The New Tax Year

This week brings us the new tax year and a number of changes have been brought into effect,

Area Covered	Changes	Detail
Basic state pension	Up £2.40 a week	The weekly pension will go up to £97.65, for a pensioner couple it be £156.15
National Insurance contributions	Only 30 years needed	The qualifying years of NI payments for the basic state pension has dropped by nine years
Occupational pensions	Five year delay claiming	People now have to be 55 to receive occupational or personal pension payments
Top tax band	50% rate introduced	New tax rate for those earning over £150,000 a year
Tax allowance	High earner tax allowance withdrawn	Those earning over £100,000 will see the progressive withdrawal of their personal income tax allowance
Isa's	New limit of £10,200	The tax-free allowance limit on Isas rises
Paternity	Up to 26 weeks	Additional paternity leave available by transferring leave from the mother
Maternity	Up to £124.88 a week	The statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay rises

 

It also should be noted that there is a planned increase to the minimum wage in October of 11p per hour for those aged over 21.

Where do we go from here?

Today we had a meeting with Business Link (North East) looking at how we can take improve our service further. I have dealt with similar agencies before and to be honest found it more hassle than it was ultimately worth! (I spent more time chasing them up!)

Today however was a far better experience (and I'm not just saying that in case she might end up reading this) but we have now been able to look at our current offer and how we could develop the site and offer further services.

We were able to draw up a plan of what we plan to do over the next three months so if you haven't already signed up to our newsletter (don't worry we don't bombard you with spam) let us know your email address and we will keep you updated with our improvements and developments.

As ever we welcome any suggestions and feedback.

Writing a contract of employment

When writing a contract of employment there are a number of different contracts that you can choose from depending on the position and it is important that you choose one that is appropriate to the job role, for a list of different employment contracts.

It is important to remember that as an employer that you have a legal obligation to issue a written statement of particulars containing the minimum amount of information with two months of employment starting.

To download our free employment contract templates click here

Disciplinary & Grievance Procedures

It is almost a year since the new disciplinary and grievance procedures came into effect and it is surprisingly to find out how many employers are not fully aware of how these changes affect them. So we have put together a before and after for you compare the differences in procedures and the rights of employers and employees, to view the changes in disciplinary and grievance procedures click here.

Want to know how to market your business for free?

It is nothing new but it is surprising how many businesses are not taking advantage of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Twitter has just announced it one billionth 'tweet' and expects it twenty billionth tweet by July, that growth is really quite incredible and also it is interesting to note that London has the most active 'tweeters' so for all those of you that think it is an 'American thing' you are very wrong and quite possibly missing out on some extra business!

I am going to concentrate to Twitter today as although both social networking sites they are slightly different. Firstly you should open a Twitter account which is again completely free, your user name will depend on your business, for example if you are trying to promote a brand then it would be a good idea to have that as your username however if you are offering a service i.e. accountant or consultant then it is your name (and the reputation behind your name) that you want to build and it is strongly suggested that you use a real photo rather than your logo as this will allow people to identify with you, putting a name to a face and all that.

You then want to look at some of the big players and see who is following them, this again will depend on your business but as an example your could try the start to follow the BBC and see who is following them and then start to follow them, most people will reciprocate and hey presto you have taken the first steps to building your online profile.

Your tweets' will now appear to all those who follow you, if you want people to follow a link then you need to make it interesting otherwise it will simply blend into the landscape and have very little effect.

There are a number of ways to set up your 'tweets' for example:

Logging in online or through various applications, there are too many to mention and start tweeting!

Setting up an RSS feed from your website – so that every time you add a news story of even a new product it will automatically display on Twitter.

Using a widget on your website - sharethis is a popular one, this allows users to post a product, service or news story on their own account which links back to your website.

'Tweet' your newsletter, want to expand your circulation? Mailchimp for example will give you the option to 'tweet' your newsletter so that not only do your subscribed users get to see your newsletter but also all of your fellow tweeters!!

Of course although this is a free service it does take time and can be frustrating at the beginning but it is well worth taking the time to look into further.

Good Luck

James

New Health and Safety Policy Added

We have just updated and added an additional Health and Safety policy; you are free to amend it to suit your businesses needs and procedures etc.

http://www.i-resources.co.uk/Health-and-Safety/Downloads/Health-and-Safety-Policy/index.asp

Any feedback let us know

Jon

Tendering for Public Contracts

There are a number of ways that you can bid for public sector contracts and they are open to businesses of all sizes, in particular the Olympic tenders are being released at the minute and for more details and to register visit – www.competefor.com, this is a free service and will allow you to identify any possible contracts you feel your business may be able to deliver. It is important to remember that when submitting a tender for a contract the provider will want to see the following documents:

Health & Safety Policy

Equality & Diversity Policy – coming soon (we are just updating it!!!)

