Mobile gaming market in the UK: Worth exploring in 2025? I’m noticing strong casual gamer engagement even in 35–50 age group — anyone else seeing this trend?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently exploring funding options for my e-commerce business and someone recently recommended CapRelease as a potential private funding company. I’d love to hear if anyone here has used CapRelease before and whether you’d recommend them.

Also, are there any risks or important points to be aware of when working with private funding companies versus going through a traditional bank? Is it generally considered safer or more reliable to go through a bank?

Any insights or experiences would be really appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Hi im new to this forum im looking for partners to import rabbit meat from Zimbabwe to UK. Im a UK citizen and I have a rabbit farm in Zimbabwe

We've got a large client list that dates back a while, we want to send out a mass email, giving them an idea of what's new etc.

Any provider we can use for this that will have a high probability of getting in the inbox? Our current mail server always goes spam which normally is fine, but this is different.

Our company was dissolved in January 2025 but we have just received an email from the management company of our old retail premises to say we are due a refund of our service charges. They want to pay it into our business account but this was closed by the Treasury. We do have an old company account that wasn't closed. Are we able to claim the refund into this account or as we are dissolved would this not be legal?

Hi!
I'm an overseas digital freelancer, and the clients always paid me by wire transfer. Once they insisted doing the payment by Payonner, at the end I hated it. Pay Pal definitely is not my friend. So I registered in UpWork, even they retained 10%, I found it very effectively.

But in my last work I find me in such a mess, that I don't understand why I started to pay fees and fees....

First, I'm not UK citizen.
The salary is £2500 (receipt of Truist bank). They ask me my bank account details, as always in an international wire transfer.
They prevent me that all fee payment will be refunded at the end with my salary.
1' Conversion exchange $2100 MXN
2' FDIC $250 USD
3' IRS Tax Owe €500
4' Membership company $11000 MXN
5' Bank Key Code (token) for the new bank account $25000 MXN
6' Activate the Membership $15500 MXN
7' Brokerage Clearance (6 months) €3500
8' Money Laundry $3193 COT = $65000 MXN
9' ACH Payment Virtual Terminal creation $110200 MXN
10' US-SEC $ 210000 MXN
11' Reactivation transaction amount $63000 MXN
12' Excise Tax $305000 MXN
13' API fee $75000 MXN

And NOW they demand me to pay
14' ESCROW $300000 MXN, half of the total amount....

OBVIOUSLY all the money came from bank loans, that I can't pay because I can't pay the Escrow and free all the money.....

YOU all beautiful people of this community could help me?
In UK are real all the fees that I needed to pay? Or it has been a scam?

I don't understand about finances, only of legal taxes.

Hello

Think to start my own business as self employed delivery driver and more likely as Ltd company but I’m not interested in multi drop deliveries.
I’m I looking to go the route that my business would do deliveries only small palletised same day deliveries or next day delivery and starting out only with single Van.

I’m trying to understand how desperate the logistic companies are at the moment for small palletised stuff to be delivered?

I will appreciate any honest answer.

Apologies if I waffle on too much here - I'll try to keep it concise. I shall summarise the main points at the end of the post.
I'm just at a point where I need to make a call and follow through. Any input, positive or negative, would be so greatly appreciated. Thank you.

The full story

I started my limited company in 2016 (online gift shop - mainly selling on Etsy) - It doubled in size every year up until 2020 so I made some financial decisions based off where I thought we would be, and the capacity we would need for fulfilling more orders the following year. 2021 saw no doubling, and turnover remained around 2020 level, then 2022 onwards we just started plummeting. Poor financial decisions made, and not corrected quickly enough. My fault entirely.

I'm at the point now where we make around £3k gross profit per month (which is slowly increasing). Our outgoings (rent, bills, loan repayments etc) are around £1,500pm, payroll for my wife (my only other employee) around £1,100pm, leaving around £400.

Here's the issue - I've bailed the business out a few times now with my personal funds (return of dividend payments mostly, so not owed by the company) and managed to get myself in personal debt, to the tune of around £45k. I obviously can't pay myself enough to cover debt repayments and my own bills (around £4k per month all in).

The business also has around £5k-£6k of debts due in the coming weeks, which I don't have the funds for.

The business can operate without me, though it would not grow, and would slowly decline month on month. I wanted to get other opinions on what other business owners would do in this situation, as I keep second guessing my own decisions.

• Option 1: Do I liquidate the business due to insolvency?
• Option 2: Do I sell assets and excess stock to pay the bills, then keep the business going without me?
• Option 3: Is there a third option?!

I'm good at what I do (the production side - Obviously not the business side so much, though I'm trying to learn faster!)

I have many many options and ideas on how to branch out and either grow the business, or start a new one - But this has led to decision paralysis.

I hate the idea of walking away from the company I've spent so much time trying to build and rebuild.

