The early months of 2025 have cast a long shadow across Britain’s small and medium-sized enterprises. Insolvency figures remain stubbornly high, with more than twelve thousand businesses already collapsed this year. Retailers, builders and hoteliers have borne the heaviest blows, squeezed between rising wages, energy bills and taxes on
The owner of a small business sits at his desk late in the evening. The numbers no longer add up as they once did. Wages have risen, National Insurance contributions have climbed, and the once dependable margin that kept his company steady has thinned to a dangerous line. He has
It is a curious hour, that morning when the deal is done. The ink dries, the lawyers depart, and the company, your company, is no longer yours. For years, it was the stage upon which you fought, planned, and triumphed. Now the curtain has fallen, and you stand outside the
It is a strange thing, how swiftly the hour of decision comes upon a business owner. One moment, you are in the thick of enterprise, deals struck, accounts tallied, rivals watched with a wary eye. The next, a telegram of fate arrives: the thought of an exit. Not someday, but
Most business owners know exit planning matters. But when you’re juggling hundreds of moving parts: tax, succession, operations, negotiations, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds. Here’s the simple truth: if it doesn’t increase transferable value, it’s not a priority. That’s why I’
Fewer than one in five UK business owners have a formal exit plan. Yet for most entrepreneurs, selling their business is the single biggest financial event of their lives. The contracts may eventually be signed, but the story doesn’t end there. In fact, the real challenge begins once the
Most business owners assume “exit” means one thing: sell up, cash out, and walk away. But here’s the truth: 79 % of UK small-business owners don’t have a formal exit plan at all, even though nearly half expect to sell someday. The danger is obvious: if you wait until
Fewer than 17% of UK small business owners have a formal exit plan. At the same time, artificial intelligence is rewriting the rules of entire industries. Together, these forces represent the defining challenge, and opportunity, facing Midlands businesses in the years ahead. The coming half-decade is not business as usual.
Nearly 37,000 UK companies closed in 2024/25, the highest level since the pandemic. Newspapers frame it as doom and decline. But the real story? Thousands of entrepreneurs aren’t failing. They’re choosing to close or if they are a digital business to simply just move. Many are
