Hi Reader,

Hope you enjoyed the end of summer and are now gearing up for Q4.

Small-business news rarely arrives neatly labelled “useful now” or “maybe useful later.” So this week, we’ve done the sorting for you:

Here's what caught our eye:

IN THIS ISSUE:

• The Government's Small Business Plan got its first real details. What you can plan for now - and what still has to pass Parliament.
• Half of founders are handing AI their private business data. What to check before you paste in anything confidential.
• Monzo wants to auto-enrol the self-employed into a pension. Contributions that move with your income -without a monthly DD
• Plus: A pay transparency proposal, business banking's best year in a decade and news on our very own business bank selection tool!

📋 The Small Business Plan is starting to get dates

Government plans often arrive with big promises and very few dates. Its latest Small Business Plan update has now put a timetable against some of them.

When we wrote about the late-payment crackdown in July, the Commercial Payments Bill had already entered Parliament. It's next stage is scheduled for 15th September and the government estimates Royal Assent in early 2027, although the protections will not begin immediately or cover invoices retrospectively.

The key update to our July story is that the original Small Business Plan said the maximum payment term would start at 60 days and later fall to 45. The current Bill includes the 60-day cap, but the promised reduction to 45 days does not appear!

The more immediate change arrives on 1 October. It confirms that eligible employers which don’t pay the apprenticeship levy may receive up to £2,000 for recruiting a new apprentice aged 16 to 24 from 1 October. Two regional investment funds covering the South East and East of England, worth £350 million in total, are also scheduled to launch this month.

For most the apprentice payment is the only announcement worth acting on now. If you were already considering a junior hire, check the eligibility rules and revisit your numbers before October.

The late-payment Bill is still significant, but it is at least several months away—and currently weaker than originally promised. Keep using firm payment terms and chasing overdue invoices rather than expecting the proposed law to solve today’s cashflow problems.

As for the regional funds and tax simplification promises, wait for the eligibility rules and practical details before putting either into your plans.

🤖 Half of founders are handing AI their private business data

​New research shows UK founders say they don't trust AI tools, yet half admit they've shared confidential business data with public ones in the past month anyway.

The AI conversation is therefore: it's not "should we use AI," it's "what are we accidentally feeding it." Client contracts pasted into a chatbot for a quick summary. Financial figures dropped in to "just check this." Draft contracts, HR complaints, pricing you'd never want a competitor to see. None of it malicious, all of it sitting on a server you don't control, under terms most people never read.

The founders surveyed aren't naive either. They say they don't trust these tools, and use them anyway, which tells you the convenience is winning even when the judgement says otherwise.

You have a licence to think when it comes to AI - use it before you paste. A five-second pause, does this contain anything I wouldn't want a competitor or a regulator to see, catches most of it. Worth a two-minute team chat about what's off-limits, before it becomes a bigger conversation later.

🏧 Monzo wants to auto-enrol the self-employed into a pension

​Monzo and Nest are exploring building automatic pension contributions straight into the banking app, aimed at the UK's 4.4 million self-employed workers who fall outside auto-enrolment entirely.

No employer means no default pension, which is exactly why so many sole traders don't have one. Employees get nudged into saving by their payroll. The self-employed have to remember to do it themselves, and most don't, until retirement stops being a distant problem.

Nothing's live yet, so there's no app feature to switch on this week. But if the idea of a pension that fills itself in the background rather than another admin task on your list appeals, it's worth keeping an eye on whether your bank follows suit.

FROM US - AN UPDATED BUSINESS BANKING TOOL!

And speaking of banks between us, Neil and I have spent more hours researching, comparing, opening and using UK business accounts than we care to admit.

We’ve been stung by surprise fees, clunky onboarding and dead‑end support.

So last year we built a prototype fast intelligent bank selector tool to help you avoid the same mistakes and get to an account that is the best fit for your business.

The response has been so good we're now updating it to compare 47 business accounts from 20 UK banks and rank them for your exact situation — with fee estimates included!

We're almost done and will send you advanced details of the updated tool very shortly. In the meantime we would love to hear what you think of your existing bank if you have one!

WORTH CHECKING OUT THIS WEEK

• ​British Business Bank backed £9.4bn of SME finance in 2025-26. — Reached 38,000 smaller businesses, with record profits of £426m for the Bank itself.
• ​Salary disclosure on job ads might become mandatory. — Still a proposal, not law, but worth knowing if you're planning to recruit.

One last thing: What's the one takeaway from this issue you'll actually act on?

Hit reply and let us know. We read every response, and it genuinely shapes what we cover next.

We’re here to help you make better business decisions quicker — right from BEFORE day one.

All the best,

Graeme and Neil

Co-founders, Basics of Business (BoB)

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