With the first month of January nearly ending in new year, the concept of New Year resolutions (some which have already been broken) commonly echoes through personal spheres, emphasising individual wellbeing and growth. However, this period holds equal, if not greater, significance in the business realm.
In the business sector, we often talk about; how to get customer feedback in order to create strategies to improve business performance. However, we don’t often talk about what to do with the valuable feedback as pointers to ways to improve business performance. Acting on such valuable and essential customer feedback is crucial for improving your products, services, customer satisfaction and in the long run your business growth plans and success in getting more customers. This should be mandatory to any business’s business expansion strategies.
Here are some considerations you need to make when using AI (Artificial Intelligence) in your business.
Autumn Statement 2023 and seven key developments and their Impact on businesses. 1. National Insurance Adjustments: A Relief for Employees and the Self-Employed The government has announced a reduction in National Insurance contributions for employees by 2%, affecting approximately 27 million people, effective from January 6, 2024. Additionally, the abolition of class 2 National Insurance will benefit self-employed individuals, saving them around £192 annually. Moreover, class 4 National Insurance will be reduced from 9% to 8% for earnings between £12,570 and £50,270.
2. Corporate Taxation: Maintaining the Status Quo, The increase in Corporation Tax, from 19% to 25% for profits exceeding £250,000, will continue. To stimulate business investments in technology, equipment, and plant & machinery, full capital allowances will be fully deductible. 3. Inflation Trends: A Positive Shift In a significant economic turnaround, the UK saw a drop in inflation to 4.6% this October, a notable decrease from the staggering 11.1% at the beginning of the year. While this reduction signals a positive shift, the government's forecast indicates a gradual path to the target inflation rate of 2%, anticipated to be achieved by 2025. 4. Economic Growth and Recession Concerns the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had earlier projected a recession in the UK. Contrasting this, the Chancellor recently expressed a more optimistic outlook, expecting the UK economy to grow by 0.6% this year. Furthermore, government debt has seen a reduction from initial forecasts, alongside a decrease in borrowing costs. From 2024, the UK economy is expected to witness a growth phase, offering a ray of hope for businesses and investors. 5. Employment Incentives The employment allowance will continue at the elevated level of £5,000, providing further support to businesses. 6. Capital Gains Tax: A Notable Change Beginning April 2024, the 'annual exemption' amount in Capital Gains Tax will be halved from £6,000 to £3,000, a change that businesses and investors need to prepare for. 7. Additional Economic Measures
These developments reflect a blend of challenges and opportunities for UK businesses. While some measures, like the reduction in National Insurance and the retention of the employment allowance, offer immediate relief, others like the changes in Capital Gains Tax and Corporation Tax require strategic planning. The overall economic forecast, however, paints a cautiously optimistic picture for the coming years. Finding the right business partner is essential for making your business thrive amongst competitors, grow and be aligned with your business planning and modelling. You should therefore be asking yourself certain questions depending on if your business is a start up or older one and also the size of your business. Other questions would include:
What is the Business Plan?: Every successful business owner has had some sort of plan or the other. This serves as a guide to where the business is going. Whether you are starting a new business with business start-up plans, identifying a new marketing strategy or planning a customer acquisition campaign, your business strategies must be geared around your business plan and business model to generate overall success. This often results in getting more customers through business expansion strategies etc. Define Your Business Needs: The above point often leads to you understanding what your business goal is and therefore what is needed for your company to succeed. When you are able to identify this, the qualities, skills, and expertise you're looking for in a new business partner besides yourself will kick in. This will be achieved by considering what strengths and weaknesses you are bringing to the business and what complementary skills a new business partner would also add to the business. Both skills would need to be aligned with each other to implement business ideas, which includes business performance strategies to successfully carry out business growth plans effectively. Clear Vision: Whilst one is contemplating taking on a new business partner, one has to be clear and communicate openly about one’s business goals, values and vision or mission. This will ensure your goals are aligned and help towards your business development plans. To better achieve this, it is recommended you carry out a business health check to ensure you have cross checked all the essentials, such as; a shared perspective on the direction of the company is in place and your business partner is someone who shares