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There’s a version of me from a few years ago who spent $340 on a candle-making kit, four bags of soy wax, and a stack of amber glass jars, convinced I’d stumbled on the one small business idea that would finally make me my own boss. Six weeks later, I’d set off my smoke alarm twice, given away eleven candles to neighbors who hadn’t asked for them, and quietly returned the wax to the back of a kitchen cabinet, where- if I’m honest- it might still be.

Was the idea bad? Not really. Was I ready to execute it? Absolutely not. That’s the gap nobody warns you about: there are a thousand small business ideas floating around the internet, but almost nothing written about how to tell a genuinely good one from an expensive way to occupy a weekend.

So is there a formula for picking a winner? Not exactly, but there’s a much better filter than “this seems fun,” and we’ll get to it. First, a running start: 80 real ideas, organized by the situation you’re actually starting from, each with a plain-English note on why it works and who it’s for.

The Highlights, If You’re Short on Time

Pulled from the full list below, these are the ones with the clearest path from “idea” to “first paying client” right now:

1. Freelance writing or copyediting
2. Virtual assistant services
3. AI workflow consulting for small businesses
4. Bookkeeping for solo entrepreneurs
5. Mobile pet grooming
6. Residential or office cleaning
7. Niche e-commerce (one tight category)
8. Personal training or nutrition coaching
9. Local SEO consulting
10. Home organizing services
11. Senior companion care
12. Meal-prep delivery service
13. Online course creation
14. Web design for local businesses
15. Handyman or small home-repair work

That’s the appetizer. The full 80 are below, grouped by category, but the list isn’t actually the hard part. The decision is.

What Makes a Small Business Idea Good, Instead of Just Cute?

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: almost any idea on this list can work, and almost any idea can fail. The difference usually comes down to four things:

• You already have the skill, or can get good at it fast. Starting from zero adds months, sometimes years, to your runway.
• The startup cost is low enough to survive being wrong. If your first attempt flops, can you try again, or are you done?
• There’s a repeatable way to find customers — not just the first ten, who are usually friends and family, but the hundred after that.
• It can grow without your hours growing at the same rate. A business that only makes money when you’re personally trading time for it has a ceiling built in.

It also helps to remember what “small business” actually means at scale: according to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, small businesses make up 99.9% of all U.S. businesses and employ roughly 62.3 million people, nearly 46% of the private-sector workforce. This isn’t a fringe category. It’s most of the economy.

With that filter in mind, here’s the full list.

Low-Cost Small Business Ideas (Almost No Startup Capital Required)

Low-cost doesn’t mean low-quality, it means the idea is built around your time and skill instead of inventory and equipment. This is usually the right starting category if you’ve never run a business before and want to test the water without draining your savings.

1. Freelance writing or copyediting — turns existing writing ability into paid work with essentially zero equipment cost beyond a laptop.
2. Virtual assistant services — inbox management, scheduling, and admin support for founders who’d rather not do it themselves.
3. Social media management — running content calendars and posting schedules for small businesses too busy to do it consistently.
4. Proofreading and transcription — detail-oriented work with low startup cost and steady demand from authors, students, and podcasters.
5. Voiceover work — a home mic and some patience are the main barriers to entry; auditions do the rest.
6. Online research services — freelance research for writers, analysts, and small firms that need a second set of eyes.
7. Academic or test-prep tutoring — built directly on a subject you already know, with pay that scales with your track record.
8. Resume and LinkedIn profile writing — steady demand from job seekers, especially during hiring-season spikes.
9. Bookkeeping for solo entrepreneurs — recurring monthly work once you land a handful of regular clients.
10. Independent consulting in your current field — the fastest route from “employee” to “business owner” because the expertise already exists.

Service-Based Small Business Ideas (Skills You Already Have)

If you’ve spent years getting good at something inside someone else’s company, that skill doesn’t stop being valuable the moment you leave. It just needs a new home.

11. Marketing or brand strategy consulting — for small businesses that know they need better positioning but not how to get there.
12. Web design and development — a service almost every small business needs and few want to learn themselves.
13. Real estate or product photography — recurring work tied to two industries (real estate, e-commerce) that never stop needing images.
14. Interior design or home staging — project-based work with strong word-of-mouth potential once you have a portfolio.
15. Financial or tax consulting — high-trust, high-repeat-business work, especially for other small business owners.
16. HR consulting for small teams — hiring, policy, and compliance help for companies too small to have an in-house HR person.
17. Graphic design and branding — logos, packaging, and visual identity work for businesses at the “we finally need this” stage.
18. Video editing services — demand driven by every small business now needing short-form content for social platforms.
19. Career or executive coaching — one-on-one work that scales through referrals and testimonials more than ads.
20. Grant writing for nonprofits — a narrow, specialized skill with less competition and often better pay than general freelance writing.

“Take what I already know how to do” is unglamorous advice compared to “chase a trend,” but it’s the version with the shortest distance between idea and first paying client.

