Late payments are increasingly undermining the stability of UK SMEs, threatening payroll, job security and growth potential. New research from Bibby Financial Services (BFS), based on a study of 1,000 SME owners and decision makers, reveals that late payments from customers prevented more than two-fifths (42%) from paying staff salaries on time in the last 12 months, while nearly a quarter (24%) have paused hiring. BFS’s recent SME Confidence Tracker also reveals that late payment is harming resilience, with four in ten (41%) small businesses dipping into emergency funds to stay afloat in the last year. Derek Ryan, CEO for…
Author: sme-admin
For many growing businesses, credit control is one of those things that’s important, but rarely urgent, until it suddenly is. Late payments start stacking up, cashflow tightens and time that should be spent running the business gets swallowed by chasing invoices. At Insight Associates, this is something we’ve seen many times. As a fully outsourced accountancy and finance function, with more than 30 years’ experience, we work with ambitious businesses every day to put strong financial foundations in place, from bookkeeping and management accounts to cashflow forecasting and crucially, credit control. This is not because business owners are doing it…
From passive aggressive emails to people who never clean the kitchen, everyday office habits are quietly damaging productivity, focus and team harmony. 72% of UK workers say office etiquette has declined in the last three years 61% say bad office habits directly reduce their motivation at work Loud phone and video calls are the UK’s most hated workplace behaviour Small habits like tidying shared spaces rank higher than perks when it comes to morale A new study of 2,000 UK office workers has revealed the everyday behaviours that irritate colleagues the most, and the small habits that make a surprisingly big difference to workplace…
What matters more to you: the pace at which information arrives, or the speed at which it leaves? Many organisations only discover the difference when an important call collapses or a cloud backup stalls. Here Kristian Torode, Director and Co-Founder of business broadband expert Crystaline, explains why the balance between download and upload speed matters more to business performance than many leaders realise. According to the 2025 Enterprise Horizons report, “33 per cent of UK businesses claim that network instability has resulted in revenue losses of up to £4m per year, with a further 18 per cent reporting even greater…
We’ve all had those days at work: all your projects seem to have stalled, and nothing’s getting ticked off the to-do list. Plus, your head feels like it’s full of cotton wool. You’re not alone: the majority of us work eight-hour days, right? But findings show we’re only actually productive two hours and 53 minutes of that time. Well, what if we told you your lack of productivity isn’t down to the fact that you were scrolling on TikTok until midnight (although, that’s definitely not helping things) but is actually down to your office setup. Crazy, right? But studies show…
The escalating conflict across the Middle East is already having a major impact on the global economy – oil prices jumped around 10% after ships were attacked near the Strait of Hormuz whilst international shipping through this key trade route has been severely impacted. For Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), these geopolitical shifts translate into immediate operational pressures, ranging from fuel volatility to broader supply chain contagion. As Patrick Farrell, Group Chief Investment Officer at Charles Stanley, part of Raymond James Wealth Management, comments: “The primary impact of the conflict in the Middle East is being felt in energy markets.…
When Olivia Davson faced rising costs during her maternity leave, she and her sister, Tanyka, created a discount platform that now helps tens of thousands of UK families – an idea that saw them secure £50,000 on Dragons’ Den just last month. While searching late at night for money-saving discount codes, Olivia discovered that while key workers and corporate employees had access to perks and savings, there was one group facing significant financial pressure that was being largely overlooked – new parents. Determined to change that, the sisters launched Cubbi, the UK’s first parental discount platform, to help families save on…
Two-factor authentication (2FA) is a vital security step that protects your accounts by requiring both a password and a second verification method, such as a one-time code, security question, or physical key. While 2FA keeps hackers out, it can sometimes lock you out of your own accounts if you lose access to that second step — for example, if you change phones or numbers, delete an authenticator app, or misplace a security key. The experts at TelephoneSystems.Cloud explain why this happens and share practical steps on how to avoid getting locked out and what to do if it happens, so…
Sonia Ouarti is a neuroscience‑trained performance coach and former senior leader at Amazon Web Services. She now works with founders and leadership teams, and her message is simple: burnout isn’t a personal weakness, it’s a biological state that affects how founders think, decide and lead. In this article, she explains why founder burnout has become a systemic risk for the startup world, and why investors should treat it as a performance and governance issue, not a wellbeing concern. The UK’s startup economy is expanding rapidly. Tens of thousands of new businesses are being created each quarter, capital continues to flow…
Debates around electric vans usually stall at charging infrastructure. This article deliberately removes that variable Assume every combustion-engine van in the UK is replaced overnight with an electric one, and assume charging capacity is effectively unlimited. Under those conditions, does the UK economy continue to function as it does today, or do fundamental differences in energy density, refuelling time and operational flexibility begin to matter? This is not a definitive economic assessment. Rather, it is a practical exploration of how electric vans align with the real demands placed on commercial vehicles. While the benefits of going electric are often discussed…