The UK Insurance Blog

If you want to survive the credit crunch, Nick James, proprietor of an online UK entrepreneur support site insists if you follow his sensible tips you won’t go far wrong.

According to his article “Cutting costs in the credit crunch” the best thing you can do is to ensure your business insurance is in order. He insists, the last thing you should do is to place your business at risk in an attempt to save money, so before anything else, now is a good time to get your business insurance in order.

Think things over carefully before making decisions; never act on rash decisions.

Strengthen your position by concentrating on providing an excellent customer service and looking at ways to reduce marginal costs. He insists we should avoid being tempted by short term solutions for they can often lead to nightmare in the long term.

With everybody feeling the pressure of higher prices and wanting to hold on to their money, it is up to small businesses especially to ensure they are not ignored when invoices are due for paying. Attention needs to be paid to cash flow in particular and if customers are struggling to pay their bills at least agree when they can pay you and put in place a late payment surcharge. Lack of cash flow is one of the chief causes for 60% of businesses failing in its first three years of operation.

The millionaire business adviser rules out the necessity of taking out a short term loan secured on your house in order to survive the crunch. He insists this is a risky solution especially at the present time and should be avoided if at all possible. If you do need assistance to tide you over, it would be better to take a small loan on the business rather than turning to the good old credit card to bail you out.

Saving money wherever possible is essential throughout these demanding times. One easy way to save money is to look at your internet and phone line provision. These companies are highly competitive with one another and will do their best to beat any other deals you are currently getting.

The message overall is to focus on running an efficient operation in order to live through the credit crunch.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I was reading the Hartlepool Mail and stumbled upon an interesting article about starting up in business. As someone just beginning myself I found it helpful. Apparently too many of us go diving in without a thought for planning and preparation. This article stated that about fifty per cent of new businesses fail within three years. What do we need to do to succeed? What are these failing business doing or not doing that they should?

According to the article, when setting up your business there are a few things to take into account, which in the end could be your saving force.

What are the golden rules in business? We need to know what they are to succeed. The article mentioned the best thing to do before starting was to prepare by seeking business advice and that this would be best heard from reputed organizations like Business Link and Business Gateway. These places would be able to recommend to practicalities of a business plan.

Right at the beginning you need to look at your personal qualities and how far you are willing to push yourself to make your new business a success. If you need to work day and night to get it off the ground, are you willing to do this? Are you happy to go out and find out if people really would buy your product? It is incredible how many new entrepreneurs believe they can work round the whole market research area. Without research preparation, you will not know your target market. Without knowing who your customers are, how will know how to reach them to sell your product? Will anybody even be interested in your product? It is a ‘Catch 22’ situation. You have got to do your market research!

Make sure you mug up on taxation too. Will you be registering for VAT and PAYE? What business insurance cover are you going to require? Get it all planned out at the beginning and there will be no scary surprises later on.

The message is clear, save yourself sleepless nights later on by being prepared and ready for whatever comes your way.