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Remote Work To Look Into

Remote Work – Start Your Business

Considering the time and era we are in, it is no surprise that remote work is starting to gain more and more notoriety within our society. Starting a business is already a challenge in and of itself, but with a home business, you can get started and launch your business from the comfort of your own home. A home business offers the flexibility to use your home as an office and build your company from the ground up without any need to rent a space for operations. Whether you’re a student, a stay-at-home parent, or simply prefer to work alone in a comfortable environment, setting up a home business offers many benefits. So, what are some remote jobs to look into today?

– Personal/Virtual Assistant

Are you an organizational guru? Do you have incredible time management skills, a knack for planning, and a talent for multitasking? Put your skills to good use as a virtual assistant. Maintaining calendars, booking travel, email correspondence and more, can all be done remotely – all you need is a computer. If you’ve already worked successfully as an assistant, your previous references will do wonders for getting your business off the ground. If you need to develop a clientele before starting your business, UpWork is again a useful option for getting your feet wet. 

– Freelance Writing

Writing is a great skill to have because it’s needed somewhere in every industry. If there’s an area you have expertise in, such as fashion or technology, maintaining a blog on that subject allows you to have a personal portfolio to show off your work and start earning paid projects. The good news is that you don’t have to start off entirely on your own, there are plenty of freelance writing websites where you can find paid work, such as UpWork, that you can use to build a client base before going off on your own.

– Consignment Shop

If you have an eye for fashion and know how to put together an eye-catching ensemble, then you might have what it takes to start your very own online consignment shop. You can find great, affordable items at your local thrift store, pieces that people might otherwise overlook, and use your skills to create one-of-a-kind outfits that go from drab to must-have. You can model the outfits yourself, or involve friends and family by asking them to model your looks and show off a variety of styles on different body types. 

Starting your own business comes with many challenges, but with these home business ideas and of course, your customized bargain business plan, you’ll have the tools you need to hit the ground running. What are you waiting for? Get started today!

 

Marketing Money News

Provision and Corporation Tax

Corporation Tax

In the same way that loan capital is subject to a financing cost, the profits generated by a business are subject to a cost; corporation tax. The charge for corporation tax is based upon the level of profits recorded and the tax rates in place at the time of calculation. Company year­ends and tax year­ends rarely match. Therefore companies must estimate their tax liability at the end of each accounting period and record an appropriate estimate of the liability likely to be paid.  These estimates are unlikely to be entirely accurate and as such companies tend to either over or under estimate the provision for corporation tax, which is adjusted for in the following year’s accounts. 

It is unlikely the actual charge will match the estimated liability so the tax liability account will be left with a closing balance carried forward. This needs to be removed as the debt has been settled (i.e. there should not be any carried forward balances because the tax authorities have been paid the correct amount). 

If there is an over-provision in the prior year (i.e. estimate was greater than the amount paid) there will be a closing credit balance carried forward.  

  • As the company overestimated, the charge for the following year is reduced by the appropriate amount so that over the two year period the correct charge has been recorded. 

If there is an underestimate in the prior year (i.e. estimate was less than the amount paid) there will be a closing debit balance carried forward. 

  • As the company underestimated, the charge for the following year is increased by the appropriate amount so that over the two year period the correct charge has been recorded. 

Remember and note: The liability in the statement of financial position= the estimated amount payable for the current year. The tax charge in the income statement = the estimated amount payable for the current year – last year’s over-provision. 

Provision

As for provision, a provision can be defined as a liability of uncertain timing or amount. 

For example; a business is facing legal action for breaching health and safety law. The likely repercussion is that they will be fined. The timing and severity of the fine will be decided by criminal court at some point in the future. The key question is should the business attempt to reflect this cost in their financial statements? 

These are all questions you should be asking and discussing with your business consultant. We are ready to answer any questions you may have and even offer a free consultation! Contacts us today.

 

Development Marketing

Businesses That Are Successful In 2021

Baking & Personal Chef Services

Everyone needs to eat, but not everyone has the time or skills to cook for themselves. These days, people are turning to sites like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh for their meal prep solutions. If you can prepare weekly meals for an individual or a family, then you’ve got yourself the perfect home business with your kitchen as the office. If you’re a pastry chef – even better! You’ll have year-round opportunities to make pastries for special events like weddings, baby showers, bridal showers, birthdays, anniversaries, holiday parties, and just about any occasion worth celebrating. 

