Latest news with #businesschallenges
Independent Singapore
3 days ago
- Business
- Independent Singapore
With costs rising, S'pore companies freeze wages and look abroad for AI skills
SINGAPORE: Singapore businesses are being squeezed by rising costs from global uncertainty and the need to invest in innovation to stay ahead, said Deel's Head of Global Policy, Nick Catino, at this week's AI Summit. A survey conducted by Milieu Insight in April 2025, commissioned by Deel, found that 81% of businesses were affected by global tariffs, while 56% faced higher operational costs. These pressures have led 60% of companies to freeze wages, 48% to reduce hiring, and 43% to lay off staff. The survey gathered responses from 350 Singapore-based business leaders and managers across both SMEs and large enterprises. To cope with these challenges, about one in three Singaporean businesses (31%) have sped up their AI or automation efforts. Among those using AI, 71% saw increased efficiency and productivity, 61% reported smoother operations, and 50% cut costs. However, wage pressure was higher among the 86% of companies further along in AI adoption. 'Even those leading AI adoption are feeling the strain, showing that economic headwinds are impacting all levels of digital transformation,' Mr Catino said, noting that while AI adoption can help with productivity and cost savings, it is not a 'silver bullet for macroeconomic pressures.' He added, 'Many businesses remain cautious, either due to the upfront investment required or uncertainty about long-term returns, meaning these benefits remain out of reach for the majority who have yet to adopt AI at scale.' Despite Singapore's status as a digital hub, 68% of businesses in the city-state are still in the early stages of AI adoption, with enterprises (43%) making more progress than small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (12%), partly due to a shortage of AI talent. Nearly half (47%) of respondents said the local talent pool is not enough to meet the demand, citing difficulty with recruiting locals' high salary expectations (51%), limited career development opportunities (50%), and skill mismatches (47%). Notably, three in five organisations reported lacking AI expertise. Currently, only 20% of local businesses have allocated a dedicated budget for reskilling. To address this demand, 62% of businesses said they're open to hiring overseas talent. Respondents said that government support (92%), financial support (42%), upskilling (26%), and technical or advisory support (15%) are crucial for AI adoption. Meanwhile, 57% of respondents said they want stronger regulatory guardrails. According to the report, only 5% are actively engaging with Singapore's National AI Strategy (NAIS 2.0), while 95% know little or nothing about the country's AI governance framework. On Tuesday, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) announced 800 practitioner jobs and training opportunities for locals to meet the demand for AI talent. 'With economic uncertainty and tariff pressures mounting, Singaporean businesses should ensure AI investments deliver tangible results in productivity, efficiency and margin resilience,' Mr Catino said. /TISG Read also: SME Association warns some Singapore firms could enter 'life support mode' as US tariff pause nears end
Bloomberg
5 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Pessimism Swells on Doing Business in China, European Firms Say
European firms in China are the most pessimistic about growth prospects since 2011, a new survey shows, underscoring the challenges of doing business in the world's second-largest economy despite recent government efforts to address some complaints. Some 29% of respondents were downbeat on the outlook for their sector over the next two years, according to an annual report by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China published on Wednesday. The survey conducted between January and February with 503 respondents also found that 49% of businesses expressed pessimism about their profitability.
