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Do you need more than 24 hours in the day? Well here’s how….
Do you frequently feel like there are just not enough hours in the day to get everything done? Do you get overwhelmed, can’t see the “wood for the trees” and end up not achieving anything, then read on you are not alone.
Here are some tips If you need to free up more time
Plan –decide what is most important task and then do that first.
Review each task and ask yourself “will this move me closer towards achieving my goals?” If the answer is no, do that later, after the tasks that will.
Remember the 80:20 rule…i.e. that 20% of your efforts usually generates 80% of the results. Make sure you concentrate on the 20%.
Draw up a “To Do” list every day, preferably the night before so you are productive from the word go.
Delegate if possible or outsource, be honest, how much of your time is spent doing work you are over skilled for? Multiply the time by how much you are worth per hour, this will tell you how much you are wasting by being ineffective at delegating, if you can get if done for less delegate or outsource.
Lead by example, encourage your team to delegate
Make meetings more effective, use techniques like standing up (where appropriate), holding them at close of business, circulating an agenda before hand and agreeing actions before leaving.
Work out your “prime time” reserve this time for your most important income generating tasks and don’t allow people to disturb you.
Don’t procrastinate – just do it!
Have a note pad with you at all times, for when you need to capture great ideas or things “not to forget to do” as these things crop up at the least convenient times.
Kim
Will Trading Standards be able to end Government “Copycat” websites
HMRC had a number of copycats trying to offer self assessment returns, here is an extract from the Tax Agents Blog in January…
With the 31 January deadline for filing SA returns fast approaching, the media has been asking us for our view on ‘copycat websites’, where companies offer to file returns for customers in return for large fees – sometimes up to £400. These companies pay to advertise their link at the top of search engines, so customers find them first when searching for ‘HMRC’, ‘tax return’ and so on.
I thought I’d let you know that our view on this hasn’t changed. It costs nothing to file a tax return. It’s important that anyone thinking of using a tax return agent is clear in advance about fees payable – and can satisfy themselves that they will receive the service they are signing up for.
Misleading websites that try and palm themselves off as legitimate government services are to come under the spotlight from Trading Standards (4 March 2014) as Consumer Minister Jenny Willott confirmed extra funding for them to help tackle these rogue traders.
The Minister has committed an additional £120,000 this financial year to National Trading Standards Board (NTSB) so they can investigate these websites. This money will help NTSB also tackle websites that exaggerate the nature of the services they provide or deliberately underplay that people can get them for free or at a lower cost from official sources.
Further details from TSI http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/extra/news-item.cfm/newsid/1429
Will this end copycats?
steve@bicknells.net
Big is not always beautiful!
It may seem strange advice to beware of winning big contracts. After all most small businesses dream of catching that biggee which will set them up for the future. However, many a great small business has failed because they won a big contract with a large corporation.
The biggest problem is cash flow.
Large companies will often demand slow payment terms, which means it can be several months between paying employees and suppliers your end and receiving payment for your services. It is important to remember that even if you have agreed 30 day payment terms the cash will usually come in quite a but later than that. This is particularly problematic in the current economic climate where banks are reluctant to lend money to tide you over the interim period.
If a large proportion of your business is geared to fulfilling one large contract you leave yourself exposed should the large company you are dealing with has financial problems themselves.
Also, if you have to neglect your traditional client base whilst you complete the large contract you may find you have no business left one the contract is finished.
Now, I am not suggesting you never bid for large contracts. What I am saying is go into the process with your eyes open. Put away your rose tinted spectacles and examine fully what winning the contract will truly mean for your business. Are you prepared to accept the risks as well as the rewards?
Finally, there are professionals out there – such as your accountant – who can help you, so use them.
Fiona 🙂
Trying to be a superhero?
Is this story familiar to you? A business person who is successful in their field but starting to get bogged down in the day to day running of their business. In particular, administration and bookkeeping are starting to grind and take the shine out of their enjoyment of their businesses?
This is a common story but one that has a simple solution – DELEGATION.
We may have many ‘good’ reasons why delegation is hard and why we should do all the ‘easy’ jobs in our businesses:
– it can be expensive to pay someone else
– perhaps they will do the job wrongly or prove unreliable
– it will take time for them to settle in and the process will be distracting
However, you cannot escape the truth that however much you try to ‘create’ time by managing it better, there will only ever be 24 hours in a day! We cannot, like Superman, create extra time just by wishing for it.
So I would answer each of the objections above like this:
– You are much more valuable to your business than you may credit. Your time is likely to be worth much more to your business per hour than the £15-£20 per hour you might need to pay an administrator/bookkeeper.
