Frevelo Blog

Congratulations!

Congratulations on starting up your own business.

Now the work really begins.  Keeping up with advertising, social media, setting up processes and procedures and keeping your website up to date. There is also the administrative stuff, office templates, invoicing, credit control and the list goes on but help is at hand.

 Compliance

As well as everything else, there is compliance to think about.  I do not mean having insurance in place or complying with GDPR and privacy laws, I mean being financially compliant with HMRC and if you are a Limited company, also Companies House. If you are a director, you will also have your own personal tax return to submit to HMRC.

Financial Accounts

As a new business, in your first financial year it is important to ensure that you have an accountant on board, for the accounts and also for business guidance.  In addition, you will need to think about how you will process the everyday bookkeeping.  If you haven’t done this already, now is the time to find an accountant and set up a cloud-based accounting application. To start with, you may be able to process this yourself using Xero or Intuit QuickBooks. Once sales are coming in and there are lots of bank transactions you will either need to ask your accountant to take this over or take on a bookkeeper, so that you can concentrate on running your business.  Once this is organised you will not have to be concerned about supplying HMRC with a first set of statutory accounts and corporation tax return as well as filing the accounts with Companies House. Your accountant will do this for you on your behalf and the benefit is that this will save you money, in […]

Starting a Business

If you have recently started your own business or are unemployed or furloughed and thinking of starting your own business, this blog should help. Hopefully it will give you the confidence and the boost needed to get started.

Why Start a new Business?

In the current climate, many businesses have and will continue to fail, mainly due to a lack of cashflow.  With these businesses closed, a gap is created and opportunities arise for new and different entities to open and thrive.  Together with high unemployment, starting a new business in the worst recession we have ever known is not such a bad idea.   Due to our changing lifestyles we have different needs, which can be fulfilled with new business ideas.

Here are a few that are in demand:

Online teaching and training

Vegan food and supplies

Tradespeople

Digital Marketing

Funeral services

IT services

Hairdressing & beauty

Where to start

Once the idea has formed, a strategy is needed. So work through the following list as a starting point and seek advice, which can be found online.  i.e.

https://www.fsb.org.uk/

https://smallbusiness.co.uk/starting/

Take a step back

Are you fully prepared to start your own business?  What problem do you solve and do you have the skillsets required and what do you bring the table?

Do your research

Find out on Facebook, Amazon, Reddit, TripAdvisor

Establish a target audience

What are your customers wants and needs and how will your business fulfil that?

Competition

Take a close look at your competitors and be able to offer something more

Suppliers

Find suppliers and their charges and compare price, quality, delivery times and payment terms.

Set prices

From your costs, set your charges and compare with competitors and work out the gross profit margin per item or service to see if this is going to be viable?

Budget

Prepare a budget which will give […]

Why the Change?

The pandemic continues and the way we live our lives and do business has had to change.  Even when a vaccine is found and rolled out, life will never go back to what it was before – it has changed. Many businesses will not survive, and this leaves gaps with diverse consumer needs and altered markets, that need to be filled. Opportunities are available.

 If your business is to survive, it may not be enough to save cash, with government grants and cost cutting. Our new business world has changing needs. If your business is still struggling, then now may be the time to think about rotating and repositioning your business.

Rotating and repositioning your business is to change the direction your business is going and offer something unique in a different way, to tap into our new lifestyle needs.

How to Rotate and Reposition

First draw up a plan.

1. Identify what has changed regarding business trends and consumer behaviour
2. Work out what you need to change in your business by what is not working and think about changing your target market.
3. Which skills and abilities does your business have that you can adapt?
4. Remember to keep your mission statement and core values
5. Let you and your employees be creative in thinking of new ways to change how your business goes forward
6. Do not waste time looking into an idea that the business does not have the experience or skills
7. Work out if the new idea is going to be profitable and sustainable
8. Do not invest, until the new idea has been tested
9. Engage customers in your new rotating idea for the business and request their input and feedback along the way
10. Continue to communicate during […]

September

Most businesses are working, within the constraints of social distancing and reduced capacity.  However, with increased costs and reduced revenue together with a possible No Deal Brexit, businesses need to work hard to recover.

