The new process will allow a business the right to appeal to a more senior bank official and have the decision reversed if they deem fit.

Angela Knight, head of the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) said:

"We are trying to set out very clearly what is the commitment of the industry in how it is going to deal with small businesses."

However the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) have said they feel the announcement does nothing to improve the current situation, head of policy Andrew Cave said:

“The banks still hold all the cards,"

"Businesses still have to go through each individual bank’s appeal process, and can still be turned down without triggering an independent appeal."

Business mentors are also being introduced by many banks to prevent the need for initial rejection of the applications.

But independent business service finders have already said they feel that mentors should be catered towards the industry required not just generic.

It was also revealed that the appeal would only be available to businesses that employ less that 10 people and turnover of less than £2 million.

London accountants have already expressed their disappointment with the new offer as businesses based in the city may turnover more than this but are still a small business in relative terms.

Drucker asks us the questions…….

WHAT ARE MY STRENGTHS?

Drucker says….
• Most people think they know what they are good at – they are usually wrong.
• More often, people know what they are bad at, even then people are more wrong then right.
• A person can only perform from a strength.
• One cannot build performance on weakness, let alone on something one cannot do at all.
all very obvious you might say…..am I sure that, at 51+, I have been playing to my strengths?

FEEDBACK ANALYSIS

Drucker argues that the best, and he affirms, the only, way to discover your strengths is through feedback analysis.

Whenever one makes a key decision, or takes a key action, one should write down what one thinks will happen.9-12 months later, and then make sure one compares actual results with one’s expectations.

If I am honest, it involves some trust to ask colleagues, and business associates, for a 360 degree feedback of my performance. The rewards are there for the taking, however.

Drucker in his article, Managing Oneself, does not indicate if this includes family and friends. As a man of faith, a husband and father, as well as a work colleague, entrepreneur, business consultant (North Yorkshire), member of a faith community, local resident, voter and citizen of the United Kingdom, and finally a loyal subject of HM Queen E. etc. where do the boundaries of feedback analysis truly lie, given that Drucker implies most people do not play to their strengths.

Accountant Now seeks to reduce and remove any existing barriers concerning access to uk accounting services.

Businesses in the UK with turnover under £10m are likely to start witnessing a steady increase in quality and value-for-money in outsourcing accounting services. A more immediate impact should be experienced in key areas such as the Top 20 UK locations, where competition for consumers of accounting servcies is usually most fierce i.e.

Accountants in London-

• North West London Accountants
• Accountants – City of London
• South West London Accountants
• East London Accountants
• South East Accountants
• North London Accountants
• London West End Accountants

Birmingham Accountants

Leeds Accountants

Sheffield Accountants

Bradford Accountants

Liverpool Accountants

Manchester Accountants

Bristol Accountants

Coventry Accountants

Dramatic growth in UK Accounting revenues linked to rise in demand for insolvency work

The bigger accountancy practices in the UK, and not just the Big Four Accountancy Firms, have benefited substantially for the upturn in revenues generated from operating their own insolvency practice

Revenues from conventional accounting services have not shown increases, and even BP which last year paid £54m to Earnst & Young for the Global audit for the year, was less than in previous years down from £68m and £80m respectively.

In the first instance, I would like to suggest an Independent Review be commissioned (not sure who would pay for it, but paid in part by the key parties – in this case CAA, FSA, and the Government, representing lost PAYE, VATand Corportaion Tax – the taxpayers purse). The review’s brief should be a thorough examination of the mechanism for reimbursement of consumers’ monies (paid in advance, or reimbursement of expenses to complete their holiday) in the event of a (travel) company collapse.

The system now, which simply requires Credit Card Companies to bail out their cardholders, is not responsible, and may well have, in this instance and in hundreds of other cases, made a signficant contribution to the premature demise and eventual failure of a successful travel company like Globespan. I say successful, because at the time of its collapse in December 2009, it has 100,000 advanced bookings, which considering it is December is an oustanding achievement in anybody’s books.

