Fraud And Small Businesses

Fraud costs the economy in the UK more than every other type of crime put together. Fraud is on the increase due to the ease of international travel and communication. Almost anyone is now a potential victim of fraud, one of the most common forms that nearly everyone would have come across is through emails with fraudsters posing as banks trying to get personal financial information.

Internal fraud is one of the most common types of fraud that businesses are faced with. This is where an employee or sub contract worker commits the act. The most vulnerable businesses are small companies which are IT based. These companies place a significant amount of trust in their employees and often have a team which is not simply based in an office but is spread out in various locations. If the financial end of the business is dealt with away from the central core of the business then it can be open to being taken advantage of with any level of fraud being possible.

A recent example of this involved the employee of a company setting up a company with a very similar name to who they worked for. They were then able to set up a bank account in a similar name and make payments into the bank account of their new company which should have been going into the bank account of their employer. They then reported that there had simply been a down turn in sales in order to cover their tracks. Another example involved the director of a company setting up another company which he then contracted work out to. He then paid himself for thousands of pounds worth of work, which wasn’t needed and which never got completed anyway.

Both these examples involve the person committing the fraud altering the information that they are supplying to the company they are working for. Trust had been completely placed in the hands of the guilty parties with no third party to check to see if the information that was being provided was correct.

The people that are in charge of running small businesses are often under a lot of pressure from all angles to ensure that everything runs smoothly and that the business is attracting new customers. It is because of this that they are often too busy to notice the signs that the business is being defrauded. The more money that is lost, the more pressure that those in charge are under to try to get the company back on track and thus it can often be a downward spiral into decline.

One of the most important things that any small business can do therefore is to ensure that there are no elements of the business that are monitored and controlled by just one person.

Successful Women Entrepreneurs

They used to be a rarity, successful women entrepreneurs, but since the turn of last century this tribe has been on the increase. Now, in 2010 over 8% of the UKs total working population are women entrepreneurs; with a similar percentage in the US.

Classic women business pioneers showed us the way; Coco Channel, Mary Kay Ash and Debi Fields. These were women in women-centric businesses fashion, cosmetics and cookies. And all power to those bold visionaries. Then came the women in a mens world era with Margaret Thatcher in politics, Oprah Winfrey in media, and Ann Mulcahy in technology. Tapping into a different part of their infinite resources to make it to the top in their field.

And today entrepreneurship for women is in massive expansion in every area of service you could think of. There are businesses supplying virtual assistance to corporate consultancy, social media services to IT solutions, and manufacturing outlets to retail chains. There are hundreds launching every day and over time tens of thousand will thrive.

Some are run from home offices, others from prime real-estate commercial spaces. Some begin with just a home computer and a phone, others have 100,000 of angel investment. Some of these women remain solo-preneurs for the duration of their empire building, others hire staff of hundreds. There is no stereotyping.

If youre one of this growing tribe good on you! Learn your lessons, face your fears, trip, get up, brush yourself off and never give up. Get clear about you dream and take some action. Loads of us are out there making a difference. Some because were the sole bread winner in our family, others because we have a burning desire to contribute for most of us its a combination of a whole number of factors.

Remember that the biggest names we reference as successful women entrepreneurs took years and decades to become household names. Persist. And know that your biggest breakdowns come right before your biggest breakthroughs!
Og Mandino often keeps me persisting: I will consider each days efforts as but one blow of my blade against the might oak.

The first blow may cause not a tremor in the wood, nor the second, nor the third. Each blow, of itself, may be trifling and seem of no consequence. Yet from childish swipes the oak will eventually tumble. So it will be with my efforts of today. I will persist. I will succeed.
Onwards super-charged, rock-chicks!

Small Business Bookeeping

Are your business accounts all over the place?

Many people who start small businesses are obviously entrepreneurial but not all of them have sound accounting skills. Small business bookkeeping can be a difficult thing to keep on top of, particularly when your time and energy is taken up with the day to day efforts of trying to make your business as profitable as can be. Small business bookkeeping can actually bring businesses down if it is not taken care of properly so it is really worth employing somebody to do your small business bookkeeping for you if you are worried that you cannot do it successfully yourself.

What services can I expect for my small business bookkeeping?

The services you can expect from small business bookkeeping are much the same as you would expect if you were a much larger business. Small business bookkeeping will take care of all of your day to day accounting, leaving you free to concentrate on growing your business. Just think how much more time and effort you will be able to spend expanding your business if you are not consumed with worry over your financial affairs.

