This week we're talking business funding. In an advice-packed episode, Oliver Krishnan from Starling Bank and Ryan Hyde-Smith from Funding Options join journalist Dan Martin to demystify the world of finance and explain how to decide on the best option for your business, how to manage debt and common mistakes to avoid.  Since this episode was recorded, Starling Bank has been accredited for the Recovery Loan Scheme, a government initiative set up to help small business owners deal with the...

The statistics are shocking: One million birds and 100,000 marine animals a year die from plastic pollution, eight million pieces of plastic end up in the oceans every day and for every mile of UK beaches, there are 5,000 pieces of plastic. It was figures like that which drove Beth Noy to launch Plastic Freedom. What started as a £300 investment to sell some of her favourite plastic free products is now a booming online store with over 3,000 brands. She has also built an Instagram community...

The transition period for Britain's exit from the European Union ended on 31 December 2020 so how has Brexit affected the UK's small businesses?  Freelance journalist Dan Martin is joined by Mike Wilson, founder of Go Exporting, and Philip Salter, founder of The Entrepreneurs Network, to discuss it. 

This week journalist Dan Martin is joined by Symmie Swil, head of SME Banking at Starling Bank, and David Beardmore, ecosystem development director at Open Banking Implementation Entity to discuss how small businesses can embrace modern banking services. Symmie shares the vision of Starling Bank's founder Anne Boden for launching the digital bank, her views on the future of physical bank branches and how the company is supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs. Another exciting...

Entrepreneurs start businesses for many reasons. For Julie Deane CBE, it was to pay for her children to go to private school. She invested £600 to get her idea off the ground and just five years later, the Cambridge Satchel Company was valued at £40m. Julie joins journalist Dan Martin to share her super inspiring story. This one is a must listen!

The Small Business Sessions, Enterprise Nation's podcast sponsored by Starling Bank, returns for episode two in series five. The coronavirus pandemic has been tough for many people but for some entrepreneurial individuals, it has been the time to start their own company. One of those new business owners is Katrina Borissova, founder of vegan soap brand Little Danube, who incorporated her new venture on 23 March 2020, the day the prime minister announced Britain was going into lockdown. In...

The Small Business Sessions, Enterprise Nation's podcast sponsored by Starling Bank, is back! Every week for 12 weeks, freelance journalist Dan Martin speaks to entrepreneurs and experts about their tips, insights and inspiration for how to start and grow a brilliant business. First up is Ben Keene, co-founder of Rebel Book Club.  How many books do you have that you've never read? It's probably loads. The Japanese describe it as 'tsundoku', the constant act of buying books but not reading...

Niamh Barker started luxury cashmere brand The Travelwrap Company in her spare room. The proudly Scottish brand is now exporting to 22 countries. Host Dan Martin spoke to Barker about: - Building up an online presence - Solving the problem of copycats - The importance of targeting the right market Small Business Sessions is powered by Xero and we’ve got an exclusive offer of 50% off the cloud accounting software for 12 months! Find out more at the below...

This week’s Small Business Sessions podcast welcomes Henry Deakin, who’s taken the helm of seventh generation family business Deakin & Francis. Gemologist and designer Deakin discusses his gamble to open a flagship store in Piccadilly Arcade, influencer marketing and what it’s like to join the family firm. Small Business Sessions is powered by Xero and we’ve got an exclusive offer of 50% off for 12 months! The fourth series welcomes a brilliant line-up of entrepreneurs and experts to...

The Small Business Sessions, Enterprise Nation's podcast powered by Xero, is back for another episode. Series four, hosted by Enterprise Nation head of content Dan Martin, features a brilliant line-up of entrepreneurs and experts sharing insights and inspiration on how to start and grow a brilliant business. Late payment is a massive issue for small businesses. Recent research showed UK SME late payment debt has risen to £23.4bn, up £10.4bn on the £13bn owed in 2018. It is estimated that the...

The Small Business Sessions, Enterprise Nation's podcast powered by Xero, is back for another episode. Series four, hosted by Enterprise Nation head of content Dan Martin, features a brilliant line-up of entrepreneurs and experts sharing insights and inspiration on how to start and grow a brilliant business. This week we're joined by Ry Morgan, co-founder of Unmind, a B2B workplace wellness platform that decreases stress, enhances sleep, and improves the business performance of employees....

The Small Business Sessions, Enterprise Nation's podcast powered by Xero, is back for another episode. Series four, hosted by Enterprise Nation head of content Dan Martin, features a brilliant line-up of entrepreneurs and experts sharing insights and inspiration on how to start and grow a brilliant business. This week we welcome an entrepreneur whose business journey we've followed from the start. Krisi Smith is the co-founder of Bird & Blend Tea Co. which she set up with her partner...

The Small Business Sessions, Enterprise Nation's podcast powered by Xero, is back for another episode. Series four, hosted by Enterprise Nation head of content Dan Martin, features a brilliant line-up of entrepreneurs and experts sharing insights and inspiration on how to start and grow a brilliant business. Gone are the days when businesses only had one or two options for funding; there are now lots of choices. One of them is Iwoca, which provides business loans of £1,000 - £200,000...

