I have been trying to find a better theme and really thought I had found it with this one from woothemes. However, it isn’t the easiest theme to adapt to and I have had a lot of problems, not being a code freak, trying to get the presentation right.

I think it has settled now but all the changes mean for some reason I can’t go back into some of the older posts to edit where the image sits which means some odd looking image placeholders some distance from the images!

I am sure that now I have settled on this layout, that as new posts are added the look will become more consistant. I can hope, can’t I.

All this started because I had a complaint about the dark look of the old theme which I was quite happy with but I took the comments on board and once I started looking at it, I realized the overall look could be much brighter and cleaner.

I still have to work on the header graphic at the top of the blog. The frosty looking one turned out to be way too large and was distorting the pages. So this may well change over the next few days again.

Anyway, I hope this explains all the odd-ball goings on and that you find this excellent theme tolerable, light and fresh. Please let me know what you think as I want the blog to be as readable as possible.

Back to normal posting tomorrow and I am building up to travel to London on Saturday to meet Ed Rivis and several other business growth specialists. I am sure to have some solid info to pass on next week after that!

~Ray

Make sure you have changed your website settings, ebay settings, bookkeeping settings, spreadsheet settings - even your calculator settings to reflect the new rate.

The new rate is 15%. When you are calculating the VAT amount in a total, such as a petrol receipt, you now need to use the fraction 3/23, or if you want the VAT exclusive amount the fraction you need is 20/23.

It remains to be seen if such a minute change will have any real effect on spending habits.

Good luck with your christmas campaigns.

Please feel free to email me if you want a little critique or help with your copy in the run up to christmas!

Seasons greetings to you all!

~Ray

VT Transaction + is now complete. I know it sounds unlikely but it was only this morning I was wondering about doing some more video tutorials now my recession report is finished and what happens - I get the upgrade available notice in my VT Transaction+ program and… there is this note saying it’s all finished and there is now a comprehensive user guide. So, no more need for planned tutorials…

Anyway, you can view the help file from within your program, or download it and print it from the VT Software website here.

I have looked through it and all credit to the team - it is clearly written and easily understandable. Well done chaps.

I presume this now signals the beginning of the end for the free web downloads so for all those people “testing” the program out there, it is time to stump up the cash to buy it officially. I think it has been free for download for at least 3 years so VT Software have been more than generous.

You can either buy it from me, or direct from VT Software at £125+VAT first year and then £100+VAT each year thereafter. For additional licences it is £75+VAT initially and each year thereafter per licence needed.

I cannot recommend this software highly enough. It is something we use here for all of our bookkeeping work all day every day. I keep checking other software as it comes out but nothing comes close (yet) for simplicity of use, ease of editing and formating of invoices.

Simply brilliant.

~Ray

I know our beloved chancellor said it will apply from 1st December but…

There is an issue you must consider here when you are invoicing for the supply of goods and services.

If you supplied goods and services before 17th November 2008 but invoice them on or after 1st December 2008, you MUST use the 17.5% rate.

If you normally invoice at, say, the end of the month following the supply of goods and services (yes, some people wait that long to bill), you will still need to charge 17.5% VAT.

The reason for this anomaly is that HMRC treat the Basic Tax Point as being when the goods/services are actually made available to the client/customer and it is the basic tax point that determines the rate of VAT you charge.

There is, as with most things, a work around.

Why did I use the 17th November above and not the 1st December? It is because VAT has a little known 14 day rule that can overide the the basic tax point.

If you raise an invoice within 14 days of the supply, the invoice date will be the actual tax point. There is a possibility to extend this 14 day rule to 30 days, but you have to write to HMRC at your local VAT Business Centre and explain why you need an extension and if they agree, nearly all your invoicing can be done at 15% after 1st December 2008.

As ever, a VAT inspection is usually the only time this sort of anomaly crops up but when it does, guess what happens??? You get 2 choices.

1. you go back to your customer and say sorry, I should have charged you 17.5% not 15% can you stump up the difference please? What if they have gone out of business or just say no….
2. you pay the difference with no ability to reclaim it.

I have said it before but VAT is the most mis-understood of the taxes and when you get it wrong - it makes more than your eyes water!

Recession Busting Tips

At last.  I have been working on this report for about a month now and it seems to have grown into a mini-book which isn’t quite what I had in mind.

Anyway, please nip over to the website and get your free copy before the advert comes out next week.  I have limited the free downloads to 1,000 and after that number is reached I will remove the download facility and sell the report for £5.99 instead.  So make sure you zoom over to:-

http://recessionbustingtips.com

right now to secure your copy.  It is fully automated and (hopefully) pretty instant.

