Resources and web links
ACAS
- Employment relations
www.acas.org.uk
Advertising
- Yellow Pages
www.yell.com - Thomson
www.thomweb.co.uk
Advice
- Business Link
www.businesslink.gov.uk - Federation of Small Businesses
www.fsb.org.uk - The Prince’s Trust
www.princes-trust.org.uk - Prime (for over 50s)
www.primeinitiative.org.uk
A new business
- Business names, trade marks, etc
www.anewbusiness.co.uk
Charities
- The Charity Commission
www.charity-commission.gov.uk - Helpsheets
www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/leaflets.htm - Tax reliefs and obligations
www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/index.htm - Chartered Institute of Personnel
and Development
www.cipd.co.uk - Commission for Racial Equality
www.cre.gov.uk - Companies Registration Office
www.companieshouse.gov.uk - Data Protection
www.dataprotection.gov.uk - Department for Business, Enterprise
and Regulatory Reform
www.berr.gov.uk - Department of Work and Pensions
www.dwp.gov.uk
Employment rights
- Tailored interactive guidance
www.tiger.gov.uk - Equal Opportunities Commission
www.eoc.org.uk
Export
- The Institute of Export
www.export.org.uk - UK Trade and Investment
www.tradeinvest.gov.uk - Simplifying International Trade
www.sitpro.org.uk
Franchising
- British Franchise Association
www.thebfa.org.uk - Health and Safety Executive
www.hse.gov.uk - Institute of Directors
www.iod.co.uk
Intellectual property
- UK Patent Office
www.patent.gov.uk - Learn Direct
www.learndirect.co.uk
Marketing
- The Chartered Institute of Marketing
www.cim.co.uk - Office of Fair Trading
www.oft.gov.uk
Pensions
- The Pensions Regulator
www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk - Stakeholder Pensions
www.opra.gov.uk
Taxation and VAT
- HM Revenue & Customs
www.hmrc.gov.uk
TAKING IT FURTHER
START-UP ADVICE
Useful teach yourself books
For further advice on many aspects of starting a small business, select from the list below those books most appropriate to you.
Teach Yourself Entrepreneurship
- For a wider perspective on motivation
- The section on ‘the power of negative thinking’ is a real spur to action
- A sideways look at sales, selling and salesperson skills
Teach Yourself Time Management
A good source of information, particularly for people who find time management difficult
Teach Yourself Franchising
Another good source of help. Franchising is one of the methods of trading you could consider
Teach Yourself Presenting
Gives excellent additional advice, and is most valuable for people who are not used to standing up and giving a short talk
Teach Yourself the Clinton Factor: Communicating with Charisma
Based on Bill Clinton’s successful communication skills and written by an actor and a writer who specialise in this area of work
Teach Yourself Running Your Own Business
- Reinforces learning about your finances and business plan
- ‘Getting the money right’ expands your views about the financial side of your business
- Excellent advice about the people whom you should be marketing to
- ‘Taming the telephone’ - to make cold calling into warm calling
- ‘Meetings can be fun’ reaffirms what you have studied already, with some interesting additional thoughts
FINANCE AND TAX ADVICE
Teach Yourself Cash Flow for Small Businesses
Gives detailed information on managing your finances to ensure the business is viable
Teach Yourself Small Business Accounting
- Ten Top Tips for choosing an accountant
- The book includes a Glossary of Tax Terms and advice on how to manage your business bank account
Teach Yourself Understanding Tax for Small Businesses
- A glossary of tax terms which your accountant may use
- A comprehensive chapter on tax and employees
- If you are attending to this aspect of your business yourself, it is worth buying the book and following the instructions in this chapter
IT ADVICE
Teach Yourself Managing IT for Your Small Business
- A good introduction to computers and mobile phones, defining hardware and software and the sort of applications you can use
- More examples and details of how e-commerce works, and how you decide whether it could work for you
Teach Yourself PC Networking for Your Small Business
- Where you progress to more than one laptop or PC and want to link them up, you are PC networking
- If you decide you want to expand your PC provision, it is worth investing in the whole book
Teach Yourself Sage Line 50
- Detailed instructions on how to use this accounts system, or rather set of systems
