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Small and micro business: news, insights and industry press

Interviews, reflections and commentary on key issues affecting small and micro businesses. ICAEW members and ACA students can also access industry press articles as a benefit of ICAEW membership.
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News and insights

Interviews, reflections and commentary on key issues affecting small and micro businesses.
Autumn Statement: short-term gain, medium-term loss
  • Article
  • 22 Nov 2023
The Autumn Statement included several measures that are welcome news for businesses, but the medium-term outlook looks less positive.
How SMEs should optimise their cash savings
  • Article
  • 21 Nov 2023
Enterprises have too much spare cash sitting in low- or no-interest accounts, according to a new report. What other options could help SME owners make the most of their reserves?
The pros and cons of using credit cards for cash flow
  • Article
  • 15 Nov 2023
As a new report shows that plastic is proving increasingly popular among UK SME business owners, we highlight the benefits it can unlock – and the pitfalls to avoid.
ICAEW calls for action to boost UK’s productivity and resilience
  • Article
  • 06 Nov 2023
In a letter to the Chancellor, ICAEW recommends the introduction of incentives to support sustainable business growth and long-term funding streams for local councils, as well as tax simplification and action to improve HMRC service standards.
How does UK small business reporting compare with China?
  • Article
  • 01 Nov 2023
The first paper delivered through ICAEW’s Research Fellowship in China is a study of small business reporting.
ICAEW member insights: October 2023
  • Article
  • 27 Oct 2023
Business confidence reduced in Q3 due to economic challenges, regulation and construction delays. Interest rates and finance issues were also causes for concern raised by members.
You’ve been hacked: should you pay ransomware attackers?
  • Article
  • 26 Oct 2023
In part two of our short series on what to do if you’ve been hacked, we look at whether you should pay up if you are the victim of a ransomware attack.
SMEs must wise up to cyber security risks
  • Article
  • 05 Oct 2023
Cyber security awareness month: cyber security has dropped down the priority list for small businesses during the cost-of-living crisis, but it would be a mistake to assume that smaller organisations aren’t at risk.
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Industry press

The ICAEW Library provides access to leading business, finance and management journals. These journals are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users subject to suppliers' terms of use.
Exclusive Unattended retail options pegged as a secure saviour for small businesses, survey reveals
  • Article
  • 01 Nov 2023
Vending machines and unmanned retail services are growing in popularity with UK consumers, giving small businesses a lifeline to much needed ancillary revenue, according to the results of a newly released survey. For the consumer, it’s clear that convenience and availability are the primary drivers of unattended retail usage, with consumers increasingly relying on these services to meet out-of-hour or unplanned needs - and also to avoid social interactions.
Exclusive Who learns fastest, wins: Lean Startup and Discovery Driven Growth
  • Article
  • 01 Oct 2023
  • Rita Gunther McGrath
Most entrepreneurial ventures and startups fail. Against this backdrop, Lean Startup and Discovery-Driven Growth (DDG) are methods that emphasize rapid learning, resource parsimony, and focus on validating assumptions as ways of reducing the cost and risk of failure. Rita Gunther McGrath looks at the benefits of both methods, suggesting that they are a major advance over traditional planning processes because they both emphasize rapid learning. She also provides a 'flops file' of massive corporate failures and analyses the mistakes made.
Exclusive Should companies launch new products in a recession?
  • Article
  • 01 Sep 2023
A look at the pros and cons of launching new consumer products during a recession. The authors explore how products introduced during a recession perform, examine how the severity of the recession can impact the product's performance, and scrutinize whether the timing within the recession matters. The authors' research included analysing 8,981 product launches in consumer goods categories within the UK from 1995 to 2012.
Exclusive How generative AI can expand human innovation and creativity
  • Article
  • 01 Jul 2023
  • Tojin T.Eapen, Daniel J.Finkenstadt, Josh Folk, Lokesh Venkataswamy
Five ways in which generative AI can assist organisations by amplifying the creativity of employees to help them generate and identify innovative ideas - and build on the quality of raw ideas. The article is illustrated with images of potential product ideas created using prompts in Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, two popular AI text-to-image tools.
Exclusive A business continuity plan for leading a Ukrainian start-up during a year of war
  • Article
  • 01 Jul 2023
  • Roman Rodomansky
A Ukrainian software development company co-founder shares lessons learnt around the importance of scenario planning, flexibility, decision-making, and guiding customers and employees through uncertainty.
Exclusive Human creativity can be augmented by generative AI
  • Article
  • 01 Jul 2023
  • Tojin Eapen, Daniel J Finkenstadt etc
Article discusses how generative AI can promote divergent thinking, challenge expertise bias, assist in idea evaluation, support idea refinement, and facilitate collaboration among users
Exclusive China enhances tax relief for innovation and small businesses
  • Article
  • 08 May 2023
  • Lewis Lu
Lewis Lu of KPMG China discusses enhanced tax measures to support innovation and small businesses.
Exclusive Startups stung by UK delay in awarding tax credits to innovators
  • Article
  • 13 Apr 2023
  • Aisha S Gani
Some UK startup businesses have been waiting upwards of six months to receive research and development tax credits from HMRC, forcing some to take out loans to plug the gap in funds. The Fintech trade body Innovate Finance said it has member firms worried about lengthy delays that make it difficult to predict their cash flows. HMRC has acknowledged that it had extended processing times.
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Business Spotlight

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