Yorkshire Business Services - July 08 Newsletter

Helping You Succeed
Welcome to Helping You Succeed - the July 08 newsletter from Yorkshire Business Services.  In this issue………

The unknown value of your contacts.  Are you making the best of this valuable asset?

The credit crunch and how to survive. We are going to run a series of features on the credit crunch and key actions and areas which businesses need to address to ensure they have the best chance in a difficult market place.

How will the new minimum wage affect you?

Don’t miss out on our Creating Connections – real business relationships which generate business. 

Of course we have our Events section with details of our next events and others we think you will find interesting.

Reminders is a new section with useful key dates.

And our Available Business Support area gives you more useful links

The Unknown Value of Contacts

“How many contacts do you have?”

We don’t mean the phone list on your mobile, we mean in your business.  Do you even know how many you have and more importantly do you realise how valuable they are?

We are often amazed when working with many businesses that they are so unaware of the value each of those contacts can bring to the business. 

Firstly those contacts already know you, whether they are customers or suppliers.  They are also contacts which you have invested time and effort getting through all your sales efforts and activities. 

Secondly we learn time and time again that these contacts are not being used to promote or to grow the business.  So many businesses still work with manual or hard copy paperwork and lose the opportunity to use this contact information in a more intelligent and effective way.

Your customer list is highly valuable:

• you can use it to promote or inform your customers of your new products and services. 
• you can just keep in touch with them to remind them of your services
• you can ask them for feedback to allow you to improve your services
• you can ask them for testimonials or referrals to others who may need your services
• you can thank them for their business

This is not an exhaustive list but just some of the many ways you can interact with your contact base in a constructive way.  How you communicate is up to you, but using email, direct mail, brochures or calls effectively has got to be better than what you are doing now.

There are so many ways of communicating your services more effectively and lots of people. 

Let us know how you are using your contacts now and the results that you are getting with this approach.  Based on a real discussion let’s then look to improve your results.

Carol

Call Yorkshire Business Services on 01943-607851 and visit our website and learn more at www.yorkshirebusinessservices.com for more news of what is happening in your own Yorkshire business community

The Credit Crunch - How to beat it and bounce back stronger than before!
Feature by Iain Buchan, Direct Cashflow Solutions Ltd

Cash and cash flow are critical to a business and in the difficult circumstances and market conditions at the moment it is all the more important to be ahead of the game and managing your cash for the maximum return. 

Working capital or Cashflow as we know it is critical and is a result of managing your costs and outgoings, and as importantly, your outstanding debtors (the customers that owe you money against the invoices you have raised for services and products).

Chasing your money in and avoiding overdue payments can seriously improve your business health and your bank balance.  If you are not proactive and on the ball it can be fatal to your business.  But we find that chasing money in and credit control (as it’s called) is something that the majority of businesses are not good at.  In fact in Small Businesses with owner managers it is something they are very uncomfortable with or loathe to do. 

That’s why we developed our business Direct Cashflow Solutions – where we chase in your money for you and act as your Finance Department.

Consider the following:

Interest free loan

If you were asked by someone in the street that you had never met to make an unsecured interest free loan of 30 days it wouldn’t take you very long to say “NO!” This is effectively what you are doing when you allow a customer credit terms. You are giving them your goods or services free until they pay you to credit terms. Your company has to finance this loan until it is paid back by your customer.

How do you finance the loan?

If your customer is not paying the interest on the loan on the loan WHO is? Well the bad news is it is YOUR business. Whether you business has an overdraft or not your company has to finance the debt. If you have an overdraft it is shown in the increased bank charges you incur through having a higher overdraft. If you don’t have an overdraft it is shown in the lost investment potential as the money could have been used to generate greater profit for your company.

What effect does it have on your business?

We have already discussed the increased overdraft and loss of investment potential so surely there can’t be any other effects. WRONG. Delayed payment of your invoices for whatever reason also reduces your profit margin. You may be happy that one of your customers is paying you on 70 days when he should be paying you on 30 days. If that customer was to pay you on 50 days still well after your 30 day terms but an improvement of 20 days your company’s profitability on that customer’s invoices would improve by 19%.

Even worse!

Yes, that’s right, there is potentially worse. Your company could fail. The majority of companies fail not through lack of sales orders but through poor cash flow. Money going out of your company should at least match what is coming in. If it doesn’t you are losing money. You may have a lot of customers that owe you money, but until that money is in your bank those sales are not realised and will not be taken into account by your bank. They may even take a look at how long they have been unpaid and write them off as bad debts and refuse to loan any more money.

