Administrator, Author at Small Business Insider

How to work more flexibly and remotely during the final weeks of summer

Posted on August 17, 2019 Written by Administrator

If you ask your team how many would love to be able to work somewhere other than the office over the next few weeks? What can you do to help them achieve this while keeping your business running smoothly and your customers happy?

Avoiding commuting and fewer distractions such as unnecessary meetings etc when combined with the right tech, can actually increase productivity within your business. Let’s look at what you need to make this happen.

Equipping your team to work remotely

Employee will need the right technology solutions in place. They cannot work unless they can get to the network, send and receive emails and access the internet. Let’s look at what they will need:

1. Network Access

Network access needs to be controlled to ensure your data is secure, but that doesn’t mean you cannot give remote access and remote working capability to your team.

If they are going to work remotely frequently, the simple choice is to give them a laptop instead of a desktop. Depending on your network setup, there are a number of tools you can use to connect your team to your network without compromising security:

· Office365 means your data lives in the Cloud and can easily be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. Generally, more suited to smaller businesses, but being adopted by more and more.

· VPN technologies, often with two-factor authentication, are declining in popularity, but if you still have a local server infrastructure, this belt and braces approach may be the right one for you.

If they are working from home, they will use their home internet connection. Make sure they have unlimited data packages so they don’t incur any big bills whilst working. If they are on the move, tethering to their phones and using the data packages is simple. 4G, and currently rolling out 5G, mean connection speeds are no longer an issue and dramatically increases the number of places they can work from. Local free WiFi provision, such as coffee shops and pubs, can provide that connectivity, but may be a security risk, so are best avoided.

2. Security

Absolutely vital in today’s world. Skimping on your IT security is a very dangerous thing to do. The proliferation of ransomware and other nasties means you would simply be running a risk that doesn’t make sense.

Endpoint protection from companies such as Sophos and ESET (https://www.eset.com) make it easy to secure any device that is connecting to your network, whether that is laptops, mobiles or even an employee’s personal machine. Many will allow you to wipe data in the event of a potential security breach too.

3. Communication

If communication is simply between staff, mobiles will often be sufficient. If clients need to talk to remote workers, and they need to talk to clients, you may need something a little better.

Most VoIP telephone solutions have multiple ways to connect your clients and employees:

· Mobile agents: an app on the mobile that converts the mobile to a desktop during the call, using the internet as the call carrier. This can sometimes work over the GSM network but will use the 4G when that employee is out and about.

· Softphones: if your employee is simply sat in front of the laptop, whilst working from home, a softphone app may be better. The laptop becomes the phone and the employee uses a headset

· Divert the calls: re-routing calls to and from mobiles can be done on most VoIP solutions. The number dialled by the client (and presented to them if the employee calls them) is the DDI or your company number rather than the mobile number.

4. Productivity

Project management and collaboration tools have been around for years now and continue to improve. Products such as Slack or Trello are probably the most well-known, allowing your teams to share information, instant message and allocate tasks with ease. Microsoft is fairly late to the party, with Microsoft Teams, but is rapidly capturing market share, particularly amongst Microsoft fans.

Remote working without one of these tools is significantly more difficult.

Being able to enjoy the rest of the summer may well involve some flexible hours. Employees may get up early to do it, or they may work into the evening. Unless they have, for example, a customer-facing role, when the work gets done shouldn’t matter. You have the opportunity to help them get the most from the rest of this summer and be all setup for next year as well.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Young is Director of independent telecoms brokerage Equinox. Gary works with companies, charities and other organisations to help them choose the right telecoms packages for their needs and thereby reduce their costs. He is particularly knowledgeable on the integration of IT and telecoms in business. www.equinoxcomms.co.uk

Twitter: @CommsEquinox

Crowdfunding has nothing to do with fundraising say 52% of start-ups in new survey

Posted on August 15, 2019 Written by Administrator

Why do start-ups use crowdfunding? You might think the answer is obvious but a recent survey we commissioned found some surprising answers. Our report reveals that over half of all businesses undertaking a crowdfunding campaign within the past three years did not rank raising capital as their key motivator.

