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How to Avoid Common Money Leaks in Your Small Business

How to Avoid Common Money Leaks in Your Small Business

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How to Avoid Common Money Leaks in Your Small Business

Money leaks in your small business

eat away at your profits without you even knowing about it. Even if your business seems to be in great financial health, you should regularly check for leaks to ensure that you’re not unwittingly wasting money. Plugging money leaks can help to reduce your spending and thus boost your profit margins without too much extra work on your part.

Here are the most common money leaks to look out for, and how to fix them.

1. Online Advertising

It’s easy to let advertising fees get out of hand. Social media pay-per-click fees may seem small, but they do add up and can present a significant money leak for your small business. Keep a close eye on any social media or Google advertising campaigns to ensure that you’re not running up a big bill. It’s also important that you regularly review the effectiveness of these adverts. If they’re not bringing in business, they’re a wasted expense.

2. Subscriptions

At some point, we’ve all signed up for a free trial with no intention to continue, then forgotten all about it and ended up paying. Other times, we stop using a service but forget to cancel the subscription. It’s all too easy to let your business leak money this way, but it all adds up. Review your subscriptions regularly and promptly cancel any that are no longer benefiting you.

3. Power Usage

Small mistakes like leaving the lights on overnight and forgetting to switch off devices may not seem like a big deal, but over time they can seriously eat into your profit margins. It’s important to get into good energy saving habits and encourage your staff to do the same.

There are many other ways to cut down on electricity usage, such as investing in insulated blinds or switching to energy-efficient lightbulbs. Although these changes do present an upfront cost, they will save your business a significant amount of money in the long term.

4. Office Supplies

It’s easy to go over-the-top with office supplies, so take some time to assess what is and isn’t necessary. Thousands of multicoloured sticky notes are fun, but they’re hardly a necessary expense. Furthermore, many businesses waste a lot of money on printing, which is easily avoidable in the age of cloud-based software.

5. Credit Card Fees

Being lax with your credit card payments is a surefire way to create unnecessary costs. By clearing your balance each month – or at least as much as possible – and paying attention to any annual or hidden fees involved, you can save your business money and boost your profit margins.

When signing up for a credit card, don’t get distracted by the attractive rewards. Make sure that you read the fine print and understand the fees before you choose a card. This will help you to use your card wisely and avoid any money leaks.

6. Smartphone Bills

If you’re not keeping a close eye on your smartphone bills, you could be paying a lot more than necessary. Make a habit of reviewing your charges every month to ensure that you and your staff aren’t exceeding your plans. Take a close look at your usage, too, because you could be paying for more than you’re actually using. It’s also worth shopping around regularly too to see whether or not you could benefit from switching plans or providers.

It Pays to Plug

By plugging these common money leaks, you can cut down on costs without making any real sacrifices. Regularly checking for leaks helps you to make your business budget go further, so make sure you don’t grow complacent. Get into the habit of regularly performing basic checks to maintain a healthy profit margin and prevent your business from losing money.

Money leaks in your small business eat away at your profits without you even knowing about it. Even if your business seems to be in great financial health, you should regularly check for leaks to ensure that you’re not unwittingly wasting money. Plugging money leaks can help to reduce your spending and thus boost your profit margins without too much extra work on your part. Here are the most common money leaks to look out for, and how to fix them.

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7 Fatal Entrepreneurial Mistakes to Avoid

7 Fatal Entrepreneurial Mistakes to Avoid

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7 Fatal Entrepreneurial Mistakes to Avoid

Making mistakes is an unavoidable part of your entrepreneurial journey, but certain errors may prove fatal for your fledgling business. According to the USA Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20% of small businesses fail in the first year. Often, this is due to naivety or a lack of preparation. Let’s take a look at some of the most common and dangerous entrepreneurial mistakes so that you can avoid them and ensure that your business sticks around.

1. Failing to Get to Know Your Niche

When you’re full of ideas and enthusiasm, it’s tempting to skip the research step and dive straight into launching your business. However, the better you know your chosen industry, the more successful you will be. Take time to learn from your competition. Discover what it takes to succeed in your niche, and why others have failed. Understanding the industry will help you to position yourself appropriately in the market, predict trends and gain a competitive edge. Find out what works, what doesn’t and what you can do better. If you want to swim instead of sink, make sure you do your homework before diving in.

