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By Alan, on May 12th, 2012
The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) have released a report predicting that unemployment will carry on rising in most of the UK for the next five years. Due to a weaker economic outlook everywhere except London, the South East and the East will be affected.
Areas which depend heavily on the public sector for jobs are likely to suffer most. This is because of large cutbacks in Government spending resulting in many job losses. Northern Ireland may be hit particularly hard, where almost a third of the workforce are employed in the public sector.
Scotland, the North East and Wales could also be hit hard. Unemployment in Wales could reach 10.5 percent by 2016 which is the greatest it has been since records began in 1992. In Yorkshire nearly one in ten of the available workforce is unemployed. The unemployment rate for the whole of the UK looks set to rise to 10.7 percent by 2016, its’ highest since 1995.
The total number of jobless did fall slightly to 2.65 million last month but with more public sector job losses on the way, this figure is almost certain to increase in the coming months. The only bright news in a very gloomy report is that the job market in the South East is likely to remain buoyant.
By Alan, on May 10th, 2012
Wonga is a short-term loan company that has been heavily criticised recently for loaning money to customers with an interest rate of around 4000 percent. The company are best known for their short-term loans which allow customers to borrow money without any sort of credit checking.
The company stated that they are going to be soon offering business loans to companies and it’s possible that these will be approved within just 15 minutes. The company said that these loans are going to be available at a far more reasonable rate, however it is still high, at 17 percent.
The loans are going to be available for amounts between £3000 and £10,000. It is going to be possible to borrow the money for a minimum period of one week, and a maximum term of one year. The loans are going to have to be repaid by the businesses on a weekly basis and there is going to be an additional fee tacked onto the total borrowing amounts of 0.3 percent.
The company said that they are entering the business loan markets because many firms are not able to raise funding currently. Research that has recently been released by the FSB has shown that November was one of the worst months for firms borrowing as nearly 60 percent of companies had problems paying back loans because clients paid for services late.
In recent years a number of loan applications being refused by banks has increased dramatically, data has recently shown that between 2007 and 2010 a fall of nearly 25 percent in loan applications that were successful has occurred. It has also been shown that businesses who wanted a business overdraft were rejected about 40 percent of the time.
Head of business services for Wonga is Russell Gould and he has commented, “We are wanting to target businesses because they often need money to meet a short-term financial requirements.
This is not the sort of money they would take from a traditional bank as it is exclusively for use in the short-term, hence why we are only offering the loan products for a maximum period of one year.” The loans are only going to be available to companies with limited liability as well as partnerships who’ve been in business for at least three years.
By admin, on May 10th, 2012
A big part of utilizing your workforce is maintaining open and productive lines of communication. Each employee has a role within a particular project and the success of the project depends on their ability to fulfill that role. If they don’t know their role, their contribution to the project might not be productive. It’s only through effective communication that everyone can get on the same page and work together towards a common goal. Keeping the collaboration going with a large amount of employees can often be an arduous process. Many larger companies have employees located in various parts of the world, which creates complications as a result of conflicting time zones. You can’t always get the required team members in the same room together for every meeting. Someone will have to submit their contributions remotely through email, video chat, or some other form of communication.
Dell Microsoft Exchange Server has all the tools you will need to keep the conversation going. While some companies choose to remain locked in their offices because it’s easier that way, other businesses are mobile and moving throughout the world. In this global economy, you will never know where your business will take you. You have to be willing to pack up and go anywhere in the world if a tremendous opportunity presents itself. With Microsoft Exchange, you won’t have to worry about losing access to the information that’s located on your office computer. No matter where you go you can look at your emails, contacts, or calendar. If you use a Dell blade server for your online storage service, you will have everything you need to get the job done in another part of the globe.
Microsoft has forged its reputation as the top manufacturer of office optimization tools for a reason. They have developed this reputation over time through their stellar Microsoft Office projects. Very few offices in this world lack some sort of incarnation of Microsoft Office. There are other suites on the market, but none of them have the reputation for getting the job done like Microsoft’s offering. Microsoft Exchange is no different than their more famous counterparts. It has the best collaboration tools around mixed into one productive software solution. You would have to purchase several different software packages to get the features included in Microsoft Exchange. Your employees will thank you when they can use the tools included in exchange to make their projects more efficient than ever before.
Whether you’re using Microsoft Exchange for accessing emails remotely, viewing coworkers work calendars, or sharing documents, you’re going to get a lot out of this software package. No longer will you have to rely on the tenuous process of staying updated via telephone. Microsoft Exchange gives you the opportunity to view your emails from pretty much any mobile device. If you have a question about what one of your coworkers is doing at this exact moment, their current work calendar is only a click away. When you’re heavily involved in a project while being somewhere else, you will still have to view and contribute to documents associated with the project. Document sharing lets your coworkers share documents with you so your input is received regardless of your location.
