Greenwich Guru Sponsors Prestigious Business Start-up Competition

Business Competitions, Funding No Responses »
Mar 052012

Greenwich Based Business Advisor Linda Eziquiel Is Sponsoring The 2012 Country Business Competition

The competition is currently running in the March and April editions of IPC’s prestigious monthly magazine, Country Homes & Interiors.

The lucky winners will benefit from the vast amount of expertise offered by Linda’s company, BusinessTalent. BusinessTalent has helped many local small and medium sized businesses reach new heights by creating effective business growth plans to maximise profits, improve resource management and grow client numbers.

Linda is part of a UK wide business advisor network – the UK Business Advisors – and has over 20 years’ experience in supporting organisations of all types and sizes in Greenwich, London, the South East, and throughout the UK. Her passion is to work with enterprising people, helping them to build and achieve their business ambitions.

Linda commented: ‘I am sponsoring this competition because it is a fantastic opportunity to give support to a startup or early stage business. Many of my family are involved in country businesses such as farming, holiday homes and beekeeping, so this is a great way to celebrate my country roots.’

Editor of Country Homes & Interiors Rhoda Parry said, ‘We loved Linda’s broad and expert knowledge of small business startups and the challenges that they face. Her prize of £6,000 worth of business advice will be a fantastic opportunity for our Country Business competition winner to create a viable enterprise from the word go.’

Linda will help to judge the competition in May and there will be a garden party for the winner and runners up in the summer. The closing date for entries is 30 April.

For more details on the competition details go to www.housetohome.co.uk/business

Posted by admin at 10:45 pm Tagged with: , ,

Small Business Finance – A Funding Whitepaper by Pegasus Funding Resources

Funding No Responses »
Feb 232012

Small Business Finance – What Are Your Funding Options?

Small Business Finance - Funding Whitepaper by Pegasus Funding ResourcesFunding Whitepaper by Pegasus Funding Resources - Details How To Fund Your Business

Small business finance has always been a challenge and within the current climate where banks are being very cautious about who they lend to it is even more of a challenge. The Funding White Paper by Pegasus Funding Resources on where to go for funding at different stages of business growth provides a really useful overview of your options.

Download the full  Funding Whitepaper by Pegasus Funding Resources

It includes a look at the stages of growth in a business, what your funding options are, the various types of funding available and provides some at a glance charts and tables to help you find your way around the funding maze.

I particularly like the ’Pains and solutions’ table setting out the ‘pains’ and small business finance solutions for each pain. The pains include:

  • Debtors paying late,
  • Cannot fund new orders – a classic business growth pain
  • Cannot pay VAT or PAYE
  • General cash flow problems
  • No cash to grow business
  • Cannot buy new technology
  • Loss of credit
  • No funds f or start- up
  • No funds for acquisitions
  • Company in decline

The stages of growth are:

  • Concept >> Start-up >>Growth >> Consolidation >> Acquisition >> Management Buy-out/Buy-in >> Decline >> Failure >> Phoenix

Small business finance optons at concept stage are FFF (friends, family and fools), so in other words it is very hard to fund a concept.

The next stage – the start-up stage – does not get much easier and Pegasus Funding Resources has a word of warning here:

One has to be very careful at this stage and costly mistakes can be made. Very often the entrepreneur is so keen to get going that expensive funding is accepted or they sell too many shares for too little money. This will have a significant impact on your ability to raise further rounds of investment without losing control or becoming so diluted that you lose interest.

To find out more about small business finance and your options for funding your business download the full report – A Funding Whitepaper by Pegasus Funding Resources.

Posted by admin at 5:24 pm Tagged with: ,

Research And Development Tax Credits – What Are They?

Funding No Responses »
Nov 112011

Understand What Research and Development Tax Credits Are – So You Don’t Miss Out!

The Research and Development Tax Credits scheme was designed by the now renamed government Department of Technology and Industry (DTI) to provide a Corporation Tax incentive to companies using science or technology to create innovative products, services or processes. 

The current rate as it applies to Small and Medium Enetrprises (SMEs) enables companies to treat qualifying R&D expenditure at 200% of its value for the purpose of calculating their Corporation Tax.  This rate is effective from 1st april 2011. For large companies the current rate is 130% so the big purpose is to encourage SMEs to innovate. 

In our posts we will talk about R&D Tax only as it applies to SMEs.  If your company is not paying tax you can surrender future losses and receive the Research and Development Tax Credits in the form of a cash payment – or you can carry forward the loss to be offset against future profits.  The financial benefit to your company is likely to be 21% of the qualifying spend, that is if the qualifying spend has the effect of reducing the profit figure on which your tax is calculated.  If there are no profits i.e. you made a loss, the tax credit is calculated at 14% of qualifying spend.

Your minimum annual qualifying R&D spend must be in excess of £10,000 and claims must be made within two years of the financial year end to which they relate.  Where the credit is received as a cash payment your claim is limited to the amount of total PAYE/NI due by your company for the qualifying period – this rule may change soon (see below).  Surprisingly, where R&D has been capitalised more than two years ago, then written of to the P&L account some time later, the costs can qualify in the year they are written off.   

Good new on Research and Development Tax Credits

We have been led to believe that the rule about the Research and Development Tax Credits not exceeding the total PAYE/NI due for the qualifying period will be removed from April 2012 and that the rate of treatment of qualifying expenditure will increase to 225% from that same date.

See all R&D Questions and Answers here

Contact Us With Your Questions on Research and Development Tax Credits
Terry.Toms@hcba.co.uk
Mobile: 07957 143432
Posted by admin at 3:43 pm Tagged with:

That Light Bulb Moment – From Idea To Enterprise – Who Can Help You?

