background preloader

Setting up your own business

Facebook Twitter

Setting up your own business. HMRC Leaflets. Guide to starting up your own business. Self Assessment. Tax for self-employed and national insurance for self-employed, includes when tax bills are sent and when self-employed tax and NI payments are due. Tax help and advice for small business from HMRC. Tax allowances and reliefs if you're self-employed. If you're self-employed there are various reliefs, allowances and expenses you can claim to reduce your tax bill.

You can take away from your business income various running costs and expenses associated with your business to work out your profits - but you can't take away any private expenses. And you can claim special reliefs for certain 'capital items' - one-off costs to buy or improve an asset you keep and use for your business. You can usually claim expenses, reliefs and allowances for the current tax year and for the previous four years - but there are some where you have a shorter time limit for claiming. This guide tells you about the tax allowances and reliefs you can get as a self-employed business person - including the expenses you can claim - and when and how to claim. This guide tells you about the tax allowances, deductions and reliefs you can get as a self-employed business person. On this page: Expenses at a glance What are 'allowable expenses'? Each business is different. Becoming a sole trader. GCSE Business Studies. Business Cards | Create your customised business card online.

Vistaprint business cards. Watch How First-Time Readers Use Your Blog. First time readers make almost instantaneous decisions on whether they’ll be subscribing to your blog, leaving a comment, and making their way back for a return visit. Abby Kerr has a great post on this over on her site. And it’s true, much like a good first impression matters during an interview for a new job or going out on a date, a good first impression matters online to new blog readers.

Today’s Task: Perform a first time reader audit on your blog. First: submit your URL. Second: share your memory test URL with your network. Basically, the way it works is when people click on the Clue Memory Test URL, Clueapp shares a screenshot of your website for just a few seconds. What’s the goal here? Is your site memorable? I took this test. You can even take it a step further by asking a friend or two (someone who doesn’t visit your site on a regular basis) spend 5-10 minutes navigating your content. What was your first impression? For yourself, take note of things like: Where did they click?

Making your website work for you

Packaging and Shipping Your Lovely Creations: Guest Post from Monster Kookies. A lot of people tend to think that because they have done all the hard work to get a sale online, they can take a breath and worry not because all the work is done. But realistically, posting and selling your items are only half of it. You have an impression to make! Packing and shipping your items might seem like a meagre task, but what you are doing is sending the buyer a piece of your personality. You can’t be there in person, so you have to send a good representation of yourself. A good packaging job can mean the difference between repeat sales and one time buyers, and it is up to you to give them a little bit of magic with every parcel you send.

Just think of it this way – it’s like Christmas or a Birthday for the buyer, so WOW them! Make it personal, make it beautiful, but most of all – make it memorable! These ten thorough tips will get you started on packaging your beautiful products in a way that will make an everlasting good impression on your buyers. Royal Mail - Products and Services for Small and medium businesses.