Autumn Statement: Business strategy examples in challenging times
Here at Kirkwood Wilson, we know that times are tough and they are likely to remain challenging for many businesses. So what do businesses have to do to ensure that they succeed in the economic environment over the next two years?
On 17 November upon the release of the Autumn Statement, we will know more about the government’s spending plans and taxation policies. The prospect is one in which the economy will be less dependent on the government, with spending to be cut aggressively and taxes to rise across the board.
The changing nature of the economy presents a whole series of questions for any business:
- What finance will it need in the short term and to invest?
- What are the challenges of entering and maintaining export and/or new markets?
- How does it develop new and innovative income streams?
- How can it manage its workforce through the peaks and troughs of activity?
But what will a business have to do to remain successful? Many different businesses will have different requirements, but we are here to support you with an expert accounting team and specialist business advice.
Here are some business strategy examples that have succeeded:
<h2>What are the most successful businesses strategies?</h2>
A business that puts the customers first
For the next few years, companies need to understand their customers and be able to respond to their needs and the pressures they are facing. Household income has been squeezed and some experts predict it will continue to be the case until 2024.
For most consumer-facing businesses, that means offering value for your customers.
The key here is to invest time in understanding your customers’ spending patterns and their needs. Take some time to research these needs and look at how you currently satisfy them and what you could do to improve your offering.
Think of ways you can change the delivery of your product or service. Simple things like:
- Discussing your offering with the customer before providing it.
- Letting the customer know how things are progressing,
- Calling the customer to make sure everything went okay after delivery are small ways you can identify what the customer wants and needs.
- Constant communication with your customers before, during and after the sale is a key factor for successful business in tough times.
- Ask yourself what you could do to improve this in your business.
- Take time to seek out new revenue streams.
- Consider rebranding some of your offerings and selling abroad or online.
- What new income streams are available to you and how can you take advantage of them?
A business that is able to control costs
Keeping the cash coming in is fundamental, but so is controlling the rate at which the cash flows out.
Take time to think about:
- Your costs and what you could do to improve the way you manage your business.
- Regular review of targets to actual costs is key to good control of your business.
- Look at the way you do things and are there alternatives?
- Consider alternative suppliers, alternative payment schedules, and better use of electronic point of sale, stock management and quality control.
Sit down with us to discuss your strategy for controlling costs, brainstorm how you can do things more quickly and efficiently, and formulate a strategy for the next year. Learn more about our packages.
A business that can manage employees
One of the biggest costs for firms is the cost of employment. Taking on new staff is expensive, equivalent to fresh investment in the business. Many successful businesses are reviewing the value they get from their employees and are taking time to discuss how they can be more customer focused and efficient in their roles.
Look at alternatives to salary rises, such as the use of performance-related pay and a bonus structure that rewards both good services to customers and increases in sales. Get all employees involved in how the business can improve and do this regularly.
What is the best business success strategy?
Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all approach when it comes to a successful business strategy. Here at Kirkwood Wilson we know there are a multitude of ways that can contribute to your success and bottom line. Our biggest advice is to be flexible, but also be alert to the dangers.
Successful businesses of the future will be fast on their feet but also aware of the risks. They will be lean and efficient whilst being able to spot and take advantage of the opportunities that are there. As tough as the economic outlook appears for the coming years, there will still be plenty of opportunities so please talk to us about your plans – we have considerable experience in helping our clients be successful!
Discover our case studies for more information or contact a member of our team.
Business asset finance explained
Business asset finance is an agreement that enables businesses to obtain the assets needed to manage and/or expand effectively and spread the cost/outlay.
Regardless of the size of the business, the decision to invest in assets is always difficult. However, there are some key benefits, including:
- It’s a great alternative to a traditional bank loan.
- Increased tax benefits.
- Payments can be budgeted according to cash flow.
- Lenders secure against the asset.
Specialists can advise on:
- Hire purchase – allows you to buy an asset and pay for it over a period of time, spreading the cost via an agreement with a finance company. An initial deposit is payable; and
- Finance lease – a rental agreement through which an asset can be obtained for a fixed term. At the end of the initial term, the agreement can be extended or sold with a rebate of the sale proceeds to the client.
