Finance – Page 8 – Business Plus Baby

July 7, 2013October 9, 2013

Our first family movie night

We’ve just reached a special time in our children’s lives. At ages five and almost four, we are well past the nappies, potty training and weaning stages. We don’t need buggies or a huge changing bag when we go out and it’s wonderful!

(I realise that if you’re still knee deep in carrot puree and nappies, you probably hate me for saying that. But hang on in there, it will all be worth it in the end. I promise. 🙂 )

Even better, the children are old enough to sit still and concentrate for just a little while now, which is why we decided to have our first ever family movie night this weekend.

Our five-year old made tickets for each of the family members:

We ordered a delivery from Pizza Hut, which was fantastic for me because I DIDN’T HAVE TO COOK!!!! I bought ice cream and popcorn…

…and I was pretty pleased to find actual cinema style popcorn. Naturally, I also got in a few drinks for the grown ups.

The film of choice was Finding Nemo. We picked it because both kids are currently fans of Octonauts and Julia Donaldson’s book Tiddler The Story Telling Fish, so we stuck with the fishy theme. And as it was released well before our kids arrived, me and Mr L hadn’t seen it before, so it would be a film premiere for all of us. If you’ve got young kids you’ll know that you have to watch each film about a thousand times, so we bought Finding Nemo on Blu-Ray for the occasion.

So we had our pizza and ice cream and took our seats on the sofa to watch the film.

Young kids can’t sit still for a whole film, so we had to have some popcorn in the interval…

…served in little cups cinema-style.

We haven’t had a Blu-Ray player for long and I was really impressed at how fantastic the film looked in this format. Like the best kiddie films it had funny moments specially for the adults and both parents really enjoyed it.

Best of all we had some proper family time with the whole family together and me snuggled up with my little ones on the sofa. Lovely!

My tip for a good night in is to make a special occasion of it and take the opportunity to spend some quality time together. We’re all so busy now that sometimes it’s worth booking a night in the diary and doing something together.

This post is an entry into MoneySupermarket’s Big Night In competition. Moneysupermarket reckon staying in is the new going out because “everything from handbags to gladrags via cocktails, tips and taxis seems to be getting more expensive – meaning a night out on the town can blow a big hole in your bank balance.” Even though nights on the town are few and far between for us these days, going out with the family is not cheap either! (MoneySupermarket contributed £50 to our Big Night In.)

June 14, 2013

What to do if you find yourself in debt

There’s no doubt that having children is tough on your finances. Your income goes down, either because you work less or spend more on childcare, just at the time when your expenses go up. So it’s fair to say that many parents have to deal with debt at one time or another.

If you do find yourself in debt, here are some steps to help:

Understand your finances. Often debt happens when we take our eye of the ball concerning our finances. And getting back in control can be a scary prospect, but the first step is to write down all your sources of income and your expenditure every month. Don’t forget those payments that you might make annually, such as car insurance.

Cut expenditure where you can. Once you’ve got a list of all your expenditure, you’ll be able to see places where you could cut back on your spending.

Increase your income. There are plenty of ideas for making money as a mum here at Business Plus Baby, although if you’re planning to make some money fast then make sure you pick a method that allows you to do this. Offering a service means you can get usually be paid very quickly whereas inventing a product will take much longer and there’s no guarantee you’ll be paid at all. So choose your income stream carefully.

If you can’t pay your bills talk to the company you owe the money to before you start to get threatening letters. Prioritise your bills so that the really important ones are paid first including rent or mortgage, water, gas and electricity.

Get some advice. There are many places you can get debt help and advice. Just make sure you read the small print to make sure you know if a debt service is going to charge you and how much, as some are not free. You can learn about personal finance and budgeting in many places online and there are plenty of books that can help, too.

Be careful with credit cards. If you’re short of money it’s tempting to pay on your credit card with the intention of finding the money next month. If that money doesn’t show up, then your credit card bill can escalate, causing you even bigger problems.

Shop around. You can shop around for just about anything these days, but the big savings are usually to be found on financial products such as insurance. Companies now reward new customers with the best deals instead of rewarding older customers for their loyalty, so take a look at the price comparison websites every time you renew your policies.

Sell. Look around for things you no longer need and sell them on eBay, your local Facebook swap, sell and buy group or NCT sale.

Don’t be ashamed of slipping into debt, it happens to many of us. So take action early, get back in control and you’ll be able to get back into the black.

May 30, 2013April 23, 2014

Do I need a business savings account?

So you’ve decided to go ahead and get a business bank account. Do you really need a business savings account too? It may actually be a very wise move.

Every year, many self-employed people receive a tax bill and and don’t have the money to pay it. It’s a really unpleasant situation to find yourself in, but easily prevented by putting a percentage of your income in a savings account throughout the year. It’s best to tuck this money away as soon as you’re paid and consider it the property of the tax people so you aren’t tempted to spend it!

