Predicted economic growth for 2010/11

Hi all,

 

Found this article interesting

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8423892.stm

 

Have a good Xmas from the i-resources team

New Website coming soon

Well it's been a while since anyone left a post so I thought I would try and fill some space while I have 5 minutes. Due to the success of i-Resources we are currently working hard on another website specifically for the hospitality and catering industry that (fingers crossed) will be online by December and fully launched by January. This is the main reason that blog posts have been scarce, that and the fact this time of year always seems ludicrously busy. If you want to know when our new website will be ready sign up to our newsletter and we will inform in December once it is up and running. Until then wish us luck!

The Minimum Wage – how does it affect you?

I thought I should add a little more on this topic mainly about apprenticeships and also the penalties that employers can hit with by HMRC should the Employment Legislation Act 2008 not be complied with. There is no National Minimum Wage for apprentices aged 19 years old or above for the first 12 months of their apprenticeship. After 12 months the minimum wage should apply according to their age. The National Minimum Wage does not apply to apprentices under the age of 19 years old; instead a £95 weekly developmental rate is implemented. Under the Employment Act 2008 employers face a penalty if HM Revenue & Customs discover they have failed to pay the National Minimum Wage. The penalty is set at 50 per cent of the total underpayment (for periods starting on or after 6 April 2009). The minimum penalty is £100 and can rise to a maximum penalty of £5,000. Employers who comply fully within 14 days of service of a 'notice of underpayment' will receive a discount of 50 per cent on the penalty. In addition, workers will be entitled to have arrears of wages repaid at current rates.

Minimum Wage Increases by 7p

Today the national minimum wage is increased by 7p to £5.80 (for those ages 22 or over), it is also the day that the government have rules that tips or service charges to top up employees salaries.  This has received a mixed welcome from the industry, the British Hospitality Association (BHA) believe that the changes will actually cost jobs by incurring costs for employers.  The government have also conceded that it will cost an additional 60 million to ensure that all changes are implemented and met effectively, particularly as NI contributions will increase.

There are a number of different views on this topic with many agreeing that a tip is left for good service and not to help the business top up the wages to the legal requirement and I would have to agree. There have been suggestions that this could lead up to 5000 job losses by some leading organisations while other have hailed it as a landmark breakthrough. 5000 job losses? Well that will have quite likely have effect on tips, under staffed, slow service and harassed waiting staff (albeit through no fault of their own) is not what most tip for. If anything the cost of a meal may increase slightly to absorb costs (that really should not have been there anyway) but if value for money still remains, surely that is always worth paying for!

The New Qualification Credit Framework

 
 

Next year will see some of the biggest changes in the further education system for quite some time, but what are they and are they going to be of benefit to us, the employer? 

Short or long answer? 

Well the truth is no one really has any answers as the information is coming out very slowly and in no particular order, awarding bodies such as City and Guilds have already updated a large amount of their qualifications to meet the new framework but what is the difference?

Under the new framework learners will be assigned their own personal reference number so they can effectively build up  their qualification over a period of time, the benefit of employers here is that the training can be relevant to their particular job and has the flexibility that has been need for so long.  Learners can achieve three different levels; Award, Certificate and Diploma depending on the amount of credits they build up of period of time. 

Sound good, well in theory it is a vast improvement and should allow colleges and training providers to tailor their service to meet employer needs.  So what's the problem?  Well as ever there are a few obstacles, firstly the time frame has been argued that it does not fully allow for changes of this kind but that will always be a sticking point for various people in the sector, but the main one is funding, which is the one area that dictates to providers how training is delivered.  With the LSC disbanding next year they seem unwilling to commit on whether funding will be available per units as the QCF promotes or per minimum amount of units (i.e. a full qualification) which to be honest has no real difference to the system in place now.  So when will we know?

Your guess is as good as mine, my main worry is that if the professionals in the education sector are not fully aware of what is happening how can the employer be informed of the options available to them?

We shall see.

VAT – back to 17.5%

3 months sees the end of the VAT reduction introduced by Alistair Darling in December 2008. VAT dropped by 2.5% and government reports state that the average household will benefit to the tune of over £400 per year! While a large amount of businesses were against the temporary change there are now a number of them who would admit that it has helped them keep their prices down and remain competitive providing stronger results than analysts predicted, particularly in Retail sector.

