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Accreditation advice & Business Guides

Portafina Opens Doors for Aspiring Finance Professionals

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The finance sector is one that contributes a significant amount to the UK’s GDP. For this reason, finance professionals are in high demand, especially ones who have made noticeable strides in the industry. One inspiring company that has stood out this year, especially in the UK, is Portafina.

Established in 2009, Portafina focuses on offering expert advice to help people plan for life after retirement, simplifying the pension journey and ensuring customers make the best decisions for their circumstances. The business has had an excellent year, with a remarkable level of business growth and received public recognition from three significant media platforms as a result.

The Financial Times Future 100 List

One of Portafina’s significant achievements for 2018 was making it onto the Financial Times Future 100 List in October. They received a feature on such a prestigious list as a result of the positive contributions they have made to the environment, society, diversity, or technology. What’s more, Portafina was also included on this list because they were seen as having a commitment to diversity, which is a necessity for any successful company in this day and age. [Read more…]

What does your star sign reveal about your approach to office tidiness?

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Let’s face it, there’s no shortage of office storage solutions on offer now, and these units are quick and easy to purchase.

You can get everything from space saving under-desk pedestals and multi-use cupboards to wood filing cabinets from Furniture At work and a variety of other retailers.

How effectively you use these units is another issue though. Whether you pride yourself on keeping your workspace neat and tidy, you like to let chaos reign or you’re somewhere in the middle, did you know that your approach to tidiness could be written in the stars? In its recent ‘Organised Mess’ infographic, Furniture At Work explored what the signs of the zodiac can reveal about different people’s attitudes towards keeping their work areas in check… [Read more…]

How can you embrace risk and make it work for you?

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“Move fast and break things” – the original motto of one of the world’s most successful and disruptive tech and social media firms – seems on the surface to sum up the attitude of the most successful disruptive companies. Many people think these dynamos throw caution to the wind and charge headlong into established industries, leaving behind a path strewn with broken business models and defunct technologies.

Actually, many of the most successful entrepreneurial companies take a more nuanced and analytical approach to risk. They identify opportunities to pursue and decide which to follow based on their knowledge of the risks each poses. Then they manage and monitor their choices carefully.

Zulily CEO Darrell Cavens, a 2014 award winner, relates to this approach. “I’m not the kind of person who likes to jump out of airplanes or bet the entire farm. What we do is quickly iterate with a lot of ideas that work and then forge ahead with the best ones.”

How to gamble responsibly

Understanding risk in this way and coming up with strategies that limit your vulnerabilities are at the core of strong, innovative companies. [Read more…]

Tips on selling your Business

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We all know about business owners that have built up their business and then sold it on and made a lot of money. This might be something that you would like to do with your business. If you feel that you have value in your business and that you will be able to raise a significant amount of money form it, then it could be worth a try. However, it can seem a daunting task knowing what to do and where to start. Some of the tips below may help you.

Make sure the business is ready

It is really important to make sure that everything in the business is ready for the sale. For example you will want to make sure that the books are all up to date, the website is up to date as well and that you are prepared to answer any questions that you are asked about the business. If you have staff then you will need to prepare them as well and it may be necessary to prepare customers as well, depending on how your business works. Think about what the potential buyers may need to know and prepare for that, perhaps putting together procedures or information that they will find useful. [Read more…]

Top tips for First Time Renters

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When you buy a home to rent out, it can seem like a great way to get some extra income and for some people it can be very profitable. However, there are things which you may forget about when you are in the process of putting your plans in place. It is wise to make sure that you have covered everything before you start, just in case something goes wrong.

Keeping contingency money

It is tempting to think that once you start collecting rent that you will be able to spend that money and not worry about it. However, it is wise to keep some of the money back. This is because there could be a number of situations that you may need to pay out for. Firstly, if you have no tenants in the property you will still need to pay the costs of keeping the property which may include keeping it heated so that pipes do not freeze, paying council tax and paying standing charges on utilities. If you rely on that rent for  The property will also need to be kept in good repair, so it will need decorating from time to time as well as perhaps having other repair work done to it and so having some money put by to cover these things is really important. If it is a flat, then there may need to be payments towards work in communal spaces or even ground rent to be paid by landlords, which is worth investigating as well in order to ensure that you have enough money put by for it all. [Read more…]

Ideas for Summer Kitchens

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As the summer progresses it may give you some ideas of changes that you want to make to your kitchen. While the weather is sunny and warm, you may feel that you would like to have more connection to the outside, brighter things in your kitchen or maybe a completely new kitchen makeover.

