Give your business a ‘cost healthcheck’ A recent study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development concluded that making job cuts should be the last resort in the current economic downturn, after revealing that the cost of laying off an employee could be more than £16,000.

Against this another study revealed that 69% of Financial Directors feel under pressure from board colleagues to find more ways to cut costs. With Britain now officially in recession, how does a business keep costs in check to maintain a healthy bottom line without necessarily making redundancies?

10 tips for effective haggling Many people and business owners remain reluctant to haggle, but the credit crisis means many more of us might need to learn new tricks when trying to make our money go further.

Business owners bang on the money with employee claims As MPs continue to face the aftermath of the expenses scandal, new research has highlighted that small businesses are well ahead of the government when it comes to transparency and expenses claims. More than eight out of ten (84%) business owners say they have always closely scrutinised expense claims forms and will continue to do so.

Businesses in ER With insolvencies rising at their fastest rate for 18 years, these are good times for one group in the economy – the turnaround investor.

Small businesses find some relief in budget The chancellor introduced a boost to credit insurance and extended the scheme that allows businesses to offset tax incurred in boom times against leaner years

Business in ER With insolvencies rising at their fastest rate for 18 years, these are good times for one group in the economy – the turnaround investor.

Green today gone tomorrow It’s a special occasion and you’ve decided to spend your hard-earned cash on a hot air balloon ride for you and your true love. As you float through the sky without a care in the world, you feel calm, entirely protected by the glorified wicker basket which holds you aloft. It’s a picture of romantic bliss, complete with chocolates, strawberries and a bottle of Dom Pérignon chilling in a bucket for later. But whatever you do, don’t look down!

Happy New Year…? To say that the markets have been turbulent in 2008 would be a complete understatement and the prospects for 2009 seem much the same. My prognosis is that while the markets may drop further, though providing a three to five year horizon is anticipated, this will look a good time to invest in hindsight.

FPB requests help with VAT cut for small firms

The Forum of Private Business (FPB) have met HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) during the last few days to highlight its concerns about the administrative burdens placed on small businesses following the announcements that VAT will be reduced from 17.5% to 15% on Monday, 1 December.

Getting gold in 2012

A Government Minister has described 2012 as the most important year since 1908, it will change the financial landscape in this country forever. No, not the Olympics, but “Personal Accounts” the Governments latest attempt to get the British Public to plan for their retirement after the ill-fated Stakeholder Pension Schemes and 2012 is currently pencilled in for the launch of these schemes.

Every Cloud...

Commercial bank managers have long complained that it is much easier for clients to get unsecured loans personally, where no evidence is required as to how the loan will be repaid, than it to get unsecured loans for a business, no matter how good the business plan.

As set out in previous articles, if you do have to provide a personal guarantee, make sure it is not secured against your home. This way if the business goes belly up, and the guarantee is called in, you have a strong position and will in all probability keep your home, if you go about things carefully.

If the loan is secured against your property and the business fails, its hard to increase the mortgage, as your income has gone, and you stand every change of losing your home. 

Of course many businesses are mostly conducted as sole traders where there is no legal separation between business assets and personal assets and by the largest sector is Buy to Lets (BTL).

U-turn over plans to phase out cheque payments forced

The Forum of Private Business (FPB) is welcoming the Payments Council’s new National Payments Plan, announced this week, in which it agrees not to phase out cheque payments until adequate alternatives are in place. Research carried out by the FPB at the end of last year revealed that most of the smaller businesses surveyed want market forces to determine when they should switch payment methods.

It's all about margins

I see a lot of businesses that are very busy but they just aren’t making any money.   Let me give you a recent  example of a small telemarketing company that carries out business to business marketing.
This story is a classic story of a couple of guys who had worked in the industry for many years deciding to set themselves up independently.  They rented an office, recruited a few telesales staff and set about building the business.

Be healthy,wealthy and wise

In a competitive world where costs are key to success, employee retention plays a vital part. Long serving employees save on recruitment costs and the training of new staff. Due to the public perception of the state of the NHS, an employee benefit package that contains Private Medical Insurance can be more attractive to new and existing employees.

Peparing your business for sale

Any item for sale benefits from quality presentation, whether it be a bottle of perfume or a three piece lounge suite. Businesses are no different.  An owner manager who allows him or herself time to gift wrap their company and put on a big bow for good measure will reap substantial rewards.
Undertaking the “wrapping and packing” takes time – anything up to three years – but it is time that is so so well spent.

Credit squeeze forces cuts to secured lending

Banks and building societies are reporting an expected cut in the amount of secured lending they will offer after the Bank of England admitted the credit squeeze is set to intensify.

The credit crunch is forcing some lenders to take fewer risks whilst at the same time, the cost of borrowing on the money markets remains high. As a result, SMEs could find it difficult to secure traditional loans or receive overdraft facilities from their bank.

Spring Clean your Finances

With spring time now officially upon us and a new tax year started, there has never been a better time for small businesses to spend some time spring-cleaning their finances to help get their firms into ship shape condition for a successful 2008.

Business borrowing is getting personal

Insolvency practitioners are warning that banks are forcing entrepreneurs and family-run firms to take second mortgages on their homes and offer personal guarantees before agreeing to provide business loans.

Many banks also charged penal rates of interest or refused to extend loans to small businesses unless they agreed to offer their personal assets as security, and in particular their main home.

SMEs and regulation - a serious business

Organising your business for the financial year can be a confusing process. To help employers negotiate the ever increasing demands of red tape the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales has produced a calendar for small businesses highlighting some of the deadlines they may face.

Blood on the trading floor

Remember the boom in stockmarket flotations, at the end of the last century and the start of this one? That was the time when companies came to the stockmarket for its IPO - Initial Public Offering - armed with a prospectus, a narrative, a prominent bank to manage the offering, and a cabal of venture capitalists hidden off-stage, sniggering, rubbing their hands, and revving the engine of their getaway vehicle. For civilians and non-City people, in a week dominated by all-too-credible stories about economic cataclysm and global recession, that may seem a long time ago. The biggest IPO in history, for instance - what and when was that? AT&T in 2000? Google in 2004?