Small UK B2B firm doing outbound here. Finding companies that exist is easy — Companies House is free. Knowing which ones are worth the effort is the hard bit: growing or quietly dying, likely to buy or just there. The data tools that could tell you are either American with stale UK records or priced for corporates.


How do others here do it? Bought lists, referrals only, or ring round and find out the hard way?

I came across Dahl Global while researching affordable AI APIs.

They offer access to MiniMax M2.7 and Kimi K2.6, and the site says the first 100 million tokens are free. I don’t seem to be limited in how many API keys I can create. If every key gets its own allowance, wouldn’t that effectively mean unlimited free usage?

It sounds too good to be true. Is there a catch? Has anyone here tried it?

I'd like to use it for my company's large scale backend tool, but not sure it won't stop working one day.

I wanna start a new business in ecommerce and thinking of ecomzy. It's pretty new and I don't know to much about it but the main question . Is it legit or no? Any info from a real experience?

Why can't we start a thread in forums #235? (Services)

Hi everyone, I’m building Sabee, a web/iOS/Android app for people who sell access to their time or expertise.

Not just coaches. It could be consultants, tutors, freelancers, repair/support people, fitness or beauty specialists, tech people, local professionals, etc.

The simple idea is: instead of sending separate payment links, booking links, call links, and messages, the provider has one profile.

From that profile, a client can pay to book a call, call instantly if the provider is online, or buy a paid message package.

There is no monthly fee first in the early flow. The provider sets what they want to earn, and the customer pays when they book, call, or message.

I’m trying to understand if this would be useful for UK freelancers / service providers who already get questions through their website, social pages, or local network.

Would this solve a real problem for anyone here, or does it feel like something people would not bother using?

I can’t post links as a new member, but the app is already live on web, iOS, and Android if anyone wants to look it up.

How are you going to afford my email accounts during trading?

Any suggestions for a cost-effective EU Representative, preferably based in Germany?
thanks Jan

Here’s the final post ready to copy:





Can I replace my daughter as director to protect her, and can a staff member take over to save the company?





Hi all, hoping for some advice on a difficult situation.





I have a company where my daughter is the sole director. Unfortunately, the company has fallen into difficulty. A previous co-director left and owed the company money, and due to my own health issues (I suffered from depression for several years), I was unable to provide the guidance she needed.





The company has faced a perfect storm of problems — we lost a major contract, the industry has been in a general downturn, and an attempt to expand the business cost more than expected. As a result, turnover has roughly halved over the past year. The company now faces a significant tax bill, a winding-up order has been filed, and the bank has closed the account.





The operating company has virtually no assets of its own — only some stationery and two old computers. All assets are held by the holding company, which leases them to the operating company. Over the last six months, the holding company has also taken on some of the operating company’s costs, including fuel and maintenance of company vehicles. This is the reason the holding company has accumulated a tax bill of approximately £120,000 — it was effectively subsidising the operating company to keep it afloat. The holding company has no other debt.





The holding company is also owed money — invoices have not been paid by the operating company, and there are outstanding insurance claims being pursued, including a loss of earnings claim. We would like to know whether the holding company can continue to pursue these insurance claims and recover that money even if the operating company goes into liquidation, as the holding company is legitimately owed those funds.





The night before the bank closed the account, the holding company transferred £30,000 to the operating company specifically to cover staff wages.





I have several questions:





1. Can I replace my daughter as director and take over that role myself, so that she is not personally exposed to any legal or financial consequences?


2. One of our staff members believes the business can still be turned around. Could he become director and take over the company to save it from liquidation?


3. Does the £30,000 transfer from the holding company to cover wages demonstrate good faith, and could it be used negatively against us — or does it show we were trying to do the right thing?


4. Can the holding company recover that £30,000, given the operating company’s account has now been closed?


5. The company has outstanding invoices billed monthly and not yet fully completed. Do these need to go to the liquidators, or can they be redirected to the holding company?


6. What are my options regarding the liquidation process itself? Is it possible to engage with the HMRC-appointed liquidators directly, or could I pursue a voluntary liquidation myself?


7. Are the holding company’s assets protected from the winding-up order, given that the operating company leased everything from the holding company and has no significant assets of its own?


8. Can the holding company continue to pursue its insurance claims and loss of earnings, even if the operating company is liquidated? The holding company is legitimately owed this money independently of the operating company’s situation.





Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

What is the chance of hmrc doing an enquiry/audit of small digital marketing agency wtih 6 employees, 1 foreign contractor, good accountants who stick to the rules and an owner who does things by the book? The company does have a little side ecommerce business that is wrapped in the main company structure I believe. And do HMRC look closely into the foreign contractors, by that I mean do they go out of their way to check if they are actually registered freelancers in their countries or are mentioned anywhere on HMRC connect?

There are plenty of keynote speakers with impressive achievements, qualifications and experience, but that doesn't always mean they're the ones people remember afterwards.

When you're listening to a keynote speaker, what qualities matter most to you?

Is it expertise, storytelling, authenticity, humour, audience engagement, practical takeaways, or something else?