As a minimum but they may also require an environmental and sustainability policy, you can access templates of all of these from our free health and safety and employment download sections and if you do decide to bid for contract – good luck! Remember if you need any support or guidance; contact your local business link, who there to provide assistance if needed.

Kelly

Food Hygiene Training & the Law

I have had a number of people ask me about the validity of our food hygiene course and whether or not it is accepted by the relevant authorities. These are good questions and I thought would also provide me with the chance to clear up some common misconceptions about the legal requirement you have as a food handler or employer in the catering industry.

Firstly the statement regarding suitable training from the Food Standards Agency:

"Food handlers must receive appropriate supervision, and be instructed and/or trained in food hygiene, to enable them to handle food safely. Those responsible for developing and maintaining the business's food safety procedures, based on HACCP principles, must have received adequate training. The requirements for training should be seen in the context of the nature and size of the business. There is no legal requirement to attend a formal training course or get a qualification, although many businesses may want their staff to do so. The necessary skills may also be obtained in other ways, such as through on-the-job training, self-study or relevant prior experience. The operator of the food business is responsible for ensuring this happens."

Source - http://www.food.gov.uk/foodindustry/regulation/hygleg/hygleginfo/foodhygknow/

This is important, depending on the nature for your job and role within the organisation should heavily reflect the level of training undergone, i.e. it would be expected that an executive chef would have a higher level of knowledge than perhaps a kitchen porter (this is just an example) as they would have to deliver as a minimum some on the job training regarding safe working procedures etc..

So by completing a test with i-hospitality you demonstrate an understanding of the fundamentals of food hygiene and is an ideal introduction before you are ready to progress onto your level 2 or even level 3, the supervisors award. You do not have to renew your food safety certificate every three years as what used to be the case but to demonstrate that you have refreshed your knowledge in a suitable manner, the rough guide for this is between 2 – 3 hours every 2/3 years however I would recommend that it was carried out more regularly than this to ensure that safe practices are continually followed. A syllabus of our food hygiene course online can be found here.

Any other queries or questions we are always glad to help in any way.

Jon

eBay and the online retailer

I was recently asked by a colleague to assist him in setting up an eBay shop in addition to his existing online presence, at first (having not used eBay for a while) I was a little surprised and asked him why, eBay is notoriously expensive, its feedback system favours the customer and the sites structure is not favourable to the type of product he was selling i.e. clothes. He told me that a number of his colleagues have just launched an eBay division and were doing remarkably well.

Anyway, after much investigation I discovered that eBay have made some huge changes and although still expensive when you compare fee's to what you would spend with Google or Yahoo it is surprisingly close. They have now made eBay more accessible to large brands and have introduced a number of initiatives most notably Outlets and Daily Deal.

Outlets have attracted some big high street names and provide a platform for them to sell stock at a reduced price. Daily Deals is open I believe to al power sellers as long as you can meet their product criteria (this changes throughout the year) as an example they were looking for keep fit and home entertainment products throughout January, the idea of this service is that you sell the product at a breakeven price attracting more visitors to your shop. (At Xmas daily deals were getting around 14,000 hits per day)

So after much research into what our competitors were doing and what eBay could offer in terms of flexibility etc. We decided to use an external designer as my HTML is pretty rusty and why waste the time when you can pay someone who knows all the tips and tricks to do it for you. In the end I found a company who quoted me the bargain price of £150!! (inc a £50 discount) Considering all other quotes were £300+ and having said that at least 3 websites did not even get back to me at all!!

The service provided was spot on and if you are considering setting up an eBay shop I would highly recommend this website, if you want to spend more money on your designs etc you can plan for it further down the line. An example of the work can be found here at Buy Jeans Outlet, for that price you can hardly complain, some sites wanted around £800 and tried to sell you some (in my opinion) unneeded SEO service, which is what I pay eBay for - Traffic!!

So the shop is now online and doing very well and we even found time to come up with ten tips when setting up an eBay shop – good luck!

 

James

Snow your rights

It is difficult to know how to approach the issue of bad weather interfering with employee attendance i.e. should they be paid, could they of really made it in and it might be wise to have a policy in place stating the organisations view on issues such as working from home etc.

