Category Sole-Trader

Entries 34 Total

2012:The Year Enterprise Rocks

Dec 30, ’11 6:21 PM
Author Tony Robinson OBE Categories Announcements, Employment, Freelancer, Getting Things Done, Home Business, Micro Business, MumEntrepreneur, Self-employed, Small Business / SOHO, Small Business Support, Sole-Trader, Start-Up

Making it Better and Fairer

It will be a rocking good start to 2012. The UK Enterprise Rockers movement is inviting journalists to kick off 2012 by covering the launch of our #MicroBizMatters campaign. The Enterprise Rockers, all micro business owners, have chosen Scarborough to host the media launch event at noon on January 9th.

Scarborough is a former winner of both the most enterprising place in Britain and the most enterprising town in Europe. Oh and the two founders of the Enterprise Rockers, the wonderful Tina Boden and me, live there.

The aim of the Enterprise Rockers movement is to make life better and fairer for all Micro Business Owners. The #MicroBizMatters campaign will improve awareness of the importance of the UK’s 4.5 million micro businesses, including start-ups, to jobs, the economy and communities.

Although the UK is the first to launch the Rockers there is already interest being shown in many countries to take up our movement, including the US.

Positive Messages Will Tackle Discrimination

The campaign also seeks to make people more aware of the discrimination by Government, Banks and Big Businesses against micro business owners and what the benefits to Britain would be if they gave them a fairer chance to survive and thrive. The campaign also positively recognises large organisations that the Rockers agree are micro enterprise friendly such as Apple, the Co-op, British Library and ACAS.

Founder Tina Boden, who owns a fine food company, explained, ‘We’re not a political, lobbying or a fee paying membership organisation. Micro business owners freely get involved in the Rockers to do as much or as little as they like. We agree everything by majority decision.

We believe that by thousands of us supporting each other, trading with each other and carrying the same messages in villages, towns and online all over the UK that we can harness the power of plenty to make life better and fairer for micro business owners.

Our #MicroBizMatters campaign will make people aware why it is important that Britain is more micro enterprise friendly. This in turn will improve the future prospects for micro-business owners including start-ups.’

Why this way works?

For me, it is really important that everything we do is really positive. As micro enterprise owners we are and have to be positive people and we’re used to just getting on with ‘doing the biz’ so we’re certainly not moaners and we’re not looking for hand outs.

We’ve made very little progress in the last twenty years consulting with Government Ministers and their officials to try and get a better deal on skills and support for start-ups and enterprise owners. So the Enterprise Rockers movement is a welcome change of direction.

As one in seven of the adult workforce in the UK are running their own micro businesses there can’t be many of the population that don’t know, and more importantly, would like to help a micro business owner to earn an honest living.

Politicians are only interested in what the public think around election time but by the next UK election we’re pretty sure that we’ll have enough public opinion on our side so that they, for the first time, will need to state what they are going to do for micro business owners (0-9 employees).

Fact: Micro-Business Matters

Influencing public opinion and in turn government is a small part of what we’ll achieve. After all, we’ll never be as important to Ministers as Big Business and the Banks but we can hopefully stop 95% of government funding and support going to bigger business so that the 95% of all UK businesses that are micros get a fairer deal and an even break.

We’re growing. We already provide most of the new jobs, innovation and best help to communities and we contribute a third of all private sector jobs and a fifth of UK turnover. The thousands of Enterprise Rockers actively involved on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and ready to champion our #MicroBizMatters campaign will make life better and fairer for us all.

The #MicroBizMatters campaign already has 750 signatures on its ‘Tell Us What You’re Doing for Micro Enterprises Not for’ SMEs’ government e-petition. This already puts it at Number 14 out of over 600 e-petitions to the government’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.

Whilst the Rockers are not campaigning, through #MicroBizMatters for government funding they are requesting that government reduces its funding and support to Bigger Business. For example for every £50 million of government support 4.5 million micro businesses get 6000 big businesses get £1 billion.

Time to join our band?

The launch of #MicroBizMatters takes place in the Penthouse, the Sands, North Bay, Scarborough at 12 noon on Monday, 9th January. If you know a journalist then ask them to either register here http://enterpriserockersofficiallaunch.eventbrite.co.uk/?ref=enivtefor&utm_source=eb_email&utm_media=email&utm_compaign=invitefor&utm_term=readmore&invite=MTU1Nzk2OS90b255QGVudHJlcHJlbmV1cnN1ay5jb20vMA== or they can arrange to interview the founders of the Enterprise Rockers by e-mailing tony@entrepreneursuk.com with their requirements.