Product and E-Commerce Small Business Ideas

Service work trades hours for dollars. Product work can, eventually, decouple the two – though it usually asks for more patience and more upfront cash before that happens.

21. Niche e-commerce store (one tight category) — outperforms general stores by giving customers an actual reason to choose you over Amazon.
22. Handmade goods on Etsy or your own site — low overhead, direct customer relationships, and full control over pricing and quality.
23. Print-on-demand apparel — no inventory risk, since items are made only after they’re ordered.
24. Interest-based subscription boxes — recurring revenue built around a specific hobby or identity rather than a general category.
25. Specialty food products sold online — sauces, snacks, and baked goods with a shelf-stable format and a built-in gifting angle.
26. Curated vintage or resale — sourcing is the real skill here; a good eye is worth more than a large budget.
27. Digital products (templates, planners, courses) — sell once, deliver infinitely, with no shipping or inventory involved.
28. Pet products for a specific niche — senior dogs, allergy-prone cats, exotic pets — narrower focus, more loyal customer base.
29. Home goods with a sustainability angle — appeals to buyers actively looking for lower-impact alternatives to mass-market options.
30. Custom stationery or invitation design — event-driven demand (weddings, showers, milestone birthdays) with strong repeat referrals.

Local and Mobile Small Business Ideas

Not everything needs to scale nationally to be worth doing. Some of the steadiest small businesses are the ones that never leave a five-mile radius.

31. Residential or office cleaning — dependable recurring revenue once you build a regular client roster.
32. Mobile pet grooming — convenience-driven pricing premium over storefront groomers, with lower overhead than a physical shop.
33. Dog walking and pet sitting — low startup cost, flexible hours, and strong demand in dense residential areas.
34. Lawn care and landscaping — seasonal but reliable, with equipment as the main upfront investment.
35. Home organizing services — a fast-growing niche driven by decluttering trends and smaller living spaces.
36. Handyman or small home-repair work — broad demand and minimal competition in most residential neighborhoods.
37. Power washing and exterior cleaning — low equipment cost relative to the price customers are willing to pay per job.
38. Senior companion care — non-medical support work with rising demand as the population ages.
39. Mobile car detailing — comes to the customer, which is the entire value proposition and pricing justification.
40. Moving and junk removal — physically demanding but reliably in-demand, especially in areas with high rental turnover.

Local services tend to have something the internet-first ideas don’t: word-of-mouth that compounds. One good review in a neighborhood Facebook group can outperform a month of ads.

Tech-Enabled and AI-Adjacent Small Business Ideas

Every wave of new tooling creates a matching wave of people who need help using it. Right now, that’s AI and the businesses built around helping other small businesses adopt it are among the fastest-growing ideas heading into 2026.

41. AI workflow consulting for small businesses — helping owners figure out which tools are actually worth adopting, and which aren’t.
42. Custom chatbot or GPT setup for local companies — practical, narrow-scope tech work most small businesses can’t build themselves.
43. Data cleanup and automation services — unglamorous but consistently in-demand as businesses accumulate messier spreadsheets and systems.
44. No-code app or website building — technical results without requiring the client (or you) to write code.
45. AI-assisted content editing and fact-checking — a service layer on top of AI writing tools, for businesses that don’t trust raw output.
46. Basic cybersecurity services for small businesses — most small businesses have none in place and don’t know where to start.
47. Tech support for non-technical business owners — patient, plain-English troubleshooting that IT firms often price out of small-business range.
48. Paid social media ad management — running and optimizing campaigns for businesses that don’t have the time to learn the platforms.
49. E-commerce store audits and optimization — improving conversion rates on stores that already have traffic but weak sales.
50. Local SEO consulting — helping brick-and-mortar businesses actually show up when someone searches nearby.

Wellness and Health Small Business Ideas

Wellness spending has kept climbing for years, and it’s increasingly treated as a routine expense rather than a luxury- which is the kind of demand a small business can build a real practice around.

51. Personal training — one-on-one or small-group fitness coaching, in a gym, at home, or outdoors.
52. Nutrition and health coaching — personalized guidance that goes beyond generic diet plans.
53. Mobile massage therapy — brings the service to the client, commanding a premium over studio-based competitors.
54. Yoga or Pilates instruction — can run in-person, online, or both, with low equipment costs to start.
55. Non-clinical mental wellness coaching — support-focused work distinct from licensed therapy, with its own growing demand.
56. Sleep coaching — a narrow, underserved niche with a clear, specific customer pain point.
57. Postpartum support services — doula-adjacent, non-medical support for new parents in the weeks after birth.
58. Senior fitness classes — a growing demographic with specific, underserved mobility and strength needs.
59. Corporate wellness consulting — bringing wellness programming into small and mid-size workplaces.
60. Assisted stretching or mobility studio — a newer fitness-adjacent model built around guided, hands-on flexibility sessions.

