If you’re self-employed you’ll be well aware of the different and sometimes confusing financial rules which apply to you compared to your otherwise employed friends.  Like with most things, your pension will also be different, since you’re self-employed and pay lower rates of national insurance.  Conventionally, each person is entitled to a basic state pension, [...]

Article contributed by Danielle Starting a small business is immensely challenging, and growing your start-up into a successful, profitable business is even more difficult. Statistics from the Small Business Association Office of Advocacy show that 50% of small businesses fail within the first five years. Although these numbers may seem daunting, having a sound business plan and [...]

Whether you own a retail establishment, provide salon services, or run a restaurant, outdated equipment, close quarters, and a nearly non-existent advertising budget can have a negative effect on your profit margins, even if day-to-day business is brisk. It’s easy to offer expansion as a solution, but harder to finance that new space, purchase that [...]

It is misleadingly believed, that requests of business loans for women are turned down. ‘The reason is that banks and other financial institutions do not take them seriously due to their Gender. As a result of which they lag behind in building businesses on their own.’ This assumption is obviously not true. Many loan requests [...]

Anyone who has read (or seen) the news in the last couple of years would know that the UK has a problem with lending to small businesses. To a certain extent this problem is understandable, after all, the banks lent too much and too riskily, and in doing so precipitated the biggest financial crisis for [...]