JUST A CLICK AWAY

One of the biggest headaches for a small business owner is finding time to deal with all the administration and management issues which their company requires.

Insurance advice is always available on the BIB Darlington web site, www.bibinsurance.co.uk but further help is available from www.businesslink.gov.uk, which has over 50 free online tools. These are practical and easy to use. Some examples are:

IT RISK ASSESSMENT TOOL
www.businesslink.gov.uk/itrisks
The IT tool enables a small business to reduce the time and cost of managing an efficient, secure IT system. It also aims to protect businesses against the most common IT-related risks such as viruses. It provides a simple self-assessment tool and then gives a detailed breakdown of risks, advice on how to reduce them and links to further guidance. We can provide further help if needed.

HEALTH AND SAFETY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR
www.businesslink.gov.uk/healthsafetyindicator
This is designed to help SMEs to improve their health and safety and will provide a benchmark against other businesses. It only takes 10 minutes to complete and enables businesses to see areas needing improvement. Once again we can assist if required.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLANNER
www.businesslink.gov.uk/pdp
This helps business owners develop their management skills. It takes users through questions about their business, their role and behavior at work and how they deal with different scenarios – then formulates an action plan to help users develop their skills.

WRITTEN STATEMENT
www.business.link.gov.uk/writtenstatement
This enables a manager to create a written statement of employment tailored for an individual employee. At the end, you will be able to download the completed statement on your computer, print and hand it to the employee. It takes some 25 minutes to complete and has been approved by lawyers.

This is just a sample of what is available. There are many other services, and financial help in the form of grants etc may also be available. For businesses with limited resources and time the site is well worth a visit before embarking on other more costly routes.