Cyber Risk - How SME Directors can be assured they are managing it effectively
For UK SMEs, cyber risk is no longer a distant concern or something that “only happens to big companies”. In fact, according to the Cyber Security Breaches 2025, 42% of small businesses and 67% of medium-sized business reported a cyber incident within the last 12 months. Indeed, 81% of all the businesses affected by cyber incidents in the UK are SMEs. These incidents cause operational disruption, wasting precious time and money on fixing issues and recovering access to data and systems.
South West Businesses: Building Optimism and Unlocking Growth
The Southwest has always been a region full of creativity, resilience and ambition. From its rugged coastlines and rural heartlands to its thriving towns and cities, it is a place where enterprise takes many forms — family-owned firms passed down through generations, innovative start-ups making their mark, growing companies eager to explore new horizons, and large companies leading the world in aerospace engineering and nuclear power generation.
Exit Planning & Preparation Toolkit: A Clear Starting Point for Business Owners Ready to Think About Their Future
Every business owner, whether they realise it or not, will exit their business one day. For some, that moment feels distant; for others, it’s already starting to occupy their thoughts. But across all the conversations we’ve had with owners over the years, a common theme emerges: “I don’t know where to start.”
Mergers and Acquisitions - Why do so many fail? And what can you do to stop it?
Mergers and acquisitions often fail due to predictable structural risks such as integration overload, founder dependency, cultural misalignment, weak non-financial due diligence, and governance challenges, which require focused integration efforts, early planning, thorough non-financial assessment, and clear governance to improve success, especially in UK SMEs.
Sustainable Growth - Why a Clear Growth Strategy Matters More Than Ever
In uncertain political and economic times, having a clear and deliberate growth strategy is crucial for business success. This strategy should be regularly reassessed, clearly communicated, and supported by aligned culture and processes to ensure sustainable growth.
Unlocking Growth: How Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Can Fuel the UK’s Productivity
Whatever the Chancellor announces in the budget, one of the biggest challenges for the UK economy is growth, and for business that often means productivity. In recent years, UK business has had to deal with many challenges related to a series of significant socio-economic events impacting costs, productivity and growth. In a turbulent and uncertain market, how can small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) not only survive, but also thrive?
Difficult conversations and frequent feedback – how your culture can make them possible
Most business owners and directors agree, in principle, that feedback matters. Yet in practice, many organisations delay, dilute, or completely avoid the conversations that matter most. Performance issues are left to drift. Tensions go unspoken. Expectations are implied rather than agreed.
Exit preparation - what do you need to do before you exit?
Exiting a business is a lengthy process that can be more stressful without a plan. HGKC provides the steps you should take to make it as seamless as possible.
The UK business environment: easy to start, hard to scale
The Entrepreneurs Network (TEN) survey of 236 UK founders, conducted in May/June 2025, made for some difficult reading. Whilst most respondents thought the UK was an easy place to start a business, many thought it had become difficult to scale. Getting funding, regulation and Government attitudes to entrepreneurs were all cited as reasons. Ambitious business owners can still build big, but it needs discipline, boldness, planning, resourcing and resilience.
Leading Through Uncertainty: How UK SME Leaders Can Build Resilience in a Fractured World
Leadership has never been easy, but for UK-based SME owners and directors, the current climate may be one of the toughest in living memory. The World Uncertainty Index has reached a new record high, reflecting global instability that seeps into every corner of business life. Wars, tariffs, inflation, and fractured geopolitics are now part of the operating landscape. Meanwhile, at home, social and cultural shifts are reshaping the workplace at a pace that few could have predicted.
Growth potential - to realise the exit that you want, it is vital that you invest in developing your leadership and management capability
Small businesses are the backbone of the UK economy, accounting for 99.9% of the business population and over half of private sector employment. Yet despite their vital role, many small firms are struggling to scale. While access to finance, regulation, and infrastructure are frequently cited barriers, one of the most under-recognised factors limiting small business growth is the underinvestment in people - particularly in leadership and management capability.
Building to Sell Requires Business Owners to be Proactive, Ambitious and to Take Risks
For many small business owners, selling their company may not be top of mind in the early days. The focus tends to be on survival, then sustainability, and eventually growth. But those who build with the end in mind from the earliest stages, position themselves to create businesses that are not only successful, but also valuable, transferable assets when the time comes to exit.
Leadership in Practice: Three Things You Need to Become a Better Leader
Leadership is not a title, it’s a practice. It’s not about commanding others, but about bringing out the best in them—and in yourself. Whether you’re leading a small team or running a large business, improving your leadership is one of the most valuable investments you can make. But what does “better” leadership look like?
Leading with Questions: Widening the Circle - How Questions Make Us Better Leaders
One of the most common pitfalls a leader encounters is thinking they need to have all the answers. Our experiences validate this belief; people often seek us out for decisions, guidance, and clarity. However, through my leadership journey and observations of other leaders, I’ve learned that the most effective decisions arise from posing better questions—not just any questions, but the kind that invite a wider set of perspectives, especially those we don’t usually hear.
Opportunities for growth - problems can drive innovative solutions
At the end of July, the UK Government released ‘Backing your Business: Our Plan for Small and Medium Sized Business’. Key to this plan is the understanding that SMEs are the UK economy’s “engine room” and that “accelerating SME growth by just 1% a year could deliver £320 billion to the UK economy by 2030”.
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