You will need to ensure that your management accounts are up to date, that you have current detailed lists of debtors, creditors and all assets, and you might need up-to-date projections before a lender will consider your application.
Contact Us Today
Please talk to us about finance. We can introduce you to finance specialists who have many years of experience and success in advising businesses across a wide range of sectors, finding you the best business asset finance solutions. Call on 01704 546000 or email enquiries@kirkwoodwilson.co.uk.
How to get diversity and inclusion right
When running a business, there are many challenges involved, including trying to turn a profit, improving talent, growing the company, and more. You also must be aware of being inclusive and having a diverse talent pool within your organisation. How do you go about this, though? At Kirkwood Wilson we not only provide small business accounting advice online and projections in business, but we can help you improve your diversity and inclusion, continue reading our guide below.
Diversity and inclusion in business
The first step to creating or improving diversity and inclusion in your workplace is understanding where you’re at right now. Depending on the size of your firm, it may be helpful to run a staff survey as this helps you to gain insights into how diverse and inclusive your own team feels the company is at present.
Take time to analyse the diversity of your current team and consider past employees as well. Ask yourself questions like, ‘why did they leave?’ and ‘could the company have been more inclusive?’. If you could have been more inclusive, would they have stayed?
Once you’ve mapped out where you are, you can create aims and objectives around where you want the company to be in the future. This could be in the space of six months, 12 months or more, but it sets achievable goals within a set timeframe for you to improve diversity and inclusion.
Consider the current policies in place, too. In order to ensure that diversity and inclusion is not just lip service to current and new employees, you have to make an inclusive culture part of the fabric of your business.
Making a change from the top
Start your process of transforming the company by taking a top-down approach and lead by example. Ensure that your company’s leadership team is diverse and inclusive because this sets the tone for the entire business. The leadership team should lead the way on creating a business culture that embraces more diversity and inclusion.
Increasing the depth of your talent pool is key to building a more diverse and inclusive workforce too. Consider your current recruitment processes and review where you could improve the diversity of the team. Could you adopt more inclusive approaches to hiring?
Perhaps you could invest in some unconscious bias training to help your recruitment team overcome any biases that dictate the type of people that they hire. Attracting, hiring and retaining a diverse mix of talented people are all crucial steps in building a more diverse and inclusive business. However, it doesn’t stop there.
You must create a career development structure within the company too. Leadership teams in businesses across most sector often lack diversity, with non-white makes occupying only a small percentage of senior roles. Achieving gender and racial equality in top level leadership roles starts with making diversity and inclusion a business priority, especially when it comes to career development opportunities.
Senior members of a business should endeavour to create a sense of belonging for everyone within the company. For each individual to bring the best version of themselves to work each day, a sense of belonging must first be established. A greater connection between company and staff with a clear career path can only help to produce greater engagement, productivity and creativity.
Race for talent
As the battle for talent in recruitment continues for businesses, employees are becoming increasingly interested in working for companies whose diversity and inclusion initiatives are aligned with their values. If your company can set the tone and stand out as a diverse and inclusive employer, attracting talented team members should become a little bit easier.
Small business accounting advice online and projections in business at Kirkwood Wilson
Kirkwood Wilson is a family-owned company of Chartered Accountants, offering accounting advice online. We understand the challenges faced by family-run businesses and have the knowledge and expertise to support you in overcoming these challenges.
We can support your business by attending meetings, assisting with an exit strategy, planning for any capital gains or inheritance tax and reorganising the business structure.
Our experienced team can also offer you guidance on trusts, small business accounting advice, and retirement planning.
If you’d like to find out more about what we do at Kirkwood Wilson and how we can help you, don’t hesitate to contact us today on 01704 546000 or email us at enquiries@kirkwoodwilson.co.uk.
The importance of a shareholders’ agreement
Some of the questions we are most frequently asked nowadays are around the subject of shareholders’ agreements so we thought today we’d share with you a little bit of our knowledge and thoughts.
What are shareholders funds?
Company Law states shareholders who:
- Own more than 50% can pass a motion at a company meeting regardless of the views of other shareholders
- If that shareholder(s) owns more than 75% of the shares they control the company outright and can veto the decisions of all other shareholders.