Entrepreneur
5 days ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Why every start up founder should go to therapy
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. You're reading Entrepreneur United Kingdom, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. My first company had gone well, seeing us design, manufacture and ship DSLR camera straps and mounts to customers in more than 50 countries within a year of launch. I expected things to run as smoothly for my second venture. I was wrong. Not because the business wasn't working – it was. At Savu, we developed technology to protect people from electromagnetic radiation, emitted from devices like mobile phones. It was more technical than my first, with its fair share of challenges, but that wasn't what pushed me to breaking point. The problem wasn't the business. It was me. Here's what I learned from the experience – and my advice for fellow founders. The pressures of entrepreneurship As a founder, 'switching off' can feel impossible. The all-encompassing nature of the role means constant demands for your attention, from endless Slack messages to sudden crises. You feel like you need to be everywhere, all at once. In the early days of starting my third business Honest, the UK's top-rated B Corp mobile network, my co-founder Andy and I covered customer support 24/7. It wasn't unusual for me to step away from weddings, birthdays or other get-togethers to respond to customers needing help. Fast forward to now, and we have a dedicated team supporting our customers. But the around-the-clock nature of the job hasn't changed. I still check sales numbers everyday to see how our latest changes have impacted performance. I'm still heavily involved in product and marketing, designing a lot of our app and website myself. I'm still on call when there's a network outage or another crisis. My role has changed, but the sense of responsibility hasn't. Then there's fundraising, one of the areas I've found toughest as a founder. For every one hundred investors you pitch, more than ninety say no. That's part of the process, but it means coping with constant rejection, all while knowing your team's livelihoods depend on your ability to raise money. At the same time, you're trying to grow the business. It's an incredibly challenging juggling act with high stakes. Honest may look successful now we've secured funding from top UK funds, but there were times when I didn't know if we'd make it. Hitting breaking point Back in 2018 when I was feeling mounting pressure building Savu, I responded by speeding up. A classic over-achiever at school and university, I wasn't used to failing. If I didn't get things right the first time, I kept working until I did. But this approach doesn't always work in the precarious environment of a startup. Not everything was in my control. The harder things got, the harder I pushed myself. I isolated myself from friends and family, feeling embarrassed that I didn't have glowing updates. I neglected my physical and mental health, instead spending every waking hour focussed on work. Until the inevitable happened. I hit burnout. I still believe hard work pays off, but I now know that building a business is a marathon, not a sprint. Pacing yourself is critical to making it to the finish line. I no longer work all day everyday. There are still times when working flat out is needed, but when it's not, I make sure to take time out, whether that's a holiday or simply an evening with friends where I don't check my emails. Rather than compromising the success of Honest, I believe taking the time to reset when I can means I'm able to work even harder during the more intense periods. We try to encourage this attitude among the wider team, encouraging a healthy work/life balance through things like hybrid working, flexible hours and a bonus day off to celebrate birthdays. A more sustainable path to success Burning out forced me to confront how I was working and living. It was a wake-up call that reshaped not just my approach to business, but my entire life. It also prompted me to make one of my best decisions yet: I started therapy. There are still misconceptions about therapy as something for people in crisis or with serious mental illness. Instead, we should see therapy like going to the gym, building our mental strength and resilience. I firmly believe therapy should be part of everyone's routine, but especially when it comes to founders. As someone building a team and business, your mental strength has a huge impact on those around you. Being a founder can be lonely. Friends and family often don't understand why you're working so hard or relate to the challenges you're facing. Therapy has helped me tackle that, making me a stronger, more resilient founder. It's given me the tools to manage everyday challenges, recognise the warning signs of burnout, and create space to reflect. Since starting therapy in 2020, it's been critical to my personal growth and building a healthier, more sustainable mindset. Alongside regular therapy, I meditate and exercise most days. I started meditating during the pandemic and ended up becoming so intrigued by the science behind it that I bought a headband monitoring your brain waves. The mental clarity meditation has brought me has helped to navigate some of my toughest moments. On the physical side, I've found Crossfit a brilliant way to combine exercise and socialising. I've always enjoyed working out, but the community aspect of Crossfit means it's an hour every day when I'm guaranteed to switch off from work. Before my burnout, I would never have imagined being the kind of person who regularly goes to therapy and meditates. Now, I can't imagine my life without them. I don't think I'll ever fully master the work/life balance as a founder, but I have the tools and awareness to navigate it. Ultimately, each entrepreneur needs to figure out what works for them when it comes to performing at their best. Therapy is a brilliant tool to help with that.
