What’s on your doorstep? This is the theme for this year’s International Day of Older People on 1 October, led by the Centre for Ageing Better, celebrating the local spaces, services and connections that help people live well in their communities. It is a useful question to ask about our communities. But there is another question worth considering alongside it: who is building what is on our doorstep? We often think of older people as users of local services and community spaces. Far less attention is given to the people over 50 who are creating businesses, social enterprises and organisations…

Tobias Gould, social entrepreneur and member of the Help to Grow: Management Course authoring team, explores why inclusive growth is a commercial opportunity that many UK SMEs are overlooking. Most SMEs think inclusive growth is someone else’s responsibility. They assume it’s something councils, charities or large organisations deliver while businesses get on with growing. That is a mistake. As local authorities develop new growth plans under the Government’s devolution agenda, inclusive growth is becoming a bigger part of regional economic policy. The ambition is to create economic growth without leaving disadvantaged people, communities or places behind. While many businesses see…

Analysis of more than 44 billion emails and 83 million text messages globally reveals how intelligent marketing helps brands make the most of peak season, with targeted emails driving 11% higher average order value The holiday season creates some of the biggest opportunities of the year for marketers, along with some of the fiercest competition for customer attention. As promotions ramp up, knowing where to focus and how to stay relevant becomes increasingly challenging. A new report from Intuit Mailchimp, Breaking Through Peak Season Noise, shows how intelligent marketing, or using data with AI and automation, can help businesses make…

Gross lending to small and medium sized business (SMEs) hit £5.35 billion in the second quarter of this year – its highest level since the pandemic – UK Finance’s latest Business Finance Review found.  SME lending has shown growth for two and a half years, with gross lending more than 26 per cent higher than in the same quarter of 2025. The data reflects economic growth seen in the first half of 2026, but there are signs that the conflict in the Middle East has dampened confidence across the quarter. Despite the positive overall growth trend, the picture is mixed…

Northern Pasta Co., the brand behind Britain’s first regeneratively grown spelt pasta range, appeared on BBC One’s Dragon’s Den, pitching to the panel in a bid to secure investment for the next stage of the business’s growth. Founders Imogen Royall and Matt Kenyon walked into the Den to face all five Dragons: Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden, Touker Suleyman, Steven Bartlett and Susie Ma – bringing a taste of home grown pasta with them. The couple served their signature ‘naked pasta’ – Gigli pasta, which is stocked exclusively in independent retailers across the UK, dressed simply with olive oil and salt…

Building a cleaning business is not glamorous or easy. It is a daily test of people, standards and resilience. Alex Williams, CEO of Tiger Cleaning, reflects on the trials, joys and lessons behind the company’s journey towards seven-figure turnover. Growth built in the real world When people talk about scaling a business, the conversation often centres on technology, investment and rapid expansion. Cleaning is different. It is a traditional, people-intensive industry in which the quality of your business is judged every day, at every site, by the work delivered on the frontline. Tiger Cleaning has grown to approximately £800,000–£900,000 in…

Caxton, one of the UK’s leading fintechs, has just completed a two-year journey to ISO 27001 certification, giving them an in depth perspective on what the process really involves – from the investment and internal changes to all the speed bumps along the way. More broadly, it raises an interesting question – is ISO 27001 moving beyond a security benchmark and becoming a commercial necessity for growing businesses? And does the trust it brings justify the time and investment required to achieve it? Mital Patel, CIO, Caxton shares the lessons from their journey and what others should consider before going…

Max Bascombe, CFO at SignpostMe, argues that CFOs need to take note. The UK government is signalling that employers should carry a larger share of the burden for the nation’s health. The NHS is stretched. In June 2026 7.3 million treatments were yet to start and only 65.8% of patients had been seen within the Government’s 4-months goal of 92%.  Patients suffering a wait of over a year to be treated has risen by 12% between March and June 2026 to 105,711. Public satisfaction with the NHS is a meagre 26% – a 40-year low – with 51% of the…

When it comes to functions like HR, marketing and IT, businesses have the choice of hiring multiple senior managers – or sourcing external specialists to support with strategy, guidance and workflow. Especially among SMEs, outsourcing is becoming more commonplace; here, Michelle O’Connor – Chief People Officer at Hive Support Services – discusses the benefits of doing so, alongside some of the challenges her team is seeing across the UK business sector. Hive Support Services positions itself as an “all-in-one business support hub”. What was the gap in the market that inspired the launch of the business versus developing a single-discipline…

Recent research from Vitality has found that one in eight employees claim to have experienced frequent burnout in the past year while two in five (40%) say their job is a primary source of stress in their life.  Furthermore, 67% of employees believe they have experienced some form of burnout in the past 12 months. With burnout existing on a spectrum that ranges from feeling overwhelmed by excessive workloads to emotional exhaustion, disengagement and reduced motivation, the findings highlight the varied ways workplace pressure can affect employees. In fact, despite 65% describing their mental health as good, many employees said they were struggling to maintain their…

John Lewis has revealed its new in-store restaurant concept in full for the first time, with the opening of the flagship Platter at Oxford Street. Platter will replace John Lewis restaurants across 32 stores, from Exeter to Edinburgh, by the end of 2027, with Bluewater, Chichester and Reading already reopened. The programme forms part of an £800m multi-year investment in John Lewis. Platter Oxford Street is the fullest expression of John Lewis’ new restaurant concept, with an open kitchen serving hand-stretched pizza, a made-on-site deli, a dessert parlour, a stylish bar overlooking the shop’s atrium and fifty outdoor covers on…

The founder of one of the UK’s largest background screening companies will take to the stage this November to share the lessons she’s learnt from building a business from scratch into a multi-million-pound company. Rachel Bedgood, who founded Complete Background Screening (CBS) in 2005, has been announced as one of the guest speakers at the No BS Media Summit, taking place at the DoubleTree by Hilton, Swindon, in November. The two-day event brings together journalists, business leaders and communications experts to help business owners understand how to tell stories that get noticed. Rachel will speak about her business journey, from…

BUSINESSES which have delayed essential health and safety training or failed to carry out required health checks on staff could leave themselves vulnerable when major changes to unfair dismissal rights take effect next year, according to health and safety expert Andrew Wilkinson. From January 1 2027, the qualifying period for most employees to bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim will reduce from two years to six months under the Employment Rights Act 2025. In practical terms, this means employees who started work on or before July 1 2026 and remain employed will have reached six months’ continuous service when the…

The Solopreneur Awards returns to The Waldorf Hilton, London, on December 6th 2026. Entries have been extended to August 31st following demand, with submissions open now Now in its second year, The Solopreneur Awards has drawn judges and guests from across the UK, Europe and the United States, with big industry names flying in for the December ceremony. Entries are judged across 13 categories by a panel of female founders including Dragons’ Den alumna Ola Goldsmith, Forbes-featured Alice Benham, and Lucy Legal, the lawyer known for protecting small business owners online. Women make up a growing share of Britain’s business…

Lloyds has announced the appointment of Fiamma Morton as Managing Director for SME banking leading support for small and medium sized businesses across the UK. The appointment comes as Lloyds continues to invest in its support for UK businesses, with £9.5 billion of new finance dedicated to SMEs in 2026. Fiamma brings extensive experience across SME, commercial and institutional banking, having held a wide range of senior leadership positions in business banking, operations, transformation and growth, at businesses including Goldman Sachs, Mastercard Worldwide and Bank of Queensland. Originally from Australia, her most recent role was as Chief Operating Officer at…