The findings reflect issues with market perception among growth businesses as to what crowdfunding can do for them. It seems that the perceptions in the market are out of sync with the realities of what is actually happening. What is the next effect? Estimates of success rates indicate that they are as low as 45-55%.

Crowdfunding and ‘free marketing’ myth

Fifty-two per cent of respondents in the survey of 200 said that ‘brand exposure/customer acquisition/PR’ was a primary reason they decided to crowdfund with 24% giving it top ranking. However, when asked what they liked about crowdfunding after having run a campaign this drops dramatically with only 12% giving it a rank of number one. This indicates that expectations of ‘free marketing’ and swathes of new customers aren’t being met.

Beyond expectations, brand exposure through a crowdfunding website isn’t free for companies who are paying upfront fees and/or success fees.

The cost of internal resources on running the campaign are significant. On top of that, if you consider that the average raise in this sample was £332,300 and the average success fee in the market is 3 – 7%, cash-strapped companies would be paying £9,969 to over £23,000 in untargeted marketing spend.

Only 27% of respondents listed access to investors as their primary motive; putting it in 5^th position after: a perceived high success rate, the ability to provide their community with a stake in the business, the reputation of the crowdfunding site and it being a quick way to raise funds.

Why you need your own network

The myth of ‘free marketing’ was only one of many misconceptions uncovered by the survey. The data also clearly show that start-ups are still unaware of what is required to succeed at crowdfunding. When asked what companies liked about working with crowdfunding site, the ability to raise money through family and friends, received a low ranking for 60% of respondents. The reality is that most crowdfunding websites require companies to be a percentage funded before they gain access to the site’s investors and ‘go live’, so this is a critical part of every fundraise. It’s clear that this is not well understood in the market.

Most companies don’t understand just how difficult it is to raise equity. The market perception, that you can approach a crowdfunding website and just sit back and watch the investment pour in, persists. We need to educate start-ups that this is not the case. Naturally crowdfunding sites offer many advantages and there are some great success stories; however, the survey data shows us that companies are still not aware at just how much planning and legwork they themselves have to do.

Start-ups say crowdfunding needs to evolve

Despite the challenges, the idea of crowdfunding is here to stay with 71% of those who’d successfully raised funds indicating they would use the method again and 44% of those who didn’t meet with success saying that they would give it another try.

However, companies cited issues with the current model, namely; lack of control over who views business documents (42%), the inability to communicate directly with investors (38%), paying success fees for investment generated independently from my own sources (28%) and investors being charged to invest (28%).

With these frustrations, 80% of successful companies indicated they were ready for new approach – namely an off-the-shelf website that they could brand and control themselves in order to fundraise.

Crowdfunding is an excellent idea, but it hasn’t evolved since its start in 2011. Companies have grown in maturity since then and this is exactly why we developed Envestry for Scale-ups, our white-label, FCA regulated fundraising platform that empowers our companies – not the facilitators – to control their fundraise.

The survey was undertaken for us, In April 2019, by independent research specialist Coleman Parks. The participants who took part were two hundred businesses who’d used crowdfunding for equity financing within the past three years. If you’d like to read more you can access the report here: http://casestudies.envestors.co.uk.pages.services/Envestors-Crowdfunding-Survey/?ts=1563954577806

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Scott Haughton is COO of Envestors, a fintech company that connects investors and scale-up companies. With its fundraising platform Envestry for Scale-ups, companies get a personalised site to promote deals, raise finance and engage with their investors 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Envestry has raised £100m+ for over 200 companies through its own private investor network.

Founded in 2004, Envestors is regulated by the FCA and has offices in the UK, the Channel Islands, the UAE and strategic partners across China.

Web: https://www.envestors.co.uk/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/envestors-llp/

Twitter: @EnvestorsLondon

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/envestorslondon/posts/

The new approach to business fundraising

Posted on August 7, 2019 Written by Administrator

When you need to raise funds for business growth have you ever considered that you may be reducing your chances of success by using a model where time is limited arbitrarily?