Once you have read it, please come back here and leave a comment about it - both good and bad.  The report is not set in stone (although it feels like it if you print it off!) so any extra bits or tweaks are easily incorporated into future downloads.

At least let me know if you helps you feel a little more positive that your business may now have a chance at surviving the recession.

~Ray

But was the chancellor right to do what he has done?

Was it formal budget in all but name just so that this government can force these changes through without discussion and all party approval? The sceptic in me says YES.

Little has been made of the total debt the government are running up overall. We hear snippets that suggest borrowing this year of £78bn and then another £118bn next year. I haven’t seen much reference to the total the country will be in debt by in a couple of years… a staggering £1,000 billion.

All this tinkering about is just to make the government look good before a general election.

We all know that the repayment pain of this staggering pile of debt will start just after the next election. NI is going to rise, VAT will be back at its current rate again, higher rate tax will be 45%, road tax will have significant changes (most likely upwards) with 6 new bands of vehicle excise duty etc..

As far as business owners are concerned, they now have to reprice everything in their stores, websites, brochures, tills, menus etc all by Sunday evening . Any compensation for this - no.   Oh, and don’t forget we have to put it all back again next christmas when VAT goes back up.

Already hardpressed hauliers are going to suffer another cost blow because the VAT they currently reclaim in fuel is being reduced and replaced with fuel tax they cannot reclaim. Thanks mate!

All this fuss about we will give businesses time to pay their tax bills is a smoke screen. This has been going on for years now ever since self assessment introduced the creditcard like statement for the tax owing. Maybe the penalties will be suspended for a bit - we will see how that works in practice because VAT is a funny tax and there is not yet any provisions in the law for this to work and interest to be paid. Perhaps we will see the magic wand at work again on this and law mysteriously changed overnight.

The recession will be over next year he says. Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago the government denied any prospect of a recession? Get real mate. No recession runs its course in less than a year - and the £20bn being dropped in the ocean now (sorry, over the next few months) is not going to make a jot of difference.

I bet there will be retailers, already offering big sales discounts, who will say thank you and use the VAT reduction and keep it to boost their margins rather than pass it on - partly to soak up the recent rises in minimum wage. I would. I very much doubt though that it will stir anyone to start buying no-essentials again just yet - certainly not houses.

A big thing has been made about the loss relief businesses are being given. The fact is that these reliefs have been around since before my day (and that’s a very long time ago). All he has done is extend them slightly. But as he expects the recession to be over next year, why has he made loss relief now available for 3 years and limited the extra relief to a mere £50k?

Oh yes.. We mustn’t forget, he has also promised £15m to offer debt advice. I wonder if he has taken any himself?

Why couldn’t he do something more constructive like bring back mortgage tax relief, give some sort of council tax relief, force the banks that have taken billions of our money to start lending again to businesses and house buyers??

This government is seriously dangerous to our financial health. I used to be a conservative in years gone by, but then they had a long run in government with a large majority and power definitely corrupted the way they conducted themselves. This led to Maggies downfall and John Major losing all credibility and thus opening the door to new labour. I was pleased when there was a change, a new breath of life - but not for long.

Once again, we now have a government of 11 years or so and they are becoming desperate to hold onto power. We should have had an election when Tony went but they knew they couldn’t win it so we didn’t. We should have had an election last year when all the hints and spin made us think one was imminent and then Gordy bottled it because he knew he couldn’t win it.

So here we are. The country is in trouble. We have an unelected Prime Minister leading us. The government are throwing money around as if they can stop the dike bursting (like the little dutch boy with his finger). They panic supported Northern Rock with about £100bn. They recently “invested” how much was it into banks - about £200bn.

To get that bank figure I looked at some Treasury websites and had to laugh. I found this quote when they announced £37bn for HBOS, Lloyds and RBS on the 14th October 2008:-

And of course, that came to pass didn’t it!

The problem is if labour are kicked out (which I doubt at the next election because of these give aways) who would replace them?

I don’t think the conservatives are acting much like a government in waiting at the moment and the Lib Dems don’t seem to have much chance - so who?

And whoever wins… they are going to catch the economic fallout of all this gambling and we are going to be taxed until the pips squeak - no doubt back to the old labour ways - just to get this gargantuan £1,000 billion debt pile reduced a bit.

And very quietly, they are planning to sell off at least the Royal Mint and the Met Office to raise a bit of cash to help.

Anybody else got any views??

~Ray

“I don’t see how most of the stuff in this book is relevant to my business” she told me as she handed over the book.  Emma owns a franchise locally providing pre-school activities for young children.  The franchise dictates that only  official marketing materials and flyers can be used, although Emma can personalize these a little with her own details and strap lines.

