Issue #98 - It's a Wrap 🎬
And so 2024 comes to an end. Can you believe all this and more happened over the last 12 months? Two Budget announcements, a General Election, Euro 2024, 25 Issues of The Backbone, and more...
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2024 Wrapped 🎁
And so 2024 is at an end. How was it for you? Are you looking forward to 2025?
Can you believe all this and more happened over the last 12 months? Two Budget announcements, a General Election, Euro 2024, 25 Issues of The Backbone, and more...
Let’s take a quick tour of the last 12 months as seen by The Backbone. Here’s 2024 Wrapped 🎁
📅 JANUARY
There’s a fascinating story behind every startup. And we can’t get enough of hearing all about them. That’s why we launched our Small Business Superheroes series back in January. Each month we picked the brains of a few business owners in a particular industry, finding out how they got started, their biggest struggles, greatest achievements and more.
In January, we chose gyms, because gym owners clearly don’t have enough to do in the month immediately following our festive excesses…
Check out Small Business Superheroes and Small Business Snapshots on YouTube and Shorts, and read all our Small Business Stories at Bionic.
📅 FEBRUARY
February saw the UK officially go into recession after Gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0.3% in the three months to December. We asked if it really mattered after more than a decade of stagnation for most of us. And is GDP is the most reliable measure of economic health?
We also offered some tips to help make your business more resilient during a downturn. You can find out more in Issue #78 - Business as usual 🤜🤛
📅 MARCH
2024 has been a big year for politics. March saw the year’s first and the Conservative’s last (for a while anyway) Budget announcement. We asked whether you thought the Spring Budget was good for your business and almost two-thirds thought not.
March also saw the end of government support for business energy bills as the Energy Bills Discount Scheme wound up as planned on March 31.
📅 APRIL
📅 MAY
As spring made way for summer and the beer gardens of Britain began to bloom once more, our Small Business Superheroes series caught up with pub owners.
📅 JUNE
Euro 2024 kicked off in June with teams from all the home nations involved. England even got to the final again. It nearly came home. So we thought this would be a good time to look into everything you need to know about working from home.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the number of people working solely from home has halved since June 2020 (down from 38% to 14%). But more than a quarter of workers (26%) still split their time between home and workplace.
Issue #86 outlined how business owners should manage work-from-home requests and our WFH Energy Report looked at whether it’s cheaper to work from home or commute to the office in 2024.
📅 JULY
July was General Election month, so we ran a Reddit thread to find out what policies would be a vote-winner for small business owners. More than 150 business owners replied and we found the following to be the main issues that need tackling:
An overhaul of the current tax system
Policies that promote consumer spending Business rates
Policies that promote international trading
Policies which support hiring and retaining staff
Labour swept to victory in the July General Election (yeah, that was only 162 days ago) and you can get more info in Issue #87 - The election issue ❎
📅 AUGUST
There were some ugly scenes on the streets of Britain this summer, so we looked into whether business insurance covers damage and stock loss caused by riots and social unrest.
📅 SEPTEMBER
Issue #93 was dedicated to startups. Despite the massive challenges of the last few years, small businesses and startups have been thriving.
2023 started with 19.5% (39,966) more new startups than in the previous 12 weeks. This worked out at 6.5% (12,379) more than in the first 12 weeks of 2022
So far in 2024, small businesses have created 300,000 new jobs.
If we go back even further, we find that small businesses have created two out of every three jobs in the UK over the last 25 years.
Remember, your business is one in 5.51 million. It has its own unique story. It has its own unique customers. It may not always be easy. It may not last forever. But it is a success.
📅 OCTOBER
Another Budget* announcement! And this one is even worse for business owners who have been hit with a big hike in National Insurance Contributions (NICs). Not only will they need to pay a higher rate of NICs for employees, but lowering the threshold means they’ll also need to pay NICs for more employees.
You can find out more in our 2024 Autumn Budget Special 💷 and our 2024 Autumn Statement round-up for busy business owners.
*Labour has said these will only happen once a year from now on, at least until they change their mind, anyway.
📅 NOVEMBER
In an act of community spirit, we handed over our community slot to showcase a great initiative from Matt Lane and Joe Schubert. Find out more at 10 startups. 1 year.
📅 DECEMBER
And here we are in December. An exciting month for us here at Bionic as we launched our print edition of The Backbone (look how much Camilla is enjoying reading it!)
Did you get a copy? If so, let us know what you think of it by emailing us at thebackbone@bionic.co.uk.
Let’s wrap up with our favourite joke, playlist, and podcast of the year…
Playlist 🎵
We’ve gone with a playlist picked by one of our small business owner friends, Dan of Two Sevens Deli in Suffolk. Dan has impeccable taste in all things food, drink, and music judging by this playlist. Head into his shop if you’re in and around Sudbury, or pop this playlist on and sit back with your favourite cheese, charcuterie, and craft beer for the Two Sevens experience at home.
Podcast 🎙
The Rest is History is one of the best history podcasts around. This five-part series on The Titanic is essential listening - touching on the race for speed and modernity at the turn of the century, the booming financial world, rising immigration, the ever-growing transatlantic rivalry between Britain and the US, the UK’s issues with Ireland, and more.
If you’ve not already, join The Backbone Small Business Community on Facebook. And check Bionic out on YouTube, Soundcloud, and Giphy 👇
🙏 Thanks to everyone who has supported The Backbone over the last 12 months - we hope it’s kept you informed and entertained. Here’s to a wonderful holiday season and a great start to 2025. We’ll see you with Issue #99 in Jan!
📨 S U B S C R I B E
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