A Business Plan should be the 'Bible' of your business, if you are starting out it should be where you jot every idea, this document will show you your business journey, the errors in which you need to resolve. It is also to show other people (that don't know you or the business) what the purpose(s) of the business is. There are many templates out there that you can use for guidance. Here are the main areas of a business plan.

The Owner(s)?

Branding is a topic close to our hearts and rather on our minds here, having recently rebranded from Quorum People to QPLtalent. But what do we really mean by ‘employer branding’ and why does it really matter?

Despite it being a legal obligation, many business owners think that it’s in their interests to delay giving an employee a contract, or not bothering at all, but this article will explain the importance of having employment contracts in place.

Clarity and avoids disputes

Even without anything written down, when an employee turns up for work and gets paid, there is a basic employment contract agreement between the two parties. 

There are many important issues to consider when setting up a business.

Understandably, the appointment of an accountant is not always seen as being key from the outset.

It is often only when your first set of tax returns and accounts are required that this is done and it is often too late in the day. At this point many business owners regret not getting this right from day one.

An initial meeting with a pro-active and business minded accountant based locally to your business is free and can save you money by better tax planning from the start.

It’s fair to say that getting established in business typically ignites a directive style in many of us. There’s a sense of immediacy with what needs to be done and as a Director/Owner you may well be operating with authority, directing those people who work for you towards a specific outcome. At this early stage you are getting to know the capabilities of your team, building your confidence in their delivery and often working through the daily crisis that crops up to keep your business alive. There’s no doubt that in the early days, a directive style is one that proves most useful.

Most companies have the ambition to grow and this generally means creating more sales and generating new revenue streams.

But there are a couple of key questions you need to ask before embarking on the process: Does the business have the potential to grow and how is it going to create this growth?

The first part of the process is very simple yet often overlooked. So, before anything else, take a step back and put some thought into it.

Then consider the following:

Too many businesses are missing out on a potential opportunity to claim tax relief on any profits earned from their patent-protected innovations and in some cases, this could be holding back their investment plans.

It’s important to recognise that CASH is what keeps your business alive.   Despite the fact that cash is the lifeblood of a business many SMEs don’t truly have a handle on their cashflow.

At any stage of the business life cycle, cashflow is of vital importance to the health of your business. One saying is: “revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, but cash is king.”

Put simply, businesses go bust in the long term because of the lack of sales or profit but, in the short term, they can fail because they don’t have enough cash to pay their bills. 

Possibly your most valuable business asset is the data you generate. It can be both confidential and commercially sensitive; it may contain financial or health records of individuals, trade secrets, customer records and company financial information.

You certainly wouldn’t want to lose it, and most likely don’t want others to see it without being authorised to do so for fear of adverse publicity, or worse, prosecution.

As soon as you take on employees in your business you will, in time, face issues that need to be addressed by having a difficult conversation.  Sometimes in a small business you will have friends or family working for you.  Some of these individuals may have been with you since the early days and have supported you through business start-up and through tough times.  This does bring the risk that there will be a familiarity between employer and employee and when issues arise that need to be addressed you will inevitably be reluctant to address them.  Difficult conversations won’t be effectiv