Interested to hear what people value most.

hey so im currently 16 turning 17 and ill have around 10k saved up in a few months and was wondering what business can i or should i start to make some income. im super ambitious and its my dream to own a somewhat successful business to buy my dream cars etc. i want to work hard to reach my dreams and not just get it easy otherwise it wont feel rewarding. plus its even better to make my dad proud coming from a poorer family who i dont think really believe in me

im willing to do anything and learn. im not scared to fail as that will only help me along the way.

i just need some advice really as ive had the ambition since i was 12 but never actually did anything or took action as i dont know where to start. sorry for the waffle btw haha i like to explain my situation.

thanks to all who read this and have a pleasent day

Hi
I am sesrching for a way to migrate a huge data from Googledrive to SharePoint Online directly , I did a search and the found methods are paid and expensive.
Also I found some tools like Goodsync, Gs Richcopy 360 and CloudFuze , all look good but I don't have experience with any of it !
Any advice please

looking for some advice regarding an insolvency claim regarding preferred payment.

I'm thinking of selling my shares in my business to my business partner. We have worked in the past with a firm of financial advisors, who I feel are a efficient and ethical. We would both be happy to use this firm, but would it be advisable for both of us to use the same financial firm.

Hey I own a single-product Shopify store (skincare niche, specifically dandruff) that did £58,345 in adjusted net profit in the last tax year.

But due to a health issue that limits my focus, I'm looking to sell so I can focus on something else.

The problem is I make the product myself at home.

I do have a manufacturer lined up, and am taking quotes from larger ones… but It presents an issue that any buyer would need to set this up (unless they plan on making it at home too), rather than just immediately buying more stock from the manufacturer to send to a fulfilment center.

Would this massively affect my ability to list on places like Rightbiz or Flippa, or is there a better path? I am willing to fulfill orders and deal with customers for a couple months until they're ready.

Since the store has many loyal customers after 3 years of business, and since it's profitable (the £58k net profit figure is also despite £90k of "bad" advertising costs due to running Google Ads with broken tracking from Jul-Nov) it doesn't make sense to close it.

Thanks,

D

Hi Guys

I am curious to find out what everyone is using now for financial forecasting, I used a desktop version of Sage Financial forecasting for many years but it doesn't like modern operating systems and Microsoft 365, I got so frustrated with it losing functionality I built my own system but I am keen to get feedback on what is the "go to application" these days, is it Fathom, Futrli, Vena or something else

Regards

Steve

As a new innovation in LED lighting, dial LED lights have emerged in the market. That said, from the perspective of user experience, is it worthwhile to launch 3CCT dial LED lighting products?

Hi folks,



I’m after white fold boxes (40 × 30 × 20 cm) for packing. I need decent quality and fair pricing — ideally with options for buying in bulk but happy to consider smaller quantities too.



If anyone has good supplier recommendations, price examples, or where to find these at a reasonable cost in the UK, please drop them here!



Thanks in advance

Hi all,

Quick sanity check with other UK sellers.

Once you’re shipping at decent volume, lost parcels and “delivered but not received” cases seem unavoidable. Damage, missing items, claims going back and forth with couriers, all that fun stuff.

What I’m wondering is this:

Do you still chase compensation every time something goes wrong, or do you eventually accept a certain level of loss and move on because the admin just isn’t worth it?

And if you do claim consistently, who actually deals with it in your business?

Ops, finance, customer service… or does it kind of fall between teams?

Interested to hear how others handle this in reality.

Those of you with small teams - how do you handle training and "how do I do X?" questions?

I'm curious whether most people just rely on shadowing/asking colleagues,
or if you've found something that actually works for documenting processes.

(Context: thinking about this for a business owner I'm helping, not selling anything)

Hi.. i am new here. But i always had the entrepreneurial mindset. I have tried several online businesses over the years and all of th failed.

Is there still room for business nowadays?

I have good skills and can execute pretty much everything when comes to online world. Still own 9 websites myself

Hi there. I am currently excited about my recent domain I purchased at auction and I want to get into the whole virtual influencers and ai idols market that is coming from Japan and South Korea where k pop and vitrual influencers are very big business. My question comes from watching many many AI music compositions that are done in the style of the Beatles or the Stones and I wondered whether these bands and their owners have any right to complain that the ai virtual technology is copying their sound. Can they possibly sue and go to court claiming it is too much like them in the sound and lyrics or is that simply impossible? I want to include many of these ai songs and other stuff and don't want to spend the next year or so building my website only to find lawyers telling me to take it down or else.

Hi everyone, I’m looking to connect with retailers and baby clothing boutiques interested in high-quality cotton products from Prima Cotton.

I’d love to explore potential collaborations and showcase our range. If you’re a boutique owner or know someone who might be interested, please feel free to reach out or tag them below.

Having worked totally find I went into my wordpress site today to be advised it has a critical error. I don't own the website but I can update it.

There's a X beside : The required module gd, is not installed, or has been disabled.

Regretfully I don't even know what that means and a quick scan of the internet/youtube turned up nothing. Can anyone please advise whey that's suddenly and issue or what needs to be done about it. I don't think it can be something I did as I haven't been into the website in an age and it was working when I left it. I put a message out to the website builder but she's not been in contact for ages and hasn't responded. Of course we can stop paying her for the use of the website but it doesn't help us much right now :-(

Any advice kindly given would be much appreciated such as - what does it mean, what does it want

Regards,
Trish

I have written an app in my spare time aimed at people who run rounds selling sandwiches out of a van. When I first developed the app, I had a local business who was willing to use and test the app for me. Since then, she has retired, and the person who took over has not responded to me. I have also sent out countless emails to businesses outlining the app, and asking if they would be willing to help. The app is designed to let people know when they are around - and also possibly attract more customers. Obviously, testers of the app would be able to use it for free in perpetuity.

Does anyone have any experience of finding people to help test/try a website/app, and do they have any advice or pointers to where I might find someone, or other advice to help?!