POST CATEGORY : Finance

How to Use What you Have to Fund Your Business Venture

Where I live, small business funding is not that accessible compared to other countries. We do have funding via banks and other lending institutions, but choices are limited. There are some risky choices, e.g. borrowing from questionable lenders, but I wouldn’t take that path, typically due to the unfavorable terms and the lender’s reputation.

Creative business funding methods

Small business owners need to be creative to secure funding, typically for keeping their businesses to run like well-oiled machines, especially due to seasonality that may exist in their industries.

I am lucky enough to know some smart small business owners who know creative ways to fund their business activities.…

Continue reading →

I have Just Started My Own Business. Why Do I Need An Accountant?

So, you’ve decided to start your own business. Do you really need an accountant? After all, there are numerous apps such as Easy Books, Kashoo, and Shoeboxed easily and cheaply available online. These can help the small business owner track transactions, create invoices and keep financial documents organised.

Accountant

But that’s not all it takes to manage your business’ finances. The small business still does need an experienced, dedicated accountant. In 2014, an accountant is no longer simply a bookkeeper. The accountant’s role has changed.

Accountant As Business Advisor

Due to the ongoing developments in technology, accountants have adapted to remain valuable.…

Continue reading →

Financing for Businesses

You are about to realize the dream of a lifetime : starting a business. For a company, particularly a start-up one, financing is a crucial step, essential to the survival of the business. For your project to be successful, a variety of options are offered for you to acquire the necessary funds.

Business growth funding

Bank loan

Self-explanatory, this term means to loan a specific amount to the bank in order to finance customer accounts, inventories, purchase of equipment or other expenses related to the business. It is an easy path; however, it has its limitations, particularly when it comes to your borrowing capacity.…

Continue reading →

Understanding Business Insurance as a Fluid Concept: 3 Products to Keep in Mind

Recently, it was announced that the majority of insurance price comparison sites were failing in their attempts to meet the needs of both commercial and residential users. More specifically, the report conducted by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found that these sites are more likely to confuse and disorientate users rather than helping them to choose viable insurers and policies. This is a particularly concerning state of affairs from British business owners, who must often consider a number of insurance needs simultaneously if they are to adequately protect their venture.

Business insurance coverage

3 Key Financial Insurance Products for Business Owners

Such a task is made even more complicated by the fact that not all businesses are created equal, as this means that entrepreneurs must also seek out to niche products that meet their precise needs.…

Continue reading →

Running a Business in The Present – Planning for The Future

For the owner of a small business, it’s easy just to concentrate on the day-to-day operations of the organization, especially if it’s doing well or in the throes of expansion. Responsibilities include looking after employees, creating detailed business plans, and drawing up budgets. It can be hard to look into the future when everything is so busy, but it should be an important consideration for any business owner to contemplate and plan for retirement.

Plan for the future

Business owners need to realize that it’s likely that the bulk of the funds for retirement will land on their shoulders, so some long-term thinking and preparation should enable them to benefit from the fruits of their labor when they decide to retire.…

Continue reading →

Payroll Doesn’t Have to Be a Chore

Business owners may find that some of the more routine tasks they are required to undertake are also some of the more tedious, and payroll and wage administration can be one of those selfsame tasks. Nonetheless, the administration of payroll, even if the business is a one person operation, is essential from both a regulatory and legal perspective. It also makes sense to streamline payroll from an efficiency point of view.

Payroll and tax forms

Contractor pay solutions can take the difficulties out of payroll for business owners. By outsourcing payroll administration, a business can remove the difficulties for itself of tracking different wage systems and associated costs.…

Continue reading →

7 Tips to Keep Your Books Out of the Red

It’s inevitable that at some point your business is going to run into financial trouble…

Even if you’re financially secure personally, and able to cover your businesses losses; that’s your money, not the business’s cashflow.

Your business is like a sinking ship? Stay out of the red!

If you have a bank or other type of financial backer who can take care of you when you fall short; the business didn’t generate that money, and it’ll still end up costing more when it comes time to pay the money back (i.e., interest or equity payments).

Take steps to make sure you stay out of the red to begin with. As martial arts legend turned IRS fraudster Wesley Snipes said in his very first box-office movie, Passenger 57: “Always bet on black!”…

Continue reading →

5 Ways Hiring a Chartered Accountant Can Improve Your Profit

Sometimes in the rush to get a small business up and running entrepreneurs overlook critical areas that vastly improve their chances of success. These oversights can be just down to focussing on the grand vision too much without considering the finer details, or it can be a desire to minimise expenditure because most small businesses aren’t flush with capital in the early days. One of the most common, and potentially damaging, is not hiring an accountant from the off.

Hiring a chartered accountant

With the amount of off-the-peg accounting software available it’s understandable that new business owners will consider running their books themselves, but very few entrepreneurs have the time to dedicate to doing a good job of the business accounting and even fewer are genuinely accounts literate.…

Continue reading →

5 Reasons Small Businesses Should Outsource Their Bookkeeping

Few small business owners relish the thought of going over their books on a regular basis. Of course most have good intentions, and may even make a good start by setting up a rudimentary bookkeeping process and keeping track of income and expenditure, but usually the day to day grind of running the business takes priority and everything starts to fall behind.

Often the best course of action is to outsource the work to a qualified professional. Here are five reasons you should consider working with a provider of bookkeeping services in London.

Outsource bookkeeping

  1. Expert Guidance. Anyone who runs a business, even as a freelance contractor working out of their spare room, will be faced with tax and accountancy scenarios that they need accurate answers too.
…Continue reading →

Are You Still Accepting Online Card Payments?

PayPal has become a hugely popular method of accepting online payment for small to medium size merchants. It’s easy to see why – The setup requirements are minimal and PayPal’s history as an eBay partner means that it has a broad customer base. There are, however, sound reasons for either beginning or continuing to accept payment cards.

Using credit card payment for online purchases

Customer Choice

The more payment methods you support, the more chances there are that you will offer the customer’s preferred method. While PayPal has made its ease of use a major selling point, there are still compelling reasons for customers to prefer credit and debit cards.…

Continue reading →