About

Ben Lobel was the editor of SmallBusiness.co.uk from 2010 to 2018. He specialises in writing for start-up and scale-up companies in the areas of finance, marketing and HR.

Business Technology

Small server or the cloud for SMEs?

The question of whether to use a small server or cloud services for your business has only recently become one that anyone outside of a professional IT role has really needed to consider.

Export & Import

Logistics strategies for SMEs

The world has opened up for small businesses in a way that many older business owners would never have imagined. Here's what it means for logistics.

Blog

Can children benefit fully from vital business skills?

Students at a school in Kent have become the first graduates of a project aiming to teach children vital business skills. Is this the right preparation for a brave new world of uncertain prospects?

Business Ideas & Planning

Odd businesses that shouldn’t have succeeded, but did

From tea in an aerosol can to a horse photography company, these ideas have come slightly out of leftfield, and are all the better for it. In this piece, we pay tribute to odd businesses.

Finding and selling to customers

Why better customer service is worth striving for

The majority (51 per cent) of people in the UK would happily pay over the odds for something if it meant they received better customer service, a study shows.

Business Technology

Is the SME market ready for hybrid cloud?

How does the hybrid cloud, an integration of local IT infrastructure with public cloud services, fit into the small business landscape?

News

Freelancers taking more holidays than employed people

A third of self-employed people took two or more holidays outside the UK in the past year compared to just 29 per cent of those who are employed.

Accounting

Managers risk signing off on non-compliant expenses

Business managers are spending a remarkably short time on expenses approvals, according to a study.

News

Employers value apprenticeship experience over periods of study for new hires

Some 93 per cent of employers would opt to take on someone who has completed a three-year apprenticeship over somebody who has spent three years studying.

Employing & managing staff

Why small businesses shouldn’t fear recruiting post Brexit

Hiring intentions among small companies are down but, in this piece, we talk to the small businesses that demonstrate why recruitment can and should be on the agenda.

Employing & managing staff

Two in three jobseekers providing false information

Nearly two thirds (63 per cent) of job applications contained errors in the first six months of 2016, research finds.

Marketing

Affiliate marketing: Eight top tips for partnering with publishers

Here, we outline the benefits of affiliate marketing and how it can help small businesses with exposure.

Ben Lobel

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