Personal/Virtual Assistant

Are you an organizational guru? Do you have incredible time management skills, a knack for planning, and a talent for multitasking? Put your skills to good use as a virtual assistant. Considering the fact that due to COVID regulations, many jobs are remote, especially virtual assistance jobs. Maintaining calendars, booking travel, email correspondence and more, can all be done remotely – all you need is a computer. If you’ve already worked successfully as an assistant, your previous references will do wonders for getting your business off the ground. If you need to develop a clientele before starting your business, UpWork is again a useful option for getting your feet wet.  

Freelance Writing

Writing is a great skill to have because it’s needed somewhere in every industry. If there’s an area you have expertise in, such as fashion or technology, maintaining a blog on that subject allows you to have a personal portfolio to show off your work and start earning paid projects. The good news is that you don’t have to start off entirely on your own, there are plenty of freelance writing websites where you can find paid work, such as UpWork, that you can use to build a client base before going off on your own.

Arts & Crafts Maker

Thanks to the likes of Etsy, arts and crafts makers are already making a profit from their original creations. If you have a passion for making things, and it could be anything ranging from jewelry to birdhouses to wine boxes, you have something to sell. Start advertising the things you’ve made on a personal website or join the many talented artists and crafts makers on Etsy to get started.  

Consignment Shop

If you have an eye for fashion and know how to put together an eye-catching ensemble, then you might have what it takes to start your very own online consignment shop. You can find great, affordable items at your local thrift store, pieces that people might otherwise overlook, and use your skills to create one-of-a-kind outfits that go from drab to must-have. You can model the outfits yourself, or involve friends and family by asking them to model your looks and show off a variety of styles on different body types. 

Starting your own business comes with many challenges, but with these home business ideas and of course, your customized bargain business plan, you’ll have the tools you need to hit the ground running. What are you waiting for? Get started today!

 

Development Entrepreneur Marketing

Using Your Business Plan To Your Benefit

Before we get into HOW to use your business plan, let’s see why you need one in the first place. 

As an entrepreneur it can be tempting to jump into a new idea immediately and move full steam ahead to begin a new business venture. However, you have to walk before you can run! Diving into a project can result with a huge to-do list, and not enough time and this is when the chaos happens. This is why it is important to plan the business and think through all scenarios before startup. Not only is a business plan a blueprint for the startup of your company, it will provide an outline for the first few years and also give you an idea of if the idea is actually viable before you invest your time and money in it. Creating a business plan can be the deciding factor in your viability, success, and in securing financing.

 

Viability of Your Business

One of the most important steps in the business plan is writing the marketing analysis and competitive analysis segments. These will help you discover and visualize what your competition will be and establish what sets your company apart and gives you a competitive advantage in the market. This, combined with the financial projections, can be a huge clue to the likelihood of your startup’s success. These segments will tell you if the idea is not profitable enough or if it would take too much time and money to sustain, so you can cut losses early on and move to the next idea. Much better to find out early than to invest years and significant amounts of money into something that won’t work!

 

Success of Your Business

The process of writing a business plan forces you to think through exactly what you want your business to be – what products or services will be your core offering, what you hope to expand to over the years, and what voice to the customer and marketing methods you will use, to name a few. By first establishing feasibility, and then running through potential situations that may arise during the launch and growth of a business you are setting yourself up for success. Be proactive, not reactive! It can be the difference in success and failure. 

Now – knowing all this, how can we use our plan to our benefit? 

– Attract Investors & Lenders

So many businesses give up entirely on the concept of investors. “It’s too hard” or even “my business isn’t good enough”. Both of these may have an element of reality to them, but overall, no. There are risks and benefits in many aspects of business, but if you neglect to have a business plan, you’re not even trying to get investors to notice.

How to use a business plan regarding investments is by creating an executive statement that addresses the need that you are solving. Don’t obsess on numbers, or being unique, or even being the first in your market. Chances are, you’re not. But, you may very well provide what people need and that is what investors specialize in.

– Be Ready for Pressure

It’s incredible to see how minor tweaks made in how something is done can have a monumental impact on the result. Use your business plan to identify where things can be achieved at a better cost or more efficiently. It’s nearly impossible to address all potential possibilities without laying it out in a business plan.