Food and Beverage Small Business Ideas

61. Home bakery under a cottage food license — one of the lowest-overhead ways to turn a baking hobby into real income.
62. Small-batch hot sauce or condiment brand — a manageable production scale with strong farmers-market and gift-market appeal.
63. Mobile coffee cart — lower buildout cost than a café, with the flexibility to work events and high-traffic locations.
64. Food truck — higher startup cost than a cart, but a full menu and a loyal local following to match.
65. Personal chef service — in-home cooking for clients who want restaurant-quality meals without eating out.
66. Meal-prep delivery service — batch-cooked, ready-to-eat meals delivered on a weekly schedule, distinct from one-off personal-chef visits.
67. Small-batch beverage brand — cold brew, kombucha, or specialty sodas, often starting at farmers markets before retail shelves.
68. Cooking or baking classes — turns existing kitchen skill into a teaching business with strong repeat-attendee potential.
69. Farmers market vendor — low commitment way to test a food product before investing in a storefront or full production.
70. Small-event catering — a natural next step for anyone already cooking at scale for friends and family.

Creative, Content, and Education Small Business Ideas

71. Freelance illustration or design commissions — client work ranging from branding projects to personal commissions.
72. Stock photography or video licensing — passive-leaning income once a library of work exists.
73. Niche YouTube channel or content creation — monetized through sponsorships, ads, or a related product line once an audience builds.
74. Paid newsletter publishing — subscription-based writing built around a specific topic and a loyal reader base.
75. Ghostwriting for executives or founders — high-paying, relationship-driven work once you’ve built a track record.
76. Online course creation — packages existing expertise into a product that can sell without your ongoing time.
77. Children’s enrichment classes — art, coding, or music instruction for kids, often run through schools or community spaces.
78. Music lesson instruction — steady, recurring income built on regular weekly sessions with the same students.
79. Craft workshop hosting — paint nights, pottery sessions, and similar hands-on events with built-in social appeal.
80. Podcast production and editing services — technical and creative support for the growing number of small businesses launching their own shows.

How Do You Actually Narrow This Down?

Take whichever three or four ideas from this list made you sit up a little straighter, and run each through the same four questions:

1. Do I already have this skill, or could I realistically learn it in a month?
2. Could I lose the startup cost entirely and still be okay?
3. Do I know exactly where my first ten customers would come from?
4. Is there a version of this that doesn’t require me personally, forever?

An idea that answers “yes” to all four isn’t just cute anymore. It’s a plan.

What Actually Trips People Up

It’s rarely the idea itself. It’s usually one of three things: underpricing out of nerves, waiting for a perfect logo and website before ever taking a paying client, or picking something with no clear path to customer number two. Every idea on this list can survive a rough first attempt. Almost none of them survive six months of avoiding the actual work of finding customers.

I think about the candle wax still sitting in that cabinet sometimes- not as a failure, exactly, more as a $340 lesson in doing the filtering before the buying spree. If you take nothing else from this list, take that: the idea rarely fails you. The lack of a plan usually does.

Wordle players faced puzzle number 1,923 on Thursday, a five-letter word built around disorder and clutter that puzzle trackers described as a common, everyday term made slightly trickier by a repeated letter buried within it.

For those still working through the puzzle, several hints circulated Thursday to help point solvers toward the answer without giving it away outright. The word describes something untidy, dirty or disorganized, and can be used to describe a room, someone’s appearance, their handwriting, or a broader situation that has become complicated or difficult to sort out. It rhymes with words like “dressy” and slant-rhymes with “blessy.” Structurally, the word contains one vowel, the letter E, and one repeated letter, begins with the letter M, and ends with the letter Y.

SPOILER WARNING: Today’s Wordle answer follows below. Stop reading now if you’d rather solve the puzzle without assistance.

The answer to Wordle #1,923 for September 24 is MESSY, an adjective meaning characterized by a dirty, untidy or disordered condition, whether describing a physical space, a person’s appearance, or a more abstract situation that has grown chaotic or hard to manage.

Puzzle trackers covering Thursday’s word generally described it as a familiar, everyday term, though several noted that the puzzle’s repeated letter, appearing twice within the five-letter word, could cause a brief moment of hesitation for solvers who had not yet accounted for the possibility of a duplicate letter in their guessing strategy. One outlet advised that players who tested the letters S and E early in their guessing sequence should be able to narrow down the answer relatively quickly once they recognized the word’s general theme.

Strategy guides accompanying Thursday’s puzzle reiterated broader tips relevant to Wordle players generally, encouraging solvers to open with strong, letter-diverse guesses to maximize the information gathered in the first one or two attempts, and to remain open to the possibility of repeated letters appearing in a word rather than assuming Wordle answers never include duplicates. Guides also recommended paying close attention to word patterns once several letters have been confirmed, since narrowing from a partially solved word down to the single correct answer often depends on correctly accounting for any repeated letters within the remaining possibilities.