In addition, there is the possibility of a second wave, tax increases from the Chancellor to repay the increased deficit and there are the Brexit negotiations, with no sign of a deal, and the consequences.

This all sounds depressing but there are things that can be done to keep your business on track to recovery and growth.

Recovery and Growth

In this period of uncertainty, be prepared to adapt and evolve your business. In addition, use our basic six step plan to recovery and growth:

Funding – It is not too late to apply for a government backed loan.   https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-a-coronavirus-bounce-back-loan

Curb Spending – Stop all unnecessary spending, except for marketing

Credit Control – Be on top of receivables, this is essential to ensure a steady cash flow

Marketing – Now is the time to invest in advertising and anything that will boost revenue

Revise Internal Processes – Time and money is often spent on duplicated or unnecessary processes. Check Direct Debits

Scenario Planning and Cash Flows – It is essential for businesses to have cash flow forecasts with scenarios based on different economic outcomes.

Brexit

As December 2020 will soon be here, do not forget to plan for a no deal Brexit.  This relates to all businesses involved with European transactions.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/no-deal-readiness-report

Government Grants

In addition to the Government loans there are changes to the Government furlough scheme (CJRS) which is starting to wind down.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme/changes-to-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme

However, it may help to know that at the end of January businesses can apply for the Job Retention Bonus of £1,000, per employee.  For further information.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/job-retention-bonus

With the Governments financial […]

Flexible Furlough Scheme

The CJRS has been running since March and from 1^st July, the Flexible Furlough scheme has been introduced, so that employees can work part time, if requested.

For employers, this a good way to ease out of the lockdown by bringing staff back to work on a part time basis.

Prior to starting the Flexible Furlough scheme from July, the employee needs to be informed that they are required to work part time and they will still receive their 80% gross salary.  The business will pay the hours the employee works and claim back the hours the employee doesn’t work.  Hours need to be agreed and tracked. Consider the impact of holiday, sickness and possible maternity pay whilst on furlough.

From 1st August employers will need to pay all the employers NI and pension.  In September, the furlough claim will be reduced to 70% and 60% in October.

HMRC will be checking claims over an extended period.  If your business has an annual audit, the CJRS claims will be audited.

Recommendations

Check with your accountant or bookkeeper, furlough claims are to be shown as income in the accounts.  For tax purposes, this is offset against payroll costs.

Your accounting software will need new nominal codes set up, to show the furlough claims.

Make use of the HMRC guidelines and take advantage of their calculation’s calculator

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/calculate-how-much-you-can-claim-using-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme#calc Print the results as your backup.

You will also find information here on employees taking holiday, maternity, paternity and statutory sick pay.

Ensure that you have clear workings for each pay period and keep your claims and evidence for six years, for audit and HMRC.

If you make an error in the submission to HMRC you can correct it.  Just offset the error on the next submission.

Benefits […]

July 2020

Welcome to July and another phase of easing the lockdown.

Many businesses are still working from home, while the retail and hospitality sectors are adjusting to the new social distancing measures.

Whatever the situation, businesses have spent time planning to come out of lockdown.  Armed with several scenario plans, cash flow forecasts and changing budgets. In addition, the financial help from the government.  Grants, and loans of up to £50K for small businesses, two self-employment grants and of course the two furlough schemes.  Cash has always been King, now it has become a Dynasty.

On the subject of cash, it is critical to have a cash flow forecast, ration capital purchases and secure additional finance sooner rather than later.

The Government financial help has been crucial in keeping businesses going through the lock down, however funds are useless without a new financial plan on how best to utilise the funds effectively.

Re-establishing control over a new financial plan, involves changes to the way the business worked previously with adjustments as it moves forward.  Control is the key word.   All failing businesses have this in common, lack of financial control.

This is particularly true from July onwards in utilising staff.  From July, furloughed staff can work part time, paid by the employer. The Corona Virus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) runs until the end of October.

To be able to make vital business decisions, it is critical that businesses are kept informed.  There are many resources of information available, all aiming to help businesses move forward and this website is one of them. See our twitter feed or go to @FreveloLlp.

Although this is a challenging time and July will see many redundancies, it is also a time of optimism.  Remember the businesses […]