PRIME business club

Two big changes affecting the way government deals with small business have emerged out of the current political turmoil.

Firstly Alan Sugar, the business star from TV’s The Apprentice has accepted a new role promoting enterprise from within government. The role is unpaid, but Sir Alan is expected to accept a peerage, which will enable him to speak on business topics from within the House of Lords.

Text of official announcement below.
Press comment: Sugar

Secondly the government department with overall responsibility for business in the UK, BERR, is disappearing in a merger with DIUS, the department in charge of higer education. The new merged department, called BIS or “Business, Innovation and Skills”, will be taking over both roles - under the control of the current Business Secretary Peter Mandelson.

From BERR site

Sir Alan Sugar has been appointed as the Government’s Enterprise Champion.

Areas he may look at include access to finance, prompt payment, how to handle the downturn and how to start a new business. The post will be unpaid.

New Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)

The Government has today created a new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills whose key role will be to build Britain’s capabilities to compete in the global economy. The Department will be created by merging BERR and DIUS.

According to the official announcement the new department’s tasks include:

Advocating the needs of business across government, especially of UK small businesses;

Investing in skills … to help people through the downturn and to prepare Britain for the future.
More in BERR press release

Press comment: BIS

Expect the fear of a pandemic and measures taken to combat it to have an impact well in advance of the disease itself, if or when it arrives.

Most of the advice so far seems to be aimed at large businesses, but many of the principles still apply. Have everyone’s mobile phone numbers to hand, backup computer and web data properly in case services go down. Observe enhanced hygiene practices. Think through the implications of things like restrictions on travel, the closure of venues and the unavailability of key services and staff.

Time for preparation not panic (PDF) - thorough discussion of possible impact from insurance broking giant and risk management specialist Willis.

Gartner business continuity blog Frequent updates but from a very American perspective

Basic facts about influenza pandemics - PDF briefing from European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC)

Personal protective measures - PDF briefing from ECDC goes into more detail than most

Latest on outbreak from European Centre for Disease Control

The Pitch 2009 is a competition run by Sift Media, the company behind the useful BusinessZone.co.uk small business web site. Its aim is to find “Britain’s most innovative small companies”. The winner gets a package of business support including practical help on PR, marketing and doing business online valued by the organisers at £50,000.

To enter, your business must be based in the UK, established for less than three years and employ no more than 20 staff. If you are just starting you don’t have to be fully up and trading yet, but “you must be able to demonstrate a sound business plan and evidence that there is a proven market for your product or service”.

According to the application form “the judges will look for innovation, engagement with customers, sound financial and business planning, and an understanding of where the opportunities exist in the market for your product or service”.

The entry form is a Microsoft Word document that you can download here. Any queries contact Sift Media’s Rita Andrews on 0117 915 9619.

Shortlisted entrants get to attend their nearest regional heat, where they pitch to a live panel Dragon’s Den style. These are taking place on 9 June 2009 in Bristol, 17 June in Manchester, 23 June in Glasgow, 8 July in Birmingham and 14 July in London.

The final will take place in central London during Enterprise Week, the week of 16-22 November 2009.

The application closing dates for the regional heats are as follows:

• Bristol: 18 May
• Manchester: 25 May
• Glasgow: 1 June
• Birmingham: 15 June
• London: 22 June

Chichester College have been awarded funding by SEEDA (the South East England Development Agency) to run an exiting new project called SEED in the South East. 

The project, which runs until December 2010, will be self-employment focused and aims to engage and support 50 unemployed or economically inactive clients, that are 19yrs or over, from areas of deprivation within Lewes and Newhaven. 

Benna Madan is the community business coach  who will be supporting these people. Benna is looking for people who fit the above criteria  that she can help overcome individual barriers in their transition to self-employment? 

If you are interested you will need to move quickly as this unique opportunity only exists for the first 50 clients that are identified.  

Please email Benna Madan if you have any queries.

