When the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to her first baby, Prince George, she returned to her royal duties when he was just 1 month old. However, after the birth of Princess Charlotte, Kate opted for more time off and didn’t go back to work for 4 months.
This is still a lot shorter than most new mothers who tend to take between 6 and 12 months off. However long you choose to stay at home with your new baby, it’s not uncommon for some mums to begin to feel as …

A study has revealed the percentage of female managers in 41 OECD and EU countries, highlighting the nations which offer the best opportunities for career progression
Leading technology career platform Honeypot, has released a study revealing the gender gap in managerial roles, with women accounting for less than 50% of senior positions in every nation. With a lack of women in senior roles having been highlighted as a major aspect of gender disparity in the workplace, Honeypot wanted to enrich the debate by releasing this data. Using figures from the World …

I have been self-employed for almost my entire working life. Before my current business, I have run several businesses, including an arts funded digital arts and multimedia company and, more recently, CAMYOGA – one of the UK’s most recognised yoga brands.
My current business Stem + Glory grew from a lifelong passion for plant based foods. Both from a cooking perspective (I love to cook!) and a desire to help people lead healthier and more compassionate lives. I really do believe that the future is plant based and the environmental messages …

With the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) only a few weeks away, businesses such as yours are waking up to the fact that they need to make changes to their processes.
As a business owner, it’s likely that your firm will store a lot of personal data, be it from your customers or employees, so you will need to put a GDPR preparation plan in place and change the way you process and store it.
As businesses prepare for the GDPR, we asked a selection of our Sage Business …

Everywoman, the leading organisation for the advancement of women in business, has launched its annual search for the UK’s leading female entrepreneurs. The NatWest everywoman Awards is the most highly regarded programme celebrating the achievements of UK-based women business owners. For 16 years, the awards have recognised the success of women from a wide variety of industries, uncovering strong and authentic role models who challenge preconceptions and provide confidence and inspiration in equal measure.
Judged by successful female business owners, who themselves have been on the entrepreneurial journey, the awards distinguish …

Hi, I’m Shirley Goodgroves, 44. I’m married to Roger and I have 2 children age 19 and 13 plus 2 older stepchildren and a loopy cocker spaniel called Baxter.  We live in a village in South Buckinghamshire.  I run Two Birds London which specialises in practice wear and club uniforms for performance sports such as ice skating, roller skating, gymnastics, swimming and more.  Before  I set up this company, I had a wide and varied working life doing everything from customer services to project management for a telelcommunications company to interior …

Attracting and engaging investors is the key to equity crowdfunding. So what exactly are investors looking for? What makes the difference in their decision to invest or not?
Sophisticated and Retail Investors
Investors can be divided into two types: retail investors and sophisticated investors. Retail investors are investing more emotionally. Sophisticated investors typically invest more than retail investors, but the amount they invest doesn’t necessarily reflect their level of sophistication.
While it’s definitely more a spectrum than two clear camps, there are some common identifying features:

Retail investors make their decisions based on emotional …

By communicating, we forward information to the other person. Or do we?
Frequently we experience miscommunication where part of the information is lost or misunderstood by the other person.  Both people think they understand what has been passed between them but it turns out there has been a potentially damaging “illusion of communication”.
When talking to another person words are filtered through our own unique context grid which is made up of our strongly held opinions, beliefs, and attitudes – shaped and reinforced over a lifetime.  This personal filtering results in words …

How accurate is our ability to self-evaluate? Are you as good as you think you are? The chances are you may not be quite as expert as you imagine and your ability to self-evaluate may be tinted through rose-coloured spectacles, says Ally Yates author of ‘Utter Confidence: How what you say and do influences your effectiveness in business’
Research published in 1999 resulted in the eponymous phenomenon known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. The research revealed the existence of a cognitive bias of illusory superiority, where people judge themselves as better than others …

The attitudes and behaviours of colleagues towards people returning to work from sick leave can have a big impact on whether or not a worker feels they are fairly treated by their organisation.
According to a new study by researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Stockholm University, there is a clear link between a person’s health and their perceptions of fairness at work over time. The most significant factor in that link is the amount of support a worker feels he or she gets from colleagues.
The research, published …