Tag: free

Companies House reports are now Free!

Happy businessman with case.

We all like getting something for free, well now you can get free access to 170 million company records.

In line with the government’s commitment to free data, Companies House announced on 22nd June 2015 that all public digital data held on the UK register of companies is now accessible free of charge, on its new public beta search service.

This provides access to over 170 million digital records on companies and directors including financial accounts, company filings and details on directors and secretaries throughout the life of the company.

As a result, it will be easier for businesses and members of the public to research and scrutinise the activities and ownership of companies and connected individuals. Last year (2013/14), customers searching the Companies House website spent £8.7 million accessing company information on the register.

steve@bicknells.net

£50 to £500 in Cash if you can get enough votes…..

I was looking at PayPal becuase I had to up date some details and spotted they were promoting Fund 101 from Enterprise Nation its backed by Intuit and PayPal.

Every month they give £5000 to new businesses and they invite businesses to ask for amounts from £50 to £500, details as follows:

http://www.enterprisenation.com/fund101/?mpch=ads&mplx=3484-133899-12439-45

If you have an idea for a business and need a bit of cash to get started or you’re running a small business and need up to £500 to buy equipment, promotion flyers, hardware etc, you can apply.

Apply for between £50 and £500 and once you receive the money, the only thing we ask is you agree to be profiled on the site so we can see how you’re getting on. The money doesn’t have to be paid back; it’s for you to use on your idea or business.

Apply online and outline how much money you need and for what purpose. Make a good case for your idea and then encourage as many people as possible to vote for you. The number of votes required is equal to the amount of funding you’re looking for so to obtain £500 you’ll need to secure 500 virtual votes.

Remember, the Enterprise Nation community will help you spend the dosh! Want to use it to buy a camera to take good pictures of your products? Ask peers about the best deal on the market. Want to spend the money on a Google Adwords campaign but not sure where to start? Watch our video clips that will show you how!

Sounds like an interesting idea and if all you need is votes, how hard can it be?

steve@bicknells.net

Free Web Based CRM and Business Applications

Rosie Barfoot sent me a comment yesterday about Workbooks, they offer a totally free 2 user version of their software http://www.workbooks.com

I have signed up and downloaded a copy today, looks pretty good, CRM, Quotation Management, Products, Contracts, Invoicing, I need to get my head round how to use it but it seems pretty comprehensive. Its 100% web based, it can link to Sage and Outlook (not sure if thats in the free version), you can customise it and create templates, sounds ideal for a start up business.

steve@bicknells.net

Free Fundraising, Anti Virus, Office Suite, E Mail and Calendar

I asked some of my Linked In buddies what they recommend for Free, here is what they said:

Tony Croft (4 Networking) said:

Can I recommend ‘Free Fundraising’ with Simply Fundraising.
Let somebody else make donations to your cause/s when you shop, put petrol in the car, eat out, etc and get free flights as a reward for doing it.
Can you beat that? http://www.simplefundraising.co.uk/

Marco Tomat (4Networking) said:

I would like to recommend Microsoft’s free anti-virus software called Security Essentials, you must have a licenced copy of windows of course, it’s much faster and less bloated than the new free AVG 2011 which is causing older or low spec. machine to slow down. If you are a teenager who likes downloading stuff then you need to buy one of the mainstream products!
http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/security_essentials/default.aspx

Paul Driscoll (CIMA) said:

Fed up with the increasing cost of Microsoft licences some years ago, we implemented Open Office ( http://www.openoffice.org ) to replace Word, Excel etc.. All working well and would not now go back to MS.

We are also in the process of moving all machines to Mozilla Thunderbird for e-mail and Lightening for calendar ( http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird ) which is part of the same suite as the popular Firefox internet browser.

Free Payroll! with free updates!

If you have a business, the chances are you will need to operate a payroll.

When you set up in business the easiest and quickest way to register a payroll is on line

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/intro/register-email.htm

Once your payroll is registered its worth obtaining dispensations to hopefully avoid or at least reduce the need for P11D’s

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/exb/schemes/dispensation.htm

Having registered your payoll you will get a pack in the post from HMRC which will include a CD ‘Basic PAYE Tools’ this CD has everything you need to run your own payroll for free, as an alternative you can download ‘Basic PAYE Tools’

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1086949246&r.l1=1073858808&r.l2=1083106843&r.l3=1083106693&r.l4=1086857322&r.s=sc&type=RESOURCES

Its a great bit of software and you can set up multiple business and create employee databases.

The only thing it doesn’t do is produce payslips, but you can do that easily yourself  by creating your own template in Word or Excel.

steve@bicknells.net

 

Free Accounting Software – forever

I love free things, don’t you?

I discovered TAS books basics a while ago

http://www.tassoftware.co.uk/site/tas_accounts_software/basics

It is absolutely totally free and for a small business its ideal, its much better than trying to create your own system using spreadsheets. If you are a new business starting out why not give it go.

steve@bicknells.net

My top 10 free local activities and things to do

Following the massive popularity of my Bay Radio (102.8 FM) discussion on air today, here are my top 10, totally free things to do:

Corfe Castle Museum – Corfe

Southampton City Art Gallery – Southampton

Tolpuddle Martyrs – Dorchester

Russell Coates – Bournemouth

Red House Museum – Christchurch

The Waterfront Museum – Poole

Guided Fossil Hunting Walks – Charmouth

Swanage Regatta and Carnival 30th July to 6th August

Bournemouth Carnival Procession 7th August

Bournemouth Fireworks on Friday Nights starting 22nd July 8pm to 10.30pm

I hope you enjoy them and please let me know what you think

steve@bicknells.net