It’s a common struggle and we probably don’t talk about it. Imposter Syndrome affects individuals from all walks of life, including business owners.

It’s characterized by a persistent feeling of inadequacy, despite evidence of your competence and accomplishments.

A Harvard Business Review study found that nearly 70% of entrepreneurs have experienced imposter syndrome at some point in their careers. This self-doubt can be particularly debilitating for entrepreneurs, as they navigate the multiple challenges of running a businesses. Understanding and addressing this issue is crucial for personal and professional growth.

Many business owners, despite their achievements, constantly question their abilities and attribute their success to luck or external factors. This mindset can hinder their progress, hinder decision-making, and lead to burnout. So how do you overcome it?

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

While conquering imposter syndrome is a personal journey, there are practical steps that business owners can take to manage it effectively:

• • Acknowledge and Normalize – Understand that imposter syndrome is common and experienced by many, if not most, successful individuals. Normalize these feelings as a part of the entrepreneurial journey.
  • Track Achievements – Maintain a record of your accomplishments, no matter how small they seem. Regularly reviewing these achievements can help boost confidence and counteract self-doubt.
  • Seek Support and Talk to Others – Talk to your business advisor, a mentor, and others in similar roles. Sharing your thoughts and feelings with someone you trust can provide valuable insights and strategies for overcoming imposter syndrome.
  • Set Realistic Goals – Break your long-term goals into smaller, achievable milestones. This can help you see your progress more clearly and reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed. One step forward can make a huge difference.
  • Embrace Failure – Understand that failure is a part of entrepreneurship. Instead of seeing it as a reflection of your worth, view it as a valuable learning experience. We are all on a path of continuous learning.
  • Practice Self-Compassion – Be kind to yourself. Focus on your strengths and abilities. You may not have all the answers today but that’s entirely normal.

Imposter syndrome is a common challenge faced by many business owners. It can hinder personal growth, decision-making, and overall well-being.

Remember, you are not alone in this struggle, and your achievements are a testament to your capabilities and hard work. We can help you create a plan for your business that removes the uncertainty and builds on your strengths.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

Running a business will always mean incurring certain expenses, or ‘spend’.

Whether you’re a large family business or a small fledgling startup, there will be costs, overheads and supplier bills that mount up – and these expenses will gradually chip away at your cash position, making it more difficult to grow and make a profit.

So, what can you do to reduce your spend levels? And what impact will this have on your overall margins, profits and ability to fund the next stage in your business journey?

Getting proactive with your spend management

Spend management is all about getting in control of your expenses – and, where possible, aiming to reduce the level of costs and overheads that you incur as a company.

Why does this matter? Well, excessive spending eats into your cashflow, reduces your profit margins and stops you from achieving the profits that you’re capable of as a business. So if you can get proactive with your spend management, you can actually make your company a far more financially productive enterprise – and that’s great for your overall business health.

So, what can you do to reduce spend and slim down your company expenses?

Here are some key ways to reduce expenses:

• • Reduce your overheads – Your overheads are the unavoidable costs of running your business, producing your products or supplying your services. If you have bricks and mortar premises, these overheads will include rental payments, utility bills and even the cost of paying your staff. Drill down into the numbers and see where there are opportunities to reduce these overhead costs. That could mean moving to smaller premises, or reducing the size of your workforce, to reduce payroll expenditure.
  • Put limits on staff expenses – If your employees can claim expenses, or buy raw materials and equipment with the company’s money, these costs can soon start to rack up. It’s a good idea to put a spending limit in place, so each staff member can only spend up to an agreed amount. Having a clear expenses policy helps, as will training up your staff in good spend management techniques. Specialist expenses card software allows you to quickly set spend limits, track expenses and pull your expenses data through to your cloud accounting platform for processing.
  • Look for cheaper suppliers – If you can reduce your supplier costs, this will go a long way to bringing down your overall spend. If you’ve been with certain key suppliers for years, look around for new quotes, look at current market prices and see if you can negotiate better deals. And if your old suppliers aren’t flexible enough, try swapping to newer, more eager suppliers who will be willing to meet you in the middle on price.
  • Make your operations leaner – the bigger your operational costs are, the less margin you’ll make on your end products and services. One way to resolve this is to aim for a ‘lean approach’, paring back your staff, resources and operational complexity to the bare minimum. By making the business as lean as possible, whilst still delivering the same output, you keep your revenue stable, but reduce the spend level that’s eating into your cost of goods sold (COGS). The smaller your COGS, the more profit you make on each unit or sale – and that means better cashflow, more working capital and bigger profits.
  • Explore tax reliefs – Tax costs are an unavoidable expense when running your business, but it’s worth exploring which tax reliefs, grants or other business benefits you may benefit from. For example, research and development (R&D) tax credits may be available to you to help cut your corporation tax expenses.

