UK Business Advice and Assistance

Plans by the European Union (EU) to introduce a tax in areas such as financial transactions, carbon emissions and aviation have been hit with heavy criticism.

The taxes which have been proposed to reduce member state contributions were shot down by the senior member states who described them as “ill-timed”.

The UK Treasury tax minister Lord Sassoon also said that the British government would be opposed to any direct taxation by the EU.

EU budget commissioner Janusz Lewandowski has aimed to put the legislation forward for review in September in a bid to reduce the amount of contributions that EU states must make.

Germany have also rejected this proposal saying that their coalition government agreement does not allow EU involvement in their tax system, The French government also described the plans as “ill-timed”.

UK Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are advised to use professional Tax Accountants to help guide them through the UK tax minefield especially if seeking tax avoidance schemes, as disputes with HMRC can be costly and time consuming. Threat of action by the HM Revenue and Customs is no excuse for over paying your tax, and SMEs are strongly advised to make full use of UK Accounting expertise from a reputable and accredited UK chartered or certified accountant. With help in searching and selecting professional business accountant online accountant finder services like Accountant Now can help save business owners and professionals time and money

Chairman of the BBC trustees Sir Michael Lyons has denied the corporation should be the subject of an examination by the National Audit Office (NAO).

The statement, in a letter to The Times newspaper comes on the back of the Coalition Government announcing that they are willing to push ahead with the examination.

People have been campaigning for years to get the BBC to adhere to NAO scrutiny but the unique position of the BBC  has always prevented it.

The BBC has been criticised recently being described as “self serving”. Currently the BBC only has to answer to the BBC Trust which could be described as leaving Dracula in charge of the blood bank.

Rupert Murdoch obviously has a keen interest in the BBC being privatised and this could be the first step in that direction, his link with the Cameron campaign will be heavily stressed if the BBC do end up in a battle with the NAO.

Personally I do not think that the BBC should be submitted due to the fact that it is an exception and a national institution, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) is in a similar position of regulation as the BBC but with the obvious funding differences.

If it did come down to the de-nationalisation of the BBC then I don’t really see how it would work as I cannot see licence fees being scrapped so then who would they go to? Also it is not really money that is having an effect on the government budget. Good business auditors and accountants should be able to advise their clients on the best accounting strategy, avoiding any of the BBC blunders, or interference by competitors with alternative agenda.

The fundamental question to ask oneself is, “How badly does one want to learn how to manage one’s time well, and how much effort is one willing to put into it?”

According to Brian Tracy, the long established US management consultant and motivational speaker who recently overcame cancer after an illustrious consulting career, suggests that all successful people do things differently than the average person

What is the difference between a successful person and the rest of us that we meet every day in the office, at meetings or in business? Tracy claims to have invested many years investigating the subject and pursuing personal research to discover what in essence these (success) differences might be, and the impact on ‘Average Joe’s’.

We can presume that he started with himself.

So, why do some people become more successful than others? What’s your take on it? Are you as successful as you would like to be? Tracy lists the benefits of mastering one’s time:

• earn more money
• have better jobs
• get promoted more often
• live healthy lives
• live longer

Drucker suggests that managing oneself is the key to effective time management. Tracy says that many people privately admit that they live lives of ‘quiet desperation’. Is this true for you. If I am honest there is some truth in it for me. Tracy appears to share the view of other business experts and personal development gurus when he states that anyone can learn how to be a successful time manager and then by practicing it over and over again will eventually succeed themselves.

Tracey emphasises that

All successful people (winners) use their time well, losers do not.

Good time managers know that time management is really about ‘Life Management’ or Personal Management. Peter F Drucker best known as the ‘Father of Management’ and the inspiration and foundation About the Drucker Institute, Claremont Graduate University famously wrote a paper published by the Harvard Business Publishing – the not for profit organisation entitled ‘Managing Oneself’, which details the key focus which lies at the root of time management and personal productivity.

Successful time managers can eagerly anticipate benefits and improvements to their personal and business performance, which can be considerable.

Tracy says good time managers can

• Gain 2 hours a day in productivity
• Increase one’s income
• Rate of promotion
• Increase life satisfaction

The fundamental question one must ask is, “How badly does one want to learn how to manage one’s time well, and how much effort are you willing to put into it?”

The key to time management is self discipline, in action, and self discipline is the key to success.

Instilling good time management in one’s business would need an external HR management consultant or firm of business human resource consultants. Instilling good time management in senior managers is more a question of coaching and training using the services of a leadership mentor.

“What the people in the business think they know about customer and market is more likely to be wrong than right. There is only one person who really knows: the customer.”

–Peter Drucker, Managing for Results

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted recently that Facebook had “missed the mark” failing to deliver adequate privacy measures for the social networking site’s nearly 500 million users.

Facebook have tried to resolve the issue introducing a variety of measures to simplify controls.

“We don’t pretend that we are perfect,” Mark Zuckerberg is quoted as saying, “we try to build new things, hear feedback and respond with changes to that feedback all the time.”

