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Inspiration can be hard to come by when you’re overworked or when your business appears to be traipsing towards a dead end.

Indeed, it can be hard to figure out the solution to any problem when those issues appear insurmountable. And if you’re a small business owner, a huge number of conundrums can appear greater than Mount Everest.

According to Small Business Administration (SBA), ’20 per cent of small businesses fail in the first year, 50 per cent go belly up after five years, and only 33 per cent make it to 10 years or longer.’

But that doesn’t mean you’re destined for failure. With the right dose of inspiration, even the most mountainous of obstacles can diminish in size.

That’s why we’ve found a few incredible businesses that are sure to inspire you. So take a look and see what these companies have done right.

1. 3M Buckley Innovation Centre

First up, here’s a location that specialises in inspiration. The 3M Buckley Innovation Centre is situated in Huddersfield and is associated with the University of Huddersfield. Its aim? To work alongside pioneering businesses and help them grow.

The site uses all of the resources afforded to it in order to create a hub for business excellence, including hi-tech meeting rooms, rentable office and lab space, networking and training events, and an in-house team of professionals who can provide you with advice.

The lesson: If you need a dollop of inspiration, then contacting businesses who specialise in revenue growth is your best bet.

2. Zoom

Unless you’ve lived under a rock during the pandemic, chances are you’ve used Zoom during a business or family call.

The video-conferencing service has become a runaway success thanks to the unavoidable rise in remote working. Its inception was, however, far from easy.

Zoom’s founder is Eric Yuan who relocated to from China to the USA in the late 90s to profit from the internet boom. But gaining a visa for the country of his dreams was a rough ride, and he was only accepted after 10 attempts.

More than a decade later, Zoom was founded in 2012, and the rest is history. But if Yuan had been denied a visa, 2020 would have been dramatically different.

The lesson: persistence is the key to success.

3. Bulb

Bulb is the company that’s shining a light on the way we consume energy, and helping us change for the better.

The electricity company was founded in 2015 and swiftly grew to become Britain’s leading renewable energy supplier.

Amit Gudka, the co-founder of Bulb, told UK Tech News, ‘Hayden and I have been really inspired by the generosity of former colleagues and the London startup community as a whole. Working from Second Home for the last two years has also been a huge catalyst for Bulb. We’re constantly exposed to new and exciting ideas for how we deliver our service to members.’

The lesson: don’t be afraid to collaborate. It could change how you do business.

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