Full time employment - Working for someone else again after 9 years being my own boss - Doesn't appeal at all (though I've started applying for work quite aggressively!) - But this will unlikely pay enough to cover all of my bills, and I'm not sure how transferable my skills are?!

I've reached the point where I don't want to take on any more debt - Where I need guaranteed income. I'm not desperate just yet, but there will come a time in the near future where I could lose my house - And I can't let that happen, as I have a wife and young children to think about.

To summarise the situation (without the fluff);

• Est 2016
• Turnover doubled each year to 2020
• Expanded operation to cope with expected demand
• Turnover remained the same in 2021 - Outgoings were a lot higher
• Turnover declined in 2022 onwards - Outgoings still too high: Took too long to correct
• £5k-£6k due in coming weeks (we can't currently pay)
• Gross profit currently around £3k per month
• Bills and payroll around £2,600 per month
• Above does not account for me being paid
• I'm now around £45k in personal debt (due to bailing out the company).
• I personally need to be taking home around £4,000pm to avoid further debt.

Hi all,
I recently set up a Ltd company which has just started to turn a profit after covering costs (yey!) But I'm just realising I don't know how to pay myself as a director

New one for me...

I'm running a WordPress powered site with enabled All in One SEO, Wordfence, and Lightspeed plugins. I'm mentioning these as possible causes of my problem.

I had an email from Google Search Console this morning reporting that it couldn't index my site due to 500 errors, which is odd. I checked server logs and nothing in there, the site is, and was, responding, and the xml and rss sitemaps have been picked up by Google. The site only came out of maintenance mode yesterday (I was blocking all bots) and I did a general clear-up of any pages/elements that I didn't need.

Those cleared up URLs appear in the unindexable (sic) report, but then genuine pages and I have nada in Google's index. I have asked a reindex but my brain is telling me that to repeat the same thing over and over with the hope of a different outcome is the definition of insanity

Anything else I should be checking?

We are in the process of trying to sign a
commercial lease (very much newbies to the world of retail and this is our first shop/commercial unit.)
Our solicitor is saying that our landlord must seek legal representation in order for them to proceed in negotiating the lease. Our landlord is saying that this shouldn’t be necessary and he can deal with our solicitor directly.
It’s an old fashioned lease apparently but not one with lots of points/comments to be addressed.
We’re not sure which way to go!
Could we find a solicitor who will speak to our landlord directly or is this not a thing?!

Hi all I’m following a company whims confirmation statement was due in August last year but there has been no strike off or any consequence of this. The accounts are overdue by a week too. Why would companies house not strike them off? Online it says it’s a criminal offence to not supply required documents on time so why would they ignore this? Thank you

I want to learn about business stuff as much as possible and I was curious what sources of information and news people here would recommend? I'm interested in everything from accounting to general hints and tips for business owners and everything inbetween.

I like to learn about things I don't know much about so would appreciate any suggestions.

I have a long-running Ltd in good standing, through which I provide consultancy services. I'm the sole director and there are no employees.
There are one or two side projects I am considering that are in totally different fields, and I don't want the paperwork/cost of running multiple companies. The company also has significant cash reserves which I would like to invest.

Online research says you can "run multiple businesses through the same company using trading names" but I thought you had to define quite strictly what your company does with Companies House.

So let's say JDX Ltd currently provides software consultancy, but wishes to sell my new range of jewellery and operate an AirBnb. I don't really care about trading names, can it do this or could I run into issues? What do I need to read up on/google?

Still undergoing a lengthy liquidation process for a small business as a contractor. Alway took dividends out - hit by contracts in 2020/21 due to Covid. Cash reserve of 100k at the start of that year so continued to take dividends whilst seeking new contracts until 2021. Contract came through in 2021 but had to be under IR35 so liquidated. Only debt was the BBL. All tax paid. They are now seeking that the dividends were illegal and asking pay back even though that would be double owed to the creditors? Very anxious. As I would not have liquidated if this had been highlighted.

Do not know why but my post was removed. Not friendly. So sad.

Hi,
I’m looking to start a soup business where I produce ready to eat soups at home… package them in retort pouches. Sell them locally.

Can anyone advise how I can start - what do I need to add to the soup to preserve it?

Thanks
Sky

Hi

Which fuel card provider is best, for a small business, about 100 litres a month.
Fuelcard services have quoted 134p diesel (it's about 145p in my local)area
and charge £18 a year for an Esso card.

Also does if I go direct to the Esso card website will these offer me the same saving without the £18 yearly fee?

Thank you

Hi All,

Could anyone help to advise me on the below.

Since early February I have been working as a Freelance Sole Trader, I have a client who I have a Consultancy Agreement with to offer services (Training and Education) until February next year.