There’s also no better time for you to get involved with the Enterprise Rockers. It’s free and you can join our Enterprise Rockers discussion groups and MicroBizMatters discussion groups on Facebook and Linked In or follow us on Twitter @EnterpriseRocks or check out our website http://enterpriserockers.co.uk and sign our Government e-petition at http://t.co/QK36cLlU

Thanks lots – enjoy 2012 the year of the Enterprise Rockers.

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The Best Biz Mentors Can Be A Tad Crazy

Nov 23, ’11 2:30 PM
Author Tony Robinson OBE Categories Business Ideas, Business Mentoring, Business Startup, Business Trends, Entrepreneur, Getting Things Done, Home Business, Micro Business, MumEntrepreneur, News, Personal Business, SOHO/SMB/SME/Micro, Self-employed, Sole-Trader, Start-Up, be successful, grow your business, start-up in business

My Dad

I reckon my first business mentor was my Dad. He started his own business, working from home, because, like many people I know, it was the best way of earning a living. His health was very poor so he had to pack in his job. In the five years between me being 13 and 18, when he died, he built a very big business. It was always a micro business, like 95% of the businesses today in the UK.

It became big in income but never had more than six employees. It was a sales agency in the wooden box and pallets industry. Many years later, when I started my own business, I realised that nearly everything useful that I’d learned about enterprise had come from my Dad as my business mentor.

He was an unlikely ace business mentor. My Dad left school at 14, picked everything up as he’d gone along, and was a complete eccentric, a showman and a storyteller who instinctively turned anything formal into a party. At football, Hull City, he had a seat just behind the Directors’ box so that he could hurl abuse and one-liners at them from start to finish. I wouldn’t sit with him.

Corporate Crackers

The point is that what I’d learned in Senior Management, even Managing Director, at two major American multinationals didn’t help me much in my own business. This was despite having received the very best business training and completed two Post Graduate Diplomas in HR Management and Business Administration. All this was next to useless in my own micro business as against the valuable help I gained from my mentors.

My business partner of twenty five years, Clare, felt the same thing. She hadn’t realised it at the time but her corporate jobs and training hadn’t prepared her for running her own business but what she’d learned from her Dad, who had his own property business, was invaluable.

No surprise then that we decided to have a mentor, another micro business owner, for our first couple of years in business. We gave him our corporate contacts and in return he asked us wise questions which stopped us doing many of the foolish things we were about to do. No money exchanged hands although a heck of a lot of money went behind the bar during our, frequently scheduled, mentoring sessions.

Sitting or Standing Up Mentors?

One of the many theories I have, which perversely academic research and government policy has yet to pick up on, is that if you’ve got a primarily ‘standing up’ business you’re best to have a mentor that has a ‘standing up’ business too. ‘Standing up’ businesses would include most building trades, cafes, shops, blues bands, chocolate makers, ice cream makers and micro-breweries.

Similarly if you’re in a ‘sitting down in an office’ type business then choose ‘a sitting down in an office’ type mentor. I’m definitely not saying only get a mentor from a similar trade or industry, only government and BigBiz think in sectors, but do get someone who really understands what you have to do each day.

Oh and beware of men in suits if you’ve got a ‘standing up’ business’ or you’re a woman. I’m sure there are exceptions to these rules of mine for choosing a mentor but there won’t be many.

Sir Jimmy Fixed It for Us Every Day

Wrestler, DJ, marathon runner, TV presenter, volunteer hospital porter and the greatest charity fund raiser of all time, Sir Jimmy Savile, died recently. He was buried in Scarborough, where I live. Thousands turned out to acknowledge his real achievements for the people of Britain both at his service in Leeds and his burial in Scarborough. He was truly a man of the people, an inspiration to many of us, and the very same person on the telly as he was in the cafes and streets of Scarborough.

He made us feel better about life and he genuinely helped many thousands of people through adversity. He was eccentric to the last. He was buried in one of his trademark track suits, in a gold coloured coffin placed at an angle in the grave, so that he ‘could see the sea’. He was also a highly successful micro business owner, millionaire and a cracking volunteer biz and personal mentor.

Two of his proudest possessions were on his mantelpiece in his Scarborough flat. They were individual letters from Princess Di and Prince Charles thanking him for his help to them, as an informal mentor.

Lots of my business owner friends seem a bit crazy. The craziness is often just appearance and behaviour that shows we’re our own boss with our own values, passion and beliefs. Some can wrongly view this, like Sir Jimmy Savile was viewed, as not professional or not to be taken seriously. We are passionate about what we do and it’s bloody hard work doing it but we can be very useful business mentors too.