So when does it revert back to 17.5%? New years day believe or not, one of the busiest days for a large number of businesses, restaurants, pubs, shops to name but a few, and there have been a large number of requests for the government to delay the date allowing businesses enough time to adapt and make the necessary administrative changes. Unfortunately the government have said a resounding no as it would cost the country millions of pounds if only delayed for one day and they are not prepared to waste that money, well I guess that makes a change!

So I guess the best we can hope for is that HMRC adopt a flexible approach throughout that time frame. We shall see!

Is the economy on the up?

I was talking to a former colleague of mine who now works for an insolvency practice about the current state of our economy and when she felt it would start to recover.  Normally (as I have been informed) a recession takes the form of 'V' shape, when the economy is contracting is depicted as a downhill slope and the steep slope is a sign of economic recovery.

However it has been suggested that this current climate takes the form of an irregular 'W', so where are we now you ask?  Apparently approaching the tip the of centre point, housing process are starting to increase as are sales, however and this is important, unemployment is still rising and quickly approaching the 3 million mark…..not good, to say the least.

So why a 'W'?  well there are many suggestions, and one that I seem to hear more regularly than most, some employers are concerned that they cannot meet the costs of redundancy and are waiting for business to increase (which it has started to do so) before committing to any further expenditure.  This is now starting to happen so regardless of the positive signs in the housing market, while unemployment levels increase the economy will not be able to stabilise itself and will start to contract again as consumer spending decreases and people fall into arrears with mortgages etc as they no longer have a regular income to cover their monthly overheads. Although this will not be anywhere near as serious as what we have already been through it does tell it that economy as it stands is in a very fragile state.

So when will the economy return to normal?  Well firstly what is normal?  The over inflated prices of 2007 and the ease of which credit was issued?  It is unlikely that credit will be dished out with disregard for a very long time.  With regards to housing market, experts predict that prices will not come close to that of its 2007 peak until around 2013, but really who knows, these were the same experts who said that the 'credit crunch' would never happen!

Royal Mail strikes again?

Well it's been all over the news today and the question is, is anyone going to have any sympathy with Royal Mail Postal workers, especially in these difficult economic times, if they decide to go on strike?

 
 

We are now approaching a time that I have no doubt many retailers have been waiting for with much anticipation and in some cases desperation, I am of course talking about Christmas.  With online sales growing year on year and getting particularly strong around the Xmas period, Royal Mail workers now have online retailers fate in their hands.

 
 

I have a couple of colleagues that run relatively small but successful shops on eBay and they were grumbling the other day to each other about the time it was taking for packages to get through and with some not even turning up at all and the additional costs they were incurring.  There are a suspected 20 million letters/parcels stuck in a back log as result of the local strikes that have been taking place recently,  although Royal Mail claim it is closer to the 6 million mark and this figure is only the result of regional strikes.

 
 

If Royal Mail delivers approximately 95 million items a day what is the potential damage that can be caused to our economy should a national strike take place this side of Christmas? Will it put people off shopping online?

 
 

For full details on this story, visit this link.

Facebook – now has 300 million users!

So facebook now has over 300 million users worldwide, with an increase of 75 million since July (around 5 million a week) and has just announced that have they have started to make a profit, just under four months early than forecasted.

 

They are also working on a new facebook lite in response to the fact that not everyone in the world has access to high speed broadband and the desire to make Facebook more accessible. It has been reported that this lite version is very 'twitter like' and is quite possibly facebooks answer to the competition has Twitter has brought with its unique and simple interface and a growing membership exceeding 50 million.

 

Social Networking has demonstrated a powerful tool when promoting your business and the number of brands and organisations that have their own profile/s is ever increasing and why not? Firstly its free, it opens up an audience that would cost untold amounts to reach using the more conventional ways and secondly there are now so many registered users and steadily increasing, its only going to get bigger, so now is the time to get started (if you haven't already) and register with some of the leading sites, the two I have mentioned would be a good start and see how things progress from there. Good Luck!

