A funding initiative that helps new Worcestershire businesses to grow and succeed has successfully awarded its 100th grant. Enterprising Worcestershire offers financial and operational support to a wide range of start-ups in the region, helping them to build their businesses through investment in new equipment, website and marketing services and […]

Sandwell Council is launching a text messaging service to help people keep on top of their council tax bills and get the welfare support they need. The service will also reduce the number of paper messages and reminders the council has to post out, helping to save money for frontline […]

Sandwell Council has once again landed a prize at the Federation of Small Businesses (Birmingham, Black Country and Staffordshire) Local Authority ‘Small Business Friendly’ Awards. This year’s award, for Best ‘Small Business Friendly’ Procurement Policy, recognises the work that Sandwell Council does to support SMEs to build procurement-driven supply chains. […]

Financing under the EBRD’s pioneering Women in Business programme has now topped the 500 million mark. Less than four year since its launch in 2015, the initiative has provided a total of 506 million in credit lines to more than 60,000 women-led small and medium-sized companies in 18 countries. The […]

For the fifth year running Sandwell Council has published details of the borough’s 50 fastest growing businesses. In the report four companies reveal how they grew their turnover, even through a time of political and economic uncertainty. The Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies Index 2019 was released (Thursday 13 July) […]

Eighty-two percent of companies plan to reduce their legal function costs over the next two years, with 42% of respondents planning on doing so by more than 10%, according to a new report released today by EY. Reimagining the Legal Function Report 2019 surveyed more than 1,000 senior legal practitioners […]

“Overall, employees from certain ethnic groups such as Indian and Chinese, have higher average earnings than their White British counterparts. However, all other ethnic groups have average wages lower than for White British employees, with employees from the Bangladeshi ethnic group having the largest pay gap. “However, once characteristics such […]

Business in the Community is calling on businesses to offer good jobs that offer security, rights and a fair income, along with the opportunity for personal development and progression, and a supportive and inclusive environment. In practice, achieving this for all your employees is complex but our Employment Campaign Manager […]

More than 1,400 young people between the ages of 16 and 29 in the City of Wolverhampton have been helped into education, employment, apprenticeships or training by Black Country Impact. The project, run in conjunction with the Department for Work and Pensions and European Social Fund, aims to support young […]

Blog post   From Traditional Banking to Cryptocurrencies, E-Wallets and Blockchain What we consider to be traditional banking is slowly evolving, first with the introduction of credit cards in the 1950s, and today with the advent of contactless cards, mobile applications and e-wallets. The days of cash transactions as payment for […]