Where can I find the best small business bookkeeping?

Of course there are many companies that offer small business bookkeeping but many of them just do this as part of their other work and are generally much more tailored in their services towards larger companies. There is one company, however, who are a bespoke bookkeeping and administration service which actually specialises in small business bookkeeping. You can visit this company online at www.ComPetbookkeepingandadmin.co.uk and see for yourself the services they offer. Having someone who specialises in small businesses is a real boon as they will have vast experience of the sort of problems and pitfalls that you will encounter on a day to day basis. Go on, give them a call today.

How To Award Suitable Business Gifts

Promotional products can be employed for a wide variety of functions and you will need to award the most suitable gifts that are suitable for purpose. Regardless of whether you are using corporate products as promotional items or corporate incentives, you will need to make certain that your gifts will be the right items for the correct event.

It is the same with any gift giving function, no matter if it is for companies or personal gifts and getting the equilibrium correct is essential.

So why is it important? Let’s take a look at the reasons why you would possibly give corporate products and how to make sure you hit the right note each and every time.

Corporate Items for Marketing

When you are handing out business items for advertising, they will need to have a promotional side to them in order to realize your marketing objectives. But be mindful not to go over board as your corporate gifts will still need to be practical or decorative in order to prevent a fate in the bin.

Corporate gifts like promotional memory sticks will succeed in carrying your promotional message whilst still providing a valuable function, providing a noticeable and practical platform with which to display your logo. It’s this useful element that means your business items will be used more consistently and your logo will be displayed to the world as a consequence.

Business Items as Incentives

It’s essential for staff to feel rewarded and encouraged, and business items can help to offer a sought after incentive.

Using corporate gifts to reward reaching targets or as a way of thanking employees on completion of a project is normal practice and when using corporate products in such a way it requires a slightly different tactic to when employing them for promotional purposes.

The corporate products you utilise should be more executive in nature, with a high perceived value and any branding ought to be subdued. When using corporate gifts as incentives you ought to be aiming for the more executive end of the business products market, offering staff products that they will be motivated to work for and grateful to receive.

Business Gifts for Clients

When buying corporate items for clients, there are numerous different factors to bear in mind. For starters, are you even allowed to give business products to a specific customer? In some industries, giving gifts to clients is a big no, specifically in government sectors, so before placing your order and committing your resources, make sure you aren’t breaking any laws.

When you have established that you are permitted to send your customers business items, you’ll need to establish to what extent you’re going to emphasise your advertising aims. Of course, you want them to know and remember who it was that sent the gift but you also don’t want to seem like you are spamming them with your promotional goods.

When awarding corporate gifts to clients, desk items and executive toys with the “fiddle factor” can prove to be hugely successful as they’re fun items which will retain a visible place on your customer’s desk.

Whatever your motives for using corporate gifts, it is important to ensure you utilize the most suitable business gifts to fulfil your specifications.

Whether you are using promotional flash drives for marketing reasons or something more executive to incentivise workers, there are different factors that have to be considered, so be sure you take into consideration all of your specifications and demands before placing your order.

?Dadpreneur’ Hits The Double In South West Business Awards

A businessman who has raised his two children over the last nine years as a single parent while leading his business start up into a multi-million pound company has taken two honours at The Somerset Business Awards.

Jeremy Hyams, the Chief Executive Officer of Property Consortium UK, has been awarded The Albert Goodman Entrepreneur of the Year accolade at the Somerset Business Awards – while his business took the Somerset Business of the Year title for more than 50 employees.

The entreprenuer award was presented to 42-year-old Jeremy in recognition of his positive role as a ‘Dadpreneur’ – balancing caring for his children while keeping his business on a growth curve.

Operating from Culmhead Business Park, Jeremy’s business has gone from strength to strength since its launch in 1996 – growing into three separate but interlinked companies – Property Consortium UK, Building Claims Services and Property Consortium Drainage.

The businesses turnover is now in excess of £12million and employs almost 80 people.

Awarding the second title, of Somerset Business of the Year, judges recognised the high-level Investment placed on staff training, commitment to the environment and the management team’s clear vision of the business’s strategic direction – namely to be the market-leading property repair service for the insurance industry.

Jeremy said: “I’m absolutely over the moon.

To win two titles came as a complete shock.

