Struggling to pay a tax bill is far more common than most business owners realise, and the way you handle it can affect your borrowing for years. In this episode Claire explains how HMRC time to pay arrangements work, which tax bill to defer first when you have several due, and what to think about before you pick up the phone. It’s useful for owners of six and seven figure businesses with lumpy or seasonal cash flow.

Key topics covered:

• How an HMRC time to pay arrangement works, and why agreeing it before the due date can avoid penalties
• Why a quarter of VAT-registered businesses were penalised for late payment last year
• Why corporation tax is usually the bill to defer, and PAYE and VAT the ones to protect
• How interest on VAT and PAYE costs more than it looks, because it isn’t tax deductible
• How HMRC debt on your balance sheet can affect bank lending, overdrafts and commercial mortgages
• Why time to pay has tripled since 2020, and why a 12 to 36 month cash flow forecast should come before any decision

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⭐ Get a Free copy of Claire's book Profit By Numbers: https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/book

VALUABLE RESOURCES

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ABOUT THE HOST:

Claire Hancott through Profit Cash Growth helps 7 & 8 figure business owners to increase their profit, improve their cashflow and grow their business using their numbers.

As a finance director & chartered management accountant, Claire has nearly 20 years’ experience in finance and running businesses of her own. This gives her a unique insight into the information and support business owners need to grow a financially successful business.

Claire passionately believes that every business should be run by the numbers because the numbers in your business are telling you a story about what is and isn’t working and where your opportunities lie. Claire’s mission is to provide insightful management accounts, reports and advice to business owners and support them to make smarter decisions.

*The content of this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

What does it actually mean when someone says a country, or a business, is in trouble? In this episode, Claire and Simon take a headline number, debt to GDP, and test it the way you would test a business: against turnover, against assets, and against what those assets are really worth. It is useful for any business owner who has ever looked at one figure and drawn a big conclusion from it.

Key topics covered:

• Why debt to GDP is really debt compared to turnover, and why nobody values a business that way
• How the four parts of a balance sheet (income, expenses, assets and liabilities) change the picture
• Why the same set of numbers can look solid or alarming depending on the ratio you choose
• Book value versus real value, and why assets recorded at cost rarely show what they are worth
• How buyers and brokers can put wildly different prices on the same business
• What confirmation bias does to the way we read our own numbers

⭐ Rate, Review & Share this episode with fellow business owners, and let's grow together!

⭐ Take the Finance Fitness Scorecard https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/finance-fitness-score

⭐ Subscribe to the weekly newsletter to get Expert Advice Straight to Your Inbox: https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/subscribe

⭐ Get a Free copy of Claire's book Profit By Numbers: https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/book

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Website

LinkedIn

YouTube

Facebook

ABOUT THE HOST:

Claire Hancott through Profit Cash Growth helps 7 & 8 figure business owners to increase their profit, improve their cashflow and grow their business using their numbers.

As a finance director & chartered management accountant, Claire has nearly 20 years’ experience in finance and running businesses of her own. This gives her a unique insight into the information and support business owners need to grow a financially successful business.

Claire passionately believes that every business should be run by the numbers because the numbers in your business are telling you a story about what is and isn’t working and where your opportunities lie. Claire’s mission is to provide insightful management accounts, reports and advice to business owners and support them to make smarter decisions.

*The content of this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

Not all revenue is equal. In this episode, Claire and Simon break business revenue into five types, from project and consultancy fees to repeat customer sales, and look at how each one behaves in a downturn, what it does to your cash flow and what it does to the value of your business. It is useful for any business owner who wants to build something that pays well now and is worth more when they sell.

Key topics covered:

• The five types of revenue a business can have, and why none of them is a silver bullet
• Why specialist project work can be highly profitable and still be the easiest revenue to underprice
• The renewal cliff edge on annual contracts, and why clustered renewal dates can keep owners awake at night
• When a 12-month contract is genuinely justified and when it simply protects the business
• Why one-off and repeat customer revenue depend so heavily on your market and your marketing
• How a buyer thinks about future revenue, and why the best business to run is not always the best business to sell

⭐ Rate, Review & Share this episode with fellow business owners, and let's grow together!

⭐ Take the Finance Fitness Scorecard https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/finance-fitness-score

⭐ Subscribe to the weekly newsletter to get Expert Advice Straight to Your Inbox: https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/subscribe

⭐ Get a Free copy of Claire's book Profit By Numbers: https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/book

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Website

LinkedIn

YouTube

Facebook

ABOUT THE HOST:

Claire Hancott through Profit Cash Growth helps 7 & 8 figure business owners to increase their profit, improve their cashflow and grow their business using their numbers.

