Part Time Experts

2^nd Local Business Support Network  [LBSN]  27^th January 2012

Had another great meeting this week at the Old Fold Manor Golf Club.

A great way to spend a Friday afternoon, with other businesses who are primed to help each other and learn about things that help our businesses.

We all introduced ourselves so that we knew who was in the room with some great interjections along the way.

We then had our education slot. Each week  one of the team volunteers to educate the rest of the team about something they think will be useful to everyone else, rules are you cannot mention your own business! In our first week I spoke on , “ 1^st  3 things to do on  Linkedin”.

This week Ben Riley of Mister Geek taught us about two great free software packages. The first one was Dropbox where you can share files with yourself on other machines or with the outside world.

The second one was 1password, where you only ever have to remember one password and you get access to all those logins with their own passwords.

Lots of great questions from the businesses there for Ben. The flexibility of the meeting and the discussion meant that we went straight to our Business Forum section. I managed to get some help from two of the team members as I mentioned I was having an issue with finding a new eco light replacement company, and now have a couple of good contacts.

We also helped Ruth of The Perfect Team who was trying to fill a Marketing Role for a client of hers.

As the meeting closed we all agreed to provide our social media connections so that we all follow each other and increase our reach.

70% of people stayed on for further chats and those discussions then moved on to the bar facilities at the Golf Club, some of us were last to leave!

Overall a great 2^nd Meeting and we accepted two new partners, Stuart Harris the Accountant and Terry Hall the Commercial Mortgage Broker.

Looking forward to the next meeting in two weeks time. Linkedin event link is http://linkd.in/AxVohF

Links

www.dropbox.com

https://agilebits.com/onepassword

1^st 3 Things to do on Linkedin

LBSN Meeting 10^th February

A great exercise for any business. Fine you would like me to introduce you to my contacts, of which I now have over 4,600 on Linkedin.

But what do I say to them? Important to keep it short otherwise I will never remember it, so no more than 20 words! What is it that you can do for my contacts , what need what wish, what problem are you going to solve for them. This is not as easy as it sounds.

Mine currently is

Have you identified all the cost savings in your Charity—I know someone who will do that for free.

A few months ago in March, a VAT tribunal found that Reed Employment was entitled to charge VAT only to the commission element of its charges to clients, and not on the pay of its workers.

This potentially means that those industries who cannot recliam VAT such as health care and Finance could reduce their costs in this area significantly.

Somewhat surprisingly HM Revenue & Customs did not appeal the decision.

 
Read more: http://www.accountancyage.com/aa/news/2106830/hmrc-disregard-vat-temporary-workers-ruling#ixzz1ayYU8PLk

The two semi finals are over and two contrasting feelings for the losers at the end of each game.

Wales consider themselves unlucky over the sending off when in actual fact they had a number of chances to win the game. The penalty that came within a whisker of going over should never have been a penalty in the first place.

Meanwhile the Aussies were content that they had been beaten by the much better team on the day, although twitter was full of blame for their own fly half who was actually a New Zealander!

So bring on the final!

This week I attended the inaugural meeting of the 3rd group in Hatfield.

24-7 Networking is a network set up to educate and teach small businesses how to use social media, this week we learned some tricks on Linkedin and how to set up a company Face Book page in about a minute.

We had a presentation from a Business Coach called Jayne Bratton who taught us about the voices! Our second presentation was from Alan Adams from Bibby Financial Services who implored us to use independents rather than the major banks for our finance needs.

Well worth looking into www.24-7.so

Enfield Residents’ Priority Fund (ERPF) has been established
with the  aim to address local need within wards, through the
funding of projects,  which demonstrate a capacity to reduce need
within a given ward. It will be necessary to demonstrate a likelihood
of participation by, or benefit to, residents of more deprived areas
of the ward, as well as residents in general (where participation or
benefit is also considered likely by or to residents outside those areas).
The scheme will aim to encourage local communities to identify their
priorities by working with their local ward Councillors.

More 

Had a great time yesterday as part of a team of local business experts invited to help 120 A Level kids at Barnet College develop and create a business plan around a product they had created that morning.

Of course what was really going on was helping them with: asking for help, taking on board advice, developing a plan and then presenting the plan at the end.  Imparting business wisdom with open questions is sometimes harder than you think. Had a great time and would recommend to anyone who wants to be an Expert and help out anywhere in the UK.

Got up early Sunday morning, which is pretty rare.Watched SA v OZ, I think SA were a little unlucky, OZ seemed to be diving off their feet at almost every ruck. SA created enough chances to win 3 games.

The other game was more predictable with All Blacks beating Argentina in the last quarter. Argentina put up a great fight but I never thought they were going to win, sometimes it was a lot like watching football they way they seemed to be complaining to the ref.

Have to think about who will make it to the final, who do you think?

Rugby World Cup in New Zealand

The first quarter finals are over and the two best teams certainly went through. The Welsh were great but can they keep it going?

The English were bad, but a lot is down to who MJ picked in his starting line up. Can’t decide between Wilkinson and Flood so pick them both , what’s that all about?

Time to say goodbye to many of the players as they should not be pulling on the white shirt anymore. The next team picked will be really interesting not sure Jonno should be in charge though what do you think?

The new Agency Workers Regulations start on October 1st, basically they entitle agency workers to the same basic employment and working conditions as if they had been recruited directly, if and when they complete a qualifying period of 12 week in same job.

This is the link to the Govt guidance, 50 pages! Check if the rules apply to you. One basic rule is that agency workers are entitled to the same rate of pay as those who work directly for you.

http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/employment-matters/docs/a/11-949-agency-workers-regulations-guidance.pdf

If you need HR help let us know and we can put you in touch with someone.