Category: Miscellaneous

Business liquidation

What liquidation means for UK businesses

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If you’ve been struggling to keep your company afloat, or have already reached the stage where it’s insolvent, you may be worried about what liquidation means for you and your business.

It’s certainly a challenging scenario. You have to deal with constant pressure from creditors, and this can prevent you from moving the business away from financial difficulty.

So what does liquidation mean in a practical sense, and how can it affect you as a company director?

What is business liquidation?

Liquidation involves selling business assets, and using the funds to pay creditors some of the money you owe. Unfortunately, the business must permanently close at the end of the process, which also means redundancy for any staff you employ.… Read more

Business debt

How to deal with serious debt as a UK limited company

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When a limited company is in financial difficulty, directors aren’t usually personally liable for the business’ debts. That’s because limited companies are separate legal entities, unlike sole traders, who can be pursued for payment through the courts.

Nonetheless, it’s a difficult situation when a company struggles financially, and if you’re a limited company director it’s important to understand your duties and obligations.

If the company is formally insolvent, you’re legally obliged to stop trading and prevent any unnecessary financial losses for your creditors.

If you don’t do this you could face allegations of wrongful trading, and potentially be held liable for business debts.… Read more

Getting behind with tax payments

Tax debt? How a Time to Pay Arrangement can help your business survive

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If your business has fallen behind with tax payments, there’s a procedure in the UK that could help you get back on track. HMRC’s Time to Pay arrangement, or TTP, is an extremely useful fallback when you’re dealing with short-term financial difficulties.

HMRC take stringent measures against businesses they believe are deliberately avoiding payment, so it’s important to contact them quickly to explain your situation and demonstrate your resolve in paying the arrears.

So what exactly is a Time to Pay arrangement, and how does it work in practice?

What is a Time to Pay arrangement?

HMRC tax payments

A Time to Pay arrangement is a payment plan that reschedules your unpaid liabilities to HMRC.… Read more

How to improve your credit score

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Your credit score helps lenders and credit card companies decide whether you pose a risk to them by borrowing, and plays an important part in your financial life whatever your age.

Unfortunately, a low credit rating negatively affects your chances of being granted a loan, or can severely restrict the options. So how can you improve your credit score to access the best loan and credit card deals?

Here are five tips to get you started:

1.    Make sure you’re on the electoral roll

Being on the electoral register shows that you have a fixed address, and confirms your identity to lenders.… Read more

seo to drive website traffic

Which SEO techniques should you use in your business blog?

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Search engine optimisation makes your business blog more visible and accessible to your intended audience by pushing you up through the search engine rankings. But which SEO techniques make the most impact?

Before we identify some of the essential SEO methods to use in your blog posts, let’s look at why you need to use search engine optimisation in the first place.

Why use search engine optimisation in your business blog?

With so many people searching the internet for answers, advice, products, and services, you need to make an impact to stand out above your competitors.

When SEO is implemented correctly your business blog is more easily found in the vast sea of online information, and becomes accessible to customers around the world.… Read more

Boost your productivity

Boost your productivity with the Pomodoro Technique

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Making the most of your time can be notoriously difficult when you’re blogging for your business – particularly when you work from home. Distractions are all around and before you know it the day is over, along with your chances of making a decent profit. So how can you boost your productivity simply and easily when you’re trying to make a business blog work?

There’s a time management technique that’s been around since the 1980s. The Pomodoro Technique is a process whereby you allocate 25-minute blocks of time to a piece of work (25 minutes is traditionally one pomodoro), and take a 5-minute break after each one.… Read more

micro business

Micro business owners – Are you missing a huge opportunity to engage your target market?

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A well-designed website can make the difference between success and failure for any business, but particularly so for micro businesses. It’s vital for your marketing even if you only trade locally or have built a reputation by word-of-mouth.

If it’s well optimised for the search engines, regularly updated with great content, and also set up for mobile devices, your website will attract a regular stream of targeted visitors ready to be converted into customers.

With more and more internet searches carried out on mobile devices these days, by not showing up in the results you’re missing out on sales and a huge opportunity to engage with your target market.… Read more

Writing web copy

Writing Your Own Website Copy? It Pays to be Minimalist

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Many small business owners write their own website copy and do a great job, but it can be very tempting to use too many words to get the message across. These then have to compete for the reader’s attention with videos, buttons, pop-ups and adverts.

It doesn’t matter how many bells and whistles you have on your website, it’s the words that carry visitors past the initial ‘wow factor’ and on to the process of buying. These words need to be concise.

Think like a minimalist

Website writing

The best way to engage visitors is to lead them through your site with simple, concise writing – you stand a better chance of retaining their interest and converting them from visitor to customer.… Read more

Paid on time

How to Get Your Small Business Invoices Paid on Time

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If you want to get paid on time as a small business accurate invoicing is an important element, but other factors also play a part. Presenting invoices that are easy to read and understand, clearly laying out your terms of trade, also limits the opportunity for customers to delay payment via contrived disputes.

So what aspects of invoicing do you need to focus on to get paid on time?

Due date for payment

To some extent, the industry you operate in dictates when you’ll get paid. Construction, for example, is renowned for its lengthy payment cycles largely due to the number of businesses in the supply chains, and the ‘retention money’ system that’s used.… Read more

Small business debt

Sole Trader Debt: 5 Effective Solutions

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It can be difficult to escape sole trader debt, as you’re personally liable for the debts of your business and don’t enjoy the limited liability that’s available to company directors. This means your assets, including your home, are at risk if you’re unable to pay suppliers, tax liabilities, or staff.

Your personal credit rating is also affected when you get into business debt. This can severely limit future borrowing as any defaults or formal debt procedures that you enter remain on your credit file for six years.

Escaping sole trader debt

You can escape serious debt in various ways as a sole trader.… Read more