Issue #77 - Business is...different! 🏪
Home and business - spot the difference | A guide to registering your business | How does being a micro business affect your energy contract? | Lush Blooms small business story | Words | Tunes | More
🦾 GO
Home and business - spot the difference 👀
Welcome to Issue #77 of The Backbone - the fortnightly newsletter from Bionic.
Energy, insurance, and broadband are all things that your home and business both rely on. That’s why here at Bionic, we call them the essentials. But your business essentials often work differently from your home essentials, and it’s important that you know the differences.
So here goes…
💡 Energy - Unlike domestic, business energy rates aren’t capped and contracts don’t come with a cooling-off period.
🔐 Insurance - Your business will probably need more than just buildings and contents insurance to cover it against all risks.
🌐 Broadband - Business broadband offers enhanced security and better tech to help you run specialist equipment.
As a business owner, you’ve probably got a million-and-one other things to get through before you start thinking about these things, but it’s something to keep in mind as your current contracts come to an end or if you move into new premises.
We’ll have more explainer videos over the coming weeks (you can check them out on our YouTube channel if you can’t wait that long), but to kick off here are the main differences between business energy and home energy.
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🗞 READ
An easy guide to registering your business 📝
You’ve chosen a great product or service to sell and you’ve written a winning business plan. You now need to register your business. But do you know whether you need to register it before you can start trading?
Or if you’ve already started up your own business without registering it, should you consider doing so? Read our guide to find out.
How does being a micro business affect your energy contract? 📝
As we’ve already mentioned, there are loads of differences between how business energy and home energy contracts work. But what if you’re a micro business owner? And what’s the difference between a small business and a micro business anyway? This Bionic guide explains it all.
🗣 SHOUTOUT
#SmallBusinessStory - Lush Blooms 💐
As February is the month of love (well, it’s got Valentine’s Day in it at least) Bionic is celebrating independently-run florists. We chatted to Anita who runs Lush Blooms in Cardiff. We found out about her roots and her future plans.
Bionic: How did you start your business?
Anita Mattson-Hesketh: Floristry became a hobby for me about six years ago, I still worked in finance full-time as a mortgage advisor. I just found with all the high frequency, working with numbers and stuff, I needed a creative hobby or outlet. So that's what floristry was for me.
I started off by going to a few workshops. I really only went to keep my sister company, which is funny because she was the one who wanted to go. But it just came really naturally to me, I loved working with the materials and how sensory it was.
B: How has your business grown?
AMH: I started off with bouquets. Then I started doing weddings when they were allowed again after lockdown, and then I offered flower workshops. They're really popular now and we've since opened up a retail space in Barry and launched Cardiff Flower School. In the last year and a half, I've got into coaching too. So I coach other florists and female entrepreneurs, and I show them how to grow and scale their businesses.
B: Would you change anything about your business set-up journey?
AMH: “I wouldn't, I'm happy with the way things went, a lot of luck was involved. In life, it’s all about timing, but if anything, I wish I could go back in time and tell myself not to be so scared because it all works out okay. But when you first take that leap as a self-employed person, I think it's going to be scary no matter what.
B: How important do you think being part of a community is as a business owner?
AMH: Speaking to other business owners and being in a group of some kind is important, having a support network, a group of people you can chat with and bounce ideas off is really essential to success as well. I've set up a Facebook group called the FemalePreneurs Club, and we've had really useful conversations in there. For example, ‘what is everyone's cancellation policy’ or ‘what would you do in this scenario?’ or ‘I've had a complaint. How do I handle it?’ All those business milestones that you come across at some point and need help with.
B: Has the cost of living crisis affected your business?
AMH: In some parts of my business it has and in some, it hasn’t. Weddings, for example, people still want to spend that chunk of money. They've got it saved up already and it was always earmarked to spend on their wedding. But when it comes to the shop, I think that's where the cost of living crisis has affected us most, but I always knew when I opened a shop it would never be the main source of income for my business.
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📊 BUSINESS
Get your business costs sorted 💷
Bionic - the business price comparison experts - compare a range of business essentials to help you save time, money, and hassle.
Our tech-enabled team will answer all your questions in simple terms, and help you find the best deal on business energy, insurance, phone, broadband, or finance. No jargon. No-fuss. #BeABionicBusiness 🦾
Bionic sorted a speedy switch for Mr Sams ⏩
Check out more ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Trustpilot reviews
🔊 LISTEN
Playlist 🎵
Dan’s turn for a Daylist this week. Bionic’s Senior Customer Experience Manager got one called Bangers Car Morning (the titles of these things are something else) - three hours of rammers from The Streets, The Kooks, Arctic Monkeys, Jamie T, and loads more.
Podcast 🎙
Picked by Glyn, Chief Customer Officer at Bionic, Discord and Rhyme is a music podcast that picks apart albums song by song and “in incredibly nerdy detail” as GLyb put it. We’re a sucker for stuff like this at The Backbone, especially when we see it covers albums from Wire, Aphex Twin, MF Doom, Kraftwerk, New Order, Fleetwood Mac, and loads more - genuinely something for everyone.
🗯 COMMUNITY
Exclusive access to the Backbone Business Community 🗣
Small business owners are the superheroes of the high street. But small business owners rarely get their voices heard. Now there’s a place where they can chat, share advice and help each other through the lows and highs of running a business. To get involved, we just need your business email address (we won’t use it for anything else) and we’ll send you an invite.
🏡 HOUSEKEEPING
Check your folders 📁
If The Backbone isn’t landing in your inbox every other Friday, please mark this address as ‘not spam.’ If it isn’t in your spam folder, it may have been moved to another folder, like ‘Promotions’ or ‘Social’.
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