Notes on the money side of small business
Long-form articles on pricing, tax, borrowing and getting paid — written to pair with the calculators, so every idea here can be turned into your own numbers in about a minute.
Margin vs Markup: The Difference That Quietly Sets Your Prices
Both describe the same profit, yet a 50% markup is only a 33% margin. How the two percentages differ, why the confusion is so expensive, and how to keep them straight.
Last updated 12 October 2026
PricingHow to Price a Product: From True Cost to a Shelf Price That Holds
A step-by-step method for pricing a product: totalling the true unit cost, choosing a margin with a reason, testing the result against break-even, and leaving room for the discount you will eventually offer.
Last updated 12 October 2026
PricingPricing Psychology Basics: Charm Prices, Anchoring and the Decoy
Why 9.99 outsells 10.00, how the first number a buyer sees bends the rest, and what a decoy option does to the middle choice — explained plainly, with the limits and ethics included.
Last updated 12 October 2026
PricingHow to Run a Discount Without Giving Away the Margin
The arithmetic of promotions done properly: why stacked percentages are not additive, how much extra volume a discount must buy to break even, and the discount designs that protect profit.
Last updated 12 October 2026
PricingBulk Pricing and Unit Economics: When the Bigger Pack Earns Less
Unit pricing strips the persuasion out of pack sizes. How to compare offers per unit, why bulk lines sometimes carry worse economics than small ones, and the costs that hide inside volume.
Last updated 12 October 2026
PricingWhen and How to Raise Prices Without Losing the Customers You Want
The signals that a price rise is due, how to size it from your costs rather than your nerves, and how to communicate it so the customers worth keeping stay.
Last updated 12 October 2026
TaxVAT Explained for Small Businesses: How the Tax Actually Flows
VAT is collected in slices along the supply chain and the final customer pays all of it. How the mechanism works, why businesses are its unpaid collectors, and the division that causes most errors.
Last updated 12 October 2026
TaxVAT Registration Thresholds: When a Business Must Register — and When It Chooses To
Most VAT systems let small businesses stay out of the tax until turnover crosses a line. How thresholds generally work, what changes on the day you cross, and why some businesses volunteer early. General principles only — always confirm your local rules.
Last updated 12 October 2026
TaxGST vs VAT: What the Two Systems Share and Where They Part
Goods and Services Tax and Value Added Tax are cousins built on the same idea — tax in slices, credit for tax paid — with different machinery on top. A plain comparison for businesses trading across borders.
Last updated 12 October 2026
TaxSales Tax Basics for Online Sellers: Rates, Nexus and the Checkout Total
US sales tax is thousands of small taxes wearing one name. How the layers stack, why your obligations follow your customers, and how to quote a delivered price you can stand behind.
Last updated 12 October 2026
TaxWithholding Tax for Freelancers: Why the Payment Arrived Short, and What to Do About It
The invoice said 5,000; the bank received 4,500. How withholding works, why it is usually a credit rather than a loss, and the paperwork habit that turns it from a grievance into a routine.
Last updated 12 October 2026
TaxInput VAT: The Part of the Tax That Comes Back to You
The VAT you pay on business purchases is not a cost — it is a credit waiting to be claimed. What qualifies, what is commonly blocked, and the evidence that makes a claim stick.
Last updated 12 October 2026
Loans & InterestHow Loan Interest Really Works: The Reducing Balance, Year by Year
Why a year of faithful payments barely dents the balance, why the same instalment later clears debt twice as fast, and how to read any loan offer by its totals rather than its monthly figure.
Last updated 12 October 2026
Loans & InterestFixed vs Variable Rate Loans: What the Choice Actually Commits You To
A fixed rate buys certainty; a variable rate buys a lower start and an open future. What each side of the trade really promises, and how to size the risk before you sign either.
Last updated 12 October 2026
Loans & InterestCompound Interest, Explained With a Savings Habit
Not a lump sum in a textbook but 200 a month from a real salary: how compounding turns a habit into a sum, why starting beats size, and where projections stop telling the truth.