Wordle, created by software engineer Josh Wardle before being acquired by The New York Times, continues to release a new five-letter target word to players worldwide at midnight local time each day, giving solvers six total guesses to identify the correct word. The game’s familiar color-coded feedback system, green for a letter in the correct position, yellow for a correct letter placed in the wrong spot, and gray for a letter absent from the word entirely, continues to guide players toward the solution with each subsequent attempt. Because the puzzle refreshes at midnight in each player’s own local time zone, solvers across different regions, including areas observing Philippine Standard Time, various Australian time zones, and New Zealand time, begin their attempt at each day’s puzzle at staggered points relative to players elsewhere, even though every solver worldwide is working toward the same single answer.

Puzzle number 1,923 followed Wednesday’s answer, FORTH, continuing a run of daily words that trackers use to help players identify broader patterns in how frequently the game’s word selection rotates between everyday, high-frequency vocabulary and more specific or evocative terms. Players tracking their personal performance on Thursday’s puzzle, or comparing notes with friends, can share their results through Wordle’s built-in results screen, which uses colored emoji squares to display a player’s guessing sequence without revealing the actual answer, a sharable format that has remained a familiar sight across social media since the game’s earliest days of viral popularity. The New York Times’ companion analytical tool, Wordlebot, offers players a further way to review how efficiently they solved the day’s puzzle relative to the broader player base and their own historical performance on similar words.

For solvers looking for an added challenge, Wordle continues to offer a “Hard Mode” setting, which requires players to reuse any previously revealed correct or partially correct letters in all subsequent guesses, removing the option to test entirely new, unrelated letter combinations once useful information has already been uncovered. That setting can be toggled from the game’s settings menu before starting a new puzzle each day.

Beyond the daily Wordle puzzle, The New York Times has continued expanding its broader portfolio of daily word and logic games in recent years, including Connections, which challenges players to sort 16 words into four hidden categories, Strands, a themed word-search game, and the Mini Crossword, a condensed version of the paper’s traditional crossword format designed to be completed within just a few minutes.

With Thursday’s word now revealed, players who came up short on the day’s puzzle, or those simply looking to extend an active streak, will have a fresh five-letter word and a new set of six guesses to work with when Friday’s edition of Wordle resets at midnight local time.

Puzzle number 1,201 of The New York Times’ Connections game challenged solvers Thursday with a grid blending Halloween costume pieces, spring-loaded objects, gestures involving pointing, and a set of wordplay-based anagrams, giving the day’s puzzle an unusually playful mix of categories.

Connections presents players with 16 words that must be sorted into four hidden groups of four, with each group sharing a common category. The puzzle rates each group’s difficulty using a color system: yellow for the most straightforward connection, green for slightly trickier, blue for more difficult, and purple, typically the most wordplay-heavy or misleading group, as the hardest.

For those still working through Thursday’s puzzle, here are hints for each category, organized from easiest to hardest, without giving away the specific words involved.

The yellow category groups together items associated with a classic Halloween costume built around a certain nocturnal, blood-drinking creature. The green category brings together objects and toys that share a common mechanical feature involving stored and released energy. The blue category, traditionally more difficult, connects words and phrases tied to a shared physical gesture involving an extended digit. The purple category, usually the trickiest of the four, groups together words and phrases that can each be rearranged into one another using the exact same letters.

SPOILER WARNING: The full solution to Thursday’s Connections puzzle follows below. Stop reading now if you’d rather work through the categories on your own.

Thursday’s puzzle resolved into the following four groups. The yellow category, Parts of a Vampire Costume, consisted of CAPE, FACE PAINT, FAKE BLOOD and FANGS, four items commonly associated with dressing up as a classic vampire for Halloween. The green category, Things With Spring/s, grouped BOBBLEHEAD, POGO STICK, SNAKES IN A CAN and TRAMPOLINE, four objects that each rely on a spring mechanism to function, whether for a bobbling head figurine, a hopping toy, a prank canister that launches fake snakes, or a bouncing surface. The blue category, Featuring Pointing, brought together CREATION OF ADAM, FOAM FINGER, I’M WITH STUPID SHIRT and UNCLE SAM, four references united by their association with an extended, pointing finger, whether Michelangelo’s famous fresco depicting God and Adam reaching toward one another, a foam sports novelty item, a joke T-shirt design, or the iconic recruitment poster figure. The purple category, Anagrams, consisted of BEER HAT, BREATHE, HERB TEA and THE BEAR, four entries that can each be rearranged into one another using precisely the same set of letters.

The puzzle’s central trap centered on the overlapping wordplay between the green and blue categories, according to puzzle guides covering Thursday’s grid. Some solvers reported initially grouping BOBBLEHEAD with items related to pop culture figurines or collectibles rather than recognizing its connection to spring mechanisms specifically, while others noted that UNCLE SAM’s inclusion in the pointing-themed blue category required recognizing the specific pose associated with the classic recruitment poster imagery rather than any more general association with the patriotic figure. The purple anagram category also proved deceptive for some solvers, since BEER HAT, BREATHE, HERB TEA and THE BEAR share no obvious thematic connection beyond their shared letters, a hallmark of the kind of misdirection Connections’ purple category is specifically designed to produce.

