Too many businesses are missing out on a potential opportunity to claim tax relief on any profits earned from their patent-protected innovations and in some cases, this could be holding back their investment plans.

It’s important to recognise that CASH is what keeps your business alive.   Despite the fact that cash is the lifeblood of a business many SMEs don’t truly have a handle on their cashflow.

At any stage of the business life cycle, cashflow is of vital importance to the health of your business. One saying is: “revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, but cash is king.”

Put simply, businesses go bust in the long term because of the lack of sales or profit but, in the short term, they can fail because they don’t have enough cash to pay their bills. 

Possibly your most valuable business asset is the data you generate. It can be both confidential and commercially sensitive; it may contain financial or health records of individuals, trade secrets, customer records and company financial information.

You certainly wouldn’t want to lose it, and most likely don’t want others to see it without being authorised to do so for fear of adverse publicity, or worse, prosecution.

As soon as you take on employees in your business you will, in time, face issues that need to be addressed by having a difficult conversation.  Sometimes in a small business you will have friends or family working for you.  Some of these individuals may have been with you since the early days and have supported you through business start-up and through tough times.  This does bring the risk that there will be a familiarity between employer and employee and when issues arise that need to be addressed you will inevitably be reluctant to address them.  Difficult conversations won’t be effectiv

Back in the day, job ads were placed in magazines, newspapers and other types of media, requiring plenty of effort, time and money from businesses looking to employ new professionals. For companies who are under-staffed and looking to hire as quickly as possible, this proved to be a massive downfall. However, in an industry where change can be slow, recruitment methods have improved in recent years. We attribute this to the significant rise in the use of technology, social media and progressive testing methods.

Chances are, if you’ve had the pleasure of getting hitched you will understand the slight feeling of moral outrage when you realise your wedding photographer owns the copyright in your wedding photos. (“But they’re photos of US!?!”).

The tax system is undergoing its biggest overhaul since self-assessment was introduced in 1996 by making tax digital. By 2020, businesses and individual tax payers will be able to register, file and update their information at any time of the day or night to suit them, without the need to fill in the annual tax return. The new rules will make it more effective, efficient and easier for taxpayers, and will apply whether you have a trading business, or are a property landlord.

It’s such a significant milestone to take on your first employee. It is brilliant that you are getting busy and need some help, but it is so scary when suddenly you are responsible for earning enough to pay someone else’s mortgage and bills as well as your own! The “what if’s” start to keep you awake; what if it doesn’t work out, what if they don’t work how I do, what if my clients don’t like them, what if I can’t afford it…

For your business to grow there must be a certain prospect for whom you offer the ‘best’ product or service. If there is not then what you are offering is second best to everybody which is clearly not a sustainable business model.

Since our creation in 2014 the Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub has become an essential ingredient within the business support ecosystem with demand for our services growing exponentially. During our last quarter, we have witnessed an increase in enquiries by 181% over the comparable period last year as businesses reconcile and reflect upon the impact of an ever changing market place and economic landscape.