Business121 Small Business Newsletter #22

In this week's Business121:

1. What we can all learn from Thomas Edison
2. Google manipulates search results: A boost for small business?
3. Invoice Finance and Factoring for Small Businesses
4. Flat Rate VAT Scheme - An Overview
5. How much will you earn as an IT Contractor?
6. Running a home office - can you claim on expenses?
7. Time to tackle small business tax burden
8. Charity shops gaining unfair advantage over small businesses
9. Small businesses ignore search engine importance
10. Sales training for small businesses - update

What we can all learn from Thomas Edison

How you manage failure will have a big effect on how you succeed in business. In fact, many successful entrepreneurs don't view failure as failure. Choosing instead to see it as a positive step.

One of the most famous examples of this attitude is Thomas Edison. The man that gave us the electric light bulb, the phonograph, the motion-picture camera, the microphone and a thousand other devices that have shaped our modern lives.

Thomas Edison was a firm believer in the importance of failure. Because he recognised, that failure was what led him to success.

A great example of this was when he was working on developing a better battery. After conducting 50,000 tests without success, a discouraged assistant came up to him and suggested that they quit. "You must be pretty downhearted with the lack of progress", the assistant said. Edison replied, "Downhearted? We've made a lot of progress. At least we know 50,000 things that won't work!"

Did they succeed in making a better battery? They certainly did, eventually developing a nickel-iron alkaline battery that became an industry standard and is still used today - almost 100 years on. If Edison had let the 50,000 failures get him down, we might not have that battery today.

It's a similar story with the invention of the light bulb. It took more than 2,000 tests to find the right filament for the bulb. It's fair to say that Edison had more failures than most, but was he a failure?

When running our businesses there are lots of things we have to fail at before we will ever perfect them. It's important that we remember the value of that failure and don't let the fear of failure to inhibit us.

The next time that you feel you've failed, take the Edison outlook and view it as another step along the path to success.

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Google manipulates search results: A boost for small business?
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Getting a Top 10 ranking in Google's search results is becoming harder by the day, especially for small businesses with limited budgets. But if a Top 10 ranking for your major keywords has eluded you so far, there may be hope for you.
http://snipurl.com/_Google_search_trial

Invoice Finance and Factoring for Small Businesses
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Invoice Finance is a means of optimising your cash flow, removing the peaks and troughs and ultimately making cash easier to manage. Here's our instant guide to factoring and invoice finance for small businesses;
http://snipurl.com/_InvoiceFinanceGuide

Flat Rate VAT Scheme - An Overview
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Alongside the standard VAT rules, some small businesses may be better off by operating within the flat rate VAT scheme, which has been running since 2002. The main aim of the flat rate scheme is to reduce the cost of complying with VAT obligations by simplifying the way small businesses calculate their VAT. Find out what's involved with our overview of the scheme;
http://snipurl.com/_Flat_rate_VAT

How much will you earn as an IT Contractor?
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As a general rule, IT Contractors will earn significantly more than permanent employees performing similar roles. Of course, contractors have to put up with the uncertainty of finding short-term work and weathering economic downturns, so these factors inevitably result in higher pay levels. Contract rates vary greatly according to the location of the contract, the skills and experience required to perform a given role.
http://snipurl.com/_IT_contractor_rates

Running a home office - can you claim on expenses?
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As more and more people choose to work from home, the question of how you can reclaim any home office expenses is frequently asked. The general Inland Revenue rule for claiming tax relief on business expenses is that you can only reclaim costs that have been 'wholly and exclusively' incurred in connection with your trade.

Typically, the Inland Revenue will allow some 'home office' claims as long as they have been calculated on a reasonable basis, and that such claims are not excessive.
http://snipurl.com/Home_Office_Expenses

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SMALL BUSINESS NEWS
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Time to tackle small business tax burden
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At a crucial meeting with the Chancellor ahead of the Budget, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) is asking for reassurance that the tax burden on business will not be increased. British businesses are paying 10 per cent more than the average for the EU’s 10 new member states and 5 per cent more than the average for the whole of the EU.
http://snipurl.com/_business_tax_burden

Charity shops gaining unfair advantage over small businesses
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The new breed of professional charity shops selling new goods are undercutting small businesses and should no longer benefit from tax breaks, claims The Forum of Private Business (FPB).
With the complexion of charity shops changing enormously in recent years, many big name charities are now competing directly with small businesses.
http://snipurl.com/_Charities_competing

Small businesses ignore search engine importance
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Almost half of all small businesses do not submit their websites to search engines, research among some 2,000 SMEs has found. Additionally, 66 per cent of internet users and potential customers indicated that they only looked at the first two pages of search results. These two findings mean that most small businesses may never be discovered online.
http://snipurl.com/_Search_Engines

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SALES TRAINING
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A big thank you to everybody who responded to last week's 121 on sales training for small businesses. The issue has generated a huge mailbox and it's clearly an area that many of us would like to improve upon.

Your feedback indicates that there are common areas of sales that are currently holding you back. There is such a clear demand for sales training specifically tailored for small business that we are planning to launch a course. Many of you have kindly recommended sales courses and companies that you have used in the past, and we are currently speaking with these to decide on the best way forward.

If you missed, last week's issue you can access it online here

To be placed on a priority reservation list, email emyr@Business121.co.uk people on this list will be given first-option on our first training day.

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SEE YOUR AD HERE
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