The Small Business Sessions, Enterprise Nation's podcast powered by Xero, is back for another episode. Series four, hosted by Enterprise Nation head of content Dan Martin, features a brilliant line-up of entrepreneurs and experts sharing insights and inspiration on how to start and grow a brilliant business. You might recognise this week's guests from TV. ​In 2017 Ed Hollands won £30,000 investment on Dragons' Den from entrepreneur Jenny Campbell. Ed's business is DrivenMedia which allows...

The Small Business Sessions, Enterprise Nation's podcast powered by Xero, is back for another episode. Series four, hosted by Enterprise Nation head of content Dan Martin, features a brilliant line-up of entrepreneurs and experts sharing insights and inspiration on how to start and grow a brilliant business. This week we're all about business growth with two entrepreneurs telling us how they've scaled their companies and what you can learn. Gary Turner is the co-founder and UK managing...

The Small Business Sessions, Enterprise Nation's podcast powered by Xero, is back for another episode. Series four, hosted by Enterprise Nation head of content Dan Martin, features a brilliant line-up of entrepreneurs and experts sharing insights and inspiration on how to start and grow a brilliant business. This week we're joined by podcaster and influencer, Sarah Akwisombe. Sarah started her interior design blog on the side while working at a tech start-up. The blog grew and she decided to...

The Small Business Sessions, Enterprise Nation's podcast powered by Xero, is back for another episode. Series four, hosted by Enterprise Nation head of content Dan Martin, features a brilliant line-up of entrepreneurs and experts sharing insights and inspiration on how to start and grow a brilliant business. Only two years after launching her healthy healthy bakery company Fit Bakes, Enterprise Nation member Ellen Rauen-Prestes has managed to get her cakes stocked in major retailers...

The Small Business Sessions, Enterprise Nation's podcast powered by Xero, is back for another episode. Series four, hosted by Enterprise Nation head of content Dan Martin, features a brilliant line-up of entrepreneurs and experts sharing insights and inspiration on how to start and grow a brilliant business. In episode two, Sylwia Kotarba from Accounts and Legal discusses Making Tax Digital (MTD), the government initiative which aims to see the end of the tax return and transform the tax...

The Small Business Sessions, Enterprise Nation's podcast powered by Xero, is back!  For series four, a brilliant line-up of entrepreneurs and experts share insights and inspiration on how to start and grow a brilliant business. Hosted by Enterprise Nation head of content Dan Martin, we'll be covering issues including business growth, retail, late payment, mental health and alternative finance over 12 episodes. For episode one, we're joined by Emma Jones, who launched Enterprise Nation after...

The Small Business Sessions podcast from Enterprise Nation and powered by Xero is back for another inspiring episode. Every week Enterprise Nation founder Emma Jones speaks to entrepreneurs and experts about starting and growing a successful business. In the last episode of the current series of the Small Business Sessions podcast with Xero we meet Jas Bagnieowski, co-founder of mattress company Eve. Eve is a company which saw massive growth very quickly. In its first year, the business sold...

The Small Business Sessions podcast from Enterprise Nation and powered by Xero is back for another inspiring episode. Every week Enterprise Nation founder Emma Jones speaks to entrepreneurs and experts about starting and growing a successful business. This week, Damon Anderson from Xero and Jonathan Bareham from accountancy firm Raedan discuss the government initiative which aims to see the end of the tax return and transform the tax system by 2020. Businesses, starting with those above the...

The Small Business Sessions podcast from Enterprise Nation and powered by Xero is back for another inspiring episode. Every week Enterprise Nation founder Emma Jones speaks to entrepreneurs and experts about starting and growing a successful business. This week, Xero co-founder Gary Turner discusses the company's groundbreaking new Small Business Insights service which highlights from a sample of 300,000 small businesses issues such as cashflow, late payment and exports. In a...

The Small Business Sessions podcast from Enterprise Nation and powered by Xero is back for another inspiring episode. Every week Enterprise Nation founder Emma Jones speaks to entrepreneurs and experts about starting and growing a successful business. This week we meet Lacey Hunter Felton and Nico Bonfiglioli, co-founders of The Hunter Collective, a unique co-working salon studio and event space in London for freelance beauty and fashion experts. We're also joined by Helen Prowse from Square,...

The Small Business Sessions podcast from Enterprise Nation and powered by Xero is back for another inspiring episode. Every week Enterprise Nation founder Emma Jones speaks to entrepreneurs and experts about starting and growing a successful business. This week we look at the massive issue for small businesses of late payment. We're joined by Paul Uppal, the small business commissioner appointed by the government to help small businesses deal with tardy payers. To find out more about the...

The Small Business Sessions podcast from Enterprise Nation and powered by Xero is back for another inspiring episode. Every week Enterprise Nation founder Emma Jones speaks to entrepreneurs and experts about starting and growing a successful business. It was hard to avoid the term 'GDPR' earlier this year. New European regulations governing the way businesses manage data were headline news and we all got very used to those 'please stay on our mailing list' emails! Four months on, we catch up...