The second suggestion is for Senior management and for all UK Travel consultancies. Tom Dalrymple MD of Globespan, the CAA, and the Travel consultancies, need to reflect deeply about the substantial power Dalrymple allowed E-Clear to have over his business. Allowing any other entity to weld such power is nothing short of co-dependence, completely irresponsible and appears to be an act of desperation more than inspiration. The problem with these kinds of heavily dependant relationships is that it is unhealthy for either party. Either the other party simply cannot bear the burden (as might have been in this case) or it seeks to walk away, causing potential havoc, and treating the relationship with disrespect (that it may deserve).

The sad demise of a much loved, well established and respectable Scottish travel firm, Globespan group, tells a dark tale.

An excellent commentary and feedback on Globespan, entitled The Missing Millions, written by Douglas Fraser, Business and Economy Editor at BBC Scotland gives the online researcher a broader picture of the Globespan story, and comes with the added bonus of the feedback from his army of avid Frazer ledger readers.

Did Tom Dalrymple have the best business support, advice and assistance around him, and the people he really needed to help him manage the crisis? Even if he didn’t have the ‘right muscle in his corner’ going into the crisis, it is little excuse these days as there are now much easier ways to find trustworthy, cost effective expertise fast, at the click of a button, using free online business support location services like Business Support Finder and the like, as well as the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs).

On another point, if I was a client of E-Clear I would seriously think of changing card processing company. This relationship should be ‘put in competition’ on an annual basis (as with all supplier relationships).

Scottish minister for Finance, Mr Swinney, quoted recently in the Scotsman believes vehermently that Globespan could have been saved. If you would like to read more try reading the article in the Scotman entitled:”Flyglobespan could have been saved“.

The demise may in large part be due to the contractual and operational arrangements that Globespan had with its card processing company – in this case a card transaction processing company based in London called E-Clear. This company is alleged to have been (with-) holding £35m from Globespan, and it transpired that it may be the legal obligations of card processing companies in the event of airline failure that could have been a key ‘driver’ in the behaviour and actions of E-Clear. If so, this would be a monumental professional oversight by the industry watchdogs, both travel and financial

Quoted in travel publication the TTG, in July 2009, Elias Elia is credited as saying that the travel industry is becoming riskier”. This is interesting since a previous client of E-Clear was collapsed businesses XL Leisure Group and Zoom Airlines. Interesting also is that Elia was quoted during the XL collapse as saying that his firm was insured for any exposure and the impact was “nothing we could not handle”.

A Slovakian low-cost airline SKY EUROPE which went into administration in June also appears to have had difficulties in obtaining its monies from E-Clear.

E-Clear has been also involved this month with the failure of Allbury Travel Group, which includes Libra Holidays, Argo and Jetlife. Libra Holidays had a good reputation, as well as Argo. They handled considerable holiday business each year, consistently providing good quality holidays and value for money for its hundreds of thousands of happy clients and customers.

Looking at E-Clear, prior to August 2008 the highly rated Deutsche Bank acted as E-Clear’s guarantor. It has not been explained why the bank ended the relationship, but it is likely that Deutsche Bank consider the risks has become too great to warrant the returns.

Looking for answers is always hard in the travel industry which, over the decades from the collapse of Clarksons in the 1970s, Intasun and Air Europe, Laker Airways, right up to XL Leisure, is a graveyard including good travel businesses as well as the bad (ask the CAA and ABTA for a list).

 Successfully managing medium or large travel organisations is not for the faint hearted, and it can be any number of factors that can cause the demise of a successful travel organisation.

 In December 2009 Gerry Robinson did a couple of BBC TV documentaries on Dementia and Care Homes in the UK, highlighting the successful strategies and those which need attention. Robinson sees change in the care of dementia in the care industry to be a very slow process. It was a joint venture with The Open University, which has produced a booklet on Dementia Care.

Robinson reflects that as an entrepreneur, if one’s homes are full, meeting all the regulations, and are economically viable then why would you want to change it? Yet he sees the standards could easily be raised.

He identifies an excellent example of how best practice in Merevale Homes, adided by leading Dementia Specialist Consultancy ‘Dementia Care Matters‘, and also shows how quickly the environment can be changed forn the better in the example of Thornfield care home, which was transformed in just 4 months.

As an observer the issues for me are the dangers of working as a professional, i.e. a care industry business adviser. Working in these difficult conditions, under constant scrutiny from outside authorities and relatives highlights the risk of litigation, and just how vital is and just how enormously valuable is Business Adviser Professional Indemnity Insurance is for a consultant working in the Care Indsutry.

