…

By Tom Shefford, Head of IT at Opus Technology For SMEs with tight budgets, IT can often be viewed as a cost to be minimised not an investment to be optimised. The main question asked in a budget meeting is often: “How lean can we get this?” and not “What return can we generate from it?”. This can lead a lot of SMEs to the wrong decision. It’s common for the choice between hiring in-house or using an IT managed services provider to be framed in a black and white way, comparing a monthly salary versus an invoice. The problem…

Government ambitions to reindustrialise Britain risk being undermined unless ministers act on tax pressures, high energy costs and skills shortages facing the family-owned firms that form the backbone of UK manufacturing, according to a new report published by Make UK and leading audit, accountancy, tax and advisory firm Bishop Fleming. The report, Who Inherits UK Manufacturing? The impact of tax policy on family businesses in manufacturing, finds that family-owned manufacturers account for 65% of manufacturing businesses, contribute an estimated £94bn to the UK economy and support around one million jobs. It also outlines how manufacturers are showing a clear commitment and acting proactively…

The workplace Gen Z employees are entering has changed significantly from the one previous generations experienced at the start of their careers.  For example, how they are managed, receive feedback, and progress in their careers. For managers, this means rethinking some of the traditional approaches to developing and supporting junior employees. To help millennial-generation managers with their Gen Z employees, Frances Li, Founder of Biscuit Recruitment, has shared her advice on how managers can adapt their approach to support younger workers and get the best from their teams. Teach Gen Z how to use AI, rather than pretending they won’t For…

It may be too early to have Christmas on the work agenda, but with more than two-thirds of UK workers saying festive celebrations help them feel more connected to their colleagues, experts are urging businesses to start planning for Christmas now. When should businesses put up their Christmas decorations? Experts weigh in To help businesses plan ahead, the artificial tree experts at Christmas Tree World have revealed everything businesses need to know about decorating the office for the festive season. When should offices start decorating for Christmas? There are no rules about when offices should start decorating for Christmas, but planning should…

There is a growing disconnect between the Government’s pro-business messaging and what business owners are experiencing on the ground. Increasing or equalising Capital Gains Tax, alongside higher taxes affecting landlords and entrepreneurs, risks sending the wrong signal to the very people the UK needs to invest, build businesses and create jobs. Entrepreneurs already feel they are being asked to contribute more, whether through tax changes, increased National Insurance costs or the steady accumulation of so-called “stealth taxes”. If the ambition is to create a competitive, low-tax environment in which businesses can thrive, continually increasing the burden on business owners could…

Shweta Jhajharia is a business coach and entrepreneur who has spent nearly twenty years helping business owners build companies that are more profitable, scalable, and less dependent on their founders. As the creator of the 6M Growth Model, she brings a structured lens to a problem many owners face but rarely name: being so deeply embedded in daily operations that growth stalls rather than accelerates. In this piece, she unpacks that model, six interconnected areas spanning mindset, mastery, mission, money, management, and methodology, and offers a practical way for owners to identify which one is actually holding their business back,…

Businesses relying heavily on paid social advertising are being warned to diversify how they attract customers as new restrictions on young people’s social media use highlight how quickly access to an online audience can change. The UK government has announced plans to prevent social media platforms from offering their services to children under 16, with the new rules expected to come into force from spring 2027. Further protections are also planned for 16 and 17-year-olds, including personalised recommender feeds being switched off by default, affecting the content and advertising young people are served online. While the immediate impact will be…