FREE business builder webinar – “The Four Ways to Improve Your Profit in your Business”.

Please join me for an hour on 29 May 2012 at 10.00am. We are running a completely free series of webinars where we will share with you some ideas that will help you to grow your businesses.

The first of these webinars is on the above date and is on “The Four Ways to Improve Your Profit in your Business”.

If you’re looking to improve profit, are there really only four ways to do it?

There may be 101 things you can do in your business to change your profits, but they all boil down to four main categories:

Number of customers

How often they buy from you

How much they buy when they come

Systems integration and processes

This webinar will address each of these four simple ways, and help you identify where to start.

Before you begin improving these numbers, though, there’s a critical step you must take in determining your own “profit zone”. We’ll cover this issue first so that you can make sure you’re in the right place to make the kind of profits you want and need.

If for some reason the date doesn’t suit, feel free to register!  We’ll provide you with a link to the recording.
Click here to register for the webinar on “The Four Ways to Improve Your Profit in your Business”

We will also be running further webinars each month. The next one will be on “What You Measure You Can Manage (KPIs)”. This will on the 5 July 2012.To register your interest in attending this webinar please click here.

For further information and to view a short video on the Business Builder Webinars please click here.

 

 

#MARKETING YOUR #BUSINESS BY USING AN AWARD STRATEGY

Winning awards can be a fantastic way of generating free PR for your business. Creating an awards strategy involves researching relevant awards and planning which categories to enter your business into throughout the year ahead.

An awards strategy can be a big boost in helping businesses to build their brand, build awareness and communicate with targeted audiences. While many larger businesses understand the value of an awards strategy, many small and medium sized firms fail to pursue industry related awards. They either do not grasp the concept, do not allocate the time to professionally fill out forms, or simply do not make it a key part of their marketing strategy. Winning an award or multiple awards can produce a great number of benefits both inside and outside your firm.

Firstly, winning an award sends a strong message to customers and potential target customers alike. It reinforces your marketing efforts and demonstrates to your current customers that they are doing business with a sound and reliable company. It informs prospective customers that your business is reputable and reliable.

Secondly, winning awards can be useful in generating press coverage. You can create a campaign based on winning the award, which could include press releases, email campaigns, adding the awards logo to your website and marketing materials, etc.

The business can also create a social media campaign and highlight the award on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

In developing an awards strategy your business should consider which awards are relevant to the business and its customers. Then develop a calendar which includes dates and submission details for each award category that you wish to enter. Finally, you should designate one person in the office to champion the cause and entrust them with the responsibility to make submissions on time.

How To Pay Your Spouse/Civil Partner Or Children Wages To Reduce The #IncomeTax or #CorporationTax You Pay

Your spouse/civil partner may not have any income at all, and almost certainly your children don’t. This means their personal allowance is being wasted every year. Even children are entitled to a personal allowance.

If the amount up the level at which national insurance becomes payable of £7,488 in 2012/13 was paid to them as wage, they would pay no tax on it and your business profits could be reduced.

Please note that children under the minimum school leaving age can only work a limited number of hours per week and local by-laws may restrict their working hours further.

If you pay just 20% income tax and 9% Class 4 National Insurance this would save you £2172 every year on each salary. And how many children do you have?

STOP! It’s not quite that simple. To pay wages like this you need to follow the following rules:

It must be for work actually done. Now it’s going to be tough to argue your 2-year-old son is working for you but many wives/husbands do work and mature children may also help out.

May be they do the books, answer the phone, stuff envelopes, etc. Keeping out of your way so you can get on doesn’t count, as valuable as it may be. Draw up a list of their responsibilities to help your case.
At present they do it for free because it’s a family business but they should and can be paid for it. If you make your spouse a director, all the responsibilities of this imposed by Company Law must be worth something.

You can also do this where you have property that you rent out and the spouse manages the properties.

If this is the case, it’s reasonable to pay them a salary commensurate with what they actually do. How much would it cost to get someone in to do that job? The minimum wage level is at least a good place to start but more if you can justify it.

The amount must actually be paid. It’s no good the accountant just putting it through the accounts at the end of the year. Pay it, ideally through the bank rather than cash so that it’s easy to prove it’s been paid and record it in your accounting records.

Comply with any PAYE procedures such as getting a P46 signed, completing an end of year PAYE forms as you would do for normal staff. Remember, it may also help keep up their National Insurance contribution record even if they don’t pay any National Insurance on the salary.

Online Accounting solutions for clients

At Bexley Accountancy Solutions we’re always looking for ways to help our clients. That’s why I’m blogging about Sage One; a safe, simple online solution supported by Sage that provides a series of services to help you manage your business finances.

It has also has an ‘Accountant Edition’ – which means we can have real-time access to your accounts data, so that we can support you whenever and wherever you might need us to.

The two important, yet easy-to-use, online Sage One services that you might find useful are:

Sage One Accounts – An accounting service for business owners who want greater control of their finances, but don’t necessarily have an accounting background or time for software training. You can access it anywhere; all you need is an internet connection and a current internet browser– you don’t need to install anything.

Sage One Cashbook – Designed mainly for sole traders, it’s an easy-to-use online service with intuitive features that lets you record the movement of money in and out of your business.

