WE ARE YOUR EXPERTS

Startup consulting services can be varied and the exact help and advice that you need will depend on the type of business you are setting up. Whatever your business idea, our startup consulting can help you to achieve it. Let's take a look at some of the things that we can do for you.

Deciding on your business structure

There is more than one way to structure a business. And deciding on your business structure is an important step in creating your own business. The different types of business structure have important implications for how your business is run, your liability for debts, and how you manage profits.

Sole trader

A sole trader operates as an individual. There is no legal distinction between the owner of the business and the business entity itself. For all intents and purposes, the business is you (and you can even use your personal bank account as your business bank account). What this means is that you will be able to keep all of the profits after you have paid the appropriate amount of tax on them but it also means that you will be personally responsible for all business losses.

Partnership

In a business partnership, you will be going into business with one or more other people. The other people can either be actual people or a limited company. In a partnership, all partners personally share responsibility for the losses and bills of the business as well as its profits (and each pays tax on their own share).

Limited liability partnership (LLP)

A limited liability partnership (LLP) is very different from a normal partnership, although there are some similarities. In an LLP, the business is shared between one or more people (or companies) and each pays their own tax on their own profits. Where it differs, however, is that no one is personally liable for any debts that the business can't pay.

Limited company

There are two types of limited companies: companies that are limited by shares and companies that are limited by guarantee. With both, the company is legally separate from the people who run it and the finances are separate from your personal ones.

A company that is limited by shares is a business that makes a profit. It has shares and shareholders and the profits can be kept after tax has been paid. A company that is limited by guarantee is a not-for-profit company. Instead of shares and shareholders, it has guarantors and a guaranteed amount. Any profits must be put back into the company.

Helping with HMRC

Any new business must be registered with HMRC. We can help you with the registration to ensure that it is done properly. We can also help you with paying tax, regardless of the type of business you are starting up.

You will need to fill in a Self Assessment tax return after the end of every tax year (5th April). This tells HMRC how much money you have made that year and will determine how much Income Tax you will need to pay. We can help you to prepare your accounts and fill in your tax return to ensure that it is done correctly and that you include any deductible expenses that you are entitled to.

If your VAT taxable turnover is over £85,000 per year (or is predicted to be), you will also need to fill in a VAT tax return every three months (known as the accounting period). Again, our consulting services can help you to prepare your accounts and fill in your VAT tax return to ensure that it is all correct.

Helping with business planning

We are business experts and can help you with all aspects of business strategy. This can include coming up with a comprehensive business plan, creating a business model, and solidifying your business objectives. Employing the help of business startup services to get all of these details in place can be invaluable.

A business plan is a document that clearly sets out your business objectives, clarifies your business idea, and lays out how to measure your business goals. It also helps you to spot any potential problems that could arise in the future. This document isn't only useful for your own business planning and strategy, but it can also be used to present to potential investors. Our business startup services can help you to make sure that this document is clear and detailed enough to truly capture the plan for your new business.

Helping with Companies House

Not every new business needs to register with Companies House. If you are a sole trader or you are in a general partnership then you won't need to do this. This is because in these cases the business is not a separate legal entity from the people who own the business.

If your business startup involves company formation and is a limited company or an LLP, then you will need to register with Companies House, and you will be registered for Corporation Tax at the same time. After registration, you will receive a Certificate of Incorporation which demonstrates that the company legally exists and gives you a company number, as well as a date of formation.

Once you are registered with Companies House, you will need to file your accounts with them every year. These are documents that are prepared at the end of every financial year that demonstrate how well the company has performed.

Our startup consulting services can help you both with your initial registration to Companies House, as well as with your ongoing annual accounts filing with them.

Helping with finances

Managing your finances is essential if you want your new business startup to be successful and a lot goes into making sure that finances are managed effectively. Our business startup services can help you to get your finances organised and provide ongoing background support to keep them accurate.

Cash flow projections

A cash flow projection is an important part of small business financial planning. Cash flow is the money that moves in and out of a company and having a solid forecast of what your cash flow is going to look like will help to make sure that you don't run into a situation where you have more money going out than you have coming in. And it can help you decide when the best moment is for any expansion plans that you have.