Connections has grown into one of the Times’ most consistently played daily puzzles since its official launch in 2023, expanding the newspaper’s games portfolio well beyond its traditional crossword offerings. The daily puzzle is written by Wyna Liu, the Times’ Connections editor, who has built a reputation for grids that reward careful attention to both category themes and potential red herrings planted throughout each day’s set of 16 words.

Players attempting Thursday’s puzzle are permitted up to four incorrect guesses before the game ends, with each group color-coded upon a correct guess to indicate which of the four difficulty tiers it belongs to. Standard strategy for tackling the puzzle involves scanning the full grid first for any words that seem to have an obvious connection, then working through the remaining words methodically to identify the less immediately apparent categories, a process puzzle guides say worked particularly well for Thursday’s grid given the more literal nature of its yellow and green categories relative to the wordplay embedded in its purple category.

Players looking to track their performance on Thursday’s puzzle, or compare notes with friends, can share their results through Connections’ built-in results screen, which uses colored emoji squares to display a player’s guessing sequence without revealing the actual category words, a sharable format that has become a familiar sight across social media in the years since the game’s launch, echoing the same format that helped popularize Wordle before it.

With Thursday’s puzzle now solved, players will have a fresh set of 16 words and four new hidden categories to work through when Friday’s edition of Connections goes live at midnight local time, continuing the daily puzzle’s steady run as one of the Times’ most widely shared games alongside Wordle, Strands and the Mini Crossword.

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PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea — Shares in BSP Financial Group Ltd. rose 8.07% to $7.97 in trading Thursday, adding 59.5 cents, as the Pacific region’s largest bank by branch network extended a recent run of gains on the Australian Securities Exchange, where the company trades under the ticker BFL.

Thursday’s advance leaves the stock within its broader 52-week trading range of $6.79 to $9.50, a range reflecting the swings the bank’s shares have experienced over the past year even as the underlying business has continued generating strong profitability and consistent dividend income for shareholders. No specific company announcement had been identified as the direct catalyst behind Thursday’s sharp single-day gain as of the time of this report.

BSP Financial Group owns and operates Bank South Pacific, the dominant banking franchise across much of the Pacific region, with the largest branch network of any bank operating in Papua New Guinea, the Cook Islands, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu. The bank maintains branches and sub-branches in major cities and towns across those markets, as well as in more remote rural locations, a footprint the company has said reflects its deep, longstanding commitment to the region and what it describes as its own Melanesian identity. That physical branch network is complemented by an electronic banking platform offering online business and mobile banking, payments, payroll processing, ATM access and bill payment services.

Beyond its core retail and commercial banking operations, BSP Financial Group operates through dedicated business units covering corporate banking, retail banking, a premium banking division known as Paramount, and treasury services, drawing on the bank’s broad geographic presence and range of financial capabilities to serve clients across the Pacific. The company also owns three wholly owned subsidiaries: BSP Capital Ltd, which provides stockbroking and funds management services in Papua New Guinea; BSP Finance, a specialist asset finance company operating in Fiji and Papua New Guinea; and BSP Life, a dedicated life insurance provider based in Fiji.

Founded in 1957 and headquartered in Port Moresby, the company was formerly known as Bank of South Pacific Limited before adopting its current name, BSP Financial Group Limited, in March 2021. The company maintains a dual listing structure, trading on the Papua New Guinea Exchange under the code BSP and on the Australian Securities Exchange under the code BFL, giving investors in both markets direct access to shares in the bank.

Financially, BSP Financial Group has maintained a relatively attractive profile for income-focused investors, with a dividend yield around 7.43% based on recent trading levels, alongside trailing twelve-month earnings per share of approximately $2.51. Those figures reflect a bank that has continued generating substantial profitability from its dominant position across Pacific banking markets, even as its share price has fluctuated within a fairly wide range over the past year.

The bank’s business spans a comprehensive suite of both retail and business banking products. On the business side, the company offers business, solicitor’s trust and SME current and deposit accounts, business overdrafts, insurance premium funding, and a range of specialized financing products, including asset financing, bridging finance, tailored business loans, commercial and residential property investment financing, construction development finance, and seasonal finance products aimed at supporting agricultural and other seasonal industries across its Pacific markets. The bank also provides international money transfer, foreign exchange and trade finance services, along with foreign currency accounts, term deposits and loans, reflecting the cross-border financial needs of businesses and individuals operating across the multiple island nations the bank serves.

BSP Financial Group publishes its interim and full-year financial results, along with regular earnings updates and its annual report, to both the Papua New Guinea Exchange and the Australian Securities Exchange, with dividend information disclosed as part of those half-year and full-year results announcements. Shareholders can manage their holdings through either PNG Registries for shares held on the Papua New Guinea Exchange, or through MUFG Corporate Markets, formerly known as Link Market Services, for shares held on the Australian exchange.

