Keeping the wheels

IF YOU’RE A SMALL TRADER DOING INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS, MAKE SURE YOU’RE READY FOR THE CHANGES FROM JANUARY 1

Dave Harrison captured this picture of the footbridge over the river Dove and the sun peering round the side of Thorpe Cloud

AS the world changes, more and more of us are getting creative and starting our own businesses from scratch.

From those making bespoke crafts to sell on Etsy to others selling their wares through eBay or their own websites, there’s a growing range of small traders working across the UK and selling overseas.

But no matter the size of your company, and whether you’re working from home or elsewhere, you need to prepare for the end of the Brexit transition period, as changes are coming very soon.

Sanjay Aggarwal, founder and chief spice officer at Spice Kitchen, explains that sending products to EU countries is a key growth area for his business, so getting it right once the transition period comes to an end is a must.

“We sell from our website as well as via hundreds of retailers in the UK,” says Sanjay, from Widnes in Cheshire. “We manufacture our own spice blends with very high quality ingredients from around the world.

“From online sales we send our products – everything from spices and spice jars to cookware, kebab skewers and cookbooks – everywhere, and that includes countries across the EU.”

And with changes coming in from January 1, 2021, Sanjay and Spice Kitchen have taken steps to get prepared.

“We’ve got our EORI number in

place, which some of the retailers we deal with have asked us for, and we’ve been keeping an eye on the Government website,” he says.

“Customs declarations could come into play for us, with some of the parcels of goods we send to the EU being worth more than £900, so we’ll look at getting a specialist in to help with that, because it’s crucial to our business growth that we get it right.

“We send goods to Northern Ireland as well, so we plan to register for the Trader Support Service to help us deal with changes coming in there.”

We’ll look at specialist help with customs as we need to get it right Sanjay Aggarwal Founder, Spice Kitchen

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This view was captured by Maura Teager while walking from Winster to Elton and on to Uppertown Birchover

POSH SPICE Sanjay and mum Shashi source ingredients from across the world