2. Ignoring Expert Advice

Gut instinct is part of entrepreneurship but that doesn’t mean you should ignore the advice of others. It always pays to listen to and learn from more experienced business people who can offer you valuable advice and insights. Being overly arrogant and thinking that you always know best is a sure fire way to tank your budding enterprise.

3. Cost-based Hiring

Ever heard the phrase “pay peanuts, get monkeys”?

A company is only as good as its people. When you’re first starting out, it can be very tempting to find staff who are willing to work for low wages, but even one bad hire can be a very costly mistake for your business. If you’re starting a business with a tight budget, it’s natural to want to keep costs low but remember that bad hires reduce productivity, tank morale and require you to spend even more money on a replacement hire further down the line. Invest in quality staff from the beginning and you’ll reap the rewards.

4. Neglecting the customer

Without customers or clients, you have no business to speak of. Ensure that you create all of your products and/or services with the customer in mind and create a customer-first philosophy to underpin your business. Repeat customers are your greatest source of revenue. Research by Invesp Consulting found that increasing customer retention by 5% boosts profits by a whopping 25-90% and acquiring a new customer is up to five times as expensive as retaining an existing one. It really does pay to put the customer first.

5. Setting Unrealistic Goals

It’s great to be ambitious, but it’s equally important to set achievable short-term goals to keep you motivated and maintain a sense of direction. Short-term goals are great benchmarks to measure your progress, as it can be more difficult to understand where you are in relation to a goal that’s months – or even years – away.

6. Neglecting Marketing

Unfortunately “build it and they will come” is not a good business philosophy. It’s essential that you invest in marketing for your start up. You can offer the greatest product or service in the world, but that doesn’t mean much if no-one knows about it. A good marketing strategy will help you to stand out from the crowd and be heard above the noise of your competitors. If you want to see healthy profits you have to invest in marketing.

7. Trying to Do Everything Yourself

Many entrepreneurs try to handle every aspect of their business by themselves. This is a mistake that not only leads to burnout, but also prevents you from completing tasks to the best of your ability. Knowing when to outsource and delegate certain tasks is key to your survival as an entrepreneur and the sooner you learn how to do it, the better. Outsourcing tasks such as admin, accounting and content creation will free up your time to concentrate on what matters most to you: growing your business.

Set Yourself Up For Success

Being aware of and avoiding the above entrepreneurial mistakes will set your start up in good stead for success. It’s great to be passionate about what you do, but remember not to jump in too quickly or ignore the advice or more experienced business people. Entrepreneurs are often caught up in their grand ideas and forget to pace themselves and focus on what really matters. By remaining mindful of the aforementioned mistakes, you can ensure that you stay in business for a long time to come.

At Woodville Accounting & Payroll one thing we do is help start-ups set up their business and finance function, while offering continued support with their business growth.

If you would like more information or to discuss any of the comments made in the above article then please contact us at [email protected] or complete our on-line contact form.

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5 Common Accounting Mistakes That Small Businesses Make

5 Common Accounting Mistakes That Small Businesses Make

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5 Common Accounting Mistakes That Small Businesses Make

Accounting is notoriously complex but as a small business owner, good accounting practices are essential to the financial health of your organisation. Taking your accounting seriously from the start is the best way to set your small business up for success and it will allow you to operate much more efficiently in the future. Bad accounting, on the other hand, can lead to financial and legal difficulties that may seriously threaten the survival and success of your enterprise.

Here are the most common accounting mistakes made by small business owners so that you can avoid them. Mistakes compound over time, so it’s important to pay close attention to your accounts right from the very beginning.

1. Procrastination

One of the most common accounting mistakes that small business owners make is waiting too long to prepare their financial information. When tax season is months away, it’s very tempting to put accounting off until later but this is a dangerous misstep. The longer accounting mistakes go unnoticed, the more damage they are likely to do to your business.

In order to make sure that your financial information is as accurate as possible, update your books on at least a weekly basis. This makes tax season far more manageable and prevents you from making mistakes that will require a lot of time and money to fix.

2. Misunderstanding Metrics

New business owners in particular often confuse terms such as revenue, net profit and cash flow. A common financial mistake that small businesses make is focusing solely on revenue without subtracting expenses to calculate their net profit. This can lead to serious overspending.

Furthermore, many new business owners get carried away and forget that there may be a significant difference between their net profit and their NOPAT (net profit after tax). As well as encouraging overspending, this can lead to significant financial problems when it’s time to file a tax return.

