….Is a lack of a clear plan.

Many people start their own small business with an objective, usually to make a profit and increase their standard of living. The idea and skills are there, but a big problem small businesses face is that the owner(s) do not have a clear plan beyond making a profit.

Running a business is much more than making the sales, there is a lot of admin work which needs to be taken care of, credit control, making payments to suppliers, meeting deadlines and much more. It’s far better to have a plan in place before you begin your business than trying to react situations which arise through poor planning.

Once you have made sales the next task on your list should be to make sure that your customer pays on time. If they are late in paying you it may mean that you struggle to make a payment to a supplier in time, who in turn may hold back orders until payment is received. It’s very easy for a small situation to quickly spiral out of control due to poor planning.

If you manufacture and sell a product have you planned what to do should the prices of your raw materials increase?  Raising your selling price seems the easy option, but your customers may not think so.

These are only a couple of the problems which can arise through lack of a clear plan. As the saying goes ‘Failing to prepare is preparing to fail‘. Not many people like taking time out to sit down and work through endless scenarios for their business, but it will be time well spent if it keeps you ahead of your competitors.

How about you?

Have you experienced and/or avoided any problems by having/not having a clear plan for your business?

 

Photo Credit:  Keerati / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Another busy week on the blog; here are the top 3 most viewed posts over the last 7 days:

Image: Just2shutter / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

• Look How Much #yorkshirehour has grown – This is an infographic showing how popular a weekly online networking event has become
• Do I Need To Complete A Tax Return? – Self employed people in the UK started to get their 2011/12 tax returns this week. Do you need to complete one?
• Top Tips For Keeping Your Business Records Organised – A must read if you are thinking of starting your own business

Have a read of each one and if you like it please let me know by way of a comment or sharing the post on Twitter, Facebook etc…

 

Once you have registered with HMRC as self-employed you are free to run your business, but at some point you will ask your self ‘What Records Should I Keep?’

Image: Phaitoon / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It is important that you keep your business’ records accurate and up to date from the very first day you commence trading. Not only is it easier for you/your bookkeeper to compile your year-end accounts/tax return, but it means you can instantly see how your business is performing.

You must keep records of all your sales and takings, along with all your purchases and expenses. In the eyes of HMRC the transaction never happened if you cannot produce the proof. These documents include:

• Sales invoices
• Receipts
• Mileage records
• Bank statements
• Capital expenditure – high value items such as computers, vehicles etc…

It’s also a good idea to set up a cash-book for your business to enable you to track your turnover and expenses. These are fairly simple to set up (depending on the business), if you would like any help please contact me.

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

You must keep these records for a minimum of 6 years. If storage space is a problem you are allowed to store all these documents electronically provided that you capture all the information on the document. It’s also a good idea to make a back-up and store it away from your premises in case of fire or theft.

If you are still unsure about what records to keep speak to your bookkeeper or accountant who will be able to advise you, or post a comment below…

As someone who works in a fairly small home office making sure my workspace is clear is essential to me keeping organised. Take a look around at your workspace…does it look like the proverbial bomb-site? If so you will be able to get some benefit from reading this post.

Make A List

Take a post it note (or sticky notes on Windows PC’s) and write down the order you need to do things in today. If you have paperwork on your desk put it in one pile in the order of the to-do list. This will help you keep on track and know where everything is.

Paperless Office

As much as people strive to have a paperless office, we’ll never truly have one. Most invoices are now received via email, what’s the first thing you do when you receive it? Print it out. There’s no need to. I’ve invested in a 24″ widescreen monitor which has helped massively because I can now display documents on one half of my screen and have my accounts program open on the other side. This is very productive as you don’t need to keep constantly looking down at the hard copy of an invoice. It will also save you money in terms of printer paper and ink

Data Back-Up

If you cannot work by displaying invoices on-screen, there will come a time when you need to file them away. Records must be kept for 6 years, and that’s a lot of paperwork and shelf space. There are many companies now that offer to scan your documents onto DVD’s as searchable PDF files for easy retrieval. I recently looked at this during my day job and 5 years worth of documents would fit onto 1 dvd! If you are unable to outsource the scanning of the documents from the start of your next financial year aim to scan everything when you receive it and back it up to DVD/USB stick. It really does save a lot of space and time when searching for something later.