 

Follow i-Resources on Twitter

 

Support for Small Business

In the news today an update on the new maternity laws that have been discussed, the government's initial plan to implement a 12 month statutory maternity is due to be scrapped as it has been deemed too expensive and does not fall in line the cuts planned on public spending. However what has also been announced are plans to allow both parents to split the leave; http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090915/tuk-extra-pay-for-new-mums-to-be-scrappe-dba1618.html. This would be a vast improvement on the current two weeks paternity pay.

I recently same across this website and found it particularly informative on support not only for small business (granted in the North East) but for people that have recently been made redundant in the North East and is partnered closely with Business Link, Job Centre Plus and One North East and has a number of contact information for people or organisations that might be able to help you. For more information click on the link; http://www.realhelpnortheast.co.uk/.

On another note we have just added some Health and Safety Downloads click the link to check them out. If you haven't already you can sign up to our newsletter and we will inform you when we add any new content.

Robert Peston interviews Gordon Brown

Here is an interesting post of when Robert Peston (BBC Business Editor) interviews Gordon Brown.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2009/09/pm_well_cut_with_germany_franc.html

First Impressions cannot always be planned

Having a dinner on a summers evening with an accountant and his wife in Dorset, I was anxious that they enjoyed the evening and remember Janet Peacock of Griffin & King.

The food and liquid was most enjoyable, we were about to order our coffees when outside the restaurant major activity kicked off police sirens, police cars coming from all directions, a Securicor van with blue smoke willowing through the air, yes we had just witness an armed robbery.

It was not long before the helicopter was circling overhead, and more sirens and police cars were in the area and the place was quickly taped off.

I should not have worried as to whether my guests will remember me that evening will stay in the minds for some time to come; we cannot always plan things they have a way of just working out.

Janet

Networking manners…do they exist?

In a world where you are invited to get amongst your peers and thrust business cards in their faces, can it exist? Yes is the simple answer.

I was once told that all normal rules of etiquette are suspended in a networking situation. You can eavesdrop, butt in and join conversations without invitation.

This is the norm. A real nightmare for a girl who minds her P's and Q's. But there is a balance and below are the simple manners that should never be forgotten…

Hello to your left and right

Sometimes manners are allowed to be forgotten, and other times, it's just rude. Always introduce yourself to the person to your left, and the person

to your right. You are about to eat a meal with these people, how awful is it to not even know their names? (Really, there have been events where people have sat next to me and we've not

spoken for the whole time)

Listen to the speaker

I know that not every speaker has the right topic for you, but if this is the case, listen anyway. It's not easy standing in front of a room full of people, and to be faced with an

audience of yawns, poking and stifled giggles is not much fun. So, if your speaker is talking at length about the mating rituals of whales and how that can improve your sales targets, stick a smile on your

face, look interested and clap when it's over.

Thank your host

Would you leave a party without saying thank you to the person that hosted it? I would hope not. The same goes for networking. It takes a lot

of organisation to put a networking event on, and just a simple recognition of that to your host will mean you are a favoured guest whenever you go.

About BPBNC

Bournemouth Peacock Business Networking Club (BPBNC) is a monthly networking breakfast hosted by Griffin and King, as well as a different

monthly sponsor. The breakfast begins at 7.30am, and is held in the Gladstone suite at The Royal Bath Hotel. Guests are invited to mingle for 20

minutes at the start of the event, after which guests are seated for breakfast and there are four options to choose from. During the breakfast, each attendee stands up and has one minute to

introduce themselves to the room. Once the introductions have been completed, the speaker is introduced.

Speakers come from a variety of businesses, and offer an insight into their industry and often provide an interactive and interesting session.

BPBNC is a well attended group that attracts businesses from all over Dorset, so it's well worth a visit and an early morning start. Those who wish

to find out more should send an email to: janetpeacock@i-resources.co.uk

New Downloads Added

Another 5o+ templates have been added to our site this weekend, from employee handbooks to new risk assessments and are all freely available to for you to download and edit as you please. We are making steady progress on our new and improved member's area and will provide you with further information over the next coming weeks. Our new business download area is also making good progress which we hope will be live by the end of August.