your level of commitment, work ethic and dedication to the business. Compatibility and trust is also a must! Online Platforms and Communities: Attending online platforms, forums, and communities which are relevant to your business is a great place to start searching if you haven’t already got someone in mind. It is also an opportunity for you to make a comparison instead of putting all your eggs in one basket. Professional websites, such as LinkedIn, FounderDating, CoFoundersLab, and AngelList are great places to start searching. This can be coupled with networking, using your existing professional and personal contacts, similar career and industry work groups and sources including referrals. Having stated the above, other areas that can often be overlooked but need to be considered, would be: Background checks and references: Ensure these are carried out completely, appropriately and thoroughly. This will shed light on your potential business partner’s work history and can also reveal areas that clarifies this person may not be the idea candidate which may impact on future operations; such as business growth plans and the business being allegeable for help to raise money for business. Legal and financial considerations: Seeking professional legal advice when drafting the partnership agreements can often appear you don’t trust your potential business partner. However, it is mandatory that you define the roles, expectation and responsibilities, equity and exit strategies on both sides in the face of any partnership or business conflict in the future. This should include a trial period or project collaboration: This will give you both the opportunity to find out how well you both work together and an opportunity to amend, agree or compromise in certain areas before entering a binding formal business partnership which is harder to break away from. Last and not least; they say experience is the best teacher, therefore; Learn from your past mistakes: If you’ve had previous business partnerships, this will be a good start on analysing what worked well and what went wrong. However, if you haven’t, this takes us back to my previous points and is certainly not something to rush into. If you want some help for your company with regards to the above or you just want someone with the required knowledge and experience in business to guide you on other related matters, please connect with our business advisers at RBSS Consulting Ltd on 0333 355 1696 or direct on 07796 800 187 or drop us an email on info@rbssconsulting.com. We provide real business solutions for start-ups and existing micro and small businesses. Grants and loans are both mechanisms to secure funding, but they differ significantly in terms of their structure, purpose, and obligations.
Here's a comparison: 1. Definition:
To learn more or if you are interested in a business loan or business grant, please contact RBSS Consulting Ltd on 033 33 55 1696 or email us on info@rbssconsulting.com. 5 strategies small businesses can adopt to thrive in an environment of rising interest rates11/8/2023
To help to get inflation back down; on 3 August 2023, the bank of England raised our interest rate (Bank Rate) by 0.25 percentage points to 5.25%. This is its highest level since February 2008. This has a huge impact on businesses, most especially small businesses which are often dependent on external finance for growth and investment. The increased cost of borrowing therefore makes it more difficult for them to get help to raise finance they need to thrive. Hence, such businesses need to be more proactive and strategic in their financial management to keep afloat. Here are five specific steps and strategies they can implement:
By implementing the above business improvement strategies and maintaining a proactive approach to financial management, small businesses can rise above the challenges of the rising interest rates and position themselves for long-term success and growth. If you need help in any of the above pointers or others regarding the rise in interest rates, give us a call today on 0333 355 1696 or send us a message at info@rbssconsulting.com. A Management Buy Out (MBO) is a transaction in which a company's present management team buys a major part or total ownership of the business they are currently operating. An MBO often involves the management team pooling their own funds as well as external financing to purchase the company from its current owners, who could be individual shareholders, private equity companies, or other institutions.
If you want to find out how people really feel about your business, it's time to ask! Whether you want to find out how people rate your products/services, how employees feel about working for you or how people perceive your competitors over you, the only way to truley find out is by asking. Here we explore '5 Ways to get Important Customer Feedback'.
A business finance broker is someone who will act as your middleman; providing a service in the form of help to raise finance for your business (be it a micro, small, medium or large business) and at the same time providing you with the best options available to you. They will arrange the business loan process from start to finish and usually charge a fee, or are paid a commission by the lender. This is one of the many tasks our professional, experienced and friendly team do best at RBSS.
In order to know how effective a business health check is, one needs to know what it entails and the real impact it has on a business.
