Monthly Archives: July 2021

Hot Business News Today

Cloud and SaaS accounting — what are the advantages?

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By Nick Ismail on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

Cloud and SaaS accounting systems are becoming ever-more sophisticated and more widely used. In essence, they are web-based software programmes which users rent or subscribe to. The advent of such services means businesses no longer own the software downloaded on a disk or computer. Instead, subscribers can use the internet to access their financial information.

Small business accounting can be a challenge, but it needn’t be. Below, are five advantages of using an cloud-based and SaaS (software-as-a-service) accounting system for your business:

1. Time saving

One of the benefits of internet-based accounting software is its ease of use. You can set up an account so that information about your finances — including sales, income, purchases and transactions — can flow straight from your business account to your books.

Using desktop-based softwares, from the advanced to the Excels of the world, can be clunky and mean small business owners must manually input bookkeeping data. This can waste time and prove expensive for a streamlined team. With the cloud, entrepreneurs can essentially go ‘hands free’, which means spending less time on repetitive accounting tasks and more time on growing the business.

2. Easy access

The beauty

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Tweet your questions to FSB policy boss Craig Beaumont

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By Small Business Team on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
On 8 July SmallBusiness.co.uk will be hosting a special one-off Twitter Q&A with Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) policy boss Craig Beaumont at 4:30pm.
Craig is chief of external affairs at the FSB, which means he has the ear of politicians when it comes to them making policy decisions affecting our businesses.
To join in, just follow @smallbusinessuk and tweet your questions to Craig now using the hashtag #AskFSB.
Remember, you can only tweet your questions to Craig through the @smallbusinessuk Twitter feed.
Craig will answer any questions about running your small business, particularly where government support measures for those that should be allowed to fully reopen on 19 July in England are concerned.

Bounce Back Loans
The looming review of business rates
The lack of income support for directors
Brexit
What HMRC is doing and what Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak can and should be doing to get Covid-ravaged small businesses back on their feet

Craig Beaumont knows better than anyone what our politicians might be persuaded to do to help small business, so send him your questions now using #AskFSB.
The post Tweet your questions to FSB policy boss Craig Beaumont appeared first

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Average small business makes £300,000 on Amazon

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By Timothy Adler on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

In total, UK small businesses sold 750m products through Amazon last year, up by more than one third.

The number of small businesses selling through Amazon increased by 20 per cent to 65,000, as people shopped online during pandemic lockdowns.

>See also: As predicted, Amazon passes on 2% sales tax onto small businesses

Indeed, more that 1,000 UK businesses reached £1m in sales selling through Amazon last year.

And another 14,000 SMEs generated more than £100,000 worth of sales through the internet giant.

Amazon announced that around 60 per cent of all physical product sales on its UK store were from independent sellers, most of whom were SMEs.

And those small businesses have created 175,000 jobs across the UK fulfilling those Amazon sales.

Some 40 per cent of small businesses selling on Amazon were based in London and the southeast of England, and the five most popular product lines according to the 2021 UK SME Community Report included homewares, health, toys, clothes and beauty.

Exporters also thrived on the platform, Amazon said, seeing their collective overseas revenues rise by 27 per cent to £3.5bn.

Around 30,000 UK firms pay for Amazon’s fulfilment service, where

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Top five tips for SME exporters in a post-Brexit world

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By Nick Ismail on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

According to research from DHL Express, 24% of UK SME exporters who already export or plan to in the future state they have stopped selling to some EU markets, with 6% of British businesses stating they have stopped selling to EU-markets altogether. 

The research looked at the challenges facing small businesses in all sectors across the UK and paints a nuanced picture. When asked if they thought they’d export more or less over the next year compared to the previous 12 months, SME exporters were completely divided, as 25% forecast an increase while 28% anticipate a decrease.

Since 1 January 2021 a number of exporting incentives, such as the SME Brexit Support Fund, have been on offer from the government. The research found that, while 30% of exporters surveyed believed these support measures were helpful, a significant 24% were not aware of their existence, indicating some small and medium sized businesses may be missing out on important trading opportunities. 

Lack of consumer awareness of the additional Customs charges is reported as a concern, with nearly half of exporters stating it was a challenge. However, despite this, only 28%

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Winning the Start-Up Series – Mathew Norbury, FC Labs

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By Timothy Adler on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

When it comes to building and construction, safety is paramount. The slightest misstep or lapse of concentration can cause injury or even death. Just imagine the damage a crane operator can cause if they have a momentary lapse or close their eyes for just one second.

That’s the problem that Mathew Norbury and his team at FC Laboratories have been working on. FC Labs has been developing wearable brain imaging technology which can be worn on its own, with other headgear or implanted in a hardhat. This wearable technology tells the user if their attention is dropping or if they need to take a break.

And this kind of wearable brain imaging technology has lots of other applications as well, from NHS hospital staff being told that it’s time for them to rest through to currency traders in the City being alerted that their split-second judgement is below par.

FC Labs founder and CEO Mathew Norbury talks about why he felt it worthwhile entering the Start-Up Series competition even though his wearable technology was only at an early proof of concept stage, key milestones over the coming year,

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Future of small business is local, personal and about data

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By Timothy Adler on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

The future of small business is local, personal and all about data, according to futurist Andrew Grill.

Grill, whose clients include Nike, Nestle and the British government, says: “It’s about being local – harnessing the power of the community – understanding the power of data, and personalisation, making things individual or even just redecorating your home.

“If you can get those three things right, there’s a lot of opportunity for a lot of small businesses.”

>See also: Brexit puts more than third of UK small businesses at risk of closure

The good news is that there may never be a better time to run a small business.

According to a Vistaprint survey, over two thirds of Brits say the Covid-19 pandemic has shown them how important small businesses are to our society.

Forty-one per cent of those surveyed said they would even pay more for coffee or lunch if it meant supporting a small business. And 63 per cent said that was to help the local economy.

Grill, a former IBM Global managing partner turned in-demand futurologist, says that the pandemic had accelerated trends by between two and three years.

>See also: Leading

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