Celebrating Local Women in Business

There were two big events for business this month in my opinion. The first was the much-anticipated budget and the second was International Women’s Day.

In the budget, the biggest win for local small businesses was the VAT registration threshold increase, up from £85,000 to £90,000 from April 1, 2024. Once you hit £90,000 taxable turnover, you then need to start paying VAT. At 20%, this can be a large sum which disincentives business growth as it needs to be passed on to your customers. This automatically makes you less competitive than a smaller trader, which doesn’t need to charge that. If you’re a potential customer looking to book in building, electrical or plumbing work for example, who might understandably decide to go for the trader that isn’t going to add VAT. The issue with VAT in my opinion is that it is one flat rate and penalises successful businesses. The increase in the threshold goes some way to encouraging growth in our local small businesses.

For International Women’s Day, I’m always interested in hearing about women who are succeeding in business (although why limit that to one day a year?). Locally, entrepreneur Emma Schwarz announced the expansion of The Barn with the knock through into the third empty unit on the Little London/East Street site. This is a great boost for Chichester. The Barn has been a favourite place of mine for a few years now and is the only place I know of in Chichester to find a chocolate Babka (I just had to try one after watching that Seinfeld episode). If you haven’t been yet, do take a look.

The Corporate Ladies Club hosted a sell-out event in honour of International Women’s Day with inspirational speaker and local businesswomen Amanda Waring at The Kennels, Goodwood. As always there was a real buzz with new connections being made and valuable funds raised for Sage House, Dementia Support. The membership boasts over 100 local businesswomen now and we are always looking for new candidates to join us. If you’d like to come along to an event, or know someone who might, you can register your interest here.

Lastly, I came across a great resource this month that I thought worth sharing. Did you know that West Sussex County Council has a wealth of information freely accessible online designed to help you businesses thrive? Check out their free business resources. It answers so many questions that a local business might need, like where to find a flexible working space and signposting to other useful databases. I hope you find it helpful!