“I can’t come up with any unique head/strap lines for these flyers” she told me.  “I don’t have the brain for it although I can see they may help if could thing of any”.  “I don’t see how the letters would work though, with all the bold bits and the PS’ at the bottom - I ignore these when I receive them - doesn’t everyone else?”

The discussion wasn’t really about Paul’s book.  It was about a decision that Emma knows she is facing but is trying to avoid.  Every single marketing tactic can be applied to any business at all.  The slant may be different, the target audience will certainly be different, but essentially, the same things work whether you are selling 1p paperclips or £10 million aircraft.

I could see I was in for a difficult time to persuade Emma of the importance of promoting her business in all manner of ways, yes, including letters.  The thing is, she totally loves the work she does with the children and will enthuse about the benefits of what she offers all day long, but she doesn’t want the bother of the office work.  She just wants to be with the kids, doing what she loves.

This doesn’t sound like a problem to most people but to me it shows the turmoil that goes on inside lot’s of people that find themselves running businesses.  Emma got into this franchise because she loves children and believes that the franchise model and facilities are of immense benefit to the development of small children.  However, the only way to do the work she loves was to buy the franchise for her local area.  I don’t believe she actually wanted to run a business, she just wanted to to run the classes.

The problem is the franchise model is working against her.  If she wants to make money from her business, she has to step out of what she loves to do and become a business woman that she doesn’t want to be.  Just running her own classes though doesn’t give her enough turnover to live on.

Emma’s comments about Paul Gorman’s brilliant book are coming from the position that she knows she has to grow the business to improve her income, but she simply doesn’t want to because of all the marketing, admin, bookkeeping, payroll, finding venues, organizing classes and 101 other things that go into running a larger business.

I do see quite a few people with Emma’s predicament.  The simple truth is they have to make a choice.  They can go one of two ways.  Firstly, they can choose just to do as much as they can themselves and earn a small income which barely justifies the cost and ongoing commitment to the franchiser; Secondly, they can expand the business dramatically within their geographic area, take on people to run the classes, become a manager instead of a worker and direct operations from above without much day to day involvement with the children.

A business person in Emma’s shoes that settles for option 1 has to accept that they “own” their job.  But that’s basically all it is.  The franchiser still gets their cut from Emma so they are happy, but Emma, apart from job satisfaction, will never make a decent living.

If however, Emma embraces the idea that she can run her business as a manager, starts taking Paul Gorman’s advice about marketing tactics to grow her business; takes massive action to generate more classes; finds suitable people to run those classes along the lines Emma dictates; she will start to make some serious money from her franchise.  There is nothing written that says Emma is prohibited from running any classes ever again.  She can fill in, or set up a couple of special classes just for her to run.  But her success will be guaranteed.

She just needs to decide which way she wants to jump.

Emma knows I will help her to the best of my ability, but the main decision, whatever it is, is hers and hers alone.   Job or business Emma - it’s up to you!

~Ray

Why? Because if you send out marketing materials to people that are not likely to need your products/services – you are wasting your time and valuable resources.

How do you know who your Target Audience is?

Your TA is simply the people that you would like to do business with. In essence you need to know who your ideal clients/customers are. Once you know this, you will know how and where to look for these people/businesses.

For example, if you are a hairdresser, would you be looking for clients by advertising in a national fishing magazine, or would you be better focusing on people within a 5 mile radius of your salon?

If you are a plumber, would you find many customers by advertising in a national computer magazine, or would a more local approach work better?

If you are a mail-order bookseller, would you put leaflets through 5,000 doors in your local area, or would you have more success with an advert in a national publication?

I know these are slightly extreme examples, but I hope you can start to see the point in trying your best to put your offer in front of the people who are most likely to respond.

Recently I was talking with a coach business who wanted to start running coach based tours for older folks from the Midlands to various seaside resorts for one and two week holidays. They were talking about an advert in “Yellow Pages” for next year. I asked them how many of their target audience would look through that publication if they wanted a holiday. As we started brainstorming, excellent ideas such as Post Offices, Supermarkets, Church Halls, where lunch clubs and tea dances are held, hairdressers and cafes locally would be good places for posters. All places where their Target Audience would be much more likely to see the tour posters and respond to them.

It is the same for any business. Spend some time really thinking about the people most likely to benefit from what you are offering and where to focus your marketing efforts to ensure they see your offer and it is compelling enough to trigger a response.

Are you doing this kind of laser focused marketing at the moment? If so, revisit your original findings and make sure they are still 100% valid. If not, start today.

~Ray

Recession - What Recession?

