For small businesses in the UK, hitting the value-added tax (VAT) threshold can be a sign of growth, but it also brings in extra costs, more admin, and tougher pricing decisions.

In April 2024, the Government increased the threshold for VAT registration from £85,000 to £90,000. 

However, despite this increase being made to reduce the administrative and tax burdens for smaller firms, new data seems to show that a large number of SMEs are limiting their growth to stay under the threshold.

But while limiting growth to avoid VAT obligations may save profits in the short term, it can ultimately stunt long-term expansion, prevent further investment, and hold businesses back from reaching their full potential.

Why are businesses sacrificing growth to avoid VAT?

There are 2.73 million VAT-registered companies in the UK (as of March 2025), while VAT receipts reached £171bn between 2024 and 2025. However, new HMRC data suggests SMEs might be limiting growth to avoid adding to that. 

In the year to December 2025, the number of businesses reporting turnover below the £90K threshold increased to 683,700 – up from 671,000 the previous year. Conversely, the number of firms with turnover between £90K-£150K dropped significantly, falling from 306,300 to 280,400.

Andrew Markou, co-owner and CEO of BusinessForSale.com, argues that the VAT threshold is creating a growth “cliff edge”, where very similar businesses can face significantly different costs just because one has slightly higher turnover.

“A sole trader turning over £89,000 and one turning over £95,000 face very different cost bases, even though their businesses may be almost identical in size,” he explains.

Unlike most taxes that rise gradually as income increases, VAT registration is required as soon as taxable turnover goes over the threshold in any rolling 12-month period, and businesses must then charge VAT on their sales. 

While business-to-business (B2B) customers can reclaim VAT, companies that sell directly to consumers may have to raise their prices to make up for the extra cost.

The risks of curbing growth to avoid VAT

Limiting revenue to stay under the VAT threshold can seem like a sensible decision. After all, it protects profit margins, avoids raising prices for customers, and keeps paperwork simple. 

The risks shouldn’t be ignored either, however. Holding back sales to stay under the threshold means businesses could miss out on bigger contracts, new clients, or market expansion. Other limitations include restricting investments in staff, equipment or marketing, which can limit long-term profits.

Additionally, if competitors are VAT-registered, they might appear more professional or be able to reclaim VAT on purchases. Some customers, particularly B2B clients, prefer working with VAT-registered firms for tax reclaim purposes, so not being registered could make a business seem even less established.

“Deliberately limiting your turnover is a defensive move, and defensive moves have a habit of becoming permanent.” Markou adds.

 “What starts as a pragmatic decision to protect cash flow can quietly become a ceiling on ambition. Three years later, the business is in the same position, and the owner is no closer to building something they could eventually sell.”

Growing beyond the threshold without hurting margins

For many business owners, the VAT threshold creates a point where even a small bump in turnover can suddenly change the picture. And, with 73% of UK businesses failing due to cash flow problems, it’s easy to see why many founders are afraid of growth.

However, there are several practices businesses can take to allow themselves to grow while protecting their margins. This includes value-based pricing (charging according to the value you provide, not just costs), upselling and cross-selling (encouraging customers to buy complementary products or premium versions), and focusing on products that make the most profit. 

Moreover, strong branding and building customer loyalty can help businesses maintain steady sales, charge fair prices – in turn making it easier for smaller firms to expand without getting tripped up by the VAT threshold.

Markou also advises that businesses reaching the threshold should carry out detailed financial modelling well in advance. They should also have a good understanding of how VAT registration will impact pricing, margins, and customer relationships.

“A carefully considered price adjustment, made ahead of the threshold, can absorb much of the impact without significant customer loss,” he adds.

“The goal should always be to build a business with scale, transferable value, and options. Crossing the VAT threshold is not the end of the margin; with the right planning, it can be the beginning of something considerably more valuable.”

Data collated to provide a Europe-wide picture of women in STEM indicates that fewer than 10% of startup founders applying for patents are women.

This doesn’t mean there aren’t success stories out there, of course – among them is Chloe So of PulpaTronics, whose business secured 14th place in this year’s Startups 100 Index. 

The venture rose from 48th place the previous year, as its revolutionary, metal-free paper RFID tags have gained traction. 

However, this latest report suggests that So is in the minority and that, unfortunately, women are simply not getting their names on patents.

Slow gains

The findings come from the EPO Observatory on Patents and Technology, and were drawn on information from 22 national patent offices as well as data from initiatives being developed at the national level in Europe to support women in STEM. 

It found that the share of women among inventors in Europe has increased only marginally in recent years. It reached 13.8% in 2022, up 0.8% from 2019. The UK Women Inventor Rate sits at 13.7%, which is just marginally below this European average. 

The report also disaggregated the data by sector and found that women’s participation varies across sectors. The highest proportion of women inventors was in pharmaceuticals (34.9%), followed by biotechnology (34.2%) and food chemistry at (32.3%). It’s clear from the data that life sciences is the arena where women inventors are pulling the most punches. 

However, this is in stark contrast to engineering ventures, where the levels were much lower. Among machine tools inventors, just 5.7% were women, while just 4.9% of mechanical elements patents were filed by women. 

The power of patents

Researchers found, however, that women are increasingly represented in inventor teams, increasing from 21.6% in 2019 to 24.1% in 2022. 

However, “they remain far less likely to be named as individual inventors or patenting startup founders,” says the team. The data reveal that women account for only 10.8% of founders in UK patenting startups, whereas approximately 14% of startup teams include at least one woman founder. When startups without patents are analysed, women account for 20.4% of founders. 

This indicates a significant underrepresentation of women among patent owners, and the EPO reports that “structural factors, such as sector specialisation, company maturity, and growth stages,” are having a profound impact. Crucially, it’s not that women aren’t engaged in entrepreneurship, but rather that there are barriers to them becoming the founders whose names are stamped on patents.  

Some UK regions are setting an example. Buckinghamshire ranked 8th among the 30 European regions analysed for its participation of women in inventorship. It received a Women Inventor Rate (WIR) of 17.9%, indicating that nearly one in five inventors named in European patent applications from the region are women. This was well above the UK and European average. 

Small businesses, big barriers

The EPO team found that universities and public research organisations have by far the highest proportion of women inventors (24.4%), while smaller businesses show the lowest participation rates.

The researchers also pointed to funding as a key crunch point. “Companies co-founded by women appear to face greater challenges in scaling,” the EPO says. “Women’s representation declines in later, more advanced funding rounds and for successfully acquired firms.”

The barriers women face when it comes to funding are well-documented. As we wrote a year ago, in the advanced tech and AI sectors, the average industry experience required to win VC funding among female founders is 18 years. In comparison, men typically require just nine years to achieve similar levels of success.

This is reflected across other sectors as well. Just last week, we reported on a large study conducted by Female Founders Rise, which found that 45% of female founders say funding access is the “primary obstacle” they face to getting their businesses off the ground. 

