Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
It’s a tough time for everybody, but being a small business owner comes with its own set of coronavirus-related challenges.
The UK Domain have created this infographic to give you some steer through the crisis.
This article was brought to you in partnership with the UK Domain.
Managing your small business during coronavirus – infographic
Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
There’s no doubt that coronavirus is causing problems for small businesses, especially those who are based in a physical shop with no website.
Fortunately, creating a website from nothing is easier than ever.
Speed is key in the current climate. Start with a skeleton website so that it can get established and begin gaining traffic, then you can build on it once you have more time.
The most compelling reason to be online right now is to reach your customers, most of whom will be at home. Plus, you can take orders around the clock rather than being limited to opening hours.
We’ll show you how to put together your business website – fast.
Register your small business website’s domain name
The first step is to pin down your domain name.
How do I choose a domain name?
The name should be a true representation of yourself and your business. Web domain registration services tend to have domain name checkers – like this one – that let you see whether a domain name is already in use.
The price you pay is dependent on the provider you go with and which domain name extension (.uk, .co.uk, .me) you choose. Websites ending with .co.uk are
Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
There are many benefits to having a social presence as a small business, from engaging with customers to increasing sales and boosting your reputation.
The key to reaping these benefits and becoming successful on social is to create, execute and monitor a social media marketing strategy. Here, we’ll share eight steps to help you get started, but first let’s take a look at what a social strategy is.
What is a social media strategy?
A social media marketing strategy is a summary and plan of everything you want to achieve on your chosen social platforms and what you need to do to get there. Outlining everything from your goals, to your audience, to your posts and how you’re going to measure your performance, it allows you to address and plan what’s going to make your brand successful across social channels.
Businesses of all sizes need to have a social strategy – not only does it allow you to clearly outline your plans for social media in one succinct document, but it will help you optimise your social activity to reach customers.
How to create your social strategy
Follow these eight steps to define, execute and monitor your own social
Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
Instagram is one of the most popular social channels out there and over the past couple of years small business profiles have seen real success on the platform.
Any small business can produce imagery (it’s actually a lot easier than you think!) and reap the rewards Instagram offers.
One of the first steps to getting started with Instagram is setting up an Instagram business account. This is different to setting up a personal account, so this guide will help you get your professional account up and running. For more details on all of these steps, check out this article.
1. Sign up to Instagram
You’ll need to download the Instagram app from your phone’s app store (it’s best to use a mobile device to access Instagram). If you already have a personal account, you can sign in and choose the “Add Account” option.
Follow the instructions and sign up using your phone number, email address or Facebook login. You’ll also need to enter your name and create a password. Don’t worry if you use your personal name here, you can always change this later on.
2. Set up your profile
Next, you’ll be guided to set up some of your
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
Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
The ultimate aim for any business website is to attract new customers or clients. So imagine if your website actually turned them away… This could happen if your website does not have HTTPS enabled, as it’s essential for every business website to have this. If not, all the time, effort and money you’ve invested on your website may be wasted. And that risk greatly increased from July 2018 due to some major changes that Google brought into force.
The current key benefits to switching your website to the secure HTTPS standard already include:
1. Better security
2. Greater customer trust and sales
3. More accurate Google Analytics data
4. A boost to your search engine visibility
You can read more about these in detail here: Should you switch to an HTTPS website?.
But the bottom line is that the negative impact for not making this reasonably simple security improvement will only get bigger. Here’s why…
Why non-HTTPS website will struggle
When you visit a website which has a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) Certificate installed, you’ll see a padlock icon in the address bar at the top, and the web address will begin with https rather than http. This
Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
So you’re starting a brand new business – congratulations! Embarking on a new business venture is always an exciting time.
Even if you’re not a particularly online business, it’s imperative that your company establishes a strong web presence.
However almost two million UK small businesses don’t have a website according to Approved Index, potentially costing them over £343bn each year. Thankfully that’s in total – not each.
So without further ado, let’s get your brand new biz found online…
1. Have a website
Many small business owners make the mistake of thinking “why go to the trouble and cost of creating a website when social media presence is free?” Though it’s important to put effort into your social visibility, a website gives you an online base of operations – a shopfront that’s uniquely your own.
Through distinct copy, design, and branding you can paint an individual picture of your business that sets you apart from your competition. Having your own website gives you control over what prospects see about you and how they get in touch with you. It also makes you seem more established, and therefore reliable.
Using social media may be free, but if the companies behind Facebook
Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
An important part of setting up a website for your new business, alongside the SEO, domain name and design, is ensuring you have a content marketing strategy and plan.
You’ve probably heard the popular phrase ‘content is king’, and it certainly holds as much relevancy now as it did nearly two decades ago when Bill Gates first declared it.
For this article, we’re going to focus on sharing some top tips on how you can create a scheduled plan for your content. You can find out more about content marketing strategy in this online guide.
Why does my new website or blog even need content?
If you’ve just started a new business and have launched a new website, it’s time to start planning your content marketing. Content marketing could be anything from a blog post to a video series and everything in-between including whitepapers, email marketing and more.
It may sound like a lot of additional hard work, especially if you’ve just finished building a website, but producing content is a big part of getting online. Publishing and sharing content will help you reach and engage with potential customers, build your reputation and increase sales, not to mention help
Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Quality content is central to a successful marketing strategy.
But what is ‘quality content’? Unfortunately, much of the answer lies in personal taste. The upside is that there are things you can do to impress both human and robot.
So, it isn’t merely a case of just writing something and shoving it out. The content creation requires some finesse.
We’ll share some tips to help you write posts that will rank high on Google and be a valuable resource for your readers.
Content for humans or for Google: which is more important?
SEO specialists will tell you to write for the human first. Though search engines scan your content for essential assets, it’ll be people that are relying on it for information that’s both informative and entertaining.
Google’s main priority is ensuring your content meets the searcher’s purpose. This flows on to the second tier of expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness.
‘Google’s main priority is ensuring your content meets the searcher’s purpose’
One thing you must do is include information about who is responsible for the content with a byline or a link to the creator’s bio or website. Articles with generic ‘staff’ or ‘team’ credits will be down-ranked by Google.
Finding trending
Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
When you’re setting up your business website, checking that you’re GDPR compliant may be lower down on your list of priorities.
However, even as a one-person operation, you must be in line with the law – or else you could be slapped with a serious fine.
We want to take the intimidation out of the process by guiding you through these nine steps to GDPR compliance for your new site.
1. Establish where your data comes from and how to handle it
As a quick reminder, personal data is defined as any information which can be used directly or indirectly to identify a person. It could be a name, photo, email address, bank details, medical information, computer IP address, cookies or social media posts.
Your starting point is to know where data comes from and what you do with it. Data can be collected through Google Analytics and GPS location trackers as well as through email sign-ups. Next, pinpoint where the information is stored and who can access it.
Work out your procedures for:
Proving someone has given you consent
What to do if someone wants their data to be erased
What to do if you suffer a data breach
At this point,
