Can London’s Small Businesses Weather the Storm of Business Rates Increases?

London’s small businesses are expected to receive special bail-out fund to help weather the storm of business rates increases, but is it enough?

London busy high street

On Monday 6th March, The London Evening Standard announced plans for special bail-out fund for the capital’s small businesses, which are set to be among the hardest hit in April’s business rates revaluation. “Traditional retailers and firms facing crippling increases of 50 per cent or more are expected to be favoured in funds totalling ‘hundreds of millions’ of pounds” the front-page article reported.

For London’s small businesses, the overdue 2017 rates revaluation threatens to increase business rates by an estimated £7.5 billion.…

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How to Choose the Best Trade Show Booth for Your Business

Would you ever consider opening a dollar store on Rodeo Drive? Of course not. No self-respecting ‘Rodeo-ite’ would be caught dead walking into a dollar store after stepping out of their Aston Martin that only gets driven on Tuesday!

They’d instantly become the laughing stock of all their friends, and celebrity gossip columnists would have a field day, right? Location is important. Location, location, location.

Here’s how to choose the perfect trade show booth, to maximize exposure and brand impact on all who’ll attend your next event:

Study the floor plan prior

If you have no clue how trade shows work, find someone who does who can go over the floor plan in advance with you and your team.…

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Top 4 Tips For Making Your Customers Happy

When it comes to running a business any business owner will tell you that it is easy to make customers dissatisfied. Making customers satisfied, on the other hand, is a little bit more of a process which requires effort and attention.

Serving a happy customer

In order to keep customers coming back, the formula is usually the same regardless of your line of work. Here are some of the most foolproof ways to make and keep your customers coming back.

Be Responsive

When a customer reaches out for services or information, it is crucial to be available to answer their queries and requests. When you are not available or it is out of business hours it is important to have a reliable and organized messaging service where they can leave their details and receive a call back at your earliest convenience.…

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4 Business Insurance Tips Agents Don’t Want you to Know

There are many different types of insurance policies available to small and medium-size business owners. There’s so much to consider, much of it being industry dependent, and also depending on what risks you, your employees, and customers undertake while doing business together.

Of course, if you’ve done any research to this point, you’re probably interested in seeing if you qualify for a comprehensive Business Owner’s Policy (BOP), which is great if you qualify and in fact need all that a BOP policy can cover. However, a BOP only scratches the surface of what most businesses need in terms of coverage.

Business insurance agent

So, how to get the best insurance coverage for your business, given the facts that your insurance agents may know something that you don’t know – and might use that knowledge to take advantage of you?…

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Choosing a Domain Name that Works for You and Google

If your business is just starting out or going through a radical rebrand, you’ll be only to aware of the importance of choosing a domain name that works for both internet users, and search engines. This balance isn’t always easy to achieve. Humans respond better to domains that are short, memorable and unique, while search engines respond to domains that are semantically relevant to your service and industry.

Domain name

Whether through social media or search, the Web is where a huge number of prospective customers will first discover your business. In order to make the most of the opportunities afforded to you by these platforms, businesses must appeal to user psyche, while also supplying search engines with the topic relevancy needed rank highly in search engine results.…

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Money for Nothing? The Value of Consultants

They get a bad press, consultants. They’re sometimes thought of as being people who charge a lot of money to tell you what you already know. People worry if they’re getting any value from consultants.

Consultants

However, genuinely qualified and talented consultants can bring real value to your business. If you’ve wondered how, there are a number of ways they do it, and a number of benefits they bring.

1. Expertise

Typically, consultants have trained extensively in their chosen specialism. This means that they should have a level of expertise greater than is available to you in-house. For example, these days creating your own website is pretty easy using free and easily available software.…

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Structure Your Business With Kanban

Starting a new business?

Want to increase your chances for success?

Every company, regardless of its size, needs to plan and establish an internal processes. Not only does a well-ordered set of core processes allow your business to consistently improve and streamline its operations, it also makes the sustainable expansion of those operations more likely.

Kanban

Many new entrepreneurs are so eager to get going that they often haven’t given much thought to how they should design and build the operational systems that define their business.…

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Better Leadership through Community and Social Work

Leadership is one of the must-have skills for business owners. Whether you’re running a home business with just one employee or a growing startup that’s starting to hire more team members, showing strong leadership and knowing how to keep the team working efficiently can help take the business to new heights.

Business leadership

It is also worth noting that leadership is a skill; one that can be learned and mastered. There are different ways to sharpen your leadership skills, but working in communities and doing social work are among the best ways to do it.

Becoming Community Leaders

A lot of business and startup owners went as far as going back to school to study social work specifically.…

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What are The Fastest Growing Industries for 2017 and Why?

In a world increasingly dominated by interconnective technology, emerging industries are creating new markets and investment opportunities almost every day. Capitalising on these new, fast growing business opportunities by investing or starting your own business is a surefire way to success; assuming you do the work too.

Corporate wellness class

Here are three of the biggest growth industries to get into in 2017:…

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Habits Of Highly Effective Small Business Owners

It is easy to see that some people in the world of business stand out among all the others. A successful small business owner requires a particular skill set and disposition. People often wonder what makes those “high rollers” so successful in business.

Success habit

It does not take much to understand that success is earned, and those who are successful in small business instill a certain set of behaviors that allow them to be focused and purposeful in life and work. Take a look at a few winning habits of highly effective small business owners.

Effective leaders take care of themselves

Effective leadership takes focus and consistency.…

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