We specifically built this business to help businesses avoid the problems and reap the benefits and this climate it is all the more critical.

Iain Buchan, MD Direct Cashflow Solutions

Listen to Iain’s Audio Podcasts below on your computer now and learn more about seriously improving the financial health of your business!

To learn more contact us at profit@yorkshirebusinessservices.com

Direct Cashflow Solutions is unique in the cash management industry. We do not want to collect your debt after your credit terms have been exceeded by your customer/client we want you to make the most of your sale and ensure that your invoices are collected on time.

By using Direct Cashflow Solutions you will prevent all of the above, following the old wisdom that “Prevention is better then the cure”.

Our mission is this : “We want to ensure that there is more money coming in than going out of your business. We want to ensure that you no longer give your customers an interest free loan. We want you to improve and grow your profitability”.

How will the new minimum wage affect you?

Take the time out to plan the impact to your business with the changes to the National Minimum Wage will be effective from the 1st October 08.

The rate for 22 year olds and over goes up from £5.52 per hour to £5.73.

If you want to know more give us a call or email us, and we can send you the  Factsheet.

If you are worried and not sure if you are affected then contact the Business Link Employers’ Helpline 0845 6000 678 or go to www.businesslink.gov.uk/employment

Reminders

1 July:

Due date for payment of Corporation Tax for period ended 30 September 2007, for those companies not liable to pay their liability by installments

7 July: 

Due date for May VAT returns (electronic payments)

19 July:

If paying by cheque, pay PAYE, NICs, student loan deductions and deductions from payments to subcontractors for the month up to the 5th of this month

Creating Connections

Promote Your Business within Our Community

Use our website community to raise the profile and profit of your business on-line.

Each month around 3,000 Business Owners and Managers read and respond to our newsletters, visit our website pages or interact with us at events and through our direct Consulting work.

Referral marketing and networking groups are on the rise and its difficult to know where to start.  We are not a membership group but we are about building BUSINESS COMMUNITIES for you.

To support this for the businesses we work with and that have attended our events we have developed the Community Connections – we pro-actively feature your business and provide information on what you do and how to get in contact. 

It can be difficult to know who to go to or what service is available if you do not know WHO is out there or WHAT they do.  By engaging with your business Connections Community you make sure you know who you can work with.

We will promote your story and get the message out about what you do.  This enables you to establish powerful connections with the Yorkshire business people and organisations who want to trade with you. The more presence your business has on-line via the pages of our Connections Community the greater the benefit to you.

Take a look at our connections page and call us now!
http://www.yorkshirebusinessservices.com/connections.html

Call Yorkshire Business Services on 01943-607851

Visit our website and learn more about what is happening in your own Connections Community

Events

Business Community Events

Don’t be shy! Join us at a regular event and connect with other business Community members, and you might just enjoy yourself!

Each month we host several low-cost, high-impact events in different parts of the county.  Currently we are running and planning events in Skipton, in Otley, in Harrogate, and also in Yeadon / Guiseley.

At such an event we will introduce several speakers to you, each of whom will have a Useful Message or Learning Point for you and your business.

You can engage with us and with other members of this community simply by turning up and taking an interest in what is being done and what is being discussed.

Our next Skipton event will be in September after the holiday period when the nights are drawing back in and we all need to get focussed again on improving our businesses.  We have something very special planned for you.  Watch out for the dates.

Call Yorkshire Business Services on 01943-607851 and visit our website and learn more at www.yorkshirebusinessservices.com for more news of what is happening in your own Yorkshire business community.

CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ON FURTHER EVENTS SUPPORTED BY BUSINESS LINK YORKSHIRE

Available Business Support

DTI MAS Interventions – Don’t forget that Manufacturers are entitled to TWO interventions in any year.  Contact us to ensure you are accessing the support available to you before 31 March 08

If you are a Manufacturer or your business has an output of assembled products, then call us to better understand the opportunity here that is worth many thousands of pounds to your business in savings, before we even look at the enhanced profit potential to come out of this.

Go to our grants section to find out more about this opportunity.
http://www.yorkshirebusinessservices.com/support-for-manufacturing-companies.htm

For more information – call us on 01943 60785