By admin, on May 4th, 2012
The internet is quickly becoming the place for a new and developing business to base their operations, given the fact that it allows a new company to branch out and find their target audience in a much more efficient way than ever before.
It used to be that you had to do a massive advertising campaign to launch a new store when it opened, but now that you can sell products online all you have to do is effectively market your products and their uses to people and then sit back and wait for them to come to you.
The online world of ecommerce is a great way for a new business to find its footing because it allows for specialisation. While you may not be able to find a wide enough audience in a small town for a novelty item, you can find a large enough audience online since you are effectively selling to that small percentage of people interested in the item in every town in the world. The trick of an ecommerce website therefore is attracting your target audience and then making your product appealing enough for people to try.
Social media marketing is a great tool for giving you the boost that you need to start selling your products, and the best part of this marketing tool is that it can be free or very low priced compared to other forms of marketing if you do it right. Depending on your experience with social media, you can use the various outlets (or hire someone else to manage them for you) to reach out to potential customers and encourage them to spread the word about your new products to friends and family members.
Thus, for every customer that you connect with online you have the potential to reach a dozen more if your social media campaign is handled correctly. The only thing that you need to worry about is that your website is set up correctly to handle the influx of business and purchases. You will need to pick out an e-cart that will make shopping easy and also an e-checkout tool so that you can process credit orders in a safe and efficient manner.
You will also want to make sure that your web design is excellent so that browsers feel safe and fully engaged whilst on your website. When selling online, the main product you are selling in addition to your stock is trust, so make sure that you look professional and trustworthy and the rest should easily come with time.
Article for shopify
By Alan, on May 2nd, 2012
Lloyds Banking Group has officially ended the exclusivity contract that it held with The Co-Op in regards to the sale of 632 branches of the bank and is now holding discussions with other buyers such as NBNK which is owned by Lord Levene.
However, while the decision to sell the branches may be no longer exclusive with Co-Op, Lloyds did state that they are still having discussions with the Co-OP about purchasing the Verde business and that the group would be their preferred buyer if the right negotiations were to come to the table.
EU regulators ordered the sale of the branches after Lloyd had to be bailed out with taxpayer money back in 2008 after it took over HBOS. The sale of the branches has become referred to as Project Verde and whoever gets control of the branches will be able to take on the title as the seventh largest bank in Britain making the sale monumental.
It looked as if Co-OP would be purchasing the branches but regulatory problems during April forced Lloyds to push its final deadline for the sale back and open it other banking institutions as well. The FSA (Financial Services Authority) is concerned that the Co-op may not be able to properly manage the business.
Instead, it would like to see the Co-op rework its board and put better managers in place that will be able to handle the more complex business needs of such a purchase. The FSA is also worried about the fact that the Co-op has not yet replaced the chief executive for its banking sector.
Chief executive for NBNK, Gary Hoffman, is said to be studying an approach that could help the purchase the banking arms and he is said to be confident that NBNK would meet the regulatory criteria if they sale were to be pushed through.
By Alan, on May 1st, 2012
The revenue office recently wrote to 600,000 people who do their own tax forms and fined them £100 for failing to file their tax form appropriately. While the majority of these people did deserve the fine, there were 12,000 people who did not need to file a tax return. The revenue officers recently admitted the mistake and said that the people who received this notice will not have to pay the penalty.
Over 10 million people in the UK file a tax self-assessment and they had until 2 February in order to get this problem sorted. In addition to this fine, the letter states that people will be facing a penalty of £10 every day until they submit their tax return.
After the 12,000 people received the letter, many of them made a phone call to the revenue office stating that they did not need to fill in the form because their circumstances had changed. The revenue office recently issued a statement that said that these people would receive a letter soon telling them that they were not subject to the fine and could throw the earlier letter away.
A statement read, “We are very apologetic for the inconvenience this caused. We want people to know that this letter is incorrect and that these 12,000 people do not owe any sort of penalty.”
People who are unsure whether they need to be filling out a self-assessment tax return can phone the revenue office to make sure this is the case, if it is found that they do not need to, and they have received the letter about the fine by accident, then they will not have to pay any sort of penalty. The revenue office said they simply failed to remove the correct number of people from the list.
By Alan, on April 27th, 2012
At the end of 2011 about £60bn of unpaid consumer debt had been passed over to debt collection groups with government departments also choosing to use debt collectors on an increasing basis in an effort to get outstanding money from citizens. Over the latter half of the year the figure increased by about £6bn more with the Credit Services Association stating that over the last few years the amount of outstanding debt continues to increase.
Mainstream lenders tend to pass on the debt but phone providers and utility companies are now seeking out help from debt collection agencies as are some of the most notable government departments such as the Treasury and HMRC.