As the largest bank operating across much of the Pacific region, BSP Financial Group’s performance is closely tied to broader economic conditions across Papua New Guinea and the smaller island economies where it operates, including trends in commodity exports, government spending, remittance flows and regional trade activity, all of which can influence lending demand, deposit growth and overall profitability for the bank’s diversified operations across its various Pacific markets.

With no specific catalyst confirmed for Thursday’s sharp gain, investors are likely to continue watching for the bank’s next scheduled financial disclosure to the PNGX and ASX for further clarity on the underlying operational trends driving the stock’s performance, alongside broader developments across the Pacific banking and economic landscape that could continue to influence trading in the shares in the sessions ahead.

Six in 10 UK business owners would be discouraged from founding a new company if John Healey, the chancellor, raises capital gains tax (CGT) in next month’s budget, according to a survey commissioned by S&W, the professional services group.

The survey of 500 business owners, carried out by the research consultancy Censuswide, also found that half would consider leaving the UK if the tax was raised in the budget on 28 October.

Higher and additional rate taxpayers currently pay 24 per cent CGT on their gains, according to government guidance.

There are growing fears that Healey will raise the tax, or equalise it with income tax, as the government contends with higher borrowing costs and a shrinking fiscal buffer and seeks to fund Andy Burnham’s localism and cost of living agenda.

Toby Tallon, a tax partner at S&W, said the business owners are “sending a clear warning to the chancellor”. He added that CGT and the possible introduction of a wealth tax “are areas business owners will be watching particularly closely”.

Stephen Fitzpatrick, co-chairman of Enterprise Britain and the billionaire founder of Ovo, Kaluza and Vertical Aerospace, said: “Nobody likes tax, but it’s part of what makes our country work. And how we pay taxes matters. To create a prosperous society, we need more than hard work. We need people who are willing to risk everything … time, money, humiliating failure.”

He added: “If the government decides to tax capital gains at the same rate as income, I am not going to leave. This is my home, and my children are growing up here. But would I want to risk everything again? I really don’t know.”

Andreas Adamides, chief executive of the scale-up founders network Helm, is leading a Stop the Creep campaign against tax rises, backed by more than 150 business leaders. He said: “For many founders, selling their business is their pension. Taxing it like a pay cheque would hit them just as years of hard work finally pay off, and push them abroad, taking with them the capital, experience and jobs Britain desperately needs for growth.”

Earlier this month it emerged that Chris Rokos, the billionaire hedge fund manager and Britain’s third-highest taxpayer, is moving to Greece.

Others have argued for an increase. Dale Vince, the founder of Ecotricity and a Labour donor, has proposed equalising CGT with income tax in increments over several years, to help fund a £20bn increase in the income tax personal allowance. Vince said wealth was “taxed more lightly than work”.

Louise Haigh, the first secretary of state, and Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, have both called for a rise in CGT this year.

Asked on Wednesday about the prospect of raising the tax, Emma Reynolds, chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “I can’t give any reassurance on the budget. All I can say is that one of the reasons we are doing the budget earlier than last year is that we are trying to, as much as we can, reduce the amount of speculation, because there is a lot of it. And it’s very often inaccurate and unhelpful.”

The Investment Association, in its pre-budget submission this week, called on the Treasury to avoid further increases to CGT, “which would send the opposite signal to people being encouraged to move from cash savings into long-term investment”.

Robert Salter, a director at the advisory firm Blick Rothenberg, said raising the higher rate of CGT to 34 per cent from 24 per cent would cut receipts by £540m in the 2026-27 tax year, £2.06bn in 2027-28 and £3.5bn in 2028-29. He based the figures on an HMRC bulletin published in June last year. Salter added that most CGT comes from a small number of taxpayers, who are likely to be the most mobile.

A Treasury spokesman said: “As has always been the case, decisions on tax are a matter for the chancellor to set out at fiscal events, rather than routinely commenting on rumour, speculation or proposals.”

About the author

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.

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I once posted a video at what three different “best time to post” articles swore was the golden hour, used a trending sound, added a caption I was genuinely proud of and watched it die at 340 views. Meanwhile, a video I filmed in one take because I was running late hit 60,000. There was no lesson in that except the one nobody wants to hear: virality isn’t a vibe, it’s a scorecard, and I hadn’t been reading mine.

So here’s the actual scorecard TikTok is using in 2026:

• Your video gets tested with your existing followers before anyone else sees it
• You now need roughly a 70% completion rate to break out, up from 50% in 2024
• Shares carry more algorithmic weight than likes
• You have about three seconds to earn the rest of the watch
• Video length is flexible, retention matters more than duration
• TikTok increasingly functions like a search engine, not just a feed
• Follower count isn’t a direct ranking factor, but consistency compounds over time

None of that is luck. Here’s what each one actually means for the next video you post.

