Business Basics Series: Webinar Recordings & Blogs

Are you charging enough for your products/services to allow you to provide a service you are proud off and that allows you to not become a busy fool?

This webinar will cover:

1. How much your product or service is worth and therefore how much to charge
2. Unique selling points and how to use yours to maximise selling price
3. Mid-tier pricing and how this will allow you to charge more
4. Offers and Discounts – when to use them
5. Avoiding Scope Creep
6. When to charge?
7. The mindset of pricing

Learning points and outcomes:

1. Are you charging the correct price for your goods or services?
2. Techniques for improving profit through pricing
3. Techniques for getting paid faster

Check out the Companion Blog; a deep dive resource available to read on our website now

Owning a business comes with much responsibility and red tape.  This workshop offers an insight into what these are and how you can best deal with them to avoid getting into trouble.  This workshop is mostly aimed at the owners of Limited Companies, but much of the content is also relevant to other business formats too.

This workshop will cover:

• Directors Duties – What are your responsibilities as a company Director
• Accounting and Bookkeeping – What do you need to know:
  • All the relevant deadlines
  • What software should you use
  • Should you do your own bookkeeping?
• Money earned in the business
  • Should you have a separate bank account
  • How can the money in the business bank account be extracted:
    • legally
    • tax effectively
• VAT in summary:
  • Should you be registered and if so, what options do you have?
  • Accounting correctly for VAT
    • Should you use an accountant or bookkeeper to do this?
• Employing people – what do you need to know?
  • Payroll and auto-enrolment
  • HR legislation
  • Contracts of employment
  • Minimum wage
• Insurances – what do you need?

Learning points and outcomes:

1. Improve your understanding of the duties of business owners
2. Have a better understanding of what your capabilities are and when you should bring in competent professionals.
3. A better understanding of your knowledge gaps and priorities so that you can address any weak areas

This workshop will cover:

• Directors Duties – What are your responsibilities as a company Director
• Accounting and Bookkeeping – What do you need to know:
  • All the relevant deadlines
  • What software should you use
  • Should you do your own bookkeeping?
• Money earned in the business
  • Should you have a separate bank account
  • How can the money in the business bank account be extracted:
    • legally
    • tax effectively
• VAT in summary:
  • Should you be registered and if so, what options do you have?
  • Accounting correctly for VAT
    • Should you use an accountant or bookkeeper to do this?
• Employing people – what do you need to know?
  • Payroll and auto-enrolment
  • HR legislation
  • Contracts of employment
  • Minimum wage
• Insurances – what do you need?

Learning points and outcomes:

1. Improve your understanding of the duties of business owners
2. Have a better understanding of what your capabilities are and when you should bring in competent professionals.
3. A better understanding of your knowledge gaps and priorities so that you can address any weak areas

You can also check out this Companion Blog; a deep dive resource available to read on our website now.

Master the art of financial planning, track your key performance indicators with precision, and make smarter, real-time decisions to drive success.

This workshop will cover:

1. The importance of having up to date numbers
2. Understanding your Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet
3. Understanding cash flow
4. The importance of financial planning
5. Your key performance indicators

Learning points and outcomes:

1. If someone asks you “How’s Business”, you will know the answer
2. You will understand the importance of real time information for decision making
3. You will understand the importance of forecasting

This workshop will cover:

1. The importance of having up to date numbers
2. Understanding your Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet
3. Understanding cash flow
4. The importance of financial planning
5. Your key performance indicators

Learning points and outcomes:

1. If someone asks you “How’s Business”, you will know the answer
2. You will understand the importance of real time information for decision making
3. You will understand the importance of forecasting

We also have a Companion Blog for this session available on our website

What are the rules and exceptions to these rules when looking at whether expenses are tax deductible? Some of the rules can be complex and the exceptions to these rules don’t always appear to be logical.

Sometimes we can be given incorrect advice, because we didn’t ask the right person.  The advice might not be right for you, or it might be just wholly incorrect, and just because the person who told you what you could claim “had never been caught” doesn’t necessarily make it legal!

The session covers:

• Wholly, Exclusively and necessarily – what do these words mean and when to apply them
• The rules around each of the major areas of business spend including:
  • Costs of Sale
  • People costs
  • Premises costs
  • Travel related costs
  • Food and drink
  • Gifts and Benefits
  • Clothing
  • Training
• Pre trading expenditure

Read the Companion Blog; a deep dive resource available on our website now.

In 2023 the Corporation Tax rate changed to 25% and along with this change, Associated Company rules were brought in.  In short, these rules mean that if you control more than one company, you are likely to pay more tax.  So, what are the rules and how can you avoid paying more tax?

The session covers:

1. The new rates, and what they mean in practice
2. The word Control, and its importance in this context
3. When family members shares can impact your tax bill
4. When total strangers’ shares can impact your tax bill
5. Which companies are not caught by these rules

Read the companion blog here

Who should register for VAT and if they do so, what are their options and what additional responsibilities do they now have? There is a lot of misinformation out there when it comes to our VAT system.  So, its important to get the correct information to avoid paying too much tax or facing penalties.

The session covers:

• When you MUST register for VAT
• When you may choose to register for VAT
• The VAT registration process
• Pre-registration expense claims
• VAT schemes and who they are likely to suit and why
• The main rules of VAT
• The complexities of VAT
• Making Tax Digital for VAT

Read the companion blog here

Running a business can be risky.  There are so many things that can impact your performance, and profit, potentially destroying all that you worked so hard to build. Some of these things are impossible to plan for, but lots of potential risks can be mitigated by identification and planning.

Making Tax Digital is the government’s plan to move UK taxpayer’s records from spreadsheets and paper, to a fully digital system. It already applies to VAT-registered businesses and will soon apply to Income Tax records for self-employed individuals and landlords.

Gaining access to outside investment means you don’t have to give up on your dream. So how do you prove to any potential investor that your business model is worth investing in. What information will they need from you? What timescales are involved and what are the likely costs/cash flow implications.

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It is really important to have up to date numbers. Those representing the trading to date can really help any stakeholder to understand the business.  But we can no longer influence what has already happened, so the key to successful decision making is in forecasting.

Understanding how much your business is worth is really important if you are looking for equity investment, or if you are looking to sell some or all of your business.  You don’t want to insult a potential investor by going in too high, but equally, you want to get what your business is worth.

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Selling a business or shares in a business is serious stuff and the price tag can be high, so it’s not surprising that the due diligence process undertaken by the legal representatives and finance professionals on both the buyers and sellers’ sides can feel somewhat invasive.  So, what kind of information is likely to be requested, what are the timescales involved, payment terms and other expectation, plus the tax implications on the sale of shares?

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Having a business partner can seriously benefit a business.  Capitalizing on two or more sets of skills and experience, as well as having another pair of hands to contribute to the day to day running of the business.  But not all business partners are the same, some want a silent role, whilst others are more hands on.  So, choosing the right business partner is crucial.

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To truly understand profitability, we need to look at it more frequently and in more detail.  Analysing which aspects of your business make what level of profit and understanding what drives profit allows business owners to make good strategic decisions to improve it.

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Projects can be anything from taking on a new person, or launching a new product, to building a manufacturing site, or acquiring a business to merge with the current one. How you evaluate each project can vary depending on size and complexity. But undertaking the exercise leads to better decision making and control.

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Often business owners will inject cash into a business where they are a Director.  This could be when the business is starting out, or to help with cash flow along the way. But how are these cash injections accounted for, and when can they be withdrawn?

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Some business owners will use their bank balance as the barometer of how well their business is performing.  However, this gives no visibility of any upcoming liabilities or monies owed.

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