Time is needed to raise capital and growth businesses are now realising the benefits of Always-on Fundraising, in which companies leave themselves open for investment 365 days a year.

An open funding round provides an opportunity to capitalise on any unexpected successes, gives the entrepreneur the best chance of finding their perfect investor(s) and with an investor relations mindset being a constant, follow-on funding. As the days of traditional, time-limited funding round are numbered let’s look at what you need to do to make the ‘always on’ model work for you and your business

Always on Fundraising – What needs to be done?

How does ‘Always on’ work in practical terms? While the concept is radically different some of the early steps will have a sense of familiarity, but you are looking at them through a different lens. Here are five key areas of activity:

What is your investment opportunity?

You need to start by defining your investment opportunity which includes deal structure, valuation, share price and your minimum and maximum investment levels.

Even though you’re ‘Always on’, you must have clearly defined investment levels. This benefits all parties. Your minimum investment level protects investors by ensuring that you have a significant cashflow runway to execute on your plans and projections while the maximum level dictates the total number of shares you are willing to sell at that price, protecting the shareholders from dilution.

Get the right tools in place

You need an FCA-regulated environment in order to promote your investment opportunity, accept pledges and draw investment. The new breed of White-label platforms like Envestry for Scale-ups, provide off-the-shelf functionality to allow companies to create a branded fundraising portal that easily links to their current site. With FCA-coverage built-in, companies can focus on the hard work of attracting investment rather than regulatory fine print.

Promote, promote and promote

With your fundraising site up and running, it’s time to promote your investment opportunity. Before you do anything, think about the investor journey by type. For example, personal connections who may be new to investing will need more guidance as they go through the process than experienced investors. To accommodate those new to investing, how-to guides, investment glossaries and frequently asked questions are imperative. Whereas, your communications to experienced investors can focus on the why instead of the what.

Have a first close

Once you hit your minimum investment level, you can do a first close and draw down the pledges, while keeping your round open. This allows you to start fuelling your growth while continuing to attract investment to your maximum level. Up until you reach your maximum you can continue to draw down funds at significant intervals as they come in.

Close a round; open the next

While the name ‘Always on’ might imply one continuous round, the best way of using this approach is via a series of back to back rounds (tranches). As a growing business you will want to change your valuation and share price to reflect the progress you have made. It is worth noting that on rare occasions businesses may also reduce share price, known as a ‘down round’.

So, when is the best time to close one round and open another one? Clearly, once maximum investment level has been reached, the round will have to be closed. Beyond that, anything significant which justifies an increase in valuation, such as a securing a large new contract, reaching a customer milestone or securing regulatory approval on a product, should prompt you to close the round and open a new round at a higher share price.

It makes a lot of sense for businesses to use the Always on Model particularly if they are generally raising funds every six to eighteen months. In future I expect it to be the norm for all companies from seed through to sale to have a section of their website devoted to ‘investor relations’. A section which should attract interest from both loyal and new investors.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Envestry has raised £100m+ for over 200 companies through its own private investor network.

Founded in 2004, Envestors is regulated by the FCA and has offices in the UK, the Channel Islands, the UAE and strategic partners across China.

Web: https://www.envestors.co.uk/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/envestors-llp/

Twitter: @EnvestorsLondon

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/envestorslondon/posts/

How can you put energy back into a slowing crowdfunding effort?

Posted on August 1, 2019 Written by Administrator

I’ve seen a vast array of businesses run crowdfunding campaigns in wide variety of industry sectors. It can be surprising which campaigns capture the imagination of investors, and rocket towards their target, and which falter midway through.

Why is this? One of the main differences is timing. If the market isn’t ready for your product, regulation holds back earning potential, or your ideal investors are distracted with another campaign, your campaign won’t get the investment you seek. With any luck, your market research will highlight these potential issues before you go live and you can adjust your timing accordingly.

Often, it’s simply an issue of momentum, where not enough lead investment has come on to give the wider crowd confidence in a business. Or a campaign experiences the dreaded ‘pitch death’ when it doesn’t get any investment for a few days, causing the founders to lose all morale.

