How to set up and run a small business
One of the main benefits of becoming self employed is the ease with which you can start and run a business. Here are five things you need to do when you decide to go self employed.
The area of tax for small businesses is not straightforward but, if you take a little time, it’s usually possible to save some tax. Here are ten ways you could cut your tax bill.
When it comes to writing a business plan, there is one single golden rule that dwarfs all others – your business plan must address each of the key concerns of your potential backer.
If you fail on this first point, all the other things you should and shouldn’t do pale into insignificance and even a great business idea might fail to get backing it needs. A good business plan keeps the investor happy, so follow these 10 Dos and Don’ts to ratchet up your chances of success:
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Can you say that you and the people in your business form a dynamic team?
When geese fly in V formation, I see a dynamic team at work. This level of cooperation benefits each goose and the overall team. They reach their destination quicker and use far less energy.
Let me share an effective approach for translating this into the small business environment – the V is a great example of employee engagement. Continue…
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So, how do you do forecast sales realistically?
Every startup benefits greatly from making a cash flow forecast. But if your business hasn’t opened its doors yet, how is it possible to estimate the kind of sales you will get in your first month, let alone year of trading? We asked Robin Booth of Brixx.com to explain. Continue…
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Are you struggling to get your sales and marketing processes clear, consistent and measureable?
If so, it may be time to invest in a CRM system. If used correctly such a platform can benefit fast-growing businesses and allow them to build their customer base whilst maintaining that personalised relationship which is essential for both B2B and B2C companies in today’s world.
To help you understand how CRM software can help you to boost sales, and what to look out for when choosing a CRM system, we asked Robert Stead of The Marketing Centre to share his insight; Continue…
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Google RankBrain first rolled out in 2015. Unlike Google’s many previous updates it uses machine-learning and AI for the first time, in order to help better refine search results, especially in cases of rare, ambiguous or one-of-a-kind queries.
Understanding more about Rankbrain can help your website succeed, so we asked digital marketing expert, Paul Morris of Superb Digital, to explain what Google’s RankBrain is, how it works, where it’s going and why, as a small business owner, you should care. Continue…
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The practice of giving gifts to colleagues and clients is becoming an increasingly frequent occurrence in the workplace.
Although this activity is predominately centred around the Christmas holiday period, it is also common to see gifts distributed at other times of the year in celebration of birthdays, work anniversaries or the closing of an important business deal.
With this in mind, there are several factors employers must think about the next time they consider giving a gift to someone at work. Continue…
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In its 50 years, business book publisher Kogan Page has remained buoyant in a sector that is dominated by much larger companies.
The fact that its business is still prospering is testament to a few basic concepts that are as true today as when the company started in 1967. We asked Managing Director, Helen Kogan to share her experiences of how a smaller business can gain competitive advantage over bigger, dominant competitors. Continue…
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Once you have conquered your home market, what should you do? Set your sights overseas! That’s an obvious answer, anyway. Indeed, by pursuing international growth, you can give existing products a new lease of sales life and spread your company’s risk exposure across a range of markets.
However, mining meaningful returns from overseas markets can require you to first overcome various challenges. Here are 5 of the most common obstacles to global corporate success; Continue…
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Ecommerce now accounts for 17% of all UK consumer sales and it’s only going to keep growing. Yet, despite this growth, it is still hard to make it in the online marketplace.
Competition is tough, it requires both technical and business savvy, and you need to work much harder to gain trust.
Simply having a great idea for a business isn’t enough. If it were, there wouldn’t be so many poorly reviewed retailers on Trustpilot, so many horror stories of poor products and services, and so many rubbish websites.
To help you succeed online, we asked entrepreneur Stuart Maclaren, to share his 7 top tips for ecommerce success. Continue…
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Why does your company do what it does?
If you’ve thoughtfully identified this motive, you have probably embedded it in statements of your business mission, vision, and values.
These documents are akin to the ten commandments – guidelines that suggest how to act in the course of delivering your products or services. They are foundational to any corporate culture. Continue…
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Many businesses, organisations and leaders have created a ‘meeting culture’ whereby they need a meeting to decide what they are going to be meeting about and then another meeting to prepare for the meeting itself and another to de-brief after the meeting.
Wow, that’s a whole lot of meetings going on.
