Ten things new business owners need to know

From ensuring your accounts are in good hands to recruitment, benefits and getting your tech up to scratch, here are 10 things you never knew your business needed to know.

Finding an accountant

Most people setting up their dream business are not trained in admin, says Colleen Sainlo, of catering company Sainlo Events. “Accountants that talk to you in technical terms and make the mechanics sound daunting can hamper your learning in this area. Find a fab accountant who knows their stuff but can talk you through it in terms you understand.”

Accountants can also familiarise you with the taxes you may be liable for as a small business, including corporation tax (a tax on limited companies’ taxable income or profits), VAT (if the value of your taxable supplies in a 12-month period is greater than the current VAT registration annual threshold of £83,000), capital gains tax, pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) and national insurance.

Taking on staff

Seek legal and HR advice once you employ permanent staff. “This isn’t just for your protection but theirs as well,” says Lucy Werner, of The Wern, a specialist start-up PR company. “I’ve recently learnt the importance of both a short employee contract and a detailed handbook to ensure you set the guidelines of what you expect from your staff.”

Holiday pay

All workers, whether full- or part-time, are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks’ (28 days’) annual leave each year (including bank holidays). If you need your staff to take their holidays at a certain time, you are obliged to give them notice (usually two weeks’ notice for one week’s holiday).

Pensions

“As an employer, it is imperative that you provide a workplace pensions scheme for your employees,” says Svetlana Aslezova, of the Business Doctors network. All employers need to offer a pension to employees aged over 22 and earning more than £10,000 a year. Failure to do so can result in heavy fines.

R&D

Research and development tax credits apply to nearly all UK businesses and you could claim in excess of £47,000, says Sandra Murphy, SME adviser at Business Doctors. She says: “R&D tax credits can reduce your overall tax bill or you can claim payable cash credits as a proportion of your R&D expenditure.”

Technical know-how

Alison Campbell is co-founder of the website shooot.co, which allows property owners to rent out space for film and photoshoots. She says: “There’s an awful lot of technical work behind the scenes, such as cleaning up databases, managing website updates and image editing. One day I spent four hours trying to fix one piece of code.”

Time management

Something a business owner never has enough of is time. Key to making this work is forward planning, says Robert Wood, director of Craig Engineering HX. He says: “Know key dates and plan time around them. Delegate tasks and learn the ability to trust others to do their job.”

Streamlining

“I had no idea about how to create a sales process when I started,” says John Warburton, managing director of the Manchester-based JWC agency. “I'd have Excel sheets sending me crazy as I tried to keep track of who I’d spoken to and when. Then I started using a CRM [customer relationship management system], which did all of that stuff automatically and even reminded me when I hadn’t done the right thing on the right day.”

Social media matter

You might think social media are way down your priorities list. But Gavin Hammar, founder of social media platform Sendible, says: “Very often, sales that are made through social selling tend to be of a much higher value than sales made through other channels.”

Write-down allowances

With a write-down allowance, new businesses can offset 100 per cent of the value of a purchased asset, such as a car, against taxable profits in year one if the car’s CO2 emissions are below 75g/km. It is worth making the most of this allowance, especially if you need to build up a fleet for your business.

Do you know how your company fleet can help take your business to the next level? Call the Volvo Car Business Centre on 0345 600 4027 or visit volvocars.com