Other campaigns, however, may be struggling due to poor communication or a lack of outbound marketing messages. You can’t expect enough investors to find your campaign organically in order to reach your target and, if investors simply aren’t aware of your campaign, they won’t be able to fund it.

Good, consistent marketing messages can help hammer home those key benefits, explain features and revenue streams, and grow your reputation as a business that can get things done.

If you find your campaign stalls here are some actions to rescue the situation and engage investors.

A charm offensive

Both LinkedIn and the Angel Investment Network (AIN) are ideal places to find investors. Advanced searches allow you to be very targeted in who you reach out to and means you can create tailored messages to each potential investor group.

With LinkedIn, you’ll need to create a short invitation to connect message of 300 characters at most, followed by a longer message for new and existing connections explaining your proposition. LinkedIn messenger isn’t the most user-friendly place to read longer messages, so try and keep it as concise as possible while still including the key information, such as:

The problem you are solving and your solution ‒ one or two short sentences
Your key USPs ‒ one sentence
Market size ‒ something short to pique their interest
Traction so far ‒ these could be 3-4 bullet points
Call to action ‒ usually a question for them to respond to, such as “Would you like to arrange a short call so I can answer any questions you may have?”

While you can’t attach files directly to LinkedIn messages, you can include links. We often use solutions like DocSend to include a copy of an executive summary in the message, providing potential investors with even more information and a taste of your branding.

AIN is very similar, except you can be even more targeted in your search and you know everyone on the platform is an active investor. Instead of invitations to connect, you’ll need to draft a short nudge message of up to 5000 characters which will lead potential investors to your campaign page on the AIN site. There they will be able to download key documents and see your entire campaign, so linking to your executive summary isn’t necessary.

Reaching out and engaging potential investors directly is one of the most effective ways to draw attention to your crowdfunding campaign and opens you up to their extended network as well.

Positioning your PR

Writing article for the press can be one of the most effective marketing tactics for any crowdfunding campaign. But instead of thinking of it as an opportunity to talk about your product and crowdfunding raise, you should consider how to hook your ideal investors and educate them on your market.

We meet a lot of founders who just want to promote their product or service – that’s called advertising, and understandably you’ll be asked to pay to place an advert.

Instead, find an angle that will capture the attention of the publication’s audience ‒ your potential investors. Make it useful and genuinely interesting, solve an issue they might have, and show how your solution can do it faster, cheaper and/or easier.

Positioning your PR articles in this way will get the widest adoption by relevant press. The byline and ‘about the author’ section are where you can mention your business and crowdfunding raise, gaining your campaign much-needed traffic.

Making use of social advertising

Advertising on social media networks, like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, allows you to target users based on very specific parameters, delivering different messages to each. As such, social ads can be fantastic at addressing the different concerns of different investor groups.

Perhaps one audience is more concerned with saving time while another cares more about saving money. Perhaps you have a two-sided marketplace that benefits businesses and customers. Social ads are short, punchy ways to deliver these messages directly to the most relevant audience.

The main benefit of social ads, however, is that they can perfectly complement your PR and outreach messages. They are regular reminders of your business, your idea, and your campaign.

Say a LinkedIn investor sees your outreach message, searches your brand name on Google, and sees a bunch of press articles you’ve written. Perhaps they download your executive summary to read later before becoming distracted. Adverts popping up on LinkedIn and Twitter, for example, would then remind them of your brand and proposition, bringing them back to your original message for a follow-up.

Facebook ads can even be used to promote the PR coverage you gain from your articles, helping enhance your reputation through third-party content whilst educating your marketplace. They really are the perfect complement to your other marketing activities.

Wherever you are in the process: planning a campaign, in the early days, mid-way through and experiencing a dip you need to use these marketing activities and get attention and interest. Don’t use all your fire power immediately. Hold little back in case your crowdfunding needs a mid-campaign boost.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Auckland is a crowdfunding specialist and founder of TribeFirst, a global equity crowdfunding communications agency that has helped raise in excess of £17m for over 50 companies on major equity crowdfunding platforms, with a greater than 90% success rate.

