Test

Building a home business can give you numerous competitive advantages over your competition, as well as saving your business, and your employees, time and money. Here are a few key benefits attached to building your small business from home.

You will save money – If you can build and run your business from home you could save your business thousands of pounds. Not only will property costs decrease significantly, but you will also have less insurance, utilities and transport costs to pay.

Staff will be more efficient – The flexibility to work from home can increase staff productivity in two ways; firstly by decreasing the time workers spend commuting they can increase their time working. Secondly, happy workers are efficient workers. If your employees are happy and satisfied with their working arrangement then, the chances are, they will be more efficient that unhappy office workers.

Increase financial security – A lack of business property will protect you against interest rate hikes on borrowing or other financial disasters. The considerable reduction in overheads is also a distinct benefit of building your business from home; while your competition pay for expensive office space, you can charge less for your product due to reduced overheads!

Save your employees money – Fuel is expensive, and with prices set to increase what better way to save your employees money than by cutting their fuel bills! Allowing employees to work from home saves them time, and leaves them better off without the necessity for a pay rise.

Employ the ‘unemployable’ – There is a wealth of skilled, professional and talented people out there who struggle with working traditional office hours. Parents are the main category within this; childcare is expensive, so offering work from home with flexible hours allows you to tap in to this underutilized yet extremely talented area of society.

The current economic recovery could still be jeopardy, according to a survey this week of accountants in the UK. The Credit Check survey of 250 accountants, published by the Venture Finance and Accountancy magazine, suggests that 60% of accountants believe that the number of small business insolvencies is set to rise. In fact, the accountants taking part in the survey predicted that 10% of their clients will be insolvent in the near future.

The main problem identified by accountants is that small businesses are still being held back by the long tail-end of the recession, with over a third performing worse in the second quarter of 2010 than in the same period of the previous year. The overall strength of UK business is classified as ‘weak’ or ‘very weak’ by one third of the surveyed accountants.

According to the respondents, small businesses in the UK are currently still mainly focusing on trying to stabilise their finances rather than trying to grow their business. This has implications for the overall economy, which will require small businesses to grow in order that it too can flourish.

However, the reverse of this seems to be happening, with over a quarter of the accountants revealing that their client’s businesses are shrinking or dying due to a lack of working capital. Over two-thirds of the accountants surveyed believe that no upturn will occur without greater access to finance, yet 80% also said that their clients have lost all faith in traditional sources of finance.

Once again, this all appears to lead back to the accusations that SMEs are unable to get access to finance at the time it is most desperately required. Without financial backing easily available, it is impossible for the majority of businesses to think beyond simply trying to survive and starting to grow instead.

We would like to inform our customers that WinWeb.com have scheduled a maintenance window of thirty minutes between 19:00 and 23:00 BST on the 31st August 2010.

Whilst we avoid webserver outages wherever possible, we are upgrading our network to enhance user experience and improve the service we provide to our clients. In order to do this, a brief outage is inevitable. We only anticipate the outage to impact our UK customers, but we would like to make our Global customers aware of the situation in the unlikely event that the Global webservers are affected.

We will endeavor to keep the time we are offline to a minimum, apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience.

According to figures released earlier this month by the Financial Ombudsman Service, the number of complaints about small business bank loans have risen by 119% over the past year to 31st March. There were 496 complaints to the ombudsman by small business owners this year, compared to just 226 in the previous twelve months.

Levels of frustration with banks have clearly increased since the financial crisis began in 2008. In fact, people seem to currently be unhappy with all types of financial institutions. The overall number of small business complaints against financial institutions for the year was 4,656 – a rise of 43% on the previous year. In comparison, complaints by individual consumers showed a far lower increase of 27% (158,356).

The figures may not even depict the whole story of business dissatisfaction with UK financial institutions. Only companies with a turnover of £1.8m or less and fewer than ten employees are allowed to complain to the ombudsman. Either way, banks are clearly angering the general public with their refusal to lend to perfectly sound businesses.

Despite this, the main high street banks all announced this month that they have seen an increase in the amount of money that they lent to small business customers. They also claimed that the demand for loans has fallen. Statistics from the Bank of England showed that net business lending fell by £3.2bn in the first quarter.

The British Chambers of Commerce and the British Banker’s Association have both made statements in recent weeks suggesting the lending situation is far more complicated than what has been portrayed in the media. They insist the money is available and figures do indeed show that UK banks are lending a net $500m every month to small business. Analysts suggest that although good businesses are being denied credit, banks have at least managed to kerb the reckless lending that was taking place during 2007.

Small businesses all require space in which to conduct their business activities. Here are some great tips on how to make the most of whatever space you have to work in:

Maximise Storage: Ensure that you avoid silly errors when storing stock, stationery or files. Always fill boxes to capacity before filing them away, and do not over or under-fill them as this will lead to them tipping or collapsing. Make sure to clearly label them so that they can be found in the future.