Benna Madan
Community Business Coach for Lewes/Newhaven
SEED project for Chichester College
info@bennamadan.co.uk

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) now has the power to raid ordinary homes without warning - if you are conducting a business somewhere on the premises. Running a home business is of course not itself illegal. The idea is to allow tax inspectors to check up on what you are doing and have a look at the records you are meant to be keeping.

These new powers were first mooted over a year ago, and came into force on the 1st of April 2009. The new rules give the tax inspectors from the Revenue side of HMRC similar powers to those Customs & Excise have long had against smugglers and VAT evaders. Basically they can enter your home without notice if they suspect you of wrongdoing.

According to Sue Holmes, head of national tax investigations at accountancy firm Smith & Williamson, “The many thousands of business people and sole traders who claim expenses for ‘use of home as an office’ should recognise that from next month, HMRC has the right to enter their home without prior warning to inspect business records.”

This article in the Sunday Times describes the changes - and the new scale of penalties, in more detail.

So what records should you keep?

Here’s HMRC’s own guidance on the records needed by the self-employed.

And here’s its basic guide to tax and self-employment.

Also useful if slightly out of date is The No-Nonsense Guide to Government Rules and Regulations for Setting up Your Business which you can download free from Business Link.

If this is all sounding a bit complicated this brilliantly simple sheet of paper from InBiz shows you how to calculate what you probably most need to know - how much tax you will have to pay for the year.

Scams are big business. The combined turnover for some firms closed down recently for conducting fake-charity publishing scams came to over £50 million. The Office of Fair Trading has now published new advice for businesses to help them avoid losing money to criminals.

“When targeting businesses, the scammers are using increasingly sophisticated techniques”, according to Mike Lambourne, head of the OFT’s Scambusters Team. A new trend is the recording and editing of phone calls, which are then used when hounding the victims for payment.

The OFT advises “never agree to anything in a rush, and remember that it is possible to enter into a legally binding contract over the phone.”

Top business scams

There is detailed information on how the main types of scam work on the OFT site. Here are links to the most common.

• The business directory scam
• Office supply scam
• Domain name scam
• Charitable publication scam
• The fake invoice scam
• Bogus government agency scam
• Premium rate scam

Meanwhile the next episode of BBC 3’s The Real Hustle transmits tonight, the 26 Feb 2009, at 9:45pm. This series shows how easy it is to be taken in by accomplished con artists, and is well worth watching to make you more scam-aware.

Here are the top 20 scams revealed by the programme, as voted for by fans.

Serviced-office giant Regus has launched a series of offers to help cash-strapped small firms beat the recession. Pride of place among them is three-months free space for new startups.

“You have to start somewhere”, says Mark Dixon, founder and CEO of Regus. “I began at the bottom so I know what it takes to get things moving. Despite the gloomy economic outlook there is still opportunity for businesses to flourish.

“Through our Get Started campaign we want to encourage people to fulfil their entrepreneurial dream by making it easy for them to set up a new venture - giving them and the economy a much needed boost.”

You can apply online here by submitting brief details of your business or planned business. Competition is likely to be fierce, so it is a good idea to apply early. Places on the scheme are limited.

Here is what successful applicants get. If you have a clear plan and are ready to get started then Regus will provide free office space for up to three months. If your business plan is not yet finalised Regus will provide day offices for intense planning and meeting rooms so you can can meet with potential partners, suppliers and customers in a professional setting.

The scheme is also backed by British Chambers of Commerce, which will be running a series of mentoring sessions for new entrepreneurs in Regus centres across the country.

“We believe the key to kick-starting the economy is to help our entrepreneurs create new enterprise”, says Mark. “I’d encourage other private sector companies to support the movement and develop similar packages.”

Mark launched Regus 20 years ago after thinking up the idea on a business trip to Brussels. He noticed how many business people were forced to work from hotels for lack of a more professional environment they could simply rent at short notice as and when they needed it. His first business centre along these lines - in Brussels, has since expanded into a global chain of 950 business centers in 70 countries.

