Tuesday July 28, 2009 at 4:51pm
On Wednesday 29 July 2009 new procedures come into force for dealing with so called "minor variations" of Premises Licences.
The problem is that the government have failed to nail a helpful definition. As usual the language they use is woolly and open to wide variation. And in this case that puts the power into the hands of the licensing authority licensing officers. Any application must therefore be something of a gamble and could cost you time and money.
So what is it all about? U....
(read more...)Friday July 24, 2009 at 4:37pm
Solicitors firms outside London are showing no signs of a recovery. According to an article in The Times this week, many such firms saw their profits fall by more than a third last year. The Article reports that many firms are imposing salary cuts of 10% or so in return for longer holidays as a way of cutting costs. I have seen this happen in firms in the Midlands area too and many very able
solicitors are finding their route to an equity partnership blocked – why would existing partners w....
(read more...)Wednesday July 22, 2009 at 4:56pm
Yes, according to new research published today by Creditsafe. They say that 33% of British firms are planning to stop using cheques to pay other businesses within the next 12 months, and that 11% are planning to stop accepting cheques altogether! Instead, they plan to rely on direct bank transfers (such as BACS) and debit and credit card payments. Reasons given were that these were more traceable, more efficient and reduced the need for manual processing. They estimate that the savings to the Br....
(read more...)Friday July 17, 2009 at 9:45am
The economic news continues with its mixture of good and bad statistics as to the state of the economy. The bad news is yesterday’s unemployment figures. These revealed that unemployment rose by 281,000 over the three months to May. There are now 2.38 million unemployed, which is the highest level since 1995. 7.6% of the economically active population are now unemployed, according to the Office for National Statistics, which compares with 6.9% over the three months to February. There is so....
(read more...)Thursday July 9, 2009 at 4:45pm
In the past 2 weeks I have been the victim of large scale internet fraud on 2 credit cards, and so I have taken a keen interest in liability and in ways to protect against future fraud.
I have been very careful to use only on line stores who encrypt customer details, but fraudsters have still managed to obtain my credit card details including security number, as well as my address, telephone number, date of birth. This can only be a result of sophisticated hacking, or criminal activity by an e....
(read more...)Thursday July 9, 2009 at 10:55am
The Cranfield School of Management has identified six behaviours that successful owner-managers possess. Why not test yourself against their list of behaviours which are about:
taking control,
being confident,
being distinctive,
being strong
making wise decisions
being ready to take advantages of opportunities that others will miss.
Nothing particularly novel in the list I don't support but the video on their website explaining these behaviours certainly makes y....
(read more...)Tuesday July 7, 2009 at 3:09pm
Since 2004 not a summer has gone by without a campaign to target licensed premises selling alcohol to under 18’s. This year sees a slightly different approach, with the focus on 69 youth crime priority areas designated by the government.
£1.4 million of “new cash” has been committed to the 69 youth crime priority areas in response to feedback that alcohol “remains a major factor influencing low level crime and anti-social behaviour”. The 69 areas have to sub....
(read more...)Tuesday July 7, 2009 at 11:11am
Today's British Chamber of Commerce figures suggest that British business is over the worst of the recession. Let's hope they've got that right.
The survey data from 5,600 companies shows progress in both the manufacturing and service sectors with most key indicators improving in the last quarter.
Looking more closely at the data however I wonder how much of this is just trying to talk ourselves out of the problem. Not that I am against that - afterall some businesses I t....
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