Lambert Chapman LLP’s “Wear It Pink” campaign going well!

Day 3. It’s a cold morning so we look forward to a little something extra with our morning coffee! So far our Pampered Chef’s have been well satisified with the takings and taking home a clear tray – all stock sold!

Today we have Wendy Bulling’s offering of Chocolate Corn Flake treats which will no doubt go down a treat. for her recipe click the link.

We also have preparations for Friday’s dress down and there are rumours of wigs and devildom in high office. Stay tuned to find out what materialises.

Lambert Chapman LLP “Wear it Pink”

This week we are supporting the Wear It Pink campaign by undertaking various fundraising activities during the week. These will include cake and biscuit making which will be sold to staff and visitors (click below to be taken to the recipe of the respective days when posted), the serving of pink refreshments for a small contribution and the pinnacle of the week; a dress down event on Friday 31^stOctober where the theme of the day will be pink. with it also being Halloween who knows what might happen.

Wear it pink is the biggest and best pink day during October whixh is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This year, Breast Cancer Campaign is daring everyone in the UK to wear an item of pink on Friday 31 October and donate £2 each to the charity to help us beat breast cancer.

If you do where does your donation go?

Breast Cancer Campaign uses all wear it pink donations to fund innovative, world-class research throughout the UK to understand how breast cancer develops, leading to improved diagnosis, treatment, prevention and cure.

Breast Cancer Campaign only funds research into breast cancer and will support research at any centre of excellence in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The charity has a particular interest in supporting innovative research and will fund the best breast cancer research in the UK and the Republic, providing that it is of the highest quality.

They currently support 112 research projects, worth over £14.5 million in 50 centres of excellence across the UK.

Thanks to the donations raised they are able to fund projects like Dr John Maher’s at Kings College London, who has developed a unique way of treating breast cancer by using the body’s own immune system.

Lambert Chapman LLP Recipes of the Week 

Monday: Tracey does Ginger Biscuits (and lovely they were too!)

Tuesday: Clare makes Apple and Orange Rockies

Be breast aware

To be breast aware means becoming familiar with how your breasts look and feel. Understand how your breasts may change at different times during the month (when you are having your period) and as you get older.

• Know what is normal for you
• Look and feel
• Know what changes to look for
• Report any changes without delay
• Attend breast screening if aged 50 or over

Uncle Audley looks at Small Business help suggestions

I got a call from Uncle Audley last night. “Do me a favour,” he asked, “look up the word defer for me would you?” Not wanting to upset my favourite relative I took the book from its shelf.  The Chambers Concise Dictionary 2004 edition priced at £17.99 from all good book shops. “Why that word?” I asked. “

 

“Because that is what David Cameron asked the Government to do, in his Observer article of October 19 2008, when considering VAT payments for SME’s,” came the reply.

 

“His actual quote was, “And today we are calling on the government to allow small and medium-sized enterprises to defer their VAT bills for up to six months. That means a typical small business with 50 employees, revenues of £5m and an annual net VAT bill of £350,000, doesn’t have to find £90,000 to pay the taxman when the bank has just taken away its overdraft.” What does he mean? Does the £90,000 disappear never to return or does it stack up to be paid later if the business can? I’m not altogether sure – perhaps the devil is in the detail.”

 

“Chambers Concise suggests that defer means “to put off something or leave it to a later time” or “to yield to their wishes” I told him.

 

“Typical we’ll have to wait to find out. The Daily Mail are trying to get in on the act suggesting their wonderful 8 point plan to help save our small businesses with their Charter which includes some good points but some ill thought out ones too. Wherever we look there is lots of suggestions but they all point to one solution; a return to where we were. Is that not why we are in difficulty?”

 

Good point I thought and as I opened my mouth to tell him so I was forced to listen once more.

 

“Surely the problem here is a lack of saving and a long period of spend spend, spend coming home to roost. In my day boy you had to wait for what you wanted. None of this slap the plastic down. Nowadays we get more than we need before we consider whether we need it in the first place. Thatcher privatised everything and had nothing to show for that money now Gordon has himself in the same place. Maybe the Australians are giving handouts to help but is this the answer? Surely those who take it seriously and self help should be rewarded not those who have no intention of doing so. Maybe I’m too old for all of this but in my day it never worked like this. It was called cutting your cloth accordingly. Nowadays there is not much cloth worn let alone Waide and Pollard from which to buy a vest or two!

 

Savings, my boy, are the answer. Without them we’ve got nothing but too many have been allowed to get themselves in a muddle and it is this problem that needs sorting out. Not popular with small business though as to save we cannot spend at all to build them up and that will mean the mother of all recessions. To avoid this careful management is needed but this means telling people what they have to hear not what you think they want to hear. Reassurement does not work when hard lessons need learning. That is why the Bank bail out is difficult to implement. It seems the Government’s plan includes lending in areas deemed folly and the reason for the problems, so how can this provide a solution? What we need is a return to sense and this means property price falling further to allow new borrowers into the market. That will mean negative equity. Unfortunate but there you have it.

 

We’ve also got to put right some of the nonsense we have created. The 10p shenanigans should all be reversed to reduce corporation tax on small business – but that is for the long term as payments dates are later. The 10p back in would put right last years wrongs and put money in pockets but let us not forget the amount of money and paper that has been wasted printing and sending out all those tax coding notices before the year, after the budget, after P11d’s and then again for the extra allowances. No one seems to bring up this level of waste – but it is there and very real.”

