JetSpace

18/06/2026

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is now in force. Sole traders and landlords above the income threshold are now legally required to keep digital records and file quarterly returns, not annually.

The compliance deadlines are real. The software decisions need making now. The penalties for getting it wrong are also real.

Read the full story: https://elitebusinessmagazine.co.uk/finance/financial-management/item/making-tax-digital-is-here-what-small-businesses-need-to-know-now

MTD has been "coming soon" for so long that a significant number of sole traders and small business owners tuned it out. That was understandable. It's less understandable now it's actually here.

The practical steps aren't especially burdensome (compatible accounting software, quarterly updates to HMRC, same annual return), but they do require a decision and ignoring it doesn't make the deadline move.

The businesses that handle compliance well tend to be the ones that create the space, literally and mentally, to stay on top of this kind of thing rather than catching it in a panic at year end.

Worth twenty minutes now, or a harder conversation with your accountant in January?

15/06/2026

A "world-first" ruling from the Competition and Markets Authority last week: UK publishers and website owners can now require Google to exclude their content from powering AI Overviews and other AI-generated search features.

Google has been formally designated with "strategic market status" under the UK's new digital markets competition regime.

According to Real Business, this is the first time a regulator anywhere in the world has required a tech giant to offer meaningful opt-out tools for AI content scraping, and it applies to every UK business with a website.

Read the full story: https://realbusiness.co.uk/take-back-control-new-cma-rules-let-uk-businesses-block-googles-ai-scraping-content

Most SME owners don't yet know this decision happened, let alone what to do about it. That's the point. You now have a choice, one you didn't have last month, about whether your carefully written website content feeds an AI that summarises it before a customer ever clicks through to you. That's a real business decision, not a technical detail. Understanding it is part of running a modern business.

The choice may now be clear but the implications are not. Would blocking AI content scrapers reduce your online visibility and send potential customers to your competitors?

11/06/2026

Lyndsey Clay, founder of Connected Brighton, sat down with Latest TV this month to share what she's actually learned about small business survival:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eYLfePvgoQ

Not the LinkedIn-polish version, but the real mechanics of keeping an operation going when things get difficult.

The details of her story are worth listening to, but the shape of it will be familiar to anyone who's built something from nothing in this city. Adapt constantly, know your community and don't mistake busyness for momentum. Lyndsey has spent years growing one of Brighton's more quietly influential business networks and the lessons are applicable well beyond her sector.

What's striking is the local specificity of her approach. Connected Brighton works because it's rooted in the particular texture of this place: the overlapping worlds of digital, creative, hospitality and professional services that make Brighton's business scene unlike anywhere else in the UK.

There's a version of business survival advice that works anywhere and means nothing. Then there's advice from someone who's built something real in the specific context you're operating in. Thankfully this version is the second kind. At JetSpace, we spend a lot of time around exactly the sort of founders Lyndsey is describing, and the pattern she's identifying holds.

Connected Brighton founder and business mentor Lyndsey Clay discuss...

08/06/2026

Reports suggest the new Sussex and Brighton combined authority will unlock access to a £30 million economic boost: funding tied to the devolution deal that gives the region more control over its own economic development.

Thirty million pounds is a significant injection for a regional economy. The money is earmarked for growth initiatives across Brighton and Sussex, which in practice means infrastructure, skills, business support and the kind of long-term investment in the local ecosystem that creates jobs and attracts inward investment. These are not abstract benefits.

For SME owners in the area, devolution deals tend to matter in two ways. First, directly: funding programmes that didn't exist before, grants and support schemes targeted at smaller businesses. Second, indirectly: a more confident, better-resourced local economy means stronger clients, better supply chains, and more talent choosing to stay in the region rather than leaving for London or beyond.

Full report: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx299r4mdxzo

Regional devolution across England has been accelerating, and Sussex has been a bit late to the party. This deal, and the funding attached to it, signals that the region is now very much in the game. Whether you're running a consultancy in central Brighton or a trades operation in mid Sussex, a rising tide here is worth paying attention to.

The Sussex and Brighton Strategic Authority will meet for the first time on Wednesday.

03/06/2026

54% of UK SMEs use AI. Most are just getting ChatGPT to rewrite emails.

42% abandoned their AI projects entirely last year.

For Sussex business owners, the gap between "using AI" and "getting value from AI" is everything.

Here's what's actually working in 2026 👇

https://www.jetspace.work/ai-at-54-how-sussex-smes-are-actually-using-artificial-intelligence-in-2026

01/06/2026

Important compliance deadline this month.

