The process for registering for VAT is unchanged. A business that needs to (or chooses to) register for VAT for the first time should follow the current process to register for VAT and the VAT registration guidance on gov.uk. If the taxable turnover of the business in the previous 12 months is over the VAT registration…
Category: Finance
Accountants take the role of bank managers for small businesses
If you were in business in the 80s or 90s and opened an account at a high street bank it almost certainly came with a couple of add-ons – a relationship manager and an overdraft. Back then there were about 30,000 business bank managers and virtually every business that needed working capital had an overdraft…
You may have to start digging deeper
Last week I spent two days, with different clients, analysing and reviewing their management information. In the first case we’d be warned by their monthly management accounts that profitability had slipped in December. As is often the case the reason wasn’t clear from the P/L alone (which is often the case) and we needed to…
Don’t let GDPR ruin your plans to raise finance
When seeking investment for your business there are many considerations for a business owner, but from May 2018 you can add GDPR to that list. Whilst all business owners will have without doubt heard the horror stories of GDPR and its potential for unprecedented fines, what is not really being discussed, is the longer-term impact…
Is your business model fit for purpose?
Christmas is over for another year. For many in retail – and the businesses that supply them – it’ll be over for good. HMV has already gone into administration. It won’t be the last retailer to do so. The new year will inevitably bring more gloom to the high street as retailers, whose hopes were…
Have you paid your fee yet?
All organisations, companies and sole traders that process personal data must pay an annual fee to the ICO unless they are exempt. For ‘small’ businesses this is £40 (or £35 if paid by direct debit). Organisations across the business services, construction and finance sectors are among the first to be fined by the ICO for…
It’s no longer good enough
Last week the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England increased the base interest rate to 0.75%, only the second increase in the past 10 years. One respected commentator said “It takes some considerable stupidity to see a crisis coming and decide to make it worse. But that’s exactly what the Bank of England has…
The financial crisis no one is talking about.
Auditing is not a sexy subject. But in recent years the auditors of our major businesses have let the public down to a staggering extent. Let me start by restating why audits were introduced. In the 19th century, to encourage trade, businesses were allowed to become limited liability companies, meaning that the liability of the…
Are you making the right choices?
The news this week of business failures past, present and possibly future is alarming. Stories of incompetence, ignorance and a lack of information on a huge scale. I was fortunate to have respite from this doom and gloom on Thursday when I attended a masterclass with a very successful entrepreneur whose wisdom would have prevented…
An important lesson for entrepreneurial business owners
This week the news has been dominated by the collapse of Carillion, which will have huge repercussions for not just the staff they employed but also the 30,000 smaller businesses that relied on Carillion for their income and survival. There are a number of lessons entrepreneurial business owners can learn from this debacle that, like…