This may not suit all business situations, especially where you have two or more founders holding equal share capital or a group of owners with varying amounts of capital, some of whom are directors and some who are not, but who are all working together for the company’s success.
A shareholders’ agreement is entered into between all or some of the shareholders in a company. It governs the relationship between the shareholders, the management of the company, ownership of the shares and the protection of the shareholders. They also help dictate the way in which the company is run.
What is a shareholders agreement?
A shareholders’ agreement can help define how a business makes decisions to the benefit of all owners and is recommended where:
- A small number of owners want to reach collective and fair decisions for the benefit of all
- Some owners may want to be able to influence decisions that are particularly relevant to them
- Some shareholders may not be directors and cannot influence operations on a day-to-day basis
Typically it is seeking to deal with the three “D’s” of death, disability, and disagreement. It also regularly helps advise over the retirement of a director or the buying back of shares.
Key areas for any shareholder agreement
This is not a comprehensive list as each situation is different, but it may help you collect the thoughts of all shareholders before you draw up an agreement.
- Company details including structure, directors, and officers
- Purpose and aims of the company
- Equity split of shareholders
- Parties to the agreement
- Shareholders rights, obligations and commitments
- Decision making processes on major issues required voting majorities and day to day operating decisions
- Restrictions on the sale of shares
- Rights of first refusal and pre-emptive rights to acquire shares on leaving, retirement, death, or disability
- Death, disability, and other retirement compensation payments
- Management contracts, director approval, and remuneration amounts
- Insurance and other protective requirements
- Professional advisers and change of professional advisers
- Dispute resolution
- Changes to and termination of the agreement
- Buy out provisions for leaving shareholders
- Valuation of shares on changes and valuations of the business
Over the years many clients have strayed away from an agreement due to the perceived expense of setting the proposal up in the first instance. Our view is that a shareholders’ agreement is an essential document for any limited company and an equitably drafted agreement should provide comfort to all parties to the agreement. We have seen many instances in the past where specific scenarios would have been much better dealt with given the intervention of an agreement and in our opinion the benefits far outweigh the costs.
There really is no bad time to set up a shareholders’ agreement, so please get in touch if you need help in planning for an agreement, especially where there are several shareholders, a new company is being formed, a shareholder wants to sell their shares or pass them to their children, someone is nearing retirement, or the company has borrowed money from a shareholder.
We will be happy to assist with share and company valuations and putting the shareholders wishes into an agreement with our local, recommended solicitor.
Need some expert advice, contact us today!
Prepare your business for Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT
Making Tax Digital for VAT becomes mandatory for all VAT registered businesses from 1 April 2022
Businesses with a taxable turnover above £85,000 have already been required to follow Making Tax Digital, keeping digital records and filing VAT returns using compatible software since April 2019.
From 1 April 2022, all VAT registered businesses must file digitally through Making Tax Digital from 1 April 2022, regardless of turnover.
We can sign you up to MTD, although you will be responsible for meeting your VAT obligations. Those who do not join Making Tax Digital for VAT may be charged a penalty for failure to do so.
If your business has not signed up to MTD compatible bookkeeping software then please talk to us urgently about how we can help your business comply with the new law.
Get in touch
The team at Kirkwood Wilson are always happy to provide advice and assist with changes like Making Tax Digital. To find out how we can help your business get in touch on 01704546000 or email us at enquiries@kirkwoodwilson.co.uk.
How hybrid working has changed the face of business forever
Many of us will now be familiar with the phrase ‘working from home’. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated and, in most cases, forced employers to accept that working from home is now part of the way their employees engage with their workload. This recent development has brought about a boom in hybrid working. Read on to find out more about the benefits of hybrid working and how it has changed the way businesses operate.
Hybrid working and the pandemic
Throughout the pandemic many employers were faced with two distinct options. These were to adopt remote working and face the challenges that working from home can bring, or to furlough staff where necessary. However, as the furlough scheme drew to an end on 30 September 2021 employers are putting plans in place to allow employees to continue with hybrid working arrangements. Such an agreement is where the team member works part of their week at the company’s central office location, and part of the week from home.