 

“Uncle, you sound depressed” I said, having got a word in at last, “is there anything more certain than a recession in your mind?”

 

“Only Spurs to get relegated” he added with a laugh and he was gone. Oh dear I thought, how do I break the news to Nick in the morning…..        

Lambert Chapman LLP’s Nick Forsyth asks “LPG: Is it right for you?”

In these times of rising fuel costs is it once again time to reconsider your fuel options. Previously many switched from petrol to diesel to obtain greater miles per gallon but in recent months we have seen a widening of the gap between unleaded petrol and diesel costs. Without considering other fuel types the opportunities to benefit are slim so is LPG a real alternative?

 

If you are not driving a diesel vehicle then the benefits look good. Granted there are conversion costs but for a business vehicle doing solid company mileage the repayment period might be 18 months. In Essex we have 9 Shell sites that provide autogas and the website www.autogas.ltd.uk sets out where the 1,300 countrywide sites are plus the approved dealers who convert vehicles. It also provides calculators for potential savings and case studies of businesses that have undertaken the exercise. One example quoted indicated that a business running 20 cars and 20 vans could save £93,200 per annum in running costs before conversion costs which would seem to indicate that further examination might be a good idea.

 

Initial feedback is, however, mixed. Cost of vehicles appears higher and the resale market at the end of life for first owner unproven. There is also evidence that the LPG technology can be temperamental leaving vehicles running on petrol this defeating the object. Because the number of vehicles using LPG is not growing as quickly as anticipated many dealers have a minority of mechanics trained in the technology so waiting lists for servicing and repairs can be long.

 

As a result good advice suggests that diesel may remain the most sensible option because it is the fuel most used in R&D by manufacturers. Drivers should be encouraged to look at prices before filling up, using supermarkets and avoiding motorway service stations at all times. Speed limiters and vehicle monitoring can also assist the business to only pay for its running costs at an efficient rate and lastly driver training can have a vital role to play teaching drivers how to use the pedals well and how things such as proper tyre pressures assist in fuel economy.

 

So there we have both sides of the argument. What we need now is anecdotal comment supporting one side or the other so that we all might make a considered commercial decision on this issue. I welcome your comments.

Lambert Chapman LLP’s Nick Forsyth sees Bank Rates rising

One of the early indicators of recession in the early 1990’s was the increase of the lending rate above base by the major clearers to its smallest businesses. Imagine the sinking feeling to discover that Barclays are to increase their rate margin from 6.8% over base rate to 10.8% above base. What this effectively means is that some Barclays customers will now be paying an interest rate to the Bank of 15.8% overall.

 

As you might imagine the Federation of Small Business were not impressed by this move and have suggested that the Bank are preparing themselves for requests for further advances come from existing customers. This may well be correct and it is a trend that the market will see over the coming months from all Banks as they price lending to customers at more commercial rates and higher than above margins on bank base rate. The reason for this is the movement of LIBOR rates which fluctuate outside the scope of a Countries bank base rates which remain fixed for periods. As an example on 30 September LIBOR stood at 6.87% against a bank base rate of 5%.

 

As a consequence the traditional close proximity between LIBOR and Bank Base Rate has slipped over the last 12 months and this means that to reflect pricing and profitability Banks need to price upwards deals to make them viable. I am not sure whether this point is understood by many economic commentators who consistently call for a drop in the base rate to stimulate demand. Whether this base rate fall takes place if LIBOR remains at current levels all that the fall will achieve is Banks wanting to renegotiate rates or increasing pricing on future deals so that they do not lose out.

 

I have not seen the letter sent out by Barclays to its affected customers but would be pleased to do so; my information came from the Sunday Newspapers. If you are affected or wish to comment on this announcement please feel free to do so.

Uncle Audley considers Enlightenment

Uncle Audley started to wax lyrical about the age of enlightenment and his scientific revolution. Knowing Uncle Audley, I guess that his journey to the 18th Century would have a resonance with some aspects of modern day life.  Sure enough it did.  “It was a momentous Century.  We had an age where there was a combination of deep intellectual thought and ground breaking scientific inventions and discoveries.  The barriers to human advancement were swept away by these twin movements.  I would say that no previous era has seen such an advance in the betterment of the ordinary individual human being on this island.  Ok, there was still oppressive poverty, brutality and injustice but the foundations were put down for the order of the Victorian Age.

 

What was also noteworthy was the Government just went about its business and let the philosophers and inventors go about theirs.  They did not seek to take credit for the advancements. 

 

One of the great figures of this age was Adam Smith, the great Scot, who wrote the Wealth of Nations.  I can now see that he is featured on the back of our twenty pound notes.  Adam Smith came from Kirkcaldy.  Another scion of that exalted parish is Gordon Brown. 

 

Compare Gordon’s sense of achievement with that of one of the great figures, Sir Isaac Newton.  When Sir Isaac was praised for his achievements, he replied “if I have achieved anything it is because I have been able to stand on the shoulders of giants”.  Our Gordon has shown no such restraint or modesty.  The successful performance of the British economy over the last decade was entirely down to him.  No credit given to the world conditions, the internet revolution driving down unit costs, or the demand from the BRIC economies.  Much less to his Conservative predecessor, Ken Clark, under  whose stewardship, the economy had grown consistently over the previous four years or so.”