Apprenticeships – what do they offer your business

Well it is has been a hectic couple of months which is the main reason for the lack of blogging, so what have we been doing? The website has undergone a number of changes, acting on feedback from users and development that we had planned, we have temporarily removed the members section and have now made all downloads accessible from the homepage. The member's area has been removed temporarily due to maintenance and improvements, as this could take some time we felt it the best approach to take. Should you need to access your member's area then just let us know and we will make the necessary arrangements.

We plan to add another 50 downloads in the next four weeks so if you wish to be notified please sign up to our newsletter.

Anyway apprenticeships, now is the ideal time for you to look at your business and identify whether or not you feel you could benefit from taking advantage of the apprenticeship service that has received a large amount of press in the last couple of months and endorsed by Sir Alan Sugar.

So how does it benefit you? Persons aged 16 – 24 can access full funding for their course and while they are training receive a wage payable by the employer of £95* per week as a minimum. It is easy to be deterred by the possibly large amount of time you might have to commit but think of the long term benefits. Firstly all training delivered is completely funded and colleges and training providers are becoming more and more flexible on how they deliver the qualification as the market becomes increasingly competitive, it is no longer the case of the local college as your only option and other routes should be explored. Secondly developing young people specifically for your business and providing them with a positive working environment can only add value to your business and its future development. The training wage should also not be forgotten, from a business point of view £95 per week for 40 hours work** surely has be tempting especially if your business is not ready to fully commit to a full salary which could be upwards of £11,000.

For more information about apprenticeships

Don't forget to sign up to our newsletter

* £95 is the amount for 16/17 years old, national minimum wage applies to the 19 and over

** 40 hours includes training

The Kilimanjaro Challenge

Two people from BT are planning to raise £10,000 for UNICEF's inspiring young minds challenge, Rob Scragg and John da Mina are planning several events this year in order to raise money for the charity and in preparation for their trip to Africa next year and have set themselves a target of £10,000. For more information or how you can get involved visit their website – www.alongwayup.co.uk.

Jon

Spring Legislation Changes

So here we are, spring already and a number of changes in legislation await us, and there are some important changes that we all need to be aware of, these include:

• Statutory Sick Pay increases from £117.18 to £123.06 (5^th April)
  
• Increased penalties for not complying with the national wage (6^th April)
  
• Statutory Sick Pay Increases from £75.40 to £79.15 (6^th April)
  

There are also a number of changes on the horizon:

• Employers prohibited from including tips in minimum wage (during 2009)
  
• Maternity pay extended to 12 months (April 2010)
  
• Paternity pay and leave is extended (April 2010)
  

If you register with us as a member (completely free) then you will receive legal updates allowing you to stay completely informed.

Setting up your business

When setting up a business it is important to decide on the legal status or your organisation, it is common to be told to set up as a limited company because of the protection you are afforded and that liabilities are limited to the amount of shares held. However by setting up as a limited immediately you could be losing out on valuable tax benefits and if you do not reach a certain threshold you can incur a higher rate of tax than perhaps a partnership or sole trader, I often suggest that depending on the nature of business if you are unsure of the levels of turnover and profit to register the limited company but leave it dormant and trade as a partnership or sole trader and then review the situation in six months so that you can then maximise your finances in relation to tax and still ensure that your personal assets are protected in the long term.

Redundancy – what are you entitled to?

I have had a number of emails of the past few weeks from worried employees about statutory redundancy and what they are entitled to should the worst happen. The amount you receive in statutory redundancy depends on a number of factors such as length of employment and your age. If you think that you might be at risk of redundancy and want to see your potential redundancy package will be try the following link - Redundancy Calculator, for more information on redundancy click here.

New Content added to our website

We have just included a new section in our website on starting a business, this includes areas such as business planning, website design, advertising plus much more, for further business support information check our website out here. We have also a launched a new advertising program where you can have your banner at the top of any one of our specialist pages. This is a cheap and effective method to target a specific audience, for example if you specialised in COSHH training you might want to place your advert at the top of our COSHH page.

Having trouble with VAT or Tax payments?

