Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
UPDATED: Chancellor Rishi Sunak is due to announce a further Local Furlough Scheme for businesses caught out by hard local lockdowns.
The government will cover 100 per cent of staff wages for small businesses ordered to close in areas in hardest-hit regions.
Larger firms blindsided by the highest lockdown level will have between 60 per cent and 80 per cent of staff wages covered.
Manchester, Liverpool and other areas of the North are expected to go into harder lockdown early next week, once the government launches its new traffic-light system for dealing with coronavirus outbreaks.
>See also: Rishi Sunak plans grants for small businesses hit by hard lockdown
London is expected to follow shortly, following a warning from Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Meanwhile help for hospitality businesses forced to close in Scotland will get their own £40m support package.
The Local Furlough Scheme is far more generous than the Jobs Support Scheme, announced last month, as the successor to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which ends on October 31.
>See also: Local lockdowns only make the problem of late payment worse
Every business in the UK is eligible for the Jobs Support Scheme from November, which covers one third of the wages for
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3 marketing strategies for your small business compared
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
With both small and big businesses having access to basically all the same promotion channels, today’s marketing is more competitive than ever before.
The battleground for customer’s attention is online and every business has access to many different weapons it can use to engage its target audience. However, not all of the digital weapons have the same effectiveness, nor all of them are a good option for smaller businesses.
Let’s check out those that are, their pros and cons, and requirements you need to match if you want to run them successfully.
>See also: Small business marketing 101, all the latest tips in 2020
3 marketing strategies for your small business
Some businesses focus their strategy on a single channel. While putting all of your eggs in one basket can work, it’s a fairly risky approach. Having an eye on (and hopefully testing) multiple strategies is much safer.
Here are 3 tried and tested marketing strategies for your small business you can use to grow:
#1 – Running paid advertising on social media
A great incentive to run social media ads is the sheer number of people that you can reach with your ads. Instagram has around 500 million daily active
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Forgive all small businesses coronavirus debt, urges George Osborne
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Former chancellor George Osborne has called for all coronavirus emergency debt taken out by small and micro businesses to be forgiven.
Speaking to the Treasury select committee on Wednesday, June 3 alongside two other former chancellors, Mr Osborne said the Government should eventually write off billions of pounds worth of loans to small and micro businesses “who are engines of growth”.
Treasury officials would “hate” the idea, said Mr Osborne, but any recovery will be stymied if small businesses face years strangled by coronavirus debt.
“Even if in a couple years’ time when the corporate sector owes a lot of money – particularly the micro businesses, small businesses who are engines of growth and can be completely held back by large credit burden – I think then the government should look at some sort of debt forgiveness,” he said.
“At some point in the next couple of years you either write them off or, what I expect will happen, is every six months or year the chancellor at the time announces that the lending terms are pushed out, the rates are kept very low and so on.
“But it would be better as a big act of debt
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One in 10 small business owners contemplating suicide
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
One in 10 small business owners in Britain are considering suicide, according to their accountants, in their latest snapshot of SMEs.
Eleven per cent of small business owners are thinking of ending it all, overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic, while 78 per cent of SME owners have worse mental health, according to research from chartered accountants’ group ACCA and The Corporate Finance Network (CFN).
And 89 per cent of accountants say that their small business clients are generally under more stress.
>See also: Nearly half of small businesses do not intend to repay government loans
The ACCA survey shows how the coronavirus pandemic has affected small business owners’ mental health, driving many of them to consider suicide. On top of spiralling debt and a cratered economy, many independent retailers have the prospect of the next quarter day commercial property rental payment looming on June 24, despite their shops not having been open for the past three months.
Thousands of small businesses say they are firefighting immediate concerns such as cashflow pressures and resuming operations safely ahead of lockdown lift.
The biggest three fears of small businesses, according to their accountants, are being able to manage cashflow pressures, implementing social
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Small business minister trying to help owner-directors hit by coronavirus
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Small business minister Paul Scully is trying to help the 1.6m owner-directors shut out of coronavirus government business support schemes.
Although Treasury has said that owner-directors of small businesses could furlough themselves through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, as a company director you can only pay yourself up to £800 through PAYE – which means you have to take the balance of salary as dividends.
For somebody earning £800 per month through PAYE, this would equate to a monthly income of £640.
Mr Scully, speaking during a webinar hosted by accountancy software firm Intuit on Wednesday, he wanted to get money “asap” to owner-directors who “are falling between the cracks” of government coronavirus schemes.
However, the problem is, according to Mr Scully, that the tax system doesn’t differentiate between dividends as part of pay and dividends earned as passive investment income from shares.
There is also a public perception issue as government would not want to be seen to be rewarding company directors who already pay less tax than those paying in through PAYE. Basic tax on dividends is 7.5 per cent; the basic income tax rate is 20 per cent on top of national insurance contributions.