Budgeting

Closely related to cash flow planning, budgeting is a spending plan based on your income and expenses. Having an accurate budget can help you to decide how much money you can afford to spend, work out whether you can afford business expansion activities, and help you to see if you are meeting your financial goals.

Finance applications

Properly thought-out borrowing can provide more opportunities for your business to grow and develop. Our business startup services can help to identify the best finance opportunities and help you to submit accurate and comprehensive finance applications that will give you the best chance of getting approved. They can also help you to decide if business finance is the best way of achieving your business goals.

Banking

If you are a sole trader or in a general partnership, you won't need to open a separate bank account from your personal one. This is because, in the eyes of HMRC, you and your business are legally the same person. Some people still prefer to open a separate business bank account, however, even if just to make it easier to keep track of finances.

If you have gone through company formation and you are part of a limited company or an LLP, you will need a separate business bank account from your personal one. This is because you and your company are legally separate entities.

Our startup consulting services can help you to decide on the right business bank account for you and to give advice on how to manage it.

Helping with accounting

Business startup services almost always overlap with accounting services because accounting is such a key component of running a successful business. Keeping your accounts in order is the backbone of everything else in your business. Your startup business consultant can help you with your accounting in a variety of ways.

Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping is the recording of financial transactions related to your business. Bookkeeping should account for every single day that your business is running and having accurate bookkeeping in place will ensure that all of the rest of your accounting is accurate. It also allows external organisations (e.g. auditors, investors) to be able to clearly understand your business finances.

Management accounts

Management accounts are similar to end-of-year reports but they aren't as formal and they are not legally required. They are financial reports that are compiled and presented to people within the business organisation, such as managers or business owners. These reports can help with strategic decision-making as well as demonstrate the financial health of the business.

Management accounts are often produced more frequently than annual reports, often every month or every quarter. They often include profit and loss sheets as well as balance sheets, but they are very flexible. They can be tailored to the specific needs of the business so that they include the information that's most important to you.

Management accounts are important no matter what stage your business is in and our business startup consulting services can help to produce these accounts as well as decide where they should be targeted and what information should be included.

Auditing

Auditing can either be completed internally or externally. External auditors are independent accountants that examine a company's financial statements. This is often in order to obtain a certification for these statements that can be presented to investors or lenders. The auditor will determine how accurate and complete the company's accounting records are, whether they are in accordance with the relevant accounting frameworks, and whether they accurately present the company's financial health. A startup business consultant can help you to ensure that your financial records are accurate in preparation for an external audit.

Internal auditing is similar to external auditing in that it is an examination of the accuracy of the financial records of a company. The main difference between external and internal auditing is who the intended audience is and what the motivation behind the audit is. Internal auditing is reported to people within the company and it can help to make sure that the financial records are accurate, help to mitigate risk, identify cost-saving opportunities, and ensure that the records are compliant with regulations. We can help you with your internal auditing needs to ensure that you have the knowledge you need to help your business continue to be a success.

Accounting Software

If you are a business startup, you may not have looked into accounting software. Our startup consulting services can advise you on the best accounting software for you. Finding the right software for your new business type and your specific business needs will help you to ensure that your accounting is organised, and can be a real time-saver.

Payroll and payslips

If you are a sole trader or if your new business is small and won't have any employees, you don't need to worry about payroll and payslips. If, on the other hand, you will be employing people then having solid payroll and payslip processes will be key to getting your startup business running.

For business owners your payroll responsibilities are important and there are set tasks that you will need to complete each tax month (runs from the 5th of one month to the 6th of the next month). All employers will use the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system to calculate their employees' tax and National Insurance deductions.

There is a variety of payroll software available that can help you to run payroll and create and distribute payslips to your employees. Our startup consulting services can help you to find the right payroll software for you, advise you on how to set up and run payroll, and keep you informed of your responsibilities as an employer.

Within your payroll software (before your employees' payday), you will need to:

• record your employees' pay
• calculate their tax and National Insurance deductions
• calculate your own National Insurance contributions if they earn over £184 per week
• report and the pay and deductions to HMRC

After the 6th of the next month, you will need to:

• claim the reduction on what you will owe HMRC
• pay HMRC what you owe by the 22nd of the month

You will also need to calculate Statutory Sick Pay, and any statutory parental pay (e.g. maternity, paternity, adoption pay, etc).