TribeFirst is the world’s first dedicated marketing communications agency to support equity crowdfunding campaigns and the first in the UK to provide PR and Marketing campaigns on a mainly risk/reward basis.

John is also Virgin StartUp’s crowdfunding trainer and consultant, helping them to run branded workshops, webinars and programmes on crowdfunding. John is passionate about working with start-ups and sees crowdfunding as more than just raising funds; it’s an opportunity to build a loyal tribe of lifelong customers and supporters.

Twitter: @Tribe1st

What steps can business owners take to reduce accountancy fees?

Posted on July 25, 2019 Written by Administrator

If you own a small business it’s easy to get caught up in doing bookkeeping yourself to try and save costs. However, when you have lot to do this can eat into your free time, and it’s probably not your favourite way to spend your weekends.

So how do you strike a balance and prepare your books correctly in order to reduce your accountancy bills, without it eating into your weekends?

Here some way to save time and money:

Talk to your accountant

Ask your accountant what you can do to lower your accountancy fees. The aim is not to take on more work at the expense of your weekends or family life. Most accountants do offer packages and it might be that you can get the year-end accounts and tax return work at half price. Or they could simply take over all your paperwork chores, produce regular management accounts and handle your VAT and payroll requirements. In return you get your end of year accounts done and filed for FREE. If the bulk of the work is completed and there are no additional complications or work at the year end, I see no reason why the accounts cannot be filed at no cost to you.

Get a format agreed

If you’re happy to do the books, then agree the format with your accountant. For example, should you to simply keep record of income and expenses on excel? Do they want you to use a particular software? Do they want you to reconcile the books by applying “Double Entry” bookkeeping? Unless you are a professional bookkeeper or a member of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers, please do not attempt double entry bookkeeping. You may end up paying for the accountant to rectify errors. You may even end up with some tax issues.

Use bookkeeping services

You can use a professional bookkeeper to prepare the books. Fees will be lower than an accountant’s. Shortlist a few and involve your accountant in the process if possible. You want to avoid a situation where you pay for the same work twice because the format and quality of the bookkeeping is not at a level to enable the accountant to produce the accounts at a cheaper rate. Or the bookkeeper and the accountants use different systems.

Make records as simple and streamlined as you can

Whether you use an accountant, a bookkeeper or do it yourself, avoid complicated record keeping and streamline your transactions. Things you can do include having a dedicated business account, using the bank for most transactions, avoid using the business bank account for personal expenses, avoid multiple bank accounts or credit cards and have all your records in once place (preferably in a digital format).

Use Receipt Capture System

There are some good apps including Auto Entry and Receipt Bank that allow you to capture these receipts on the go and send them directly to your accountant. You can even ask your suppliers to send their invoices to the app to free up your inbox a bit.

Use Cloud Bookkeeping

FreeAgent, QuickBooks, Xero and the like, have transformed how bookkeeping is done. If you do it yourself use one of these platforms to save time and accountancy fees. Some accountancy firms may even cover the cost within their packaged services. Again, agree with your accountant where your bookkeeping duties would end.

Use automation where you can

You can now authorise your bank to send bank transaction to a cloud bookkeeping platform. You can also set a rule to say that if a direct debit payment goes to, say Aviva, then this should be analysed as insurance. Imagine how much time and fees you can save by doing this. However, don’t assume everything will be correct. It will need checking.

Pick a good time to send in your records

Did you know you can ask for a lower accountancy fee if you prepare your books for your accountants at their quietest times? Accountants have peak times as many businesses have December & March year-ends, plus the Tax Return deadline in January. Avoid these times and ask your accountant if you’ll get a discount if you send in your books before the rush.

EPOS integration

If you run a retail or restaurant business and you’re using a cloud bookkeeping platform, then why not go a step further and get an EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) and inventory system that integrates with your chosen cloud platform and helps you keep track of stock? Platforms such us Vend, Izettle and others should be considered. A key area that often causes issues with the accounting process is the value of your stock. Where you or your accountant spends less time on this area, you can both save time and costs.

