In December 2018 Forbes Magazine placed the UK as number 1 in its list of Best Countries for Business. There is no doubt that the UK offers tremendous opportunities for businesses to be set up and to thrive. However the fact that this is so well recognised means that it is also probably the most competitive country on earth for businesses. You need to make sure that all aspects of your UK operation are run to the highest professional standards in order to succeed. The aim of this article is to give you some tips as to how to setup a company in the UK. Visa. If you do not already have the right to live and run a business here you will need a Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa. For this you will need to invest a minimum of £200,000 in your new business and employ yourself and take on at least two members of staff in the first two years. Business Idea. You need to start with an idea of what product or service you want to sell. The first step is to think who might buy your product and … [Read more...]
How to design a robust profit-sharing bonus scheme for 2019
In the last newsletter we talked about what to do about awarding a Xmas bonus. [If you missed it click here to find it] Now we talk about putting a bonus scheme into place for 2019. If your financial year-end is say March, the next few months could be a good time to develop and trial a scheme before launching it in April. What should l incentivise people on? The profitability of the business is a simple way to measure business success. If there is a large minority of support staff then you might also consider cost-savings/efficiency savings as being the other side of the profit coin. You might be tempted by the achievement of individual objectives. Our general experience in the SME space is that staff appraisals don’t happen consistently enough so we wouldn’t recommend a performance pay system based on the achievement of individual objectives, as MDs usually haven’t the infrastructure in place to make this watertight. What do l need to do first? You will presumably have a business … [Read more...]
Top Tips for Networking at Business Events
Business networking is one of the most effective ways of generating new business, but it can seem daunting for the less extrovert doing it for the first time. However, even the most shrinking violet will gain confidence and effectiveness with practice. There are many different types of networking event and different times of day in which they happen. Most will let you try them out once or twice for a small fee. Once you have attended a few, chose the ones where you are most comfortable and have had the most success. To help you make more of the opportunities present at your next business event, here are my top 10 tips for networking effectively. Draft an 'elevator pitch' - a short (approx. 30 seconds) overview of your business, that you can trot out when asked “what do you do?”. It is best to have a few variations so that you do not say exactly the same thing every time, and so start to sound like a recorded message. Take a plentiful supply of … [Read more...]
Budget 2018 – At a glance
Business Small retail businesses in England will see business rates reduced by a third. The annual investment allowance is to rise five-fold from £200,000 to £1 million for two years. Reforms to individuals working under IR35 are to be extended to the private sector by April 2020. Corporation Tax to remain at 19%. Personal The personal allowance is to rise to £12,500, higher-rate threshold up to £50,000. A 4.9% increase will set the national living wage at £8.21 an hour for over-25s. Stamp duty abolished for all first-time buyers of shared-ownership homes worth up to £500,000. Duties Fuel duty unchanged at 57.95p per litre of petrol, diesel, bio-diesel or bio-ethanol. Duties on beer, most ciders, and spirits remain unchanged for 2019/20. Cost of a bottle of wine duty to rise by 8p, in line with inflation, in February 2019. VAT The VAT-registration threshold is to stay at £85,000 until April 2022. The Government will revisit options … [Read more...]
Budget 2018 – At a glance
Business Small retail businesses in England will see business rates reduced by a third. The annual investment allowance is to rise five-fold from £200,000 to £1 million for two years. Reforms to individuals working under IR35 are to be extended to the private sector by April 2020. Corporation Tax to remain at 19%. Personal The personal allowance is to rise to £12,500, higher-rate threshold up to £50,000. A 4.9% increase will set the national living wage at £8.21 an hour for over-25s. Stamp duty abolished for all first-time buyers of shared-ownership homes worth up to £500,000. Duties Fuel duty unchanged at 57.95p per litre of petrol, diesel, bio-diesel or bio-ethanol. Duties on beer, most ciders, and spirits remain unchanged for 2019/20. Cost of a bottle of wine duty to rise by 8p, in line with inflation, in February 2019. VAT The VAT-registration threshold is to stay at £85,000 until April 2022. The Government will revisit options … [Read more...]
