The past 12 months has brought forth a number of challenges for business owners and managers across the North West and throughout the UK. Significant employment law changes are anticipated for 2017, amid the ongoing uncertainty resulting from the Brexit referendum. With this in mind, in order to ensure that employers enter the New Year
The post The seven key employment law issues for 2017 appeared first on Small Business.
Source: SmallBusinessUK
With the cost of IT outages and downtime, outages and failures costing UK businesses in excess of £12 billion in lost productivity in 20151, experts are warning companies to be prepared as the countdown to Christmas and the onslaught of last minute bargain buying begins. Jason Fry, IT specialist at PAV i.t. services, says, ‘Failure
The post Festive season prime time for IT outages warn experts appeared first on Small Business.
Source: SmallBusinessUK
Donald Trump has tweeted that the cost of the F-35 programme is “out of control” – causing shares in the fighter jet’s maker to plunge.
Source: Sky Business News
In 2017 HMRC is introducing an online, digital system for anti-money laundering supervision. When it launches, businesses will be able to register and renew online.
The online system will:
Currently we ask businesses registering for the first time to complete their form online, print it off and post it to us. Businesses renewing their registration are sent a letter and asked to respond by post. We know that this causes delays.
A selection of customers have been helping us develop the system over the last year. We’re still asking customers to use the system and provide feedback, helping us refine it further.
Using the system for the first time will involve a one-off completion of your details.
This is the same if you are already registered with HMRC or if you are registering with us for the first time. Don’t worry if you don’t have everything to hand as you’ll be able to save your entries and come back to them for up to 28 days.
When you come to renew a year later, your details will be stored and the process will be quick, easy and completely paperless.
We’ll be communicating with customers when the system is ready to launch.
To use the new system you’ll need an online ID. If you don’t have an ID, you can register at Government Gateway online.
Source: HMRC
Lloyds Banking Group is failing to meet “fee-free” guidelines for millions of holders of its no-frills accounts, Treasury figures show.
Source: Sky Business News
Concur, a travel and expense management company, predicts that this week will be the busiest of 2016 for finance teams processing business expense claims, as businesses look to close the books prior to the Christmas break. Last year, a total of 3,957,137 claims were processed by Concur, including 123,120 in the last full week before Christmas
The post UK businesses prepare for busiest expense claims week of the year appeared first on Small Business.
Source: SmallBusinessUK
Professionals across Europe are spending almost one day a week (6.8 hours) on office administration such as filling out forms, printing documents, and chasing for signatures, a new study from Adobe reveals. Seemingly simple document processes are complex and time-intensive, and as a result, are inhibiting business growth, draining productivity and wasting resources. According to
The post European companies paying the price for poor document processes appeared first on Small Business.
Source: SmallBusinessUK
For small and medium-sized businesses, growth can come in many guises, but it isn’t easy and it doesn’t happen naturally overnight. Are you ready to get started?
How do you feel about business growth?
I’m excited by the prospect and think it would be absolutely right for my business
I think there are benefits but I am nervous about the strain it could put on my company
I am exactly where I need to be right now and have no interest
How would you describe your cashflow?
Good, I have funds I can access for growing my business
It could do with improvement but overall is fine
Strained
How long have you been in business?
Less than a year
1-5 years
5-10 years
If you could change one thing about your business what would it be?
I’d like to hire more staff
I’d like to make more money
I’d like to spend less time on the business
How would you describe the sales in your business?
I am personally responsible for most of them
I have a small team but they are stretched
I have a full-time sales team
Imagine you needed to take a month off from your business, what would happen?
The business would function as normal
The company would fold
It might struggle with certain aspects but should survive
How automated are your company processes?
Not very, we still manually fulfill all of our business
Quite, we use business softwares in a few areas but not all
Very, everything is synced up
How busy is your business?
I turn away customers
I am busy with repeat customers, but could take on more work
I sometimes need to actively search for customers
You are ready to grow
You are not ready to grow your business
You’re nearly there!
Continue reading…
Source: Guardian
A telecommunications giant is creating 500 new customer service jobs across England and Wales.
Source: BBC
Millions of customers who have basic bank accounts may be paying higher fees than necessary.
Source: BBC