Peter Mandelson has announced a package of measures to end the business loan famine and get banks lending again. It involves giving the big High Street lenders more taxpayers’ money - this time up to £20 billion to guarantee up to 50% of the value of any loans advanced to small and medium sized businesses. This could insure the banks against half the risk of companies defaulting on the loans.

Will this be enough to get banks lending again? It remains to be seen. And where do you go to actually get such a loan? Here too details are presently sketchy, with the government announcement (see below for full text) referring you to the banks. But at least the government is now on the case.

Business Link page where more details should get posted over the next few days

Guardian story
Mandelson unveils £20bn plan to free up credit for businesses

Financial Times
Complex concoction gets mixed response

The Scotsman
Taxpayers to fund ’safety net’ for banks as firms offered £10bn of loans

Text of Government announcement below

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The next step in the drastic simplification of government-funded business support in the UK was today announced by Peter Mandelson, who is Secretary of State for Business. The aim is not to reduce total spending on government assistance to business, but to slash the number of different programmes so they are easier for people to find.

The intention now is to make Business Link the single point of contact for most government-funded support programmes for business. The process won’t be completed till March 2009 at the earliest, but Mandelson announced 30 programmes that should be available by then from Business Link - and five that should be available immediately.

“Publicly funded business support - advice, loans and grants, can help individuals realise their entrepreneurial potential, businesses start and succeed, and communities prosper and flourish”, Mandelson said. The problem has been people haven’t been able to find it. A plethora of over 3,000 different schemes around the country has meant that tracking down what is on offer is a major task.

There are more details of the simplified Business Link offering in this new “Solutions for business” leaflet.

However, if you look at the details, all is not what it seems. The promisingly named “Intensive start-up support”, available from December 2008, will only be available to you if you belong to one of the groups that the local Regional Development Agency has decided to assist. So it is not yet clear who will be eligible.

Similarly it is not yet clear how “Small loans for business” - up to £50,000 scheduled to be available from January 2009, will be rationed. The announcement says they will be targeted at “entrepreneurs who might otherwise struggle to raise finance from mainstream lenders” - but this could be almost anyone in the current economic climate.

The intention behind this whole simplification effort may be admirable, but has not been achieved - and probably never can be. Even after March 2009 many other government agencies will still be in the business support game, so all taxpayer-funded programmes will not be centralised under Business Link’s new “Solutions for business - supported by government” brand.

For a start Jobcentre Plus is rolling out its “Flexible New Deal” at the moment, which will offer a variety of schemes for people currently claiming benefits seeking to enter employment and self-employment - in other words setting up their own businesses.

And many local authorities have their own business creation schemes, some of them funded by Local Enterise Growth Initiative money from central government.  HMRC, Defra, and the Ministry of Justice are among central government departments that will continue to run their own schemes to achieve their own objectives. So Business Link is never going to have a monopoly on business support.

However, they are a good place to start - and hopefully now a better place to start. You can find your nearest Business Link here.

More than half of the visitors to this site taking part in a recent PRIME mini poll expect to sell their business as a going concern when they are ready to exit the business. A further 16 per cent also expect to keep it going, giving it to family or a friend.

Do you expect to eventually sell your business?

• 1. Yes - sell as a going concern 56% (49 votes)
• 2. No - will give away to family / friend retaining stake 15% (13 votes)
• 3. No - will give away to family / friend completely 1% (1 vote)
• 4. No - it will close but with sale of major assets 1% (1 vote)
• 5. No - it will close with sale of some minor assets 3% (3 votes)
• 6. No - it will close with nothing much to sell 22% (19 votes)
• 7. Other 2 2% (2 votes)

Source: visitors to www.primebusinessclub.com

About a quarter expect their business to close when they leave - and the great majority of these don’t expect to be able to make much from selling the assets.

So there is a clear split between those expecting to get extra money from the business when they exit and those who don’t. And this may be realistic - some businesses are worth something without the founder while for others the founder IS the business. The type of business is critical.

