Monthly Archives: October 2020

Hot Business News Today

How to chase debts and get paid

by  •  • 0 Comments

Originally written by suechapple on Small Business
Cashflow, as every business owner knows, is essential to business survival. Businesses go bust not only because they lose clients or an important contract, but more often than not because they run out of cash. Businesses fail with money still owed to them, money that, if they chase debts, could have led to a very different outcome indeed.
So how do you collect a debt that’s owed? Look at it a different way. Why do you have a debt in the first place and what’s stopping you from getting paid?
There are many reasons and excuses and you’ve probably heard most if not all of them before: we’ve not received your invoice, the boss is out, you’ll be in the next pay run, the cheque – as always – is in the post.
>See also: Banks may call in debt collectors to recoup unpaid Bounce Back Loans
Know your customer
But go back a step further. What do you know about your customer? Are they a good credit risk? Do they have an established reputation? In credit management terms “know your customer” is the first – and arguably the most important – step in how to get paid. Think

Read more...

Hot Business News Today

Nearly half a million self-employed face having universal credit cut

by  •  • 0 Comments

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Nearly half a million self-employed people claiming universal credit face having their payments cut next month.
The government is on course to reinstate rules aligning self-employed universal credit payments with those of full-time workers on the minimum wage.
This is despite the government promising to suspend the cap – or “minimum income floor” (MIF) – for self-employed universal credit claimants “for the duration” of the Covid pandemic.
>See also: 1m self-employed face having to pay tax bill larger than what they earnt
Government officials told the Times that the MIF is set to be reinstated on November 13. However, no decision has been taken yet.
The Institute of Fiscal Studies has estimated that the MIF affects about 450,000 households who would lose an average of £3,200 a year by treating them the same as full-time employees on the minimum wage.
Stephen Timms, Labour chairman of the Commons welfare committee, told the newspaper: “The suspension of the minimum income floor should be extended, as the government said it would be, for the duration of the pandemic. Its re-imposition just when the effects of coronavirus are getting worse will be a heavy blow to many self-employed people, currently struggling to keep

Read more...

Hot Business News Today

2020 set to be record year for new companies created

by  •  • 0 Comments

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
This year should see record number of companies created, with an extra 84,758 businesses setting up in 2020 compared with 2019.
This is equivalent to a 12.3 per cent increase year on year, which is the highest percentage growth since 2011 and the highest actual growth on record.
Between June and August, an additional 59,358 new companies were created at Companies House, according to research.
>See also: How to become a sole trader
Sectors seeing the highest growth included e-commerce (up 88 per cent with 12,490 new businesses registered), clothing (up 55 per cent) and, unsurprisingly, retailers of medical goods (up 176 per cent).
Although on the face of it the SHL research is good news, the reality is that many new companies are created by those who have lost their jobs because of Covid-19.
Rather than create employment, 77 per cent of the UK’s 6m small businesses are sole traders offering little chance of employment to others.
>See also: Registering a company name – a Small Business guide
And there is also a question mark as to how many of the 59,538 companies created between June and August are even legitimate, given the widespread fraud which has gone on with

Read more...