Category: <span>Small business</span>

As a business owner, there’s no telling when an urgent matter will suddenly rear its head. Whether it’s a website going down or a delay to an important delivery, you’ll need staff to rally around to put things right.

But what if some key stakeholders are away from the office, maybe working from home? There’s no time to call everyone into the workplace. That’s where a conference call can help out.

Conference calling Small business

If you’re a business owner, you’ve probably been worried about soaring energy bills. The government’s new Energy Bills Discount Scheme took effect on April 1 but, just like the scheme it replaced, it’s not a price cap – so how does it work?

News Small business

Midnight on Tuesday, January 31 is the deadline for online, self-assessment tax returns – meaning that if you’re self-employed or another type of self-assessment taxpayer, you have until tomorrow night for filing your 2021-22 taxes.

If you were hoping to send in a paper tax return, you’ve missed the cut-off by a couple of months, as the deadline was October 31, 2022 – so you’ll have to get everything sorted online instead.

And while tax returns are never the top of anyone’s to-do list – anything seems preferable to sorting out your tax – if you don’t file and pay your return by the deadline, you could find yourself hit with some hefty fines.

Guides & How-Tos Small business

Cybercrime has been on the rise since the pandemic. More of us have had to make online purchases, which means scammers have more opportunity to defraud us.

If you regularly make online payments, whether for goods or services, you’ll need to watch out for the latest technique fraudsters are using to get their hands on your money – push payment fraud.

Figures from UK Finance, the banking trade body, have revealed that £236 million was lost to push payment fraud, with banks unable to return nearly three-quarters (74%) of the lost money.

In the vast majority of cases (88%) it was individual consumers who were conned out of their money, with an average loss of £2,784. The remaining cases were made up of businesses, who lost an average of £24,335 each.

News Small business Technology

Conference calling News Small business Work from home

If your business is planning Christmas drinks and parties while getting ready for the seasonal wind-down, the atmosphere around the office will be getting very Christmassy over the next couple of weeks. But spare a thought for those freelancers who work tirelessly all year but never get to see any of the fun stuff.

OK, they don’t have to contend with the commute or the office politics, and they can work in their pyjamas should the fancy take them, but that doesn’t mean those that work from home should be left out of the festive revelry.

So, this year, why not get your freelancers involved in the festive fun?

Guides & How-Tos Small business Work from home

If December has crept up on you once again and you’re massively underprepared for the inevitable Christmas madness, the good news is that you’re still not too late to catch the last post (to UK addresses, at least).

If your business does rely on the postal service, it helps to know when the final postal dates are. These dates may be earlier than previous years as they’ll be affected by strike action. Here’s all you need to know.

Around the world News Small business

Given the problems that business owners have had over the past few years, from the pandemic to the current cost of living crisis, there’s a good chance that many have used up some or all of their emergency fund or taken out credit to keep ticking over.

If you’ve ever tried to get a loan or credit card, you’ll be well aware the importance that your personal  credit score plays – if you’re after the best deals, you have to work hard to get your score up to the required level. But what about your business credit score?

Guides & How-Tos Small business

We really do have  the UK’s simplest conference calling service – a landline or mobile phone is all you need to call up to 100 participants from across the globe. There are no contracts, no monthly fees and no reservations to worry about.

We also want to make sure you know about the best tech to use when making a conference call, so here are the top three conference call phones for 2022.

Conference calling Small business Technology

It looks like we’re headed for a heatwave next week, with temperatures in London set to hit 24°C – not ideal for life in an office. If you have to endure a suffocating commute, or your packed into a crowded office for the best part of the day, then you’ll be well within your rights to complain that it’s just too hot – especially if you’re forced to wear a suit for work.

So, as an employer, is it time you implemented a summer dress code, to lighten the mood and help keep things cool as the temperature rises? And should non-customer facing staff be able to wear what they like to work in, as they can when they work from home?

Flexible working Guides & How-Tos Small business Work from home