Meetings are the killer of productivity and part of being a ‘productivity ninja’ is centred on valuing your time and the time of others. Small businesses tend to understand this better than big business, simply because resources are tight and time is scarce, but I have no doubt we’ve all fallen into the ‘meeting for meeting sake’ trap.
Now, if you’re in this trap and not sure how to get out of it follow these five simple, but effective, guiding principles on how you can halve your meetings AND reduce the time they take whilst still making them productive. Continue…
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Businesses cannot afford to neglect cyber security in 2018. A recent report published by Beaming found that UK businesses are attacked online every 2.5 minutes, with the average firm suffering from 52,596 cyber-attacks between April and June 2018.
Small businesses are particularly vulnerable to these attacks, as a lack of security/training budget and expertise leaves many unable to properly protect their confidential information.
But all is not lost for mall businesses. The best way to defend your company from a data breach isn’t by investing millions in expensive software and data security experts, it’s by thinking like the person behind the attack in the first place – the hacker. Continue…
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We’ve all heard tales of bedroom entrepreneurs that end up selling their companies for billions.
It’s a dream that’s shared by many current and aspiring business owners. However, assembling your start-up with the ultimate goal of a trade sale takes a lot of preparation. What’s more, it’s hard to know where to begin.
When launching Gunna, an award-winning range of low-sugar craft soft drinks, I drew upon my previous experience of building my first company, a marketing strategy and innovation consultancy called Clear Ideas, and selling it to M&C Saatchi for £18.4m in 2007.
So here are my top five tips to help you build your start-up for a trade sale; Continue…
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When you start a business with someone else, it’s always a good idea to lay down some rules on important issues, such as; how you will run the company, your respective responsibilities and what happens if someone wants to leave the business. Agreeing on how you will handle these, and other important matters, will save a lot of anguish down the line.
If you are going into business with other individuals working under a partnership structure, you should do this with a Partnership Agreement. If you are setting up a limited company, you will a need to record these in a Shareholder’s Agreement.
This guide explains what a Shareholder’s Agreement does, who should get one and what should be included in the document.
Continue…
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When you run a small business it may seem like an extra chore to carefully wordsmith every presentation you give or to think carefully about the words you use when talking about your product and service.
However, when you are trying to make a sale, every word counts. By making your words more memorable you’ll not only stick in the minds of your customers you’ll find yourself making more sales. Continue…
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How can I forecast my cash flow when the business doesn’t even exist yet?
That’s a question most new startups wrestle with as they are planning their new business. It may seem to some to be an impossible task, so we asked Robin Booth of Brixx.com to show how you can produce a cash flow forecast for a new business. Continue…
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There may come a point where you end up missing a repayment for a loan or credit card that you have taken out, perhaps as a result of an unexpected financial emergency, or maybe just simply not having kept a track of your finances that month.
One of your first thoughts will be how quickly you can rectify the situation and pay the lender back, but have you also considered that this late payment could affect your credit score negatively? All The Lenders takes a look at how this works, as well as what you can do to also minimise the impact. Continue…
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It’s impossible to forget the repercussions of the financial crash, many of which are still felt throughout the global economy today. But, as economic growth flatlined, the opposite happened in the online world.
While the banks cut off their lending to startups, internet technologies were undergoing a key evolution. Web 2.0 was emerging, and technology began connecting individuals, allowing them to bypass many long-established intermediaries.
This was the precursor to both rewards and equity crowdfunding.
Put simply, Rewards Crowdfunding is the practice of giving lower cost or exclusive items as rewards to early adopters in return for their backing, while Equity Crowdfunding involves selling shares in your business.
To help you understand more about the pros and cons of Rewards and Equity Crowdfunding, and the key points for success, we asked crowdfunding expert, John Auckland of TribeFirst to explain more. Continue…
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There are a number of different myths surrounding credit scores, making it difficult to truly understand what it is you need to know and what you should be doing in order to boost yours.
In this guide we cover the most commonly spoken about myths, and debunk them one by one.
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The way in which audiences are perceiving and consuming marketing content is changing rapidly. The digital sphere has changed the nature of how we, as consumers, respond to advertising, with the result that many traditional techniques just aren’t cutting it any more.
Consumers are digitally literate and don’t have any qualms about voicing their dislike of traditional advertising. Continue…
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