By Dan Kieran, co-founder and CEO of Unbound
Publishing is being changed radically through technology.  In the past the publisher was the gatekeeper, acting as an intermediary between authors and their readers.  Technology is now allowing authors and content creators to go direct to the readers themselves, without the intermediary function.
This is how I see the publishing industry changing in the near future and the opportunities this will provide:
Smaller publishers will increasingly provide award-winning books
While large publishing groups continue to use their old approach, they’ll continue to overlook potentially game-changing and …

Throughout our careers, we experience many different personality types that influence our behaviours and professional personas. These encounters can often shape who we become as leaders, but have you taken the time to reflect on your management approach and considered how your team view your performance as a manager?
Whether you consider your leadership style as autocratic, democratic, transformational or laissez-faire, your ultimate aim is to keep your business running smoothly; which includes keeping your staff happy.
Love Energy Savings recently conducted a study on employee satisfaction, investigating how UK employees would …

For UK workers, commuting time has increased by 18 hours compared to a decade ago, according to the TUC. A study by Totaljobs shows the average worker is set to spend a whopping £135,000 on their commute by the time they retire. Following these findings, Instant Offices investigates which cities around the world are the best and worst for commuting and whether a rise in flexible and remote working can finally tip the balance for UK workers.
According to the Department for Transport, London by far has the longest commute with …

by Paul Guess, CABA
Shared Parental Leave (SPL) was introduced in April 2015. When asked about it, the then Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg explained, ‘more and more fathers want to play a hands-on role with their young children, but too many feel that they can’t.’ The SPL scheme was a way to give more ‘choice’ to families.
Let’s just take a moment to understand what SPL really is. Since April 2015, dads have had a legal right to ask their employers if they can have an extended period of leave from work. People …

The Warning Signs of Burnout and How to Avoid it
It’s the time of year many people take a summer break, but if you have no enthusiasm for a week or two off and feel like you can barely cope with your routine, you may be at risk of burnout.
According to HSE, around 15.4 million working days are lost in 12 months due to work-related stress or anxiety last year, with 23% of full-time employees admitting to feeling burned out at work all the time. Collectively, 63% of this group are …

Despite the world being so digital now – what with wireless connectivity and smartphones, tablets, and even smartwatches – you might think that the humble printer has had its day. However, in this article, you’ll discover that there are many fantastic reasons as to why you should keep your home printer, as it just might come in handy.
So, if your printer has been collecting dust in the corner of the room, don’t throw it away or sell it without considering these reasons to keep it.
Companies allowing remote work
Working from home …

By Richard Shakespeare, Opus Energy
As an SME or an inspiring business owner, there are plenty of things to think about. Premises, insurance, wages and stock are all vital. But so is paying business rates.
Business rates are a tax on properties used for business purposes. Offices, retail spaces, pubs, restaurants and warehouses, as well as the majority of non-domestic buildings are liable to pay the rates.
The amount each business pays varies, as it’s calculated by the property’s ‘rateable value’. Put simply, business rates are essentially the nondomestic equivalent of council tax. …

Immigrants make better entrepreneurs than native citizens due to a combination of learnt resilience and ‘get-up-and-go’ flair, according to Adrian Furnham, professor of leadership and organisational behaviour at BI Norwegian Business School.
Furnham says immigrants face countless barriers when relocating and have to overcome each hurdle using only their own ability.
The resilience and problem-solving skills they learn are crucial when building and growing businesses.
He explains: “Over the last 20 years, 25% of American venture-backed companies have been created by immigrants. There is a wealth of research which indicates that those who …

Starting a family can sometimes spell disaster for your career, but it needn’t. Of course having little ones running around is going to make an enormous change to your lifestyle, but it doesn’t have to define you. Working parents need to learn to work smarter, not harder. Stress, fatigue and eventually burnout aren’t good for you or your family, so focus on manifesting these healthy habits, to see both your career and your home-life improve.
Get Some Sleep!
This is number one on the list for a good reason, because it tends …

By Jonathan Amponsah CTA FCCA, The Tax Guys
Numbers are the language of business so if you tend to shy away from them it’s time to face your fear and learn to love your accounts.  Here are some tips for understanding your business numbers and using them for your decision making.

Are you profitable?

You can check if your business is profitable by looking at the profit and loss account. scroll down to the bottom figure which will show a profit (positive figure) or a loss (negative figure).
Then look at the top …