The UK’s culture of late payments – and how to avoid it
We hear from two experienced entrepreneurs about how late payments have been a big impact on their operations, but suggest some strategies to deal with it.
From Barrier Reef to boardroom: Shark-wrangling is like dealing with customers
About 15 years ago I was carrying out my day job on the Barrier Reef, acting as a human shield between shark and holidaymaker. Fast forward to today and I may have swapped wetsuits for boardrooms, but I’m still helping people get close to rare and exotic creatures, not sharks in this case – customers.
Amazon exclusive: It’s not all drones you know
As Amazon continues to expand its cloud service offering, we caught up with Danilo Poccia, technical evangelist at Amazon Web Services, to gain an exclusive look at what the company has in store for its small business clients in the future.
Going global as a business in the digital age
Michael Gould, founder and CTO at business planning and modelling business Anaplan, shares his experience of growing the business and advocates thinking on worldwide basis from the very beginning.
Ironing out the kinks in the crowdfunding process using scalable technology
As a fast-growing crowdfunding platform, Crowdcube co-founder Luke Lang explains why implementing a CRM system was key to providing a platform suitable for scaling up and cultivating relationships with entrepreneurs on the hunt for funding.
Why returns can mean big business
As the world of ecommerce continues to grow, the importance of returns does too.
Passage to the rest of the world: The journey of a successful SME
Martin Davidian of FedEx Express identifies the four major stages an SME should go through as it begins to scale up and conquer global markets – building relationships with customers and constantly innovating as it goes.
Why we turned down $100m for our business
It's the moment every entrepreneur dreams of, when someone comes along and offers you a nine-figure amount for the company you've shed blood, sweat and tears for. So you'll probably be a bit surprised that my co-founder and I turned it down – but here I explain exactly why.
Exclusive interview: Indiegogo deals with competition and creates offering for corporates
In part two of our interview with Indiegogo co-founder Danae Ringelmann, Real Business asks about the evolution of crowdfunding and why big brands are starting to see the benefit of using the platform to remove risk and unnecessary cost from product development.
More SMEs head skywards as cloud phone systems offer smarter ways to do business
Rafael Cortes, head of marketing at Foehn, acknowledges why some SMEs may still be cautious about heading entirely into the cloud and explains why more cloud offers smarter approaches to business.
Why family businesses can IPO and still maintain culture and tradition
Legal expert Melanie Wadsworth uses the example of one of the UK's oldest construction companies to examine what family businesses should consider if looking to float and how it is possible to maintain unique family business characteristics whilst still answering to shareholders.
Why it is important to ask the difficult questions
Will Lovegrove, CEO at pensionsync, looks at why a constant dialogue with your customers is "the" key to a successful business.