Last updated 12 October 2026
Loans & InterestSimple vs Compound Interest: When Each Method Applies and Why It Decides Real Money
One method charges interest only on the original sum; the other charges it on interest itself. Where each is used in the wild, and how to tell which one a quote is hiding.
Last updated 12 October 2026
Loans & InterestThe Business Emergency Fund: How Much to Hold, Where to Hold It, and How to Build It
A reserve is not idle money; it is the difference between a bad month and a death spiral. How to size the fund from your fixed costs, build it without starving the business, and keep it boring.
Last updated 12 October 2026
Loans & InterestAPR and the Interest Rate: Why Two Honest Numbers Can Disagree
The interest rate prices the balance; the APR tries to price the whole deal, fees included. Why they differ, when the APR misleads anyway, and the question to ask any lender.
Last updated 12 October 2026
DecisionsBreak-Even Analysis: The Most Useful Number Nobody Recalculates
Fixed pile, variable cost, contribution — three honest figures produce the sales target your whole business quietly serves. How to compute it, how to classify the costs that resist, and how to use the answer.
Last updated 12 October 2026
DecisionsROI Explained: What It Measures, What It Politely Ignores
Return on investment is the most quoted and least examined percentage in business. Its genuine uses, its three blindnesses — time, risk and your own labour — and how to read it without being read by it.
Last updated 12 October 2026
DecisionsThe Payback Period: The Risk Question Behind the Return Question
Payback asks not “how much will it make?” but “how long is my money gone?” Why that question deserves asking first, how growth in the cash flow changes the answer, and the two things payback cannot see.
Last updated 12 October 2026
DecisionsFreelance Pricing: Build Your Rate From Your Life, Not From a Competitor's
The rate copied from another freelancer imports their costs, tax and holidays into your business. The backwards method — target income, overheads, tax reserve, billable hours — that produces a floor you can defend.
Last updated 12 October 2026
DecisionsSalary vs Freelance Income: Comparing the Two in the Same Units
A salary and a day rate cannot be compared as headlines. Converting both to the same frame — and pricing the invisible parts of employment — before you leap or renew.
Last updated 12 October 2026
DecisionsLate Payments: Prevention, Policy, and What to Do When They Happen Anyway
Most late payment is not malice; it is process — yours or theirs. The terms, habits and escalation path that get invoices paid on time, and how to charge for lateness properly when it comes.
Last updated 12 October 2026
Office & PaperworkInvoice Best Practices: The Document That Gets You Paid
An invoice is read by a process, not a person with time. The fields, timing and habits that move an invoice from an inbox to a payment run without queries, disputes or delay.
Last updated 12 October 2026
Office & PaperworkWhat Makes an Invoice Valid: The Fields That Matter and the Law Behind Them
A valid invoice is part payment request, part tax evidence, part legal record. The core requirements most jurisdictions share, the extra rules for VAT invoices, and the mistakes that invalidate quietly.
Last updated 12 October 2026
Office & PaperworkWhy Amounts Are Written in Words: The Cheque Convention, Explained
Digits are easy to alter; words resist quiet editing. The security logic behind writing amounts out in full, how cents are handled, and the ten-second check that catches most errors and most fraud.
Last updated 12 October 2026
Office & PaperworkBusiness Days and Deadlines: Counting the Time Contracts Actually Mean
“Ten business days” is two weeks, except when it is three. How working-day counting works, the holiday trap across borders, and the sentence that prevents deadline disputes before they start.
Last updated 12 October 2026
DecisionsPricing Services: Day Rates, Project Fees, and Choosing Between Them
Hourly billing sells your time; project fees sell an outcome. The trade-offs of each model, how to convert safely between them, and the hybrid most established practices actually run.
Last updated 12 October 2026
DecisionsCash Flow Basics: Why Profitable Businesses Still Run Out of Money
Profit is an opinion about a period; cash is a fact about a Tuesday. The timing gap that separates them, the working-capital levers that close it, and the simple forecast that sees trouble a month early.
Last updated 12 October 2026