When your background differs from the people working with and around you, it’s easy to feel judged by the assumptions people make about you from class to gender. Whatever your upbringing, it’s something we all deal with - our backgrounds are always with us, either to be embraced, accepted, or fled from. Jordan Brompton, entrepreneur and co-founder of the smart energy tech company Myenergi, shares her experience as a working class woman and her love of solar panels.

Production team: Producers: Simon Tulett and Michaela Graichen Researcher: Drew Hyndman Editor: Matt Willis Sound: Rod Farquhar Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison

When your business is about making products, and the factory you use gets into trouble, that’s potentially a big problem. Do you try to find another one, or do you try to fix it? Rob Law, entrepreneur and inventor of the Trunki children’s suitcase, had exactly this dilemma, and tells Evan Davis about the risky decision it prompted.

He also discusses the illness and personal loss that have shaped his career, and recalls his infamous appearance on Dragon’s Den almost 20 years ago.

Production team: Producers: Simon Tulett and Michaela Graichen Researcher: Drew Hyndman Editor: Matt Willis Sound: Rod Farquhar Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison

You've had a brilliant business idea. At least, you think you have. What do you do next? Evan Davis speaks to three successful entrepreneurs- including former contestants on The Apprentice and Dragons' Den. Where do the best ideas come from and how do you know when they are worth pursuing? What are the top tips for pitching and when is it time to let an idea go?

Evan is joined by Rob Law, the inventor of the Trunki ride-on suitcase for kids, Pippa Murray, founder of the nut butter brand Pip & Nut and Tom Pellereau, who invented the curved nail file for his company Stylideas.

Production team: Producers: Simon Tulett and Michaela Graichen Researcher: Drew Hyndman Editor: Matt Willis Sound: Rod Farquhar Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison

(Picture: Getty Images, Credit: Teerachai Jampanak)

Why do advertising agencies use fear to get us to part with our money?

Advertising agencies and marketing people use different techniques to push our buttons. Humour is one. But what about fear? Do they sometimes try to scare us into buying? Or is it a gentler art- playing on our insecurities about things like old age, poor health or thinning hair?

Evan Davis speaks to Sir John Hegarty and Ian Gathard from the advertising industry and psychologist Juliane Beard, who studies how the brains of consumers work.

Credits: Volkswagen "Eyes on the Road" advertising stunt Reebok trainers advertisement: "Lose the Beer Belly" Aviva home insurance advertisement

Production team: Producers: Simon Tulett and Michaela Graichen Researcher: Drew Hyndman Editor: Matt Willis Sound: Neil Churchill Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison

(Picture: Piccadilly Circus in London, Light Trails at night. Credit: Jonathan Herbert, JH Images via Getty Images)

When Shivaun and Adam Raff's shopping and price comparison website all but vanished from Google's search results just days after launching, the pair began a gruelling legal battle that would end with a landmark judgement and the tech giant receiving a then record fine.

European regulators found the search engine guilty of abusing its market dominance by making its own shopping recommendations appear more prominently than rivals' in its search results. Google spent seven years appealing its €2.4bn fine, but eventually lost in September this year.

In their first interview since that verdict the Raffs tell Evan Davis the story behind their website - Foundem - and what they learned about big tech, regulation, and themselves during their almost 20-year fight.

Evan is joined by:

Shivaun and Adam Raff, co-founders, Foundem; Anne Witt, professor of law, EDHEC business school.

Credits:

President Barack speaking to Kara Swisher, from the technology news website Recode, in February 2015; Joaquín Almunia speaking at a European Commission press conference in February 2014; Margarethe Vestager speaking at a European Commission press conference in June 2017.

Production team:

Producer: Simon Tulett Researcher: Drew Hyndman Editor: Matt Willis Sound: Jonny Baker and Neil Churchill Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison

(Picture: The Google logo displayed on a mobile phone and computer monitor. Credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images/BBC)

When a company finds itself facing war or natural disaster how can it get staff out of harm's way, and is there any chance of ensuring business as usual?

Evan Davis speaks to one business leader who helped move hundreds of staff out of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia when war broke out in 2022. Two crisis response companies explain how they have been helping clients with people and operations in Lebanon, Israel and parts of the USA recently hit by hurricanes.

Plus, what is an employer's obligation in these situations, and do the same rules apply to international as well as local hires?

Evan is joined by:

Ann Roberts, chief people officer, Flo; James Waddington, global director of security assistance, International SOS; Elmarie Marais, founder and CEO, GoCrisis; and Anna, an employee at Wildix.