Diversity fuels innovation

The EPO researchers did find that newer startups have higher shares of women founders. This was more than 14% for younger ventures as compared to around 5.9% for companies over 20 years old.

This suggests that the ideas are present, but the funding process has become a “leaky pipeline” impeding their advancement. This will be magnified at the moment when innovation is reportedly being stymied for all founders due to an unsupportive ecosystem. 

EPO President António Campinos argues, however, that pushing hard to support women founders in submitting patent applications will have a significant, positive impact on the broader creative landscape. “There is an obvious gain for Europe in boosting women’s participation in innovation,” he said, adding: “Diversity is not a nice-to-have, it is fuel for breakthrough innovation”. 

However, what he calls the “persistent roadblocks in our path to progress” have been in place for so long that they seem difficult to circumvent. Without change, this leaves women inventors across Europe with ideas they cannot bring to market. 

During the pandemic, physical offices were largely declared redundant. But in recent years, return-to-office (RTO) mandates have started to cause the pendulum to swing the other way, London businesses can’t get enough offices.

As major employers such as Amazon, Lloyds, and Instagram ordered employees back to work, London companies have followed suit. According to property research from Knight Frank, rents in some of the most desirable locations are skyrocketing, while vacancies for high-quality space could see a major drop in the coming years.

As office spaces rise in demand, smaller businesses are sure to feel the knock-on effects. If the trend continues, maintaining a physical headquarters in the capital may no longer be realistic, or perhaps even necessary. 

Return-to-office policies are driving demand

The ‘WFH vs. RTO’ debate has been a hot topic in recent years. While working fully remote has its pluses, hybrid working has generally emerged as the standard model for many companies. 

That said, larger employers, especially across the tech and finance sectors, lean towards stricter RTO policies, preferring employees to maintain an on-site presence. This shift has reignited the demand for high-end office spaces across central London. 

Knight Frank’s data shows that on average, office rent in the West End has reached an eye-watering £185 per square foot, while spaces in the City go for £100 per square foot, figures which are out of the question for many smaller businesses and startups.

The cost of a London office is rising

Many employees will understandably not be pleased to return to the rush-hour commute, and in response, employers are sweetening the deal by providing premium office spaces that prioritise employee wellbeing with features like on-site gyms and showers.

The Standard reported on one such space, One Leadenhall, which has “a gym, a wellness suite and 17 terraces and green space”, recently leased for around £160 per square foot.

As demand for office spaces rockets, so has the cost to construct new spaces. Which means there’s a growing scarcity for spaces, and while major corporations may be able to afford to pay a premium to win a bidding war, smaller businesses may simply be priced out of the market. 

What this means for small businesses

While office spaces have fallen back into fashion, it doesn’t mean every business needs to pay for a permanent London HQ.

Working in the office as a team offers numerous benefits, but hybrid and flexible working models have also opened doors for companies to combine remote working with occasional in-person collaboration.

Smaller teams, especially, can benefit from opting to use coworking spaces in London instead. These provide desk spaces without the fixed commitment of a long-term lease, in addition to networking opportunities with other professionals.

Other ways to achieve in-person collaboration without a full-time fixed office space might look like:

• Splitting an office with another company, if you only want to use it for part of the week.
• Hosting team away days, or weekends, while working generally fully remotely to benefit from saving office costs, while getting inspiration from an occasional change of scenery.
• Rent a space solely for meetings, so you only pay when collaboration is really necessary.
• Setting up a regional hub outside of the capital, where rents are more accessible, if you want a more full-time physical base.

These approaches allow smaller businesses to collaborate in person while avoiding the soaring costs of full-time office space. For startups in particular, flexible workspace can actually better reflect how teams actually work today, with schedules and collaboration needs that ebb and flow rather than follow rigid office traditions.

There are plenty of tales of woe out there of the startups that shone then fizzled out; but a coder has now used AI to create a database of thousands of them. 

Where startups.rip differs from the annual roundups of which startups have floundered is that each venture has a detailed profile explaining why the startup failed. 

As creator Oscar Hong writes, “startups die”, but “ideas don’t” – and that’s what makes this such a goldmine of knowledge. For small businesses keen to learn from the mistakes of businesses in their sector have made before to entrepreneurs looking for inspiration for a new venture, it’s a unique and valuable resource well worth delving into.

What is startups.rip?

Oscar Hong introduced startups.rip this week, mentioning in a Reddit post that the idea came from analysing some of the biggest names in startup failures and noticing an interesting pattern. 

“Sam Altman’s first startup, Loopt, was a location-sharing app that shut down in 2012. Five years later, Snap Maps launched the same idea to 300M+ users” Hong wrote on the 

He then points to Posterous, which floundered but was followed by Substack years later, built around the same core idea but hugely successful. Parse and Supabase are a similar pairing, he says, and the latter raised at $5B valuation.

“We kept finding this pattern — startups that failed not because the idea was bad, but because the timing, market, or tech wasn’t ready yet,” he adds.

So, he set about building startups.RIP as a directory using AI, including the Claude Agent SDK as the Deep Research agent. Despite only being put live recently, it’s already causing quite the stir on both LinkedIn and X.

Why is it useful?

What the directory isn’t is just a list of all of the things not to do when starting a venture. Instead, each profile is highly detailed. 

To pick one example, we can look at the information on the Australian peer-to-peer fashion marketplace, 99dresses, which caused a stir in 2010 as a disruptor in the fashion industry. It also attracted headlines as the founder, Nikki Durkin, was just 18 years old at the point of launch. There has been plenty of analysis as to why the business failed, including posts by Durkin herself. The idea was always good; it was the execution that saw it falter. 

The company’s startup.rip profile includes a timeline of the venture, its market position, and a detailed “post mortem.” It delves into everything from the issues Durkin faced trying to get a US visa to expand there to the 18-month execution gap between its “peak external validation” and the production of a functional mobile product. Some of the analysis has come from Durkin herself, so this adds weight to its worth. 

However, alongside the “lessons to be learnt”, the profile also features a “build plan” for a 2026 reimagining of 99 dresses. This includes analysis of the current markets, what the core features of the offering should be and a contemporary “go-to market” strategy. 

There is also an option to buy a “complete implementation blueprint” for $5, though there doesn’t seem to be any feedback from founders as yet on this. A chance to ask an AI agent is also teased at the bottom of the page, but currently says startups.rip needs to provision more API tokens for it to work. 

Who can learn from startups.rip?

Founders can search the directory for different sectors, so perusing similar companies to your own could prove to be a useful thing to do during the initial stages of founding a venture.

But it has a wider appeal for people who are still firmly in the ideas stage. In fact, Hong suggests that the directory could always be a way of leapfrogging forward. 

“For many startup ideas, another founder already validated there was demand, they just couldn’t execute, ran out of money, or were too early to the market,” the creator says on Reddit. “If you’re looking for what to build, start with what already almost worked.”

