Buying a franchise can be a rapid process to set up your own business without starting from scratch. There are numerous significant advantages of buying a franchise because your business is based on a proven idea and you can use a recognised brand name and trademarks. You can check how successful other franchises are before committing yourself. The right franchise can give you a head start. Successful franchises have a much lower failure rate than [...]

The standard rate of VAT is currently 17.5 per cent but will be increased to 20 per cent on 4 January 2011. For any sales of standard-rated goods or services that you make on or after 4 January 2011 you must charge VAT at the 20 per cent rate. If you have a cash business and calculate your VAT using the VAT fraction you must use the VAT fraction of 1/6 on your standard-rated VAT [...]

The merger of big business retailer Amazon and independent Zappo’s .com was a shock to many people including the staff of Zappo’s.com. So in the midst of all this shock was can your business learn from this $487 million dollar merger? 1. Discuss change and how it will affect your company openly with the people who will have to survive that change. Sometimes mergers don’t allow full disclosure due to proprietary information, but if you [...]

Anyone in business has to make all sorts of decisions that affect performance and profits every day. Many of the decisions involve agreements with third parties about sales and distribution of a firm’s products or services. Most business people realise quickly that trusting someone else with your goods, money or reputation can be fraught with problems, so an agreement needs thrashing out to make sure everyone knows their roles and responsibilities and no one oversteps [...]