You’ve made it through your first year, you’ve made some money, overcome a few challenges and are settling into actually being a business owner. But now what?
You’re now in the build phase of your business. It could be you’re working towards your next goal, you may be taking on your first employee, or looking at your first office. You might finally be able to delegate some stuff! Yay!
But these next steps all come with their own unique challenges and you might be asking yourself questions like:
- What do I need to do to start paying wages?
- What on earth do I need to know about employment law?
- What happens now you’re over the VAT threshold?
The stress of covering your bills every month may be behind you now you’ve broken ground, but as your business starts to build, you need to make sure you have control of it.
Here are 4 things to think about as you build your business:
Taking on your first employee
For me this was the scariest part of building PPF – it was unfamiliar, and I’m still learning about leading a team and being a ‘boss’ every day! But, it has also been the most rewarding part too. Being able to delegate and have the support of another person instead of doing everything myself helped, not only take some of the stress of running a business, but also to build the business and give our clients a better service.
We’ve put together a checklist of the main points to consider/do when taking on your first employee – download a copy here, and with Pink Pig HR we have the basics of the legal requirements covered for you.
There will be many new things to learn and cover, like auto enrolment and National Minimum Wage, but there’s also fun stuff to look forward to like Christmas parties!!
The good news is you’re not alone – we have you covered! And as your team grows and you need more than just the basics covered we work with a fabulous HR partner who we can introduce you to.
(PS. Check out this book I read recently and really helped – How to Be a Great Boss.)
(PPS. I have no affiliation with this book or the writer, I just thought it was a good read and may help you too 😊)
VAT
Such a little word (or abbreviation if you’re being picky!), but sooooo many big implications! It’s a stumbling block our client’s often hit and are nervous about. At PPF we see reaching the VAT threshold (currently turnover of £85,000 in a rolling 12 months) as a great milestone, and one you should be celebrating, not fearing.
Getting to grips with the basics of VAT will help with adjusting your pricing, and understanding what being VAT registered actually means and involves.
Now could be a great time to delegate your bookkeeping (if you’re currently doing this yourself), and get help with your VAT return so you don’t have to stress (spoiler alert – it’s not as easy as clicking a button like some software companies would have you believe!) and can focus on sales and other areas of your business.
Understanding your numbers
As your business grows and the amount of payments in and out of your business also grows, really understanding your numbers and keeping track of everything is key to keeping sane. Having reliable and up to date information will mean not only do you know what’s going on, but also enable you to make timely decisions and where you are in relation to your goals. This is the main reason why good, regular bookkeeping is so important.
Our popular webinar, Know Your Numbers, takes you through the main reports you should be looking at, and what they mean for your business. We have also recently introduced Financial Awareness Coaching to take this one step further in really understanding your numbers.
Introducing management reports can also be helpful at this stage. The better you understand your business, the easier it will be to make more money, or reduce your working hours, or reach your goal. You’ll be able to track your progress, dig a bit deeper into anything that’s not quite going to plan, and also have a bit of accountability from us to keep you going.
We usually find starting off with quarterly reporting eases you in and gives you everything you need as you initially grow, and moving on to monthly down the line as your business expands further.
Now you’re making some money and the corporation tax is increasing you’ll be able to implement some pre year end tax planning strategies to make sure you’re as tax efficient as possible and not overpaying on tax. You’ll also notice as you’re taking more money out of your business (more dividends) your tax bill will increase and will take you into the payments on account system. Don’t worry this blog explains how that all works.
Understanding your numbers and planning properly will ensure you have no surprise tax bills!
Keep the cash coming in quickly & easily
Following on from the point above with all the extra money going out for employees and bills, maybe that nice little office you have your eye on, you’ll need to ensure the cash keeps flowing in as quickly and easily as possible.
Making sure you invoice quickly and on time will help start the payment process, and implementing payment services such as GoCardless, Stripe, PayPal, iwocaPay will help bring the cash in quickly. Here are some other quick wins to get that cash into your bank account.
Making sure you have a good and easy process for your customers to pay you will help you avoid issues with bad payers, but there will always be times you need some help with credit control. Either chasing the payments yourselves, or outsourcing – whichever works for you, just make sure you do have a process and you follow it! Our blog, 7 Deadly Sins of Credit Control will help you to put a robust credit control process in place to keep the money flowing in.
If you’d like to have a chat about how we can help you to build your business click the button below to complete our quick questionnaire and book a discovery call with us.