New York Times
5 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Doing Business in China Is Getting Harder, but Its Exports Are Hard to Resist
European companies, many of which have operated in China for decades, are finding it increasingly difficult to do business in the country, another sign of how China's weak domestic economy and opaque regulations are testing even longstanding multinational business ties. European automakers have been rapidly losing market share and face many political difficulties. Volkswagen agreed last December to sell its factory in northwestern China's Xinjiang region, where Beijing has repressed Muslim ethnic groups. European pharmaceutical and medical imaging equipment companies have found themselves locked out of much of the state-run health system. An extensive annual survey of businesses released on Wednesday by the European Chamber of Commerce in China found that nearly three-quarters said it was getting harder to operate in China. It was the fourth consecutive year that the survey showed deepening corporate pessimism. The proportion of European companies that plan to expand their operations in China has also fallen to a record low, with just 38 percent saying that they intend to do so this year. European investment has been important in bringing Western technology to China and in bringing Chinese products to world markets. The chamber, which has been gauging challenges companies face in China for a quarter century, represents the interests of some 1,700 companies, from industrial giants like VW to small businesses with a handful of employees who are cogs in global supply chains. The chamber's survey also unearthed a somewhat contradictory trend that could prove troublesome for President Trump's attempt to shield American manufacturing from China's exports with tariffs. Even as European businesses curb their own investments in China, some are also buying ever more components from Chinese companies. That makes their supply chains even more dependent on China. China has retaliated against Mr. Trump's tariffs by imposing its own tariffs on American goods. That has prompted a hunt by European companies in China for Chinese replacements for the few components they were still buying from the United States, said Jens Eskelund, the chamber's president. A broad fall in prices in China has made Chinese components too good a deal for many European companies to pass up. A recent weakening of China's currency against the euro has made Chinese components even more attractive. 'The one place where they actually get better components at a lower price than anywhere else in the world is here in China,' Mr. Eskelund said. Not only the United States, but the European Union and other countries have imposed tariffs lately in response to China's soaring exports of manufactured goods and tepid demand for imports. European companies that export from China to other markets had long feared possible trade barriers, but some were still caught off guard. 'That fear has turned into a nightmare for many at the moment,' said Klaus Zenkel, a businessman in Shenzhen who is a member of the chamber's South China chapter. Some companies have set up temporary assembly operations in other countries to bypass American tariffs, Mr. Zenkel said. They rent warehouses in places like Taiwan, do the final assembly of Chinese components in the warehouses and then ship the finished goods to the United States with customs declarations that no longer show the goods as coming from China. The Trump administration is trying to reduce these indirect shipments from China. Mr. Trump has threatened high tariffs against countries that run large trade surpluses with the United States. One category of business conditions has improved very markedly in China in the past year, according to the European chamber's survey. The share of European companies worried about rising wages has fallen steeply over the last several years, and these now rank among the least of their concerns. Labor costs had been rising along with China's surging housing prices. But that bubble burst in 2021, causing declines in construction that eliminated many jobs. In turn, flat or even falling wages have contributed to weak demand in China for everything from imported cosmetics to hotel rooms — resulting in broadly low prices, a potentially dangerous phenomenon known as deflation. 'By a wide margin, it is China's economic slowdown that is seen as having the greatest impact,' Mr. Eskelund said.
The Independent
6 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Meghan reveals difficulties of being an entrepreneur and a mother
The Duchess of Sussex has revealed the challenges faced by female entrepreneurs like herself, who choose to grow a business while raising children. In the final episode of her podcast, Confessions Of A Female Founder, Meghan described the difficulties of trying to start a successful company while caring for young children. Meghan made the comments while expressing her admiration for podcast guest Sara Blakely, founder of shapewear clothing company Spanx and mother-of-four. 'The amount of what you have created, evolved through – the level of what you have done while having this many children, all at that age. It's something that I think people often forget,' she said. Discussing her own experiences, Meghan added: ' People forget that Lili is three, and Archie is five. 'So you look at the past five, six years of my life, it's yes, with being pregnant or with a newborn or with a toddler, and then another one.' Meghan stepped back from being a senior working royal and started a new life in the US when Archie was 10 months old and has since focused on launching her own As Ever brand and lifestyle Netflix series. Meghan expanded on other challenges facing female chief executives, including what she called a 'guilt mentality' over having a lot of money. 'I think so many women, especially, were taught to not even talk about money. And there's lots of guilt mentality surrounding having a lot', she said. 'It wasn't until the 70s that women could even have a credit card, a line of credit on a credit card without her husband.' The duchess also spoke of the importance of selfcare, saying: 'I remember my acupuncturist in the UK said to me, and it has always stayed with me, he said, if the baby's crying, treat the mother. 'It all starts with us. Good Lord, we have to take care of ourselves first.' The duchess's first batch of As Ever products, which included flower sprinkles and herbal tea, sold out, but her Netflix lifestyle series With Love, Meghan faced a set of disappointing reviews.