Other reasons for having a business savings account are to help you manage your money better. For example, most self-employed people aren’t paid regularly throughout the year, so it makes sense to put the surplus from a good month in a savings account ready for those months where you don’t get paid at all. And although interest rates aren’t exactly great for savers at the moment, you’re likely to get more interest on a savings account than a business current account. Finally, if you’re saving up for a big investment such as a new piece of equipment, it makes sense to put that money in a savings account until you need it. Continue reading “Do I need a business savings account?”

May 22, 2013May 24, 2013

Five ways to raise your start-up money

You can’t start a business with no money at all, but you can do a lot with just a few hundred pounds or dollars.

If you’re thinking “but I haven’t got a few hundred pounds!” then read on because I’ve got some ways you can raise your start-up funding…

1. Sell some of the unwanted stuff around your home

One of the ways you could raise some cash to fund your new business is to sell any jewellery that you have hanging around but no longer want. There are many businesses that will be happy to buy your jewellery, like this one.

Or you could sell anything else, such as toys or clothes that your children have grown out of. Try Ebay or a local Facebook swap-and-sell page.

2. Freelance

Everyone has a sellable skill – if you don’t believe me, take a look at the crazy skills people are selling on Fiverr.com! Although Fiverr wouldn’t be my top choice for making money because the pay is so low if you live in the west (its not so bad if you’re in say, India or the Phillipines) it is great for getting ideas. When you’ve worked out what you have to offer, I’d recommend setting up an account on Elance.com, ODesk.com or PeoplePerHour.com rather than Fiverr.

Do you have any self-employed friends? They might need some short-term help with something as simple as basic data-entry or mailing out some catalogues.

3. Barter

This doesn’t make you actual cash but it could save you lots of business costs, such as your website or a logo. So work out what you need and swap skills with someone else who is just starting out.

4. Family loan

If you’re very lucky you may find a family member will lend you the money you need. If you do this it’s best to put this in writing so you’re both clear about how much is being borrowed, when you’ll pay it back and any input the lender is going to have into your business. This will help prevent tension later on.

5. Spread the payments

If you can’t afford something in one payment, you could try to negotiate spreading it over (say) four monthly payments instead. That will give you time to make some money using the methods above. Don’t be shy about asking because often a business would prefer to have you on a payment plan than lose you as a customer. Check that they aren’t charging you a lot extra for this, though.

There you go, five great ways to raise a few hundred pounds (or it’s equivalent in services). What are you waiting for? 🙂

April 16, 2013April 17, 2013

3 reasons why you’re not outsourcing your money stuff (and what to do about it)

The tasks that most small business hate the most tend to be the ones around money: keeping the books, staying on top of which taxes you need to be paying (and when) and paying people who work for you. It’s time-consuming work, especially if you hate doing it or aren’t skilled or experienced in this kind of work. It could be a very wise move to get yourself an accountant, bookkeeper or use a payroll company, (such as Moorepay, linked to here) yet many small business owners struggle on alone.

If that sounds familiar, here are three reasons why you’re not outsourcing these tasks and what to do about them:

1. How do I know I can trust them?

Although it may sound wonderful to be able to hand all that bookkeeping to someone else, there’s always the nagging worry that they’ll rip you off, behave in a fraudulent way or just do a bad job and get you into trouble with the people who collect tax in your country.

So what can you do to reassure yourself that you’ve got a professional you can trust? You can meet them or at least talk to them on the phone if they are not near you. Remember to check out any qualifications, credentials and membership of professional bodies. Do they have experience of working with small businesses like yours? Then check out testimonials, or better still ask around the people you know to see if they can recommend a service provider to you.

2. But my books are a mess!

An accountant friend of mine told me how some of her clients came to her once a year with a carrier bag of receipts. That was the full extent of their bookkeeping! These professionals are used to people who don’t understand accounts, that’s their job. It may cost you more if you give them messy records to sort out – after all there’s more work involved that way – but that shouldn’t stop you from getting help if you need it.

3. It’s too expensive

You may be surprised how inexpensive bookkeeping and payroll outsourcing can be, especially when you think about how long it would take you to struggle through it yourself each month. A professional could easily have the job done in the third of the time you could.

Accountants do appear to cost more, but on the other hand a good accountant should actually save you money because she will point out more tax-efficient ways of running your business that could save you thousands. If you’re starting out and seriously strapped for cash, some accountants reduce your fees in the first few months for start-ups, so it’s always asking that question. Most small business accountants allow you to pay monthly which spreads their fee over the year rather than hitting you in one go.

So I hope I’ve exploded most of the reasons why you’re not freeing up more of your valuable time!

Can you think of any other reasons why you’re still handling all the money stuff yourself?

Image courtesy of photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net