“The unique ability to touch tomorrow” was a key attribute of Drucker according to Jack Welch, who credits Drucker’s influence on him for GEC’s spectacular success in the US.

According to Welch Drucker saw the unique benefits of outsourcing, and today outsourcing is a massive net creator of jobs in the US, Europe and the Far East.

DRUCKER INSIGHTS INTO OUTSOURCING

“Make your back room, someone else’s front room.”

“What is a low priority of your business is a top priority and foundation of success for another business”

“If you weren’t in the business you were in today, would you enter it?”, Drucker famously asked Jack Welch. This led Welch to only enter businesses and sectors where he could be No1 or No2 in the market.

What would Drucker say about Facebook?

He would have commended the approach “only by asking the customer, by watching him, by trying to understand his behaviour,” Drucker wrote, “can one find out who he is, what he does, how he buys, how he uses what he buys, what he expects, what he values, and so on.”

The jury is still out figuratively speaking with Facebook and the media are questioning whether the company has succeeded in protecting each user’s privacy.

Personally, Facebook has become such a phenomenal success, and almost unparalleled, and an excellent track record. I believe it is time to outsource the issue and bring in management experts, legal professionals and business advisers to manage the next stage of their spectacular growth.

Sarah Palin, former Governor of Alaska, a net oil producing region, is a big believer in oil and its benefits. What does she mean when she says as well as caring deeply for the sea life and wildlife threatened by the oil disaster, she says “they’re polluting our oil”. A Freudian slip, I suspect. It would have been more appropriate to focus on their polluting our water, landscape etc. Oil slick in Gulf of Mexico (BBC Science and Environment).

Like millions of others around the global I share her concern. BP is a multi national, but one of the UK’s star performers, despite employing many US citizens. According to excellent British daily, the Daily Telegraph, it turns out her husband worked for BP for 18 years.as a production supervisor, and only left the company last year to spend more time with his family. The Telegraph comments that Sarah Palin is attacking the British oil giant over the recent Deepwater Horizon spill and a previous one in her state in 2006. There seems less of her time spent on the tragic loss of 11 lives in the disaster, is this less worthy of her attention? Mrs Palin, promoted the slogan “Drill, baby, drill,” said she continues to support offshore drilling but the US should not rely on foreign countries for oil.

BP has some serious explaining to do too.

In 2006, a BP pipeline in Alaska spilt 200,000 gallons of oil at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Analysts who investigated the disaster blamed the spill on corrosion. BP paid £12m in compensation and fines. These cases can often lie outside business risk insurance and marine consultant business risk insurance boundaries.

Apparently, many months before the Deepwater Horizon tragedy 2 US Congressmen raised serious concerns about BP’s operations in Alaska. Since there had been four major incidents in just 24 months any proposed budget cuts may well seriously compromise safety. Events have proved them to be correct.

My question to Sarah, who like most educated Americans, seems a decent sort, is have US Oil companies a better track record? If so,why did the contracts go to we globally respected market leader like BP? Future contracts should go to US Oil companies with better credentials, and in order to build solidarity and goodwill the best practice shared with BP. From a financial perspective what would a UK Accountant make of the BP Gulf of Mexico metrics? Is BP trying to cut corners?

Duncan Bannatyne, a leading UK Entrepreneur, has rightly riased the profile of the UK Non Doms debate, at a time when many people are questioning government, UK tax revenues and Government spending in election year (2010).

Duncan has posted his views on his Duncan Bannatyne’s personal blog where he brings to light fellow Dragon den business expert and investor James Caan and reveals that Caan is a non dom i.e.

Non-UK Doms do NOT pay tax on overseas income unless they bring it into the UK . The tax burden is much more beneficial than the tax rules for UK domiciles whose worldwide income is taxed whether they bring it into the UK, or not. The HMRC guidelines for tax due under the remittance basis are complex and sometimes unclear.

What is very clear to me is that if the entrepreneur has made fortunes in the UK then he ought to be treated as a UK Domicile whatever tax avoidance scheme they may be pursuing, and in this regard Duncan B makes a highly crucial point.

I only hope that whichever UK Policitical Party is successful in the UK General Election in May 2010, that it chooses to conserve and invest wisely the vast fortunes it receives each year in UK Tax Revenues. Investment in the future is paramount. Short-termism must be consigned to the past.

The new UK Government 2010 has a lot of work to do. The financial meltdown, and the ensuing Global economic crisis has only been averted by massive Quantitative Easing, by all the major world economies, especially in the UK.

Whilst I am in little doubt that such drastic intervention was probably necessary, it has the effect of moving UK Tax Revenues to pole position in UK Government priorities. This brings me to the key point of the article:  Are you aware or did you realise that Tax Payers in the UK Home Counties (see list below) pay significantly MORE TAX than other parts of the UK, according to recent research by Accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young (Tax Map).