One of the first steps on how to start and grow your business, is being able to work out what applies to your own business and the relevant Business Performance Strategies. During the pandemic, we have seen the fastest growth of online businesses, including clothing. Launching and just recently one of the darlings of the online platform and money makers of the pandemic period - Made.Com go into administration. Though not a clothing business, it tells you how you can be here today and gone tomorrow in business.
So you’re running your business as a sole trader and wondering whether it’s time to switch to limited. The main benefit of incorporating as a limited company is that your liability is limited and you can pay less tax, but there is more paperwork and there are legal considerations so there is no need to switch for the sake of it.
As a sole trader you’ll currently be paying tax after your £12,570 (2021\22 tax year) personal allowance, and National Insurance Contributions (NICs) as you would if you were an employer and you can’t carry profits over to the next tax year. If you are running a business where there is no risk, you are testing the market, or your enterprise is a hobby then there’s really no need to switch. However if your income is growing (even if you are a contractor or consultant), or you want to expand by taking a loan or some lease agreements, then a limited company is definitely worth considering. If you are branching out into new markets a limited company status may help with the sorts of clients you can secure, because some won’t deal with sole traders and like the security of dealing with a company. Switching over If decide to go limited, you will become the employee of your company and profits will belong to the company as will any losses. The setting up process is a bit longer than the sole trader route, as you need to notify Companies House and get a certificate of incorporation, but this can be done in as little as 48 hours. You will also need to determine if you want to be limited by shares or guarantee. Do get in touch with us or your accountant if you would like to do this. The taxing process is also a little more complex, but you can pay yourself a salary with dividends which are free from National Insurance. Yes, there are statutory legal requirements, and as director you are responsible for providing prompt and accurate accounts each year, but should anything happen, such as you choose to stop being self-employed or someone chases you for an amount you aren’t able to pay, that will rest with the company and not with you personally. There is no right or wrong business structure, just the one that suits your individual situation, and if your business needs are becoming more complex, it’s well worth thinking about. We get this question often from accountants who are looking to expand their client base and business advisory and brokerage service. Approximately 400 accountants turned to us in 2020 hoping that diversifying into business advisory and brokerage service will enable them to give additional advice to prospects and clients, thereby making them stand out from the crowd and providing opportunities for strategies to improve business performance. And they are right to perceive that marketing is the key to securing new clients. Whatever one is selling, the principles are always the same. So, we start a discussion, NOT by making an RBSS Consulting Ltd sales pitch, because it may not work for them, but by asking them what marketing strategies they have carried so far to help in getting more customers. All had tried some of the following, and one had tried them all, (spending 3 years of profits in doing so). Here’s what they told us, including the outcome for them: · Emailing Easy and free of charge. However, where do I get my contact base from to succeed in my business expansion strategies? The list brokers sold me databases reduced to a small number due to the GDPR compliance. They therefore became worthless and the overseas providers sold me junk. If we try Companies House, we can get the contact information of all businesses in our area, such as Romford, Hornchurch, Upminster, Brentwood, Havering, Barking, Dagenham, Ilford, Stratford, London etc. However, only approximately 25% of such businesses have phone numbers or emails and these are usually ‘info@’ which will probably go into the prospect’s junk email box. Hence, too time consuming to clean them manually. Networking meetings ‘Spot the real business’. Everyone attending is an accountant, business consultant/advisor, venture capitalist, web designer, social media marketer, Independent financial adviser (IFA) etc. Often, we are all after each other’s client bases which often becomes a waste of time. A specialist built me a contact base with a lot of new connections but no business enquiries so far. I send the odd post that gets a handful of likes but no further leads that will help grow my business. A specialist created and placed some ads regarding my business ideas etc which resulted in several enquiries, all of which just wanted to know about compliance work pricing. A specialist created and placed some ads and news for my business. Several enquiries were made, all of which just wanted to know about compliance work pricing. Articles and blogs o A business writer had some success in getting these placed. This proved good for profile but didn’t produce any business enquiries. SEO A web developer built a smart site on my behalf and highlighted my abilities to grow other businesses with their business growth plans