Where there may be some unfounded optimism is on how easy the business will be to sell. There does seem to be evidence that the size of the business is important here.

There is a well developed market for selling businesses over a certain size, with papers, notably Daltons Weekly carrying classified listing od businesses for sale, and specialist business transfer agents you can go to to help with a sale. But once you get below a value of about £250,000 for the business the market gets less interested, and the costs involved in selling start eating into the proceeds.

Related posts:

Tax bill for selling your business clarified

Exit strategy - a practical guide to selling your business

With spending on London’s 2012 Olympic bid now projected to top £9 billion, what chance have small businesses of getting their hands on any of the loot?

Well, at least some. You may not be able to grab 10-digit sums, but you can at least bid for some of the smaller contracts on the www.competefor.com site.

The web site is run by the London Development Agency, but you don’t have to come from the London area to participate. Among the opportunities listed are many smaller ones, such as those listed below. Note the broad range, from construction to catering and web services, and the scale, which includes some small projects posted by larger subcontractors.

Ecological Consultancy Service
Description: An ecological survey and assessment is required at the Eton College Rowing Lake at Dorney Lake, due to host the Rowing, Flatwater Canoe/Kayak and Paralympic Rowing events at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Website Development and Ongoing MaintenanceDescription: Ongoing maintenance management and content & functionality development of LDA Climate Change microsites with an emphasis on improving their web presence and their brand. A key element is to provide up to date, useful information relating to all aspects of climate change & energy efficiency that is suitable to be posted on the websites.

Catering Team - required for Aquatics Centre
Description: Catering team required for busy kitchen servicing staff and operatives. Will need to cater for up to 400 people at peak period and deliver wholesome cold and cooked food, to be served during meal breaks. It will be necessary to cater for a diverse workforce including different faith requirements, vegetarians and those seeking healthy diet options.

Office Cleaning - Aquatics Centre site office
Description: Daily cleaning of the Aquatics Centre site offices. This includes a three storey modular block with approximately 150 desks and a 3 storey welfare unit.

Installation of fencing/hoarding
Description: The installation of fencing/hoarding for a bridge within the Olympic Park, approximately 30 metres long and comprising of 18mm ply board on a frame with typical posts 900mm deep in a 1200mm x 600mm diameter concrete foundation.

Miscellaneous Electrical and/or Plumbing Works
Description: Miscellaneous electrical and/or plumbing works as and when required to site offices.

Scaffolding Works
Description: Various scaffolding work as required.

Anti Graffiti Paint
Description: Supply and application of Anti Graffiti coating to concrete structures. This work is to be carried out over a period of two years on multiple visits.

Quietly coming into effect at the end of May, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 summarises in one place most of the things you are not allowed to do when selling to consumers. The parallel Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008 does the same thing for businesses selling to other businesses (B2B).

The new regulations replace many existing laws, including most of the Trade Descriptions Act, so they are certainly worth a read. Among perennial bad practices predictably banned are “bait and switch” - offering one thing then actually providing another, claiming to belong to a trade association when you don’t, and pyramid selling. So most of it is common sense.

But there are some more surprising additions to the list of shame. Now banned are advertorial (paying for favourable press stories without making this clear to readers), fake blogging (pretending to be an ordinary consumer giving an independent opinion in an online web site or forum when you in fact stand to make a financial gain) and “astroturfing” - generating a fake grass-roots buzz around your product or service by paying people to pretend to be satisfied customers or supporters.

Since many of the latter practices have become fairly common in the media, on the Internet and among fans of so-called guerrilla marketing, it is likely that court cases may be necessary to define what exactly is permissible and what is not. For example it’s not yet clear whether the sort of affiliate marketing deal popular on the Internet will be caught under these regulations - for example recommending books in return for a commission on any sales that ensue

Since in many instances the offence lies in the deception or misleading of the customer, you can probably stay on the right side of the law by declaring what you are up to. If you have a financial interest in a transaction that isn’t obvious to the consumer, you can probably make everything clear and above board with some kind of declaration. Here’s a PRIME example - from our ONLY foray into affiliate marketing!

