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.
British businesses spend millions of pounds every year on various marketing tools including advertising, direct mail, exhibitions and PR, but it’s just as important to follow up the enquiries and know where they came from, as it is to obtain them in the first place.
Marketing
Business management
Karan Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer, has lifted the company and the Cobra brand to achieve annual turnover of £96 million, selling across more than 45 countries worldwide. He has recently published a guide to entrepreneurship, drawing on his experiences and offering advice for prospective business owners in his own infectiously enthusiastic style.
Finding and selling to customers
A well-designed brand identity can boost sales, ensuring your customers remember your business in a favourable light and come back time and again.
Office & home working
When you're running a business, it's easy to lose sight of the little things that can make everyone's lives easier and your company much more efficient.
Business management
Jennifer Irvine launched The Pure Package in 2004 as a home-delivery meals service tailored to meet clients' individual dietary requirements and preferences. In its first year, Pure Package delivered 70,000 meals and achieved a turnover of £200,000. The company has since grown into a multi-million pound operation. We asked her for her top tips.
Finding and selling to customers
SmallBusiness.co.uk spoke to Grant Leboff, self-titled ‘most pessimistic salesperson in Britain’ and author of Sales Therapy: Effective Selling for the Small Business Owner, for some tips on generating sales.
Small Business Insurance
Small businesses are more at risk from flooding than fire - and the effects can be 30 times as costly as burglary - yet many businesses still do not have any measures in place to protect their property or staff from flooding, says , the Environment Agency.
Business management
As small business owners competing against larger players, one of the biggest challenges you will face is how to protect your ideas or inventions from theft and imitation.
Small Business Insurance
Small businesses are more at risk from flooding than fire - and the effects can be 30 times as costly as burglary - yet many businesses still do not have any measures in place to protect their property or staff from flooding, says , the Environment Agency.
Business management
As small business owners competing against larger players, one of the biggest challenges you will face is how to protect your ideas or inventions from theft and imitation.
Legal advice
Awareness of the age discrimination regulation is 'comparatively low' within small firms, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Marketing
It's official, radio advertising as a small business marketing strategy is dead. At least that's the opinion of SmallBusiness.co.uk readers in our recent poll.
Finding and selling to customers
As a small business owner in a competitive market, you need to differentiate your business from your competitors. It is what makes you different, your unique selling point or USP, that motivates people to choose you over anyone else. This guide from SmallBusiness.co.uk should give you some useful tips.
Marketing
Marketing experts still cite direct marketing as the most efficient way to reach both customers and other businesses, according to Precision Marketing.
Partner content
Business broadband offers a host of advantages over standard domestic connections, here’s why you should be considering an upgrade
Partner content
As with any supplier, it’s important to do your research and ask important questions before you select a broadband provider for your business. But what are the must-have things you should take into consideration?
Business Technology
Landlines as we know them will be scrapped in 2027 – along with a raft of upcoming business changes. Here's how to ensure your communications set-up is fit for whatever the future brings
Business Loans
Everything you need to know on what small business loans are and what types of loan are available for your business.