Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
This section takes you through every important aspect of how to run a successful business. It offers expert guides and advice articles on the key elements of business management such as employing staff, finding customers, marketing and sales, pricing, people management, office and home working, business technology and everything else an entrepreneur must tackle in order to succeed.
No matter what your business, when it comes to sales the customer is king. Having a good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system in place can help you increase turnover today as well as spot where tomorrow’s sales might come from.
Finding and selling to customers
Business Technology
Mounting public awareness of the way personal data can be abused means that companies need to make sure their handling of sensitive information is beyond reproach.
Business management
Founder of insurance comparison website Confused.com, Sara Murray set up GPS tracking device company Buddi which is due to hit a turnover of £4 million.
Finding and selling to customers
With a million unwanted Christmas presents sold on ebay last year, gift vouchers are becoming a popular way to avoid upsetting a loved one with an ill-chosen purchase. Here's how they can benefit your business.
Small Business Insurance
Retailers being refused trade credit insurance is leading to problems in the industry, especially for small to medium-sized businesses, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) warns.
Business management
After appearing on the BBC's Dragons' Den, Tim Williams was promptly booted off without a penny. A year and a half on and his travel pillow invention Jetsleeper is a roaring success.
Legal advice
Question: My husband is a sole trader and subcontracts from a big company. We have outstanding invoices (some as old as over 300 days). Can we charge interest on them until they are paid?
Employing & managing staff
We are in debt and finding it hard to pay suppliers. If we reduce the hours of our 15 employees to cut costs, what are the legal considerations?
Legal advice
Question: My husband is a sole trader and subcontracts from a big company. We have outstanding invoices (some as old as over 300 days). Can we charge interest on them until they are paid?
Employing & managing staff
We are in debt and finding it hard to pay suppliers. If we reduce the hours of our 15 employees to cut costs, what are the legal considerations?
Employing & managing staff
Bullying affects up to one in ten employees. But intimidating behaviour, as displayed by presenters Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, can go unnoticed. Here Steve Williams, head of equality services at employment expert Acas and SmallBusiness.co.uk offer some tips for banning bullying.
Business management
From a market stall in Spitalfields to supplying Top Shop and internet-based retailer ASOS, Josie Beckett talks about the unexpected success of her label Whereareyounow?
Employing & managing staff
Stress at work is no laughing matter, with 13.5 million working days lost to businesses last year. Here, SmallBusiness.co.uk and charity The Eden Project offer some tips to defuse office tension.
Business Technology
Find out how one small business owner offered a unique service using the internet.
Business Loans
Everything you need to know on what small business loans are and what types of loan are available for your business.
Partner content
Hospitality businesses have faced a number of challenges in the last couple of years. Find out what funding and support is available.
Employing & managing staff
In Aviva’s latest SME research*, 57 per cent of employers surveyed agreed that nowadays employees expect benefits to protect against loss of income or earnings. What do you offer your people?
Partner content
Business broadband offers a host of advantages over standard domestic connections, here’s why you should be considering an upgrade