What are the benefits of hybrid working arrangements
A huge benefit to this new way of working is that our clients are seeing a large upturn in staff morale as a result of this increased flexibility. In fact, studies suggest that 57% of remote workers feel their productivity increases with working from home, something we can vouch for from our team here at Kirkwood Wilson Accountants!
Working from home has placed more emphasis on technology, with working in the cloud now being at the forefront of business owners’ thoughts. Many businesses have operated for a long time with internal servers holding everything that is dear to the company information-wise.
How Xero can help with hybrid working
You might be familiar with Sage and the historical rigors of backing up your company’s information at the office, storing it on a memory stick and then transporting it home to continue processing data. Working from home makes this already lengthy process far more difficult but you can feel safe in the knowledge that Xero was designed exactly for this.
Xero allows your internal bookkeeper to log in remotely using a web browser, at work or at home, picking up exactly where they left off. There’s no need to back up, just log in and carry on. This is why digital accounting software, such as Xero, has had such a positive impact on business operations during the pandemic.
Another complementary piece of software which ties in well with Xero is Dext. It allows you to take photos of invoices that can be stored in the cloud within Xero for forever and a day – meaning you will never run the risk of losing a paper trail. It’s ideal where a team member is in the office and the bookkeeper is at home. The team member can take the photos required and within minutes the invoice appears in Dext, ready to be synchronised with Xero.
One obvious downside to this more flexible way of working is accountability in terms of your employee’s time. How exactly do you know that they’ve completed their allotted hours for the week? Whilst a huge emphasis is placed on trust in this situation, it’s always nice to be sure where you stand when employees are at home.
Deputy is another Xero-integrated app, which allows your team to ‘clock in’ when they start their day and ‘clock out’ when they’re done. The employee downloads an app to their phone and you get all the reporting functionality you need to help you keep control of when and where your team is working.
Integrate digital accounting to support hybrid working in your business.
If anything we’ve mentioned above ticks a box for you, please get in touch with our friendly team on 01704 546000. We’ll be happy to get your bookkeeper set up on Xero so that they can start processing your information wherever they are. Alternatively, we’d love to give you a quote and to discuss the benefits of outsourcing your bookkeeping services to ourselves.
Business recovery planning: How your local accountants can help your business get back on track
What is business recovery planning?
Business recovery plans are the plans used by the operational teams of a business following an incident which affects their ability to operate normally. They usually consist of contingencies for core processes, plant and assets, business partners and human resources. They also include (but are much more comprehensive than) disaster recovery plans for information systems. Their main goal is to facilitate business continuity.
Why is a business recovery strategy high on today’s agenda?
Business recovery planning covers all sorts of unforeseen events, from fires to floods to terrorist attacks, and therefore the plan is usually very broad in its scope. Where the assumption is a physical set back of some kind (like a flood or a fire), the business recovery strategy employed will be around buildings, equipment, etc.
However, the impact of COVID-19 has put many businesses, large and small, into positions where they have been trading at levels far lower than those required to make a profit – in some cases businesses in industries like hospitality have had to temporarily shut down. In both cases, although the government has been supporting the wage bill through furlough, rent and other overheads have still been outgoing costs which have had to be covered in the meantime and businesses that are still operational have had to completely adjust working practices.
If you didn’t have a business recovery strategy in place before Covid, it may be that you’re thinking about putting one in place for future contingencies.
When should business recovery planning be put in place?
Realistically, as soon as possible after the event in question. It’s a potentially complex and wide-ranging strategy that can cover things as simple as where people can work from in lieu of the usual office space availability and getting business insurance claims started, through to IT backups, failover sites (digital and physical) and supplier failure contingency.
Where do accountants fit in with your business recovery strategy?
Having an accountancy business in place and ready to support you when you need it most is critical not only to ensure business continuity during what may be a financially tough time, but will also give you peace of mind that someone who knows your business is there to help. Accountants will be able to help with the following areas:
- Cash flow modelling and forecasting
- Cost reduction recommendations
- Securing additional Time to Pay through HMRC
- Sourcing alternative finance options
- Overall health check and solvency review
How Kirkwood Wilson Accountants can help in your business recovery planning
As local accountants who specialise in healthcare and construction – including CIS – we have an in-depth knowledge of the kinds of issues that can arise in your industry and the types of support that you will need to get your business back on track.