and strategies and lined up search terms she thought businesses would use when searching for an accountant. We are now on Google Page 1 for ‘Accountants in Toytown’ and it results in enquiries. However, the first question asked is, “how much do I charge for compliance work, I’m just shopping around?” Then nothing. Sponsorship I’ve supplied shirts with my logo to a junior football team and bought a sign on a busy roundabout which was expensive. It did get a few good clients initially – mostly school parents. Testimonials The business writer did some client write ups, which does impress the prospects. Yet, I can’t say it closed any sales in itself. Trade shows Very costly and a lot of business talk. It has brought the odd new client, but not worth the trouble. Client surveys Not enough of them respond to make it worthwhile. Referral programme I offered an Amazon discount voucher for introductions - very few have taken up the offer. Newsletter Loads of work and abandoned after a few months. Videos I don’t believe I would come across well enough. I’m no good at presenting. Door drops Tried the above. I believe they ended up in the bin along with all the pizza, cabs, restaurants, window cleaners’ flyers as I didn’t observe any results from it. Seminars and Webinars Tried once and only 2 people showed up. Brand management Talking to marketing consultants who want to change their practice name, design a new logo, and start again with a new website. This appears overwhelming, very expensive and with no guarantees of new revenue. The bottom line
The results ranged from absolutely nothing (“because we used to get referrals”) to all of the above (“and now we’re broke, because nothing worked”). These accountants have spent a lot of money, mostly wasted, and therefore want to know what guarantees RBSS Consulting Ltd can help them in getting more customers! The truth is that its not that the marketing techniques above don’t work, its your offer that needs to be looked at. What are you the accountant actually offering the client. Well…with almost 20 years’ experience of small business consultancies …the overwhelming demand we encountered was “I need help to grow my business to get more customers and it’s urgent”. Before accepting the job, we learnt the importance of giving a FREE brief consultancy first to review their strategies to improve business performance. You can therefore book a free 30-minute discovery call. We would then look at the rest of the business, reviewing their Business performance strategies, specifically customer retention (that is; product/service quality); operating efficiency; people productivity; profitability and cashflow. Why look at everything? This is because a lack of sales was often the tip of the iceberg. There would be little point in getting more orders if the product was troublesome, systems inefficient, people incompetent, customers not paying, bank calling in loans etc. After reviewing all of the above including their ways to improve business performance, we would often be left with the only choice of saying “we can help you, but only if you give us a year. If you don’t have a year, we’ll have to start with an overall survival strategy to buy the time to implement the right marketing and be able to properly service your customers”. Why a year? This is because that’s how long it takes a new business that does all the right things to get a flow of new customers. And in that regard, any business without new customers might as well be a new business with new business start-up plans, although it does have some advantages to help things to happen quicker. The average buyer of a new service or product looks at it ten times over the course of six months before deciding, unless they are desperate (and does one really want desperate customers?). The finding of good new customers does not happen quickly. You need a business that is operating effectively to take advantage of the orders when they do arrive and then please customers enough to order more, and tell their friends. If you want to see this working and have 30 minutes to spare, RBSS Consulting Ltd will assess your practice for FREE as a demo. Book it here Meanwhile, why did all those accountants fail with all their marketing? The recurring themes were: 1. No research into where/who their ideal client/customer is 2. Assumed knowledge of what they want 3. No pre-developed solutions that clients would be willing to pay for 4. Lack of a clear plan of how to reach, analyse, and help clients 5. Too many random marketing tactics (no clear business development plans ) 6. 6. Short-lived initiatives that were never embedded (the average trial period was 4 months) 7. Not focusing on and sustaining the few key things that really work 8. Not understanding the 12-month (marketing) rule and giving up too soon 9. No clear selling processes - it’s very different to marketing RBSS Consulting Ltd has real-time proven solutions that has helped many businesses back on their feet before and during this coronavirus pandemic by helping them understand their business better with a Business Valuation, Performance and Health Check. You can read about a few of many of our clients testimonies in our real-life case studies. Once an accountancy practice has mastered its own marketing in this way, it will be ready to sell this very same service to hundreds of new clients as a profitable diversification. To discuss any of this with us, feel free to book it here
RBSS Consulting Ltd have teamed up with ANNA Money.
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