Also there are jobs which only you can do in your business. These undelegatable jobs include creating business strategy, and leading and managing your business (even if you work alone your business needs to be managed!). If administration and bookkeeping are keeping you so occupied you do not have time for strategy, or management, then your business will suffer considerably.
– Are you really sure you are the best bookkeeper/administrator anyway! Surely you did not start your own business to play around with the books or to file!
– If you engage a trained bookkeeper they will settle in very quickly. Also, because they already know what to do as a bookkeeper you won’t have to spend time showing them what to do.
So do yourself a favour. If you have too little time to do the important things in your business – DELEGATE!
Fiona 🙂
What do you resolve?
It’s that time of year when we come up with fantastic ideas and resolutions for the year ahead. Unfortunately, these ideas and resolutions, which seemed so fantastic in 2013, will have been forgotten very early on in 2014. The reason for this is that we tend to come up with woolly, general thoughts rather than a real plan for change.
How about making this year different? If you really want to change your business, your work/life balance, your effectiveness or any other aspect of your life, you have to think through what you want to achieve. What are your timescales? What are your specific goals? How will you measure change? What resources will you need? Who do you need to help you?
Once you have thought through all the aspects of your idea write them down so you have a point of reference – and then DO IT!
By taking the time to plan you will find it much more likely that you will keep your resolutions and move forward.
Don’t wish upon a star – reach for it!
10 ways to maximise sales revenue
Before you can sell you need to master the sales process, the following is a link to a 9 step process to help improve your sales process – WikiHow
Or you might prefer the 1941 Chevrolet approach
Once you are selling, how can you maximise your sales revenue…….
- Understand your clients needs and wants, sell products that they want, or make them want what you have to sell
- Keep your promises and earn your clients trust
- Look for opportunities to sell additional services and products
- Offer good value and service
- Get testimonials, recommendations and referrals
- Use your contacts and social media and tell them your success stories
- Credit Check your clients, a clients isn’t a client if they don’t pay and you aren’t running a charity
- Bad Debt Insurance could help reduce your risk but its not appropriate for all businesses
- Set up a customer rewards program and offer incentives
- Follow up leads within 24 hours
steve@bicknells.net
15 ways to improve profitability
Profit is vital to every business, what is the point of being in business if you don’t make a profit?
So here are my tips on how to improve your profitability:
- Weed out loss making products, clients and departments – concentrate on high margin products and services
- Reduce Employment Costs – use Freelancers instead of Permanent Employees where appropriate
- Use Virtual Communication Technology – meetings can be held over the internet with Skype or other systems, it will cut traveling time and costs
- Use Social Media and Networking – marketing can be costly and the results can be hard to measure, use your contacts to generate leads and sales and always ask for referrals
- Increase Productivity – eliminate wasteful and unnecessary processes, I was told it used to take 17 people in the NHS to change a light bulb on a hospital ward (requisitions, approvals, payments, changing the bulb…) the solution to cut wasted processes was to keep a stock of bulbs on the ward
- Negotiate with suppliers – always look at ways to reduce cost including using alternative suppliers
- Understand your clients requirements – the client knows what he wants and what represents value, if you deliver value you will get more business
- Seek add on sales – what other products or services might be useful to your existing clients
- Keep an eye on your competitors – competitor analysis will enable you to understand differences in price, distribution, market and demand
- Find New Markets – use market research to expand into new areas
- Decrease Overheads – analyse all of your overheads including Rent, Rates, Utilities – could you sub-let part or your premises or reduce waste
- Reduce Stock Levels – can you turnover your stock more quickly or buy to order
- Improve your Cash Cycle – reduce slow payment by debtors, invoice promptly and settle disputes quickly
- Invest in Technology – automate processes with ERP systems
- Use Key Performance Indicators – KPI’s help you achieve your goals
steve@bicknells.net
Done your 2014 business plan yet?
A business plan proper contains lots of non-financial information, but all roads lead to the bottom line. A simple way of creating a budget from your other business assumptions is to do it in ….. wait for it ….. Excel.
With a row for each income/expense heading and columns for time periods (usually months) you can quickly put together a budget profit and loss for the next financial year. For some expenses particularly overheads you can refer to the current cost base, and depending on the nature of your business this can work for revenues too. If you have departments or divisions in your business you can have a budget sheet for each of them and total to get the big picture. Likewise for different product or service lines.
Once you’ve done this you’ll end up with something looking like this:
You can then do other things, such as looking at profitability, exploring the impact of sales or costs going up or down, work out your break even point, and create a cashflow budget.
Drop me an email if you’d like a copy of the spreadsheet template, and look out for other business planning posts in this series.
Chris Dixon, Eightoaks
chris.dixon@eightoaks.ltd.uk
Can I prepare Abbreviated Accounts?
