Newcastle Startup Week

We’re delighted to have Blu Sky Chartered Accountants sponsor us for a third year in a row at Newcastle Startup Week 2019! Blu Sky have supported us from the start as ‘Premium Sponsors’ of our Newcastle Startup Week festival in 2017 and 2018 plus our Newcastle Scaleup Summit in 2017. They’ve also offered massive value to our delegates by sharing their knowledge and insights both onstage and offstage.

Blu Sky is a North Shields-based accountancy firm specialising in cloud accounting, payroll and consultancy for startups and scaleups in the North East and London. If you’ve ever been to a startup event in the North East before, there’s a very good chance you’ll have spotted them in their infamous blue hoodies!

Blu Sky are particularly experienced in supporting tech/digital businesses throughout their journey from start to exit. To achieve this, Blu Sky provide a range of services including process management, financial planning, tax advice, investor readiness, scaling and advice on exits.

Why use Blu Sky?

As a new business, you may want to go down the DIY route to keep costs down but unless you have trained to be an accountant or bookkeeper, it’s likely to take you much longer to manage your accounting and payroll (if you have it) than it would if you were outsourcing to a company like Blu Sky. This time may be better spent on sales, marketing and promotion, business development, and fulfilling orders for products or services.

“It is definitely cheaper to forecast than to fail.”

Blu Sky Chartered Accountants

You also run the risk of not managing your finances in the best or correct way for you and your business which is why we recommend speaking to an expert like Blu Sky as soon as possible so you can plan how to take your business forward.

“As your company grows, you may need additional advice, support and expertise that only an accountant like Blu Sky can give. In my case, I went down the DIY route when I started off as a Sole Trader in 2016 but then appointed Blu Sky as soon as we registered as a Limited Company in 2018.”

Paul Lancaster (Founder, Newcastle Startup Week)

5 Key Accountancy Tips

Here are five key accountancy tips to help you get on your way. Make sure to get in touch with Blu Sky for more information and advice!

1. Create a filing system that works for you. You can save your receipts in a secure wallet or take photos and upload your receipts straight to the Cloud. 
2. Plan your finances. Your cashflow forecast can help you budget and determine what business areas should receive most investment. This can help you decide on financial priorities in the short-term.
3. Optimise your finances. Through regularly comparing your actual costs with your predicted expenditure, you can create a more realistic picture of your actual overheads, helping you with business planning.
4. Optimise your profit. Through managing your cashflow, you can get an overview of areas you may be able to save money in. For example, you might have high costs in one particular area which may not be crucial to business success.
5. Timing and planning. Know the key financial dates and know how long it takes to register a business (if applicable). Their blog ‘Incorporation and Registration timeline – Everything you need to know!‘ is well worth a read.

Meet Blu Sky at Startup Week

Blu Sky will be exhibiting every day at Newcastle Startup Week 2019 and speaking on Day 2 (‘Getting Started’), Day 3 (‘Funding & Finance’) and Day 4 (‘Scaleup Summit’) too so make sure you book your ticket to see them!

If you can’t wait until then, check out their excellent blog and start Following them on Twitter @BluSkyTax.