About

Ben Lobel was the editor of SmallBusiness.co.uk and GrowthBusiness.co.uk from 2010 to 2018. He specialises in writing for start-up and scale-up companies in the areas of finance, marketing and HR.

Growth Planning

Business scaling strategy: How to manage growth

From putting customers at the heart of your messaging to getting key media coverage, here are the considerations to make when scaling your business aggressively.

PR and Marketing Strategy

Defining a PR strategy

PR is not the impenetrable science that many agencies would have you believe. It is possible to do your own PR, but first you need to be clear your goals

Financial Management

21 tips for cash flow management

There are two fundamental goals at the heart of improving your cash flow: control your expenditure and regulate your income. To that end, there’s a raft of clever tactics that can enable you to explore expansion opportunities and reduce the chance of being caught short if the unexpected happens.

Entrepreneurs

Q&A: Sander Roose, founder and CEO of Omnia Retail

We have a chat with Sander Roose, founder and CEO of Omnia Retail, about scaling up the business and how it's doing now.

Technology

Why robust products that work will win against flashy tech

Tilman Eberle, VP of marketing at Doodle, discusses why performance and reliability usually trumps bells and whistles when it comes to innovation.

Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneur interview: Tom Pickersgill, Broadstone

In this piece, we speak to Tom Pickersgill of staffing platform Broadstone about raising investment, expanding into new sectors and managing scale plans.

Venture Capital Funding

VC interview: Kjartan Rist and Denis Shafranik, Concentric

Kjartan Rist and Denis Shafranik, of London and Copenhagen-based Concentric, discuss financing the likes of Airsorted and PayAsUGym, the improvement in quality of European entrepreneurs, and why it's a great time for a scale-up to raise money. 

Technology

Location based technologies: How they can assist business growth

From retail to insurance, location based technologies are shaking up a range of sectors. Here, we look at how growing businesses can benefit.

News

Lifestyle brand Seasalt raises £16 million for growth

BGF and Santander Corporate & Commercial fund the clothing brand's investment in staff and store openings.

Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneur interview: Zarir Vakil, StepJockey

Former private equity investment director Zarir Vakil is now CEO of employee wellness company StepJockey. Here, we talk gamification technology, choosing the right marketing strategy, and how to reposition a company.

Opinion

Wonga: How not to grow a business

Wonga's recent collapse into administration was precipitated by some grave warning signs over its business practices. In this blog, we look at the lender's rise and fall.

Alternative Finance for Business

Interview with Steve Newton, EVP of UK & Europe at Worldpay

In this one-on-one, we discuss the future of alternative funding, why strategic partnerships between finance institutions will be key to servicing SMEs, and the challenges scale-ups face today.