A debt recovery expert has outlined the steps businesses should take to chase outstanding payments effectively, without damaging important commercial relationships. Late payments continue to place significant pressure on the UK economy, with recent figures suggesting they cost almost £11 billion a year and contribute to 38 business closures every day. According to Claire Twells, Partner and Head of Debt Recovery at Smith Partnership, the issue often stems from larger businesses using extended payment terms to protect their own cash flow, creating a knock-on effect across the wider supply chain. Claire, who leads Smith Partnership’s Debt Recovery team, said larger organisations need…
Author: sme-admin
With AI-generated cover letters becoming increasingly common, candidates are applying faster and at greater scale, raising new questions around authenticity, quality, and what hiring managers are really looking for. To explore this further, Daniel Patel, Recruitment Director at Eursap, has shared his expert insights. “We are seeing a significant rise in AI-generated cover letters. It is no longer occasional; it is widespread, particularly in high-volume application processes. Candidates are under pressure to apply quickly and at scale, and AI tools offer a way to keep up with that pace.” On whether hiring managers can tell the difference, he says the gap…
Red tape, rising costs, and complex rules are pushing small firms out of EU markets, new research by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has warned. The report, Ticket to Trade: Making EU trade easier for SMEs, shows that three in ten (34%) of SME traders expect to reduce or stop EU trade altogether if current rules don’t change. Meanwhile, five in ten (45%) expect to maintain current trading levels and fewer than one in ten (6%) see an opportunity to grow trade with the EU under the existing arrangements. That’s because paperwork is making EU trade harder to justify, with one small business reporting spending more than half…
By Peter Kerry For the UK’s small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners, the primary challenge is rarely just the competition; it is the friction within. In a smaller team, a single unresolved dispute doesn’t just lower morale—it can halt operations entirely. Without the buffer of a sprawling HR department, the weight of resolving team friction falls directly on the founder’s shoulders. Workplace conflict costs UK businesses an estimated £28.5 billion annually. However, as a CMC Registered mediator and a professional speaker trainer, I have seen that many of these costs are avoidable. Most disputes do not start with a “bad…
Financial services firms are used to competing on expertise, performance and technical strength. But in a crowded market, that is no longer enough on its own. The firms that stand out are often the ones that communicate with more clarity, more personality and more consistency. Increasingly, that means using video and content to show clients and partners who they are, not just what they do. That is the thinking behind the work of B7, a Newcastle-based video-first content marketing agency that helps businesses become known, liked and trusted in the markets that matter to them through strategic, consistent and high-quality…
AI fraud cases have skyrocketed by an astonishing 1,210% in 2025, far outpacing the 195% spike seen in traditional fraud. At the same time, deepfake fraud attempts in the UK have nearly doubled, rising 94% in the same year – second only to France (96%). More than half (51%) of UK adults now fear falling victim to a financial phishing scam, with over one in ten (11%) having already lost money to one. Driven by AI-powered scams, fraud is now surging at record levels nationwide, with more than 1,200 incidents every single day and total losses hitting over £629 million in just six months. With scams typically spiking ahead of summer as fraudsters exploit a surge in…
Leading sustainability consultancy Tunley Environmental has launched its latest guide, “A Guide to Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)”, designed to help organisations understand, develop and apply EPDs to support compliance and gain a competitive edge. Many businesses are under increasing pressure to demonstrate the impact of their products across the full lifecycle. Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are pivotal in meeting these expectations, enabling organisations to provide verified data aligned with frameworks such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), BREEAM and LEED. Data from the International EPD System shows that more than 9,000 EPDs were published in 2025 alone, highlighting the growing…
With platforms like TikTok and Instagram increasingly shaping consumer behaviour, small businesses now have the potential to reach mass audiences without traditional marketing budgets. In some cases, a single post can transform a local venue into a viral destination almost instantly. However, going viral does not happen by accident, instead it is often the result of specific content strategies, audience behaviours, and the ability to scale operations quickly. Keen to help small businesses better understand how to increase their chances of going viral on social media, and what to prepare for if they do, Amir Gabay, Co-CEO of Hopp by Wix evaluates the key factors…
Research reveals that the UK food and drink manufacturing sector could help provide more than one billion meals a year to people facing food insecurity – by reducing waste, recovering surplus, and reinvesting cost savings, benefitting both businesses and communities. The Waste Equation, developed by Newton, the strategic delivery consultancy, in partnership with The Felix Project and FareShare – the UK’s largest food redistribution charity – sets out a practical, data-driven blueprint for how manufacturers can create a “win-win” for all. The report shows that even relatively small improvements across the industry could have a transformative impact. Each year, UK…
New research from Barnett Waddingham (BW), part of Howden, highlights that many workers in the UK are still unclear on salary sacrifice – despite it being one of the most widely used workplace benefits. While nearly two-thirds (62%) of workers say they are using salary sacrifice, a similar number (63%) don’t know it will be capped in 2029, limiting how much can be paid through salary sacrifice without National Insurance being applied. With changes to salary sacrifice actively being debated in Parliament, this highlights a clear disconnect between how widely it is used and how well workers understand potential changes…