I found this article particularly interesting:

http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/08012010/389/know-snow-rights.html

 

 

i-Hospitality is online!

Well we are only a month late due to some unfortunate technical issues but finally these are now resolved. So what is i-Hospitality? It is a website specifically geared towards businesses in the hospitality industry providing introductory online training courses in the following areas:

Food Safety

Health & Safety

Alcohol & the Law

We have also included a download section similar to that of i-Resources and is growing on a daily basis, anyway please visit our site http://www.i-hospitality.co.uk any comments/feedback are always appreciated.

New Year, New Job? Tips for your CV

January and February are well know months for people changing jobs however in currents time when unemployment is fast approaching the 3 million mark completion will be as tough as ever! When an employer is looking through CV's the norm is for them to skim through them until something interesting catches their eye, this is why it is incredibly important that you CV really sticks out and for the right reasons.

Here are some tips when completing your CV

1. Take your time
   

If a job is worth applying for then you should allow ample time to edit your CV as necessary, it will e noticeable if it has been rushed and you risk underselling yourself

1. 
   Structure your CV appropriately
   

You should list your skills and experience at the beginning of your CV, it is important not to make it difficult for the recruiter to find out the relevant information about you and to ensure an interview invite. Providing pages and pages of information will only ensure your CV is quickly dismissed.

1. 
   Keep it Short
   

Unless you have asked for a detailed CV or you have a large work history you should aim to keep your CV to around two pages, you are looking to get their attention, the interview is the time to provide details and complete work experience.

1. 
   Keep it Sweet
   

You should ensure that the tone of your CV remain positive at all times and provide any negatives at all, it is this information the recruiter will base their decision on whether or not you will be invited to an interview, negatives will only make it easier for them to dismiss you!

1. 
   It should look good
   

Pretty borders and decorative fonts can look nice, but they can also distract from the information on show and even become tiring to read, this obviously would not be good, using a slightly different colour paper i.e. cream can sometimes be a idea or even just good quality paper and this can help make it stand out from the any others. Remember agencies can look through hundreds of CV's on a daily basis yours needs to set itself away from the rest.

1. Make it Relevant
   

It is a good idea to tailor your CV to the job, ensure you carefully read the job description and carry out some research on the company, ensure the examples you give are relevant to the job description.

1. 
   Avoid Gaps
   

It is important to ensure there are no gaps in your employment history or if there are, that they are fully explained.

1. 
   Be Honest
   

You will always get people telling you that you should lie (or at least embellish) on your CV, this is not a good idea! You simply increase your chances of being tripped up, this was demonstrated on an episode of the apprenticeship where one of the contestants (who actually went on to win, so maybe not the best example) lied on their CV and the recruiter checked up on him and challenged him on the facts. Not a good start! Always tell the truth and making it positive at all times.

1. Get rid of the photo
   

Unless asked for, you should remove you photograph and any personal information it serves no real purpose, you should also not provide information on age, marital status, height, weight or religion unless strictly relevant to your application.

1. Always, always proof read
   

You need to read, then read again and then get someone else to check it for you, there is nothing worse than having spelling mistake/s and sentences that make no sense. It is important not to rely on spellcheckers as they sometimes revert to American English

Good Luck!

 

VAT and Tax Returns

This is for all of you that are planning to take advantage of the flexibilities offered by HRMC last year with tax and VAT payments, contact them now! There have been a few rumours that the generous nature adopted last year allowing you to pay particularly tax returns in instalments (normally over 6 months) will not be so forthcoming and the hoops that you will have to go through will be testing to say the least.

Why? Take your pick, the government coffers have been running on empty for a while and now they are trying recoup the money spent (or some of it at least). Also, if you as a business contacted the bank and asked them for some extra time to pay your bills, alarm bells would start ringing and depending on your trading history they might not be very willing to assist you and possibly remove existing credit facilities making it even harder. So why would this be different for HRMC, it is very likely that they lost large amounts of revenue last year by allowing businesses to pay instalments and cannot afford to make the same mistake again. Unfortunately at the minute as soon as you require any type of financial assistance you are leaving yourself open to be considered a bad debt

Another point would be that by refusing any type of payment structure they force certainly smaller independent businesses to look elsewhere for funding i.e. family and friends ensuring that government revenues do not fall even further!

So don't delay, if you want to try and arrange any type of payment plan contact them now because once this hits the media you will stand very little chance of agreeing a solution that will have any benefit to you and your business.

Happy New Year!