Getting an acceptable yield from any investment has been an enormous challenge over the past decade or so, since interest rates ground almost to a halt, both in the UK and across the wider western world.
This has caused investors to think hard about their investment strategies in two very particular ways. One it to look at innovative investment types that would have seemed beyond the purview of the casual or private investor 20 years ago. The other is to ensure that when they do invest, they do so in the …

By Inna Kaushan, co-founder of Solna
Sending out clear, concise, well-designed invoices is very important if you want clients to deal with them quickly. Making it easy for your clients to pay you is necessary to get you paid on time.
Good invoicing can be achieved quickly and to help you here is our handy guide:
 
What should an invoice include?
An invoice is an important accounting document that requests payment in return for goods or services.  This means an invoice should always include:

The word ‘invoice’
The date of issue
Your name or your business …

By Tomas Zalatoris, Clouder
Third party sellers sell their products via sites like Amazon – rather than from their own website. Amazon gains revenue without stocking additional products. It also provides sellers with a platform, with a proven ‘footfall’ – and no need to set up their own ecommerce site from scratch.
Despite the dominance of Amazon and eBay we’ve seen many niche marketplaces start and succeed in recent years. They offer alternatives to more generalised platforms that may not have as much focus on seller and customer support, or may …

Everyone is feeling it. With Christmas coming up, petrol and food prices rising, and Brexit on the horizon, money just isn’t going as far as it did. I’ve been looking at ways to make my money go further over the last few months. Instead of feeling worse off, here are a few practical and sustainable ideas that will help you reduce your day to day costs without having to miss out on any of the good stuff.
What’s your budget?
Working out how much money you have coming in and what’s going …

Crowdfunding has gone beyond the early adopter stage, says John Auckland of TribeFirst, meaning most people have now heard of it. A recent survey by TribeFirst suggests that we are getting close to the stage where more people in the UK have supported a crowdfunding campaign than haven’t. The survey, completed by 250 people, showed that 43.8% of the respondents had backed either a charity, rewards or equity crowdfunding campaign.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that most people back their first campaign due to friends or family being behind it in some way, …

Research by Liberis, a leading small business finance provider, has revealed that 72% of SMEs are spending up to 3 days every month chasing money they’re owed. This is costing each business an average of £5,000 per year in time spent trying to recover these funds.
The survey also found that a quarter of SMEs are chasing ‘aged debt’ of over £20,000. But on average, survey respondents are owed £11,000, so to put this into context using official figures, there are 5.7 million SMEs in the UK, meaning business owners are …

Have you ever struggled to get to grips with your credit card? Whether you use it for business or family purchases a credit card is a great way to spread when you pay for something, but you need to understand how interest works if you are going to make the most of a card.
APR (Annual percentage rate) is a term used in a variety of ways throughout finance products and represents the standard way of showing the yearly cost of borrowing based on the situation of you being charged. For …

Many people dream of starting their own business but not all people manage to achieve this dream. One of the biggest problems that people face is the lack of funding for their new business, especially when they are unable to spare the money to fund it themselves. In this article, we are going to explore some ways that you can raise money for your new business so keep reading if you’d like to find out more.
Take Out Loans
Our first way that you can raise money for your new business is …

Power to Change, the independent trust supporting community businesses in England, has announced it will award up to £700k in support of new and emerging community businesses through the provision of one to one advice, peer learning and small development grants.
The Bright Ideas Fund, which opens next month, is open to community groups who have an idea for a community run business such as a community run shop, launderette, swimming pool, even neglected parks and playing fields but need help to start setting it up.  The fund opens at a …

Equity crowdfunding can be a tough way to raise money, but it can also bring you so much more than just cash for the business. If you have the right strategy.
Here’s how to get the most from your crowdfunding opportunity:
1)    Build a tribe
The great thing about building a tribe is that they care more. The most effective founders I’ve come across use their first funding round as a means to bring their fledgling tribe together in one place and get them involved in their business journey.
BrewDog – the Aberdeenshire brewers came up …