The definition of ‘brand awareness’ is “The likelihood that consumers recognise the existence and availability of a company’s product or service”. Therefore, creating a better brand awareness for your company is essential if you want to make it in the volatile market of today.

If your potential customers don’t even know of your existence then there’s no way that they can make a decision to choose your services over a competitor’s, and even if you have no competition in your local area you still won’t be getting any business!

As you can imagine, measuring brand awareness is a huge industry, and many studies are undertaken every year in order to try and determine how big brands are faring in the public psyche compared to their rivals. Questions such as “What do you think of when you think of luxury cars?” or “Have you ever heard of Honda?” are used to try and find out how aware consumers are of certain brands, and then marketing strategies can be coordinated accordingly.

Of course, there is no way you can ever match the spending power of a multinational corporation when it comes to advertising and exposure, but there are still ways for you to get known in the circles you need to be known in.

Social Media – with Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other such sites there is a vast number of people that you are able to connect with. Most people have a social media account (or more than one!) and by setting up a page, adding friends, following relevant people and making interesting and informative updates you are able to garner a lot of interest and get your brand noticed. If you can get shared by your primary contacts, then you’re laughing!

Blogging – by writing guest blogs and commenting on relevant blogs you can also create brand awareness. By becoming known by others in your industry, or by those interested in your industry, you will see an increase in brand awareness and therefore (hopefully) sales. Commenting here, there and everywhere is no good though; make sure you actually have something to add to the discussion.

Attend Events – gatherings of industry brands and customers are fantastic for getting known, as there are plenty of opportunities to network and building contacts for the future. A great way to ensure you are remembered after the event is over is by bringing some promotional items to give away. Think outside the box, not just pens but also t shirts, umbrellas and even branded promotional sweets! You want it to seem like a gift, not an advertisement, so people will keep hold of the item for longer – meaning more people will see it.

Deciding to take your company from sole trader to Limited is a daunting decision but one that can extremely benefit your company in the long run through the thing we all hate the most…taxes. First of all, get your new business company registered, otherwise not only will you be subject to fines if you aren’t registered, but you won’t be able to reap the benefits of tax.

Being self employed, the line between business money and personal money is hard if not impossible to distinguish. The instant benefit of being a Limited Company, a separate entity from it’s owners, is that the liability is transferred from the shareholders onto the company itself, making it an attractive and safe investment for shareholders. This means that with the company being a corporate body it is liable for payments and debt. Not the owners, not the shareholders. Corporation tax is only payable when the company makes a profit, and the amount of tax saving depends on the net profit before the tax. As far as tax goes, with a Limited company, comes lower corporation tax benefits. Over recent years, corporation tax for Limited companies has increased from 20% to 22% whilst sole traders have suffered from a reduction of corporation tax by 2% taking it down to 20%.

The advantage in tax saving stems from the flexibilities of dividends and being able to determine  salaries within a Limited company. A sole trader’s basic accounts are subjected to fixed tax rates. Advantages increase for Limited companies in the tax realm when net taxable profit is above the self employment upper earnings limit. Money can then be left in the business thus becoming only accountable for the 22% corporation tax rate, completely avoiding paying the 40% tax rate as a sole trader.

By forming your company as a Limited Company, it becomes a clear indication to your buyers, shareholders etc that your business is serious. A private limited company advantages over self employment also extends to long term finance. Companies tend to retain more funds within the business to meet future financial commitments which aids year on year growth, a more sustainable business and medium term profits growth over a sole trader.

If you are a business owner it can sometimes be difficult to know what your priorities should be. Making sure you are safe trading at the level you are now? Trying to expand to increase revenue? Where and how to advertise? There are many factors that must be taken into account, but one that is sometimes overlooked is your company’s profile.

You should make sure that your company’s name and other associations are protected and make you look your best in the public eye. Things such as your branding, company logo, company representatives and anywhere else your name appears should all be known to you to ensure your customers know they are dealing with a trusted, reputable business.

One of the first steps to ensure this is to make sure that your company name is protected. When choosing a company name it should be informative, accurate and stick in people’s memory. It can sometimes be as easy as using the company founders name or initials, but can often be a point of contention, with different people’s ideas clashing.

Staying in people’s memories can make sure that your company is used over and over by your customers. Having associated branding is also good to ensure that people can recognise you when seeing your advertising, vehicles or staff. Nearly every successful business has examples of this, from recurring themes in chains such as McDonalds with names for items with the prefix ‘Mc’ or using colour schemes. A great example of colour schemes could be seen with the recent Olympic Games in London. The recurring pink theme, the style of writing and symbols for the events was one of the most recognisable parts of the games. It was arguably one of the most successful branding strategies of recent Olympic Games. When the designs were first unveiled there was some consternation over them, but during and after the event it got high praise.

For small businesses this is a good strategy, even on a smaller scale. When companies grow they often undergo re-branding which is implemented on a huge scale, often all over the globe for multi nationals. Using McDonalds as an example again, when they decided to change their slogan to ‘I’m loving it’ it was rolled out with huge advertising campaigns and very quickly became associated with the brand. I’m sure most people, like me, would struggle to remember their marketing tactic beforehand. This shows how effective it was in creating an idea for a brand practically overnight.

This shows how much advertising and appearance means to companies, who often rely on being known rather than a specific advantage over rivals. For companies who are starting out, it is very important to protect your reputation from local rivals in your field, so protecting your name and branding is of paramount importance.

Looking for information about contractor tax? Then follow this simple guide to paying tax as your own limited company.

Everyone knows that the most tax efficient way of contracting or freelancing is through a limited company. By registering your own limited company the only contractor tax you will pay are Limited Company Taxes and Personal Taxes.

If functioning through a limited company correctly, you will be saving a lot of money even when paying these taxes while being eligible to claim back a wide range of expenses outside of IR35.

Corporation Tax
Within a limited company, the contractor tax comes in form of a 20% corporation tax which applies to limited companies earning under £300,000 in overall profits. However, your expenses come out of your overall profit and are not taxed, which is why claiming expenses is such an important part of being a contractor.

National Insurance Contributions
As part of contractor tax, your limited company is required to pay 13.8% on any salary paid to an employee over the amount of a hundred and thirty pounds a week. And that includes paying your own salary from the limited company which you are the owner of.

VAT
Fortunately, contractors are registered upon Value Added Tax (VAT) on a Flat Rate Scheme. This type of contractor tax scheme was bought in to simplify VAT for smaller companies and businesses, charging 20% on all invoices and then paying the HMRC back at a lesser rate.

PAYE and Income Tax
When contracting, income tax is directly deducted from your earnings as though you were employed by another company. However, there are different thresholds for income tax, so be sure to check up on the amount that you should be paying.

Employee’s National Insurance Contribution
And finally, if you receive payment and benefits from your own limited company, you will also be required to pay Employee’s National Insurance Contribution. So you get taxed for as an employer paying yourself from your own limited company and then you pay tax for receiving a salary as an employee of your own limited company.

As always, seek the advice of an accountant to help you with crucial dates of payment and to ensure that this does not place you inside IR35.