Talk to us about improving your spend management

If you’d like to get in control of your expenses, we’d love to chat. We’ll review your current costs and will highlight the key areas where expenses can be cut. Then we’ll help you formulate a proactive spend management program, to reduce your unnecessary spending.

Get in touch to start reducing your spend.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

Tax planning is a strategic approach to managing your business’ financial affairs, with the aim of legally minimizing your tax liability.

In other words, you plan ahead to make sure you pay the taxes you should be paying, but not a penny more.

Working with your tax adviser, you can look for deductions, credits, exemptions and tax-saving strategies that will help to optimize your company’s overall tax position.

How does tax planning affect your business?

The primary goal of tax planning is to reduce the amount of taxes your business owes. But it’s also about making sure you stay compliant with all the tax laws and regulations applicable to your business.

But what are the main advantages? Let’s take a look at five of the big benefits of careful, strategic tax planning.

By planning your tax across the year, you can:

1. 1. 1. Maximize your profits – strategic tax planning helps your company find the best available tax incentives, deductions and credits. This reduces your overall tax liability, cuts your annual tax costs and increases your overall profitability as a business.
      2. Boost your cashflow – tax planning is a great way to open up more liquid cash and achieve a better cashflow position for the business. When you cut down the company’s tax payments, that frees up cash and helps you achieve a positive cashflow position.
      3. Stay compliant and mitigate your risk – being proactive with your tax planning keeps the company compliant with the relevant tax laws and regulations. It’s a sensible way to tick the compliance boxes and reduce the risk of costly penalties and legal issues.
      4. Drive your strategic growth – smart use of tax planning helps you reduce your tax costs and reassign those funds to your strategic business goals. It’s a golden opportunity to invest in areas that promote long-term growth and competitiveness.
      5. Give your business a competitive edge – if managed well, efficient tax planning leads to lower operational costs for the business. This gives you a competitive edge when it comes to pricing, innovation, sales and revenue generation.

How can our firm help you with tax planning?

Getting strategic with your tax planning has many advantages for your financial stability as a business. But to maximize your planning, it’s important to work with an experienced adviser.

As your tax adviser, we’ll help you look ahead across the whole financial year, looking for the opportunities to reduce your tax liability and find the best tax deductions and incentives.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

Running a business costs money.

There are always costs, overheads and supplier bills that mount up – and these expenses will gradually chip away at your cash position, making it more difficult to grow and make a profit.

So, what can you do to reduce your spend levels? And what impact will this have on your overall margins, profits and ability to fund the next stage in your business journey?

Getting proactive with your spend management

Spend management is all about getting in control of your expenses – and, where possible, aiming to reduce the level of costs and overheads that you incur as a company.

Excessive spending eats into your cashflow, reduces your profit margins and stops you from achieving the profits that you’re capable of as a business. So if you can get proactive with your spend management, you can actually make your company a far more financially productive enterprise – and that’s great for your overall business health.

So, what can you do to reduce spend and slim down your company expenses?

Here are some key ways to reduce expenses:

