Taking control of your business
We were finally getting over the financial crisis when Covid struck. Russia’s war in Ukraine has not only meant human suffering – it has affected the entire global economy, driving up the cost of food and energy. It adds to the hardship for those on low incomes and means serious food security risks in the world’s poorest economies.
UK businesses of every size face challenges that are unprecedented and often worrying. So, what steps could you take to have more control over your future?
A business might have a great product or service but without a strategic plan to help it define, articulate, and communicate where it is going, it will be at the mercy of outside events. We encourage our clients to take some time to think long-term about their business and to establish goals or targets that they can control.
A plan starts with identifying and accessing opportunities within your market and should address how your business is going to evolve to meet the challenges of today and in the future. The plan gives your business purpose, and it answers questions about your long-term goals.
The first step is to look at five important areas:
- Think long term – invest time in understanding where the market is going and what this means for your customers. Short-term decisions do not help grow a business.
- Having a good value proposition is essential – this states the relevance of your product or service, what it does and why customers need it. What is yours?
- Expanding your reach – who is your target customer and what do you need to do to let them know you exist and that your product or service is relevant to them?
- Growth means new people, systems and (maybe) different ways of doing things. Grow at a pace you can manage.
- How will your marketing get your value proposition to relevant customers?
Once you have taken some time to write out your plan and where you want your business to be in (say) 2 years, the next step is to work out a marketing programme with actions to make it happen.
A marketing plan is a business document outlining your marketing strategy and tactics. It is often focused on a specific period (i.e., over the next 12 months) and covers various marketing-related details, such as costs, goals, and action steps. But like your business plan, a marketing plan is not a static document and should outline:
- How you are going to keep existing customers happy and returning to buy more often;
- What the goals are for getting new customers; and
- The marketing methods you are going to use to achieve 1 and 2.
We specialise in helping our clients manage their businesses. We do this by preparing and updating detailed forecasts, using the latest and most powerful software.
Please talk to us about strategic planning, we can help with a template so you can do this yourself or work together to produce estimates for a variety of scenarios and help you take control of your business!
Filing your Self-Assessment return early
Taxpayers could take advantage of four key benefits when filing their tax return early, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has stated.
The Self-Assessment deadline for the 2022 to 2023 tax year is 31 January 2024. Taxpayers who file early will have more control over their financial affairs and beat the January rush.
The four benefits HMRC promote are:
- Planning: find out what you owe for the 2022 to 2023 tax year as soon as you have filed, which allows for more accurate financial planning;
- Budgeting: spread the cost of your tax bill with weekly or monthly payments using HMRC’s Budget Payment Plan;
- Refund: Check if you’re due a refund in the HMRC app once you’ve filed; and
- Help: you can access a range of online guidance and information to help you file your return and get help if you are unable to pay your bill in full by the 31 January deadline. You may be able to set up a Time to Pay plan
Talk to us if you need help filling out your tax return or if you want to file early, we have considerable experience in dealing with HMRC.
Update on packaging reforms
The Extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme has been deferred for a year until October 2025.
The UK government has stated that following engagement with industry, and in light of the pressure facing consumers and businesses in the current economic context, new rules to ensure packaging producers pay for the cost of recycling their packaging will be deferred a year from October 2024 to 2025.
The Government will use the additional year to continue to discuss the scheme’s design with industry and reduce the costs of implementation wherever possible. In anticipation of EPR, producers have already started to use less packaging and adopt easier-to-recycle packaging formats, and they expect this process to continue – ensuring that costs are not then passed onto households later on.
This decision to defer producer payments has been taken jointly with the devolved administrations and will provide industry, local authorities, and waste management companies with more time to prepare to ensure the success of the scheme, helping make sure it is best designed to deliver on long term recycling goals while supporting households with the immediate challenge of high prices caused by inflation.
See: Update on packaging reforms to help drive down inflation – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
‘Essentials’ training for new conveyancing staff
HM Land Registry has launched a new initiative to help new conveyancing staff get to grips with the practices and processes involved in lodging high-quality applications, right from the word go.
Comprising a varied range of basic training materials, ‘HM Land Registry Essentials’ is a self-service training package aimed at helping new staff, as well as more experienced colleagues wanting an opportunity to refresh their knowledge.
The training package includes a mix of short videos, on-demand webinars, flowcharts, and guidance covering some of the most common issues facing new starters in the sector.
These include how to calculate certain Scale 2 fees as well hints and tips on avoiding requests for information (requisitions) relating to forms and deeds, execution, restrictions, and variations in names.
There’s also an easy-to-follow look at the three parts that generally make up a title register.
See: HM Land Registry Essentials – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The Great British Businesswoman Awards 2023
The Great British Businesswoman Awards brings together the whole Great British Businesswoman Series community to celebrate the women who are changing the face of business across the United Kingdom.
The awards showcase the business role models, advocates and mentors, as well as the inspirational women leading businesses and those ascending to new heights!
More than just an awards ceremony, the Great British Businesswoman Awards is a year-round programme of engagement, delivering touch points throughout the year to support and champion.
The awards are free to enter and the closing date to apply is 27 August 2023.
See: https://www.greatbritishbusinesswoman.co.uk/
The Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition
Innovate UK will work with The Department for Transport (DfT) to invest up to £34 million in innovation projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from shipping.