Get Mentoring

My businesses have benefited a great deal from the handful of business mentors I’ve had down the years. Most of the mentoring I’ve had is over the phone or nowadays by Skype. I usually contact my mentor when I’ve got a problem or see an opportunity that I want to talk through before taking a decision. I’ve also had a great time and learned a lot as a mentor to others. I have had some training on being a better mentor and I’m going to do some more shortly.

There are lots of places around at the moment where you can find a mentor or get some training to become a better mentor yourself. One such place is the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs, which I help run, and you can find out more here about Get Mentoring – free mentor training and free mentors.

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WinWeb's One-Stop-Shop Business Services For Freelancers, Home Business & Small Office.

Jun 10, ’09 12:46 PM
Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Freelancer, Home Business, SOHO/SMB/SME/Micro, Self-employed, Sole-Trader, Start-Up, WinWeb, Work/Life Balance, sell your business, start-up in business

WinWeb_Home_Small_Business_Virtual_Assistant_Outsourcing_Services_VA.jpg

So far we have provided tools, like our OnlineOffice, to help our clients to solve their small business problems, now we actually solve these problems for our clients in an integrated way, leaving them to explore their entrepreneurial vision and look after their business, not their admin and IT.

I am very happy to announce that WinWeb is releasing ‘BusinessServices’ – a new business services offering for the freelancer, home business and small office market. This is another world-wide first for WinWeb and every business service includes free access to WinWeb’s OnlineOffice as a bonus.

These services include bookkeeping, call & fax management, business address, mail hold & forwarding, web site design and maintenance, SEO – search engine optimization, payroll, graphic design, export services, online marketing and PR services, online presenters, online shop setup and maintenance and as before many Pay-As-You-Go services like parcel service, translation service and many more.

We have been training a large number of virtual assistants in all aspects of our service offerings for months and we are very confident we can provide a professional and extremely cost-effective service to all our clients. These services will be available in the following regions, the UK, Ireland, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, but may vary from region to region.

As an example, Bookkeeping will start at £9.85 per month plus VAT – at these kind of prices even the smallest of businesses can afford to outsource their bookkeeping. In addition to the low price, our OnlineOffice will be free for the duration of the service allowing you to keep your cost even lower, by using the invoicing software and online shop to further reduce your bookkeeping cost, since any of these transactions will automatically be processed in the system.  

Any receipts can be uploaded by fax, scanned via email or sent to our processing centre and will be processed within 72 hours of receipt.

This is just one service aimed at making you focus on your business and not on your admin. I will talk about the other services in due cause on this blog, but you can always go and have a look at them on the WinWeb website now.

Especially during these times it is essential for freelancers, home business and small business owners to focus on revenue, sales and marketing their services and products and free up as much time a possible by outsourcing non-essential admin services.

All of our services come with a best price guarantee, we will match any comparable price in the relevant regions. Almost 100% of services are provided in local markets by local personnel and not outsourced to far eastern countries – showing our commitment to the regions in which we work.

Using OnlineOffice you can save over 75% on IT cost, now with BusinessServices you can save over 90% of admin hassle and additional cost savings, making it the ideal combination for your business success – have a look today! –ST.

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Which legal form is best for your start-up business?

Jan 30, ’09 9:33 PM
Author newsdemon Categories Accountants/CPAs, Sole-Trader, Start-Up, start-up in business

If you have decided to start your own business recently then this question has probably not even crossed your mind yet, but from a legal standpoint it is quite an important issue. The legal form that your business takes will affect how much tax you have to pay, determine who can invest in your business and also could have consequences for your personal financial security. 

There are three main aspects to choosing a legal form. The first of these aspects (and arguably the most important one) relates to your level of liability should anything go wrong. Corporations are viewed as legal entities which are separate from the people who own them. This means that only the assets of the corporation can be taken to pay company debts and not personal assets such as your house. 

The second aspect is whether or not the legal form you have chosen will mean that you end up paying taxes twice – firstly on the profits of the business and then again on the personal income you receive from the business. 

Finally, you must consider whether you plan on receiving investment into your business because some corporate structures are quite restrictive and would be unsuitable if you are expecting a large number of investors or some foreign investment. 

Here is a brief rundown on the main legal forms that small businesses usually take, but it is always sensible to check with a professional before you make any final decision. Your choice may also be limited depending on which industry you plan to enter. 

