How to kick start your small business

Every business can stagnate or stall at some point in its lifecycle. Businesses that have been trading for some time often get stuck on a treadmill racing to keep up with competitors with experiencing decline in sales, profits and business opportunities.

Often business owners feel like they are working hard pounding the treadmill but are not getting anywhere with their once thriving business. If this is the case, it’s time to re-evaluate, dismantle and revive your business to get it moving again - re launch! It’s about doing different things differentially.

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IP – What’s that got to do with your business?

Posted by guest blogger Angus Phang from Cresco Legal Solicitors 

What indeed?  Intellectual property is frequently underestimated and not really understood very well.  In many cases, it is not considered to be important or even relevant.  Usually it is only dealt with as an after-thought and normally seen as a cost to the business.  So why do many successful companies bother with it at all?

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Are you a business baby boomer reluctant to plan your exit strategy?

We speak with many business owners everyday from diverse businesses and there is often reluctance to think about retirement. Despite the best efforts of their families, these 50 to 70 year old baby boomers are reluctant to planning their exit strategy. Some of the reasons for this are:

• It’s too early to think about it
• There’s never enough time
• Not sure where to start
• Haven’t got enough money to retire comfortably

Other reasons can be attributed to:

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Crowdfunding – a lifeline for SME’s to grow

As business advisers, we are passionate about helping small business owner managers develop their business. We are therefore hugely disappointed for business owners who have difficulties in securing finance to help their business grow. Of course, there could be various reasons for this. Are the business owners presenting and communicating their business plan in the right way for potential investors to take the business opportunity seriously?  Or more frequently, it’s the reluctance of banks lending to SME’s in this economic climate.

There’s some good news. There’s now innovative ways for business owners to borrow money and Crowd funding is one of them. Crowd funding is still relatively new, so it’s no surprise that SME’s are unaware of its potential to raise finance.

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