Plus you don’t need to have experience in accounting or bookkeeping to use it. Both services can help you run your business even more effectively, and via our Accountant Edition we can also collaborate with you online – in an instant.

Please feel free to get in touch if you’d like any further information, or you can visit www.sageone.com As your accountant, I am confident that choosing Sage One to run your business would increase your efficiency and effectiveness.

Our Reaction to the 2012 Budget

Bexley Accountancy Solutions urge Kent and London businesses to stand up and be counted in response to an “irrelevant” Budget

We have today launched a new growth initiative to help local businesses stand up and be counted in restoring prosperity to the region. Commenting on the Budget and the new initiative Stephen Fusco partner at Bexley Accountancy Solutions said that:

“Unfortunately, despite the hype, this Budget is largely an irrelevance. That’s not to say it doesn’t contain its share of headline grabbing announcements – it certainly does! But welcome as some of those are, the reality is that we are facing an economic growth crisis. And while 10% of the solution to that crisis may come from Budgets, for the other 90% we must look to the region’s businesses.

The simple truth is that it is businesses and not Budgets that offer us the best hope of putting things right by replacing the jobs, income and wealth lost, and generating the extra taxes needed to sort out public finances. Budget measures such as the cut in corporation tax will only ever help a bit. It is how businesses respond that really matters, since they are the real engine of growth.  So for the good of us all the region’s job and wealth creating businesses must now stand up and be counted as a matter of the utmost urgency.

For business owners the sting in the tail from the Budget is the fact that the changes announced today look likely to give the taxman new powers to, in the words of one entrepreneur today, “bleed them dry”.  The devil will of course be in the detail. But it does seem that many taxpayers will now face a more penal and less accommodating tax system, with many reliefs and legitimate forms of tax planning no longer available to them.

Astonishingly, the Chancellor even admitted that he would be taking “five times more money each and every year from the wealthiest”. And, worryingly, many of those he is taking five times more from are the very same business leaders we need on our side.

So, to ensure that this much tougher tax regime does not discourage local businesses from becoming the engines of growth that society desperately needs them to be, we are today launching a 2012 Tax Minimisation Review initiative. Its aim is simple: to encourage and support growth in our local area by making sure that no-one pays a single penny more than their fair share of tax. And thanks to our sponsorship it is both free and freely available to any business owner who wants to create a better future.”

Readers who do not want to pay a single penny more business and personal tax than they need to can claim a free 2012 Tax Minimisation Review by calling Stephen Fusco at Bexley Accountancy Solutions Limited on 01322 521600.

For full detail of the budget CLICK HERE

For a FREE Complete Guide To How To Pay Less Tax – at least 86 different ideas CLICK HERE

How to save money on your Accounts Dept by outsourcing?

Your accounts department is a critical function within any Business. However it can be an expensive overhead to fund.  We believe that by outsourcing your company’s financial functions you will have an outstanding finance department at a reduced cost and it will revolutionise the way you run your business.

Some of the many benefits of outsourcing:

• Flexible and cost effective. You pay for the services you use and save money on in-house specialist staff and expensive offices.
• Every key business decision will be taken secure in the knowledge that your financial information is sound and up to date.
• You can concentrate on what is important… your core business. Leave the financial functions to us and use your time to transform your business.

You may need a part time finance director, an entire finance department or just help with the bookkeeping, VAT and payroll. It’s your choice. Outsourcing Companies should be able to offer you packages to suite.

Case Study

I have used Stephen at Bexley Accountancy Solutions since I started my recruitment company back in 2005.

He does the whole of the book-keeping/VAT and accounts work for me and gives me all the information I need to be able to run my business. By giving everything over to Stephen it frees up my time and also reduces the stress of doing the books myself. This was a god send when we had a routine VAT inspection. I was very worried but I should not have been. Stephen dealt directly with the VAT man and he went away happy with no issues.

He is also very responsive when I need help with anything. A service which is really appreciated as I know the answer to any question I have is only a phone call away.

I have no hesitation in recommending him and his company to anyone who is seeking a personal and professional service. He is a great to do business with and he makes my life much less stressful.

Company Director of a Recruitment Company

Europe confirms Micro Company accounts reform

The European Union’s financial and economic affairs council agreed a new directive on Tuesday 21 February that allows member states to exempt very small companies from mainstream accounting and financial reporting obligations.

A recent consultation document on company law reforms said the UK will look to implement the changes “as soon as possible”

When the EU directive is enacted in the UK, companies will be allowed to apply the simplified reporting regime if they stay below two of the following thresholds:

•  balance sheet total of €350 000 euro
• Net turnover of €700 000 euro; and
• average of 10 employees during the financial year.

Recent research suggests that Micro companies look likely to be required to produce:

•  A simplified, cash-based trading statement to replace the profit and loss  account;
• A  statement of position; and
• A  simplified annual return.

It is estimated that around 1.5m micro-enterprises will be able to take advantage of the changes.

Our view is:-

“Reducing the regulatory burden on micro businesses is something we strongly support, especially as we hope common sense will prevail and these statements will be aligned to the tax rules already in place.”