Helping Business

Your Helping Business Part 15 – Launching Your Business VIDEO COMING SOON AUDIO COMING SOON LAUNCHING YOUR BUSINESS Once you have everything ‘in place’ it’s time to ‘launch’ your business fully – to ‘open for business’ at the level you intend to operate initially, full time or part time. There are two ways to launch – you can do it quietly and build up the level of business over a defined period of time, or you can adopt the ‘big…

Your Helping Business Part 14 – Rules of the Game VIDEO COMING SOON AUDIO COMING SOON Tax If you don’t get the accounting right yourself or you hire an accountant unfamiliar with small business operations then there is a high probability that you will pay too much tax, either as a Sole Trader or Limited Company. The first thing to consider as a Sole Trader is whether your business income, when combined with any other personal and household income, will…

Your Helping Business Part 13 – Your Business Finances VIDEO COMING SOON AUDIO COMING SOON Records & Accounts To understand and monitor how your business is performing you need to keep records. This is vital and an area where, by not doing so properly, you could lose a lot of money. How so? Well it’s all to do with tax, how much tax you pay either as a Sole Trader or a Limited Company because everything you spend in order…

Your Helping Business Part 12 – How The Money Works VIDEO COMING SOON AUDIO COMING SOON How Your Money Works How do you collect payment? There are several ways, yes you can use cash but avoid if possible, keep it separate and pay it in to your business bank account as often as possible. It then depends whether you take payment at ‘point of sale’ when you actually deliver your services, or by invoice before or after delivery. If you…

Your Helping Business Part 11 – Buying & Selling VIDEO COMING SOON AUDIO COMING SOON THE BUYING PROCESS Now we all know that people hate being sold to (or being ‘sold’ as the Americans say), but most people love to buy, and the 21st century is the age of the buyer. The process we go through when we buy is quite simple and it matches the traditional ‘sales process’ but really it’s more like the two sides of a coin.…

Your Helping Business Part 10 – Presence VIDEO COMING SOON AUDIO COMING SOON Communicating Your Image Part of your ‘presence’ is to do with how easy (or difficult) you make it for people to contact you – because that’s what you want. You don’t want to be cold calling – you want people to call you as a result of your marketing efforts. Forget about ‘non-geographic numbers’ – ‘0845’ and so on. People don’t trust them, don’t know what they…

Your Helping Business Part 9 – Branding VIDEO COMING SOON AUDIO COMING SOON What actually is your brand? Your brand is made up of several things: • Your Business Name • Your ‘logo’ or any specific graphic associated with your business • Your domain name • Your e-mail address • Your phone number • You– and your photo – which could form a major part of your brand because people are going to do business with you! These are the…

Your Helping Business Part 8 – Marketing VIDEO COMING SOON AUDIO COMING SOON WHAT IS MARKETING? Marketing is the process you use to tell the world about your service. It’s both an art and a science and there are as many definitions of marketing as there are academics who teach it and marketing managers who do it! Marketing includes defining the ‘market’ you want to engage with, analysing the ‘marketing environment’ in which you operate, and creating a strategy for…

Your Helping Business Part 7 – Compliance VIDEO COMING SOON AUDIO COMING SOON ‘COMPLIANCE’ AND LEGAL STUFF Whether you set up a formal company structure or not, you still have a number of ‘compliance’ issues to contend with. Sole Traders as well as Limited Companies have to comply with all applicable Health & Safety regulations and its essential that you know and understand these before you start trading. It only takes one ‘accident’ or complaint to put you out of…

Your Helping Business Part 6 – Operating your Business VIDEO COMING SOON AUDIO COMING SOON What You Need This section is about the equipment and facilities you’re going to need on top of the ‘tools of your trade’ whatever they may be such as appropriate furniture, a therapy bed or couch and so forth. You know what they are, but you will need some other equipment and facilities. Remember – everything you buy for your business, including your own personal…