In the final podcast of the series, Lord Karan Bilimoria advises the founders of tech startup Zipabout on everything from marketing to investment

Dinesh Dhamija gives leadership tips to Jamie Wilson, budding entrepreneur and founder of carer provider HomeTouch

Serial entrepreneur and organic food pioneer Jo Fairley gives her tips to milliner Sahar Freemantle on how to make it big

The designer who created an empire around her trademark floral wash bags, tea cloths and crockery, reveals that luck played a big part in her success

In the first podcast of a new series, the designer of the award-winning kids’ luggage brand shares his top tips for global expansion with a furniture maker from Blackburn

In our last podcast of the series, entrepreneurs at our Confessions of a Startup seminar shared their tales of overcoming obstacles while starting a business. They agreed it’s important to have people around who support your vision

If you don’t experience tough times, you’re not putting yourself out there enough. That was the verdict of the entrepreneurs at our first Confessions of a Small Business seminar. Catch up with what you missed

Isabella Lane started Smarter Applications with husband Christian two and a half years ago. Their first product was a wifi kettle, which they built for £100

It’s been a long road for Efe Çakarel, founder of MUBI. He had his big idea in 2006 but it was seven years before he finally felt the model was working

Emily Forbes loves film and working in storytelling. But setting up Seenit, a video collaboration platform, has challenged her in ways she couldn’t imagine. Not least because she has parted ways with not one but two co-founders

In our first Confessions of a Startup podcast, Rich Pleeth, founder of the social app Sup, describes struggling to achieve sustainable growth, falling out with his co-founders and having to tell investors you’re closing the business

Nick Edwards, the founder of software company Papaya, was faced with a dilemma in 2012 when his developer was killed in a hit-and-run incident

Arpana Gandhi, co-founder of landmine disposal company Disarmco, talks struggling to find investment, almost going bust and battling to save lives

In our second Confessions of a Small Business podcast, John Stapleton, founder of New Covent Garden Soup and Little Dish, talks about going out on a limb, coping with a fire that gutted his factory, and failing to crack the US

Little Riot founder Joanna Montgomery kicks off our Small Business podcast series by reliving the highs and lows of launching her product Pillow Talk and explaining how caring customers gave her heart

Traditional lenders often shy away from the creative industries – what can startup bands and independent musicians do to get on the road to financial success?

It's bash-a-banker time. As the former RBS boss Fred Goodwin loses his knighthood, his successor at the bank has handed back his bonus. Nils Pratley and Jill Treanor discuss

Seumas Milne, Rowenna Davis and Hopi Sen discuss Labour's shift in economic policy and how the party can remain true to its mission for social justice in austere times

The Occupy movement's philosopher-in-chief David Graeber examines the arguments for a debt jubilee in 2012. Plus Heather Stewart and Angelique Chrisafis explain the ratings downgrades of France and other EU countries

Larry Elliott, Jill Treanor and Nils Pratley discuss the economic indicators to watch in 2012 and look ahead to an Olympic year in which Britain is hoping to rediscover a feel-good factor

Economist Joel Waldfogel explains why you shouldn't buy Christmas presents plus Larry Elliott and Simon Goodley round up a turbulent year in business and economics

John Gapper and Jill Treanor discuss a new report into the failure of Royal Bank of Scotland. Plus: we look at the history of rogue traders. What makes some bank employees risk everything when they seem to have so little to gain?

Jeffrey Sachs discusses the turmoil in the eurozone, the ethical issues underlying the financial crisis and his new book The Price of Civilisation

Philip Coggan, a historian of debt crises, discusses the current turmoil in Europe and explores the nature of money itself and our changing attitudes to it – most money now exists only on computers and the only thing that sustains it is confidence