“The success is testimony to the hard work of the team here.”

About The Somerset Business Awards

The Awards took place on Friday October 22nd at the Somerset County Cricket Ground.

It is now widely regarded as one of the most prestigious events in the county’s business calendar and was attended by nearly 300 people. It was organised in partnership by the Somerset Chamber of Commerce and the FSB. Further detail on the winners and pictures from the night can be found at   www.somersetbusinessawards.org.uk

About Property Consortium UK

Since its inception in 1996 Property Consortium UK has become an established Building Repair Network (BRN) and Service Delivery Centre to various markets. These include Insurers, Loss Adjusters, Brokers, House Builders, Housing Associations and property-related industries. The company’s success is attributable to the effective utilisation of its managed network of building professionals and independent surveyors – repairing properties and instilling customer confidence 24 hours a day.

Property Consortium UK Limited

Blackdown House

Culmhead Business Centre

Taunton, Somerset, TA3 7DY

Tel 0845 250 4404 Fax 0845 250 4401

Press release issued by Jane Shepherd of Shepherd PR Limited, on behalf of the Property Consortium UK, telephone 01538 308685/308099, mobile 07985 129315.

 

Email jane@shepherd-pr.com or jo@shepherd-pr.com

 

What an Entrepreneur Does

Q. What is so different from an Entrepreneur and your average business person? What is so different about what an entrepreneur does?

A short description of an entrepreneur might be someone who starts up their own business and solely takes on all the risks that come with it. They are usually very driven people with a great amount of self-motivation.

While you could say the same for your average business person, there are quite a few differences that make entrepreneurs a cut above the rest. A business person might work day in and day out on a 9-5 job for someone else, progressing up the company ladder so to speak. Where as an entrepreneur may well work 9-5 themselves, but they are their own boss and set their own rules. They don’t progress up the company ladder, they build the ladder!.hem

What an entrepreneur does is they always find ways to streamline their business in order to gain maximum efficiency and maximum profits.

A business person probably doesn’t really care about these things (unless that is explicitly their job) and as such they are less inclined to make changes. a lot of business people don’t have the power to make the changes even if they wanted to , which is another negative side of working for someone else.

 Entrepreneurs have to take measured risks. They must weigh the pro’s and con’s of their actions, because every action they take will ultimately effect them and their business. This makes them sharp, and very critical of every nuance of their business.  Your average business person however doesn’t have this type of burden, as company decisions are not made by them, they don’t need to worry so much about the outcome of their actions.

They are after all just doing their job as they have been told to do.

An entrepreneur is not afraid to mix things up and do things not considered the ‘norm’ in the business world. This is what makes them so unique, their ability to think outside of the box can sometimes lead them onto groundbreaking new money making idea’s. That is what an entrepreneur does.

Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur, or are you an average business person?

LOANS FOR SMALL BUSINESS

Small business loans are designed to suit the needs of small businesses. US Small Business Administration is an organization which helps entrepreneurs to realize the dream of owning businesses. Following this mission they assist from planning your business, guiding you at each step. Their expertise helps you eliminate all possible wrong steps a first time. Getting a small business loan involves a fair amount of planning on the business front and on appraisal. If it is small business start up loan you are looking for, you must have a thorough knowledge of the trade, the place you want to start yours from including some knowledge about your competitors. This is what they call SWOT analysis which is a kind of analyzing your strength, weakness, opportunities and threat you expect from the market and your competitors beforehand.

People seeking small business start up loans need to work out their documentation error free as this makes sense to draw out a check list of the documents that are required to be submitted along with the loan application.

Some of the documents one can need to enclose with the applications are:
Business profile – A definition of your proposed business plan
Purpose of the loan – a complete detailed statement
Personal financial statements – For those with above 20% holdings.
Separate statements -for receivables and payables up to 90 days.
Prediction of Cash flow
Collateral

Whether you’re planning expansion or improvements of an existing small business or getting a new business off the ground, a small business loan can give you the financial support you need. Not all businesses can get a small business loan, so one should take special care in applying for one.

There are following steps to get the small business loans such as-
Obtain a copy of your credit report to ensure its accuracy; you may even want to obtain a copy from all major credit reporting companies for your country. Most financial institutions review your credit report while reviewing your loan application.
Ask the financial institution to get a small business loan for a complete list of documents needed to apply for it. Also ask about additional information the lender requires for your loan proposal. Other information you may need to provide includes three years of financial statements, accounts receivable or payable and a schedule of debts.
Write a loan proposal that includes the exact purpose and amount of the loan you need to borrow. Again, each institution will have its own requirements, but additional requirements may include brief biographies of people in a management position.

