Last week, I gave a short speech to a group of 15 or 20 aspiring young business people who were putting themselves forward for Prince’s Trust funding. The event provided these young people with a few days of training and some tips from hard seasoned campaigners like myself. Continue reading
Category Archives: Communications
What is it about politicians
I recently saw David Cameron interviewed on the Andrew Marr programme announcing how a future Conservative government would take steps to speed up the process for new businesses to get started. Continue reading
Filed under Communications, Company Formation, Government
Freedom of Information
The Freedom of Information Act is something that I was vaguely aware of, but largely passed me by both in terms of its introduction and its value. However, seeking some information recently about details on the numbers of tax returns filed, and failing to find the information I wanted on the HMRC website, I decided to explore the whole process of obtaining information on such critically important(!) matters. Continue reading
Filed under Communications, Government, Online, Taxation
Some Customer!
HMRC have announced that they are changing their banking arrangements for the purposes of VAT. The notice itself, which must have been sent to many thousands of businesses up and down the land, advises VAT registered businesses that they are changing to two new commercial banks namely Citi and Royal Bank of Scotland Group. As a result of these changes, all payments to HMRC for VAT will need to be made to new bank sort codes and account numbers. For many businesses who already have electronic arrangements in place, be it by BACS or CHAPS, changes need to be made immediately. Continue reading
Filed under Banks, Communications, Government, Miscellaneous
Complying with Employment Law for the Small Business
Employment law is one of a number of areas where the small firm simply does not have the same resources as its larger counterpart. Continue reading
Filed under Communications, Government
Illicit Encounters
A recent report in Accountancy informed its readers that accountants have been pipped to the post by lawyers in the area of extra-marital affairs. Continue reading
Filed under Accounting, Communications, Credit Crunch, Miscellaneous
Paypal phishing scam
We have a corporate Paypal account in our subsidiary company the Made Simple Group which is proving quite successful for both our virtual office service sites at Londonpresence.com and Thisisyouroffice.com . Continue reading
Filed under Business, Communications, Phishing
What’s in a name
I’ve got a lot to thank my parents for and I am sure (hope) that I remind them of this continually. However, there is one thing that perhaps they didn’t think through so carefully and that was the name they gave me. Whilst I myself don’t really have a problem with the name, it would seem that many others do. I have one of those names that seem to cause confusion to others. Continue reading
Filed under Business, Communications, Miscellaneous
They’re digging up the road again
They are digging up the road again outside my office. Apart from the noise, dust and traffic disruption, all of which are a real pain, it causes me personally great irritation and annoyance particularly with the knowledge that this is about the 5th time they have dug up this section of road in the last 12 months.
Much as it gives me some pleasure to see people gainfully employed particularly in these difficult times, I don’t see why St John Street in EC1 should on its own solve the unemployment problem. Of course, in reality, the truth is that they seem to be digging up half of London at the moment. It may be something to do with the fact that it’s fast approaching the end of the financial year and many local authorities are probably trying to use up their budgets. However, me being the cynic and sceptic that I am, I think it owes as much to budgetary planning as it does to bad management. How can the same bit of road be dug up so many times for different services.
I’ve said it before and I am going to say it again. In a city really only built for coach and horses in the Victorian era, where traffic, despite the congestion charge, is a major problem, it makes no sense to have half of the roads constantly being worked on.
There must be some way of co-ordinating this activity. In a previous post, I jokingly suggested that there should be a Ministry for Holes in the Road. I now think it’s not such a joke, but a necessity. The costs of constantly digging up roads and filling them in again and the disruption it causes just can’t be justified.
Incidentally, I noted on the roadwork’s a telephone number for any suggestions or complaints. I went to the trouble to telephone it, but there was no reply. I am not sure what that says. Perhaps someone was digging up the road and cut through their phone line.
HG
Filed under Business, Communications, Miscellaneous
Well said Mr Frost
For those of you who are regular visitors to our Westbury website, you may or may not have been impressed by the business news feed that appears on a regular basis. For those of you who were under the impression that I had a team of journalists writing these articles on a regular basis, I am sure you wont be surprised to hear that this isn’t the case, but we buy the content from a reliable source which whom we work very closely. Continue reading
Filed under Business, Communications, Credit Crunch
