Finance – Page 12 – Business Plus Baby

September 20, 2011September 13, 2011

Will you be ready to take your clients’ money this Christmas?

You could make more money in the next few months that at any other time of the year.

And that doesn’t just apply to businesses selling gifts, either.

Christmas is the party season so we want to look good (health, fashion, beauty products), we want to entertain family and friends (food, party supplies, TVs and audio) and we want our houses to look great too (furniture, soft furnishings, DIY). Then at the end of it all we’re so exhausted we want to give ourselves little treats like a weekend away or a new iPod!

Many businesses need extra admin support during this busy time of year and that means more clients for virtual assistants, for example. So even if you’re not selling direct to the public, there are still opportunities for you to support those businesses that are.

True, people may be spending less since the credit crunch, but the run up to Christmas is still the best time in the year for maximising your profits.

Are YOU ready to take advantage of all that spending?

Here are five ways you can get yourself and your business in tip-top shape for the Christmas season:

Your marketing plan

Update your marketing plan to make sure you’re squeezing the absolute best from your time and budget. If you don’t already have a marketing plan, now is the time to get yourself one. It doesn’t have to be a long or complicated document, just some notes about what you’re going to be doing to promote your business on the run up to Christmas and how and when you’re going to do it.

Make sure all your efforts are working together in a strategy. Look at which marketing methods are working well for you and do more of them. Is it time you dropped a marketing method that isn’t very effective?

Are you charging enough?

How do you feel about your pricing? Do you feel confident when you name your price or do you drop your prices too easily? Are you charging less than you deserve for what you do? Take a look at what might be behind this. Does your confidence need a boost? Do you need to work on your selling skills? Are you in a very competitive area and need to find a way to stand out from the crowd?

Are you in control of your money?

Unless you know how much your costs add up to (and yes, that includes paying yourself for the time you work on or in your business) you can’t know how much you need to charge to break even. If you’re not breaking even – or don’t have a plan for how you’re going to get beyond break-even – your business is just an expensive hobby.

Having your financial facts at your fingertips makes it much easier to price your product or service, too.

Get better at following up

Are you telling potential customers all about you/your product but not actually asking them to buy? If so, you’re just warming them up for your competitors to come along and make the sale.

Following up could be as simple as making a phone call to see if they need any further information, explaining how you can solve their problem, then making the sale when the time is right. If they aren’t ready to commit right then, make sure you arrange to follow up again. Book a date for another meeting, ask if you can add them to your mailing list or ask if you can call them again next month.

Think bigger

Whatever you have planned, take it to the next level.

Going to a conference? Don’t just network with the delegates, get to know the speakers. Look at your branding: your logo, colour scheme, fonts, photo, business card, tagline, website, customer service, marketing materials and so on. Boosting the image that your business gives out to the world will improve the way people perceive your product/service and you may be able to charge more.

If you act like you’re running a little business just for fun, that’s how people will see you. You can think big even if you’re running a business part-time from home. It’s just a question of attitude!

Your customers are ready to spend their cash. Are you ready for them to spend it with YOU?

If you need help getting your business in shape for Christmas, get yourself a copy of the Earn What You Deserve as a Mumpreneur e-course. You can download it for just £24 if you buy it before 30^th September (usual price £37).

photo credit: Karen Roe

September 19, 2011September 13, 2011

National Insurance for self-employed mums: Claiming back Class 2 contributions

This is the third in the incredibly popular series of posts by Frances Weir of bigbooklittlebookcardboardbox.co.uk. Frances and I are on a mission to help self-employed mums get the money they should be entitled to. It’s very easy to miss out on maternity allowance because you have a Small Earnings Exemption certificate – many mums aren’t aware of this until it’s too late. (For all the details see: Self-employed? Protect your right to maternity allowance). Over to Frances…

If you are self-employed and have followed the advice in Self-employed? Protect your right to maternity allowance, you will have opted to pay Class 2 contributions, rather than applying for a Small Earnings Exception Certificate (in order to ensure that in the event you have a baby, you get the maximum rate of maternity allowance).