As a finance director & chartered management accountant, Claire has nearly 20 years’ experience in finance and running businesses of her own. This gives her a unique insight into the information and support business owners need to grow a financially successful business.

Claire passionately believes that every business should be run by the numbers because the numbers in your business are telling you a story about what is and isn’t working and where your opportunities lie. Claire’s mission is to provide insightful management accounts, reports and advice to business owners and support them to make smarter decisions.

*The content of this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

If your business is sitting on surplus cash right now, this episode tackles the question every profitable owner eventually faces: property, or back into the business? We dig into the real economics of investing spare cash in commercial versus residential property, why leverage changes the maths entirely, and when the smarter move is actually to reinvest in yourself.

Key Topics Covered:

• Why buying your own trading premises is close to a no-brainer, and why letting out commercial property to others is a different risk entirely
• The case for residential buy-to-let through a limited company, and why quality beats yield
• How leverage turns a flat property market into an 18 to 23% return on capital employed
• Why illiquidity is a feature, not a bug, when it comes to protecting you from your own worst financial decisions
• The real decision most business owners are actually facing: property, or reinvesting surplus cash back into a growing business
• Why building security first, then taking risks in business, worked better than doing it the other way round

⭐ Rate, Review & Share this episode with fellow business owners, and let's grow together!

⭐ Take the Finance Fitness Scorecard https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/finance-fitness-score

⭐ Subscribe to the weekly newsletter to get Expert Advice Straight to Your Inbox: https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/subscribe

⭐ Get a Free copy of Claire's book Profit By Numbers: https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/book

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Website

LinkedIn

YouTube

Facebook

ABOUT THE HOST:

Claire Hancott through Profit Cash Growth helps 7 & 8 figure business owners to increase their profit, improve their cashflow and grow their business using their numbers.

As a finance director & chartered management accountant, Claire has nearly 20 years’ experience in finance and running businesses of her own. This gives her a unique insight into the information and support business owners need to grow a financially successful business.

Claire passionately believes that every business should be run by the numbers because the numbers in your business are telling you a story about what is and isn’t working and where your opportunities lie. Claire’s mission is to provide insightful management accounts, reports and advice to business owners and support them to make smarter decisions.

*The content of this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

Rising sales don't always mean a healthier business, and right now some of the UK's best known brands are proving it. In this episode, Claire and her co-host unpack "profitless prosperity," the point in an economic cycle where revenue keeps climbing but profit quietly falls away, and what it means for business owners watching their own numbers do exactly that.

Key Topics Covered:

• What profitless prosperity means, and why household name UK brands are reporting it right now
• Three traps that drain profit while revenue keeps climbing: the inflation trap, the volume trap, and the fixed cost squeeze
• Historical parallels, from the 1920s agricultural crisis to the 1990s dot com bubble
• Practical ways to protect margin: dynamic pricing, longer supplier contracts, bundling instead of discounting, and fractional outsourcing
• Why cutting price to protect volume can quietly turn you into a busy fool
• What might come next, and how business owners can prepare

⭐ Rate, Review & Share this episode with fellow business owners, and let's grow together!

⭐ Take the Finance Fitness Scorecard https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/finance-fitness-score

⭐ Subscribe to the weekly newsletter to get Expert Advice Straight to Your Inbox: https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/subscribe

⭐ Get a Free copy of Claire's book Profit By Numbers: https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/book

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Website

LinkedIn

YouTube

Facebook

ABOUT THE HOST:

Claire Hancott through Profit Cash Growth helps 7 & 8 figure business owners to increase their profit, improve their cashflow and grow their business using their numbers.

As a finance director & chartered management accountant, Claire has nearly 20 years’ experience in finance and running businesses of her own. This gives her a unique insight into the information and support business owners need to grow a financially successful business.

Claire passionately believes that every business should be run by the numbers because the numbers in your business are telling you a story about what is and isn’t working and where your opportunities lie. Claire’s mission is to provide insightful management accounts, reports and advice to business owners and support them to make smarter decisions.

*The content of this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

There's a rumour doing the rounds that HMRC has built a £100 million AI supercomputer that's scanning your social media to catch you out. In this episode, we separate the scaremongering from what HMRC's Connect system actually does, and why the real risk for most business owners has nothing to do with AI and everything to do with whether their own numbers add up to each other. If you've ever wondered whether HMRC is watching you, or worried that a genuine mistake could turn into an investigation, this episode will put your mind at ease and show you what actually matters.

Key Topics Covered

• What HMRC's Connect system really does and why it's not the AI conspiracy people think
• The difference between a genuine mistake and tax evasion, and why that distinction matters
• Why your turnover, VAT, and payroll figures all need to tell the same story
• When HMRC can and cannot use social media or bank data to investigate you
• Why a good accountant should already be catching these mismatches before HMRC does
• What to do if you receive an HMRC letter questioning your figures

⭐ Rate, Review & Share this episode with fellow business owners, and let's grow together!

