Business Startups / New Businesses

If you haven’t yet decided on whether you should set up as a limited company or sole trader, that’s no problem. We can advise you on this. However we think that every business owner should learn the basic differences between the two. We have an article that can help you get to grips this this right here right now! Visit our guide HERE.

You’ll need a bookkeeping system. There’s bookkeeping you have to do and there’s bookkeeping that can help you run a profitable business. Do you just want to get things done or do you want to understand how profitable you are month to month, what your tax bill is quarterly (instead of annually) and where to cut costs? The big decision here is whether you will have the time to grow a business and do the bookkeeping? Paying someone else is a cost, but how could you use that time saved within other areas of the business?

Many startups struggle to see the difference from annual accounts and bookkeeping. Bookkeeping is the logging, recording and categorising of the day to day transactions in the business. Year end accounts must be prepared in a set format to comply with company and tax legislation. Various adjustments are typically made with year end accounts. As part of the annual accounts completion it is common for the accountant to review the tax position and make any relevant tax adjustments to make the business and individual as tax efficient as possible.

This is where it all goes wrong. What’s your business’ core purpose? What core values do you have? What’s your business’ goals? What’s your personal goals? How are you going to achieve all of this? If you can’t make your business work on paper, how can it work in ‘real life’! We strongly recommend having a plan. Liveplan is a great place to start. We can also help you with this.

No one knows everything, plus humans are unmanageable! Small business owners do not have anyone to make them accountable. This can be dangerous as you don’t know what you don’t know! To really be successful you should have a framework and a process to achieving your goals and levelling yourself and the business up systematically. To learn more about this please contact us.