Small Business Bonus Scheme (Formerly:Small Business Rates Relief

[stugster]

Hi all,

From time to time I test the water to see if it's financially viable for me to move into premises. I look at two things: (a) Can I afford it? and (b) Can I actually JUSTIFY it?

It's getting to the stage where both of these answers are clear-cut yes! But I'm going to wait a few months until I really start to see some better numbers in my P&L's

If you don't already know about it, the Scottish Government did away with the Small Business Rates Relief Scheme this April, and have now issued a new scheme called: The Small Business Bonus Scheme.

Publication can be found here: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/01/15095445/1

It makes for some interesting reading! If you are renting a property (or own a property) are you taking advantage of this Bonus? If not, why not?
If it's because you don't know the Rateable Value of your property, pick up the phone to your solicitor or estate agent immediately and find out! You could be eligible for a very nice reduction in your Business Rates!


Good Luck!


P.S. stugster gets 10% of everything you save

 

[visagephoto]

Re: Small Business Bonus Scheme (Formerly:Small Business Rates Re

I moved out of premises around seven years ago, mainly because of extortionate business rates etc. But now, due to the "Small Business Bonus Scheme" I've been looking for small retail premises or an office in or around Glasgow city centre.

Then I bought today's "Evening Times" and there's an article on the front page, Glasgow city council are again considering following Londons example, and trying to introduce a city centre congestion charge.

Oh well maybe working from home isn't really that bad after all.

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

Re: Small Business Bonus Scheme (Formerly:Small Business Rates Re

There's a thread in the private forum about the Glasgow congestion charge you might find interesting as well

To get back on topic though what would be your reasons for having premises Stu? I wouldn't have thought you would get people calling in off the street but maybe i'm wrong. It's not just the shop though, what about having to be on site for something, who would be in the shop?

I dont mean to sound sceptical but I've seen many people go down the premises route for the wrong reasons and committing to leases etc which they invariably end up trying to get out of.

 

[stugster]

Re: Small Business Bonus Scheme (Formerly:Small Business Rates Re

I totally agree. The premises would be geared more towards a business unit rather than a shop.

The unit would be for three main reasons (in order of importance):
(a) A clean and safe environment for me and any other potential employees to work on computers. At the moment, I'm finding available space to be a bit of an issue.

(b) A place to set up a highly configurable state of the art monitoring system. I was thinking along the lines of slapping up lots of LCD monitors on the wall with instant live data coming from all of our clients. Showing us clearly which computers are working and which ones are not. Obviously this hasn't been thought out in detail, but it could be taken much much further with video conferencing, voip, ticket system, and all sorts of technologies used to get us working as closely with our clients.

(c) A place to hold a small amount of emergency stock for our clients (the common things that die: hard drives, memory, power supplies),so that the client doesn't have to wait until the day after for their equipment to be fixed.

At the very start of the business I was looking at opening up a small unit, after doing the sums it wasn't the financial aspect that stopped me, it was the justification. At the outset, I simply couldn't justify it at all.

It's also getting to the stage where I'll be taking on some more bodies as well. I'm taking on a tele-sales (yeh, I know , you'll all be getting a call! ) guy tomorrow, so that should be fun and games. He's working from home taking advantage of the VOIP technology, but it's not ideal.

 

[polr]

Re: Small Business Bonus Scheme (Formerly:Small Business Rates Re

Thanks for the tip with that link. I just phoned up and it's going to save us a fortune this year

 

[stugster]

Re: Small Business Bonus Scheme (Formerly:Small Business Rates Re

No problem

It's good to hear that the forums are helping!

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

Re: Small Business Bonus Scheme (Formerly:Small Business Rates Re

Hey Stu,

It sounds like you've really thought this through so I wish you the best of luck with it. You may want to look at some of these business incubation services that are offered by the local council etc as that might be a really good place to start or ven something like a managed office. I have a contact if you want to go down the managed office route

 

[Boxby]

Re: Small Business Bonus Scheme (Formerly:Small Business Rates Re

I always found water rates the killer, at least with the SB rates/relief etc you knew broadly what to expect each year, but the doubling of water rates year on year did it for us.

 

[stugster]

Re: Small Business Bonus Scheme (Formerly:Small Business Rates Re

Tell me about it! Until April last year, Scottish Water had literally thousands of small businesses that weren't paying for their water. Now SW are in such a state that the charges are just rocketing. They've employed external contractors to find these "Void" accounts and start the businesses that don't pay a penny paying their way.

For a prime example of how a business should NOT be run, you only have to have a peek at the way Scottish Water do things.