Clean Desk

Always leave a clean desk when you have finished for the day. There’s nothing worse than coming in to work the next day to be greeted by mountains of paperwork. If some work is left over, put it in a drawer and leave yourself a reminder of what needs to be done.

These things may be hard to get to grips with at first, but if you stick with them you’ll probably be a lot happier in your workspace and also a lot more organised.

What do you do to keep a clean desk?

Most, if not all, small businesses will start out life working from their owners home. If you are reading this then you are probably fall into that category, or may be thinking about starting your own 5-9 business on an evening.

For all the benefits working from home can provide, it also brings a lot of drawbacks with it. This 2 part blog will aim to point out some of the easy mistakes that can be made, along with a few tips to improve your home office.Make sure that your workspace is away from a public area in the house. Working at the kitchen table or in the living room may seem like a good idea, but the chances are that you will get very little done due to people constantly passing through the room

1. Avoid having a TV in the room. The main benefit of working from home is not having to rent an office space and maximise your work-time. Having a TV playing in the background will only be a distraction.
2. Make sure your home office has a door. When you finish work for the day close the door behind you and don’t go back until the next day. If you left the office for the day would you go back an hour later?
3. If you use a mobile phone rather than a landline, leave the mobile in the office when you have finished work for the day. This will allow you to relax on an evening if you aren’t constantly answering the phone
4. Be organised! This is key to knowing what is happening in your business. If you are unsure about how to become more organised, read this 3 part blog
5. Turn the radio off when making and receiving phone calls. Having some background noise whilst you work is great, but if you are talking on the phone it can seem unprofessional. Mute the radio whilst you are on the phone

 

Thank you for taking the time to read the first part of this mini blog. Part 2 will be published on Friday, I hope you come back to read it.

Where did May go? The month seemed to fly by. If you have missed any of my blogs during the month, below are a selection of some of the more popular posts.

• If you are thinking about using WordPress for your website, check out this short wordpress set up tutorial
• If you want to maximise Twitter within your business, you  really should buy Twitter Your Business by Mark Shaw
• Keeping organised is incredibly important in business, none more so that in small businesses. Read my 3 part blog starting here. Parts 2 & 3 can be linked to via Part 1
• Mark Shaw has created a bit of noise recently on Twitter thanks to his ‘Requests for Recommendations’ scheme. Read my interview with Mark Shaw to gain a better insight into #rfr

As ever, if you have any thoughts or comments please let me know…

This is the final part of this extended blog, I hope that you have read the previous 2 posts (links at the bottom) and have found something that you are able to implement into your business.

So far we’ve gone through the initial steps of getting yourself organised when you first start out with your own business (Part 1) and then looked at a few tips to help keep things in order when you are up and running and have a busy schedule (part 2). In this part I’ll list a few tips that will help you as your business continues to grow and space becomes a precious commodity in your office.

1. Try to store as much information on your computer as possible. How many of us raise an invoice or buy something online and then print out the invoice, file it away and never look at it again? By investing in a USB memory stick or an external hard-drive you can avoid all this paper and save everything directly to it as a PDF or HTML file to be viewed when you need it. Always make sure that you keep a back-up of these files somewhere just incase the worst happens. I suggest backing up everything to a CD/DVD at the end of each week.
2. Buy a large monitor. Whilst this may be a large investment for your business it will save you lots of time. A widescreen monitor will allow you to have 2 windows open side by side at the same time enabling you to view a document on screen and then enter the information on it into a spreadsheet, Word file etc.. It will save time and space becasue you won’t have the need to constantly switch between windows on the screen and you won’t need to print anything out
3. Make the most of E-Mail. Time is a precious thing in business so why waste time and money putting something in the post? When you raise an invoice send it via e-mail as a PDF or read-only file. Your customer will receive it instantly and cannot use the ‘it got lost/delayed in the post’ excuse. If you have to send a document in the post (perhaps it’s a signed document for the bank), email it as well to allow the recipient to see it before the hard copy arrives.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading these short blog posts and have been able to implement some of the ideas into your business. If you have any other tips that may help people, please leave a comment.

