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Property changes and business rates
How making alterations to your property or the type of business you use them for can affect your business rates.
Business property specification
Preparing a specification that sets out what you want when starting a search for commercial premises.
Thinking about growing your business (video)
Short video tutorial covering some important points to consider before growing or improving your business.
SWOT, PESTLE and other models for strategic analysis
Introduction to the common business analysis models, including SWOT and PESTLE analysis, scenario planning and Porter's Five Forces framework
Employee focused performance measurement
Tools and techniques to measure and manage your employee performance more effectively
Benchmark your business performance
Use benchmarking to measure your business performance against that of your competitors as a focus for your growth strategy
Set business performance targets
How to move from performance measurement to target-setting in order to help your business improve and grow
Customer focused performance measurement
How to gather and manage information to help your business attract, retain and sell to customers
Competitor analysis
Performance metrics you can use to analyse your competitors, and how to use this information to inform your business decisions
Is my business ready to grow?
Common reasons why you may want to grow your business and how to tell if you're ready to expand.
Paying business rates
Payment options available for you to pay your business rates bill, what you should do if you can't pay your bill, and what will happen if you don't.
Rules on credit agreements
Understand the rules that govern credit agreements between businesses and consumers such as the consumer credit act and consumer contract regulations.
Rules on advertising credit
The rules governing advertisement for credit or hire facilities including providing clear, easily understood information and a representative example.
Fire safety and building work
Taking into account building regulations requirements for fire safety when building, extending or materially altering your business premises.
Financial risk
Understand the main types of financial risks to your business and find ways to mitigate and reduce them
Consumer credit rules for businesses that hire out or lease goods
An introduction to how consumer credit rules affect businesses that hire or lease goods including providing a written hire agreement stating the consumer’s rights.
Grow your business successfully
How to identify and overcome the challenges and the pitfalls that you may encounter while growing your business
Does my business need a consumer credit licence?
If you sell on credit, lend money, issue credit cards, collect debts or give debt advice, you may need a consumer credit licence to operate.
How to apply for a consumer credit licence
You can apply for consumer credit licensing from the Financial Conduct Authority who will assess your fitness on factors such as competence and past offences.
Risk management
Introduction to the risk management process and the steps to help you identify, manage and minimise risk in your business