Wants to
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Sara Davies of Dragons’ Den 7 tips for small business
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Sara Davies, 35, is the latest – and youngest – dragon to join hit BBC show Dragons’ Den.
Davies began her entrepreneur journey while still at the University of York, where she graduated with a First in business management. She founded Crafter’s Companion, a crafter’s supply company, as a student. During a placement at a tiny craft company, she spotted a gap in the market for a tool which could create bespoke envelopes for handmade cards. With help from her retired engineer father, she designed a product called The Enveloper, going to a TV shopping channel to sell it. She sold 30,000 units within six months. By the time she graduated, her business was turning over £500,000.
Today, Crafter’s Companion turns over £35m and exports to more than 40 countries globally, employing over 200 people worldwide.
In addition to appearing as a dragon, Sara Davies continues to run her business with her husband Simon and has two small children.
>See also: Piers Linney: ‘I was one of the first to do real tech on Dragon’s Den’
#1 – Don’t let emotion drive your business
One of my biggest learnings was when we were turning over £2m a year
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GoDaddy offers free websites to start-ups that complete 12-day challenge
by Partner Content • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
GoDaddy will offer new entrepreneurs a free website for one year for those taking part in its 12-day challenge.
Website builder GoDaddy will reward each new business owner that accepts its challenge, completing a daily step-by-step guide to setting up their own business with a custom website.
Its new online tool will help guide aspiring entrepreneurs through the process of turning their business ideas into reality in just 12 steps.
Irana Wasti, GoDaddy regional president for EMEA said: “People across the UK have amazing business ideas, yet many are often deterred from making their ideas a reality because they don’t know where to start. The scale of the task can appear too daunting and time-consuming.”
>See also: Registering a company name – a Small Business guide
Each day a new simple task with guidance will be revealed, empowering would-be entrepreneurs by guiding them through the process one step at a time, helping to bring their idea online.
Steps include naming your business, writing a business plan and setting up an online payments .
If they complete the process of all 12 steps, aspiring founders will have a registered business with a functioning GoDaddy website.
Wasti said: “That’s why we are challenging
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Register a .UK domain by 17 Jan and help Samaritans reach young people
by Partner Content • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
Online business resource The UK Domain will donate £1 for every new .UK domain registered before 17 January 2020.
Each donation will support leading suicide support charity Samaritans in developing its vital online chat service from its pilot stage to launch.
Nominet, the parent company of The UK Domain, will donate £1 for each new domain registration ending in .co.uk, .uk, .org.uk, .me.uk, .ltd.uk, .plc.uk and .net.uk, between now and 17 January.
Chris Ashworth, head of head of public benefit Nominet, said: “This year we’re helping Samaritans build and launch their new online chat service. One of the key challenges Samaritans face is connecting with young people in emotional distress. The way people want to connect and reach out is changing and telephone doesn’t suit everybody any more. We’re helping Samaritans build new lines of communication.”
Milestone achievement
Francis Bacon, assistant director of digital services and change, Samaritans added: “Nominet is already supporting us to build essential new digital products that will enable Samaritans to improve our services and reach more people who need them. We’re very grateful that they have chosen to support us even further with this fundraising initiative via .UK domain registrations. The additional contribution will
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Closed for Christmas and the New Year – see you all in 2020
by Small Business Team • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Small Business Team on Small Business
Small Business and its sister site Growth Business will be closed for Christmas and the New Year, reopening to bring you news, exclusive interviews and how-to guides on Friday, January 3.
We wish all our readers a well-deserved break over Christmas and hope for a prosperous New Year and an even more prosperous decade.
See you all again in 2020.
Closed for Christmas and the New Year – see you all in 2020
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LendingCrowd and Thrive win big at British Business Awards 2019
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Small business lender LendingCrowd and digital health marketing agency Thrive were the big winners at yesterday’s British Business Awards 2019.
Thrive, whose clients include Johnson & Johnson, walked away with two awards; one for the best work/life balance while director Daphne Metland won Female Business Owner (digital communications).
Meanwhile LendingCrowd, which has lent over £66m to small business over the past six years, won both Alternative Finance Provider and Business Lender.
In total 255 individuals and businesses were nominated for the British Business Awards 2019, which are now in their fourth year.
Yesterday’s event was held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in central London where nearly 300 guests were on hand to celebrate the best of British business.
Childcare group Fennies Day Nursery and Preschool, which runs 11 children’s day care centres across southern England, won the prestigious Better Business Award.
Dane Hardie, head of commercial at Fennies, said: “For us, this award represents where we’ve come as a business over the past five years. I think the British Business Awards are fantastic with a huge amount of diversity in the businesses that are here. Coming from an industry where women make up 90pc of our workforce, that’s hugely