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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.
What’s the #1 people risk for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)?
  • Article
  • 21 Nov 2024
People are everything to SMEs, so it’s no wonder that rising health and benefit costs top their list of worries. Employee benefit premiums and related costs ranked first in our People Risk 2024 survey of the most likely people risks to affect their business in the next two years with the most severe impact. (1)
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The case for action on late payments
  • Article
  • 18 Nov 2024
A small practice round table at Chartered Accountants’ Hall, attended by Small Business Commissioner Liz Barclay, outlined the impacts of late payments on economic growth.
Next-day fee finance vs invoice factoring
  • Article
  • 01 Nov 2024
Keys Finance explain how their Next Day Professional Fee Finance tool can help accountants to receive 100% of their client fees Next-Day.
A person holding a mobile phone in one hand, making a payment with a bank card, held in the other hand
Payment scams, data hacks and Cyber Security Awareness Month
  • Article
  • 31 Oct 2024
Cyber round-up: the continuing payment scams and personal data attacks on individuals, key takeaways from ICAEW’s Cyber Security Awareness Month campaign, and how to safeguard your data and business from harm.
Houses of Parliament at night
Budget 2024 verdict: big and bold, but borne by business
  • Article
  • 31 Oct 2024
Chancellor Rachel Reeves focused on delivering economic stability with her wide-ranging first Budget – but short-term tax raising measures worth £40bn fall primarily on the shoulders of business.
Government publishes its plans for corporation tax
  • Article
  • 30 Oct 2024
The government has set out its intentions for corporation tax for the next five years, delivering on its commitment to publish a business tax roadmap at the Autumn Budget.
Four wind turbines on a green background
B20: three critical tasks for the accountancy profession
  • Article
  • 25 Oct 2024
ICAEW is a network partner to global business summit B20’s Integrity and Compliance task force, which has highlighted key areas for the profession’s scrutiny.
Four wind turbines on a green background
ICAEW: weak public finances put under further strain
  • Article
  • 25 Oct 2024
Commenting on the public sector finance release for September 2024 published by the Office for National Statistics today (Tuesday 22 October 2024)
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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 Digital transformation: strategies for small and midsize accounting firms
  • Article
  • 29 Jul 2024
  • Brian Trout, Cory Ng
The article focuses on the challenges and opportunities faced by small to medium-sized accounting firms amidst digital transformation. Topics include evolving client expectations for remote access and intuitive digital platforms, strategies for integrating accounting systems with other business tools, and the critical importance of strong data security measures to maintain client trust.
Exclusive Generative AI for small and midsized firms
  • Article
  • 01 May 2024
  • Bill Armstrong
Article discusses how small and midsized accounting firms are beginning to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) technology to streamline their processes. It outlines the three approaches to adopting generative AI: out-of-the-box, custom development, and assembling. Each approach has its own advantages and considerations, such as data security and cost.
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 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 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.
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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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