We work closely with our clients to ensure we understand where your skills lie and where you might need us to step in during an emergency. For more information on how we can help your business recovery strategy take shape, get in touch on 01704 546 000 or email enquiries@kirkwoodwilson.co.uk.
Why your small business needs an accountant
You might be mistaken into thinking that as a small business, you are able to manage your own accounting and bookkeeping. However, as with any business, whether small or a start-up, the aim is always to grow. By enlisting an accountant, you can focus on the growth of your business whilst they handle all the paperwork. Read on to find out more about why your small business needs an accountant.
What do we mean by small business?
Of the 5.5million registered businesses in the UK, over 99% of them are classified as a small to medium-sized business. These small businesses and start-ups cover a whole range of useful and luxury goods, or services and experiences. However, small businesses have a number of defining characteristics that help to identify them as a small business.
To be legally identified as a small business, your organisation must consist of less than 50 employees, with a turnover of less than £10,000,000 annually. A micro business is a little bit smaller than that, with less than 10 employees and a turnover of less than £2,000,000 annually.
What a small business accountant can do for your business
In the UK, company accounts must be submitted to Companies House every single year, regardless of whether your company has been active or dormant in the last 12 months. Your accounts must be registered with Companies House within 9 months of the last Accounting Reference Date, also known as the ARD. This is usually the anniversary of the last calendar day of the month your company was registered. So, for example, if your business was registered with Companies House in January, your accounts must be filed with Companies House in the following September.
If you run a small business, or you are self-employed, an accountant can bring considerable advantages. We’ve listed a few of the top ones below.
An accountant helps you handle growth
As a small business, your aim is likely to be that you want to grow your business sustainably. By hiring an accountant, they will be on hand to help you handle these growth transitions, such as hiring new employees or moving to new locations. Your small business accountant will be on hand to look after the finer details of your businesses growth, such as payroll, employee tax management, property taxes, utilities and so much more. This frees up a considerable amount of your time to run your business.
To improve your cash flows
The old saying goes, “cash is king” and in business, this couldn’t be any more true. Cash is the fuel that will keep your business running and without proper control of your cash flow, you cannot make the critical business decisions necessary to keep your business running.
Having a good small business on hand will help you to ensure that you have good credit control and cash management policies. For example, say your business offers services or goods on a 30-day payment term. By hiring an accountant, they can work to keep your business on top of your finances and ensure that you have good credit control with your customers paying on time.
Reduce your workload
Understandably, you will want to focus your time on the day to day running of your business rather than spending your precious time and resources on bookkeeping and compliance. This is where an accountant comes in handy.
Let’s say, for example, that you run an Amazon business dealing in technology. Business is booming and you need to ramp up your resources to keep up with demand. This is where an accountant that specialises in accounting for Amazon sellers will come in handy. They can handle all of the day to day running of your business bookkeeping whilst keeping up to date with tax and company compliance.
They provide valuable business advice
When you choose the correct accountant, they will also be able to serve as a valuable resource for business advice. Carrying with them a wealth of knowledge and experience from dealing with companies and clients from all walks of life, an accountant will be well versed in most of the problems and challenges you may encounter in your business.
As a result, they are a brilliant resource for sound boarding ideas off and providing valuable business advice. For example, imagine you have a small food takeout business that is booming in popularity. So much so, that you consider opening a new location in another town. Your accountant will be on hand to help advise you on the potential challenges and pitfalls you may face as a business owner looking to expand, to help eliminate some of that risk.
They help you to process payroll
Businesses with employees need to operate payroll effectively and in-line with proper payroll regulations to ensure that employees are treated fairly and legally. By not complying with payroll regulations, your business could face huge fines and backdated tax bills that may ultimately lead to the collapse of your business.
By hiring an accountant to handle payroll for you, your business will not fall foul of payroll regulations, leaving you with one less thing to worry about.
