Jon Burston, Author at hirevolution

AI for small businesses: what’s actually working, and what’s still hype

A large, shiny, empty balloon floating beside an office worker calmly using a small, genuinely useful tool: the gap between AI hype and what actually helps.

What AI is genuinely doing for UK small businesses today, and what is still hype, read through cited 2026 research: real time savings, the revenue gap, and why projects fail.

Custom software or low-code? How to tell which your business actually needs

A signpost between two routes, one built from tidy modular blocks to a low-code app, the other a bespoke custom-built app: choosing between low-code and custom software.

How to tell whether your business needs custom software or a low-code platform like Power Apps. A plain-English guide to the strategic-versus-utility test, the 10% trap, and cost over time.

What slow quote follow-up really costs a trade business

A tradesperson walking away from a bench where a written quote, a phone and a calendar sit: the issued estimate left to go cold.

What slow quote follow-up really costs a small trade business, worked through with cited research: how conversion drops with delay, why issued quotes go cold, and a calmer fix.

What missed calls actually cost a small UK business

A shop owner serving a customer at the counter while a telephone rings unanswered nearby: the everyday missed call this article is about.

What missed calls really cost a small UK service business, worked through with cited research: the missed-enquiry rate, the monthly leak, and a calmer fix.

Microsoft Copilot can now run a whole job, not just draft it: what Cowork means for a small business

Editorial illustration: a small UK workshop bench where a newly delivered self-running machine turns a tall in-tray of raw material into a neat finished stack in the out-tray, a round sun-orange usage dial beside it — the sober arrival of a capable new piece of kit you must watch the meter on.

Microsoft Copilot Cowork can now run a whole job, not just draft it. What the agentic update changes, how it is billed, and what an SME should make of it.

Power BI’s ‘agentic era’ arrived this month. Here is the part an SME can actually use

Editorial illustration: behind a small-business owner a large, busy wall of dashboards, dials and charts looms in muted tones (the hype of a big data release), while the owner calmly holds up the one simple, clear chart lifted out of it, picked out in ink blue — the single genuinely useful part of the release.

Power BI’s ‘agentic era’ has landed. Here is the honest take on what reached general availability and what a small business can genuinely use today.

The AI gap your clients are asking about that you cannot deliver yet

A worker stands on one side of a sun-orange gap in office floorboards, a client's empty waiting chair with a request ticket on the far side — the honest moment of AI demand sitting just out of reach of what a partner can deliver today.

Clients are asking partners for AI faster than most can deliver. Why the gap is real, why reselling pays worst, and three honest options for IT partners.

Power Apps’ 2026 update, in plain terms for a small business building its own apps

A small-business owner at a tidy desk lifting the lid off a freshly delivered wooden crate, a single sun-orange modular building block arriving to slot beside plain assembled blocks already on the desk — a calm, matter-of-fact illustration of a useful update quietly adding to what is already built.

What the Power Platform 2026 release wave 1 means for a small business building its own apps: the modern look, generative pages and an honest read.

How fast should you reply to a new enquiry, and how to actually do it

A UK tradesperson pausing mid-job to glance at their phone and tap a quick reply the moment a new enquiry lands, a small sun-orange arc lifting away from the phone to show the acknowledgement already on its way back — the prompt response that keeps a warm lead warm.

How quickly a new enquiry really needs a reply, with cited research, and how a small team hits a fast first response without sitting by a phone all day.

White-label vs referral: two honest ways to resell delivery

A worker at a partner's desk seals a completed job in their own ink-blue branded wrapping to send out as theirs, while a plainer parcel already passed along under someone else's label sits to one side — the quiet decision of whether work goes to the client under your name or another's.

White-label or referral? The honest difference between the two ways to resell delivery work, the line that divides them, and how to pick the one that fits.