Recessions, boom years, credit crunches… they are all a natural part of our lives. An integral part of the huge economy we are all a part of. You can’t have a boom time without a bust time. They follow each other like night follows day. Life constantly cycles. All the recent noise the experts have been making about global warming for instance. It is a proven fact that every 10,000 years or so our planet goes through an ice-age. We can’t fight it, we can’t stop it. There were no cars, aeroplanes or huge factories belching stuff into the atmosphere that caused the last ice-age and changes the politicians propose aren’t going to stop Mother Nature going through her cycles of life.

Recessions come and go every few years. They are nothing to be afraid of; they are just a normal part of business life. It is always sad when a business folds. The owner of that business will blame the recession, competition, changes of tastes, any manner of factors rather than own up to the fact that they allowed their business to fold. It folded because they wouldn’t, couldn’t or simply didn’t see the need to change and adapt as the world around it changed and adapted.

The worst thing you can do for your business at any time, let alone in tough economic times, is just to carry on regardless as if nothing has changed. Things are always changing and you need to constantly adapt and tweak your business in order for it to evolve and stay profitable.

A business that doesn’t change over time will certainly die and it will be solely the business owner’s fault.

It doesn’t mean that you have to drop all the traditional values of excellent service and quality products, just that the way you present your business, the way you market your business, the way you conduct your business all need to move on constantly.

A small company has a huge advantage over a large one in any trading conditions simply because it can act immediately to conditions around it. There is no waiting for a board meeting, for a committee to assess and report, for backers to be swayed. A small company can see an opportunity and jump on it without delay.

It is no good for a small local computer shop, for example, to try and under-cut the likes of Dell or PC World when supplying hardware items. But a small business can easily find small niches that the big players never spot, or are simply not geared up to support. Have you ever tried to get PC World to repair your 6 month old computer? Well, they can’t. They send them away for several weeks to another business set up for that purpose. Most business people though are completely dependent on their computer and the thought if it being sent away for weeks is unthinkable. So, step in the small business who loves fault finding on machines. They will come to your office, fix your fault and have you up and running again within hours.

Pundits have forecast the demise of the good old English Pub at least twice in recent years but most of us still have a Pub within easy walking distance. The first death knell was cheap imported alcohol from the EU when the borders were opened up. There were experts showing people driving over to France on a day trip coming back loaded with cheap booze for their own consumption. Vans overflowing, trailers packed solid. It would be wrong to say this didn’t have an effect on Pubs because it did. People chose to stay at home and drink their cheap imported alcohol instead of going out. But did it kill the Pubs? No. Most of them adapted to this new scenario but devising ways to lure people out of their homes and back into the Pubs by changing the way they operated.

The second death knell was the smoking ban. Experts said it was an infringement of civil liberties, people only went to the Pub for a social drink and a smoke and now they couldn’t do that they would boycott Pubs. Again, the forecast disaster never happened. Pubs fought back with smoking areas to keep the smokers happy and again used other means to bring people into the Pubs, not least, those of us who don’t smoke and couldn’t tolerate going into a smoky Pub before the ban. Food also now features in most Pubs, quizzes, hog roasts, bbq’s, slave auctions, charity nights, darts teams, function room rental etc. Some of which they did before, but some of which they could now pull in a whole new audience for.

Can you see the differences here?

Even when times are tough and competition fierce, there are still opportunities for entrepreneurs to find and exploit for the benefit of their business. You will find some of these methods here to help you through the current trading conditions.

Remember…

Your business will only die during a recession if you do nothing different.

Your business will only die, regardless of any current boom or recession, if you do nothing different.

~Ray

Shout Your Message From The Rooftops!

This is a question that vexes most entrepreneurs.  We are all of a certain type of person, excellent with the talk and can mostly persuade an Eskimo to buy snow.  But when it comes to writing a sales letter, advert, brochure or some other marketing material, it all becomes too complicated and tiresome.

We say, “If only I can talk to the right person I can usually make the sale” - does that sound familiar?

The simple way around this conundrum is to record ourselves talking to a prospect.  Record ourselves talking to clients/customers around problems or overcoming objections!  Then get all the recordings typed up!

It really is that simple.  You can then go through the transcripts and pick out the genuine, solid gold, nuggets of information that slip out naturally when we are talking without being conscious of them even being said.

You can then form these nuggets into a logical order and voila! you have, with little effort at all, just written your best ever sales letter!

I bought a digital voice recorder earlier in the year and although expensive, I can, with a client’s permission, just sit it on the table whilst we talk with it set on conference mode.  After a minute or two we forget it’s even there and it gives excellent quality recordings for a transcription service to type up.  It is a wonderful way of working!

I may, thinking about it as I write, put a recorded blog post here shortly just to show that marketing - even blogging - can be fun!

~Ray