Complete news archive
Go green; save 75% on fuel!
Government incentivise the purchase of Electric cars and Vans
Planned until 2015, Central Government funds have been earmarked to subsidise the price of an electric plug-in Car, offering business owners the chance to get a 25% discount on their purchase up to a maximum of £5,000. Alongside the Car Grant, a new Plug-in Van Grant also offers to reduce the cost of eligible vans by 20% up to the value of £8,000.
Save 75% on your fuel bill
At 100 miles or less, the distances travelled on one charge won't appeal to all small business owners who need transport to carry out their work but it cannot be denied that the headlines being touted about fuel savings do make the mouth water. If we took the cost of diesel or petrol to be around 12 pence per mile (in a typical small vehicle) it is likely that the equivalent cost per mile in an electric vehicle would be just 3p per mile or less. In addition,some vehicles are exempt from Road Tax.
Typical Price of a Small Van
A small van like the 'Peugeot eBipper' starts at around £40,000 which for any small operator is a tremendous amount of money but before you dismiss the option, speak to your accountant and make sure you know what the payback looks like against the fuel savings you could off-set over a 5 year window.
Thu Jan 19 2012 12:02:43
If ever there was a lesson in business -Woolies
Do you remember when the bosses of Woolworths had to sell all of its 815 stores for just £1. The company has seen its sales in decline for some time and debts had been mounting!
Can you remember why?
A number of experts agree that the demise of the company was mostly caused by a severe lack of ability to understand the changing needs and higher standards of consumers as they arose over the last decade.
Thought for the day
What can you do right now to make your small business more customer centric, do you really know what your customers want? Do you really know how to present it, market it and package it?
The wonder of woolies may be dead, but such a catastrophic business failing is something even the smallest one man band can learn from...
Thu Jan 19 2012 10:51:48
There's a massive demand for Book-Keeping Services
It is estimated that the average small business spends seven hours a month dealing with the tax man, tax issues and the VAT man
There is a certainly a market there to offer some help to...
A good reason to take a look at our book and dvd on how to start your own book-keeping business. The comprehensive product also teaches you how to do double entry book-keeping,the corner stone skill you will need!
Thu Dec 2 2010 14:56:56
Don't be one of the 5 that will fail!
Recent studies show that over the next 12 months, more than 350,000 people will start their own small business in the UK.
For many, redundancies and changes in working terms and conditions will be the driver, but for some it will simply be a case of taking advantage of low bank lending rates and the opportunity to still tap in some fairly buoyant markets in areas like the service industry, car valeting, home cleaning, couriers, fast food for example are all still in good demand.
New figures suggest that the number of people asking Business Link for help has more than doubled since 2007 and the start of the recession.
Many Bank Managers will tell you that three out of five start up businesses are likely to fail.
They believe that good planning and good knowledge is the key and here at My Own Small Business, we agree!
That's why we are particularly proud that for under £20 you can purchase one of our products and gain the insight you need before taking the step and risk of borrowing or investing in your next move.
The titles of our comprehensive book and tuition DVDs are also focused on small businesses you can start where public demand for these types of service is still growing!
Wed Nov 17 2010 13:17:28
The Chancellor's Budget & Small Business
Business rates
Small businesses can get relief on their business rates. Small businesses that are in properties with a rateable value of less than £6000 will not have to pay any rates for 1 year. Reductions on a sliding scale will also be available for small business owners with rateable values of between £6001 and £12,000 per annum. To find out more, go to: http://www.2010.voa.gov.uk/rli
Time to pay
You may be able to get time to pay your tax bill if you are running a viable business that is struggling. To find out if you can benefit call 0845 302 1435
Slice of the pie
The government intend to provide more work to small business. You can register to see what tenders are up for grabs every month. Go to http://www.supply2.gov.uk
Capital allowances
You will be able to claim more capital allowances. You can off set up to £100k capital expenditure against your profits chargeable to corporation tax. This means you will need to be running a limited company with the means and requirement to purchase fixed assets to benefit.
A fair chance of that business loan!
The state funded Banks, Lloyds and RBS are to be targeted on lending £41 billion to small business. Let's face it though people, you are still going to need a business plan and some funds of your own (so nothing new to get too excited about here). What's more interesting though is the appointment of a new credit adjudicator set up for small businesses. The adjudicator will ensure you are fairly treated when applying for loans. Ask you bank manager for details on this if you are making a loan application for your small business.
Minimum wage up 2.2 %
Finally if you are an employer you should note that the minimum wage will go up in October 2010 to £5.93 per hour. This is only a 2.2% increase so nothing to really gripe about there.
Sun Mar 28 2010 13:59:39
Yum Yum!
A leading sandwich outlet in the United Kingdom recently announced it would open another 600 stores by the end of 2010. Starting a small catering or food business is not the simplest business one could choose and there are some higher than average start up costs involved, mainly surrounding property and the need to ensure your focus and spend is firmly on "location ,location, location" -no change there then, recession or no recession! The real point here is that the major chains rarely spend £millions of pounds expanding (quite literally millions) if the business is not there. So if you do have the means, you like food and you love customer service, it seems that starting a food outlet may just be a no brainer!
Tue Aug 4 2009 17:20:11
£13.16 billion pounds, wow!
Just in the UK alone, it is anticipated that on-line shopping and sales will boom throughout 2009 to over £14.16bn. That's an increase of around 10% up on 2008. Having an e-commerce web site is not as expensive as you might think, so why not grab yourself half an hour; open a bottle of wine, and do some research that might just change your business prospects forever! Take some time out to learn about a couple of things that are under your very nose, such as Google's ad words service along with some other useful business tools at http://www.google.co.uk/services/.
Tue Aug 4 2009 17:23:02
A good bet for small business lending?
A recent meeting of Lloyds TSB shareholders saw support for plans to raise £5.5 billion to shore up the banks balance sheet. In addition, over 95% of shareholders backed the deal to take over HBOS. A takeover of HBOS is expected to create a bank with 146,000 staff and 3,000 branches across the UK. That's a lot of capacity and a lot of lending power!
Top tip
If you have a small business and you cannot raise the finance you need, it might make sense to talk to a lender that is aggressively seeking expansion and market share. If you're struggling to get your existing bank to help, our bet would be to make Lloyds TSB your next stop for a chat!
Sat Nov 22 2008 02:12:02
