New research reveals that just 12% of working mothers take a full year’s maternity leave and almost one in five (18%) take four months or less
New research has today found that almost half (44 per cent) of working mothers were unhappy with how they had been treated by their employer during their pregnancy and after their return to work.
While many mothers return for financial reasons or simply because they want to, many worry about being side-lined, edged out or feel pressure from their boss to go back.
The survey of 2,000 …

Creditors have better memories than debtors. So said Benjamin Franklin. If your business is sitting on a pile of uncollected invoices, you’re perhaps thinking, tell me about it. You’ll know that chasing invoices is tedious, trying, and time-consuming, and at no time in your childhood did you say that your life’s ambition was to spend weeks, months, maybe even years being frustrated by ignored emails, unanswered voicemails and dodged phone calls. And it may be that, like many other business owners who find themselves in that exact position, you feel …

WHY DON’T YOU… Hold a family sports day
In a recent poll, sport was one of the top three activities children told us they wanted to do with their parents, so why not turn an area of your garden or your local park into your very own sporting arena? Hold a running race, beanbag throw, mini hurdles or go retro with a game of rounders.
WHY DON’T YOU… Go on a nature treasure hunt
Make a map with a list of ‘treasure’ on it that the family has to tick off and find …

In the main, presentations benefit from brevity and clarity. When time is limited you need to decide what’s essential for your clients or colleagues to know.  Too much information may confuse them about what’s most important.  Sometimes, however, you’ll find that your audience wants to know more about something you’ve said and you need to expand the point.
Paul Carroll from Toastmasters International has tips for getting the level of information right and creating a successful presentation:
Understand your audience
When addressing new people (e.g. potential clients) do your research. Learn what they want. Learn …

Giving up work to look after your new baby can be both very rewarding and very challenging. SO how do you find the right balance? Yuliana Topazly from BuddyWith has some advice on how to make the transition from intellectually engaged career woman to full time mum:
1. Join supportive communities of fellow parents. These can be virtual or physical. It is important to be in touch, talk about your challenges, share experiences, listen to other people going through the same journey as you. By connecting with others, you will know …

Creativity and innovation are becoming the distinguishing factors for success in a world that is characterized by change, uncertainty and complexity. Using mindfulness in your business can help foster innovation and creativity and set you apart from your competitors.
Palma Michel, author of The Authority Guide to Mindful Leadership, suggests five practical ways to use mindfulness to create a culture for creativity to flourish:

Ask Questions. Asking questions is an easy way to bring curiosity to any situation. Don´t assume you know the answer or something is a given, but continuously ask …

It’s a term we’ve all heard, these days website have to have “Responsive Design” but what is it exactly? Read on to find out all about it from Peter Freeman of Templedene.
A responsive website, simply put, responds to the size of the screen or window they are displayed in, in particular for smartphones or tablets.
In more technical terms, the website actually has a number of sets of instructions, or responses, which the browser (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer etc.) can choose to use depending on what size the viewable window is. …

Two studies into white collar flexible working published by Ten2Two, highlight how employees can give themselves the best chance of securing flexible working.
83% of employers offer flexible working (45% formally and 38% informally) and that 74% of flexible working requests were granted however there some forms of flexible working were more popular than others.
Employers preferred the flexible working options below:

46% – Part-time week (e.g. three full days a week)
54% – Part-time day (e.g. reduced hours, every day)
34% – Part-time day/week (less than five days per week plus reduced hours)
8% – Job-share
47% – Working from home (all or part …

Earlier this summer I did a live twitter Q&A session on how to create engaging content with Sage. If you missed it, here are some of the tips I shared.

What is the most important thing you should know before creating content?

Ask yourself some quick questions. WHO is it aimed at? WHAT do you want them to do after seeing your content? HOW will you get them to act?

What benefits will you get from creating content?

Without fresh content any website is static: consumers today expect sites to have new and current …

Is your bank doing it’s job? As the owner of an SME or microbusiness it often seems like the bank is looking after its own needs first, and new research from Tide, the mobile-first business banking service backs that up. Here are the top five reasons that they feel high street banks aren’t suitable for the needs of today’s small businesses.

Setting up a business account is confusing and time consuming: High street banks request endless documents to SMEs before they can start sending and receiving money. If providing proof of …