There are 3 sizes of companies to consider when preparing your accounts; small, medium or large. There are thresholds for turnover, balance sheet total (meaning the total of the fixed and current assets) and the average number of employees, which determine whether your company is small or medium-sized. Any companies that do not meet the criteria for small or medium are large companies and will have to prepare and submit full accounts.
A small company can prepare and submit accounts according to special provisions in the Companies Act 2006 and the relevant regulations. This means that they can choose to disclose less information than medium-sized and large companies.
The Thresholds are:
| Test | Small Company | Small Group | Medium Company | Audit Exempt |
| Sales must be below | £6.5 million | £6.5m net or £7.8m gross | £25.9 million | £6.5 million |
| Balance Sheet Total | £3.26 million | £3.26m net or £3.9m gross | £12.9 million | £3.26 million |
| Average no. of employees | 50 | 50 | 250 | 50 |
A small company must meet at least two of the conditions above.
Generally, small company accounts prepared for members include:
- a profit and loss account
- a full balance sheet, signed by a director on behalf of the board and the printed name of that director
- notes to the accounts
- group accounts (if a small parent company chooses to prepare them)
And they should be accompanied by:
- a directors’ report that shows the signature of a secretary or director and their printed name
- an auditors report that includes the printed name of the registered auditor (unless the company qualifies for exemption from audit and takes advantage of that exemption)
For financial years ending on or after 1 October 2012 a small company only needs to qualify as small to be exempt from Audit.
Even if a small company meets these criteria, it must still have its accounts audited if a member or members holding at least 10% of the nominal value of issued share capital or holding 10% of any class of shares demands it; or – in the case of a company limited by guarantee – 10% of its members in number.
A medium company must meet at least two of the conditions above for medium companies.
Medium-sized accounts must include:
- a profit and loss account
- a balance sheet, showing the printed name and signature of a director
- notes to the accounts
- group accounts (if appropriate)
And should be accompanied by:
- a directors’ report including a business review showing the printed name of the approving secretary or director
- an auditor’s report that includes the name of the registered auditor unless the company is exempt from audit
Medium-sized companies may omit certain information from the business review in their directors’ report (that is, analysis using key performance indicators so far as they relate to non-financial information). Also a medium-sized company which is part of an ineligible group can still take advantage of the exemption from disclosing non-financial key performance indicators in the business review.
Medium-sized companies preparing Companies Act accounts may omit disclosure with respect to compliance with accounting standards and related party transactions from the accounts they send to their members.
Abbreviated accounts of a medium-sized company must include:
- the abbreviated profit and loss account (this must be full if preparing IAS accounts)
- the full balance sheet showing the printed name and signature of a director
- a special auditor’s report showing the printed name of the registered auditor
- the directors’ report showing the printed name of the approving secretary or director
- notes to the accounts
What is a dormant company?
A company is dormant if it has had no ‘significant accounting transactions’ during the accounting period. A significant accounting transaction is one which the company should enter in its accounting records.
When determining whether a company is dormant you can disregard the following transactions:
- payment for shares taken by subscribers to the memorandum of association
- fees paid to the Registrar of Companies for a change of company name, the re-registration of a company and filing annual returns
- payment of a civil penalty for late filing of accounts
How long do I normally have to file my accounts?
The time normally allowed for delivering accounts to Companies House is:
- 9 months from the accounting reference date for a private company
- 6 months from the accounting reference date for a public company
You can submit the following accounts online:
- dormant company accounts
- small full audit exempt accounts
- small audit exempt abbreviated accounts
Failure to deliver accounts on time is a criminal offence.
Further information available from Companies House
steve@bicknells.net
10 things your Finance Director should be doing….
SME’s often mis-understand the purpose of a Finance Director and the value they can bring to a business.
The job of a finance director is not just about producing regular accounts: they can help your company with strategy and development. If you want a small, stable business, then you can settle for a risk-averse book-keeper. But a good FD is key if you are growing your business because FDs develop future financial forecasts and push business growth. [Smarta]
So what should your Finance Director be doing for your business…..
- The FD should be able to look into to future to see what the future financial needs of the business will be
- He/She should negotiate funding facilities to ensure the business can manage its cash flow needs
- The FD should be able to foresee the future tax consequences and risks of decisions
- He/She should help the business to achieve the best possible credit scores
- Identify ways to reduce costs and improve profitability
- Understand the business owners objective and focus the business on achieving those objectives
- Ensure financial and regulatory compliance
- Ensure accurate and timely reporting of management information
- Evaluate growth opportunities
- Apply corporate governance
steve@bicknells.net
Business Accountant 