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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.
Two people looking at the laptop having a conversation
SMES: mind the productivity gap
  • Article
  • 27 Jun 2024
The UK small business productivity gap is narrowing as the best-performing regions dip and typically poor-performing regions step up. We ask: what’s the task at hand for the next government?
From Left: Olivier Boutellis-Taft, CEO of Accountancy Europe; Giancarlo Attolini, Vice-President of Accountancy Europe; Malcolm Bacchus, President of ICAEW; and Mark Vaessen, President of Accountancy Europe.
Influencing policy to support you: June 2024
  • Article
  • 25 Jun 2024
In the run up to the election, ICAEW has been focused on examining the parties’ manifestos against our recommendations, as well as contributing to discussions on AI skills and the needs of small businesses.
London Westminster
ICAEW hustings event looks at parties’ plans for SMEs
  • Article
  • 19 Jun 2024
Chartered Accountants’ Hall plays host to MPs from three main parties for a special event focusing on the UK’s small business community.
Leaf sprouting from the ground
Coaching Bankside SMEs on basics of climate reporting
  • Article
  • 19 Jun 2024
A London initiative is helping Southwark SMEs to build a bedrock of knowledge around a number of climate actions, including reporting. Its leader tells us how the scheme works.
Free CPD: How to make your business more sustainable
  • Article
  • 17 Jun 2024
No matter its size, every business has a responsibility to act on climate change. But with limited resources, it can be difficult for SMEs to know where to start. We’ve pulled together some helpful sustainability articles that can contribute to your verifiable Continuous Professional Development (CPD) hours.
HMRC targets use of electronic sales suppression (ESS) tools
  • Article
  • 14 Jun 2024
HMRC has written to small businesses who it suspects of misusing their till systems to evade paying tax on sales.
London Westminster
Election 2024: do the manifestos reflect the profession’s priorities?
  • Article
  • 14 Jun 2024
The major political parties have released their manifestos. Have they been listening to recommendations from ICAEW and its members?
London Westminster
Election 2024: ICAEW to host main parties for debate
  • Article
  • 11 Jun 2024
Put your questions to representatives from the three main political parties on their policies for small businesses at an ICAEW-hosted event on 17 June.
Read more

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 Transfer pricing considerations for start-ups in Egypt
  • Article
  • 20 May 2024
  • Nouran Ibrahim and Maureen Guirguis
With transfer pricing principles becoming increasingly important as start-ups expand, Nouran Ibrahim and Maureen Guirguis of Saleh, Barsoum & Abdel Aziz – Grant Thornton Egypt explain the salient points and how to meet the challenges.
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.
Read more

Useful links

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Latest Business news from Insights
  • Hub page
Read the latest business articles published in ICAEW's Insights hub.
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Ukraine hub
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Visit our Ukraine hub for the latest on sanctions, ethical guidance and reputational risk.
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Brexit – impact on ICAEW members
  • Hub page
Find a range of resources to help you navigate this new chapter.

Business Spotlight

Read these Business Spotlight articles for Chartered Accountants' reports from the front line of industry, across regions and sectors.
Business spotlight
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