Small businesses don’t have the time to waste. Several frustrating hours on a couple occasions, and a cul-de-sac conclusion makes me  believe that this is a corporate strategy on behalf of LogMeIn (based in the US). LogMEIn seems uncessarility complicated, has restrictive timelimits etc. It pertains to offer a Free service but I have a distinct feel that it is merely a cheap trick and sales gimmick to entice the hapless consumer to pay £60 a year for a service that is free with other free Log Me In software reputable services such as TeamViewer. If this is for personal use it is free.

Business Consultants could use this software to log in to their pcs at home to access sensitive data and to reduce the requirement to carry expensive it equipment with them out of their office and away from home.

Names like Robert Craven nicknamed by the Sunday Times as the ‘entreprenueur guru’ spring to mind, but there are not many.

In the US it is a different story. Whatever one may personally think of Anthony Robbins, one cannot ignore the significant contribution he has made to the field of personal development, which he suggests is ‘the source of all one’s business’ and therefore his contribution to business performance.

His message is that there are 5 things to help (managers) face adversity and crisis.

1. Be decisive. (whatever happens, make a decision, learn from it).
2. Get resourceful (get help from a mentor, business adviser, colleague)
3. Get a vision (of how change will happen. If you can’t think of a positive one, think of the most negative one, and then do the opposite)
4. Get a proven plan (ideally, model on somebody who’s been through the same and who’s succeeded. Athony Robbins says “success leaves clues”).
5. Take massive action.  (5 frogs sitting on a log floating in a lake. One decides to go for a swim. How many are left? Answer: the same number since the frog who made the decision has only made up his mind, he hasn’t taken action yet. So this step is equally crucial).

So as a manager we need to think deeply with our minds (using Stephen Covey’s terminology) how best we can respond to the current situation, bearing in mind the current economic climate, and the current activitiy of our competitors. In my mind, as Robert Craven always reminds the UK SME business community, we don’t get far trying to go it alone. I have learned this from personal experience. For outstanding results we need outstanding business improvement, and that is likely to come from seeking external business advice and assistance. Do you agree?

Alan Greenspan – BBC\’s Love of Money season

Have we learned the lessons of too much dependence on the US for growth? Have we learned what was flawed in our human nature – insufficient governance?

]]> http://www.13thmaninbusiness.com/have-we-learned-the-lessons-of-too-much-dependence-on-the-us-for-growth/feed/ 0 http://www.13thmaninbusiness.com/marketing-is-key/ http://www.13thmaninbusiness.com/marketing-is-key/#comments Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:21:39 +0000 admin http://www.13thmaninbusiness.com/?p=61 Business is tougher than usual within the current climate with many that would rely on passing trade now needing to take their business to the world. This has meant that many marketing companies are busier than ever hopefully assisting getting the business message out.

Top gear the popular car TV programme did a feature albeit a tongue in cheek one, as a challenge to market the new VW Scirocco Diesel . The advice was to find a truth within the car and use that truth as a basis of a TV advert (something that can be used in all business marketing). The problem was when they came to test the car; their perception was that a car this beautiful should not have the slower Diesel engine in, but the faster petrol one. More advice came, do not focus on the car with a diesel engine, but focus on the diesel engine in a beautiful car.  What followed was a catalogue of funny videos that we all know will never be used for real. But from a VW perspective they got a good 10 minutes of prime world TV. What was also understood, that even simple messages can be difficult to deliver.

Here are some more marketing challenges

Business Support

Most businesses leave it too late to ask for business support and have no idea where to go for the right help. One problem is that to be seen as a reputable business adviser or consultant you need a superb CV and qualifications to match. But if there is anything a small business owner does not like, is guys in suits with a fancy CV and loads of qualifications. It is a catch 22 situation. It is no wonder most business support comes from referrals.  How to market this and to get business owners first to find you and then decide you are good for their business is an art. A solution is probably not from business advisers, but from business owners currently running their own business. Would they not be the best advisers, for those who are struggling? Something to think about.

Julian Rowe. Business Correspondent, 13th Man in Business.