Small businesses / 217 posts found
VAT on Digital Services
Do you sell digital services such as: music or software downloads, e-books or online videos? If so, do you know where your customers are, and whether they are businesses or individuals? From 1st January 2015, when you sell digital services across international borders you will have to collect information about your customers to determine if they are businesses or not, and where they are based. Where your international sale is to a non-business customer, from 2015 you will have to charge that customer VAT of the country where he or she is located (if that's in the EU). You will [...]
How to Face the Threat of Business Insolvency Positively
In most cases the failure of a business is treated as a personal failure. Your ego may stand in the way of taking the necessary actions to try and resolve your financial predicament, especially when creditors are knocking on your door every day. There is light at the end of the tunnel if you take action and you may still be able to rescue your business. This article will show you 5 steps you can take starting today to help recover your business. Cease Trading As long as you are trading then creditors will assume you are bringing money in [...]
Estimating sales
It's common practice for business owners to estimate sales by focussing on total revenues and using that to drive their business plan. But, if you think about it, that doesn't make sense. Whether you succeed or fail, you will have no idea how or why it happened. You're flying in the dark. It takes a little more time, but your sales forecast should start from the bottom up and in as much detail as you can. You clearly need to know the sales price of your products and services, but you can also calculate an average sales value, based on [...]
Without Wishing to Sound like the Special One…
The strangest thing has happened. I've spent the last 18 months telling the world how different we are; how we're more interested in helping your business to make money next year than in telling you how much you made last; how we are totally focused on your bottom line. I now realise I was wrong. It's not just what we do that makes us different. It's what we are. And it took me a while to realise that natural modesty can sometimes fog our attempts to say what we mean. You see, the reason that TLA Business Services can make [...]
When networking is not working
We'd all agree that we prefer to do business with those we know, like and trust. It follows, then, that if we can encourage these traits in others, our businesses should benefit. Most of the time, knowledge, likeability and trustworthiness are earned as the result of doing business with each other. But it's not the only way. There is another route to earning mutual respect that doesn't come from doing business but could very well lead to it. I'm talking about networking. For some businesses it's an integral part of what they do but for others, networking is simply not [...]
What’s all the fuss about Elevator Speeches?
I got into a lift the other day, heading for a meeting on the 16th floor. On the 2nd, a man got in. As the floors flashed by he politely asked what business I was in. "I'm an accountant," I replied. "Nice," said the man. He got out on the 15th without saying another word. My first reaction was this poor chap must have had a lousy experience with other accountants in the past. Then I got to thinking. What did I expect him to say? "That's fascinating. Tell me more."... I don't think so. That one word, "accountant" was [...]
Helping your business climb mountains
Search parties have abandoned their efforts to find four mountaineers who disappeared in Nepal two weeks ago. The team, all experienced climbers, flew out from the UK in August for "the adventure of a lifetime". They left their camp in the foothills of the Himalayas on the morning of September 3rd and have not been seen since. Deteriorating weather conditions and sub zero temperatures have finally forced local rescue teams to abandon their efforts to find them. "We have absolutely no idea where they could be," said one local guide. "They just set off without knowing where they were going [...]
Setting Selling Prices
or.... How long is a piece of string? I got to thinking the other day about that piece of string. You know, the one everyone's heard of but nobody seems to know how long it is. I wondered what it was about that piece of string which set it apart. Because every piece of string I've ever seen has a quite definite length. It might stretch a bit here and there, it's easily tangled – but give or take a few millimetres, it doesn't take rocket science to determine its length. Just hold that strand of thought while I segue [...]
Please, Sir! I want some more.
Here's a question for you. What does your accountant really contribute to your business? I don't just mean all that pen-pushing and form-filling to keep the taxman and Companies House happy. That should be just the beginning; but so often it's the beginning and the end of the service that so many companies receive from their accountants. The sad truth is that too many small businesses accept this; not because they are satisfied with a second-rate service, but because they are unaware of what accountants can and should do for their clients. It's not actually rocket science. As accountants, we [...]
Looking forward to Rio
The extraordinary performance of the Brownlee brothers in the Olympic triathlon got me thinking. It wasn't their seemingly endless stamina or the fact that Alistair, after swimming 1500 meters and cycling 43 km, ran the 10km phase faster than the last man across the line in the 10k track final. It wasn't their total commitment to the sport either, their youth or their infectious good humour. It was the fact that they were already looking forward four years to the next Olympics in Rio and talking about their preparations. As businessmen, we can learn so many lessons from our great [...]