How to build innovation into your business
A great way to building innovation into your business is to be looking for problems to solve and opportunities for improvement in your industry. That’s not to say that inventions haven’t succeeded by accidentally creating an invention and then looking to see what can be solved by that invention (case in point – post-it notes). However, that is not the topic of this article – today’s topic is about actively seeking to build innovation into your business. Create a culture for innovation to flourish First and foremost, if you want to embed innovation into your organisation, create a culture for innovation to flourish. If you forced me to come up with a formula, I would say: Make sure you hire people that are not only smart, they think creatively and are not afraid of change Relinquish control to your managers within a framework Encourage multi-disciplinary teams and internal networking between your sales, marketing and R&D team Make sure your employees understand … [Read more...]
To Register for VAT or Not, that is the question
What is Value Added Tax? Value Added Tax was introduced to the UK in 1972 to replace Purchase tax and to conform to the European Common Market. The Definition of VAT is a tax on the amount by which the value of an article has been increased at each stage of its production or distribution. For most businesses in the UK, VAT is added at 20%. However some things are exempt from VAT , eg most food goods, children’s clothes, postage stamps, financial and property transactions, printed books, magazines and newspapers. Some items are also charged at a reduced VAT rate of 5% e.g. energy and children’s car seats. When you are starting a new business when should you register for VAT? Reasons you should register immediately for VAT? Your new business is selling to other businesses. They will also be registered and will claim the VAT back as Input tax which reduces the amount they pay to HMRC. Your business is investing in capital items, … [Read more...]
Women in Technology – Overcoming the gender imbalance
Why are there so few women in technology and will numbers of female founders in UK tech startup and scaleup businesses grow in 2018? I take a look at some of the data on women in technology and tech startups – it’s not all that encouraging but are things changing? Women still make up a woefully small percentage of business founders across tech industries and tech startups. According to a recent report published by Beauhurst the number of women founders or executives in scaleups across all industries is also tiny. They found that only 4% of UK ‘Visible scalesups’ had at least one female founder. (Source: The Scaleup Index 2017) There is some evidence that part of the problem is that it’s harder for women to attract seed and venture funding. This was highlighted by a PwC report published last year that revealed that women across the world are more successful at raising crowd funding. Why? - Because the playing field is more even. Here is just one statistic from … [Read more...]
GDPR Check List – Your 8 Step Plan For The New Legislation
You need to start your preparations for GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) as the implementation date of 25th May 2018 is fast approaching. For most businesses and IT managers, preparation has not yet started despite the deadline being less than 6 months away. Ignorance of the Legislation will be no excuse and with the severe penalties planned, some businesses could be made bankrupt if they fail to comply. How would you deal with a fine of 4% of turnover? Please use this checklist to start you on the road to compliance. These are the key areas you should address. As you get into the detail of your own GDPR review, you will also uncover data considerations, which are particular to your own industry and business type. 1 Raise Awareness In Your Business GDPR will probably require you to make changes to the way you collect, store, use and process data. In particular data held on individuals. The new regulations extend the provisions in the Data … [Read more...]
How do Research & Development Allowances (RDAs) help to buy buildings and equipment?
Research and Development Allowances can be claimed at 100% in year one, which means they provide a very generous cash releasing opportunity when you are purchasing fixed assets. Plus unlike the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) they apply to buildings as well as other fixed assets you purchase. RDAs are claimed against ‘capital expenditure’ that supports R&D activities within your business. They should not to be confused with Research and Development (R&D) tax credits which are claimed against ‘revenue expenditure’ relating to qualifying R&D activities. Unlike R&D tax credits, which are restricted to limited companies, RDAs are not restricted to limited companies, they can be claimed by individuals and partnerships as well, so long as the claimants are ‘traders’ and not carrying on a ‘profession or vocation’. They are a first year allowance, providing a generous 100% tax offset in the year when the money was spent. This means that, … [Read more...]
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