To help measure your businesses performance
Oftentimes, business performance is neglected by small business owners, as is setting timely and measurable business objectives. It has been suggested that approximately 90% of startups fail because they fail to keep on top of their objectives and measure these against their performance. However, an accountant will help you to understand your business’s performance that will enable you to effectively plan your business growth moving forward.
They keep you up to date with tax and compliance regulations
By hiring a business accountant, they will help you stay up to date with the very latest in tax legislation and other regulations. In doing so, your accountant will help you from falling foul of legislation that may affect your business and cash flow should you encounter large fines and tax bills.
As an example, perhaps you are struggling to keep on top of your accounts and taxes, with HMRC stepping in due to large unpaid corporation tax bills. In this instance, your business will most likely incur large fines and backdated tax bills. However, by having a small business accountant in place, you can avoid this issue altogether as they file your company accounts annually and calculate your tax bills.
Find a small business accountant
You can see why it is so important to find a small business accountant to help you grow your business, whilst also managing your accounts and ensuring that you keep up to date with the latest tax legislation and compliance.
When you are looking for a business accountant, it is important to not just consider the cost to your business. You need to also consider the service they are providing and how good their customer service is. It is vital that you feel comfortable enough to be able to have frank business discussions with your small business accountants about the future of your business and they must understand the nature of your business to help you operate effectively.
Consider all of these factors when looking for your first small business accountant and watch your business flourish with their support.
The importance of bookkeeping when selling on Etsy
During the past year, the percentage of retail sold through ecommerce platforms like Etsy rose from less than 20% to well over 35%. In the course of a single year that’s a phenomenal change, and it’s thanks to the entrepreneurial, open-minded makers and crafters who were able to take up that challenge and move their goods online during the toughest of conditions that we have been able to continue to send beautiful gifts and treat one another even in the hardest of times.
However, along with the creative side of doing business online comes an aspect that some of us are less keen on – accounting. It will do you no favours to simply stick your head in the sand when it comes to bookkeeping, so we take a look at the importance of bookkeeping for Etsy sellers, what support is available, and what you can expect from an Etsy accountant.
Why is bookkeeping for Etsy sellers so important?
Bookkeeping for any business, large or small, ecommerce or face-to-face, is important because it allows you to keep track of day-to-day financial transactions like sales and purchases. However, what sets apart the kind of business done over ecommerce platforms like Etsy is the speed at which these processes take place; goods are bought and shipped in a matter of hours in many cases, with purchases then immediately made to maintain stock levels. Below are just some of the reasons why bookkeeping is so important for Etsy sellers:
Keep track of income and outgoings
In order to understand what money you are making and spending and to keep a control on that expenditure day-to-day, you need to ensure that you are keeping track of those movements. Software such as Xero is designed specifically with bookkeeping for Etsy sellers and other ecommerce platforms in mind; it integrates directly with ecommerce stores so that the tracking of finances is smooth and automated, and you can access that information at any time and from anywhere via an app.
Manage cash flow
As a small business, cash flow is equally as important as – if not more important than – profit. Whilst one of the key reasons for being in business is profitability in the long-term, if your cash-flow doesn’t enable you to pay your suppliers or workers, you won’t stay in business very long. Bookkeeping allows you to keep control over your cash flow, make sure that you are receiving money when you expect to, purchase stock only as you need it and pay your suppliers at a time that gives you the best chance of success.
Analyse successes and capitalise on them
Bookkeeping, for Etsy sellers just like all other small businesses, helps to inform you of what is going right and where you could improve. If you track when you sell goods, how much profit you make and from which product lines into which market areas, you can start to track what works for your business and what you should do more of. If you choose to work with a management accountant, Etsy, combined with the information from your cloud accountancy package, will provide them with all the data they need to be able to analyse which areas to invest in, expand on and promote, as well as enable you to forward plan for the future.
If you are looking for an Etsy accountant who can support you in growing and managing your business, Kirkwood-Wilson Accountants are experienced in bookkeeping for Etsy sellers; we are Xero Gold Partners and can support you in the set-up and installation of a cloud accountancy tool as well as providing you with accountancy services to fit your needs longer term.
