You will find whether during the good or bad times the key to running a successful company is to keep a close eye on costs and cash flow management from day one. Here are some ideas to increase the efficiency of your business. As always, common sense plays a big part in watching your costs. Never settle for the first quote and always shop around for a service that comes with good references.
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1 Consider opening a dedicated business deposit bank account for your tax liabilities. Although interest rates are suppressed, you may still achieve a rate of 2 or 3%, compared to zero in almost all business current accounts.
2 Most business could save a fortune by scrutinising how much they pay their suppliers, including utility and phone companies. You can compare the cost of everything from business broadband and phone packages, to business bank accounts online at one of many of the comparison sites.
3 Cash flow is king! Running out of money is the single biggest reason why a lot of businesses go under. The need for an effective invoice chasing system is paramount. You can even consider using an invoice financing company to free up the value of your invoices before they are paid. Look at offering incentives for prompt payment, and remember that you have a right to charge interest on late payments.
4 Never miss your tax or statutory deadlines:
5 Missing these will mean you have to pay penalties that can be substantial depending on the amounts and lateness involved.
6 You can consider outsourcing some of your work, especially web and computer-related tasks. There is now a worldwide marketplace for IT skills, with millions of freelancers who can do anything from data entry, social media marketing, customer support, website design and web marketing for very competitive fees. One thing to be aware of is you need to ensure that you’re paying for a quality product first, even if the hourly rates are low.
7 You can make your small limited company look big without breaking the bank. The setting up of a company website for a relatively low cost and using a mail forwarding or call answering service for that professional touch can make a big difference. You can also get impressive high quality original business cards made to order online.
8 Cloud computing is certainly the buzzword for offsite software and data storage and has opened up a whole range of useful, cost-effective, software applications. Although you can get some fantastic deals with cloud based services you need to be aware that there are some pitfalls, which you need to research before taking on a cloud partner.