r/smallbusinessuk

Hi everyone,

I have a small community speciality coffee shop in London. The weekly takings are around £1300 based on a very minimal menu (coffee/matcha/cookies). It’s mainly grab and go type orders and operates with 1 staff a day with me supporting with admin stuff (stock purchasing, rota, payments etc).

The shop has been running for around 9 months and I have put in about 80k to date consisting of 65k of upfront refurb and equipment and around 15k additional costs since opening.

The prices are low, there has been no social media or other marketing and there is growth potential of menu items (eg we can do toasties and other products both food and coffee related to increase income whilst still being a 1 person a day shop).

The weekly takings can grow to £1500 simply by increasing existing product prices (eg moving a latte from £3.20 to £3.80 to align with the quality and competitor prices). It can grow even further if we do toasties, although appreciate there is cost of sales here but focus will be on minimal wastage.

The problem I have is that I am relying on the place being staff run, as I don’t have the time to be involved all day behind the counter. If it was owner run, I calculated there will be approx £30k profit per year. But as a staff run business, it is (without the growth ideas being executed) operating at around £15k loss per year.

I’m looking for advice about what to do with the place. I don’t have the appetite to work there to reduce staff costs. If I sell, what could I get? How could I find a partner that would work there yet still be able to extract some profit myself? Could I sell the lease with a premium and then structure it so they pay me over 10 years instead of a lump sum?

Just a bit… stuck…

I’m thinking of offering self employed bookkeeping services (UK) but I’m wondering if this is something people will actually want? I would only be able to do the bookkeeping and I’d have to hand over to an accountant for year-end tasks. Does anyone offer bookkeeping only as self employment currently? Is there a market for this or do people want an accountant that can do both? Does it work out more cost effective for the customer if they have a separate bookkeeper and accountant? For reference I’m an employed bookkeeper, AAT level 3, plan to do AAT level 4 asap. My goal is to become a top tier bookkeeper. Thanks for your help! 🙏

Anyone been using software they can recommend. I'm toying between Tiny Tax and Free Agent at the moment.

For reference: micro company with super simple balance sheet and P&L. I use Xero so would like something I can just copy/paste/import just for filing directly from there. I don't want to use a new software for our whole bookkeeping process. Thanks!

I’m building an AI-powered internal knowledge base that helps teams instantly find answers from their docs, Slack, Notion, SOPs, and more — instead of wasting time searching or asking around.

It can:

- Answer employee questions in seconds

- Centralize scattered company knowledge

- Reduce repetitive queries to ops/support teams

- Onboard new hires faster

I’m trying to figure out who actually needs this the most right now.

If you’re running a startup, agency, SaaS, or even a growing team — is this something you’d use?

Would love honest feedback 🙏

Would anyone know the best places I can go to for finding high quality images that I can put on my Recruitment Consultantcy Website?

As I haven't launched my business yet, I don't have real team photos or office photos for my website. I want high quality skyline or building images, or corporate style images that fit my premium website.

Any steers or advice on this is really appreciated, thanks

I have a large office and warehouse in large grounds in a big business park.

I had it for my e-commerce business that I sold and I can’t get a tenant.

Was thinking of starting a business again, other than rates it won’t cost me anything.

What would you do with this?

My role was recently made redundant. After 30yrs in Tech, I feel now is the time to pivot my career.

I would like to find a business partner. To work with someone to help create/grow/evolve something.

I am based in Reading, Berkshire. I have money to invest. I am serious. Just don't know where to start.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all,

I’ll keep this simple.

I’m a recent Software Engineering graduate based in London, trying to get my foot in the door. I’ve done the usual, applications, interviews, assessment centres—but haven’t landed that first role yet.

Instead of waiting around, I’d rather do the work.

I’m looking for a startup where I can contribute, learn fast, and be part of something real. I don’t have years of industry experience yet, but I show up, I learn quickly, and I put in the hours. Most of my time right now goes into building projects and improving my skills because I genuinely enjoy it.

I’m not expecting a salary. I’m open to volunteering if it means gaining real experience and proving my value.

Tech I work with: Java (Spring Boot), Python (Django), JavaScript (React), plus HTML, CSS, Tailwind, and SQL.

If you’re building something and need someone reliable who’s hungry to learn and contribute, I’d love to help.

Happy to share my work or CV.

Thanks

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are at the very beginning stage of planning our future and would really appreciate some guidance from people who have experience.

My husband works as a QA and I recently moved to the UK, so I’m not in a permanent contract-based job yet. When we think about the future and having kids, we honestly feel that surviving on salaries alone might be difficult. We want to become financially stable and build at least an average income through a business rather than always struggling to find better-paying jobs.

Recently we started thinking about getting into the property business, but we don’t have contacts or real knowledge of how this industry works in the UK. We don’t know where to begin, what the first steps should be, or what skills/experience we should gain first.

We would love advice on:

How beginners usually start in property (buy-to-let, rent-to-rent, flipping, etc.)

What knowledge or skills we should learn first

Mistakes to avoid

Realistic expectations (costs, risks, timelines)

We’re also very open to other business ideas besides property if you think there are better or more realistic paths for beginners.

We’re just starting our research and would be grateful for any advice, experiences, or resources you can share. Thank you so much!😊