If you want to feel like you are in control of your business but with the support of an experienced Etsy accountant, get in touch with us for a chat about your business on 01704 546 000 or email enquiries@kirkwoodwilson.co.uk.
Selling online? Why you need our ecommerce accounting services
Setting up your own online business is exciting! Finding out what works for your customers and watching your turnover grow over time, not to mention the many benefits in terms of managing your own time and making your own decisions, can be exhilarating. However, the idea that we have to suddenly become experts in every area of business – from marketing and sales to accounting and employment law – can be daunting.
The most effective way to run a business is to try to understand the basic requirements of every area of your business, match those with your own abilities, and outsource the bits that don’t fit with your skills, your time or your passion. The great thing about ecommerce accounting services is that, done properly, you can choose exactly which areas of your finances you want to outsource and keep the rest for yourself. We take a look at some of the benefits of using an experienced ecommerce accountant and how we could help your business grow.
How do you start your own ecommerce business?
Before we get down to the benefits of using an experienced ecommerce accountant, we thought we better start with the basics. How exactly do you start your own ecommerce business?
Firstly you need a product or a service. Once you have this, there are plenty of tools online to help you get set up to start selling across a range of platforms, including Amazon, Etsy and Ebay.
One of the most important things to consider when setting up your own ecommerce business, is to get everything you need in place from the start. We are seeing more and more ecommerce business men and women who are supplementing their full time job with income from their ‘side-hustle’. With this comes the potential for nasty tax bills in the future, especially if you’re already close to the higher-rate tax threshold in your ‘normal’ job.
Organising an ecommerce accountant from the very start can not only help you avoid expensive tax bills, but they can also help you with business advice including cash flow management, setting budgets and giving you the tools you need to help your business grow.
The benefits of using an experienced ecommerce accountant
Now we understand the importance of having that accountancy support right from the start, let’s take a look at some of the other benefits of having an experienced ecommerce accountant in place for your business.
Keep control of your finances
We’re not suggesting you hand over your accounts (and therefore your financial control) to someone else. Quite the opposite, in fact. We believe that all business owners should feel completely in control of their finances, whether you are running a multi-million pound manufacturing business or a sole trader ecommerce business selling handmade goods from your kitchen.
One of the great advantages of employing ecommerce accounting services which are designed specifically for businesses like yours is that, when used properly, you have access to, and total control over, your own business’ finances.
Have full visibility of your business’ finances
One of the fantastic changes that accountancy has seen over the past decade is the development of excellent cloud accountancy packages which can be fully integrated with your ecommerce store and provide you with the tools you need to run your business and your finances seamlessly.
We recommend that you choose a package like Xero, which provides an app so that you can manage your finances on the move, as well as giving you a solution that will track sales, costs and inventory so that you can take care of all your key financial aspects in one place. You can then choose how much intervention and support you want from your ecommerce accounting service provider, and that’s where ecommerce accountants like Kirkwood-Wilson come into our own; our expertise in digital accounting combined with experience in supporting small business owners of ecommerce sites means that we understand just how much flexibility you need.
Create your own financial support package
It may be that you’re looking for ecommerce accounting services that will support you from the outset, assisting with setting up your cloud-based accounting software and helping you to integrate it with your ecommerce platform to ensure that the data is correct and the outputs are providing you with the right level of support.
We did exactly this for our client Mad Fashion, who moved from manual tracking of stock, sales and costs to Xero, which fully integrated with their existing ecommerce site to take the pain out of their financial tracking. You can read more about how we supported them as a Xero Gold partner in their case study.
However, you don’t need to go all-in; Kirkwood-Wilson Accountants offer ecommerce accounting services that are completely tailored to your needs. Not only are we a Xero Gold partner and therefore well placed to help you set up digital accounting, but we also offer a range of basic accounting packages that can be adjusted to fit your needs and the needs of your business.
Choose ecommerce accounting services you can trust
If you are looking for an ecommerce accountant, we will work with you to understand the level of support that your business requires and make sure that you receive just the right amount of back-up and advice to give you the best chance of growth – without breaking the bank.
To find out more about our ecommerce accounting services, get in touch for a free consultation on 01704 546 000 or email enquiries@kirkwood-wilson.co.uk.