Thank you for your valuable feedback to other Allrecipes home cooks. Your vote will be added in a few hours.

Title

Know who you are supplying

Before granting credit to a customer, it is important to undertake some basic credit checks.

A 2011 Experian survey found that seven out of ten small businesses in the UK don't bother to carry out customer credit checks, but they are simple and cheap to do online and can save you a lot of money in the long run.

A simple Google search on your customer's company name should bring up any references about their activities and reputation.

If your customer is a sole trader or partnership, try to ascertain the full names and private addresses before trading begins.

Terms and conditions

Before supplying goods and/or services, you need to make sure that you are aware of the conditions to which you are committing your company.

Make sure that your standard terms and conditions of credit (i.e. ‘30 days from date of invoice') are clearly stated. This should usually be on the reverse of any quotations with a clear message on the front that they will apply to any order resulting in acceptance of the quotation. Submitting your terms and conditions with an invoice is usually too late in the event of a dispute.

Also, remind your customers at this opportunity of the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act, which gives you the right to apply interest to overdue accounts.

You should include a ‘retention of title' clause in your contracts so you can recover products which are identifiable as yours from customers for which payment has not been made.

Create a credit policy

If you don't have a credit policy in place that dictates how much credit you'll extend and who to, you could be putting your business in a risky position.

Bristol, UK (PRWEB UK) 9 April 2012

A record 76 new companies were formed in March 2012 using the word “planning” as part of the company name, using information gathered from the official records from Companies House and compiled by Duport Associates.

New “planning” companies could include firms created to make the most of changes to planning regulations, which were formalised in March by the coalition government.

The controversial new planning laws have been welcomed by some, but branded a “developers charter” by others. But whilst opinion is divided over possible regeneration of town high streets or unpopular developments against residents’ wishes, it is clear that entrepreneurs across the UK are seeing this as an opportunity.

“New planning laws mean new opportunities – and that will always lead to new companies,” said Duport Associates’ Managing Director, Peter Valaitis.

The other major industry which often utilises the term “planning” is of course the financial industry. From wills to wealth management, planning is a major aspect of a lot of financial services.

“It would be unsurprising to see a boost in the financial planning industry at this time,” stated Peter Valaitis, “this month we’ve already seen record highs for the number of bookkeeping and accountancy firms formed, so it stands to reason that the entire financial sector is experiencing a boom.”

“With the budget in April, it seems that this has a large effect on the number of financial companies formed in March, as all three of these popular terms have hit record highs in March – not just this year, but in previous years too.”

New planning regulations and an increase in interest in the financial sector could be the driving force behind the new record high of “planning” companies formed in the UK in March.

Duport Associates Ltd is a leading UK company formation agent, operating in the UK for around 15 years. Duport registers around 10,000 new companies each year using its Companies House approved software. The Company Register which is maintained by Companies House contains public information about Limited companies and directors.

…upset, to put it politely.

But then I am a bloke. Let’s face it, everyone would understand it, too. I’d cut the sponsorship, I’d cause a fuss and I would probably be very rude about it.

But then Ginni Rometty, IBM’s CEO is a woman and Augusta National has a 79 year male only history (gee, wow…).

What does Ginni, or for that matter all women, expect? That some men are not sexists?

The sad truth is that Ginni probably learned very early on that men are sexists!

Email this · Subscribe to this feed · Share on Facebook · Retweet · Permalink