Of course, there is much more to setting up new businesses and running existing businesses than keeping your accounting in order. For most people, helping their business to grow is an important part of their business model. Our startup consulting services can provide you with the expertise and industry knowledge to help small businesses and larger businesses alike fulfil their full potential.

Helping with marketing

Marketing is an important business activity that is just as useful for small businesses/new businesses as it is for more established businesses. Many people equate marketing with advertising and, while adverts are an important component, many other important activities also go into marketing.

The American Marketing Association defines marketing as an "activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large". This might seem like quite a lofty goal but, in practice, marketing is not that difficult to implement, especially when you have some help from expert consulting services.

Market research

You can complete marketing research as a new business so that you get the big picture of the impact your business is going to have on your target audience. Marketing research is also important for existing clients, however, because their needs can change over time and because you might have something new you want to try.

Marketing research is all about acquiring information from your customers or potential customers. It can help you to identify new marketing opportunities as well as potential pitfalls, define what marketing actions you should be taking, and monitor the impact of your marketing and your overall marketing performance.

Focus groups, surveys, analysis of online shopping habits are all standard methods for conducting this type of research and it will usually have well-defined goals. This includes specifying exactly what information is being sought, clearly designing the collection methods, conducting the appropriate analysis, and presenting and communicating the results and conclusions.

Different types of marketing

The type of marketing you use for your new business startup will depend largely on what goods or services you are selling. And there are so many different ways that marketing can be achieved in the next generation of communication, including:

• Influencer marketing
• Relationship marketing
• Viral marketing
• Green marketing
• Keyword marketing
• Guerilla marketing
• Outbound and inbound marketing
• Search engine optimisation (SEO)
• Content marketing

Branding

For many small businesses and larger businesses alike, your brand is an important part of creating your new venture. Your brand can include a name, a design, a symbol, a term, or anything else that clearly identifies your goods and services as being different from those being offered by other companies.

If branding is done right, it creates an image of your business in the minds of your clients and customers. Because it helps to distinguish you from your competitors it can help you attract new customers and clients and create a positive impact of your company on their lives.

Your brand should properly represent the goods and services that you are providing. In other words, it shouldn't create any confusion for your clients and customers. And it should represent who you are as a business.

Getting your brand right is one task that really should be achieved before your business properly gets going. Employing the help of our business startup consulting services can help you to go through your branding goals, what you want your company to convey with its branding, and how your branding links to the goods and services you are providing.

Helping with business expansion

Getting to know your market is also an important part of expanding your business, and business expansion success depends very much on a keen understanding of every aspect of company formation and management that we have mentioned so far.

Business expansion is an exciting time for any business but it is also fraught with risk and danger. Many companies have failed by expanding their business too quickly or in the wrong way, so ensuring that your expansion is completed carefully and thoughtfully can be key to making it a success. Our business startup consulting services will work closely with you to understand every factor that goes into your business expansion so that you can determine if it will have a positive impact on your future.

The expansion can look very different depending on what type of business you are starting or running. For some businesses, it can include opening another location or adding more franchises. For other businesses, it could be expanding into new internet locations and markets. It can even include acquiring or merging with another business or forming an alliance with one.

Some types of companies will be looking to expand into new global markets, employ sales employers, or simply add new products or services.

Any type of expansion will require a lot of research into whether it is going to be beneficial for your business. For example, expanding into a new global market will involve understanding the differences in the target audience in that market and examining how best to focus marketing in a way that is in line culturally with what that market would expect.

And expanding into new online markets will require a good understanding of the culture inherent in those new websites or areas. We have all heard horror stories of companies wading into internet cultures and getting the websites' culture embarrassingly wrong.

Doing the correct research, including marketing research, can make expansion seamless and it can make it less of s risk to the business profits. Even a small business can benefit from taking the time to understand the risks and benefits of any expansion that they are looking to make.

Get in touch with us today for a free consultation on how we can help your new business to succeed. Starting a business is a brave move, and getting the right help and support can help you to smooth out your business starting processes. It can also help you to understand and help you with your finance needs, learn how to attract new customers and retain the clients you have, how to manage your employees' needs, and support you in your business expansion ventures. Whether you are a small business, or a larger one, here at Auditox Accountancy, we can help you with your business startup.