 

 

Development Marketing Tips

How To Make Your New Business Grow

Grow Your New Business:

Even before your business takes off – you must advertise it. It is an essential factor because, in a way, you’re playing a game of psychology by imprinting your company in people’s brains. 

There are different forms of advertisements, such as:

  1. Television ads (commercials)
  2. Printed advertisements (banners, posters, newspapers, and even commercials printed on buses can be promoted. The best place to present your advertisements are in malls and similar settings where people tend to gather.)
  3. Radio advertising
  4. Social media (perhaps the most powerful form of advertising as of to date, as many bloggers and influencers promote services and products daily to their followers.)

The way your company is presented should be fresh and unique. It should not be something that has been done over and over which fails to bring any type of curiosity to the viewer’s eye.

Find a way to execute an advertisement that even when seen without the company’s logo/name, it can automatically be linked to it. Almost as a reflex, or a slogan.

You must know what sphere you are stepping into and what pedestal you are standing on. The business industry is the fastest-changing and expanding industry to date, which means that you must be refreshed with new knowledge when something new takes place in this specter.

Knowing what is in the market and what is missing can help generate an idea of what your potential new business can service. You must be well aware of the industry because, in this era, everything is considered “fast”, i.e. fast fashion, fast trends, fast products. These do not have a long shelf life and institutions that service this either end up bankrupt or fail to meet their business plan standards.

Approach things with a 3rd eye. Discuss your research with your peers and team members and brainstorm what is an astute product or service to implement in your organization which can not only give you long-term success, but also stability.

 

 

Marketing Tips

Franchises – A Simple Breakdown

Buying a Franchise – A Simple Breakdown

The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Guide to Buying a Franchise is the best way to start your quest. Some brands require their franchisee to have a net worth of $500,000. If your financial standing does not meet this criterion, find another niche. Similarly, do not ignore specific business only by looking at the fine print. Another important document is Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD). You will receive it from your franchisor. However, franchise representatives usually cannot provide information about earnings-related questions. You can get all these information from existing franchisees.

Therefore, you should make sure you have a franchise business plan before making any decisions. FDD is a highly informative document where you can find the answers about the type of training your franchisor will offer you, hidden costs in term of the opening day; discounts or special promotions, bankruptcy filings by the franchisor and litigation involving the management.    

Being a franchisee, you must know about your financial standing. You will waste a lot of time in finding and searching franchise opportunities without knowing your budget limits.

It is best to prepare your net worth statement before deciding to become a part of a franchise business. Prepare a list of your assets and the liabilities. The difference between your assets and liabilities is your total net worth. Your franchisor will require this information from you. Mostly the franchisor set their minimum net worth requirements.

Always consider beyond the minimum buying requirement of the franchise, listed as registration fee and equipment cost. Do not ignore the costs that involve marketing and advertising activities. You need a significant amount of money to survive on break-even point and the initial loss period before your business actually starts hatching the profits.

 

Entrepreneur Marketing

Investors

What Are Investors?

Investors are people who put money towards a product or entity with the expectation of generating a larger benefit or financial return in the future. Additionally, investing is a long term practice. Those involved tend to take a smaller risk for a larger gain. Investors are a great option because many of them look to invest in small businesses. A positive gain, this aids your business to move forwards not only financially, but also economically. Not everyone who throws money your way is an ideal investor. Even though it may be tempting, it’s important to read the fine print before accepting any investment. The perfect startup investor offers more than just money. Meeting any type of investor is intimidating. Sometimes, even the slightest fumble in your pitch can cause them to doubt the future of your startup. Luckily, with the perfection prepared business plan, you’ll have an organized breakdown of your business model, structure, and execution. The best things to consider when pursuing an investor are:

Expertise– What is your investor’s background? If they weren’t investors would you consider hiring them? An investor who can offer skilled expertise applicable to your startup is more valuable than any blank check.

Network– Maybe your investor isn’t offering the oftiest amount of cash, but do they make up for it in who they know? Many times, who you know can make you an authority in your market quicker than anything else.

Resources– When possible, pursue industry veterans who have the resources you need at their fingertips. If they really believe in you, they’ll be glad to share.

 

There are a few different types of investors: passive investors & active investors.

Passive Investing: a safer method of investing. This is more of a buy-and-hold tactic which limits the amount of turnover by following the index. 
Active Investing: riskier method of investing. Involves a constant buying/selling strategy. 