Tips For Keeping Organised – Part 1

Tips For Keeping Organised – Part 2

I hope you read yesterdays post (part 1) and got something out of it. Today I’ll list a few more tips and ideas about how you can make yourself more organised for your small business. Staying organised might seem like a pain and a chore but it is key to your business being successful. If you don’t know exactly what is happening with your business and can’t find something when you need it, it could mean the loss of an important contract or worse.

Major companies employ hundreds of office workers to keep things organised so that the person at the top of the chain knows what is happening and what state the business is in. Sometimes it even goes wrong for them. They spend thousands upon thousands of pounds implementing new systems, how can you expect to compete with them? A few simple tips could help massively.

1. Keep a diary of all your appointments and add them to your phone as well. This way you can easily plan out your week ahead to make the best use of your time. It is fantastic attracting a lot of new business, but not if you cannot find the time to do what you said you’d do. Try to arrange appointments for the morning and to work in an afternoon. If you work in the morning you may become bogged down with something and turn up for your appointment/meeting under prepared.
2. Set up a simple spreadsheet with a list of your invoices raised, who to and when payment is due. Cash flow is vital for keeping a business running. If you have a new client contact them a couple of days before payment is due just to make sure that everything is OK. If you need any helping setting up a spreadsheet to do this please contact me and I can send you a spreadsheet (for free) that will help you.
3. Keep a clean desk. It seems simple enough, but at the end of each day make sure that your workspace is tidy. If you leave it looking like a bomb-site there is a very high probability that you might mis-place something and then have to waste valuable time looking for it. Even if you’ve not finished the work and need to carry it on tomorrow, put it away in a draw and leave yourself a note to remind you to do it the next day. At first it may take a while to get into the routine, but try building it into your schedule to finish 15 minutes early each day and use those 15 minutes to tidy up

Hopefully these will help you become more organised in whatever line of business you are in – you can even try them if you don’t work for yourself.

If you want to re-cap yesterday’s post please visit it here: Tips for Keeping Organised – Part 1 and remember to sign up to the RSS Feed or bookmark this Feeburner page to keep totally up to date.

Tips For Keeping Organised – Part 3

With the current economic situation more and more people are setting up as self-employed either as their main job, or alongside their main job. Regardless of how you operate your business, one thing is vital: you need to keep yourself organised

One of the biggest pains in the backside is keping your paperwork in order. Over the next 3 days I’m going to make 3 blog posts giving you some tips on how to get your paperwork organised. Some of the tips might seem fairly obvious, but they will all help.

1. Go out and buy yourself some lever arch folders, plastic wallets and dividers. As a minimum I would suggest buying 2 folders; one for expenses and one for invoices raised. In your expenses folder have a different plastic wallet for each month and put the receipts for each month in the relevant wallet (easy huh?). Use the dividers to separate HMRC paperwork, expenses, bank statements etc… Use the 2nd folder to store all your invoices, job sheets and quotes in. Keep them in number order so that you can find them easily
2. As soon as you have incurred an expense, raised an invoice, been paid etc… make sure that you get the paperwork dealt with and filed away immediately, or at the very least within 7 days. It’s all too easy to say ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ but we all know tomorrow never comes. This can also help with any cashflow forcasting you need to do.
3. If something needs doing but you cannot do it right there and then, make a note. There is nothing more annoying than sitting down to sort it out later and forgetting the details. Most of us have smart phones now, just drop yourself an email with a simple ‘take care of xyz’ in the subject field. If you’re working on the computer at the time make use of Sticky Notes. These stay on your desktop until you delete them

That’s all for today. I’m deliberately keeping the posts short in an effort to keep your interst. Sign up to the RSS Feed for further updates, follow me on twitter or alternatively come back tomorrow.

Tips For Keeping Organised – Part 2

Tips for Keeping Organised – Part 3