Funding No Responses »
Jun 132011

An Inspiring Evening

Last week I spent a fantastic evening among inspiring presenters and an equally inspiring mix of small business owners. The venue was the University of Greenwich and the event Innovation and Sustainability – Key to Business Growth, a networking event organised under the FLASH Innovation program.

The event was packed full of information on how to get ideas off the ground including a presentation by Bryan Forbes from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) on Research and Development Grants and the new SBRI program that partners public sector organisations with businesses that can help them find a solution for a specific problem.

More on Research and Development (R&D) Grants
Research and Development (R&D) grants are available to assist micro, small and medium sized businesses and pre start-ups to deliver successful new products and achieve economic growth. The grants are UK wide and from 4th April 2011, the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) has taken over the R&D grant schemes previously managed by the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), so the TSB supersedes the Regional Development Agency schemes. You can apply for funding for:

  1. Proof of Market – such as market research and assessing the commercial viability of your idea;
  2. Proof of Concept – initial feasibility studies and prototyping, testing or demonstrations and investigating productions options;
  3. Development of Prototype – making pre production prototypes, getting Intellectual Property (IP) protected and for trials and testing including clinical trials plus identifying routes to market.

Applications are taken every two months so you can apply at any time and wait for the next round of applications to be considered. You will need some match funding with the grant funding being between 35% and 60% or in some circumstance 75% of the project costs, depending on the size of your company and which type of funding you are applying for.

Project timelines are also limited to 9 months, 18 months and 24 months respectively for funding types 1. to 3. as listed above.

More on SBRI Competitions
SBRI is a very different type of funding although still firmly focused on innovation. It is led by the needs of government departments – ie there is a public sector body (PSB), such as the Department of Health or the Ministry of Defence or the Ministry of the Environment that has a problem that needs solving. The problems could be anything e.g. the need for more efficient street lighting or a method of treating babies with asthma.

The aim is to facilitate government departments to engage with innovative companies, helping to accelerate technology commercialisation and provide a route to market, by matching the innovative company with a PSB from the outset.

The solutions sought are procured under EU procurement rules for Pre Commercial Procurement and development contracts are 100% R&D funded, against deliverables, with the IP staying with the company.

Solutions are sought through open competitions which are widely advertised by the TSB and on the SRBI website. Risks are mitigated through having a staged approach:

Phase 1 – proof of feasibility, 2 to 9 months, £20 – £100k
Phase 2 – Prototype development can be up to 2 years and £1M (depends on the challenge).

Forthcoming competitions will include Ministry of Defence, Health, Home Office, Cabinet Office and Foods Standards Agency requirements.

Just to get the picture straight FLASH Innovation forms part of the Institute for Sustainability’s FLASH program which is part funded by an ERDF grant and the above only covers the first presentation … watch this space for tips on how to ‘Innovate or Die’ as presented by Dr Victor Newman and the sickness of Innovation Blindness that many companies seem to catch…

Find out about Leadership and Management Grants here

Posted by admin at 10:49 pm Tagged with: , , ,

Leadership & Management Grants

Funding No Responses »
Jun 062011

Polish Up Your Leadership & Management Skills with a £1K Grant

Applications are now closed for 2011 – there may be a new scheme from April 2012 – Watch This Space!

The Leadership and Management funding program for small business owners and managers is back, but with a different spin.

Call Linda on 0771 9439 229 or email linda@businesstalent.co.uk to discuss your eligibility and training requirements.

Download LM Employers’ Information Leaflet

If you own a company with 2 to 49 employees and you have been resident in the UK for the past three years you may be eligible for a leadership and management training grant of £1,000 which you must match with another £1,000 of your own funding (or £500 matched with £500). You can spend these funds on getting external coaching and training to help you expand your business management and leadership skills, or if you have more than 10 staff the grant can be spent on developing your staff.

There are a few other eligibility criteria which have just been revised (August 2011).

The funding is for companies with the potential for high growth, which is defined in terms of employee growth or turnover growth (see deatails below). If you have been in business for less than a year you are eligible if you expect to reach a turnover of £500k in three years.

Here is a short summary of the new eligibility criteria:

* The requirement for the CEO or equivalent to be the beneficiary
of the training has change so that organisations employing 10 or more
staff will be able to delegate to another direct report who has strategic
responsibility for the organisation (was 50 or more staff).

* The current “straight line” growth projection of turnover or
employment of 20% per year over 3 years (10% for Social Enterprises)
has changed to 60% growth projection over 3 years (30% for Social
Enterprises). The new requirement will allow for more “lumpy”
growth patterns for all sectors.

* The definition of Eligible Training is “development which will support beneficiaries to fully engage and optimise the contribution of their staff or areas such as Business Development Strategy which would impact directly on the performance of the WHOLE organisation and its capacity to grow. Therefore activity focussed on one function of the SME such as Admin, Finance, Sales or Marketing is not eligible”.

* Financial Training is eligible (but not financial software training),
and Strategic Business Planning is also eligible. Project Management is not supported.

These changes will help you to access the funding for development areas previously denied.

In order to demonstrate that your business has potential to grow rapidly you will need to have at least three of the following:

* Business Plan or Company Objectives
* Financial Projections
* Staffing Projections
* Evidence of New Contracts
* Order Book
* Forward Strategy document
* Investment or plans for investment in premises/equipment/staff
* Product/Service development activity
* Marketing or Exploiting plans
* Evidence of new funding/finance
* Other

In the past the scheme has been hugely popular partly because the application process is relatively fast and simple, especially in London where it can take as little as two weeks to secure grant approval.

There is no knowing how long this pot of funding will be available so grab it now if the fit is right for you.

Call Linda on 0771 9439 229 or email linda@businesstalent.co.uk to discuss your eligibility and training requirements.

Posted by admin at 11:35 pm Tagged with:
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