Email a collegue.Credit costs time and resources. You can reduce the cost by getting small orders started quickly with a 'Fast Start Limit' for any new accounts with no checking. Of course there is a risk but £500, say, may not hurt if it is lost. However, further orders need proper checks.
Use the 80/20 rule to identify the few accounts which buy most of your sales (list accounts in descending order of value until they add up to 80% of the total). Give those a full credit check and only brief checks on smaller ones. Always check customers by size of debt, not alphabetical order, so you never suffer a large bad debt through lack of time.
www.payontime.co.uk/collect/collect_creditworthy.html
Business Link
This site provides practical advice for business on:
Starting up
Finance and grants
Taxes, returns & payroll
Employing people
Health, safety, premises
Exploiting your ideas
IT & e-commerce
Sales and marketing
International trade
Growing your business
Buying or selling a business
Your sector
www.businesslink.gov.uk
Chartered Institute of Marketing's online marketing plan tool
Writing a marketing plan will help you to keep ahead of the competition. It will provide you with the opportunity to set objectives and create plans to meet them allowing you to use information about the present to shape the future.
www.cim.co.uk
Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply - working with suppliers
An organisation is a set of inputs, a set of conversions and a set of outputs, therefore the most crucial strategy is its Supply Chain strategy which covers the organisation’s inputs, its conversion operations and its outputs. The Purchasing and Supply Management strategy covers the inputs element, without which the organisation could not function successfully. This site will help you set up an efficient supply chain strategy.
www.cips.org
Companies House
Companies House for information and data related to companies.
The main functions of Companies House are to:
incorporate and dissolve limited companies;
examine and store company information delivered under the Companies Act and related legislation; and
make this information available to the public.
The Registrar of Companies
The Registrar of Companies for England and Wales, and Chief Executive of Companies House is Claire Clancy. Her office is based at Companies House in Cardiff.
The Registrar of Companies for Scotland is Jim Henderson and his office is based in Edinburgh.
There is also an Information Centre in London.
Click here for details on where to Find us and Who to Contact
History
The United Kingdom has enjoyed a system of company registration since 1844. Today, company registration matters are dealt with in law, by the Companies Act 1985 and the updating legislation contained in the Companies Act 1989.
All limited companies in the UK are registered at Companies House, an Executive Agency of the Department of Trade and Industry. There are more than 1.8 million limited companies registered in Great Britain, and more than 300,000 new companies are incorporated each year.
http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/
DTI
The DTI’s Business Support Solutions gives practical help for your business.
As a business you make your own success but government could help to overcome some barriers. Each year the DTI invests £0.5 billion assisting you through grants, loan guarantees and subsidised consultancy.
www.dti.gov.uk
DTI - better business practice
This site provides you with a toolkit of practical business advice.
It contains hundreds of best practice guides, case studies and factsheets – and a range of online, self-assessment tools.
Find out what works for other businesses, and what doesn't. And, whatever your business's size, age or sector, find out how you could become more efficient, competitive and profitable.
http://www.dti.gov.uk/bestpractice/
HM Treasury
The Treasury is the United Kingdom's economics and finance ministry. It is responsible for formulating and implementing the Government's financial and economic policy. Its aim is to raise the rate of sustainable growth, and achieve rising prosperity and a better quality of life with economic and employment opportunities for all.
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/
Market Leap - Link popularity check
Marketleap is a San Francisco based Internet marketing firm specializing in search engine optimization and online customer acquisition solutions. Marketleap's innovative technology, industry relationships and intellectual capital are the foundation for achieving client business objectives online.
Marketleap employs top professionals who share a dedication for their work and actively seek opportunities for collaboration with like-minded clients and partners. The group unites a deep and broad knowledge of the industry with a passion for their work that translates into innovation and streamlined business solutions for the benefit of our customers and marketing community.
http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/
Markup Validation Service
The W3C Markup Validation Service is a free service that checks Web documents in formats like HTML and XHTML for conformance to W3C Recommendations and other standards.
http://validator.w3.org