3. Mixing Personal and Business Banking

Sole traders are legally permitted to use their personal bank accounts for their business, but this is not the wisest course of action. It’s best to separate your business and personal bank accounts as soon as possible in order to avoid financial blunders.

For one thing, going back over your bank accounts and trying to remember which transactions were personal and which were business-related is a sure fire way to give yourself a headache. It’s also a huge waste of valuable time that could be better spent growing your enterprise. Additionally, you may face an array of legal problems should your business be audited.

4. Miscalculations

Simple mathematical mistakes are all too easy to make, but an innocent error can compound over time and damage the financial health of your business. It’s important to concentrate fully and double-check every entry. Accounting software can automate many calculations for you to ensure accuracy, so a subscription may prove a worthy investment.

Trying to do it all yourself

Trying to handle your accounts by yourself is a costly and time-consuming mistake. Many small businesses attempt DIY accounting when they first start out in order to keep costs low, but this can actually slow down their growth and threaten their financial health.

At a basic level, hiring a qualified and chartered accountant helps business owners to avoid expensive accounting mistakes and saves them a huge amount of time, allowing them to focus on growing their business. Furthermore, accountants can save businesses a significant sum of money on their tax returns, thanks to their up-to-date knowledge and financial expertise. Although hiring an accountant does present an extra cost, it generates a very lucrative ROI.

A good quality accountant will also bring market knowledge to the table and can help business owners to present a strong case to potential investors, further accelerating the growth of the organisation.

Conclusion

Like it or not, accounting is part and parcel of running a business and it’s very important to do it correctly. By taking accounting seriously from the very beginning and hiring professional help, you can protect your business against the above accounting mistakes and focus on growth instead of putting out fires.

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The Best Ways to Increase Your Conversions

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The Best Ways to Increase Conversions

Learning how to improve the conversion rate for your existing traffic can be more beneficial than expanding product lines or cutting costs.

Sites with the highest traffic do not necessarily have the best conversion rates. In fact, a conversion rate of only 0.2% means getting only two customers in every 1000 visitors, which can be extremely low even for a high-profile page with loads of traffic.

Here are some of the best ways to improve conversion rates quickly and efficiently.

1. Remove Sign-Ups

Forcing users to sign up for a new account before they can purchase a product or service is one of the quickest ways to lose them as a potential client. Most people find it tedious to enter their information for every product they buy.

Making the purchasing process intuitive and waiving the permanent account requirement will allow visitors to buy on the spot and increase your conversion.

2. Simplify Purchases

There are a few ways to simplify the purchasing process beyond the sign-up. 

For example, removing unnecessary fields from surveys and purchase forms can lead to a better conversion rate. Furthermore, making the steps of the purchase process prominent and easy to follow can be the key to getting a user to buy.

Simplification can’t go too far, however, or the marketing and sales teams could lose the ability to conduct proper lead management.

3. Add Reviews and Testimonials

Users are most likely to trust what other users have to say about a company. That’s why adding testimonials from satisfied customers can lead to a sense of safety and security in your services.

Logos of prominent companies that use your services on the homepage will build future visitors’ trust and increase the click-through rate.

4. Perform A/B Testing

Some users don’t look at the content of a website beyond the headline. If there are a few viable choices for the website copy, an A/B test will ensure that the best version is presented to the consumer.

A/B testing can work on any part of the webpage. However, the standard practice is to compare one change at a time and conduct separate tests to optimize your digital asset.

5. Provide Trust

Most people won’t buy a product when they aren’t sure about the company behind it. Fortunately, there are several ways to build trust with potential customers.

It’s best to keep the business’s contact information, such as the address, publicly available and readily accessible. It’s because visitors are more likely to purchase something if they can see the company behind it.

Additionally, it’s advisable to keep pop-ups and ads to a minimum. Frequent distractions will move users away from the website. But if ads are a must, clearly point out sponsored content.

Blog posts and websites also need regular updating. A website that was last updated two years ago is less likely to attract new customers. Cheap-looking pages and graphics also tend to have a similar effect

Less Is More

Keeping the website clean from distractions and annoying pop-ups and sounds will allow users to read through its content unimpeded. And simplifying the steps between introduction and purchase and streamlining the process will help visitors decide to buy the product on short notice. 

Market research is a continually growing field, and there are many lessons to be learnt for even the most experienced companies.

