As sole traders we dream of spending each working day immersed in the things that made us set up our business in the first place – making a product or selling a service. We didn’t dream about the tedious, demoralising and sometimes overly complex chores that come part and parcel of the self-employment package. Frequently, the easier option is just […]
7 tips to getting customers to pay (quickly)
The idea for my blog “tips to getting customers to pay” came to me after reading narrative on a software site. The article stated “that asking customers for money and invoicing them accordingly was the best part of a small business owner’s job” Really? I was cast back to the early months of starting up […]
Hobby business or self-employed? Why it’s important to understand the difference
You’ve been employed or you’re working part-time. Either way you’ve had that niggling inclination to re-invent yourself, to indulge your passion in doing something creative or have a go at doing something completely new. You start selling on Etsy, take a few portrait photographs for friends, design some jewellery – you ‘re loving being able […]
Starting a business: the sole trader’s introduction to getting it right first time
You’ve had the idea to start a business and are full of excitement. It’s taken courage to decide to reinvent yourself, to become your own boss. But right now your to-do list is getting you down. There’s your “big idea” but then there’s all these other annoying parts of the jigsaw puzzle that need to […]
Spring clean your small business accounting systems in 5 easy steps
With spring round the corner, this time of year often brings with it, a sense of renewed energy and intentions of improvement. There’s really no better time to devote to a spot of spring cleaning – not the ’empty out the garage’ type but the de-cluttering and re-organising of your small business bookkeeping systems. Here are my […]
A sole traders guide to the Budget 2015
You heard it on the radio (until you dozed off), you caught some of the headlines in the press, you read the papers the next day but, you haven’t really had the time to get to grips with the main content or sift through the bits that impact you as a sole trader. I understand how […]
Will sole traders still need to complete a tax return?
If you’ve seen the headlines this week you will have noted the numerous press articles on “death of the tax return”. You might have started celebrating or you might been left wondering what it all means for you as a sole trader running a small business. I have to say that I was a little […]
3 New Year’s Resolutions for your Micro Business
Often the Christmas and New Year period is when many small business owners have more time on their hands to reflect on the year gone by and to start thinking about the year ahead. For those of you who are mulling over financial goals for the forthcoming year, I have come up with three key areas […]
Record keeping for the self-employed
Record keeping is an essential part of running a small business. In part one of my blog I will be looking at why you need to maintain records and what records you are required to retain. Part two, next week will look at the different ways to record you income and expenditure. A legal requirement […]
Who needs to complete a tax return?
The deadline for online self-assessment is round the corner and with all the talk about tax returns I have found it interesting, listening to people’s views regarding the completion of them. Just to clarify some of the misunderstanding surrounding who needs to complete one I have summarised below the most common reasons for needing to complete […]