Many councils in the UK have a bad reputation when it comes to being on top of collecting their council tax but I can safely say that the Stoke council are one of the worst.

Julie Latham campaigned against the closure of the Shelton swimming pool said ”Yes, cuts have to be made but cuts in the right places.” I agree with this completely, as do many Stoke On Trent tax accountants, so why do the council think it’s easier to make cuts than collect the money that is already owed?

Manchester partner Philip Storer said: “After 30 years of decline, there is now widespread consensus that a strong and vibrant manufacturing sector is fundamental to the economy.”

“In 2012 we expect that the government will continue to focus attention on the rebuilding of manufacturing.”

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Well, small may not be necessarily beautiful. It perhaps might be in terms of people, but business economies of scale are often vital for competitive advantage.

The truth is entrepreneurs often do not know how to grow, and end up filling offices full of people, increasing the vulnerability of the business and working for little of the benefits. This is often why business people revert to a small size.
Dunstone hasn’t done this. He grew in a chaotic way, upsetting millions of telecom customers along the way, and not focusing on customer value.

I am pleased he has survived. He might have done better to have humbly asked for and accepted help from the right business consultants, nearer the beginning of his empire building. He highlights that this is difficult to do.

Hiring a business consultant on a monthly basis, who seasoned professional who you keep in touch with on a regular basis, needn’t be expensive, will pay for itself and reduce the stresses and strains of business ownership and management. Take Card payments for your business. Can a Business Consultant can help with UK Card Merchant Service comparisons?

Well, firstly, choosing the wrong Merchant services can send you bust (if the services go bust themselves). A good business support professional should be able to help you avoid that one, and if you’ve sought their advice and they’ve given you poor advice and it costs you money they have professional indemnity insurance cover so you would be able to sue. The moral of the story is choose a large player.

Secondly, choosing the right merchant services provider can a huge amount of time. A consultant may be able to give you some useful background, such as that margins in merchant services card payment processing have steadily decreased, banks outsourced their in-house operations.

This explains why a UK Bank with excellent customer service, such as HSBC, can provide such poor HSBC Merchant Services operated by Global Payments UK Limited (part of the Global Payments Inc).

As a business owners, I too have had such poor sevice from UK banks in the past from Abbey Business, now Santander (see previous blog) and Alliance & Leicester Business (now also Santander) that HSBC is a breath of fresh air. The same does not apply to its outsourced merchant services.

In March 2011 Global Payments UK rolled out a new charging structure. In short this was badly managed, poor communicated and poor executed. The net effect was a seemingly 300%+ increase in processing charges. Back this up with appalling customer service, where the outsourced call centre in the Far East as the front line help desk (who are quite capable, but poorly managed using the ‘mushroom theory’) forwarded calls to Global Payments floor in the HSBC De Montfort Street building in Leicester (LE1 7BB). Promised of calls back within 2 WEEKS tell you the magnitude of the mistake they have been making. When asked why such a long delay, the poor female representative conceded it was due in large part to the volume of calls complaining of the lack of clarity plus the increase in charges. You can request a renegotiation of rates, which your business consultant would no doubt recommend and follow through for you if you don’t want to do it yourself. This might be the solution. Alternatively they might recommend switching to a UK bank that has in-house or a sister business that handles card processing such as BarclayCard Merchant Services.

Previously I had had poor experience with NatWest Streamline. Again the story was a failure in administration, with the feeble excuse ‘in the name of security’. The incompetence over change of address stretched in months, and annual quarters. This mirrors the incompetence of Santander when it came to managing accounts, and perhaps more seriously (see BBC Watchdog article of the most complained about bank). I was denied access to business accounts for over 6 weeks. It was a jolly good job I had a separate business bank as well, but what about those who do not. Here a business consultant can advise on banking strategy, as well as cash management, working capital and raising finance. If they can’t then either you need a different business consultant, because many can provide that level of support easily, or you need to find a good small business accountant.

My message is that having a professional business consultant at hand means that day to day problems like Card Merchant Services can be resolved easily, and better still many pitfalls and wasted resources can be avoided, as well as experiencing all the positive benefits that a good business consultant can bring such as performance improvement, increased productivity and a growth in net profits. All these things easily compensate for the considerably smaller financial outlay requested in exchange and negotiated at the time.

North London Accountants Comment On Oil-Tax Rise

Some of the UK’s most prestigious accounting bodies have commented on the recent announcement on North Sea Oil Tax saying it could damage the industry in the UK.

Chancellor George Osborne announced a 12% increase in tax in March as part of the governments bid to ensure stability and increase growth, but experts have said that the 32% tax would make the UK an ‘unattractive prospect for investment’.

Guilford accountants body The Chartered Institute of Taxation said that the tax increase was "likely to cause damage to the U.K.’s competitiveness."