The boss of a chain that owns 1,365 community pubs in the UK has added to the voices calling for an overhaul of the business rates system. 

Chris Jowsey, chief executive of Admiral Taverns, is the latest figure in the hospitality industry to demand reform, cautioning that closures will blight our high streets if warnings aren’t heeded. 

Jowsey is ringing the same alarm bells that the likes of the Co-op were towards the tail end of last year. The consumer cooperative said that the UK could see 60,000 small shops and 150,000 jobs disappear if radical change doesn’t happen and fast.

Twenty years of failed promises

In an interview with City AM, Jowsey acknowledged that the current situation has been a result of what he damned as decades of inactivity. He said: “Every party over the last 20 years has promised to reform business rates, and none of them have done it.”

He implored the current Government to act, stating: “This government has said they are going to do it over the next couple of years, but they need to deliver on that promise. If they continue to tax business rates in the way that they do then they won’t just kill off pubs, they’ll kill off the high street as well.”

The call comes after years of false hope that dramatic business rate reforms could buoy the ailing high street, especially when it came to hospitality ventures. They have been hit hard in recent years with spiralling bills and lower footfall spurred on by the cost of living crisis. 

They have also shouldered increased administrative and labour costs as a result of the NICS hike and are about to be burdened with more when national minimum wage changes come into effect in April 2026. 

This has been reflected in job losses and tanking confidence as businesses tighten their belts and hope to ride out the storm. Jowsey’s comments, however, suggest that many might not. 

Not enough support

The Autumn Budget delivered consternation among hospitality business owners. While some retail and hospitality businesses benefitted from a lower multiplier, many saw their rateable values increase, which means they won’t qualify for the lower rates.

Data from UK Hospitality suggested that even with a reduced multiplier and transitional relief, the average UK pub’s business rates will still rise by around 15% this year.

This resulted in an immediate backlash, including a wave of pubs actually banning Labour MPs from their premises. By December, more than 250 pubs, restaurants, and hotels had already joined the movement.

“Drop in the ocean”

In January, there was some good news with the announcement of a support package for pubs. The Treasury announced that “pubs will get a 15% cut to new business rates bills from April, followed by a two-year real-terms freeze, as well as a review into the method used to value them for business rates.” 

While welcomed, the move left other hospitality businesses without relief. Kate Nicholls, Chair of UKHospitality, commented that “the rising cost of doing business and business rates increases is a hospitality-wide problem that needs a hospitality-wide solution”. 

Michael Kill, Chief Executive of the Night Time Industries Association, went further, telling The Guardian that the support package offered by the government is “little more than a drop in the ocean when set against the reality of the current tax system and the cumulative damage inflicted by the last two budgets.”

More recently, Labour MPs have called for a pause on business rate hikes for music venues, so there may be more support up ahead.

Few believe these will do more than scratch the surface, however. Jowsey argues that even before the current Labour government, high street businesses were being stung by a business rates model that was not fit for purpose. 

His dire prediction is that if there is a wholesale rethinking, no number of reforms will solve the issue and hospitality businesses won’t be the only ones closing their doors for the last time. 

Discover the ales and ails of hospitality

Planet of the Grapes founder Matt Harris has over 25 years of experience in hospitality. Read his bi-monthly column for Startups now.

Read Whining and Dining

Recent data shows that more than half of UK businesses (55%) anticipate staffing costs to rise in the coming months. The findings highlight the growing pressure facing employers as the April increase to the National Living Wage approaches.

The latest Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that businesses with 10 or more employees expect their staffing costs to climb over the next three months, with 41% saying they had already risen over the last three months. 

For many businesses that rely heavily on lower-paid staff, such as hospitality, the impact of the increase is likely to result in higher prices, operational changes or perhaps efforts to improve productivity with automation.

Staffing costs are rising

As of February 2026, 41% of businesses with at least 10 employees said their staffing costs had already increased over the past three months. That figure marks a 6% increase compared with November 2025 and is 5% higher than a year earlier.

Staffing costs include everything from direct wages and bonuses to more indirect costs like employer National Insurance and pension contributions, meaning increases can come from several sources at once.

From April, the main National Insurance rate paid by employers will increase from 13.8% to 15%, and the wage threshold at which they start paying is set to drop to £5,000. 

Simultaneously, the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over will rise to £12.71 per hour, which is a 50p (4.1%) increase. To put it in perspective, this means an employee will be paid £20 more per week before tax, if working a full-time 40-hour week.

The National Minimum Wage, for those aged 18-20, will also increase to £10.85 per hour, while apprentices and those aged 16-17 will be paid £8.00 per hour.

Hospitality among the sectors under the strongest pressure

Recent data showed that over half of hospitality businesses pay staff less than the Real Living Wage. Since the sector often relies heavily on hiring a high volume of younger, less experienced staff working on or near the minimum wage, increases to the legal rate will be felt strongly in this sector. 

There are also knock-on effects of wage increases, including salary compression, where employers are expected to not only raise the wages of those on the minimum wage, but also those of supervisors and managers, to keep wages proportionate.  

In addition, higher statutory wages will also result in higher hiring agency fees, which will impact restaurants, cafés and bars relying on flexible agency workers. 

Despite the pressure the increased costs will inevitably bring, employers must remain compliant, as reforms to the Employment Rights Bill will also introduce higher enforcement costs for employers as of April via the creation of a new Fair Work Agency (FWA).

What small businesses should do now

One way in which businesses may respond to the looming increase in staffing costs is to look for ways in which they can be more productive to save money. This might include reviewing staff scheduling to cover busier periods, and having fewer staff when it’s quieter. It may also be a great opportunity to look into potential tasks that can be automated, to save your team’s efforts on time-consuming, repetitive tasks.

Realistically, price increases may become necessary to offset wage increases. It helps to simultaneously make tangible improvements to help justify the increases for customers. They don’t have to be costly; instead, think about better service, loyalty perks, or small upgrades to the overall experience. 

It also always helps to transparently communicate with customers on the realities facing your business, rather than to try to hide price increases with tactics like “shrinkflation” or using lower-quality ingredients. 

On the brighter side, there are tangible benefits to paying staff a higher rate, such as attracting top talent and maintaining a higher sense of morale and engagement, which can translate into better service, productivity, boosted talent retention, and fewer absences. Over time, this can partly balance the cost of the upfront wage increase.

As the Trump tariffs rollercoaster continues to hurtle on with no sign of abatement, business owners, especially those who are reliant on US customers, are understandably jittery. 

As we covered earlier this year, the tariff saga is negatively impacting one in five UK SMEs. With no indication of when this turbulence will end, it’s only natural that business owners will start investigating other potential markets – and Japan should be top of their list.

A blossoming trade relationship?

In February 2026, the UK Government announced it had signed a science and technology deal with Japan to facilitate collaboration between ventures in the two countries. The statement on the deal, which focused on life sciences, quantum technology and digital infrastructure, came right after PM Sir Keir Starmer visited Japan. 