Sole Trader: This is the easiest type of business to set up and that is probably the greatest benefit of operating as a sole trader. The downside to this is that the business is not considered a separate legal entity from you so any lawsuit against the company would leave you at risk to lose everything. You are also taxed on all profit irrespective of whether you have drawn it from the business or not. 

Partnership: This consists of two or more individuals joining together to run a business. Although the business is a separate legal entity, you are liable for all debts in a similar way to a sole trader (except they will be shared with your fellow partners). Any member of the partnership can sign contracts or obtain credit on behalf of the other partners. It is important to have a written partnership agreement when you first go into business together that will detail the minutiae of the role and authority of each partner, along with how profits will be shared and what happens if things go wrong. All individuals are taxed on their share of the partnership profits in a similar way to the sole trader. 

Limited Liability Partnership (LLP):  This requires a more formal approach to business and therefore generates a lot more red tape than the previous two legal forms. LLPs are a separate legal entity registered at Companies House which also means that your accounts have to be filed with them and are viewable by anyone. However, you benefit from having limited liability and are taxed the same as a normal partnership. 

Limited Company:  This is a separate legal entity with most of the legal rights of an individual, meaning lawsuits will generally be against the company and not you. A limited company needs permission from Companies House to use their proposed name and must adopt and file the Memorandum and Articles of Association – these govern its rights and obligations to shareholders and directors. It must also file annual tax returns with the Inland Revenue like an individual, but limited companies benefit from a low starting rate of tax. 

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Business Problem Equals Small Business Opportunity.

Jan 4, ’09 12:55 AM
Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Home Business, Small Business / SOHO, Sole-Trader, start-up in business

broker070100115.jpg As we slip deeper and deeper into this recession/depression one could get the impression that the business opportunities are disappearing. It is easy to fall into this trap with all the media coverage of the credit crunch, housing bubble, job losses and so on. But once you look past this and stop surrendering to the panic and fear you will find that there are many opportunities for small business out there.

In fact it is essential not to give in to this paralyzing fear and re-take control of your life and your business. All fear does, is hide the opportunities that exist out there from your view. The sign of a true entrepreneur is the inability to see problems, an entrepreneur sees only opportunities. I believe that to be true more then anything else about entrepreneurs.

So here it is, business problems equal small business opportunities and big business problems equal big small business opportunities.

Are you an entrepreneur or a worrier, if you are a worrier you are missing the best business opportunities. — ST.

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Recession Business Start Up: Micro Business Co-op.

Dec 29, ’08 7:47 PM
Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Home Business, SOHO/SMB/SME/Micro, Self-employed, Sole-Trader, Start-Up

recession.jpg I’m thinking more and more about opportunities for people to start a small business, home business or a self-employed business during this recession/depression or once they lose their jobs.

This afternoon I had this idea as another company was in the news with over 2000 job losses. I thought about what happens when companies go under and it occurred to me that there is still business to be had, when a business fails.

Let us assume you work in one of those businesses, you will know part of the business very well, you may know some customers or how something is manufactured, or something else that was part of what your employer did. Now you and your colleagues are unemployed and you lost your income.

BUT think about it – are you the only party that is suffering here? No you are not – the former customers or clients have lost a supplier too.

So here is my idea, what about if you and some of your colleagues set up small home businesses and formed a little Co-operative and started providing services, like maintenance or upgrades or products to these former clients of your employer? Why not use your knowledge to your advantage?

There are so many opportunities here, if you think about it a little, that you and some of your colleagues could make a good living out of this disaster. You never know – you may be able take more and more of your colleagues into your self-employed co-op. Always remember the bootstrapping principals and you should be fine.

Every cloud has a silver-lining – you just have to look for it. — ST.

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What To Do If You Lose Your Job!

Dec 29, ’08 11:47 AM
Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Home Business, Self-employed, Small Business / SOHO, Sole-Trader

Violin070400003.jpg These days many ask, what to do if you lose your job? They know it is not easy to find a new job in this economic climate and are worried about starting a business during a recession/depression. The financial worries for many are extreme, as unemployment payments are often not enough to even pay your over heads, not to talk about having a bit of a life.

With unemployment numbers set to rise by about 600,000 to almost 3 million in the UK or to 6%, the outlook is dire.

My answer to the question on what to do, is pragmatic and simple, do both. If you lose your job, look for a new job and start a side business. It is no longer necessary to make a decision about these two options. Starting a small business is easy and it will give you at least some control of your destiny, while looking for a new job will give you the chance to find new employment. Should your business support you and your family well, just stop looking for a job.

Remember job security is a thing of the past – that is why you will not be surprised to read, that even if you still have a job, you should start a home business on the side, to make sure you keep your options open.

