Startups and SMEs face many challenges - make sure you know how to overcome them by exploring our blogs for the latest news and insights across a range of accountancy and legal topics.
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Spring Budget 2021: What It Means For You
On Wednesday, the Chancellor announced his Spring Budget for 2021. As ever, it was packed with changes to the financial landscape for UK individuals and businesses. Below are some high-level summaries of the key changes. Do get in touch for more detail and specific application to the circumstances you and your business face.
Rules of the Club: Shareholders’ Agreements and Articles of Association
In this week’s newsletter, Dragon Argent take a look at these constitutional rules (or by-laws) which are found in the company’s articles of association, a public document that sets out the fundamental contract between the company and its shareholders. A company may also enter into a shareholders’ agreement with its shareholders, a private document that sits alongside and complements the articles. Together these documents form the rules of the club.
Tax Efficient Share Incentive Schemes
Employee Share Incentive Schemes for UK SMEs allows employer to provide shares to an employee free of tax, provided it meets certain conditions. Government-approved share schemes offer tax benefits to both employers and employees and can offer other advantages to businesses. Learn more.
SEIS and EIS Tax Relief Schemes
When forming a company and putting in place the required legal documentation that supports your company structure, it is worth thinking about the future funding needs of the business. The majority of startups will at some point seek external investment, with the first round of investment typically being referred to as seed or pre-seed funding.
Demystifying Venture Capital
There is a certain amount of mythology that surrounds venture capital. For many startups, getting VC backing can feel like a key objective, so in this week’s newsletter, Dragon Argent attempt to remove some of the mystery around this form of funding and provide some practical steps for startups looking to VCs to support their growth in 2021.
The Value of Business Diagnostics
For many SMEs, a constraint on growth is the difficulty for its key decision makers to prioritise their daily workload into those areas which have the most significant impact on growth. Owners often spread themselves too thinly across every aspect of the business, forgetting the key areas which create the greatest output. This can be resolved by the application of something known as the Pareto principle, which asserts that 80% of outputs can be derived from 20% of all causes or inputs.
The Art of The Pitch Deck to Raise Investment
In the majority of startup journeys, pitch decks are going to feature. The stage of the business may vary, but at some point, founders will encounter the need to raise investment. This could occur early - as soon as you have a minimum viable product or, when your business is more mature and needs to take advantage of an opportunity to scale.
Achieving an Exit in an Owner / Operated Business
Many founders start businesses with a long-term goal of achieving a financially rewarding exit. It's the motivation that often sustains owner-operators through the most challenging troughs and maintains focus on the continued development of the business during the energising peaks.
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme Updates
The Chancellor Rishi Sunak, announced that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will remain open until 31 March 2021. Here, Dragon Argent assess what the latest announcements mean and how they might impact your business.
Job Support Scheme Amendments
Last week the Chancellor announced amendments to the Job Support Scheme, which was itself replacing the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and comes into effect on November 1st. These amendments have been designed to increase support for businesses and workers. The government say the Plan for Jobs will significantly increase protection of livelihoods and jobs across the UK through the winter.
Three Ways to Prepare for Brexit
The UK's post-Brexit transition period ends in January 2021. The deadline for agreeing a deal with the EU is December and with little progress apparent in negotiations, small business owners and SMEs could understandably be concerned. Here we provide some practical advice on what small businesses should be doing to prepare in three key areas.
Why Startups Fail
The technology analysts CB Insights have curated some amazingly valuable information over the last 6 years looking at why startups fail. In this time, they have conducted over 350 investigations into startups that failed, identifying the most common reasons.