Production team:

Producer: Simon Tulett Researchers: Drew Hyndman and Michaela Graichen Editor: Matt Willis Sound: Pete Wise and Tim Heffer Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison

(Picture: A Ukrainian flag flies from a destroyed building in Mariupol, April 2022. Credit: Reuters/Alexander Ermochenko/BBC)

It must be one of the most-maligned professions out there - on a par, perhaps, with traffic wardens - but debt collectors perform a vital service to businesses and the wider economy. So why do we love to despise them?

Evan Davis and guests discuss the industry's inner workings, from the public image of aggressive, burly bailiffs, to the reality of repayment plans prompted by artificial intelligence. We ask how most try to ensure they collect debts fairly, and also hear the other side of the debt story - how damaging and stressful it can be for businesses who desperately need the money.

Plus, why do we find it so hard to talk about debt in the UK? We hear about the industry's efforts to tackle the stigma.

Evan is joined by:

John Pears, UK CEO, Lowell; Amon Ghaiumy, co-founder and CEO, Ophelos; Dana Denis-Smith, CEO and founder, Obelisk Support.

Production team:

Producer: Simon Tulett Researcher: Farhana Haider Editor: Matt Willis Sound: Dafydd Evans and Sarah Hockley Production co-ordinators: Rosie Strawbridge and Katie Morrison

Side hustlers are seemingly everywhere - some surveys suggest they account for around half of UK workers - and stories of getting rich quick and abandoning the 9-5 are plenty. But the reality for many is much less glamorous: long hours; a precarious balancing act with the day job; and a good chance of failure.

Evan Davis speaks to side hustlers, and their employers, to find out what it’s really like balancing two jobs at once. Plus, why is side hustling so popular anyway? Does it reveal a flourishing entrepreneurial spirit in the UK, particularly among young workers, or is it a symptom of a changing relationship between employer and employee?

Evan is joined by:

Julian Douglas, global CEO, VCCP; Ewen MacPherson, chief people officer, Havas UK; Karen Burke, founder, Go Goosey.

Production team:

Producer: Simon Tulett Researcher: Drew Hyndman Editor: Matt Willis Sound: Nicola Brough and Rod Farquhar Production co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge

The UK's power grid is undergoing a huge shift towards renewable energy, but running homes and businesses solely on this new form of electricity will be a delicate balancing act and will pose new choices for consumers.

Evan Davis and guests discuss the challenge of matching supply - from wind and solar - with an increased demand from electric vehicles and homes using heat pumps rather than gas boilers.

Part of the solution could be consumers themselves - homes with EVs, solar panels or battery storage could act like mini power plants, sending energy back to the grid, as well as taking from it, and getting paid in the process. But that two-way exchange could bring harder decisions - would you let your energy company switch off your fridge for an hour to ease pressure on the grid?

Evan is joined by: Cordi O’Hara, president of UK electricity distribution, National Grid; Hamish Phillips, net zero business development director, Centrica; Jordan Brompton, co-founder and chief marketing officer, Myenergi.

Production team: Producer: Simon Tulett Researcher: Drew Hyndman Editor: Matt Willis Sound: Jonny Baker and Tim Heffer Production co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge

Every year has its business highs and lows which we don't often get an opportunity to chew over on The Bottom Line.

This year is different.

To mark our end of term, we thought we’d reflect on the business year and look at some of the highs and lows across the business landscape, creating our very own (and very unofficial) Bottom Line Business Awards.

Three panellists, three categories, three nominations.

Joining Evan are: JESSICA SPUNGIN, Adjunct Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School SIR KEN OLISSA, Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London and Chair and founder of Restoration Partners, a bank for entrepreneurs And NISHMA PATEL ROBB, current Executive Member of Women in Advertising and Communications Leadership, founder and CEO of The Glittersphere and formerly Marketing Director at Google UK

PRODUCTION TEAM: Producers: Drew Hyndman and Alex Lewis Editor: Matt Willis Sound: Rod Farquhar Production co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge

Private schools in the UK are mostly registered as charities – but they are also businesses – businesses in the sense that they sell a service to paying customers.

They’ve recently been in the news because the new government has said it will remove their exemption from VAT.

In this episode we take a look at the business of private education: how it works, how much money is made and what will happen when exemption from VAT is removed from school fees.

Evan Davis is joined by: Geoffrey Stanford, Head of Royal Grammar School Newcastle Jesse Elzinga Head of Sevenoaks School Cheryl Giovannoni, CEO, Girls' Day School Trust (GDST) Duncan Murphy, Director of Education, MTM Consulting

PRODUCTION TEAM: Producers: Drew Hyndman and Alex Lewis Editor: Matt Willis Sound: Rod Farquhar Production co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge and Janet Staples