Business, Finance & Tax Tips for Small Businesses

personal financial consultancy for small businesses & individuals


	Financial Consultancy, Personal Finance Director & Non-Executive Director Services.


	Save tax, improve your cashflow, financial growth & company performance.


	See how Stephen Carter helps small businesses & high net-worth individuals to sort out their finances.

"Stephen has the very rare gift of being able to talk about accounts, taxation and finance in comprehensible English. His advice is therefore not only valuable, it is intelligible too."

[Corr Willbourn]

Unbelievable, but true!
With the replacement of the good old-fashioned diary with Outlook or other programs, how do you know when Easter is? You won't believe it, but you can calculate it!
Bet with your friends & make money!

Business Traps

10 traps to avoid in your business!

Having been around for a while, Stephen Carter would like to think that he's seen it all!
Here is the 'Rogue's Gallery' of worst messes that he has had to clear up (some more serious than others) and how to avoid them!

	Earn Outs

	For those who have not come across these, they are a neat way to buy a business - the price paid is a multiple of the profit made in the first year(s) after the business is sold. This is a licence for auditors and lawyers to have a field day! Stephen Carter was involved in a £9 million dispute over the profits with new auditors.

	Tip - if you're selling, make sure you keep your auditors over the earn-out period, and make sure that someone like Stephen is preparing the accounts! If you're buying, change the auditors!

	Choose the right sort of accountant to manage the book-keeping

	This sounds Irish, but there are 2 types of accountant - one in practice and one in industry (like Stephen Carter). Stephen is no more equipped to audit a company than an auditor is to run your accounts department. The skills required are completely different.

	Stephen was recently brought in to completely rebuild 3 years of accounting records when the bank finally forced a reluctant MD to produce meaningful management accounts. All he had was a spreadsheet from his auditors forecasting glory, when the historical records showed gloom and doom! Not their fault - they had done their best, but had no experience of creating a system, only auditing what was there!

	Company Cars

	Many companies are simply unaware of the PAYE consequences of employee benefits.

	An auditor friend of Stephen Carter's had to refuse a new client as he was unwilling to disclose to the Revenue 5 years of tax liability, discovered by Stephen's friend in his initial review. When the tax man finally catches up with them, there will be 100% penalties and interest to pay.

	Computers

	Judge a new system not by what it can do, but who will support it when it goes wrong. When it comes to computer software, the gap between development and obsolescence is around 10 minutes!

	The best systems technically are often new so unreliable - a neighbouring company went bust recently when their shiny new system didn't do what they took for granted and they couldn't (or wouldn't) go back to their old one.

	Don't over-complicate your systems

	Inexperienced staff - especially if they enjoy computers - tend to create work by inventing ever more complicated ways of re-inventing the wheel. Remember - if you are the only company doing something a particular way, you shouldn't be doing it! Try to fit your systems into standard packages rather than having one written specifically for you.

	Stephen Carter was recently asked to sort out the books of a company whose book-keeper had left, and their replacement couldn't make head nor tail of her system! Some lateral thinking from Stephen resulted in a far simpler way of doing the same thing.

	Disaster Recovery

	The most over-looked aspect of this is that, when (not if) your computer packs up, it will probably be of old age and by definition: - direct hardware component replacement may not be available - the backup of the data may be on an old tape that can't be read by new hardware

	In extreme cases, the old system will run again and the only option is to jump into a new one at a moment's notice - almost certainly resulting in a wrong choice. This has happened to a client of Stephen's just after they had sold it - 3 months earlier and they would have paid dearly!

	Always load the latest version of the software, even if there's nothing wrong with the old one and update your hardware every 3 years minimum - yes, it's more expensive than doing nothing, but don't be tempted by the old adage "If it ain't broken, don't fix it!" - instead, try the one "A machine runs at its best immediately before it blows up!".

	Backups

	When was the last time you tested your backup data to make sure that you can read it? You need an identical machine to try it on, unless you are brave and risk testing it on the live system, perhaps overwriting your live data with a corrupted backup.

	Are you backing up the right data? One client of Stephen Carter's had the data an program disks to re-install, but when they tried it they found a key setup file was on the blown up machine, and had not been copied! Most of Stephen's clients email him their backups and he loads them to make sure they work.

	Joint ventures

	Be very, very sure about the partner in any 50/50 venture. When it comes to shareholdings, 51 - 50 = definitely a lot more than 1!

	Pick a fight with someone your own size

	Never upset the VAT man - he has more powers than anyone else, and is not afraid to use them! Ditto the landlord - keep paying the rent, and you should be okay. If you don't - then interest, costs and baliffs will descend on you!

	The telephone

	Never answer the phone while congratulating a colleague of the opposite sex - it may be your partner!!!

Copyright © 2005-2007 Stephen Carter / SBC100. All rights reserved. Stephen Carter's services are provided by Phoenix Hire Limited.
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