Wait : Does TikTok Really Show My Video to My Followers First?

Yes, and this is the single biggest shift in how the algorithm behaves this year. When you publish, TikTok now tests the video with a small sample of your own followers first, typically a few hundred people, before deciding whether it’s worth pushing to your For You Page [FYP, TikTok’s main recommendation feed] audience. If that initial group engages, the video graduates to wider testing pools. If they scroll past it, the video’s reach quietly caps out.

The practical upshot: your existing audience’s engagement habits now directly gatekeep your next video’s shot at going wide. Replying to comments in the first hour, and posting at times your specific followers are actually online, matters more than it used to.

What Completion Rate Do You Actually Need?

Completion rate [the percentage of viewers who watch a video all the way to the end] is the metric doing the most damage to creators who haven’t adjusted their strategy. The bar has risen from roughly 50% in 2024 to around 70% now, meaning a video padded with a slow intro or a meandering middle gets penalized far more harshly than it would have two years ago.

Rewatch rate adds another layer on top of that. A viewer who watches your video three times is a stronger signal to the algorithm than three different viewers each watching once – TikTok reads that as content strong enough to revisit, and a rewatch rate above 15–20% is generally considered a solid boost. Practically, that means loops, punchlines that land on replay, or information dense enough that people need a second pass all outperform content that’s “watchable once and done.”

How Long Should Your Video Actually Be?

There’s no single right answer here, and most advice oversimplifies it. TikTok’s own default recommendation sits around 9–15 seconds, and short videos in the 15–30 second range tend to post the highest completion rates simply because there’s less runway to lose someone. But longer formats – a minute, even several minutes – can rack up more total watch time if the hook is strong enough and the pacing never sags, because total watch time and rewatch behavior matter alongside completion percentage.

The honest rule: match the length to how much genuinely engaging content you have, not to a template. A tight 15-second video beats a padded 45-second one every time; a genuinely gripping 90-second story beats a rushed 15-second version of the same idea.

Why Do the First Three Seconds Matter So Much?

Because that’s roughly how long a viewer takes to decide whether to keep watching or scroll on, and the data backs this up hard – a majority of top-performing videos deliver their core message within the first three seconds, not after a slow build. If your video opens with a logo animation, a “hey guys” intro, or any kind of warm-up, you’re burning the exact window that determines whether the algorithm’s test audience sticks around long enough to count as a good sign.

A quick way to fix a weak hook:

1. Write your script backward : start from the payoff or punchline and work out what the fastest possible path to it looks like.
2. Cut your current opening line entirely and see if the video still makes sense. If it does, you didn’t need it.
3. Say or show the most interesting part of the video in the first sentence, then explain how you got there.
4. Watch the first three seconds with the sound off : if it’s not visually arresting on its own, it needs work.

Do Likes Still Matter, or Is It All About Shares Now?

Shares have overtaken likes as the stronger algorithmic signal, and the logic makes sense from TikTok’s side: a like keeps a viewer on the platform, but a share brings in someone new. Content that prompts a “you need to see this” reaction – genuinely useful information, relatable frustration, or mildly controversial takes people want to weigh in on – tends to outperform content that’s simply well-made.

A few tactics that reliably lift share rate: explicitly say “send this to someone who-” when it fits naturally, package information densely enough that saving it feels useful, and don’t be afraid of a take with a little edge to it. Safe, agreeable content is easy to like and forget; content with a point of view is what gets forwarded.

Is TikTok Basically a Search Engine Now?

Increasingly, yes. TikTok has been leaning harder into search-style discovery, and its algorithm now reads the keywords in your caption, the words you actually say out loud (auto-transcribed), and any on-screen text to figure out which niche searches your video should surface for, not just which interests it might match on the FYP.

How to optimize for this before you post:

1. Type your target topic into TikTok’s own search bar and see what related searches and existing videos come up : that’s your keyword research.
2. Say your main keyword phrase out loud somewhere in the video, since the algorithm reads spoken audio.
3. Add on-screen text that repeats the core topic, not just decorative captions.
4. Use 3–5 hashtags that mix one or two broad tags (#fyp, #viral) with two or three specific to your exact topic : hashtags now support your SEO rather than driving discovery on their own.

What Content Formats Are Actually Performing Right Now?

Trending sounds haven’t disappeared, but using one exactly as-is is increasingly a missed opportunity – original voiceovers, or a trending audio with your own twist layered on top, tend to stand out precisely because the algorithm (and viewers) have grown numb to identical use of the same clip. Story-based content is also having a moment in longer formats: a well-paced narrative with a clear beginning, tension, and payoff can sustain the 60–180 second range far better than a straightforward tips list can.

The common thread across everything performing well right now: specificity. “Here’s a marketing tip” underperforms “here’s the exact caption structure that got my last video 2 million views” – the second version promises something the algorithm can measure people staying for.

