When you start out in business it’s easy to feel grateful to have clients at all, never mind to consider vetting them and possibly turning prospects down. However, we all know that not all clients are equal. I also suspect we all have – or have had in the past – the kind of client that is not an asset to the business. Some clients simply aren’t worth your time. No matter what you do,
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Yesterday’s budget didn’t really contain many changes for small business owners. After the large number of tax changes over the last 18 months or so, we should treat that as good news!! As always with budget speeches, the Chancellor only takes us through the highlights and there are many pages of detail that haven’t yet been absorbed. The main announcements in the budget that affect small businesses were: No Change in the VAT registration limit. We
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Agency owners with cash flow difficulties often think that taking out a loan will solve all their cash problems. However, before taking out a loan the agency should look at why it really needs a loan and why the cash flow difficulty has risen in the first place. There are three reasons that cash flow difficulties arise and why you might need funding of some description. Lack of profitability Agencies’ biggest costs are their people.
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I’m often asked by clients how much their marketing budget for their own business should be. They’ve often heard that they should be spending in relation to turnover (i.e., I’ve been told I should spend 10% of my annual turnover on marketing). In isolation, it’s not the best question to ask. How much you should spend on marketing your own business needs to be thought about in the context of what you’re trying to achieve.
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Office Manager/ Administrator Due to continued expansion, we are looking to recruit a part time Administrator/ Office Manager (21-25 hours per week) This is an accounting support role with a twist! In addition to your top notch organisational skills, you’ll be assisting a specialist accounting firm with social media, marketing, events and new business development. If you take pride in your work and are ready to make a big contribution, here is your chance to
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You’ll already be aware that there’s a new dividend tax in town, but how much will it actually hit YOUR pocket As a reminder, all dividends paid after 6th April 2016 are subject to the new tax charge. The rates are: Dividend earnings up to £5,000 – Tax Free Dividends £5,001 – £32,000 – 7.5% Dividends £32,001 – £150,000 – 32.5% Dividends £150,000+ – 38.1% The first payment of the dividend tax will be made on
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The Government have changed the reporting requirements for all limited companies, as of 30 June 2016 companies are no longer required to file an annual return, but a confirmation statement instead. What does that mean for you as a business owner? The difference between the confirmation statement and an annual return is that the former requires you to identify a person of significant control within the business (they should be identified from 6th April 2016).
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I’ve often heard it said that there are no bad clients, only bad prospects and bad systems. Whilst that might be true and it’s a mantra that you can apply going forward, it probably doesn’t help you with where you are today. So what do you do if you’ve got a bad client today? Well, first of all, what is a bad client? A bad client can take a number of guises. They can be
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You may have been to a presentation and some point in your creative agency life, heard the presenter talking about EBITDA and wondered “what’s all that about and why should I care?” At some point in the future, part of your retirement or exit plan may be to sell your agency and retire off to a small cottage by the sea. When that time comes, you’ll need to know how much you can get for the
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Whenever I talk to a creative agency owner, one of the biggest problems on their agenda is getting paid on time and the collection of cash. You know that feeling…… You send out an invoice and you wait and wait for it to be paid. After it’s gone way over it’s overdue time, you ring up your customer to be hit with a raft of excuses. Excuses like, “We couldn’t pay it because we didn’t get
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