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Five Ways to Reduce Costs and Boost Your Profitability

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Five Ways to Reduce Costs and Boost Your Profitability

Not sure why your bottom line is not pretty? Sometimes, overspending can hurt your profitability despite your record sales.

Profitability does not only come from sales numbers and a profitable business isn’t always the one with the most customers and the highest sales. Profitability depends on what is left in the account at the end of the month or the fiscal year. It is important to account not only for the money coming in but also the money going out. That is why cutting costs is one of the best ways to boost profitability… if you do it right. IMPORTANT some costs are good. Good costs generate a return on your investment so do not cut these. Instead try and get a better deal on these ones.

Tip #1 – Address Material Costs

Sellers of products are most concerned with raw material costs. That is why increasing profitability can be as simple as lowering manufacturing and or development costs. You would be surprised at how much this move can make your business profitable. To maximise your opportunities to increase your profitability you need to understand the cost make-up of each finished product.

Tip #2 – Reduce Labour Costs

Can any of your labour processes be replaced by automation? Have you considered hiring a VA as opposed to an on-site assistant? Reducing the amount of money spent on wages can also boost profitability when you draw the line on your finances. So, evaluate the daily tasks that your team members perform and look at some of your own duties as a business owner. In today’s environment, outsourcing is one of the best ways to cut costs. It is also one of the smarter ways to hire as you may have access to a wider pool of experts. Properly executed, you can lower costs and maintain a high level of quality with outsourcing.

Tip #3 – Manage Expenses

Many businesses are overpaying for marketing. For example, hotels may work with a variety of travel agencies even though a couple of them may be bringing in the bulk of the bookings. In that scenario, it may be a good idea to drop the non-performers. The same principle applies to all other expenses and services. If you pay for things and they do not end up improving your business or what you offer, these may be expenses worthy of the chopping block. This would affect your bottom line directly.

Tip #4 – Know What Cost to Cut

If only cutting costs were simple, right? Most business owners do not know where to start. If you are one of them, it is ideal to start by performing an internal audit of your finances. Identify where all the money comes and goes and decide what you can or can’t cut.

Tip #5 – Get Better Deals

Many industries work with vendors, which happens to be a great area to look at if you want to boost profitability. You may already know that it is possible to renegotiate vendor contracts, though it is easy to be put on the back burner. Getting better deals, however, does not always have to involve other vendors, as you can also leverage your relationships with existing vendors. You can even consider changing service providers and utility contracts.

cut cost Smarter, not harder

You do not have to make massive cuts in a single department. Even small amounts add up to significant savings if you make enough of them here and there. These tips are particularly helpful to anyone operating a cash flow-dependent business. That said, they apply to both B2B and B2C companies looking to boost their bottom lines.

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How to Foster Strong Workplace Relationships

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How to Foster Strong Workplace Relationships

A company is entirely dependent on its employees, and managing the workplace can be a full-time job. Here are some tips on how to ensure appropriate workplace relationships.

Employees are a vital part of any business, no matter the size or industry. While it may seem odd to emphasise workplace relationships over productivity, an enjoyable work environment is vital to keeping employees interested, happy, and at the top of their game.There’s often more than meets the eye when it comes to employee relationships, but there are always some tips that can help you out in that department. Here are some of the best starting points on how to ensure an ideal workplace for the employees.

1. Clear Statements

Sending a clear, concise, and purposeful mission statement to all employees will let them know about the company’s plans and their part in the goal. A transparent goal is easy to keep and refer to, and employees will trust the leadership more when they know what the company aims to provide. Holding regular staff meetings allows employees valuable insights into the state of the company and will enable them to influence each other’s processes and thoughts. Staff meetings are also a great way to promote relationships between employees, as they are more likely to feel like being a part of the group.

2. Team Activities

A majority of the interactions between employees will happen in the workplace. However, scheduling team-building activities that take the focus away from work and onto the employees is a great way to enhance comfort. Employees who work with each other towards a common goal that is not company-oriented are more likely to collaborate on work projects and trust their peers’ decision-making.

3. Effective Communication

Setting high expectations and communicating them to the employees effectively and without delay is the best way to remove uncertainties and facilitate efficient communication channels. Group and department expectations and communication are essential, as referring to multiple employees at once prevents them from feeling singled out. Training managers to communicate with their staff will provide leaders time to strategise on the work needs rather than workplace politics. However, there must always be space for one-on-one talks with a disgruntled employee to keep morale high.