There have been a number of issues with this client since starting, specifically them dictating to me the days I work, when to be in their office, shift times and location etc, micromanaging every aspect of my time and treating me like an employee, which is the opposite of what I agreed to in the contract.

The client also hasn’t valued or respected me, I’ve been shouted at by other members of the business, involved in conflict between other members of the business and been expected to do work above what is in the agreement, Essentially they are treating me like an employee, and when I raised this became very hostile and aggressive towards me, I need to end the agreement for my mental and physical wellbeing but the agreement currently states 2 weeks notice to be given on my side (They can terminate at any time with no notice for any or no reason) so the terms are very loose.

Do I have to give them two weeks notice? I’ve become so unwell with stress I don’t think I can manage another day in their business, I don’t have a contract of employment and I am not an employee but could I be held in breach?

I understand Employment law quite in depth, however this is my first time Freelancing and I can’t help but feel I have been taken advantage of, ie none of the benefits of being self employed and being treated like an employee.

Thank you!

While I’ve been developing the market, I’m often asked to offer lower prices. However, in my opinion, to ensure smooth and long-term cooperation, product quality should be the priority. Based on that, the focus should be on maintaining quality first, and then trying to offer competitive pricing. Am I correct? Despite this, many times, customers are drawn to other suppliers who offer much lower prices, which is both disappointing and frustrating. So, I’m wondering—are lower prices particularly attractive to British clients?

Or can they be used for startups or small for-profit businesses too?

My understanding is that you are only subjected to a full statutory audit if your assets and income exceed a certain threshold.

So for startups or small for-profit businesses, what are their options outside a full external audit?

Afternoon Peeps,

Apologies for this as sure I know the answer already....

I'm a Sole Trader - VAT Registered in my own name but I trade under another name related to the items I sell.

I'm looking to start selling other items that are in a different area/category (not sure what to call them, but unrelated to current market) and thus want to trade under another name for these.

Is it cool to just do this?

Cheers muchly N

Hallo I know this is a bit unorthodox but I really need some advice from a decent business owner -

Three years ago my partner bought a flat, the building is a former warehouse split into three units, the ground floor of each unit is a commercial property and floors above residential. These are the only businesses on the very quiet cul-de-sac, opposite and besides us are terraced houses.

When we moved in the business below was a graphic design studio operating standard hours (the other two businesses are similar). Last year the property below was sold. Now the owner operates it as his office as a consultant and also a rehearsal space for music, singing, acting, performance work -seems to involve shrieking - and I'm not sure what else. Unclear hours, sometimes he's away, sometimes there's people screaming on a saturday and sunday, people milling out into the street, sometimes live music every day. It's right in your ears, no way you could play your own music for instance.

Once we raised this he did have the ceiling soundproofed which is a small improvement but it's unfortunately just still an issue -
I really don't know enough and I'm hoping someone sympathetic could help as as its impossible to find out the info online:

1. I'm aware many former use classes now being grouped together in class E. Does this mean you can operate anything you want at the same time out of a E property as long they fall in the same category? eg. an office AND a rehearsal space?
2. if a commercial property is in a heavily residential space is there any kind of requirement to clarify the nature of business or modify it or concern yourself with the surroundings? or maybe when you register the business does it have to state what kind of operations it will conduct?
3. is there any kind of difference around regulation of noise or even just hours of operation for a business like this as opposed to a dwelling?

This situation has become difficult. I know this has no legal/business bearing but my partner worked his whole life to buy his first property at 45 and is a single parent with sole custody of his daughter. Neither of us went to university and a lot of our dealings with him feel manipulative. He's entitled, arty Oxbridge type with a big house, another home in Italy, bought the ground floor for £800k and it's not clear what his business actually is. He recently sent us a bill for £750 for a minor leak he found when he installed the soundproofing which we're paying of course but when my partner didn't respond to a message from him promptly (a few hours whilst he was at work), he rang on the doorbell and hassled my teenage stepdaughter, asking where her dad was, telling her to call him, saying he needs to get it in his thick head that he must speak to him etc. I think this is not normal?

Before I felt there's no recourse to keep complaining about noise, now I want to understand the nature of how a business has to conduct itself. Any help would be appreciated

Hi all

Probably a stupid question so please forgive me!

I’m looking to start a limited company that’ll be providing services and charging a fee.

My question relates to taxation:

I’m currently an employed higher rate tax payer and this new venture will be treated as more of a side hustle to begin with.

Therefore I’ll not be taking any money out the business. Let’s say year 1 it makes £5,000. Year 2 it makes £3,000 so there’s £8,000 in the company account.

Do I only pay tax on the money the company made in each tax year? So pay tax on £5,000 year 1 and £3,000 year 2? Even though there would be £8,000 in the account - for simplicity.

Any help would be appreciated!

Hi, I am trying to get more information about importing from Afghanistan spices to sell in the UK , can someone give me some please? Thank you