Our recent seminar, New Year, New Business - A Guide for Startups, was very successful despite the unplanned power cut across our area that morning! The presentation without electricity became a very relaxed informal discussion around the table. Candles would have been good but the emergency light and a small window gave everyone just about enough light to make notes!
It was a small group event as we wanted it to be informal and for the group to be able to communicate with each other. For us having a small number of people means that we were able to adapt to the needs of the group and not spend time on topics which were not relevant to them. We were able to spend more time on the areas which were of particular interest to each person and the questions raised were just as relevant to the others in the group and were often things that others hadn't thought about.
It was also good that some of the group were setting up in business areas which could link with each other giving them the opportunity to hopefully refer to each other and provide mutual support.
We covered a lot of topics through the morning which extended far beyond the planned time. We talked through the pros and cons of being a limited company versus a sole trader and how to decide which business entity was relevant for each of them. We also talked through being VAT registered and why this could be advantageous for some businesses.
Keeping accounts records is obviously key to knowing how your business is doing and understanding the costs in relation to income is important. It is so easy to spend without understanding what value that purchase adds and how the cost affects the bottom line. Also knowing what HMRC expect and when and how to plan for taxes is vital.
We hadn't planned to talk about employing people in detail as most new businesses don't plan to take on anyone initially but for one new business owner having staff was key to being able to run her business. Understanding the costs of employing staff, when you need to run a payroll and setting up a pension scheme were important topics to discuss and were useful for others to know about too - even if they did make the decision that they never want to employ anyone!
The seminar had great feedback from the attendees and there will definitely be another opportunity for those who missed out on this one. Look out for the next date on social media and book early to reserve your place or get in touch with us now and we will let you know as soon as we have a date for the next seminar. But if you can't wait that long book a one to one consultation for bespoke guidance in setting up your business.
This is just some of the feedback we received:
"I found it very informative and would definitely recommend Sandra and am planning on using her services"
"Helps to remind you of things you may have overlooked and may not have known."
"A very useful introduction to getting your business up and running."