Conclusion

Make use of workshops from HMRC and the free videos from reputable accounting firms to enhance your knowledge.

Always try to get the best deal from your accountants but also remember they can add value to your business so do your part well and get them to spend more time on business advice/tax planning.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jonathan Amponsah CTA FCCA is an award-winning chartered tax adviser and accountant who has advises business owners on entrepreneurial tax reliefs. Jonathan is the founder and CEO of The Tax Guys. www.thetaxguys.co.uk

How can you go about creating a new luxury brand in the spirits sector?

Posted on July 23, 2019 Written by Administrator

After years of innovation stagnation, every traditional category of spirit has evolved in the past 15 years. Consumers are demanding higher quality and more interesting flavour profiles.

Over a 15-year period, while my business partner and I started to create our new spirit, the question became: How do we create something that is truly unique?

In this article, I explore our approach to this question and provide thoughts on bringing a unique spirit to market…

1. Inspiration

For many years, I spent a lot of time writing a novel that takes place in Venice. Our new spirit, Cadello, was born from the question: “What spirit would wealthy 18^th century Venetian merchants have served at their lavish masked balls?”

A product that created from your passions will ensure that what you create is truly individual and unique. It will provide a starting point for a spirit and brand that is unequivocally yours.

2. Flavour

When creating something that doesn’t yet exist in the market, it is important to experiment, test, taste and solicit relevant independent feedback (over and over and over again). It is also necessary to push the boundaries and try every conceivable combination of ingredients and flavours imaginable. Once we found the right distillation partner in Italy, we spent 3 years working together to find the highest quality, natural ingredients in the right combination to create a flavour profile that was completely unique, smooth and complex.

Today, it is vital for new spirits to be truly different from anything else available. It is obviously also essential to use the highest quality ingredients and the appropriate extraction method for each ingredient to achieve the optimal result.

3. Production

For 18 months, we met with twenty to thirty distilleries in Italy before selecting our partner: Distilleria Pisoni.

Distilleria Pisoni is a 150 year-old family-owned distillery that employed its vast experience to work with us for three years to create a truly unique production process and recipe. Their contributions were invaluable to Cadello.

Whether you produce in-house or partner with a third party distiller, it goes without saying that having people with the right experience, expertise and passion will ultimately make the difference between producing a good product or a great product.

4. Business Relationships

Producing a spirit, like any product, requires many steps and many external partners. You need to source ingredients, distil your spirit, bottle it, add well-designed labels and export, distribute, market and sell to different countries.

To ensure the smoothest and most reliable supply chain, it is highly recommended to choose each of your partners and suppliers wisely. We insist that our partners adhere to the following three criteria:

1. Do they possess the best possible experience and expertise?

2. Are they passionate about our business?

3. Could we develop a friendship with them?

While the first two are critical (and obvious), for us, the third element is equally important. You want to know that the people you are dealing with are people you like and trust. Our partnership with the Pisoni family has developed into a close friendship. When issues arise, we discuss them as friends, knowing that we will always find a mutually agreeable solution.

5. Branding

Getting your branding right is critical. What do you want to evoke as your customers drink your product? How does that feed into the packaging and label? Make sure everything communicates your brand in a consistent and appealing way.

We wanted every aspect of the Cadello experience to connect back to 18th century Venetian masked balls.

The name ‘Cadello’ is a derivation of sorts. In Venice, casa is abbreviated to ‘ca. We wanted to name our new spirit after a Venetian palace where grand masked balls would have been held. Hence… Ca’ Dello… Cadello.

Our logo is a “Ferro Dragon”. The head of the logo is a dragon, representing China (several of our ingredients come from the old Silk Route). The tail of the logo is a ‘ferro’ (the distinct prow of a Venetian gondola) which represents Italy.

The ‘88’ on our bottle represents the fact that we have 8 ingredients and, in Chinese culture, 88 is the luckiest number. We added a mask in the background to represent the masked balls of 18^th century Venice.

Start from basic principles: Why did you create your spirit and for whom? Then consider your brand as a whole, including your brand name, before drilling down into the specifics like the bottle and label design.