 

Wait to hear the results from the financial institution. If a lender rejects your application and you are located outside of the U.S. then ask your financial institution what options are available for you, but if you are in U.S. then inquire whether it could offer you a loan under the Small Business Administration’s loan guaranty program.

Small Business Marketing Ideas

There are many traditional ways of marketing your product or service. These include word of mouth or simply putting out a sign in your store. And although we are not saying that these are ineffective, we always encourage people to use more drastic measures. The economic and business landscapes these days are very cut-throat; the competition is getting fiercer and fiercer as time passes. This is one of the greatest reasons why small business marketing must not be faced sitting down. In fact we encourage marketers to come up new and exciting ways to market and promote their product; as innovation always seems to garner some amount of attention and manages to separate one’s brand with the rest of the pack. Here are some other promotional tools that do not break the bank but are very effective.

One such promotional strategy that is often left forgotten is posting on the yellow pages.

We know it sounds like an ancient promotional strategy, but surprisingly, a lot of people still look numbers up on the yellow pages. The key here is simply printing the right ad on the right spot. Make sure that your ad catches attention and is listed where it is supposed to be categorized under; not on some random page. The same goes for newspaper advertising. Newspaper advertising is actually one very cost efficient way to advertise as several people throughout the day will probably be passing around the newspaper. This means, a lot more people will have a chance to see your ads. Direct mail is another suggestion that is still effective, even though it is often thought of as superfluous and old. The personal touch it adds to the whole experience allows for people to actually take time to read the ads you send them.

Some other promotional strategies you can try to give your small business an edge is advertising on a magazine, which people keep a longer time than newspapers and flyers because they actually cost a considerable amount of money.

This means, as long as the owner of the magazine has it in good condition and displayed for other people to read, you may still get your money’s worth of advertising. You may also try posting ads in e-zines, which is always lucrative since there is a seemingly unending stream of people who use the internet day by day. Business cards and fliers are also good ideas, as long as they are distributed well, executed correctly, and get to the right people. The key here is advertising where your target market can access it.

 

Small Business Payroll Service

As a small business there are specific obstacles in doing business that must be dealt with as part of its daily operation and business principles. One of the largest battles and concerns for small businesses has to do with the cost of doing business. The one item that can be extremely costly to any small business is payroll.

Payroll requires specific knowledge and experience to ensure that all tax laws are in compliance to the standards imposed. Errors can be very costly, so having access to professional and expertise regarding payroll information and advice is critical for all small businesses. If you are not a payroll expert and you have employees who require you to process paychecks and you dont have the time to multi task and process these pay checks, you should consider taking advantage of payroll services.

A characteristic that small businesses have is that they have to deal with payroll as a direct cost and in many cases, before the receivables are collected from their customers. In comparison to large business that may have the financial funding, small businesses need to become proficient at cost management. This ability can be the life line for some businesses and their key to successes or failures.

Small business payroll service provide your business with the ability to offer better benefit packages because the costs are not immediately paid out of your company overhead. Accurate payroll services are significant to the survival of the business and the exactness of its processing are necessary.

Small business payroll service can be affordable and in the long run very efficient for the multi-tasking business owner. The Small business payroll service has systems, which are simple and will manage your payroll data so that you can focus on your business. They provide the reports you need to file company documents, they ensure that taxes are deposited accordingly and they are able to accommodate your growth as your company grows.

Green PCs – a new revolution

Personal Computer have changed the people life. And every person have a PC in their home in a normal family. And my opinion every one need a PC. But due the the huge amount of use of the energy due to the Computer in huge sector, the energy consumed is growing day by day. And there must be some solution to this problem. If the huge computer can be made to work in low power available then we can managed the energy saving and bring a revolution in the world.

After some research we found that green pc has been introduced by some people around the world and has been a great success. It has a saying that its energy costs reduced 60% of the current energy consumption. So a Low Power PC can be a great revolution for the people and countries.

Its not just about the power consumption, but they are also the cheapest found on market. If people are really concious about the energy and the money then, I suggest people surely should get a one. I have order a piece for myself, as every good things should be started from ownself.

Save energy, Save world – Go green.