Encourage flexibility: Although whenever it is possible you should plan your office to take into account the number of people you employ, sometimes you will have to change plans, especially if your company is growing quickly. Consider ‘hotdesking’, where employees are able to set up their workspace at any available position and then move on when they finish work.

Share resources: The smaller the office, the less rent your small business will have to pay. This is why it makes sense for you to share resources with the other employees of your company whenever possible. Especially for items such as printers which can be networked, there is no reason to waste space by having duplicates.

Consider ergonomics: Ergonomics is the science of work. It is important because human bodies were designed to move and being sat at a computer desk all day is totally unnatural. Ergonomic seating and workstation design is essential to avoid long-term injury risks.

Homeworking: The ultimate solution for any small business is to ditch the traditional office altogether and connect with staff and customers online from the comfort of a home office. It has never been easier to work without a central office, all you need are software applications like the ones that WinWeb provide.

At some point, the majority of small businesses will all have to hire at least one employee in order to keep the workload manageable. Selecting the right people to become a part of your team is one of the most difficult management decisions that you will have to make as a small business owner.

Unfortunately, entrepreneurs often have a very negative approach to the hiring process right from the very start. Because they dislike the entire time-consuming procedure, they try to spend as little of their time on it as possible and instead focus on tasks that they consider more important. What they they often fail to remember is that hiring is actually probably their most critical task.

When a small business grows quickly, the recruitment process will soon become routine procedure. Don’t forget to set aside a specific budget for recruitment and selection, because finding the right person often ends up costing you money. You will need to advertise the position and if you choose to hire through an agency there will be fees involved.

One key decision for any small business owner to make is whether they want to hire full or -part-time staff. Only a minority of small businesses actually need full-time employees. Part-time employees can be very useful, particularly if you operate a seasonal business that will experience predictable peaks and troughs of demand.

Being open to the possibility of hiring on a part-time basis will give you access to entire markets of applicants that you would otherwise not be able to employ. There are many people who are extremely highly-skilled but can only work on a part-time basis because of their personal circumstances. People with young children or those who have retired from their primary career are ideal candidates for part-time work. You could perhaps even have two such people sharing one role, especially if you wish to retain key staff.

For many small business owners, making their business more environmentally friendly has become much more important in recent years. However, in the tough economy of today, businesses have a delicate balancing act between caring for the environment and the survival of their business so that they can provide for their family. Ultimately, at the moment, the priority for most of them is struggling to keep the business alive and being green comes a distant second.

The coalition Government has promised to be the ‘greenest-ever’. Early indicators of this have been good, with the quick announcement that they would not support another runway at Heathrow proving that they were at least prepared to do things differently to the previous Government.. Critics have suggested that the ‘greenest-ever’ tag is a completely unmeasurable claim that means little.

A report this week by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has stated that the Government needs to provide more support for small businesses that want to be greener. Business owners show great enthusiasm for green measures but without adequate financial measure to support them, they are unlikely to participate.

To achieve the tough carbon emission targets that have been set for the UK (20% less by 2020), the FSB advises the Government to look at expanding the current loan scheme available to small businesses and provide incentives to make their workplace greener. In their opinion, it is not currently economically viable for small businesses to embrace green investment.

At the moment, small businesses have access to a great 0% loan scheme for energy saving equipment. Repayments are made on a ‘pay as you save’ basis, allowing them to make genuine savings. However, this scheme is not widely publicised and the FSB recommends greater exposure.

The FSB has also offered a number of recommendations concerning improving the energy efficiency of workplaces. Because nearly half of all small business accommodation is rented, neither the landlord or business currently has much incentive to improve. The believe that either the banks or the energy and construction industries in the private sector should be incentivised to pay the upfront costs of making buildings more energy efficient. They also recommend ‘pay as you save’ repayments for small businesses through energy bills so neither the landlord or business is burdened by cost.

Last month we brought you five great tips for making small business sales. We heard from many readers that found them useful, so today we have another five for you to consider.

Ask Questions: If you want to get inside the head of potential customers and find out what they actually want, you need to ask them. Instead of wondering where your sales pitch went wrong, ask the customer directly why they decided not to purchase from you.

Focus on benefits: Product features have never been a deciding factor in anyone’s purchasing decision. A prospective customer only wants to know what your product can do to benefit them. A good salesperson is able to build a picture in the prospects mind of how a product or service will improve their life.

Evaluate yourself: This tip is useful if you attempt to conduct telesales. It is very easy to record your phone conversations and analyse where you went wrong. Sometimes you can even pinpoint the moment when you lost the sale. However, as we mentioned last time: don’t obsess, learn and move on.

Follow-up: A common trait of many successful salespeople is their willingness to pursue a sale. At times it may seem annoying, but the truth is that unless you remain in contact with a prospect then you will never close a deal. Just try not to irritate them too much!

