Monthly Archives: December 2019

8 payment systems for festivals, pop-ups and street food markets

Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
You may be looking at payment systems for seasonal markets, festivals, street food stalls, pop-ups or promotional events.
As the number of non-cash payments at festivals grows, so does the number of options for alternative payment systems. An on-the-go payment solution is much more suitable than a clunky tabletop payment system.
Many of the machines below don’t have fixed monthly fees so they’re ideal if you need them for shorter periods of time. We’ve tried to get a sense of performance in terms of battery life but of course, it depends how much you use the card reader (or your smartphone) in a given day. Let’s take a look at some of the bigger names on the market.
Elavon
With Elavon’s payment processors, you can link your machine via WiFi or 4G and take card, contactless or mobile wallet payments. And for behind the scenes, you can add relevant functions including stock management and staff rotas.
The payment terminals have dynamic currency conversion (DCC) and multi-currency conversion (MCC). MCC lets customers see prices in their home currency while DCC lets customers pay in their home currency.
Security-wise, you’re covered with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) measures

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Starting a business in the wedding industry

Originally written by Ben Lobel on Small Business
So, you want to be in the wedding industry? It’s a strong sector of the economy, worth over £10 billion a year. The ‘Bridebook Wedding Report‘ estimated that the average cost of a wedding was over £30,000 and rising annually at close to 12% a year, mainly due to a focus on personalisation.
You’ll no doubt hear about how hard it is, how competitive it is, how saturated the market is. It’s true for almost every industry, though, and it doesn’t mean you can’t bring something to the wedding market through quality and effective business preparation.
The wedding business is unique; you’re asking someone to trust you with what they may deem to be the biggest day of their lives, but every wedding business has to start somewhere, so we’ve put together a plan to cover before starting a business in the wedding sector. First though, you should decide what you kind of business you want to be. Are you:
1. A whole new idea in the wedding industry?
2. Buying an existing wedding business?
3. Franchising an existing wedding business?
4. Distributing an existing wedding-oriented product not currently in the UK market?
The point of asking these questions is

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Registering a company name – a Small Business guide

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Do I need to register a company name if I am a sole trader?
You don’t need to register a company name if you are a sole trader. However, you should register with HMRC to let them know they should expect an annual self-assessment tax return from you.
7 benefits of registering a company name vs. sole trader
#1 – Pay lower tax
One of the biggest advantages of registering a company name is that running your business as a limited company can help you to legitimately pay less personal tax than being a sole trader.
Limited company profits are subject to UK corporation tax, which is currently set at 19 per cent compared to personal tax rates of 20pc-45%.
If you are the director and shareholder of a limited company, you may choose to take a small salary and draw most of your income from the business in the form of dividends. This reduces the amount of national insurance contributions (NICs) you pay, because company dividends are not subject to NICs.
#2 – Limited liability
Because a limited company is a separate entity to you, the owner, you have “limited liability”. What this means is that you are not responsible

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