Preparing Your Craft Business For A New Financial Year
The beginning of a new year always presents us with a good opportunity to reassess, recognise and celebrate our successes and change, stop or redirect those areas which are not working so well. For owners of crafting businesses, there are three natural pauses in the year in which we can do this. One is New Year at the start of January, one is the beginning of a new academic year following the summer holidays in September, and one is at the beginning of a new tax year in April.
This also coincides with the coming of spring, some warmer weather, longer, lighter days and a general sense of fresh hope. You may have a tried and tested system in place already for giving your business a general health check, but if not, here are our suggestions for what to include in this valuable process.
Just as starting our mornings well begins the night before with some careful preparation, so beginning a new tax year well begins with finishing the last one on time with all tax deadlines met, accounts submitted and records in order. Make sure you have chased unpaid invoices and filed your business expenses, supplier invoices and bank statements. If you are VAT-registered, check that your records are up to date to reclaim VAT. Once all this is done, whatever your accounts look like, celebrate the end of a year of hard work.
The process of doing all the above may have thrown up some glitches in your administration.
Financial administration is generally not a favourite task, and some of us find working with numbers and organising our financial affairs harder than others. Take a look at your system for storing and collecting all the information you need at the end of a tax year. Could you improve it in any way? It might be worth looking at some accounting or bookkeeping software options or even hiring a bookkeeper or accountant if your business turnover allows for this. Are there any habits you could adopt to ensure that your paperwork is filed as soon as you send or receive it to save scrabbling for invoices, receipts, etc at the end of the year?
Another area to review at the end of one financial year and the beginning of the next is your overall budgeting. Have you kept to budget? What has been more costly than anticipated? Can you make savings anywhere? The current financial climate is tough and continues to be unpredictable, which makes budgeting especially challenging.
With utilities rising, might you be able to get a better deal with another provider? Take a look at your raw materials. Where are you sourcing them, and is there a more cost-effective way of procuring what you need? Depending on the raw materials you need, it might be worth looking at resources such as Scrap Stores or rummaging through a few charity shops for textiles.
Another saving you could make is in your crafter’s liability cover. You may have been using a provider for some time, but it is always a good idea to shop around. As a small family business ourselves, we understand the need to find value for money and offer very competitive crafters’ liability cover. We listen to your unique business requirements and will find a package, usually including both product and public liability insurance, which is tailored to your needs. You are therefore only paying for the crafter’s liability cover which you require, and not for anything you don’t. We also communicate directly with our customers… no anonymous call centres…saving you time as well. So, pick up the phone or drop us a line and either Sam or Naomi will be here to give you a customised quote for crafters liability cover. We look forward to hearing about your business!
April is also a good time of year to review your business plan, set new goals and adjust existing ones. Review what ranges have sold best. Look at the times of year when your sales have soared or slumped. Can you do anything to address this? If you sell at shows and markets, which ones have been the most profitable? If you have done well at face-to-face events, consider booking yourself into some more for the coming year. Are there specific days or seasons which you have not as yet focused on? As well as Christmas and Easter, we have Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Harvest Festival amongst others. We also have four quite different seasons and each one offers an opportunity for a different range of products…are there new ways you could adapt your products to reflect these and thus increase sales?
Alongside planning your product range for the coming year, it is also essential to review and plan your marketing and promotional strategy. If you have a website, what are your stats like? What can you learn from these? Use this information to plan your promotions for the year ahead. How about your social media advertising? Is your platform growing in the way you’d like it to? Take some time to look at comparative sites and platforms and think through any tweaks you can make or additions you can include to your marketing strategy.
Remember that your time is a cost to your business; if there are any practical changes you can make to your workspace which reduce time spent carrying out mundane tasks, then this too will save you money. How efficient is your packaging process? Is everything required for postage kept in one place? Similarly, is everything required for craft fairs kept in one place? It could be worth investing in storage boxes or units to enable a streamlined approach to such practicalities.
Finally, get creative! Once all the above are done, allow yourself some time to be inspired and devise your next range of beautifully crafted, locally made and wonderfully unique products to bring delight and joy to your customers!