Take your time: Very often, especially with high-value products, the sales process is not something that can be rushed. The buyer will need to take their time making a purchasing decision, there is no magical solution or method to speed this up without resorting to unethical sales tactics. Your only option is to have a number of sales leads in the pipeline at once and try to avoid becoming frustrated.

Keeping on top of your business finances can be a stressful process for many small business owners. Unfortunately, it is an essential task if you wish to avoid business failure. Even businesses that appear to be successful on the surface and are making a lot of product sales can become victims of business failure if they fail to keep proper accounting records.

The most important part of keeping your business financially healthy is to get right on top of your finances from the moment you start your new business. Of course, it is easier to simply leave the paperwork to build up and deal with it at a later date, but this can lead to mistakes being made. For example, you may forget to invoice a customer or there may be some undetected costs that you have failed to notice. The best way of keeping on top of bookkeeping is to use accounting software, as this allows you to quickly input data and then file your paperwork away before it starts to build up.

Try to move your business banking online, if you haven’t already. This will save you time and money, plus it will let you check your balance at any time so you can avoid going into overdraft. Make sure that you keep track of VAT and don’t get behind on your returns. Don’t forget to keep accurate records of all quotes, orders and invoices so that you can check that you are being paid correctly. It also helps to use software for this process or else it can quickly become very confusing.

Cashflow is another very important element to ensuring good financial health for your business. Without adequate cash, it becomes difficult for a business to purchase stock or to pay suppliers and staff. The consequences of a cashflow shortage can quickly escalate and cause serious problems. Cashflow planning software can help prevent this sort of situation from occurring.

How we can help:

WinWeb.com provides the following software and services to help small businesses keep their finances healthy:

Accounting Software: Highly integrated accounting software that can be used on either Mac and PC. This professional product was the first online accounting software to be accredited by ICAEW.

Business Planning: This software helps you to focus on achieving your business goals and avoiding distractions. Small business owners are able to plan for the future using this very low-cost software module to set goals and predict cashflow.

To find out more ways to keep on top of your finances contact us, or sign up for a free trial, today.

The winner of WinWeb Pitch of the Week this week is Simon Malone, one of the founders of VirtualStudio.TV. VirtualStudio.TV offers a unique product; allowing clients to be placed inside very realistic “virtual studios” that can be tailored to their specific needs and then used as the platform for video messaging and communications. VirtualStudio.TV encountered a brand new technology, and had a vision of how this could be brought to market. This is their story:

“In July 2009 I, along with the fellow founders of VirtualStudio.TV, travelled to the US to produce a series of videos for a large corporate event. While we were there we stumbled across some new technology at a small trade fair; this technology used the latest in CGI technology to allow people to be placed within virtual environments using green screen video technology.

As we already had years of experience producing videos, we were always on the lookout for new and innovative offerings to bring to the market and this technology seemed an ideal way to reinvigorate the video communications market.

As the recession really began to bite we noticed that many of our existing clients were cutting back on their budgets for communication and outreach, including videography, but in reality businesses need to be reaching out to customers, being personable and presenting clear information through communication, giving employees and potential customers confidence and assurance during these uncertain times. It was clear to us by this stage that by creating bespoke studios specifically designed to match organisations corporate branding and guidelines we could provide them with the perfect platform with which to distribute their news and relevant information to customers. But, the virtual studios we had seen up to that point were basic, and far from the polished and professional product we wanted to offer our clients but we knew the potential was there.

It took almost exactly a year to journey from first encountering the technology to launching VirtualStudio.TV. In that year we have worked tirelessly to create not only a professional and visually engaging product, but also to create it in a way that means we can offer our customers an incredibly fast turnaround time at a lower cost than conventional videos.

It took a long time for us to master the technology to be best able to use it at its full effect; it took over 3 months to ‘construct’ our first virtual studio and bring it up to a standard we were completely satisfied with. But our steep learning curve means we can now turn rough studio designs from our clients in to a fully functional virtual studio in less than a week – we really have come a tremendously long way.

In the months leading up to the launch there were frustrating times, as I’m sure is the case with any new business. The desire to provide a unique, quality and outstanding product to our customers has driven us throughout our journey, and seeing the positive feedback we are receiving from our first wave of new clients makes that the journey seem very worthwhile.

In our first month of trading we have been contracted to produce video newsletters, training programs, website videos and virtual training events in both the UK and the US. We really have hit the ground running and in the next year we are determined to drive the business forward, opening more studios in a number of major cities across the UK and Europe.

VirtualStudio.TV believes that video is the best possible way for businesses to communicate news and information with their stakeholders; and our vision is to become the industry leader in this market.”

The new technology that VirtualStudio.TV stumbled across at a small trade fair has completely changed the direction of their business; is your business open to new pathways?

If you would like the chance to be featured on our Business Blog, have us write a press release for you and gain valuable publicity via Twitter, you can find out all the details on our Facebook Page!