Any business, large or small, relies to some extent on Royal Mail to deliver letters and packages. Mailroom expenses can escalate if you don’t have a handle on the most efficient and cost effective way of sending mail: a franking machine. But how much does a franking machine cost? One thing that prevents many small to medium businesses from using franked mail is the perceived cost of the franking machine itself. There is also a misconception that franking machines can entail considerable ongoing expenses. In fact, a franking machine can be leased, and the leading firms all offer increasingly competitive …
Royal Mail’s latest round of price changes came in on 31st March 2017. How much have first and second class stamps gone up by? The price rises have seen the cost of a first class stamp rise to 65p. In 2016 the price was 64p, which is a rise of 1p per stamp. The new price of a second class stamp is now 56p, a rise of 1p from the previous 55p. First Class Stamp is £0.65 Second Class Stamp is £0.55 What about prices for other stamps? Other commonly used services include the large letter first and second class …
Retail finance allows small businesses another way to pay for their customers. It also gives small business another tool to help them compete with the major retailers and chain stores which often have the edge over the independent outlets and specialist stores both on and off-line. One piece of good news for smaller businesses is that they are now able to offer the same kinds of retail finance products as their larger competitors. Retail finance enables customers to make a decision about whether or not they want to pay for their goods in more manageable monthly installments at the point …
Being able to track your company’s vehicles means staying one step ahead and can give you the edge over the competition, and this is just as true for small companies as it is for large corporations. Any business that relies on a fleet of vehicles for its business to run can see the benefits provided by either an active or a passive vehicle tracking system, most notably: happier customers, lower running costs and an increase in profitability. What can a fleet tracking system do? There are two main types of fleet tracking system, passive and active. A passive system records …
One of the most complex and expensive operational costs businesses deal with is the merchant processing fee, yet you cannot do away with a merchant account. Having a merchant account contract is what stands between you and a cliff. So how can you get lower credit card fees for your business? Many business owners will tell you that gross over-payments in credit card processing fees are part and parcel of their lives. They lose thousands of pounds in excessive fees and when they try to switch providers and reduce costs before the expiry of their contracts they get buried under …
It has long been the case that doing accounts means buying and becoming familiar with either Sage or QuickBooks. These companies have been the dominant suppliers of accounting software packages for so long that familiarity with one or both of them has become a prerequisite for anyone who needs to file accounts, even owners of very small businesses and the self-employed. But times have changed, and recent years have seen an increase in the number of online accounting systems, some of which look set to rival Sage and QuickBook’s hegemony. Offering simpler interfaces and easier access, the best of the …
Invoice factoring or invoice finance, as it is also referred, is how a businesses can generate cash quickly by using it’s to-be-paid invoices as collateral, the finance company will make a small charge for the privilege and your business can concentrate on growing rather than waiting for customers to pay. Imagine the following scenario; You run a small business. You provide your customers with services or goods. In order to get paid, you raise invoices for those services or goods. And then you wait. While you’re waiting, new business opportunities are missed and chances for expansion slip by. When your …
Most people have used a vending machine at one time or another. They come in a variety of sizes and types and can be placed in a wide range of locations. They provide another way for some businesses to make some extra cash. They also provide a whole new business idea for those willing to buy some machines and find places to situate them so they can split the profits with the site owner. But how much do vending machines cost? How much do you have to spend on vending machines? It depends on a number of factors. For example …
If your business needs to accept credit or debit card payments, you will need to open a merchant account. Put simply, this is a type of bank account that manages the credit or debit card payments you receive from transactions that are either face to face, over the phone or on the internet. The reason why a merchant account is needed, as opposed to simply using your existing business account, is that card payments have a very real risk of credit card fraud. It is necessary for the credit card holder’s details to be authorised and to make sure that …
Whether you are a small start-up business or an established brand, it is essential for you to have an online presence. It might be that you are a retailer, for whom a fully functioning e-commerce website is essential to the success of your business, or it may be the case that your day to day operations happen away from the World Wide Web; in which case, it is still important for your business to have a website – a destination that people can go to in order to find out more about your company, something that adds value to your …