Science minister, Lord Vallance, said that the deal would be a boost to both countries’ economies and could help create more jobs. 

Other important free-trade legislation that has been signed between the two nations over the past five years includes the 2021 Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) which means there are no tariffs on the majority of products, and the 2024 Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which was designed to reduce trade friction between the UK, Japan and several other major global economies.

The two nations have also worked to cut down on red tape in other areas, with goods not requiring a statement of origin if they are entering Japan from the UK and below 200,000 yen (just under £1000) in value or entering the UK from Japan and below £1000 in value. 

Investment is a one-sided tale… so far

Japan is the world’s fourth-largest economy and is pushing hard for more foreign investment. The UK is firmly in its line of vision. 

The Department for Business and Trade writes that the investment each country has been making in the other is growing each year, but that “UK investment into Japan is only around 3% that of Japan into the UK.”

In October, Business Matters reported that “Japanese investors have poured almost £118 million into Greater Manchester over the past year…led by companies such as Astemo, Daikin and Mizkan, which have expanded their presence or established new operations in the area.” It adds that the region now hosts more than 25 Japanese firms. 

There is now a push for UK ventures to do the same. The two nations have just set up an initiative called “Expand in Japan”, for instance, to drive growth and to make it easier for businesses to open trade links – or even premises – in Japan. 

Although aimed at specific sectors – clean energy, life sciences and digital technology – and largely a push for investment, the deal reflects a wider desire to strengthen trade links. 

Other initiatives launched by the Japanese government in recent years include the Tokyo Innovation Base, designed to attract international founders with its networking and on-site consultation opportunities.

Japan wants founders and innovators

Perhaps more so than at any point in modern history, Japan is trying to attract talent with international events and by pumping resources into accelerator programmes headed up by world-renowned Japanese corporations. 

Sifted.eu wrote just last week about the burgeoning number of British and European startups attending SusHi Tech Tokyo, which it says is now billed as Asia’s largest innovation conference. International collaborations, it seems, are a key tool in the country’s goal to create 20 unicorns by 2035.

However, Japan also has stringent rules for its business manager visas, including a six-fold increase in minimum capital to 30 million yen ($204,000), which came into effect last August. 

Another crucial stipulation is that at least one person from the venture must be in full-time employment in the country, and you must have physical office space. 

It’s worth noting, however, that founders can apply for a startup visa before this and have between six months and two years before they have to apply for and meet the business manager visa requirements.

A golden opportunity?

For business owners who don’t want to move to Japan or set up an office there, but do want to tap into this huge market, the Government has published an online guide specifically for SMEs. 

For those able, time in one of the country’s startup hubs could be the key to testing the waters – and meeting potential Japanese partners who could facilitate access. 

For all businesses, it might be worth starting to delve into what Japan could offer, conduct risk assessments as to what the pitfalls might be, and take advantage of what is a strong headwind from the Government to boost trade between the two island nations.

Spring is the season of new beginnings and that includes new social media marketing content to refresh your strategies and improve engagement with your target audience.

This month brings us a mix of fun and playful trends – mainly ones that feature behind-the-scenes content – helping your brand to capture attention and connect with your audience in a more authentic way. 

Whatever you want to get from your social media, we’ve been on the lookout and have gathered six popular trends that your small business can jump into this March.

John Lewis has launched AI-powered shopping features and kicked off a 90-day trial run on TikTok Shop. The moves are part of a larger push from the retailer to become one of the first in the UK to truly embrace digital-first shopping, including AI and social commerce. 

Shoppers will be able to browse and purchase John Lewis’ range on AI platforms like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, where customers are increasingly discovering new products. 

Meanwhile, TikTok shoppers will be able to complete purchases directly from John Lewis without leaving the app.

John Lewis is the latest UK household name embracing new technology, signalling a shift in how shopping is increasingly happening outside of traditional online and offline stores. Small and medium-sized enterprises should be prepared to adapt accordingly.

AI and social media are dominating product discovery

John Lewis is meeting its customer base where they actually are, and increasingly, they’re asking for advice from AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini.

With its latest expansion, products will appear when customers search for ideas or ask for recommendations from AI. Eventually, “must-have items” could become shoppable through those apps too.

It’s a response to the rapidly evolving ways in which customers shop. Instead of looking directly at a retailer’s website, customers are now discovering products through third-party channels such as AI tools and social media. 

This means that a strong website alone may soon fall short of catching shoppers’ attention; retailers now need to solidify a presence where discovery actually happens. 

Social commerce becomes part of the mix

As of today (March 9), John Lewis’ product range is also available for purchase on TikTok Shop. 

The 90-day pilot is focused on curated beauty and gifting products ahead of Mother’s Day, including its popular beauty box and big-name brands such as Jo Malone, Augustinus Bader, and Estée Lauder.

Social commerce has been soaring in popularity, as TikTok and Instagram become primary channels for users discovering new products while scrolling, also driven partly by the rise of influencer marketing. But while yesterday’s social media users may have simply discovered a product on social media, today’s shoppers also want to instantly buy the content they see on screen. 

John Lewis has also announced that it will explore branching out into on-demand shopping with delivery platforms such as UberEats later this month, responding to a growing consumer desire for immediacy.

What this means for small retailers

When a mainstream, heritage retailer like John Lewis adopts new technology, it often signals where customer expectations are heading. 

If shoppers become used to discovering products and completing purchases directly within apps, sometimes with near-instant delivery, that experience can quickly become the benchmark. For smaller ecommerce stores, that means omnichannel expansion is likely to move from a nice-to-have to a basic standard.

If you haven’t broken into omnichannel retail yet, you don’t have to do it all at once. But here are some helpful pointers. 

The first major way in which new technology will change how we shop relates to product discovery. Customers may find products through AI assistants, social media or marketplaces before ever visiting a brand’s website. Ensuring you’re present on the platforms where your audience is spending its time is therefore crucial. 

The next step is exploring frictionless checkout options. This might mean making it possible for shoppers to click ‘buy’ from Instagram or TikTok Shop. As the easier it is to buy in just a few clicks, the less likely shoppers are to abandon the purchase. 

And lastly, this shift also connects closely with the rise of ‘agentic commerce’, where AI shopping bots help shoppers compare products and make decisions on their behalf. 

With this in mind, product data will become as important as tasteful copywriting and design, as AI search increasingly recommends products that also have clear descriptions, specifications and structured data.

It has been a story of epic highs and headline-grabbing lows, but the administrators of BrewDog, the Aberdeen-based brewery known for their Punk IPA, have now announced that the business has been sold.

The news follows consultants being brought in last month after years of no profits, and the axe has fallen fast. US beverage and medical cannabis company Tilray is the new owner of the company’s UK brewing operations, brand and 11 pubs. However, the £33m deal will still see 484 jobs culled and 38 bars closed.

