Intellect says tax breaks could create Tech jobs
by Jan HarrisIntellect, a trade body which represents more than 750 UK technology companies, believes that tax breaks could help create 250,000 jobs in the technology sector over the next ten years.
The organisation believes that economic incentives could help the industry to grow, helping to offset the decline of traditional industries such as manufacturing and engineering.
Small [...]
March 15, 2010
FPB launches support solutions for SMEs
by Jan HarrisNot-for-profit organisation, the Forum of Private Business (FPB), has extended its support for SME’s with a range of new solutions.
Designed for businesses without the internal resources available within larger enterprises, the solutions are designed to help a company with the day to day running of its business.
The solutions include ‘Finance Director’, ‘Legal Director’, [...]
March 12, 2010
Solicitor warns businesses to check their lease
by Jan HarrisA recent court case has prompted Sussex-based Adams & Remers solicitors to warn business owners to check their lease.
The recent case of Newham v Van Staden has highlighted that leases thought to be excluded from security of tenure provisions in the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954 may not, in fact, be excluded from this provision. [...]
March 11, 2010
SMEs optimistic for the economy
by Jan HarrisA survey by Cisco UK & Ireland found a high level of optimism among SMEs for the year ahead.
After coming through the credit crunch and the recession, over three quarters of SMEs believe that business will improve in 2010 according to Cisco’s survey.
Cisco’s Customer Kings 2010 report found that many businesses have been [...]
March 10, 2010
Small businesses invited to benefit from benevolence
by Jan HarrisSmall, London-based businesses are being invited to join the ‘1% club’ by Bill Cannon, the founder of IT consultancy Shepperton.com .
The idea behind the venture is to raise money for charity while creating a network of like-minded businesses that can benefit from using the 1% club in their marketing campaigns.
Members of the network, who will [...]
March 8, 2010
FSB calls for openness on flat rate VAT
by Jan HarrisSmall business champion, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), is calling on the government to review flat rate VAT after discovering huge rises in the rates that small businesses have to pay.
An FSB survey found that flat rate VAT, which HMRC charges businesses with a turnover of less than £150,000, has risen for 48% of [...]
December 10, 2008
Google pushes Local on UK search
by Brian TurnerJust noticed Google trying to push local search on Google UK SERPS:
I’ve read about Google pushing this before on Google.com, but only just seen this in action on Google UK.
While a number of businesses may serve local markets, this tends to only really apply to the smallest SME’s, with larger SME’s looking for a national [...]
December 2, 2008
Lessons for Freelancers
by Brian TurnerSteven Snell writes an interesting post at Design Mag providing 16 tips for freelancers.
While we’ve seen these sorts of lists before, this is a nice collection in terms of range and depth, and raises pointers that really need underlining, especially in today’s climate of economic uncertainty.
I’ll provide a brief over view of the points below:
1. [...]
November 21, 2008
How big conservative corporations create opportunity
by Brian TurnerI read this with interest: 11% of AdWords Clicks are Wasted on Dead Pages.
While this is obviously not a “scientific study” it is nicely illustrative of problems I’ve seen around advertising spend – that of focusing too much on bringing traffic in, without properly trying to engage them.
While Jeremy talks about server side issues – [...]
November 11, 2008
Tories confused over business tax breaks
by Brian TurnerThe Tories have announced their planned tax breaks for business – which essentially boil down to National Insurance incentives for companies taking on people unemployed for over three months.
Political arguments about the suitability of the Tories to govern aside, David Cameron seems to have just sounded confused about what business needs.
In times of stress, business [...]
November 9, 2008
Silicon Valley employees hold worthless stock
by Brian TurnerAccording to a report in the Wall Street Journal, 80% of Silicon Valley’s top 150 companies have employees whose stock options are now worthless.
Stock options are a way to retain key staff, by the right to buy shares at a preset price, as part of a benefits package.
When the stock market runs well, the [...]
August 26, 2008
Pricing strategies to increase sales
by Brian TurnerHat tip to SEOblackhat for recently highlighting a great post on SmallBizTrends about pricing: 8 Pricing Strategies you can Implement Right Now.
Some of the pricing strategies are priceless, but the first of the 8 tips especially stands out:
1. The Nine and Zero Effect. People associate the number nine with value and zero with quality. Look [...]
August 14, 2008
The importance of praise for good work
by Brian TurnerI have a very good team under me, and often find myself taking it for granted that they know how valued they are.
When I realise this happening, I make a point of thanking them for their great work on an individual basis.
Sometimes I find it hard to say – it takes extra effort to communicate [...]
Giant London cheesegrater gets shelved
by Brian TurnerLondon has seen plans for the city’s largest building – the Leadenhall Tower, aka “the cheesegrater” – shelved for the time being because of the credit crunch:
BBC: Slump delays ‘Cheesegrater’ plans
The firm blamed weak demand for office space and rising construction costs.
British Land said the building would be completed in 2012 when letting prospects should [...]
August 8, 2008
Reducing revenues to reduce risk
by Brian TurnerOne of the commonest risks in a service business is known as the 80:20 rule – where 80% of your income comes from 20% of your clients.
The risk comes from the danger of any of that 20% cancelling their service, resulting in a significant drop in revenues.
This in itself is bad enough, but if your [...]
July 10, 2008
Not every business purchase is tax deductible
by Brian TurnerInteresting thread on the forums: Splitting the cost of a new phone for business & personal use.
Frauke Golding makes some good points in posts 3,8, and 10 about how HMRC doesn’t consider every purchase as tax deductible.
Even a Blackberry is defined as a personal computer, and therefore may not allow for tax concessions.
And even buying [...]
June 12, 2008
The Dangers of Content Development
by Brian TurnerLast month I had to settle £8k over copyright infringement. This week my solicitors are taking against action against Google for defamation.
There are risks and liabilities with every content development model everyone needs to be aware of.
Types of content development
No matter what sort of site you publish, whether a forum, a portal, a blog, a [...]
May 22, 2008
Unfair Trading Regulations
by Brian TurnerThis week the government sent out leaflets to UK businesses outlining the impact of the recent Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations.
In their wisdom, the government has only provided PDF coverage online, so I’ll cover the main pointers below:
Practices banned outright
Abuse of the following can result in enforcement by Trading Standards:
Falsely Claiming Accreditation
1. Faking credentials [...]
April 29, 2008
Basic Guide to Business Blogging
by Brian TurnerThis is an edited form of a report I recently sent to a corporate client, to help explain the principle of why blogging would be useful for engaging the social web.
I’m not going to push for presentation below or send it out as link bait – it’s an edited client report that others may be [...]
April 28, 2008
10 Rules for engaging the Social Web
by Brian TurnerI was speaking with Anil Dash a while back, and it turns out we both shared the same problem – posting negative comments online, which can come back and bite us on the ass.
The problem is that while internet communications are currently text-driven, the actual social interactions taking place abide by the same principles of [...]