4. Showing Appreciation

Providing useful feedback and rewards for exceptional work is the key to maintaining a dynamic workplace environment. Remedying any problems or concerns is equally important, and helping employees who are falling behind will allow them to integrate better into their department. To that end, it’s advisable to show support for good employees and provide ways to improve on their work.

5. Learning with Employees

Even when directing employees, a leader must keep an open mind to changes and betterments. A positive attitude towards self-improvement is a vital character trait that will draw employees forward and make them feel like part of the company. The most learned people know that there’s always more to look forward to. By keeping an honest relationship with employees, a leader can hone their communication skills and become better in other aspects of their work life.

Relationships Are Hard but Valuable

The subtleties of office relationships can be irritating to navigate. Keeping an open mind and communication channels with employees, as well as maintaining clear intent, allows them to be better at their jobs and actually enjoy their work. In the end, harmonious workplace relationships are beneficial both for the people and the business.

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The Best Ways to Motivate Your Team

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The Best Ways to Motivate Your Team

Do you have under performing employees or collaborators? Try these methods to motivate them and boost productivity.

Not everyone’s a motivational speaker. And out of those who choose that profession, only a small percentage can truly change people’s minds. But you don’t have to become a motivational speaker to motivate your team. You don’t even have to hire one to do it for you. A few simple tricks can help you turn things around at the office.

#1 Show Respect

People that don’t respect you won’t work hard for you. But being a top expert in your field or a business owner isn’t always enough. Respect is something you have to earn and reciprocate. If you treat your team members as individuals, you can earn their respect. Acknowledge that everyone has different needs. Show respect and flexibility in your approach and you can earn their respect in return. Once they like you and become loyal to you or the company, they’ll want to work harder, too.

#2 Offer Feedback

Sometimes, people lack motivation for lack of knowledge. They don’t know if they should push harder because they don’t get feedback. No feedback doesn’t always mean a job well done. So offer feedback more often to motivate your team.

#3 Celebrate Accomplishments

People crave recognition for their accomplishments. Make it a part of the company culture to acknowledge the successes. It’s a sure way to hire up your people and get them motivated to do their best.

#4 Encourage Collaboration

Sometimes you may have to encourage your team members to work with each other. Set up collaboration projects and invite input from different departments. Most of all, encourage social interaction to make the workplace a more pleasant environment.

#5 Merit-Based Compensations

Financial motivators are always effective, but often only to an extent. So you may want to revisit the company’s compensation structure. That is, if you even have one. It’s better to adopt a merit-based reward system that shows appreciation for the hardest workers. It will make your people more motivated and productive.

#6. Invite Competition

Over and beyond collaboration, what can motivate some people is a little friendly competition. If you can’t afford to offer financial rewards to the top performers, do something else. Acknowledge your best team members every week or month. Put up a chart in the office that clearly illustrates who’s on top of their game.

#7. Set Clear Goals

Here’s another reason why some of your team members may not be pulling their weight:They don’t have a clear target or goal to work towards. The clarity of your demands is often critical, regardless of your niche. People need to know that they have to complete a specific task by a set deadline. It’s a more powerful motivator than you might think, and it doesn’t cost a penny.

#8. Promote More from Within the Company

One of the best ways to motivate your people is to show that there’s room for growth. You have to let your people know that they’re not slaving away in dead-end positions. And if you promote internally, it lets them know that you’re not always on the prowl for outside talent. It can motivate your people to show their true value and exceed expectations.

It All Comes Down to Valuing Your People

The little things count when they come from a good place. Show your people that you value them, don’t just think it.Offer feedback, respect, and incentives for your team to want to do better. Once they do, everyone benefits from it.

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Claim All Your Capital Allowances

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Claim All Your Capital Allowances

Increase your Cash Flow

Pay Less Tax And Improve Your Cashflow By Claiming All Your Capital Allowances

Businesses often miss out on claiming capital allowances that they are entitled to. This is because it can be a difficult topic to understand and there a mismatch between accounting and tax rules.

So what are Capital Allowences?