• • Reduce your overheads – your overheads are the unavoidable costs of running your business, producing your products or supplying your services. If you have bricks and mortar premises, these overheads will include rental payments, utility bills and the cost of paying your staff. Drill down into the numbers and see where there are opportunities to reduce these overhead costs. That could mean moving to smaller premises, or reducing the size of your workforce, to reduce payroll expenditure.
  • Put limits on staff expenses – if your employees can claim expenses, or buy raw materials and equipment with the company’s money, these costs can soon start to rack up. It’s a good idea to put a spending limit in place, so each staff member can only spend up to an agreed amount. Having a clear expenses policy helps, as will training up your staff in good spend management techniques. Expenses cards or expense managment software will allow you to quickly set spend limits, track expenses and pull your expenses data through to your cloud accounting platform for processing.
  • Look for cheaper suppliers – if you can reduce your supplier costs, this will go a long way to bringing down your overall spend. If you’ve been with certain key suppliers for years, look around for new quotes, look at current market prices and see if you can negotiate better deals. And if your old suppliers aren’t flexible enough, try swapping to newer, more eager suppliers who will be willing to meet you in the middle on price.
  • Make your operations leaner – the bigger your operational costs are, the less margin you’ll make on your end products and services. One way to resolve this is to aim for a ‘lean approach’, paring back your staff, resources and operational complexity to the bare minimum. By making the business as lean as possible, whilst still delivering the same output, you keep your revenue stable, but reduce the spend level that’s eating into your cost of goods sold (COGS). The smaller your COGS, the more profit you make on each unit or sale – and that means better cashflow, more working capital and bigger profits.
  • Explore tax reliefs – you might assume that tax costs are an unavoidable expense when running your business, but it’s worth exploring which tax reliefs, grants or other business benefits you may benefit from. For example, research and development (R&D) tax credits that help cut your corporation tax expenses if you can demonstrate that you’re involved in innovation and groundbreaking R&D within your industry or specialism.

Talk to us about improving your spend management

If you’d like to get in control of your expenses, we’d love to chat. We’ll review your current costs and will highlight the key areas where expenses can be cut. Then we’ll help you formulate a proactive spend management program, to reduce your unnecessary spending.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.

Turning a profit will be high on your list of goals as a business owner.

And if you want to generate the best margins, that means keeping an eye on the money that’s going out of the business, as well as what’s coming in.

So, how can your accountant help with this?

The days where your accountant just did the bookkeeping, compiled your accounts and filed your tax return are well and truly over. Modern accounting firms are far more interested in helping you with your financial performance, your business strategy and offering flexible value-add services that put you in better control of your finances.

If you partner with the right accountant, we can actually save you money – in both the short, medium and long-term. And that’s good news for the growth of your business.

Key ways your accountant can enhance your financial health

The less expenditure you have as a company, the bigger your profit margin. It sounds incredibly simple, doesn’t it? – The smaller your costs, the larger your profit. But if you’re not fully in control of your financial management, it’s very difficult to know WHERE you’re spending money, and WHY you’re not achieving your profit targets.

This is where working with a finance professional adds a huge amount of value. Your accountant helps put you back in the driving seat of your finances – and that’s never been more needed than in the current economic climate.

So, what specific things can your accountant do and what will the impact be on the future of your business?

1. Tax advice and planning – tax costs can be one of your biggest outgoings as a business, so we’ll focus on getting your tax planning under control, applying for all the relevant tax incentives and ensuring you minimize the taxes on your profits. By paying only what you’re legally required to pay – and making use of any reliefs – we can significantly cut your tax spend in the business.
2. Cashflow management and advice – ‘Cash is King’ may be a cliche, but it’s true. Unless you can balance the cash inflows and outflows from your business, you’ll never have the liquid cash to pay your bills, cover your payroll costs or cover your operational expenses. We’ll show you where money is going out, and coming in, so you achieve the ideal positive cashflow position.
3. Cost control and spend management – to improve your cashflow, you need to reduce your cash outflows. An important way to do this is to focus on cost control and spend management, reducing your expenditure, removing unnecessary costs and negotiating better deals with your suppliers. The more you cut costs back, the better your cashflow will be and the easier it will be to thrive, grow and become more profitable.
4. Forecasting and financial modelling – when we understand the key financial drivers in your business, we can build you a full financial model. This allows us to change the variables, run different scenarios and forecast the various future paths of your business. Being able to project these numbers forward gives you a clearer view of the path ahead – and that’s invaluable in the challenging economic times that we all face at present.
5. Better management reporting and information – your decision-making stands or falls on the information you have available to you. We provide detailed management accounts, breakdowns of key metrics and forecasts of your cashflow, spending, aged debt and revenue – all of which helps you to save money, make sound decisions and keep the revenues flowing into your business.

Talk to us about cutting costs and boosting profit

Rather than running your business on a wing and prayer, by working with an accountant you get a clear picture on your business financials. We’ll help you cut unnecessary costs, optimize the most profitable parts of the business and increase your overall return on investment.

Let’s talk about how we can work together to support your ongoing business profitability.

The following content was originally published by BOMA. We have updated some of this article for our readers.