Connecting to the outside could make the kitchen brighter and could make it easier to cook outside if you want a barbecue. Having doors that open into the garden can make a big difference as well as having a skylight or larger windows put into the kitchen. It may be that building a deck or patio just outside the kitchen will mean that you can prepare food inside and eat outside. Some ideas may be rather expensive, but it could be that you could make some smaller changes which could help you to feel more summery in your kitchen.

It could be that you choose to put some brighter decorations in your kitchen to make it look more summery. You could make small changes like a bright table cloth and chair cushions or some summery flowers on the table. Plants could also brighten the place up. A brightly patterned rug might help as well. Sometimes just a big clean can help to make things feel better and perhaps some brighter lighting, new tea towels and rearranging items on the worktops could make quite a difference. Even if you only have a small budget, just a few simple and cheap changes can make it feel so much better. [Read more…]

Types of business finance

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Do you need external finance for your company? You are not alone. Additional funding is likely to be sought for practically any enterprise at one time or another.

That demand has generated a whole host of possibilities when it comes to business finance, therefore, and you might be overwhelmed by the choice.

So, let’s examine just some of the options.

Bank loans

The high street bank and local businesses traditionally enjoyed an especially close partnership.

In the wake of 2008’s financial crisis that relationship has come under considerable strain as applications for bank loans have become ever more complicated and time-consuming. Detailed business plans or cashflow projections may be required, and the decision process before any approval of the requested business finance may be long and drawn-out.

If your circumstances bear the time taken to process your application for such business finance, the bank may offer either a secured or unsecured loan. [Read more…]

You should be fearless to succeed in the market

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Are you afraid of the market? Do you think about the losses rather than the profits? Do you think about the risks but not about the risk-management? If you think logically you would understand that it is not possible to succeed the market if you are afraid of it. As an example, a person is passionate about swimming but he or she is afraid of water so how it is possible to become a great swimmer? Likewise, if you are passionate about trading you should not fear the market if you do so it will be hard for you to achieve your dreams. The traders in the United Kingdom have successfully achieved their dreams because they are fearless. They have no fear of the market. Even though it is true that the Forex market is a risky market a successful trader will not be afraid of the market because he or she will be able to succeed in trading. The confidence is important to become successful so try to increase the level of confidence. A naïve trader should fear the market if he or she is not prepared to face the market risk. So, there are ways to overcome the market fear. Nevertheless, let us learn the ways to overcome the fear of the market.

The success of Forex

Actually, you should dream of the Forex success. You should think how it will be when you become a successful Forex trader. You should learn the positive factors about the Forex market and try to think well about the market rather than being fixated on the negative factors. Most of the naïve traders think about the wrong move they ‘might’ make rather than thinking about the profits they will be able to make. Actually, if you want to overcome the fear you should try to improve positive thinking. If the market understands that you fear the market it might purposely make you lose. As a naïve trader, you should not let the market to know that you are afraid to try to improve positive thinking. When you improve positive thinking you will be able to overcome the fact that you afraid of the market. [Read more…]

Could a merchant cash advance be right for your business?

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Many commercial loans suggest that they are flexible when it comes to repayment but look a little closer and you will usually find there are fixed repayments over the schedule of the loan term. This is especially the case with commercial bank loans and similar traditional forms of borrowing. A merchant cash advance is classed as an alternative form of business finance and it is quickly gaining in popularity.

Firstly, to qualify, you need to take sales from your customers via debit and credit card transactions through your merchant payment facility. The advance amount is usually calculated on your monthly card turnover so say for example your business takes £5000 in sales you could qualify for an advance of up to 150% of this value.

merchant cash advance

The difference with a merchant cash advance compared to other commercial funding options is that it is truly flexible when it comes to repaying the advance. You repay an agreed percentage of each future card sale so you pay back only when you make a sale. So, if your sales are down for the month you pay back less, and, when sales are good you repay quicker.

It takes away the pressure of meeting regular fixed monthly repayments that are usually associated with traditional commercial finance. It works well for seasonal businesses and especially well for those businesses that have sales fluctuations on their balance sheets. [Read more…]

Is Self Employment right for You?

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The rocky road of self employment is very up-and-down, fraught with difficulties that often come in the form of rejection letters and brief notes that say “no, thank you” from once-potential customers and employers. Sometimes, personal finances are difficult to juggle, and the cost of expenses like health care have to be absorbed alone. For many, even these deterrents don’t work to keep them from their chosen self-employed path. But for some, self employment just doesn’t pan out. Self-assessing is a good way to learn if self employment is right for you.

Not everyone is cut out for working from home, or total self employment. Being self employed means going it alone – completely. No one is there to dole out assignments, provide work, or sign a weekly paycheck. While this can be a terrifying experience, it can also be a highly rewarding one…but generally, this only happens when self employment works out for the better. Self-assessing and self evaluation are good ways to discover if self employment is right before taking the plunge. [Read more…]