The rise and fall of this once viral brand is a cautionary tale to all businesses, but especially those in the beleaguered hospitality industry. While the pandemic and tough economic conditions definitely played a role in the business’s downfall, SMEs should take notice of the myriad of missteps that ultimately diluted the brand’s ‘punk’ persona, which it had previously leveraged to great effect.

When things go flat

The announcement by BrewDog’s administrators, AlixPartners, will come as little surprise to many. Only in July, the brewer revealed it was shutting down 10 sites, including its flagship location in Aberdeen. 

Just months later, in August, The Telegraph reported that over the past two years, 1,860 pubs had turned the taps off on the company’s range of draught beers. This amounted to a crippling 52.3% reduction in distribution.

Lauren Caroll, BrewDog’s chief operating officer, said that the decline reflected wider industry issues. She stated: “Independent brewers across the board have felt the squeeze from the economic pressures hitting the pub trade. With costs rising and consumers watching their spend, pub groups have been narrowing their ranges, and brewery-owned pubs are putting more emphasis on their own brands.”

While Brewdog’s financial woes were key to its downfall, it’s impossible to ignore years of bad headlines and missteps that tarnished the reputation the company had developed, over many years, for doing things differently. 

Often, there’s only one thing that irks people more than companies engaging in poor ethical and business practices – and that’s companies that talk the talk but refuse to walk the walk. 

Scandals, mistakes and not being very ‘punk’

When James Watt founded the venture in 2007 with his friend, Martin Dickie, it quickly became what BBC News calls “the rebellious challenger to a UK brewing industry it regarded as stuffy and corporate”. 

While the company initially seemed to live up to its mission statement – externally, at least – in recent years, that image has collapsed. In late 2020, for instance, the brewer launched a competition promising that there were solid gold cans hidden in packs of beer, as well as £15,000 in BrewDog shares. 

Watt quickly came under fire after it was discovered that the cans were simply gold-plated and, as Marketing Week reported, “largely made of brass”. The claim caught the attention of the Advertising Standards Agency, which rapped the brewer’s knuckles and prompted him to fork out around £500,000 of his own money to pay back winners.

Around the same time, a 2021 letter penned by a group of employees, Punks With Purpose, alleged that a “toxic culture” and “cult of personality” had developed at the company. 

It also referenced the misalignment between the company’s stated desire to “save the planet” and the use of private aircraft, as well as several other actions the group viewed as antithetical to the company’s purported values.

Then, the BBC reported in January 2022 that numerous staff members at the company had accused co-founder James Watt of “inappropriate behaviour and abuse of power”. This eventually led to his departure as CEO.

Later in the year, it was revealed that Watt had bought shares in drinks giant Heineken in 2017, which he claimed was a “goodwill gesture” to facilitate a distribution agreement. It was viewed by many, however, as another example of the company’s top brass working against its stated ethos.

More recently, there was severe backlash when Watt was accused of refusing to pay his staff the Real Living Wage (RLW). Watt refuted claims that employees would face a pay cut but stated that the company could not afford to put the RLW into place. 

While this furore was good for news writers, it did win some sympathy for Watt among those in the hospitality industry, within which many businesses are unable to meet employee wage expectations. Despite the understandable financial pressures, it did not play out well in the wider public arena. 

The brewery’s unsuccessful attempts to stay relevant, coupled with these scandals and missteps, saw the brand slip further and further from its ‘punk’ beginnings, and towards that corporate, stuffy vibe it initially claimed to despise – and clearly, the public took notice.

A brutal announcement

The fallout from the sale of the business has seen the unions strike out at the management team, further compounding the company’s reputation. Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary, said that BrewDog has treated its workers as “disposable pawns.”

According to the BBC, Brewdog employees were given just 25 minutes’ notice of the 15-minute call to announce that their roles were being cut. There was no opportunity for comment on the call, and cameras were off. While the job losses were inevitable after so many years of financial turmoil, the handling seems unnecessarily brutal. 

Leon went through a similarly harsh cull after the business was bought by Asda’s management team, floundered and has now been bought back by co-founder, John Vincent. 

While he was upfront about the job losses ahead – the closure of 20 locations – he and his management team also reached out to rival Pret A Manger, to try and place as many of their people as possible in new roles. 

The move showed how valued the staff were – but it also ensured that the brand managed an inevitably negative situation with the sort of grace and care its customers would expect it to. Tasked with breaking the same tough news, it feels like Brewdog has failed once again.

What SMEs can learn from this

Of course, every company can go through financial difficulties. They can fall victim to macro-economic conditions that make trading increasingly difficult, or simply make poor business decisions that ultimately lead to closure. In this way, Brewdog certainly suffered.

But crucially, the way Brewdog compromised on its stated values, in a variety of ways, was completely avoidable.

The stories about the company’s toxic workplace culture and desperate marketing ploys would probably have made the headlines anyway, but there’s an element of obvious hypocrisy running through them that arguably made reputational recovery much more difficult. 

The learnings for SMEs are simple: customer loyalty is increasingly tied to the values exalted by brands – and ultimately, is both brittle and conditional. Your values simply have to run through your company culture, your marketing campaigns, and your business goals. Or else, it becomes pretty hard to shout about them. 

To put it another way, if your core marketing message is ‘I’m not like the other brands’, and then you behave exactly like them, your pitch to your target market is going to appear spectacularly hollow.

More than 9 in 10 women say they would be more likely to stay with their current employer if their midlife health needs were recognised and met, according to a new survey from AI CV-building platform LiveCareer.

The findings, which were gathered in the US, come at a time when there is rising evidence from this side of the Atlantic too that women feel that their health needs are not supported by their employers. 

As we reported in April, women are 63% more likely to feel unsupported at work for health issues than men. They are also more hesitant to ask for sick leave as they are nervous it will impact their career, and are less likely to have private medical insurance as a perk. 

With employees continuing to put their well-being high on their list of wants, this latest report is another call for business owners to think about how their female employees are supported throughout their career, but especially if they suffer during perimenopause.

The menopause is usually managed around work

LiveCareer’s survey of 898 working women found that the overwhelming majority (91%) would stay at a company that properly attends to their midlife health needs – something that women typically address on their own, and without support from within the workplace.

For instance, 58% revealed that they’ve sought therapy or mental health support, while the same percentage reported that they’ve turned to exercise or nutrition changes.

On the other hand, just over half (52%) of the women surveyed said they sought hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or other medication, while 40% take supplements or experiment with alternative medicine. 

By contrast, just under a third (29%) of women going through the menopause turn to their workplace for help and request adjustments to their work hours.

According to the British Menopause Society, 80-90% of women experience some menopausal symptoms, and a third of women could experience symptoms for more than seven years. So understanding and accommodating this is absolutely crucial.

How workplaces can help women

LiveCareer’s survey also reveals the kind of workplace adjustments and policies that make women feel supported.

