Five Tricks SMEs Tend To Miss

The viewpoint that the future, success and long-term recovery of the British economy rely on SMEs is one well supported by facts and figures. Britain’s five million SMEs provide half of private sector turnover and 60 percent of private sector jobs. With so much importance on the shoulders of our SMEs, it’s important that they get things right. Unfortunately, not all SMEs do, and several miss a few tricks due to a lack of research and attention to detail. Here are five key tricks SMEs tend to miss.

P2P Investment

The P2P lending industry may not have quite taken off and the whole practice of shadow banking in general is essentially an underground sensation. However, it need not be and proposed regulations to the shadow banking industry from the EU, will help stabilize and bring credentials to an industry that could very well revolutionize the future of loaning and investment.

P2P lending allows individuals to loan money to people or businesses with online platforms acting as the middlemen, putting borrowers in contact with investors.

Since banks are reluctant to lend to SMEs, P2P lending is a fantastic alternative for business owners looking for funding that doesn’t involve payday loaning.

Avoiding Payday Loans

Since we’re on the topic of payday loans, it must be stressed that regardless of how much an SME needs funding, payday loans are never the way to go. With the potential to leave you in debt and financial distress due to super extortionate interest rates, which need to be paid back within a short amount of time, payday loaning is essentially destructive.

Payday loans are never the way to go and never a wise option for an SME. If you don’t have the money to make a business move, it’ll be better to wait and even miss an opportunity, than opt for a payday loan.

Tax Refunds

Thousands of British SMEs make the mistake of failing to claim back their tax refunds and consequently miss out on thousands of pounds. There are a number of circumstances by which a business might be owed money by HMRC in the form of tax refunds.

Specialist teams such as RIFT UK can help discern whether a business is owed anything and how much they are owed.

SMEs should therefore hire a tax specialist team in order to work out if they are eligible for a tax refund.

Internet Marketing

From social media to SEO, the bulk of a SMEs marketing should be done online. Online marketing is cheaper than offline marketing, has the capacity to reach out to a larger target audience and through social media websites, builds a stronger connection with consumers.

There really is no reason why a business should not have Twitter, Facebook and Google+ accounts and an SEO campaign to boost its online visibility.

Avoiding Aggressive Marketing

Aggressive marketing makes SMEs look desperate and only serves to scare away any potential consumers. In essence, humans do not like to be forwardly advertised to, and consumers must therefore be seduced into customers.

This is done through subtle marketing methods that serve to simply put a business’ name out into the open. Avoid spamming people’s Twitters, emails and Facebook accounts with discounts and special offers. Work on promoting your brand, and its essence instead of its products or services.