1. Buckinghamshire, 2. Essex, 3. Hertfordshire, 4. Berkshire, 5. Middlesex, 6. Kent, 7. Surrey, 8. Sussex (East), 9. Sussex (West).

All the more reason for business owners to get in contact with their Business Accountant, if they haven’t got a good one then they should use a free online service like Accountant Now to find one, and ask them for business advice and assistance regarding their tax liabilities. There may be opportunities in their business to be more tax efficient. Good accountants constantly keep up to date and invest substantially in tax research to keep their clients one step ahead of the UK Treasury, who does not always have Uk entrepreneurs and their best interests at heart. Yet it is the the UK Government who often look to UK Entrepreneurs to spearhead growth.

When is the UK going to make a sincere attempt to bridge the gap between the Europe, the US and the Far East.

Japan has long been the leader in world productivity per worker output. In the 1990′s research showed that prior to 2000, for measurement sake, if Japan = 100% then the US & Germany, France, Northern Italy = 66% and the UK a lowly 40%.

The UK worker has a global reputation of wanting more benefits for less input, and complaining in every case.

Those of us in the UK who are passionate about our country and our productivity potential need to take some action. Nothing much as changed since the DTI reported in 1997

…too little investment in physical capital and research and development as well as low-skilled human capital, for the UK’s poor productivity. “For every hundred pounds (100) per worker invested in the UK between 1983 and 1993, Germany and the US invested nearly pounds 140, France almost pounds 150 and Japan over pounds 160.”

The US derived a substantial increase in productivity via modernisation and use of computers, sharing of information and general “can do-will do” attitude.

The level of investment has long been a key indicator of management intent, vision and courage.

Since the recession the UK Government has shown willingness, taken action and started to invest heavily in the UK SME infrastructure. Unfortunately it has borrowed heavily to do this as a last desperate measure. It would have been nice to have made financially supporting (investing in) small and medium sized UK enterprises on a steady continuous basis policy when times were good. One problem is that good times never seem good. We all get too used to them too quickly, forgetting the more difficult hard times, never thinking that they might return. Sir John Templeton, one of the world’s greatest investors of all time, says that most economies have 2 bear markets (recessional ‘dips’) every 12 years, though one never knows when they are going to start or when they are going to end.

What can one do if as a SME busines owner one desires to achieve Japanese, or US productivity in their business. As Robert craven the UK Entrepreneur guru will advise you “you can’t do it on your own”, you need advice but from whom? One’s business bank, one’s solicitor or accountant? Where do Uk Business Owners and Seniro managers start their search for the best business support? Every business manager today regualrly uses the internet for supplementary business information, and a serrvice like Business Support Finder can assist in locating the right type of professional management consultant.

One of Stephen Covey’s latest business guru offerings ‘The 8th Habit’ is a good read, and can be bought low cost on Amazon. Dr Covey is trying to inspire us to find our voice – the voice of influence, voice of trustworthiness, voice of trust, and all as ‘One Voice’ of shared vision, values, and strategy.

He suggests the challenge for leadership is to help others find their voice. What works very well is the accompaniment of some videos with the DVD provided. Don’t worry if you purchase a second hand copy which comes without the DVD, because you can see all the videos from Dr Stephen Covey’s website. You will need to register as a member of Stephen Covey’s community.

Among these videos is an excellent video entitled, “Max & Max” which highlights the ‘drone grooming’ of many organisations, stifling creativity and making sure everyone loses their voice. This is well worth a view for this message alone.

The real question is how can one change an organisation (skill: organisational change). Best way is to enlist outside help is in the form of employing  an independent business adviser . The challenge is where can one locate a professional business consultant who has the appropriate experience, honesty, transparency, and produces quality work and results? To maintain in-house would be too expensive for any but the largest organisations, and organisational change is ‘out of the box’ work which at best the in-house manager can contribute to the overview.

Business Support Finder launch in the UK in 2009 is precisely to meet this demand and need of UK SME business owners. The challenge is to build up relational trust between the service and the consumer (business owners/senior managers).  Managament consultants and business advisers can greatly benefit UK SMEs in a number of ways, from improvements in managing performance to assisting with taking the organisation to market in a public floatation.

UK Car Dealerships appear to be benefitting from UK Car Scrappage Scheme. Accoring to the BBC Business 10,000 new cars a week have been bought under the Govt’s car scrappage scheme. It reckons that the money will only last till October.

The cheapest cars are the ‘micro’s, without air conditioning, and other features considered ‘basics’ for most consumers in the 2000′s. Prices starting at £4,200…but the average deal more like £6,500 and for a car with a little mopre space make that £8,500…
How many UK 10+ year old vehicle owners will be tempted to upgrade to new?

The Government says the scheme covers 300,000 vehicles – ambitious?

Would this not have been better staggered in favour UK based car manufacturing (Ford, Vauxhall, Nissan, Honda, Toyota)?

Julian Rowe, Automotive Sector Business Correspondent, Business Service Finder