How coronavirus (COVID-19) affects small and medium-sized enterprises and how to respond

All businesspeople around the world are concerned about how the coronavirus will impact their businesses. Small and medium enterprises situated in UK are no different. I’m not a doctor and I don’t know anything about virus pandemics, but what I know for sure is that sales disruptions in any business can have bad financial consequences. […]
Vertice Services guide on how to start your own business – all you need to know

This is the kind of post that you will save in your favorites to read in bits as it will help you to digest the content. You can also come back later and revisit it as you start and grow your business. The content of this guide is the product of over 10,000 consultations and […]
How to read and understand a set of accounts

As an entrepreneur you can increase your chances of making the right decisions and succeeding once you understand the basic concepts of some business-related subjects such as Economics, Marketing, and Operational Management, among others. Finance and Accountancy are crucial business subjects to be learned. In my opinion, all business subjects have the same value. That […]
The Basics of PAYE (Pay As You Earn)

PAYE or Pay As You Earn Scheme is HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) system to collect Income Tax and National Insurance from employment in UK.Any business which intend to employ staff under Employment Contract (written or verbal agreement) needs to register for PAYE scheme before preparing the first payslips for their employees. They need to […]
How does the business creation process work?

There’s no secret formula for you to follow to start up your own business. At least, I never saw one. I think it’s fair to say that when we break down any process into different phases, it helps us explain how that process works. For this reason, I like to divide the business creation process […]
Are you busy? You should close your office door

I’ve always wanted to write about this business issue. Over the last 10 years, I’ve suffered from busyness, especially as my business has grown and more and more colleagues have joined our team. In my 20s, I read a lot of business books which taught that to build a successful business, you had to find […]
How can you know when you need to stop being persistent and give up your business?

In the last 10 years, I have been asked the question “Should I still persist in my business?” a couple of thousand times. Having participated directly in the startup of many businesses, both in the UK and overseas – and indirectly, in another hundreds more around the world – my opinion is that there is […]
7 ways that playing draughts can make you a better businessperson

I learned how to play draughts when I was 7 years old and I’ve been fascinated with the game ever since. Draughts is a board game for two players. It involves diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and compulsory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. It is a strategic game – luck does not affect […]
What is VAT?

The basics of VAT Value Added Tax (VAT) is a widely used term in the business world, but a few people understand how it works or where it is applicable. In simple terms, VAT is a consumption tax levied on the sales of products or services. It is termed as an indirect tax since businesses […]
‘HMRC’ tax refund fraud: beware of phishing emails

Fake ‘HMRC’ tax refund emails are once again flooding inboxes. We’ll show you how to spot a fake tax rebate email. According to Wikipedia, “Phishing is the attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and money), often for malicious reasons, by disguising as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication“. And the time when bogus emails were poorly […]