These will be to develop and deploy real-world operational demonstrations of clean maritime solutions as well as carry out innovative feasibility studies and pre-deployment trials.
The Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC) Round 4 is part of a suite of interventions launched by the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE). UK SHORE aims to transform the UK into a global leader in the design and manufacturing of clean maritime technology.
Your proposal must focus on clean maritime technology. Your project must do one of the following:
- design, develop, test and deploy technology; or
- conduct a technical and economic feasibility study.
The competition closes on the 27 September.
Extension of CE mark recognition for businesses
The Department for Business and Trade has climbed down over the new UKCA marking system and announced an indefinite extension to the use of CE marking for UK businesses.
Businesses have repeatedly warned that the copycat UK quality assurance mark would create unnecessary burdens for the industry by creating dual EU and UK certification regimes.
This comes as part of a wider package of smarter regulations designed to ease business burdens and help grow the economy by cutting barriers and red tape. Following extensive engagement with industry, British firms will be able to continue the use of CE marking alongside UKCA.
The Business Secretary acted urgently on this issue, to prevent a cliff-edge moment in December 2024 when UKCA was set for entry. This intervention will ensure businesses no longer face uncertainty over the regulations and can cut back on unnecessary costs, freeing them up to focus on innovation and growth.
The extension will provide businesses with flexibility and choice to use either the UKCA or CE approach to sell products in Great Britain.
See: UK Government announces extension of CE mark recognition for businesses – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Alcohol Duty Reform
The changes to the Alcohol Duty structure and the new reliefs took effect on 1 August 2023. These include:
- A new alcohol Duty system: standardised Alcohol Duty bands for all types of alcoholic products. There are new duty rates based on alcohol by volume (ABV) for all products;
- A Small Producer Relief: which reforms and extends the relief previously enjoyed by small breweries, to producers of all alcoholic products under 8.5% ABV;
- A reduced rate for draught products also known as Draught Relief, which reduces the tax due on draught alcoholic products under 8.5% ABV, packaged in containers of at least 20 litres, and designed to connect to a qualifying dispense system; and
- Transitional arrangements for producers and importers of some wine products: to help them with moving to the new method of working out the duty on their products. This allows businesses to use an ‘assumed strength’ of 12.5% ABV when working out the duty for wines with an ABV between 11.5% and 14.5% ABV. This measure is in place for 18 months, from 1 August 2023 until 1 February 2025.
See: Alcohol Duty from 1 August 2023 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Refill Wales
Now in its third year with full support of the Welsh Government and WCVA, Refill will substantially increase the availability of high-quality drinking water and help stop plastic pollution at source with the Refill App.
From a coffee on your commute, to drinking water on the go, or even shopping with less packaging, Refill puts the power to reduce plastic at your fingertips.
Refill works by connecting people with locations where they can eat, drink, and shop with less waste.
Anyone can download the free app to find local refill stations near them.
Participating businesses simply sign up for the app and put a sticker in their window, alerting passers-by that they’re welcome to come on in and get a refill.
See: Refill Schemes | Refill | find a scheme and Join the Refill Revolution
AdventureSmart.UK – toolkit for tourism businesses
The AdventureSmart.UK website provides guidance to enable people to be correctly kitted up, update their skills, and find out about the weather to stay safe outdoors.
AdventureSmart.uk have designed a range of messages to help you keep your customers and visitors safe and comfortable when exploring Wales.
The toolkit has lots of resources (posters/videos etc) and ideas for your business to use online and on social media.
See: AdventureSmart.UK – toolkit for tourism businesses | Business Wales (gov.wales)
Commencement of section 156 of the UK Building Safety Act 2022 in Wales – consultation responses summary published
The Welsh Government consulted on timings for commencing section 156 of the UK Building Safety Act 2022, in Wales. The changes will affect all premises to which the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies and will impose additional duties on those responsible for fire safety in these buildings. The consultation closed on 19 May 2023.
See: Commencement of section 156 of the UK Building Safety Act 2022 in Wales | GOV.WALES
Broadband Cymru grant scheme
Access Broadband Cymru provides grants to fund or part-fund the equipment and installation costs of new broadband connections for homes and businesses in Wales. The grant does not include running costs.
New connections through this scheme must deliver a significant change in speed. The new connection must at least double your current download speeds.
The amount of funding you can receive depends on the speed of the new connection:
- £400 for 10Mbps and above; and
- £800 for 30Mbps and above.
If you are part of a rural community, support may be available from the UK Government to connect to gigabit-capable broadband.
Access Broadband Cymru grants are available to:
- individual residents,
- businesses, and
- third sector organisations.
See: Access Broadband Cymru grant scheme | GOV.WALES
20mph rollout
On Sunday, September 17 Wales will become the first UK nation to introduce a new default 20mph speed limit on restricted roads.
To prepare motorists for this significant change, the Welsh Government and the police are working with the fire service, Go Safe (Wales’ Road Casualty Reduction Partnership), local authorities and other community groups to educate motorists.
At roadsides across Wales, fire service staff will work with partners, to stop speeding motorists in 20mph areas and offer them the opportunity to watch an educational video rather than face a fine or prosecution.
The video warns about the dangers of excessive speeds and highlights the benefits of slower speeds. It is only offered to those motorists not driving excessively over the speed limit.
