Guides

Ten guides for running a UK small business.

The decisions behind the calculators, explained properly. Written for the person running the business rather than for their accountant, and free to read without handing over an email address.

Vee, the Veris Labs robot, holding a spanner
Vee, the Veris Labs robot, holding a spanner
Vee says

These are the long versions of the calculators. Written for the person running the business rather than for their accountant, and free to read without handing over an email address.

01 Tax & structure

Choosing your business structure

How sole trader, partnership and limited company compare on tax, liability and admin, and why the old rule about incorporating at £30,000 no longer holds.

10 min read2,059 words
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02 Pricing

What to charge

Find your floor from real costs, understand why margin and markup are not the same, see what a 10% discount really costs, and how to raise prices without losing customers.

8 min read1,702 words
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03 People

Your first hire

The true cost beyond salary, employee versus contractor, the Employment Allowance trap that catches single-director companies, and the legal steps you cannot skip.

8 min read1,783 words
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04 Tax & structure

Crossing the VAT threshold

How the rolling 12-month test actually works, your registration deadlines, whether to absorb or pass on the 20%, and the schemes that can soften it.

8 min read1,668 words
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05 Cash flow

Getting paid on time

Payment terms that actually work, a chasing sequence that gets results, your statutory right to interest and compensation, and when to escalate.

8 min read1,747 words
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06 Marketing

Getting found locally

How Google decides local rankings, why your Business Profile matters more than your website, and the work that actually produces enquiries, in order.

7 min read1,473 words
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07 Marketing

What your marketing is worth

Calculate what a customer costs to win and what they are worth, why lifetime value must use gross profit, and why payback decides how fast you can grow.

7 min read1,449 words
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08 AI

Where AI earns its place

Which tasks genuinely suit automation, which quietly waste a year, how to run a first project you can measure, and the one-page policy you need.

6 min read1,363 words
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09 Systems

Buy, subscribe or build?

How to decide between off-the-shelf, configuring a platform, and building custom. Total cost of ownership, the hidden workaround tax, and when custom genuinely pays.

6 min read1,202 words
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10 Delivery

Making Jira work for a small team

The fields and workflows that actually matter, automation rules worth setting up, and how to cut the daily admin cost of keeping tickets current.

8 min read1,697 words
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Vee, the Veris Labs robot, holding a spanner Built by Veris Labs

We build the systems that run growing businesses

These calculators are a small, public version of what we do. The Veris Labs suite covers marketing and delivery, and where nothing off the shelf fits, we build it around your business instead.