If you

1) have submitted your 2010-2011 tax return

2) earned less than £5075 and

3) you are not pregnant (so do not need to rely on the contributions to qualify for the enhanced maternity allowance)

you can now reclaim the Class 2 contributions you made. Simply fill in the form here stating you are claiming because your earnings for 2010-2011 have fallen below the contributions threshold and enclose your profit-loss account. Within a couple of months you should get a cheque from HMRC refunding the Class 2 contributions you have paid – approx. £125 for a full year.

You will continue to pay Class 2 contributions for the current year (unless you now choose to apply for a Small Earnings Exception Certificate).

Class 2 contributions entitle you to a number of benefits. Before reclaiming, please satisfy yourself (taking independent financial advice if needed) that you do not wish to maintain your eligibility for the other benefits provided by the contributions.

Frances Weir is mum to a toddler and runs bigbooklittlebookcardboardbox selling her portable children’s bookshelf to parents, childminders and independent book agents.

If you found this post helpful, you might like to join my mailing list. Sign up now and you can download your copy of my e-book Running a business around a family: 9 steps to success.

July 26, 2011

Tax Credit Deadline – don’t save all your changes until 31st July!

Today I’ve got a reminder for you from guest blogger Claire Meredith of Pennies For Parents and Zest Payroll Solutions. Over to you Claire!

As the Tax Credit Renewal deadline of 31^st July fast approaches, I’d like to remind you how important it is to tell the Tax Credit office of changes to your circumstances at the time that they actually happen.

Please don’t save them all up until the renewal pack falls on your door mat!

If you have any kind of change in your personal life, work/self employment or childcare please pick up the phone and call the Tax Credit office as soon as you possibly can. Leaving important changes to information until July could mean you are possibly being overpaid (a real nightmare) or that you are losing out on additional payments that you could be receiving at a time you need them most.

If you have not yet sent back your renewal form or given them a call please do so now.

Remember: if you do not contact them your payments will STOP!

Call the Tax Credit Helpline NOW on: 0845 300 3900

Please also watch this great “Tell ‘Em” video from Martin Lewis too:

www.itv.com/daybreak/money/taxcredits/

June 13, 2011July 27, 2016

Do I need a business bank account?

If you’re a sole trader (and most of us start out that way) a business bank account isn’t essential. It is a good idea to have a separate bank account for your business though, because it’s much easier to keep track of money going into and coming out of your business.

Most business bank accounts charge a monthly fee and that can be a shock after having a free personal account all your life 🙂 but some offer free banking for the first year.

Some people starting small businesses use a personal bank account like a BBT checking account to avoid paying charges. If you do this and your bank finds out they probably won’t be happy about it and may ask you to switch to a business account.

When shopping around for business accounts, check which services you get with each account as they can vary from one bank to the next. If you need to be able to pay in cash and cheques at a local branch, make sure your account allows you to do so. Also check if a debit card is included. If you want to be able to go into a local branch and speak to a business banking specialist, you need to check that this is included in your account. It may be worth checking out the interest rate the bank pays you although this is very low for any bank account these days plus you can always transfer any money to a business savings account.

The reason some banks are able to offer free introductory deals is that they are web-based and don’t give you face-to-face access to a local bank manager. This is a trade-off that most mums running small home businesses are perfectly happy with, though. Plus you can always move accounts later if you want to.

Last update: 27/7/2016

Please note that the information in this post only applies if you live in the UK

June 3, 2011June 10, 2011

Taking care of your money and leaky buckets

Over the last few weeks I’ve been busy launching my new e-course, Earn What You Deserve as a Mumpreneur. (Maybe you’ve noticed? :))

Earn What You Deserve as a Mumpreneur is all about making more money without having to work any harder. Often, a few changes to the way you think or do business is all it takes to put more money in your wallet.

Then it occurred to me that money is a bit like water in a bucket. There’s no point in pouring in more water if it’s pouring out of a hole at the bottom. So to be more financially secure, you need to not only earn more (well, for most of us!) but you need to manage the money you’ve got. Continue reading “Taking care of your money and leaky buckets”