Thursday May 10, 2012 at 9:00am
The media loves a bad news story. You could practically hear the cries of delight as they reported the news. It was all doom and gloom, concentrating on the Government’s failure to lift us out of the economic slump. Typical media stuff.
And while we can’t pretend the outlook’s completely positive, perhaps it’s not as bad as some in the media make out. Two new surveys show confidence from UK businesses. Optimism among smaller manufacturers rose for the first time since ....
Thursday May 3, 2012 at 9:00am
Credit agency Graydon and the Forum of Private Business (FPB) published the findings of research into the impact of late payment on small business owners. Such was the severity of the report that it was discussed by a House of Commons summit attended by some of the leading lights of the UK’s financial world. They included the business department, the Labour Party, the Institute of Credit Management, Lloyds, and the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants.
The research revealed:&nb....
Thursday March 1, 2012 at 9:00am
You probably don’t need an accountant to tell you time equals money. But I’m going to anyway because too many business people don’t actually translate this into positive action and manage their time effectively. If you had £10,000 in your hand, you wouldn’t let the kids play with it or stick it in the coat pocket with a hole at the bottom. Yet we often treat our time with the same carelessness and squander this valuable resource. Learning how to manage time is cruci....
Thursday February 23, 2012 at 9:00am
The problem with the future is it hasn’t happened yet.
For business this means planning ahead is dependent on speculation. Of course, that speculation is based upon facts and figures, but how do you interpret them? In reality, we often depend upon other people’s interpretations and predictions, but only this week we’ve found cause to be wary of putting too much faith in the media.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) recently released a report....
Friday January 13, 2012 at 1:21pm
With Christmas out of the way and as we rapidly approach the end of the tax year it’s a good time for every small business owner to take a look at their financial management and accounting practices. Small business owners often make seemingly simple accounting mistakes which at their most extreme could mean the difference between a good and bad fiscal year.
Here are three common financial mistakes we encounter and how to avoid them.
Not discussing costs and payment terms in advance. Co....
Thursday January 12, 2012 at 9:00am
Amidst all the doom and gloom of 2011 I was encouraged to read that according to recent research 470,000 new businesses were created last year an increase of 18 per cent on figures for 2010. Even taking account of the high number of insolvencies there was still a net gain of 455,000 new limited companies. It’s not unsurprising as in previous recessions when large numbers of people have been made redundant many have elected to set up their own business, often offering their skills and exper....
Thursday December 8, 2011 at 10:00am
I was reading the results of a survey recently which looked at how equipped entrepreneurs are to succeed in business. The results were somewhat surprising.
Fail to plan and you can plan to fail!
In this survey 16 per cent of entrepreneurs didn’t have a written business plan. Now, I’m no advocate for the kind of business plan you might learn how to write in business school. But I am in favour of a set of measurable goals and detailed strategy outlining how the goals will be achiev....
Thursday October 13, 2011 at 9:30am
Cash is king. How many times have you heard that? Too many perhaps, without a full explanation of what it really means.
When business advisors and accountants talk about ‘cash’ being king they are really warning against the dangers of overtrading – in other words celebrating the success you’re having in selling without paying adequate attention to the overall financial health of your business.
You’d think that sales growth was a good thing – but if you exp....
Thursday September 22, 2011 at 9:30am
With reduced economic growth meaning potentially less buying activity from existing customers now is certainly not the time to cut marketing investment, indeed it is probably time to increase marketing spend in order to replace potentially falling sales.
However, for many, effective marketing can be elusive unless you go back to first principles. Proper marketing will enable you to identify your target customer, enable you to provide services that the customers want and enable you to retain th....