Small business secrets...

Starting a small business requires a lot of effort. There's a lot consider such as proper documentation, legal obstacles along with marketing and strategic development. However, this can be easily navigated if you have the right skill set and support. 

We have actionable and easy steps to help you get off on the right foot when looking into entrepreneurship. 

Let's face it, running your own small business is expensive, in fact, 90% of small businesses fail in their first year of trading. There's a lot to consider when first setting up a business, expenses, employees and stock. All of this can add up quickly when going about day to day business operations. It's important to have cost-saving measures in place to avoid problems with cash flow.

Here are six actionable tips to start saving money for your small business.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us, business and workplace culture can change instantly with regards to working, networking, and keeping your business afloat. 'Unprecedented circumstances' was the chosen buzzword for 2020 and with it a complete shake-up to how small businesses operate.

It's imperative to make sure your small business has a way of keeping up with changing times and to future-proof your organisation.

Working as a sole trader can be heavy-handed at best and isolating at worst, you're responsible for every aspect of your business from customer service to sales to business admin. It's important to be able to switch off every now and then to preserve your mental health.

Here are some tips on how to create a work-life balance as a sole trader.

When the phone rings at your small business what happens? There are a number of scenarios that can happen such as the call is answered immediately, there is an auto attendant that directs the caller or hold music. All this is vital to the caller experience that your customers or stakeholders experience. It's important to know which one your small business is projecting day to day.

For small business owners starting out, it's common to want to use your personal mobile phone for work. It may seem convenient but the setbacks will become obvious in the future such as not being able to switch off, wondering whether every call is a personal or business and can damage your professional reputation.

Here are more reasons why using a personal mobile phone number isn't something you should be doing.

As a small business owner, you may not consider missed business calls as an issue. Given today’s emphasis on digital communication such as social media and email, it’s easy to forget that phone calls also play an important role.

Unanswered calls are more important than we may think. Here’s the real impact of missed calls on your small business.

Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of businesses either resorted to remote working or have unfortunately shut down during lockdown. Many businesses, especially small businesses, have greatly felt the impacts of this economic crisis.

As the world is preparing to bounce back from this devastation with help of the vaccine, many small businesses will need to reface and begin a new build-up for their company and look to see how they can rebuild what was lost and continue growing with in the future.

As the owner of a business, you've got to maintain a flawless line of communication to reach everyone who matters to your business - even if that’s just you at the start.

Imagine customers, suppliers or stakeholders not being able to reach your business at all, that's essentially the consequence of not having a stable and reliable, digital business landline telephone line.

Whilst this is of utmost importance there are other reasons why a landline number is preferable for small businesses, even if you’re answering it on your mobile phone.

2020 has brought a new expectation for work which many are getting used to. Due to Covid-19 40% of the workforce is working remotely. While remote work has always existed it was never required in the way that it is now.

Employees have had to completely change how they are communicating and working together. The main concern for businesses is the security of important information. Here are tips on how to make your small business and overall organisation secure while working remotely.