How Online Savvy Are British Businesses?

The survey takes roughly three minutes to complete and all participants will receive:

• Free Microsoft e-book “small business solutions”
• Free Huddlebuy Marketing Bundle

As well as being entered into a prize draw to win

• an iPad2
• an Amazon Kindle
• Business Training Course places
• £150 worth of M&S Vouchers

Take the survey now: How Online Savvy Are British Businesses?

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If you’ve a quick question regarding any of our services why not reach for your mouse and contact us online? We pride ourselves on our speedy response times, so next time you’ve a question contact us via:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Google +

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We will be represented at the event in two capacities:

•    Our CEO Howard Graham is a Keynote speaker alongside such names as Sir Richard Branson and Lord Sugar. To see the full list of Keynote speakers click here.

•    We will be holding a workshop titled: “Harness Social Media to Grow your Business and Build Your Brand”. For more information on the workshop click here.

For more information on what’s sure to be a fantastic business event and to get your free ticket, click here: Business2012

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You can also view the infographic on visual.ly and as a pdf.

If you would like to view the report from which we created the infographic click here.

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(Companies Made Simple) Can you give us an update on what you’ve been up to with the business in the last 6 months?

(James, SweetBar) The past 6 months have proved to be SweetBar’s busiest period with more bookings than ever before. We have also been testing new markets to identify areas to develop; whilst this hasn’t always been successful it has proven to be a useful exercise.

We have continued to focus on providing a high quality service and maintain our 100% positive feedback since our launch in 2010. We have been focusing on making next year even bigger and better, with the aim to increase our bookings to a new level. This year we ended up doubling on a previous year and already have more bookings for 2012 than we did for the whole of 2010, so it looks promising.

What has been your biggest challenge in the past 6 months?

The biggest challenge has been trying new markets and ideas which haven’t always been fruitful. It can be quite disheartening after putting time and money into ideas and plans and they don’t develop as you hoped. However, not everything will and I am happy to say I have tried and therefore better understand my business and the market.

We have also noticed an increase in the number of competitors, which brings its own challenges. When I first thought of the idea I completed vast research and could find no other sweet cart businesses. However there now seems to be a variety of competitors, some even local to us. This is quite rewarding in itself to see others basing businesses on something I have created, but we now have to ensure we don’t stand still. We must keep moving forward coming up with new ideas and schemes to stay ahead of the competition.

How do you see your business developing over the next year?

2012 promises to be a very busy year with more bookings now than at this stage last year. We also have a brand NEW product to launch in January 2012 which we hope will prove a big hit. I can’t say too much so watch this space…

Keep an eye on our website, Facebook and Twitter for the details:

I hope to continue to dominate the market and would love to double the bookings we had for 2011 so we are on course for a successful 2012.

What developments have you made to your marketing – in particular social media?

We have continued to maintain and develop a very high standard website which has been instrumental in our success to date (thanks to our good friend Adam). We were very proud to be awarded Small Business of the Year by Companies Made Simple and have tried to build on this.

Our social media following continues to build and we have tried to focus on developing our Twitter account whilst maintaining and progressing with Facebook. We post regular updates on both Twitter and Facebook but try to ensure we don’t overuse it and find people losing interest.

What is the best piece of advice you have received so far that would also be beneficial to other small businesses?

Word of mouth is key and social media is free – I just made that up actually and it may be a bit cliché but these are two things I have been told and now follow. Having a small business that delivers a high standard of service is paramount. The business can promote itself through word of mouth – this covers everything within the day to day operations to the actual delivery of the service, attention to detail is always appreciated by customers.

Marketing is also important to develop new leads and to establish your business in new areas. Social media is such a useful tool to do this and of course It’s free, it just takes some time and thought.

If you would like to know more about SweetBar or James’ experience of managing his business, feel free to contact him at info@sweetbar.co.uk.

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The Newswire & Competition Winners page

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From the Knowledgebase you can view answers to common questions, submit your own question via the “Submit a Ticket” option, view the latest Companies Made Simple news and start a “live chat” with one of our support staff.

View the Companies Made Simple Knowledgebase now.

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Donate to our team now!

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Richard and I have been growing our ‘taches since the beginning of the month to differing degrees of success. Richard’s is fully fledged in all its Super Mario glory whilst mine looks like a newspaper smudge that can only be seen up close. Of course there’s still a week to go so there’s plenty of growing time left.

Keep your eyes on our Facebook page for photos of our mo’s!

Donate to our team – Movember “supporting prostate cancer and testicular cancer initiatives”

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In recent years, Ireland has become the investment destination of choice of over 1,000 multinational companies. This was due in equal measure to the pro-business environment as well as the widely publicised attractive tax regime that Ireland has to offer.

Despite its many economic problems, this is still the case. A recent report found Ireland to be the easiest country in Europe and the 6th easiest in the world in which to pay business taxes and Ireland was ranked 5th in the world for protecting investors by a Global Innovation Report.

Here are ten reasons why you should consider Ireland as a venue of choice

1. The well publicised low corporation tax rate of 12.5% is one of the lowest in Europe comparing favourably with the UK’s 26% and France’s rate in excess of 34%.
2. Favourable treatment on receipt of dividend income.
3. Double taxation relief available for tax suffered in foreign branches.
4. Tax credits available for research and development activity.
5. Dividend withholding tax exemption for payments to certain entities.
6. Tax exemption for start-up companies.
7. Extensive tax treaty network.
8. Capital Gains Tax participation exemption on disposal of qualifying shareholdings
9. Varied limit Transfer Pricing rules
10. Pro-business location

For more information on how to go about setting up a presence in Ireland please contact Grant Beaming at grantb@madesimplegroup.com

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