Local news and practical advice for Exmoor SMEs
Approaching the VAT threshold can feel like a warning light for a growing Exmoor business. It doesn't have to be. Here's how to spot the rolling 12-month figure early, model the real cost of crossing it, and adjust prices without spooking the regulars.
Before the first proper gale comes down the Bristol Channel, it is worth spending two hours with your insurance paperwork. This plain-English check-up covers underinsurance, business interruption, stock schedules, flood exclusions and the photos you should take now — while everything is still dry.
Most holiday lets have a welcome folder stuffed with outdated leaflets and good intentions. Used properly, it's the cheapest sales funnel an Exmoor business owns — one that can turn a July visitor into a January booking and send a steady trickle of custom to the traders down the road.
When your B&B, café or guided walk is fully booked, the quickest answer is a shrug and a sorry. But a simple, low-tech referral habit can turn that dead end into a future booking, a stronger local reputation and a network that works both ways. Here is how Exmoor operators make it stick without fancy software, commissions or awkward IOUs.
Accessibility has a reputation problem: it sounds like scaffolding, solicitors and a bill you can’t afford. In practice, most Exmoor businesses can make meaningful step-free improvements with a notebook, a tape measure and a weekend — and start attracting visitors who plan carefully and spend locally.
A winter road closure can feel like someone has switched off your shop from a distance. It hasn’t — but it does need a plan. Here’s a practical, Exmoor-friendly way to keep booked customers, deliveries and the till moving when the diversion signs go up.
Courier surcharges and free-delivery expectations can eat a rural shop's margin faster than a box of cream teas disappears at a village fete. Here's how Exmoor retailers can price local runs, click-and-collect and parcel options without turning every basket into a negotiation.
A coach doesn't book a table for two and it doesn't ring to say it's running late — it simply arrives, forty-odd strong, at ten o'clock on a Tuesday. Here's how Exmoor cafés, shops, attractions and digs can turn that wave into dependable midweek income without turning the place into a transit lounge.
Parish newsletters, village noticeboards and small event sponsorships still bring people through the door across Exmoor. Here is a practical, low-cost way to run those channels alongside your digital tools — and a simple ledger to prove which laminated poster actually earned its keep.
A negative review hits differently when you can picture the person who wrote it — and might see them at the school gate on Monday. Here's a calm, practical way to sort fair criticism from noise, reply without lighting a fire, and rebuild trust in the places where Exmoor actually does its talking.
Dog-friendly hospitality is often treated as a courtesy — a bowl by the door and a tolerant smile. For Exmoor cafés, pubs, shops and holiday lets, it is better understood as a seasonal revenue strategy with real operational requirements. This guide covers the practical bits: policy, flooring, insurance, staff training and marketing that works in wet weather as well as warm.
Raising prices in a small Exmoor town is less about the spreadsheet and more about the school gate. Here’s how to work out the real number, give proper notice before January, and explain a rise without apologising your way through it.
Every rural trader on Exmoor knows the dance: card machine held aloft, customer waiting, signal flickering between one bar and none. Here's a practical, tiered approach to keeping the till, the bookings and the phone alive when the line goes down — plus a pre-winter checklist worth doing this month.
For every café, farm and holiday let that visitors notice, there's a saw doctor, a hydraulic hose man and a septic specialist quietly holding the whole thing together. A look at ten invisible Exmoor trades — and what the rest of us can learn about booking ahead, paying promptly and earning a place near the top of their list.
Handing on a farm shop, a pub or a clutch of holiday cottages is rarely a single decision — it's a slow unthreading of family, property and reputation. Here's how Exmoor owners are approaching the timeline, the valuation and the awkward conversations.
The revaluation bills arrived in the spring and most of us filed them under 'later'. Here's a plain-English check-up for village shops, cafés and holiday lets across Exmoor — what the numbers mean, which reliefs get missed, and how to argue your case for free.
An honesty box teaches you that people will buy your produce. It doesn't teach you much else. For Exmoor farms and small food producers ready to move into proper retail, here's a grounded walk through branding, payments, stock rotation, stockists and the maths of which channels actually pay.
Most Exmoor hospitality businesses have quietly accepted that Monday to Thursday belongs to nobody outside school holidays. That assumption costs more than any winter fuel bill. Here's a practical, low-risk route to filling the quiet days without wrecking your weekend rate.
Exmoor's dark skies are a year-round trading asset, not just a winter novelty. Here is how pubs, B&Bs, guides and shops can turn after-dark curiosity into bookable offers for the 2026-27 season without overcomplicating things.
Recruitment advice written for city businesses often misses the point in Exmoor. This deep dive maps the channels local employers actually use, from apprenticeships and college links to flexible shifts, transport fixes and the word-of-mouth networks that keep rural teams staffed.