Flexible schedules top the list, garnering 58% of the responses. This reflects a broader desire for a positive work-life balance, shared by workers regardless of gender, but it’s especially helpful for women managing midlife health issues.

Next on the list was paid leave or mental health days, with 56% of responses, again emphasising how important it is for female workers to feel that their symptoms are recognised. 

Understanding is sorely needed

Along with actual, tangible adjustments, education and understanding are crucial, too. In the survey, manager training on menopause was listed as a priority by 37%. 

This isn’t surprising when you consider that nearly one in four (23%) reported that they feel menopause is still misunderstood and insufficiently addressed in the workplace.

More than half of respondents, at 54%, stated that they would like more women in leadership roles, perhaps hoping that this would bring with it more understanding of their plight and potentially more hope of positive changes to wellbeing policies. 

The flipside of this is that 68% of women say that gender and age affect how seriously their health concerns are taken, and the desire for more women in positions of influence could change this. 

An opportunity for businesses

For businesses able to act agilely on this, boosting their menopause awareness and putting strategies in place for their female staff could mean keeping them for longer. 

With such a large majority of those surveyed stating that this is important to them, it is a clear call to action.  

Karolina Löfqvist is the founder of Hormona and is the Startups 100 Exceptional Founder 2026. She knows only too well the impact that hormone health can have on wellbeing and is also acutely aware of how underestimated this impact can be. 

She shares: “Peri-menopause is not a niche issue; it’s a workplace reality. Many women in their 40s and 50s are at the peak of their careers, often in leadership roles, and yet they are navigating symptoms like brain fog, anxiety, disrupted sleep and heavy periods without structured support.”

Tools like Hormona can give women the insight they need to get help, but businesses of all sizes must support them alongside this. As Löfqvist states: “For SMEs, providing access to tools like Hormona alongside manager education and flexible policies creates meaningful, practical support without requiring large corporate budgets.”

She adds: “We are seeing a growing number of business owners recognising that supporting perimenopause is not simply a wellbeing gesture, it is a strategic investment in retaining experienced women at the peak of their careers.”

One of the most comprehensive surveys of female entrepreneurial voices has revealed that funding access is a “primary obstacle” for women seeking to grow their businesses.

The research – called the Rise Report – was carried out by Female Founders Rise, which is a B Corp community of 11,000 women from across the country. It asked them 19 questions and has delivered what the organisation’s founder, Emmie Faust, says is “coalface data”.

It reveals that, despite progress – to which the female founders among our Startups 100 winners are testament – much more needs to be done to help more turn ideas into sustainable businesses.

For women, securing funding is fraught with difficulty

When the team behind the Rise Report delved into the particulars of female founders’ funding bids, they shared overwhelmingly negative experiences. 78% of the 2,000 women surveyed said that their bidding experience had been problematic, using terms like opaque, bureaucratic and time-consuming.

A similarly high percentage of respondents (73%) described the process of fighting for private finance as negative. 

They said that their interactions with VCs and angels had been fraught with bias, experiences of ghosting and often showed “misalignment with caregiving realities”. 

In total, 45% of Rise’s survey respondents identified capital access as the primary barrier to getting their business off the ground.

In recent times, there have been calls for a rehaul of the funding system for all founders. There is growing political will for banks to be held accountable for how they are supporting SMEs, for example. However, the Rise report suggests there is a significant, gender-based conversation worth having about funding acquisition, too.

According to the British Business Bank, only 2% of venture capital funding goes to fully-female-founded businesses. 

Considering the barriers to funding in play, it is perhaps unsurprising that period tracking app Flo Health – the first women’s health app to achieve unicorn status – was founded, led and funded by men. 

That doesn’t mean there haven’t been meteoric successes in women’s health by female-led ventures – the Startups 100’s 2026 Exceptional Founder, Karolina Löfqvist of Hormona, is among them. 

But that small percentage of VC funding won’t go far enough for the nation’s female entrepreneurs, who are currently founding around one-fifth of all new companies every year.

The power of community

With a tough funding landscape to negotiate, the Rise report revealed that 39% of founders are turning to peer and founder networks to help them through. This was named as the most helpful tool in their journey with family and close personal support, a way behind at 13%.

Mentorship and coaching also got a large tick, with 32% of respondents saying that it has helped them as they try to grow their venture.

As is reflected in the wider founder community, organisations – whether financial or governmental – play a less significant role in this process. Financial support and investment accrued was selected by just 11% of respondents, accelerators and incubators by just 8%. 

With 78% of respondents citing connection as central to their journey and one in seven reporting loneliness and isolation as their biggest challenge, it seems the female founders are actively looking to people who will understand their challenges. 

As the survey revealed, 20% want more mentorship and coaching, and 22% put networking and community building at the top of their wish list. 

A call to move faster

Faust says that the research should drive change. She acknowledges that “…some structural issues will continue to take time to evolve”, but she – and the other founders quoted in the report – say there needs to be acceleration.

“From strengthening peer networks and mentorship, to improving access to expertise and simplifying pathways to funding, there are real opportunities for the ecosystem to move faster together,” she writes.

This is far from the first report to put forward a plan for driving female entrepreneurship. The Rise team nods to the Government’s Women and Equalities Committee (WEC), which submitted a report in October 2025. It said that the present landscape has resulted in £310 billion of unrealised economic growth for the UK economy. 

It recommended a rehaul of the access to finance, networks and support for female entrepreneurs, but also a hard look into the caregiving and maternity systems that are preventing women from being able to innovate. 

This latest report adds to the voices calling for change and pointing to the untapped potential. 

As Faust writes: “It reflects a community that is already driving innovation and economic growth, and it shows what becomes possible when that energy is fully supported.”

For entrepreneurs considering taking the plunge and launching their own venture, new research has revealed the UK’s fastest-growing businesses.

With sole proprietorships now accounting for 56% of all UK businesses, this new data suggests that there is huge demand for certain services – and reformer pilates tops the list.

However, the list also includes cleaning services, leatherwork and cake making, suggesting that, as the researchers state, it is “hands-on, service-led and passion-based businesses” that are winning customers.

Pilates tops the charts as self-employment booms

The data, shared by HR News this week, was compiled from Protectivity’s business insurance application data between 2024 and 2025, and sheds light on the most common types of businesses being founded across the country.

Professional, scientific and technical services remain the largest industry group, representing 15.3% of all registered UK businesses. However, when it comes to year-on-year growth, it’s actually reformer Pilates that has seen the most dramatic rise – a staggering 948% increase.

Next up, it’s artists selling paintings, prints and drawings, a profession that grew 238% between 2024 and 2025. Cake baking, leatherwork and crafting also made the top ten, as did general cleaning and upholstery/carpet cleaning businesses.

Lifestyle offerings surge across the board

While they haven’t seen the gargantuan growth that reformer pilates has, the list also included several other health and fitness offerings.

Martial arts saw a 167% growth, while kickboxing wasn’t far behind at 159%, and boxercise followed with a 135% year-on-year uptick.

