Step-Up Finance
The Business Of Consulting I’d spent the best part of a much needed weekend break… shopping. The sun (hidden since last September) managed to burn into the face of my android assistant, before moving onto my head until I had the headache of a man who’d run a marathon dressed as a Styrofoam marshmallow. Frustration, searching for a PC router on a Sunday, when it really could have waited...
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The automatic Escalator Tax (alcohol and cigarettes) which was to be applied this month (by at least 2% over inflation until 2014) was removed for beer in the recent budget. CAMRA had been vocal in pointing out that beer duty has risen 42% since 2008, the beer industry had cited the tax as reason for pubs going out of business and The Chancellor noted 10,000 pubs have closed in the last decade....
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Deciding factors for shopping commonly include price, quality or choice. Deciding factors for personal banking might be interest rates, additional services, convenience or, it seems from Sainsbury bank’s pre-tax operating profit increase of 40% last year, the loyalty card points. Ways to tap into potential customers: It is our business to quickly restore value-added infrastructures that provide...
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According to the Accountant’s I’ve spoken with, HMRC’s deadline for self-assessment gets the papers flying around quicker than a pile of leaves covering a hedgehog who’s spotted its first slug in 6 months, for those well-meaning businesses with a late-starter attitude in discovering the difference between paper shuffling and paper moving. It seems for some it’s the schedules, for others...
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The Answer Is Out There – It’s The Question That Brought You Here: Financing Business Matrix Little wonder the micro and small business owner can feel their brain turning as cavernous as an empty warehouse, when they hear the stable interview question: where do you see yourself in 3-5 years? An unsurprising response because looking at what-if moments is heavy going, with few in...
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Bank of England is to have a new Governor when Sir Mervyn King’s term ends (June 30). Mark Carney, currently Governor of the Bank of Canada, will be taking his post ‘at a crucial time in the Bank of England’s history’, as the first non-British national to lead the Bank. The Autumn Statement may see forecasts of VAT being put up to 25%, further spending cuts, plus tax rises, as part of the...
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Rising Froth: Assigning Value Discipline Just as the economists are said to be puzzled by ONS statistics showing a rise in employment during recession, I’m hearing some business owners being equally puzzled as to why, with an increasing roll-call of practicing solicitors, it’s difficult to find one they’re comfortable with. As essential facilitator as part of the buying /selling of businesses...
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Although annual inflation had dropped to its lowest in 3 years at under 3%, Inflation and Productivity research by the Forum of Private Business’s (FPB) showed, from those who took part in the referendum survey, inflation was running at 6%-7%, with the most common increase in costs for SME’s being energy. Also citing fuel and energy costs as a sector challenge, the construction industry saw...
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