⭐ Take the Finance Fitness Scorecard https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/finance-fitness-score

⭐ Subscribe to the weekly newsletter to get Expert Advice Straight to Your Inbox: https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/subscribe

⭐ Get a Free copy of Claire's book Profit By Numbers: https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/book

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Website

LinkedIn

YouTube

Facebook

ABOUT THE HOST:

Claire Hancott through Profit Cash Growth helps 7 & 8 figure business owners to increase their profit, improve their cashflow and grow their business using their numbers.

As a finance director & chartered management accountant, Claire has nearly 20 years’ experience in finance and running businesses of her own. This gives her a unique insight into the information and support business owners need to grow a financially successful business.

Claire passionately believes that every business should be run by the numbers because the numbers in your business are telling you a story about what is and isn’t working and where your opportunities lie. Claire’s mission is to provide insightful management accounts, reports and advice to business owners and support them to make smarter decisions.

*The content of this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

Having more than one limited company feels like smart planning until it pushes your business into a completely different tax regime. In this episode, we unpack why the £1.5 million corporation tax threshold isn't a single number, it's a number that gets divided across every company you control, and why that catches so many growing businesses off guard. If you've ever set up a company because "that's what everyone does" for property or acquisitions, this one is for you.

Key Topics Covered

• Why the corporation tax "large company" threshold gets split between every company you own
• The real difference between paying tax annually and paying it in quarterly instalments
• How op-co, prop-co, and hold-co structures can bring the threshold down without you realising it
• The associated companies rule and how family shareholdings can unexpectedly count against you
• Practical ways to balance profit across multiple companies to avoid a cash flow cliff edge
• When it makes sense to simplify or consolidate your company structure

⭐ Rate, Review & Share this episode with fellow business owners, and let's grow together!

⭐ Take the Finance Fitness Scorecard https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/finance-fitness-score

⭐ Subscribe to the weekly newsletter to get Expert Advice Straight to Your Inbox: https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/subscribe

⭐ Get a Free copy of Claire's book Profit By Numbers: https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/book

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Website

LinkedIn

YouTube

Facebook

ABOUT THE HOST:

Claire Hancott through Profit Cash Growth helps 7 & 8 figure business owners to increase their profit, improve their cashflow and grow their business using their numbers.

As a finance director & chartered management accountant, Claire has nearly 20 years’ experience in finance and running businesses of her own. This gives her a unique insight into the information and support business owners need to grow a financially successful business.

Claire passionately believes that every business should be run by the numbers because the numbers in your business are telling you a story about what is and isn’t working and where your opportunities lie. Claire’s mission is to provide insightful management accounts, reports and advice to business owners and support them to make smarter decisions.

*The content of this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

Claire covers one of the most overlooked tax reliefs for business owners who own their own building: capital allowances on commercial property. Prompted by a listener story about a business that missed out on hundreds of thousands of pounds in claims, this episode breaks down what capital allowances actually are, why most accountants never mention them, and what to do before you sign anything on a commercial property purchase.

Key Topics Covered

• What capital allowances are and why they only apply to business assets, not everyday expenses
• The difference between full expensing, integral features, and structures and buildings allowance, and why the split matters
• Why most high street accountants miss this claim entirely and why that isn't really their fault
• The "shake the building upside down" test for working out what qualifies
• Why timing is everything, and how the opportunity can disappear the moment a property sale completes
• What to do before buying a commercial property to make sure you don't leave money on the table

⭐ Rate, Review & Share this episode with fellow business owners, and let's grow together!

⭐ Take the Finance Fitness Scorecard https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/finance-fitness-score

⭐ Subscribe to the weekly newsletter to get Expert Advice Straight to Your Inbox: https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/subscribe

⭐ Get a Free copy of Claire's book Profit By Numbers: https://www.profitcashgrowth.com/book

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Website

LinkedIn

YouTube

Facebook

ABOUT THE HOST:

Claire Hancott through Profit Cash Growth helps 7 & 8 figure business owners to increase their profit, improve their cashflow and grow their business using their numbers.

As a finance director & chartered management accountant, Claire has nearly 20 years’ experience in finance and running businesses of her own. This gives her a unique insight into the information and support business owners need to grow a financially successful business.

Claire passionately believes that every business should be run by the numbers because the numbers in your business are telling you a story about what is and isn’t working and where your opportunities lie. Claire’s mission is to provide insightful management accounts, reports and advice to business owners and support them to make smarter decisions.

*The content of this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.