The ICO has set a hard deadline of 19th June 2026 for all organisations handling personal data to have a formal complaints process in place, under Section 103 of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. No carve-outs for small businesses, no grace period for being a one-person operation.

That means if someone contacts you about how you've used their data, you have 30 days to acknowledge it. The ICO will be watching closely: their stated focus sectors include tech, retail and financial services, but the regulation applies to anyone processing personal data, which at this point is basically every business in the country.

The practical reality for most SMEs is that this isn't optional reading. Whether you're running a boutique Brighton business consultancy or you're a Hove household handyman for hire, if you hold a client database, send marketing emails or have staff data on file, you need a documented complaints process before the end of the month.

Full report: https://bmmagazine.co.uk/in-business/sme-data-protection-complaints-law-june-2026/

This is one of those things that separates businesses that have genuinely matured from those still operating like a side project. Getting your data compliance in order isn't just about avoiding fines, it builds the kind of client trust that professional businesses are built on. If you're at the stage where you're taking a proper office, this is the moment to sort the paperwork properly too.

Are your data handling processes actually documented, or are they more of a loose collection of principles?

28/05/2026

New data from the Sussex Intelligence Unit puts a number on something that often goes unspoken: Sussex punches below its weight economically.

The economy here is worth £51.75bn in gross value added, but given the region holds 3.56% of England's population, it should be contributing proportionally more. The gap is £11.79bn.

That's not a political point. It's a practical one. Sussex has grown 39.5% in real terms since 2004, which is genuinely impressive. But the region is still running a productivity deficit compared to most comparable English areas, and the reasons tend to be structural: business connectivity, infrastructure, access to professional workspace, and proximity to talent networks.

Read the full story: https://sussexintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SIU_DATA_BRIEFING_01_Economic_Growth_in_Sussex-UPDATED.html

The data briefing reads like an opportunity document more than a criticism. Brighton and Shoreham have the talent. They have the ambition. What's often missing is the infrastructure that lets people work professionally: proper offices, reliable connectivity, real business communities.

Closing a £11.79bn productivity gap starts with individual businesses operating at their best. That's exactly the kind of environment JetSpace is here to provide. We might be a touch biased, but the numbers back the argument.

If Sussex businesses closed even half that productivity gap, what would that mean for local suppliers, talent, and the wider community?

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The region's first independent, cross-sector research platform — tracking Growth, Infrastructure, Governance and Belonging across Sussex.

26/05/2026

Picking a new workspace is easy right?

Wrong. It's too big a decision to risk tackling it badly. So don't get it wrong:

https://www.jetspace.work/how-to-choose-the-right-serviced-office-in-sussex-a-practical-guide-for-smes

21/05/2026

Your home WiFi router is about as secure as a chocolate teapot. And AI-powered cyber criminals have noticed.

New research reveals SMEs are woefully unprepared for AI-driven cyberattacks. Whilst criminals are using machine learning to scale their operations, most small business owners are still using "Password123" and wondering why their broadband keeps cutting out during important calls.

https://startups.co.uk/news/ai-cyber-security-training/

The problem isn't just passwords, it's infrastructure. That router you picked up from Currys three years ago? It's running firmware from the another three years before that. The shared WiFi network your teenager uses for TikTok? Same network handling your client invoices.

Professional office environments come with enterprise-grade security by default. Managed networks, regular security updates, isolated business traffic. It's not just about looking professional, it's about actually being secure enough to handle the threats that are coming.

When a Brighton design agency or a Shoreham logistics firm gets hit by an AI-powered phishing attack, it's rarely because they made a strategic error. It's because their infrastructure was built for convenience, not security.

18/05/2026

One third of UK small businesses plan to reduce or stop EU trading entirely this year. That's not pessimism, it's pragmatism.

When European supply chains become unreliable and export admin eats your margins, the smart move is pivoting to domestic markets. But here's the thing: UK clients expect to see a credible business address, proper phone numbers, and the kind of professional setup that screams "we're here to stay".

https://startups.co.uk/news/small-businesss-eu-trading/

Working from your kitchen table was fine when you were shipping widgets to Stuttgart. But when you're chasing that £50k contract with a Brighton consultancy or pitching to a Crawley manufacturer, they want to know you're serious about the UK market.

The businesses making this transition successfully aren't just changing their sales strategy, they're upgrading their infrastructure to match. A proper office address in or signals commitment to local clients in a way that a residential postcode never can.

Whether you're a Sussex consultancy pivoting from EU compliance work to domestic business advisory, or a tech firm switching from European SaaS clients to UK enterprise sales, your workspace needs to reflect your new market focus.

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