According to a UK Active report published last year, the UK health and fitness market saw revenue pass £5.7bn in 2024, which was up 8.8% from 2023. While it focused on gym memberships, it reflects an increased interest in fitness and a willingness, especially amongst young adults, to pay for it.

Protectivity says its own data shows that there is “…a growing consumer preference for personalised, low-impact wellness solutions that cater to both physical health and mental wellbeing.”

Being one’s own boss has a multi-layered appeal

Protectivity’s survey also delved into entrepreneurs’ motivations and revealed that for both men (66%) and women (62%), the primary appeal is the desire to be their own boss, “with control over hours, projects and clients”.

Flexibility was also a key attraction for both genders, but significantly more so for women (63%) than men (41%).

Chris Trotman, Underwriting Manager at Protectivity, said: “The rise of these categories highlights a shift in the workforce towards more independent, self-directed careers. Many new entrepreneurs are motivated not only by income potential but also by lifestyle considerations, such as balancing work with family commitments or pursuing a passion, reflecting a broader cultural shift towards entrepreneurial autonomy in the UK.”

Of course, developing your own, original business idea is far from plain sailing, and this report doesn’t delve deeply into the challenges that self-employed people often face getting their projects off the ground.

But the data suggests that for the majority, being in control of your own timetable – and the subsequent freedom it offers to attend to out-of-work commitments – is well worth the trade-off.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched an investigation into Hilton, IHG Hotels & Resorts, and Marriott International, along with analytics provider CoStar, over the suspected sharing of competitively sensitive information, according to a government press release.

The investigation is looking at whether the hotel groups used a data tool called STR to exchange information in a way that could reduce competition. At this stage, the CMA has not concluded that any laws have been broken. But the investigation could indicate increasing attention on algorithmic pricing and data-sharing practices from regulators.

It’s a reminder for independent hotels, guesthouses, and small hospitality operators that while dynamic pricing is allowed, it must be transparent, compliant, and justifiable in terms of your own commercial reasons.

What is the CMA concerned about?

It’s relatively standard practice for hospitality businesses to use software to adjust room rates in real time. These systems alter prices in response to demand, seasonality and competitor pricing to ensure beds aren’t left empty.

Used properly, this technology can benefit consumers by offering more responsive pricing and clearer availability, even helping hotel guests score a deal during low-demand periods. But competition law draws a line when rivals share sensitive information that reduces uncertainty about each other’s pricing decisions, weakening competition.

For example, say Hotel A sees that Beyoncé is performing in London the same weekend as an FA Cup Final and, through a shared pricing tool, raises its room rates from £120 to £180 based on expected demand.

Hotel B, using the same system, can see that Hotel A has increased its rate and follows suit, not because its own bookings or internal costs justify it, but because the data suggests competitors are moving up. Hotel C then does the same, meaning there’s a blanket rise in prices across the city.

The CMA has also made clear under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA) that dynamic pricing must remain transparent. The total price shown to customers must include all unavoidable fees from the outset. “Drip pricing”, where fees appear later in the booking journey, is generally considered unlawful.

Why this also matters for small hospitality businesses

Most smaller hospitality businesses don’t share data at scale with competitors in the same way hotel giants do. But many do rely on third-party pricing software that benchmarks against the local market.

That introduces two practical risks relating to compliance and reputation.

First, if your system automatically adjusts prices purely in response to competitors’ movements, you may struggle to explain your price increases if you’re challenged by regulators.

Second, budget-conscious customers are sensitive to surge pricing and opaque charges. If room rates rise sharply without a clear reason, and mysterious extra fees appear late in the booking process, it will affect customer trust. They might even abandon the booking altogether and look elsewhere.

It’s not to say that you can’t alter prices at all. But dynamic pricing should reflect your own business realities, such as staffing costs, energy bills, food inflation, occupancy rates and seasonal demand, not just to compete with what the hotel down the road is charging.

What small hospitality businesses should do now

If you’re using pricing software, you should double-check exactly how it works. Does it rely heavily on competitor benchmarking? Do you have documented oversight?

In the case of price increases, be sure you can justify them in commercial terms, citing wages, energy costs, and peak demand, instead of just saying “the algorithm changed it”.

Lastly, check that your prices are adequately transparent. Making sure that your advertised prices include all the additional charges will keep you in the good books with both your future guests and the CMA.

In 2026, agentic commerce will become as significant to ecommerce as SEO was in the 2010s. And that means that some of your customers may not browse your homepage, admire your photography, or be curious about your origin story.

Instead, they’ll query your API, scan your structured data and compare your delivery terms against a competitor.

Agentic commerce is when AI agents discover, compare, and buy products on behalf of ‘real’ shoppers. Research indicates that more than half of us are already using generative AI suggestions to help us shop, but it seems as though the buying experience is about to become even more automated.

Why AI buyers skip “fluff”

While regular human shoppers may tolerate slightly ambiguous sales copy, skimming paragraphs for dimensions or clicking around until they find the shipping information they’re looking for, AI shopping agents do not have the same patience.

AI shoppers work best with clarity, certainty and comparability. If your product page buries key details in long-form copy or omits structured data such as GTINs (Global Trade Item Numbers), clear specifications or defined shipping rules, an AI agent may skip over your products.

This shift is reminiscent of what happened with SEO in the early 2010s. Businesses that structured their data properly became discoverable. Those that relied purely on brand storytelling or prioritised flowery language over data lost rankings and visibility.

Due to the fickle nature of search engine results pages, many ecommerce shops have thrown out strict SEO principles. But “agent legibility” or GEO is becoming an increasingly important requirement for driving traffic and staying competitive.

Structured data is becoming a competitive advantage

Large retailers already prioritise keeping product feeds clean, sticking to standardised specifications, and maintaining API accessibility.

But smaller ecommerce brands often focus more on nailing a unique aesthetic and authentic tone of voice. While this still matters for human buyers, it may not be enough for agentic shoppers.

AI agents comparing two similar products will likely choose the one that has:

• Clear dimensions, materials and technical specifications
• Transparent delivery fees and timeframes
• Defined returns eligibility and windows
• Standard identifiers such as GTINs
• Consistent pricing across channels

If one online store clearly presents that information in structured tables and machine-readable formats, and another hides it in marketing copy, the former will come out on top.

What should SMEs do now?

Working towards becoming ‘agent legible’ doesn’t require you to rebuild your online store from the ground up, but it might help to perform an AI readability audit.

We’d recommend starting with your top ten SKUs and checking the following:

• Are technical specifications listed clearly in table format?
• Are dimensions, materials and compatibility details explicit?
• Is your shipping policy clearly defined with timeframes and costs?
• Are returns terms unambiguous and easy to extract?
• Are GTINs and product identifiers correctly embedded?

As AI agents increasingly handle repeat purchases and product comparisons, being machine-readable will become a baseline requirement for online stores.