When you buy assets for your business, these reduce your profits but help you to pay less tax. Most assets you buy will qualify and they can range from things like equipment and research costs to expenses for building renovations. In accounting rules assets are depreciated over the remaining useful life of the asset. They are charged to your profit and loss account accordingly. e.g. a machine has a life expectancy of 10 years and costs £10,000. We could charge £1,000 to the profit and loss each year for 10 years using a straight line method. In taxation rules all of the depreciation in the profit and loss account is added back. In the example above the £1,000 would be added back to the profit and loss account. Replacing this is then a system of capital allowances. If assets are eligible, the annual investment allowance (AIA) or first year allowance (FYA) allows you to write off the total cost of the asset in one year. i.e. the full £10,000 in the case above. If capital allowances can not be claimed in full, then for the accounting year in which the expense incurred, they will qualify for writing down allowances (WDAs). WDA’s only allow tax relief at 6% or 18% of the expenditure per year on a reducing balance. It can take a while to obtain full tax relief on WDA’s but better to have it that not claim at all.

So what do you need to do?

You need to check all your assets to make sure you are getting tax relief. Seeing depreciation adjustments in your accounts is not tax relief.
  • Check your company Corporation Tax Returns and supporting schedules to see what you or your accountant has already claimed in capital allowances.
  • If your accountant does your company tax return ask them to provide you with a schedule you can check to make sure all assets have been considered.
  • If assets are missing from the supporting schedules it may just be that these assets are not qualifying for capital allowances. Always ask the question though because something could have been missed
Assets that are typically missed are integral features such as integrated equipment e.g. new water, heating and lighting systems, or structural work changing premises to accommodate equipment.
TIP:  It is never too late to claim for Capital Allowances as long as you still own the items and are using them in your business. The only limitation is for integral features with a building purchased after 31 Mar 2014. The person you obtained the building from has to have already recorded the features as qualifying assets.
NOTE: Late claims can not use the AIA or FYA. They have to be written down over a number of years.

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Tax Exemptions For Virtual Christmas Parties

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Tax Exemptions For Virtual Christmas Parties

Are you a company that usually has an annual Christmas Party?

This year due to social distancing measures some Companies are deciding to have a virtual party online.  Have you considered having one but are wondering what the tax implications are? Usual Christmas Party Rules are as follows:
  • All employees have to be invited to the party
  • Cost per head must be no more than £150
If you stick to these rules there is no P11D Benefit in Kind charge for your employee and you do not have to pay any Employer’s Class 1A national insurance at 13.8% So how do you stand with a virtual Christmas Party? Well the GOOD NEWS is that HMRC have said the following:

” the cost of providing food, entertainment, equipment and other expenses which may be incurred in hosting a virtual event, will be EXEMPT, subject to the NORMAL conditions. The intention of the exemption is to allow for costs of provision which are generally incurred for the purposes of the event itself, and that the event, along with any associated provision, is available to employees generally”

TIP 1: The exemption applies not only to your staff but their guests e.g. their spouse, partner or friend.

TIP 2: In providing food and drink:

  • Give your employees a budget to spend
  • Reimburse them, tax and NI free, the lesser of the amount they have actually spent or your original budget.

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Newsflash 23/10/2020 Updated 13/11/2020 – More Financial Support Announced For Businesses

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Newsflash 23/10/2020 Updated 13/11/2020 – More Financial Support Announced For Businesses

Job Support Scheme (now postponed)

It was originally announced that employer’s would have to pay 33% towards the cost of unworked hours. This has now been reduced to 5%.

Before employees had to be working 33% of their normal working hours. Now as a minimum they only have to be working 20%. This means that an employee working just one day a week can benefit from this scheme. See weblink below for further information New Support For “Tier 2” Businesses

Previously your business had to be in Tier 3 before you were allowed a business grant.Now further funding has been handed over to local councils to give support to those businesses in leisure, hospitality & accommodation, that fall into Tier 2.
The maximum grants will be £2,100 per month.  They will vary depending on the number of eligible businesses in your area and your business rateable value. Businesses therefore need to refer to their own authority website.
Copy this link into your web browser for more information: BUSINESS_GRANTS_FACTSHEET.pdf
Self Employment Income Support Scheme.

From November 2020 to January 2021 the amount you can now claim has now increased. (from 20% to 80% of your average trading profits in November & to 40% of your average trading profits in December & January). You can now also claim faster, on 30th November instead of 14th December.

Refer to the original guidance at GOV.UK to understand how this is calculated.   https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme

The overall maximum cap is also doubling. You can now claim a grant of up to £3,750
There will be support also for the period February 2021 to April 2021. This is yet to be announced.

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