Category: Business Blog

Starting your own business can come with its fair share of challenges. You will also probably learn a lot as you go along and this is completely normal. One of the first things that you need to work out is if you need to start a company as a sole trader or whether you want to become a limited company. When you are able to work out this information, you can then go and plan out the other aspects of your business with ease.

Sole Trader VS Limited Company

A sole trader is someone who is self-employed, but also someone who is the sole owner of a business. It is the most simple business structure out there and this is one of the many reasons why it is so popular. You can set one up with ease and it is all very easy to understand.  A limited company on the other hand is a business structure that has its own legal identity. It is completely separate from the person who is running the business and even the directors are not classed as being part of the identity. Setting up each structure will come with its own fair share of advantages and disadvantages, so take a look below to find out more.

Sole Trader Advantages

When starting your own company, it is a good idea for you to look into things like dividend allowance. Companies such as Afhwm.co.uk are great at this, so check them out today. The main benefits that you get when you start a sole trader business are that it is very easy to setup and you won’t have much paperwork either. You will have to complete an annual self-assessment return and you have much more privacy when compared. The problem with this is that you will have to accept liability for your business.

Limited Company Advantages

When you start a limited company, your assets won’t be exposed if something should go wrong. When you look at the whole thing from a broader perspective, you will soon see that limited companies are much more tax efficient when compared. You will make more profit and nobody out there can use the name when you have it. Sole traders are not offered this kind of protection so it just goes to show how different the two types are. As a limited company, you also have the ability to hire team members or even people to operate your company. When you do this, you know that they will then have the same benefits that you have in terms of the company and liability, so this is another huge benefit that comes with running a limited liability business.

So there are so many differences between running a limited liability company and operating as a sole trader. When you are able to understand the difference between the two, you can then begin to make the most out of the company you have chosen and you can even start to plan out the goals that you have as well so there really are no limits.

Craft hobbies are back to stay.

More and more adults – from enthusiastic pensioners to talented Millennials – have embraced hobbies as diverse as crochet, furniture painting, baking, sewing, and even handmade drawing. The beauty of craft activities has always been that they can be relaxing and help you to improve your mental clarity. But what numerous talented crafters are starting to realise is that hobbies can be transformed into a profitable business. With the rise of DIY talent, there is plenty of opportunities for creative entrepreneurs to launch their craft business and sell their creations online. However, this asks an important question for newcomer hobbyists, namely: how do you sell your craft creations online. The answer can be confusing. You let successful retailers inspire you. Here’s a little guideline to help crafters establish a viable online business and help their side-hustle grow into a profitable income-making activity.

Produce high-quality visuals

If you’ve bought items online in the past, you’ve probably notice that your favourite websites use engaging visuals to introduce their articles. As a rule of the thumb, each item is presented from a variety of angles – three or more – so that potential buyers can see what the object looks like from the front, the side and the back. Some websites also offer a 360° degree visual, while others have a small video instead. But ultimately, if you want to sell online, the lesson to learn is that you need to produce high-quality web photos. You can hone your skills by experimenting with perspective. You can start taking pictures from different angles to pinpoint how to take the best pictures for each shape.

Establish a retail structure

Selling online means that you should be able to fulfil the orders you receive and ship the items safely and quickly. Even if you have kept your workshop at home, you need a storage facility to keep all creations. You can start by looking for a warehouse to rent, which will enable you to make all items available to a shipping courier rapidly. The choice of your shipping partner is essential as this sets the foundation for your business. Your customers get to experience the quality of your products through the quality of your shipping solution. In other words, you need not only to pick the most cost-effective method but also to ensure that you select the best packaging for the protection of your creations.

Pick the right channels to shine

Finally, as a crafter, you can make the most of your social media presence to showcase your skills and promote your shop. Instagram is a good place to start. But there are plenty of other social media platforms for creatives, such as Are.na. This platform started by artists and for artists is easy to navigate – nothing like the never-ending Instagram vortex – and lets users curate images they appreciate. The absence of like or content linked to people’s insecurity makes Are.na a friendly creative environment.

From hobbyist to side-hustle entrepreneur, the path to selling your craft online requires a business mindset. You need to show your clients what they get. You need to ensure that you can ship safely. But more importantly, you need to cultivate an engaging social media presence to attract your audience.

Starting a YouTube channel seems to be completely essential to our success these days, and having a growing YouTube channel alongside your business can be a great way to bring more people into your business and also a good way to make some extra cash. If you are new to YouTube and need some tips, you have come to the right place.

Don’t be scared

If you have never sat down to film a professional video before, it can be a little bit scary to say the least. Before you work yourself up and become nervous of sitting in front of the camera, remember that no one is watching you. You can sit down and film to your heart’s content, and you never have to show it to the world. You are on your own and you can do it, so just put a film on mute in the background for some light and motivation, sit down, and start talking.

You don’t need a great camera

You don’t need the latest Canon camera to film a great video for YouTube, in fact, a lot of people use their phones to film videos and they still come out really well. Don’t worry if you don’t have a great setup yet, you can still make a great quality video as long as you have a natural light source such as a window and that you are in a quiet part of the house so that the background noise is reduced.

Commit to it

Making videos is partially about the creation, and partially about the maintenance. If you are going to start a YouTube channel you need to commit your time and be able to share consistently. If you can film a few videos at once, you can have them ready to go out to your channel and this will make things less stressful for you. If you can set aside one working day every month to film 3-4 videos, you will be able to post one each week and keep your content rolling throughout the year.

Optimise your videos

When you upload a video you will be able to pick a title, description and tags. To make sure that your video reaches the right people, pick a title with keywords and also with your name at the end so that you create an extra link to you and your channel. Make sure to add food tags to your video,which act a little bit like hashtags on twitter.

Encourage engagement

When you finish your video, make sure that you ask your followers to like, share and subscribe if they enjoy your content. This is something you can do to encourage engagement and it will remind viewers who may have not otherwise subscribed to hit the button for you. You can also ask for a like at a random point in your video such as asking them to hit like if they enjoy your joke or something you just did. This makes it feel more like a conversation between you and the audience which makes it easier to get followers.