As a small business owner you will always be pitching. From pitching to investors to get funding to pitching at networking events to seek out potential partners, pitching will be an essential part of your role as a small business owner. Therefore, you need to take time to how to perfect your pitch. Not being able to communicate your ideas and plans because you haven’t learnt how to deliver a good pitch can be detrimental.
Updates
Once again, Contractors sat yesterday with baited breath to see how the secrets of Philip Hammond’s red box and the Autumn Budget 2017 would affect them. In his first Budget since the government lost their majority in the general election, it was good to hear the Chancellor affirm his commitment to small businesses, recognising them as the backbone of our economy and praising them for their “vibrancy and resilience”.
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The first ever Autumn Budget 2017 was revealed by the Chancellor Philip Hammond at the houses of Parliament yesterday. The Budget focused on the finances of the country, and how it will affect the citizens of the country, from small business owners to millennials. The budget has mostly had a positive response, especially from the small business community.
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Small business owners often don’t delegate when they can and when they should. Lack of delegation in a small business environment can lead to the business owner being overworked and over-stressed. Taking on everything may seem natural to you as a business owner and you may think it is productive, however doing so can really hinder your chances of growing and developing your business. Therefore, practice and take time to learn how to delegate in a small business environment . The art of delegation, as you will find, has many benefits.
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Getting less than 7 – 8 hours of sleep per night on a regular basis can have severe repercussions for your health. Your brain functions, your mood and the way you interact with people will be affected. Those are all vital aspects for small business owners, so the smart thing to do would be not to lose sleep.
Data breaches and the protection of data has never been more prominent in the business world. Data breaches can be in the form of data theft or the loss of data through other means, whatever form they take, they can be detrimental to businesses. With GDPR going into effect May 2018, businesses need to do all they can in order to comply with the regulation. One of the major parts of the regulation is to ensure the protection of data or facing dire consequences.
You must notice how our everyday lives are becoming more and more cashless every day. New technologies are inventing easy ways of making payments, from contactless pay to paying with your mobile phone, and as such the need for physical cash is quickly diminishing. In research conducted by Expert Market, it was found that Brits are becoming cash-phobic, and are much less prone to use it in today’s cashless society.
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It may seem extremely difficult and hard to run a seasonal business, however if managed carefully then it can be a success. Seasonal fluctuations can create a problem for all businesses, however seasonal businesses embrace these fluctuations and develop skills and strategies in order to thrive.
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With the lead up to Christmas and the New Year, business owners are likely to be busy dealing with getting the customers in and operating the business. However, small business owners need to ensure that they plan ahead when it comes to making payments and payment processing. Making payments on time is vital to ensure that everyone has a Merry Christmas and are able to enjoy the festive period.
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With a new Budget around the corner and just a few months since the last one, 2017 has been a bumper year for Budgets. Following on from the Spring Budget in March, Wednesday the 22nd of November will see the first ever Autumn Budget; but why has the date of the Budget changed and how will it impact your business?
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Working out the Value Added Tax (VAT) and making sure that your business is complying with the VAT laws is time consuming for small business owners. In research conducted by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) it was found that small business owners spend a whole working week every year trying to comply with the obligations that come with VAT.
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One of the most controversial topics regarding the success in the business world is the one of the so-called ‘gut feeling’. While it is true that a lot of people made a fortune following their intuition, there is a lot of debate on what this gut-feeling really is. The closest thing to an explanation would be to say that the gut-feeling is an ability to match a current situation with a similar successful or unsuccessful scenario from your past. In other words, instead of relying on luck or some mystical force, you are subconsciously analysing the current situation and making decisions based on it.
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You will need to raise finances to fund your franchise business. It might be possible that you have to deal with hefty start-up costs that will cover the initial franchise fee as well as buying and/or renting the premises. You will also have to deal with ongoing costs that you need to cover, especially at the beginning where you will not be making a great amount of money.
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Leadership skills are something that you need to acquire in order to run and lead a successful business. Everyone is not born a natural leader, and this is not necessary in order for you to be a good leader. You can develop leadership skills over time and through experience. It is important to invest time in developing good leadership skills, as this will help you be a successful entrepreneur and a good boss.
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Once you have successfully started up your business, you will need to focus on actually running it. Although getting started and setting up is the initial big challenge you have to face and overcome, after getting into a routine of running your business, you will need to make sure that you are progressing and moving forwards and upwards rather than being stuck in a stagnant state.
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The state of an office space can tell you a lot about the business. A clean, bright and well-maintained office makes for a fantastic working atmosphere and a good company image. But if you let your office become worn down and tired it can badly affect the mood of your staff and reflect badly on your organisation. Take a look at your working space, if it has seen better days now could be the perfect time to make changes.
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Starting a day care nursery can be a rewarding experience as you are able to influence and teach young children at a very early point of their lives. And there will always be a requirement for child care, so if you do it in the right way you can create a profitable business from it. From targeting busy professionals who are not able to look after their children during the day, to parents who want to push the development of their children, there will always be clients to attract.
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Finding a gap in the market gives entrepreneurs a chance to innovate their business. Finding a gap and taking advantage can even allow you to build an entirely new business. There are several different ways in which you can look for gaps in the market to give you that one idea that can change the course of your entrepreneurship. You can come up with ideas from looking at trends to tweaking already existing products or services.
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If you decide that you are ready to take on the world of franchising and want to invest in a franchise business, then there are certain things you need to consider. These include skills and attributes that make a good franchisee, choosing and buying the type of franchise, as well as actually running the franchise on a daily basis.
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Small businesses can really benefit from having accounting software to handle all the accounting of their business. It can make your business accounting secure, organised and hassle-free, allowing you to work on growing your business. When compared to manual accounting, accounting software provides clear advantages.
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