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Support for growing a retail business
Starting or improving a retail business can attract certain financial, training and advisory support in Northern Ireland, find out which organisations can help.
Explore new retail opportunities
Growing your retail business takes a good business plan as well as spotting and exploiting the right opportunities, discover the options for expanding.
Assessing your cash needs: creditors and debtors
Debtor days ratios and creditor days ratios estimate how long you take to pay debts and customers take to pay you.
Assessing your cash needs: assets and liabilities
Gearing ratios, working capital ratios and quick ratios are useful tools to compare assets and liabilities.
Avoid the problems of overtrading: assets
How to solve cashflow shortfalls and bring new money into the business in a variety of ways.
Avoid the problems of overtrading: debts
Debt factoring, prompt payment discounts and regulating cashflow help reduce the risk of overtrading.
Matching sales and production cycles
Ensuring a closer match between sales and production cycles can help avoid overtrading.
What is overtrading?
How insufficient finance and resources to sustain a business’s level of trading can lead to overtrading.
Example of overtrading
A case study of a situation of overtrading and the potential disaster it causes.
Avoid the problems of overtrading
How expanding businesses can match production and order cycles using gearing, working capital or quick ratio tests.
Borrow money for capital investment from pension schemes
How small self-administered pension schemes allow a business to borrow money with certain restrictions.
Claim loan interest against tax
If you deduct loan interest from your profits you can reduce your business tax bill.
Small Business Rate Relief
The Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) provides different levels of rate relief for Northern Ireland business properties depending on their net annual value.
Venture capital
How the venture capital investment model applies to small and medium-sized businesses seeking funding.
Using a venture capital scheme to raise money
How venture capital schemes work, who can apply and what tax reliefs are available for investors.
Who can apply for a venture capital scheme?
Eligibility criteria businesses must meet to qualify for a venture capital scheme.
Qualifying for a venture capital scheme
There are qualifying conditions for each venture capital scheme and limits on the money raised.
Types of venture capital schemes
Each of the three types of venture capital schemes have their own criteria for businesses to qualify.
The relationship between balance sheets and profit and loss accounts
How transactions in the profit and loss account can affect balance sheet entries and vice versa.
What is a balance sheet and why is it used?
Limited companies and limited liability partnerships must produce a balance sheet as part of their annual accounts.