In my opinion running a small business is THE essential financial survival tool these days. — ST.

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More Supplier and Customer Solidarity Needed To Beat Credit Crunch!

Oct 7, ’08 10:35 PM
Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Comments, Disaster Plan, Outsourcing, SOHO/SMB/SME/Micro, Sole-Trader, be successful, bootstrap, do cost cutting, do credit control, lower overheads, outsource effectively

With credit availability non existent or in sharp decline, a more transparent relationship between suppliers and customers is needed to overcome the credit hurdle.

In times when money is short a very open relationship based on partnership will allow a chain of suppliers and customers to fulfill orders in a “joint venture per order” kind of way. This will allow small and medium size business to compete successfully with bigger business and take the order. Everyone in the chain has to agree to get paid when the order is finally fulfilled.

This is however not going to solve the problem of financial difficulty in businesses for historic reasons or based on too high fixed cost. In these times cash-flow is more essential than ever. So outsourcing and reducing fixed cost is paramount at every juncture.

I have been talking about the fact that we live in a time of business partnerships, the traditional supplier – customer relationships do not work anymore. This has never been more true than at the moment.

How are you partner skills, I hope for you, they are good. –ST.

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Why educate women – isn't it a waste of resources?

Apr 16, ’08 10:01 AM
Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Comments, Employment, Entrepreneur, Freelancer, Home Business, Lifestyle, Personal Business, SOHO/SMB/SME/Micro, Self-employed, Small Business / SOHO, Sole-Trader, Work/Life Balance, do a reality check

When my wife went to university in London in the eighties one of her professors was of the opinion that the education was wasted on women, since they would leave university, get married and have children. While nobody says these things anymore in public, we still seem to have the same mentality.

Today I travel around the world and speak with all kinds of people about micro-business, like home-business. Often the conversation includes the so called “skill shortage”, felt especially hard in Australia these days. When I question this alleged shortage, I’m always surprised about how little consideration is given to well skilled and educated parents – mainly women – sitting at home looking after the family.

After one of these conversations today, I was reminded of this professor and began wondering if he was right with his opinion in the final analysis? Trivially, his assertion that educating women is a waste, is completely nonsensical, but the final result to the economy seems to suggest his analysis could be right. How else can it be explained that we ignore this massive “skills resource” sitting at home.

The technology we at WinWeb have developed allows for work from anywhere at anytime, others have done the same in other areas? Where is this “skill shortage”? The truth in my opinion is more the fact that we often block this remote working possibility from our minds, but why?

If you consider the skills potential of parents, if each parent would only contribute one hour on average per week to their learned professions. This would be a staggering number of man hours per week.

The benefits for the home working parent would be very tangible too. They could show a almost uninterrupted work history, stay in touch with their profession and would therefor find it much easier to get back into full-time employment after the kids have grown up.

To often my conversation partners look somewhat bewildered at my initial suggestion, but then often admit they had never thought about this possibility.

It is not a waste to educate women or any parent, it is however a waste to treat parents as if they do not exist in work terms. I consider it an insult to each parent and unbelievably damaging for our economy. — ST.

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Small Business Maxim: Have a Passion.

Nov 20, ’07 6:30 AM
Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Contractor, Entrepreneur, Freelancer, Generation-Y, Home Business, MumEntrepreneur, Personal Business, SOHO/SMB/SME/Micro, Self-employed, Sole-Trader, Start-Up, be successful, start-up in business

When you talk about business, small business or even micro business, eventually the talk always turn to making money. How to make it, how to make some more and how to make sure the business keeps making money in the future. Most often than not people are surprised by my simple answer:

If you are passionate about what you business does, you will make money. If you are only after making money, you won’t.

I can proof that to you, too. My wife will always ask me why I can’t give up work, she will say you don’t have to do anything, why not stop? Answer: Passion. Why would people like Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Rubert Murdoch carry on working, after they amassed not millions, but billions? Answer: Passion.

We are not driven by making money, but by making a difference, leaving a mark. We can’t wait to tell people about our “brilliant ideas”, even if they turn out not so brilliant sometimes. I got up today at 4:00 am, because I have a great meeting set up today, with some people I wanted to meet for some time, and I can’t wait to tell them my ideas about the future of our business, so I’m going over my presentation again.

I’m sitting here at 5:15 writing my daily postings to you all, you may think I’m nuts. Or you may think I’m driven by the idea to make small and micro businesses more successful, but whatever you think, it is not “my god is this guy greedy!”

Greed is NOT the same as passion! So be passionate about your business and your customers will love you for it. ST.

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