6. Test the Market

We believe that it’s important to test your spirit before launching it on the market.

We tested Cadello in Switzerland for 7 months. While Switzerland was never intended to be a core market, we wanted to gauge reactions before we formally launched Cadello in the UK in Sept 2018.

You should be prepared to take on board feedback and develop your product or brand accordingly. It may feel like a sacrifice, but you’ll end up with a better product for it.

The market for high quality products has been growing perhaps faster than ever – and there is demand for more. To make a genuine success out of your creations, however, it takes more than a nice tasting spirit. You need a well-developed brand and story behind it. Good luck!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Matt Dunn is co-founder of Cadello,a new, category-defining spirit produced by a 150year-old family-owned distillery in Italy. A unique flavour combining eight ingredients, Cadello is perfect served neat or in cocktails.

Web: www.cadello88.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cadello88

Crowdcube: https://www.crowdcube.com/companies/cadello/pitches/qQX6wb

Launch of new lifestyle fundraising App Chatraise helping turn hobbies into fundraising events

Posted on July 19, 2019 Written by Administrator

A new app that allows like-minded people in the same area to organise charity fundraising events based on their hobbies launches the UK this week (18th of July).

Incorporating elements of JustGiving and Meetup, Chatraise is a community platform that helps users looking to turn their hobbies into fundraising events – whether it’s by setting up an event or joining an existing one. Chatraise connects those who want to raise money with those who are looking for fun activities to take part that also helps their favourite charities.

The platform allows users to explore and join fundraising experiences that fit their lifestyle, including activities they may have always wanted to try.

Founder Emmanuel Linardatos refers to this as Lifestyle Fundraising® – the process of raising money for charity through everyday activities. Linardatos was inspired to create the platform after finding a lack of variety in charity events, with the majority catering to a select few interests.

“Fundraising is currently dominated by one-off events or challenges such as skydiving, distance runs and exotic treks,” explained Linardatos. “As these events don’t fit everyone’s lifestyle, they discourage many people from raising money for good causes.

“Those who like to raise money through these types of events also struggle to reach their target. This makes sense, considering that they’re asking people to sponsor them without giving them the chance to be part of the experience. Only the fundraiser has the fun.”

This perceived lack of diversity in donor-led fundraising events limits the potential income of the charitable sector and its ability to solve big issues.

“Chatraise brings people together to make friends, have fun, and change the world in the process.”

Chatraise allows fundraisers to create almost any type of event to raise funds for a chosen charity. These can include yoga sessions, workshops, short runs, or even music festivals. Other users in their area are then able to browse events on the platform and donate to the charity in order to join them. The platform connects those who want to raise money with those who are looking for fun activities to take part that also helps their favourite charities.

Last year, UK charities received more than £10bn^[i] from individual donors. However, as Linardatos notes, while this number is massive, it does not come close to solving the issues that charities are trying to tackle.

He believes that the UK launch of Chatraise, which also coincides with an equity crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube, will help to kickstart a global Lifestyle Fundraising® movement.

“Individual fundraising and donations play the most important role for most charities,” he said. ”So, if we want to seriously address issues that we care about, individual fundraising should get the attention it deserves.”

Linardatos added: “Individuals should not have to go out of their way to fundraise or make a donation. The fundraising sector should put the donor first by making it as easy as possible to create and join genuinely fun activities that fit into many different lifestyles, rather than those happy to go for a run or jump out of a plane!”.

Following the successful soft-launch of its pilot app, Chatraise will launch in the UK an^[ii]d Switzerland with more than 100,000 charities on the 4th of July.

Chatraise was founded in 2017 by Emmanuel Linardatos, a Lancaster University business graduate and COO of Linardatos Publishers for six years. He helped to turn the publishing company to profitability and make it the sector’s second-biggest firm in less than two years.

About Chatraise

Chatraise is a Lifestyle Fundraising platform which combines JustGiving and Meetup in one app, allowing its users to create and join events based on the activities they love.