But this doesn’t mean you should throw out emotive brand storytelling, tone of voice or eye-catching design entirely, of course — human shoppers will still be swayed by brands that also offer that particular look and feel.

Recent statistics showed that just over half (53.1%) of UK hospitality jobs pay below the Real Living Wage (RLW) of £13.45 per hour. 

Low pay is an uncomfortable reality for the hospitality industry, fuelled by years of financial strain as the sector continues to face rising costs, uncertainty around business rates and wavering consumer spending habits. Employees naturally feel the effects of low pay immediately, but it also has wider business risks, including higher staff turnover, reputational damage and difficulty attracting top talent. 

A growing cohort of more than 500 hospitality businesses operating in the UK already pay the Real Living Wage. Is it time that the rest of the industry follows suit?

 What does the data actually show?

The Living Wage Foundation analysed data from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) and found that 53.1% of hospitality employees are paid below the Real Living Wage, the highest rate in any UK sector for the 14th consecutive year.

In total, just under a fifth of the 4.4 million low-paid jobs in the UK are in the hospitality industry.

While there’s only a £1.24 difference between Minimum and Real Living Wage at present, this starts to add up quickly. 

According to The Caterer, a full-time worker on the Real Living Wage could earn £2,400 more a year than someone on the National Living Wage minimum. In London, where the living wage is set at £14.80 per hour to cover the higher costs associated with living in the capital, they say the difference works out to over £5,000 more.

Katherine Chapman, Director of the Living Wage Foundation, told the publication that the figures highlight the struggle for lower-paid hospitality workers.

“Today’s findings show that one in two hospitality workers are paid less than the Real Living Wage, the highest rate of any UK sector.

“Over three quarters of a million hospitality staff, as well as millions more across the UK, are still struggling to live with dignity as their pay is too low to cover basic living costs.”

Why low pay is a business problem, not just a workforce one

While low pay affects employees most immediately, it can also hurt the businesses they work for because it makes staff turnover tick up sharply.

Being stuck in a constant cycle of recruiting and training replacements is expensive, time-intensive and disruptive, and will eventually eat into any business’s bottom line.

The hospitality sector has one of the highest staff turnover rates in the UK, due in part to the fact that restaurants, bars and hotels are competing directly with retail and other service sectors for the same pool of workers.

If nearby employers raise wages, businesses paying just the legal minimum will naturally struggle to attract experienced applicants or build strong teams. So, in many cases, improving retention actually proves more cost-effective than having a revolving door of new employees.

Can hospitality businesses afford to pay more?

For many businesses, paying staff lower wages won’t be out of choice, but rather, financial necessity.

However, better-paid staff tend to report higher morale and engagement, which can translate into improved service, stronger productivity, and lower rates of absence. Over time, these gains can offset part of the upfront wage increase.

In addition, customers are increasingly attentive to how businesses treat their staff these days. Paying the Living Wage signals that an employer cares about its workforce, and that can influence where people choose to spend their money.

There is a broader economic argument as well. Research from the Living Wage Foundation suggests that when lower-paid workers earn more, they tend to spend more locally, including in shops, cafés and restaurants.

In other words, higher wages don’t simply affect one company’s margins; they increase spending power throughout the whole community. So if more businesses join the 500 already paying the Living Wage in the sector, the effect can circulate through the local economy, benefiting the industry as a whole rather than just individual businesses.

Workers across the UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy have revealed their priorities for the year ahead. Instead of a jump up the corporate ladder, employees are aiming for sustainable careers, work-life balance, and emotional wellbeing.

In fact, while 53% want more money, making it the employees’ top priority – in part thanks to the ongoing cost of living crisis – only 9% said they want a promotion this year. 

What workers want

Data from the European Career Outlook 2026 report from MyPerfectCV revealed that, across five European countries, financial pressures are foremost in employees’ minds, with over half of respondents saying that higher pay would most improve their job satisfaction. 

However, in second and third place came the desire for less stress (37%) and a better work-life balance (34%). It seems that 2026 will not see a dramatic shift in what employees want. Predictably, while some businesses push RTO mandates and “hybrid creep”, employees are still putting benefits associated with flexible, hybrid, and remote working high on their wish lists. 

Interestingly, getting a promotion was the second-lowest ambition on the list, with more workers reporting that they had no goals than aiming for a promotion. 

What makes employees move jobs in 2026

The report also gave an insight into the number of employees who were considering a job move. It found that 22% were very likely to look for a new role, 25% were likely to, and 20% were somewhat likely to. This means that only one in three workers plans on staying put in 2026. 

A bigger salary topped the list of motivations for moving to a different job, but a better work-life balance was second, named by 38% of respondents. This made it a more significant motivation than career growth opportunities, more challenging work, and company culture and values. 

Respondents were also asked what would most improve their job satisfaction, and therefore make them less likely to look elsewhere. In an echo of the sentiments of the other questions, 52% said better pay, but flexible hours were second at 34%. Wellness support was listed by 20% of respondents, proving that wellbeing and mental health are important factors for many workers. 

Ambition redefined

The results serve as a lesson to business owners hoping to attract talent in 2026, especially for those in industries like hospitality, where this is currently proving problematic. As Jasmine Escalera, Career Expert at MyPerfectCV, told us: “The definition of career success has clearly shifted. Success was previously framed around promotions, titles, and climbing the ladder but that is no longer the default.”

She added: “The findings suggest workers are thinking more practically. Many are weighing quality of life and financial security alongside pay. They are asking whether a job will improve their day to day lives, not just how it will look on a CV.”

She added that the researchers expect to see workers’ priorities remain the same for the foreseeable future, but there might also be a spike in the number of people looking for side incomes and pursuing entrepreneurial activities. 

How should employers respond?

Businesses looking to keep their employees happy, or bring in new staff, need to make sure that the things that matter to their team – a competitive rate of pay, as well as flexibility and balance – are at the forefront of their offerings. 

Escalera explained: “Competitive pay remains essential. If compensation doesn’t meet expectations, other benefits are unlikely to compensate. Flexibility should be tangible rather than symbolic, with clear policies around remote work, hours, and autonomy.”

She adds that wellbeing support should be “practical, including reasonable workloads and access to mental health resources”, and that employees should also be able to see that there are development pathways open to them. 

The report’s findings suggest that those who are looking for new opportunities have very specific needs in mind. However, they also value stability, and will stay if a role offers the financial safety net and quality of life that they want.

The constant rain is finally starting to clear up, the dark isn’t creeping in as early, and it looks like spring is finally around the corner.

Many associate the new season with better weather, emerging wildlife, or just some old-fashioned spring cleaning. But for dropshipping businesses, it’s also an opportunity to refresh their offerings and attract new customers.

But if you’re not sure where to start, we’ve got you covered.

We’ve dug into the search data and market trends to pull together seven of the most in-demand products from top dropshipping suppliers — perfect for starting the new season strong and keeping your store busy this March.