Investors can either invest under their own personal account (retail investors), or those who invest in a start-up (angel investors), or those who invest in private companies. Individuals can also become investors themselves by building a portfolio and having sufficient funding to have the ability to invest in an individual, or a business entity. 

This is a rough draft of some of the documents needed. Typically, it varies from lender to lender.

 

Marketing Tips

Avoid These 3 Startup Mistakes

Avoid These 3 Startup Mistakes

  • Lacking in marketing

This, by far, is the most efficient way to communicate with your clients about your business. IT is not just a “one stop and go” plan. Through marketing, you form a foundation which helps maintain a stable and permanent relationship with your target audience. It ensures growth which is a key essential for your business if you want it to expand and develop for the future. Since marketing is not short-term, it helps sustain your business in the competitive industry. 

  • Starting a business with no business plan 

This is one of the most crucial things you can potentially have for your company. A business plan is essentially a blueprint of your business. One of the main reasons why a business will fail is due to not having a business plan. A plan helps you prevent making decisions that are not helpful for your company, and instead, steer you in the right direction.  Starting a business without a plan is basically going on a road trip with no navigation, you will end up lost and far without a guide.

  • Not Networking

Essentially, your main goal is to build a firm foundation, and structure a successful business on top of it. Without networking, you wouldn’t have the ability to confide with top tier business people amongst other individuals. influencers, and entrepreneurs. It helps you maintain an active reputation for your company. No Fortune 500 company got to where they are at without marketing. It is seen as a community even – a place where future investors go to see if there are any organizations they are interested in working/partnering with.

 

Getting the help you need is more than enough for your business to succeed. There is no guarantee that a business will succeed right off the bat. You are made to make mistakes. You fall down, and get up stronger with a wiser mindset! Call us for a free business consultation. 

 

Custom Business Plans
Development Entrepreneur Marketing

What Investors Look For in Your Business Plan

Investors for your business

Investors for your business will consider quite a few things before they put their money where their mouth is. Oftentimes this includes your team positions, titles, and responsibilities. A track record proving your success, and an awareness of your competitors. But, what are other things that can attract investors for your business? The person you are meeting with for investments or loans wants to know how you plan to make the money back, and when you plan to see a return on their investment. Be sure to have an idea of your projections that are included in the business plan, because you will probably be expected to answer questions about them.

These are the three main items you need to discuss:

  1. How much are you asking for?
  2. What will it be used for?
  3. Will it be a one-time ask or if you will need another round of financing in the future?

If you know your business plan, you can be ready to answer just about anything that may be brought up. And having your business plan with you can be something to leave behind with them for review, or a handy item to point to when you want to show off your charts, graphs or photos of your products. An investor needs to see a viable, proven strategy for making a significant profit within an allotted time frame. They need to know that they will make a very secure, handsome profit in return for their investment. But also that there is a clearly defined, effective exit strategy in place for them to actually withdraw their profits.

 

Entrepreneur Marketing

Business Networking & Its The Importance

Business Networking

Networking is the act of interacting and communicating with different people, investors, businesspeople while exchanging information, credentials, and contacts. One of the greatest ways your business can develop and advance is through networking. When you put yourself out there alongside your business, the chances of you gaining new support, clients, shareholders, even partners are high as your company starts to receive attention from different directions. You are making you and your business known to the public eye. By doing this, you are expanding the knowledge of your presence and what services your company offers to others. One of the key elements that can boost not only your business but your reputation. When you network, you put yourself out there and raise the chances of you meeting successful people who are in your sphere. 

When you start to enter the sphere of communication/networking – make it your goal to become known. By forming new relationships, you gain the advantage of people remembering you and the services you offer with your organization. In a lot of cases, new business owners focus more on their business plans rather than the actual business itself. They invest their time and thinking on how to create this extravagant organization, but when the time comes to put the plan to use, it is ineffective because the company either does not meet the standards of the plan. Take into consideration that though the plan is the foundation for the organization, there are other aspects that have to be built on it. 

So, what else is important that networking gives you? Simple – you gain perspective. Maybe you want to change the format that your business is currently running on to something different. It is much easier to envision the fail/success image of your company through someone who has the experience and is operating on the platform that you are interested in. You see head-on what it is like and align your vision to see if that format is fit for your personal business.

 

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