Home

Tweets by chatraise

https://www.instagram.com/chatraise/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/linardatos/

www.crowdcube.com/chatraise

Citations

https://www.cafonline.org/docs/default-source/about-us-publications/caf-uk-giving-2019-report-an-overview-of-charitable-giving-in-the-uk.pdf

Expenses pitfalls to avoid when completing your businesses taxes

Posted on July 18, 2019 Written by Administrator

The general rule that says you can claim all expenses incurred wholly and exclusively for the purpose of your business looks as if it should be simple apply, but the reality is more complicated.

Let me share a sample of the surprising things your business cannot tax deduct.

Sponsorship

Sponsoring an event is an area that might surprise you. HMRC will disallow the cost if they can show that perhaps the sporting field you are sponsoring is a director’s, partner’s or proprietor’s regular hobby or if the party being sponsored is a relative of the business owner, or if there is no proposed or actual return on investment from the sponsorship.

So, the trick here is to ensure that the sponsorship deal is structured correctly and there is a clear commercial benefit for your business.

Travel

Let’s assume that you operate as a self-employed doctor or sole trader rather than limited company. You have a home-based office. You travel to see different patients or clients on a regular basis. Your journey starts from your office (at home) and includes a few itinerant travels from one client to the other client. Can you claim the full travel expenses? Logic will tell us that yes. However, the rules deem the travel from your home office to patients / clients as ordinary commuting and therefore not tax deductible.

Client Entertainment

As part of your sales and marketing, you decide to take clients to a relaxed restaurant to discuss new business. The purpose is to negotiate and generate new business. The income will be taxed so the expenses should be ok to put through the business, right? Unfortunately, the rules specifically disallow these expenses to be claimed against tax. Part of the reason behind this is that you could have had the same conversation over a cup of tea in the office, plus there is an element of personal benefit in the entertainment.

Promotional Gifts

It’s true that nothing ever happens in business until a product or a service is promoted and sold. And when it’s sold at a profit, tax gets collected accordingly. However, if you promote your business by spending too much money on promotional gifts to customers and the gifts cost more than £50 per customer, you won’t be able to deduct these costs against your income. Even where the gift cost £50 or less, make sure it carries a conspicuous advert for your business.

Clothes for Work

Imagine you’re a barrister and you’ve purchase your gown to be worn in court. You don’t wear this gown in public. Can you go ahead and claim the cost of the gown against your tax? Not according to the famous tax case of Mallalieu v Drummond which established that “no deduction is available from trading profits for the costs of clothing which forms part of an ‘everyday’ wardrobe. This remains so even where the taxpayer can show that they only wear such clothing in the course of their profession.”

However, some protective and work clothing with logos and other business branding are claimable. If in doubt, speak with a tax accountant.

Staff Reward via Trust

Your staff are well engaged within your business and you want to reward them. You decide to make payment into a Trust to demonstrate that the money has been earmarked for them and waiting to be paid when they hit their targets.

As the money has been paid out of your bank account to the Trust, can you claim it as a legitimate business or staff expenses? Unfortunately, not. Because of a specific tax avoidance rule, this legitimate expense cannot be claimed.

Parking Fines

Your business is delivering some items to a customer. The driver parks for a few minutes and get a parking ticket. Surely the reason for the fine is because of business activity so it should fall under the wholly and exclusive for the purpose of business rule? Not quite. Fines incurred for breaking the rules are disallowed.

Legal Expenses

Not all legal costs are tax deductible. For example, fees in connection with the purchase of a business premises or investing in shares are disallowed.

In addition, fees that have both personal and business elements may fail the wholly and exclusive test. And legal costs associated with breaking the law are also disallowed. For example, where you’ve got a parking fine and you decide to call your lawyer to defend the case and you lose, you won’t be able to claim the legal fees.

Wages to Spouse or Kids

A great way to keep more of your cash within the family is to employ your spouse and kids. And there is nothing wrong with this plan. However, where you pay family members over and above the market rate, where they don’t actually perform any task for the business or where you’ve structured this working arrangement incorrectly with no evidence or paperwork to back up your plan, HMRC will not allow their salaries to be put through the business. Do take care with this as it’s currently a hot spot for HMRC enquiries.