Business121 Small Business Newsletter #44

In this week's Business121:

1. More female millionaires
2. Making Sales - Six Powerful Prospecting Tips
3. VAT - Not all goods and services are standard-rated
4. Half of businesses need guidance on calculating late payment interest
5. Age Discrimination - are you prepared?
6. Dragons' Den judge advises you to recruit staff locally
7. Debt diary highlights misconceptions about freelancing
8. Survey shows firms think postal changes will be costly
9. Personal insolvency figures soar, but company liquidations decrease
10. Exodus of entrepreneurial skills from UK’s businesses

More female millionaires
In the last 24 hours, TV and radio stations have given considerable airtime to the forecast that the number of female millionaires in the UK is set to rocket. And that the number of female millionaires will overtake male millionaires by 2020.

At present, 40% of millionaires are women but the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) have done a bit of crystal ball gazing and is predicting that this figure will increase to 53% by 2020.

The CEBR believes the main driving forces behind this trend are increased divorce settlements, the fact that women outlive their husbands (the ones they haven't divorced I presume!) and greater ownership of property and shares.

But there's no mention of the fact that more women are starting and running their own businesses. Surely the fact that there are more women running successful businesses means that more of them will become millionaires in the process.

In the first quarter of this year 20,600 women started a new business. This was up from 16,700 for the same period in 2005 - a considerable increase of almost 25%.

It also seems that women are more likely to run a profitable business - with 58% of female company directors involved with profitable businesses, compared to 56% of of male directors.

If the CEBR hasn't factored in the trend for more women business owners in their forecast, then I suspect that they are under-estimating the growth in female millionaires.

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Making Sales - Six Powerful Prospecting Tips
Prospecting for new business, like any other skill, can be learned and developed into a habit. With a regular flow of new prospects you're more likely to make healthy sales, so prospecting for new customers is of vital importance. Here are 6 key prospecting tips to help build your small business;
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/cgi-bin/click.cgi?id=89

VAT - Not all goods and services are standard-rated
You will have read elsewhere that VAT applies at 17.5% to most supplies of goods and services. That is true. However, there are a significant number of areas where other rates of VAT apply. It's in your interest to get it right because it's not always easy to untangle things later!
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/cgi-bin/click.cgi?id=84

Half of businesses need guidance on calculating late payment interest
A poll by the Better Payment Practice Group has found that half of UK firms surveyed do not know how to calculate late payment interest. Under the UK’s late payment legislation, businesses are entitled to charge interest on overdue commercial debts at up to 8% over base rate, so you could be missing out on substantial interest payments;
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/cgi-bin/click.cgi?id=85

Age Discrimination - are you prepared?
You risk facing legal action if you do not update your working practices to reflect the changes being brought in under new age discrimination legislation. Includes 6 Tips to help you avoid workplace age discrimination;
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/cgi-bin/click.cgi?id=83

Dragons' Den judge advises you to recruit staff locally
In the latest of his regular column, 'How to win at business', in The Times, Dragons' Den judge, Duncan Bannatyne advises businesses to recruit locally for loyal, focused workers;
http://snipurl.com/_recruit_locally

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SMALL BUSINESS NEWS
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Debt diary highlights misconceptions about freelancing
Following the publication of a freelancer's debt diary on the BBC online news website, a leading contractor group says that her story highlights some of the misconceptions surrounding freelancing;
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/cgi-bin/click.cgi?id=86

Survey shows firms think postal changes will be costly
Smaller businesses think the changes to the postal system being introduced on 21 August will lead to an increase in costs. That’s the result of a survey of nearly 200 hundred firms carried out by the Forum of Private Business;
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/cgi-bin/click.cgi?id=87

Personal insolvency figures soar, but company liquidations decrease
Figures provided by the Insolvency Service this month show that UK businesses are less likely to go into liquidation than they were a year ago. Personal insolvencies continue to soar, however, as the longer term cost of "cheap" borrowing becomes more and more apparent;
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/cgi-bin/click.cgi?id=88

Exodus of entrepreneurial skills from UK’s businesses
Research undertaken for the Tenon Forum shows a worrying trend that could leave Britain gasping for entrepreneurial skills and venture capital in the years ahead;
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/cgi-bin/click.cgi?id=91

** For the latest Small Business News, visit Bytestart News **

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