The CSA stated that contrary to what people may think, payday loan companies and other questionable lenders only actually make up about a small percentage of the companies taking advantage of debt collection agencies.
A CSA spokesperson also stated that in the last few years there has been a cultural shift in who chooses to use debt collection aid with more government agencies choosing to outsource their own operations. President of the CSA, Sara de Tute added that this is likely due to the fact that the economic environment is getting tougher causing debts to increase across the board.
Tute continued to say that there are other reasons that such as the fact that creditors that are part of the government or in the private sector now accept the idea the outsourcing debt and this new comfort zone has helped lead to outsourcing debt collection to professional services. She also stated that the government is aware that overdue debts cost it between £7bn to £8bn every year and that if debt collection agencies can help reduce this figure then they are well worth the small cost.
By Alan, on April 26th, 2012
The UK airline, BMI has recently been purchased by the International Consolidated Airline Group from Deutsche Lufthansa and this is a move that is going to integrate BMI into the other British airline, British Airways.
The original deal was estimated to have a price tag of over £170 million. However, this price tag was set before the company decided to do away with its loss-making units; BMI regional and BMI baby. It is not known what the current price of the deal is, but as was expected that the price of the deal has been revised since these two loss-making branches were removed from the deal.
IAG have not issued a comment about the new figure but they have said that it was seriously reduced. It is expected that in the near future this new acquisition is going to be fully integrated into British Airways and it is going to consolidate all of the workers into one union. It is estimated that the integration could result in a loss of over 1000 jobs, which is a significant number of the total people employed at BMI.
The largest trade union in the UK, Union, has issued a strong statement of reaction to the news of the deal. They have particularly raised concerns over the fact that British Airways could be intending to sell BMI regional and BMI baby.
Part of the deal has been about securing more slots for British Airways at Heathrow airport. The airport is already running at full capacity, because it is the main hub for transatlantic flights that then transfer to different destinations in Europe. By going through with the deal more slots can be used by British Airways which can allow them to expand. In total IAG now have over 50 percent of all slots available at Heathrow
By Alan, on April 22nd, 2012
Fashion entrepreneur Harold Tillman has sold off his majority stake in Jaeger. He purchased stake in the brand about eight years ago. He sold it to Better Capital who stated that it received all of the secured debt and about 90% of the equity in the brand for approximately £19.5m.
The formal announcement that the stake had switched hands came after a few weeks of speculation from industry insiders that Tillman was looking to unload Jaegar as it was suffering from the poor conditions that have plagued the high street of the UK.
Another fashion brand owned by Tillman, Aquascutum, has only been placed up for sale. Tillman was able to take Jaegar from a classic clothing brand to a trendy brand that went international and created a younger brand in order to get items on the market geared towards those who enjoy clothing similar to Reiss and Marc.
Tillman then purchased Aquascutum and attempted to also redesign and develop the clothing brand. Unfortunately, he did not purchase the licenses to Aquascutum in Asia which meant that he was left footing the costs for most of the business development including marketing, design, and more.
Despite his development of the Jaegar brand, the economic downfall that hit high street hit the brand also causing its profits to drop by almost 66% over the course of last year. In 2011 Tillman first attempted to sell off Jaegar but did not find any buyers.
By Alan, on April 21st, 2012
Struggling supermarket giant Tesco is urging everyone to shop more via mobile, as part of their £1billion investment deal that should help them to fight back against their rivals. Shoppers will now be able to order 75000+ products including books, TVs and clothes from a mobile version of Tesco’s Direct website.
The addition of mobile shopping facilities is the heart of the shake-up campaign that Tesco are using to try and increase profits. Tesco, despite being one of Britain’s biggest retailers, reported that they were experiencing a drop in profits for the first time in decades. Only £2.5 billion was made in profits last year.
Tesco, dubbed ‘Tescopoly’ by critics, was once an all-conquering chain of supermarkets. As they are trying to soften their cold, hard public image they have cut back on the number of new store openings and store expansions. A key aspect of Tesco’s revamp is to shift away from building more stores and focuse more on offering digital services.
Grocery shopping is already possible via the Tesco mobile site, but Tesco are now spending £150 million on selling other Tesco products. Third party products are also set to become available on the mobile site, in a bid to develop their online presence more.
Another service that Tesco is planning to expand is the Click & Collect facility. The number of Tesco stores that will be able to offer this facility is set to double over the next year. 85% of the UK’s stores will now benefit from the extended Click & Collect services.
Philip Clarke, Tesco Chief Executive, revealed that Tesco has seen a 1% fall in their profits over the last year. However, international growth has helped Tesco to increase its pre-tax profits to £3.9 billion. Clarke, a worker at Tesco since 1974, also revealed that 8000 staff are going to be hired and many shops are going to be refurbished so that they have a ‘warmer look’.
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