The hike which has come as a bit of a shock to oil and gas companies effectively raises the tax paid on older oil fields to a maximum 81%.

Owners of British Gas, Centrica halted production on a gas plant in Morecambe Bay last Sunday (1/5/11) for four weeks of planned maintenance have said they may not restart work as a result of the tax announcement.

Investors from Norway, France and Germany have all said they will be reassessing their funding plans should the tax charge be enforced after discussions between The House of Commons’ Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, Energy Secretary Chris Huhne and Economic Secretary Justine Greening.

The firm which has over 500 stores nationwide revealed that sales figures rose over 5% compared to the anticipated 0.5%. Despite this announcement the company have remained cautious over the outlook for the rest of 2011 as no significant changes have happened in the economic climate.

The boost in sales has been put down to the recent run of Bank Holiday Weekends and the warm weather with a bulk of the spending coming within the four days before the Royal Wedding.

The announcement comes as other British retailers announced a profit warning in the wake of government cuts and the possible rise in interest payments.

Business Analysts have said that this week quarters figures have been ‘”heartening”. Business support finders have also recorded an increase in requests for experts in accounting services and finance.

Many experts are expecting a price rise of between 5-8% coming in the second half of the year for retailers so it will be interesting to see what will happen especially given that retailers have said they expect this month (May) to be their worst month since September 2009.

The initiative aims to encourage new business as part of the economic recovery, but Sunderland Software City has claimed that 79% of online business tools available for start ups are actually developed by overseas companies, something the company has called “hardly a vote of confidence”.

CEO of the firm Bernie Callaghan made the government aware of his companies feeling by sending an open letter to government officials , Mr Callaghan added:

"It seems bizarre that a government-backed scheme claiming to be the cheerleader for British innovation should be actively signposting people away from…British innovation."

Callaghan ended the letter with an open invitation for the board of StartUpBritain to visit the North East to discuss discounted services from companies.

This is not the first time that the scheme has had criticism brought upon it with experts arguing that it may offer cheapen tangible products and doesn’t offer the real help that businesses need such as accounting services. SME’s have also criticised the governments alignment with blue chip corporations.

Business service finders have reported an increase in requests this placed alongside recent Google and Experian figures revealing that business help search terms are up more than 50% for April, something highly unusual given it is the end of the financial year

The UK government has tried to deal with these kind of business arrangements in guidelines under a new bribery act (Ministry of Justice guidelines. It focuses on business hospitality and Andrew Hill explores in his ft management article how ‘benefits & gifts in kind’ can be used to influence people. Hill also goes on to discuss how this might affect key employees of major corporations arguing and eventually concluding that the British media is one of the best ways to police these kind of situations.

He argues that many business people operate close to the bone, trying to take advantage of another’s human frailties in order to influence or obtain something. If there was no law, he seems to suggest that open bribery would result. He also implies the dangers are getting worse, although that is not my impression, as I see the business world all around me as, little by little, improving and raising its standards in its drive to compete. The change is often brought about by younger employees bringing in new standards, and firms need to embrace those standards to attract and keep good staff.

This topic only serves to heighten my belief and reminding me that all good business consultants who are brought in to work within a business must employ the highest standards of business ethics otherwise they find they are despatched swiftly by their clients.

Professionals in the accounting profession need to remind themselves that they are also central to raising standards in business, and not solely to getting the accounting done and fee collected. Nor solely also amongst major UK corporations, but also to raise the standards amongst the budding UK small and medium enterprise community. Accountants and Auditors in particular need to keep abreast of the the government legislation and incorporate it in their provision of accounting practices. This means allocating some time each month to follow UK audit and accounting news in the media, within their own professional association, and connected to the many excellent legal websites, for current topics top advise their clients such as Wining, Dining and Prosecution Under the U.K. Bribery Act.

UK Employment seems positive as it too rose, and has been positively increasing for nine months in succession. So all seems good news as Accountants In The City of London, and the financial markets as a whole, seem to be including manufacturing performance, as well as employment, as major contributors to increasing UK’s economic prospects. Is manufacturing significant for the UK economy as they make out? How much are the UK’s 2010 Quarter 4’s employment results part of the solid foundation of an economic turnaround? What impact will the UK Government’s stringent monetary measures taking effect in 2011, starting with the VAT increase, have?”

Many Accountants and Auditors and Economists are more worried about a double-dip recession and UK inflation rising. The exorbitant price of crude oil and the steady increase in the price of food products are continually pushing inflation higher.

UK SME’s can always beat the trends, and swim against the current with help from professional advisers. My suggestion to UK business owners is seek advice now and take a fresh look at the economic landscape for 2011-2012. Small upward spikes in economic data do not make turnaround or suggest recovery. Caution and courage with business support for managing risk is the motto. If you need suggestions of management consultants, or have a skills shortage, message me and I can point you in the right direction.