The regulations will mainly be enforced by local authority Trading Standards departments, with the Advertising Standard Authority playing a role where advertising is involved. Penalties can be up to two years in prison and substantial fines. But it is likely the authorities will go after big fish first in areas where there is any doubt to get maximum press coverage and establish the principles.

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If you have a low income it is possible you have lost out by the abolition of the 10p starter rate of income tax. So the current row about recent changes may affect you. But how?

According to the respected and non-partisan think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)

The impact of Mr Brown’s income tax changes on an individual taxpayer goes as follows: last year people under 65 paid no income tax on the first £5,225 they earned, 10% on the next £2,230, and 22% on the next £32,370; this year they will pay nothing on the first £5,435 and 20% on the next £36,000.

Taken in isolation, this means that people on incomes between £5,435 and £19,355 this year would be worse off, because they lose more from the abolition of the starting rate than they gain from the cut in the basic rate. The loss is greatest at £232 a year for someone earning £7,755.

Most people on incomes between £19,355 and around £40,000 would gain noticeably from the reform, with the biggest gain of £337 a year at £36,140.

However, that is not the end of the matter. Gordan Brown simultaneously made changes to tax allowances, Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit that go a long way to compensate people on lower incomes who have lost out - or they would if people claim everything they are entitled to.

So taking the whole budget package into account, and assuming everyone goes through the rigmarole and claims means-tested tax credits, how does the picture change?

The IFS again:

Roughly one family in five loses; two in five gain and the rest are unaffected.

Most of the losers are of two sorts. First, childless single people who do not qualify for the working tax credit because they [...] work less than 30 hours a week, or earn too much.

Second, childless couples who lose twice from the income tax changes, but gain at most once from the working tax credit because it is a family payment rather than an individual one.

Another vocal category of loser is early retirees, who do not receive tax credits, but who are too young to benefit from the increase in the tax allowance for those aged 65 and over.

The IFS goes on to make various recommendations about how the policy can be changed at this late hour. Some concessions are likely with local elections coming up and a revolt of Labour MPs in the offing. But the moment it is too early to say exactly what the final outcome will be.

One fact though is clear. The way the tax system is changing it is becoming increasingly important for people in work to claim things like Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit. Far from being welfare benefits separate to the tax system, the government is increasingly making them part of normal taxation. If you don’t claim you are in effect paying tax at the wrong rate, and losing money.

LATEST from BBC on 10p tax rate row

Full IFS article on abolition of the 10p starting rate

PRIME guide to how to claim Working Tax Credit

Neat tax calculator to check roughly what you pay

Computer giant Dell has introduced its Small Business Excellence Award to the UK, in conjunction with the Daily Express and British Chambers of Commerce.

The awards are aimed at companies employing less than 100 people that can show they have used technology to deliver “superior customer value and experience” and improved customer relationships.

Prizes include £15,000 in Dell products and services for the top UK winner, and nine other UK Finalists will get a Dell laptop and membership of their local Chamber of Commerce.

Closing date for entries is 31 May 2008. You can apply online on the Dell site. There is more background about the contest at the British Chambers of Commerce web site.

These awards have been running for five years in the US. This is their first year in the UK. The top UK winner will also get a crack at the global £25,000 prize.

Barclays is now accepting entries to its fourth annual Trading Places business awards.
You can enter if you have been trading for between three months and three years, live in the UK and have an annual turnover of under £1 million. The closing date is the 30th of May 2008

This award differs from most in that it’s about overcoming adversity. So if you have got your business going after a struggle it might be worth entering. Here are the stories of last year’s finalists.

The winner and runner up receive £10,000 and £5,000 respectively from Barclays Bank, and a selection of Microsoft business software. For more information about entering ring the awards office on 0800 085 3203 or visit www.barclays.co.uk/tradingplaces.