By Suzanne Caldwell, Contracting & New Business Manager, Business Link for Cumbria
SubscribeBusiness Link for Cumbria combines National business information with local experience to offer the best advice for businesses in Cumbria
www.businesslinkcumbria.co.uk taps into national sources of business information but also contains a large amount of information relevant to businesses in Cumbria. The main advantage of our website is the fact that its content is managed and written by experts, giving up-to-date information on issues and topics which affect businesses as and when they happen.
With over 5,000 pages of information and 600 guides on topics from starting a business to exporting, the site is very easy to navigate and interactive allowing users to make use of a whole range of online tools.
To make your life easier, we have taken the most popular tools from the website and provided a brief description of how they can help you and your business.
IT Risk Assessment Tool
This helps businesses understand and protect against the most common IT-related risks. The tool takes around five minutes to complete and is designed to reduce the time and costs associated with managing an efficient and secure IT system.
Create a personal development plan
This tool guides users through a series of questions about their business, role and behaviour at work to produce a comprehensive and personalised development plan. The plan takes around 25 minutes to complete and the information submitted can be saved and revisited in order to track progress.
Health & safety performance indicator
This tool helps small businesses find out how well they are handling their health and safety and allows them to benchmark against other businesses in their industry.
Managing expectant and new mothers at work
This tool takes employers through a series of questions to produce a detailed guide about employee entitlements in terms of maternity leave, pay and additional associated benefits. By highlighting employers' responsibilities and a best-practice approach to maternity, the tool will help to reduce uncertainty and ensure that employers deal with maternity issues correctly, benefiting both the business and its staff.
Create a written statement of employment
This enables business owners or managers to create a written statement of employment tailored for an individual employee. When completed correctly, this tool will produce a document covering all the terms and conditions that employers must give to a new employee within two months of his or her start date. At the end, the completed statement can be downloaded to the business' computer, printed off and handed to the employee.
Choose the right legal structure
This tool helps businesses seeking guidance on the best legal structure for their organisation. It takes users through a series of questions, assessing responses to three main areas: attitude to administration, attitude to risk and operational priorities. Once a legal structure has been identified, additional support is provided including free online guides on the different options. However, the tool only provides guidance, and professional advice should be sought before any final decision is made.
Business start-up organiser
If you're committed to starting, or have already started setting up a business, the business start-up organiser can help make your business a reality. By answering a series of questions you receive a personalised list of step-by-step tasks to save and complete at your own pace as well as access to a library of resources to help you complete each task.
Get the right insurance for your business
By answering a maximum of 20 questions this tool helps to assess what types of insurance are suitable for you're business. It helps you decide what cover you must have and what cover it is advisable to have. It will eliminate insurance types that do not apply in your business circumstances.
Discover who your most valuable customers are
This tool helps you analyse the behaviour of an individual customer compared to your estimate of an average customer. At the end you'll get an appraisal and summary of the customer's value to your business, as well as links to additional information and resources.
All you have to do is type the title in the search facility and have a go - you never know it could really help.