Due to the current economic climate it is now possible to arrange payment plans for all tax liabilities, this could be particularly useful at this time of year as tax payments can sometimes put a strain on cash flow especially if you have had to dip in to your reserves in recent times. I have spoken to a few people who have used this service and let's face it with a reduced interest rate and no penalty charges within your agreement temporarily deferring tax liabilities could be one of the cheapest methods of obtaining additional funding for your business.

We are on Twitter!

You may or may not have heard about the latest internet craze but this creation is a perfect way for businesses to inform their customers about latest deals and offers. You can do this either through the website or from your phone allowing you to update your profile with ease and it is free to join. To keep up to date with changes we make to our service and additions to our website visit www.twitter.com and look for iresources.

Jon

Implementing Health and Safety

Hi,

After receiving a large amount of emails asking for practical advice on how to implement Health & Safety in your workplace we have just posted 7 tips on how Health & Safety should be approached in your business, you can find this at http://www.i-resources.co.uk/news/NewsStory.asp?ID=305

Seven Tips for implementing effective Health & Safety into your business. Remember you can access for over 50 health and safety templates completely free by registering at our website.

James

The funniest complaint letter ever?

I have just had this emailed to me and I thought it was hilarious; the amount of time that this person has spent on constructing the letter is quite incredible. Have a look for yourself at http://uk.news.yahoo.com/blog/editors_corner/article/11975/

James

So we are officially in a recession!

So it has finally been made official that we are in a recession and have been for the last six months, I am sure to most of you this news is old and now that it has been made official does not really help anyone. So what is really happening with our banks and the economy as a whole? I have recently been recommended a blog and I have found it very interesting; Pestons Picks is the blog from the BBC business editor Robert Peston and you can find this blog from the home page of the BBC website and I have to say that it is one of the most informative out there in relation to our current economic climate and well worth a visit.

Jon

Government Funded Training

With the economy in its current delicate state, it is important to ensure that your employees are still being developed and that your company offers a higher standard of service than your competitors, this can be achieved by training. To date the government have not announced a reduction in funding for training, in fact it has been quite the opposite and additional monies have been pledged for the future. Eligibility requirements for funding change on a frequent basis and you should check on a regular basis, for an example of current eligibility requirements for government funded training click here.

Jon

Sexual Harassment and your employees

An article we have recently published on our website looks at third party harassment and employer's liability, I found this particularly interesting and wonder how many employers are actually aware of their responsibilities with relation to the amendments made to the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 in April and the financial implications of non compliance. For a brief overview of the responsibilities an employer has in relation to these amendments, please follow this link.

James

Health and Safety on the Roads

With the weather reaching sub zero temperatures it is important that you as an employer take the necessary precautions to ensure that safety of your employees, especially lone workers and jobs where frequent travel is involved. I am not suggesting that as an employer you are responsible for the actions of your employee on the road, but if appointments are made for the employee then it would be wise to allow additional time for travel or if appointments are made by the individual then to advise them on taking the necessary precautions.

I appreciate that this may seem like a lot of common sense but having said that so much of Health & Safety is just that but sometimes it is all too easy for us to forget and put ourselves at unnecessary risk.

Kelly

Happy New Year?

So here we are 2009 and if you believe everything you read, this is not going to be a good year, but lets face it no one really knows and experts are quite often wrong, lets just wait and see.

Today Woolworth's shut the majority of its stores although administrators have extended this deadline for certain stores in order to reduce stock levels further.

So is the end of Woolworth's? A spokesman from the administrators has said that nothing is being ruled out and a possible management buyout for some of the stores is still very much a possibility. It has also been reported that employees from these stores have come out and said that they would be willing to work for free until the new company is on its feet in order to save their jobs.

This is an interesting potential outcome, over the last 6 months I have to a number of small businesses where they have discussed a reduction in turnover due to the credit crunch and that the subject of redundancies has been mentioned. However several of the companies discussed this with their team and they offered to voluntarily reduce their hours (and in some cases work for free) in order to prevent redundancies from occurring. This is normally agreed over a set period of time and reviewed regularly.

It is important for effective communication to take place with your employees as redundancies can often be an expensive route and you might be surprised at what solutions your employees come up with.

Jon