Anyone running a PAYE (Pay as You Earn) scheme here in the UK will undoubtedly have been bombarded recently with requests and reminders for the annual P35 form, which is basically a summary of all your business’ PAYE activity during the previous financial year. You also have to submit a P14 for each employee that you employed during the previous year. The 19th May is the deadline for these forms to be received by the HMRC – you can send them a completed paper version, or you can file it via PAYE Online. Whichever method you choose, it needs to be there by the 19th otherwise they will fine you £100 for each month per 50 employees. How nice of them…

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This post is just to let you know that we are now entered in the competition for the “Best Business Blog” award from Blogger’s Choice Awards. The awards are announced in November in Las Vegas – if you like our posts and have found the site useful then it would be great if you could vote for us! Just click on the “Blogger’s Choice” icon at the top of this page and you’ll be taken to their site, where you can submit your vote.

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Working solidly for hours on end can sometimes be just what you need to burn through a significant amount of work in a short space of time. If you are doing work constantly, however, you’ll probably be spending that time working half-heartedly, and actually achieving a small amount. Some time off might be just what’s called for!

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We are pleased to say that we have submitted an entry into the group writing project / competition that has just been held at Problogger.net. The idea was to submit a ‘top 5′ article, as interesting and creative as possible. The competition lasted three days, and the winner is yet to be announced. The sponsor of the article was Chitika, who are offering a $1,000 cash prize. Thanks ProBlogger by the way for hosting the competition! The following list is a list of yesterday’s entrants:

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Is your business innovative and creative, delivering great customer service? If so then why not think about entering a new contest launched by UPS and IBM. As a celebration of UPS’ centennial anniversary, they are offering three prizes of up to $25,000 in cash to small buisnesses that have displayed the most innovation. The contest, named “Out of the Box”, also has a tagline “Does your small business think big?”, which ties into one of yesterday’s posts here that small businesses are the key drivers of innovation.

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Many businesses fail to even consider the full potential the Internet can offer, and don’t understand that websites can be interactive mediums as well as one-way information-giving sites. There are a variety of technologies and applications out there or that can be installed that would improve the level of interactivity a business website offers. In some cases, certain types of interactivity such as forums or ‘live chat’ would not be appropriate to the impression some businesses intend to convey, however for other businesses, particularly those which require a significant amount of post-sale support or customer interaction, the extra interactivity can convey a collaborative and a “We’re listing to our customers” feel.

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Accepting credit / debit card payments online is generally one of the first steps an online store owner will take. Trying to find the right card processor can sometimes be tricky, as each have different costs, requirements, benefits etc.. Most credit card processors require you to have an Internet Merchant Account (IMA), which again can be expensive and sometimes difficult to obtain.

Paypal offers a slightly alternative service as by definition it is an Online Payments Bureau, meaning that you don’t need to have an IMA as they process the card details for you, using their own acquiring services. Consequently Paypal, which is now called “Paypal Merchant Services” is perfect for SMEs wishing to trade online, as it has low (usually non-existent)  setup fees. This article reviews the pros and cons of the Paypal services for merchants.

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There has been a lot of evidence suggesting that SMEs are the main drivers of innovation – introducing new services, goods, methods of production etc.. Although big businesses usually have the benefit of big budgets with which to undertake research and development, small businesses have the advantage that they can easily change course and adapt new techniques and technology more quickly than some big businesses can. Due to that, small businesses should be especially on the lookout for new opportunities and investigate new technologies / techniques as they arise…

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Many small businesses would think you’re crazy if you asked them whether they turned down business. In the first few years of trading, most small business owners chase or say yes to any business they can find – irrespective of whether they have to vary their operations to accommodate it. It is important to have a ‘core focus’ identified in a business, which encompasses all of your strategy, intended mode of operation and the process you use to get where you want to.

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Due to my workload starting to reach a critical mass in the last few weeks, productivity and increasing my efficiency has been a hot topic for me recently. There are always different aspects in life, whether it be personal or business, that can be optimised to result in more free time if we only did things ‘the most efficient way’. Of course I’m not talking about those creative processes (such as web design) which shouldn’t necessarily be rushed – in many instances creativity will decrease if you worry about getting it done more quickly. The kind of productivity increases I’m talking about are for the day-to-day tasks which you’ve got to get done, such as answering email and ironically surfing the web. Find out 5 productivity enhancing ideas that won’t change the world, but will help you get things done more quickly…

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