What Kills Your Reach Before It Even Starts?

A few habits quietly cap videos that otherwise had a real shot:

• Padding runtime to hit a “recommended” length. If your idea is finished at 12 seconds, stretching it to 30 just to match a template tanks your completion rate.
• Recycling a trending sound with zero twist. The algorithm and viewers have both seen it a thousand times already; identical reuse rarely earns the same distribution the original did.
• Posting on autopilot without checking analytics. If you’re not comparing completion and rewatch rates across your last several posts, you’re guessing instead of iterating.
• Burying the hook under a slow intro. Even a well-made video loses its testing window if the first three seconds don’t earn the next ten.
• Hashtag stuffing instead of targeting. Ten generic tags dilute the signal the algorithm needs to categorize your video correctly; three to five precise ones do more work.

Do You Need a Following to Go Viral?

Officially, no. TikTok has confirmed follower count isn’t a direct ranking factor, and plenty of zero-follower accounts break out on a single video that performs well with its test audience. Small businesses posting their very first video have gained tens of thousands of followers overnight this way, and some of the platform’s biggest all-time hits came from accounts with no prior track record at all.

That said, the follower-first testing model does mean an engaged, even modest, existing audience gives your video a better initial testing pool to clear before it’s judged against strangers. Zero followers doesn’t block virality, it just means you’re relying entirely on the content itself to win over a cold audience on the first try.

Putting It Together: A Pre-Post Checklist

1. Confirm your hook delivers the payoff (or the promise of one) within the first three seconds.
2. Trim anything that doesn’t earn its place : every extra second is a chance to lose completion rate.
3. Say your target keyword out loud and reflect it in on-screen text.
4. Add 3–5 hashtags mixing broad and niche.
5. Post when your actual followers are active, not a generic “best time” from an article.
6. Reply to comments within the first hour : you’re still inside the follower-testing window.
7. Check completion rate and rewatch rate in your analytics 24–48 hours later, and let that data, not guesswork decide what you post next.

Going viral was never really about luck. It’s about clearing a specific, measurable bar TikTok sets for you every single time you hit post and now you know exactly where that bar sits. Once the views start coming in consistently, that’s usually the point worth asking a different question: how do you actually turn that reach into income? That’s a whole guide on its own.

The Dragons’ Den investor Peter Jones has sold the photography retailer Jessops to the online electrical retailer AO World, more than a decade after he rescued the chain from administration. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

AO World announced the purchase in a trading update ahead of its annual general meeting. The company said it plans to integrate Jessops into its existing musicMagpie operations.

John Roberts, AO’s founder and chief executive, said: “I am delighted to welcome Jessops into the AO family and look forward to growing the existing business.”

Jessops operates a small collection of high street shops alongside an online service, Camera Jungle, which allows customers to buy and sell cameras and accessories.

MusicMagpie, which lets people buy, sell and rent used consumer technology, phones, games and media, was acquired by AO in 2024 for less than £10m. At the time of that deal, Roberts said musicMagpie’s trade-in service would support AO in scaling refurbished technology.

Jones acquired Jessops for £5m in 2013, following the chain’s collapse into administration. Under his ownership, the business reduced the number of its high street shops and built a larger online presence.

The chain has faced difficulties in recent years. In 2024, Business Matters reported that Jessops faced a winding-up petition from HMRC over unpaid taxes, at a time when its sales had fallen 7.5 per cent to £19.97m.

Jones spent nine years on Dragons’ Den, the BBC programme, during which he invested millions of pounds in start-ups including Levi Roots’s Reggae Reggae jerk sauce, Bladez Toyz and Boot Buddy, the shoe cleaning gadget. Earlier this year he bought the golf retailer American Golf from the private equity firm Endless.

Jessops was founded in Leicester in 1935 by Frank Jessop and grew rapidly under his son, Alan, as personal photography became more popular. It was sold to Bridgepoint Capital after Alan Jessop retired in 1996. Bridgepoint attempted to float the business twice before selling it to ABN Amro, the Dutch bank, for £116m in 2002.

Alongside the acquisition, AO said it expects revenue for the six months to the end of September to rise 5.5 per cent year-on-year. Pre-tax profit for the period is projected to reach about £21.5m, which the company said was underpinned by gains in its mobile and musicMagpie businesses.

Roberts said: “We’ve carried our momentum into the new financial year with continued growth against a sluggish backdrop in the wider UK retail sector.”

Despite the half-year performance, AO left its full-year profit guidance unchanged.

The update follows AO’s full-year results in June, when the retailer reported record profits of £50.5m and Roberts said Labour’s tax and wage policies had led the company to move 200 customer service jobs to South Africa.

About the author

Paul Jones

Harvard alumni and former New York Times journalist. Editor of Business Matters for over 15 years, the UKs largest business magazine. I am also head of Capital Business Media’s automotive division working for clients such as Red Bull Racing, Honda, Aston Martin and Infiniti.

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