Choosing the right furniture for your business depends essentially on the type of business. Cheap, second-hand desks and chairs may not be good business sense. If you think it possible that customers or suppliers will visit your premises at regular intervals, it is crucial to select furniture which projects the image you have planned for [...]
Choosing Other Equipment
THE RIGHT COMMUNICATIONS
You need to buy a fast modem; choose the faster feasible modem on general supply (say ?150 – ?200). A modem – either installed internally within your computer or attached externally – lets you communicate with others direct from your computer screen using your phone line. You can send and receive e-mail and [...]
Customer Care
It’s all too easy when you’re struggling with the finances, the production, the employees to regard customers as ‘just another problem’, ‘a nuisance’ or ‘getting in the way’. But you need to drag yourself back to reality. Without customers, you have no business, no matter how slick your financial control, nor how good your man-management.
Put [...]
Accountant And Book-Keeper
The advice accountants may be able to give ranges from the basic services, such as book-keeping, to the more sophisticated, such as tax planning or raising funds. Not every accountant will offer every sort of advice. For example, a big firm of accountants is unlikely to undertake weekly book-keeping functions; an accountant working alone may [...]
Losses For The Self-Employed
If you have made a loss in your business, what can you do with it to cut your tax bills? Your two main options are to:
? deduct the loss from other income or a capital gain
? carry the loss forward and deduct it from future trading profits from your business.
DEDUCTING THE LOSS FROM OTHER INCOME [...]
Phase 2 Money
Going for growth usually means raising more money. Not always. You may have created that elixir of business, a cash-generative model, and be able to fund your own expansion with your own resources. But you are likely to be the exception.
In most cases to expand you will need to raise outside money. Phase 2 money [...]
Investigating And Negotiating
Before you sign anything, there are several steps to take to investigate the premises further. These steps are:
? to estimate costs
? to check structure of property (if it is freehold or a repairing lease)
? to investigate the legal side of things, and
? to look at local authority requirements.
TO ESTIMATE COSTS
There are [...]
What To Do With A Design
Sometimes the success or failure of a product depends not only on how it works, but on what it looks like. The outward shape or decorative appearance of a product can also be protected, either by:
? relying on the automatic protection of design right (a bit like copyright), or by
? registering the design, [...]
The Pluses And Minuses
Your main consideration before buying any particular franchise is whether it will work as a business for you and provide you with the sort of living you require. Assuming that you have found such a franchise, there are advantages and disadvantages of which you should be aware.
Other Insurance You Can Get
INSURANCE AGAINST FIRE AND OTHER PERILS
This covers destruction or damage to your buildings and contents through fire. You can also be covered for other risks such as lightning, explosion, aircraft, storm, flood, riot, malicious damage and so on. If you work from your own home, you will still need to get your own insurance policy [...]
Balance Sheet Forecast
A balance sheet for your business will show what you own and what you are owed on one particular day. A forecast one will show your estimate of that picture at the end of the period.
There is more about accounting records needed to produce the right information for a balance sheet once you are in [...]
Your Suppliers
Quite a lot of the way you can deal with your suppliers (or creditors when you owe them money) is simply the reverse of what you do with debtors. Taking credit from suppliers is a significant source of finance for most small businesses. However, the other side of the coin is that those suppliers may [...]
Working From Home
Many small businesses will start off in the back bedroom. Some, especially if they are part-time businesses, may stay there permanently. Working from home has several advantages:
? it is free
? it involves no travelling
? the work can be combined with any domestic tasks to be done
? there are no fares or [...]
How To Pay For Equipment
There are four main ways you can pay for equipment. Two of them involve buying the equipment, so you become the owner; the others do not, the ownership being retained elsewhere. The ways are:
? buying outright
? hire purchase
? leasing
? contract hire.
Banks obviously offer a wide range of financial facilities
Banks obviously offer a wide range of financial facilities, such as current accounts, provision of overdrafts, longer-term loans, leasing and factoring, import and export assistance. There is more detail about the provision of finance ‘Raising the money’. Most of the banks also have specialist services for small businesses and networks of small business centres or [...]
The Message- Who, What, How
WHO IS THE MESSAGE TO?
If you do not know what your target market is, you really do not deserve to succeed. You need this information at your fingertips from a very early stage of planning your business. Defining the target market necessitates sorting out its characteristics: the number, the location, the spending power, the class [...]
