Would you buy a used car from this lot?

The main points from the Budget

These are the main points from today's Budget -

 Fuel Prices
:: April fuel price increases to be staged. Fuel duty will rise by a penny in April, followed by a further 1p rise in October and the remainder in January.

Stamp duty
:: Stamp duty threshold for first-time buyers doubled to £250,000 from midnight, for this year and next.
:: Stamp duty increased to 5% for properties over £1m from April.

Children:
Parents of one- and two-year-old children will be helped by increasing by £4 a
week money paid through Child Tax Credit from 2012.

Pensioners
:: The pensioners' higher Winter Fuel Payment of £250, and £400 for the over-80s, will be guaranteed for another year.

Alcohol & Tobacco
:: Duty on cider will increase by 10% above inflation from midnight on Sunday.
:: Duty on beer, wine and spirits will increase as planned from midnight on Sunday. Alcohol duties will also increase by 2% above inflation for two further years from 2013.
:: Tobacco duty to rise from today by 1% above inflation and then increase by 2% in real terms each year until 2014.

Taxes
:: Inheritance tax threshold to be frozen for a further four years
:: 1p increase in NI contributions to be waived for those earning under £20,000.
:: Those earning over £100,000 a year - the top 2% - will have value of their personal allowances gradually removed.
:: Tax relief on pensions will be restricted from next year, but only for those with incomes above £130,000 a year.

Business
:: Annual investment allowance doubled to £100,000.
:: Business rates cut for one year from October, bringing tax reduction for over 500,000 small businesses.
:: Entrepreneurs' relief for Capital Gains Tax will be doubled to £2m on which the lower rate of 10% will be taxed.

Mortgage support
:: The Support for Mortgage Interest scheme will continue at the higher rate for another six months.

Savings
:: From next month, annual ISA limit will rise from £7,200 to £10,200 and ISA limits will increase annually in line with inflation.

Young workers
:: No-one under 24 will need to be unemployed for longer than six months without being offered jobs or training. Offer extended to March 2012.

Older workers
:: Tax credit support for older workers to be extended. To make it easier for those over 60 to receive working tax credit, the Government will reduce the minimum hours they need to work to be eligible.

Banking services
:: A guarantee that everyone in Britain can have access to a basic bank account.

Investment
:: Help to be offered to the computer games sector similar to the aid given to the British film industry.
:: The Government will set up a £35 million University Enterprise Capital Fund to
support university innovation and spin-out companies.
:: To boost a low-carbon economy, the Government will set up a new Green
Investment Bank, controlling £2 billion of equity.
:: Motor industry supported to develop electric cars.
:: The Chancellor said he would provide £100m to pay for vital repairs to local roads throughout the country following the recent bad weather and £285m to pay for improvements on motorways.

Growth Package
:: A £2.5bn one-off growth package to help small business, promote innovation, invest in national infrastructure and key skills. Paid for by switching spending from within existing allocations and the extra proceeds from the tax on bank bonuses

Source: SKY News

Image & Profile covers the UK Budget 2010

Image & profile is pleased to be able to cover the last Budget before the General Election. Using a combination of TWITTER feeds, studio comment & possibly live video comment, we will bring you the latest from the floor of the House of Commons

A taster for this afternoon Budget

From skynews.com -

Don't forget that you can follow our 'live' coverage of the Budget at -

http://imageandprofile.blogspot.com/2010/03/image-profile-covers-uk-budget-2010.html

A PRAYER TO THE PR GODS

 

 

Almighty gods of PR,

May my day today be a success, with happiness and joy;
Let my pitches be newsworthy and perfect, being loved by all;
Help me create that amazing stunt, that will make someone go WOW;
Please photograph Beyonce with my product, with the label facing out;

Almighty gods of PR,
May my day stay on target, and promise me some lunch;
Let my server make it all day, without shutting down;
Help me double check my subject lines, spell check doesn’t work;
Please cut back on the hate mail today, sometimes it hurts my feelings;

Almighty gods of PR,
May my day go by smoothly, regardless of what comes up;
Let my segments go unbothered, breaking news isn’t that important;
Help my clients just understand, and get it without a fuss;
Please have the Wall Street Journal* call me back today, because I was so nice.

Amen

* insert your own newspaper/publication

Ten ways to wrongfoot the competition!

Use these strategies to keep your business ahead of immediate rivals

1. Treat your business to an image makeover. Consider rebranding - a strong brand will differentiate your business from others and helps customers to recognise your firm. Simple steps such as painting your shop front can make your business look modern and inviting compared to your competitors.
2. Launch a new marketing campaign. Deliver leaflets in your area offering a discount if customers visit before a set date. Remember to ask them to bring the leaflet so you can measure the success of the campaign.
3. Have a sale. If it's financially viable, stage a sale or bonanza day on certain product or service lines. A snap sale is an excellent way of attracting passing trade and new customers. If new customers like what you offer, they will return.
4. Hold discount events. These could be an evening or a day where everything is discounted. Advertise the event in the local press and hand out flyers to generate interest.
5. Introduce a loyalty scheme. Offer special discounts and offers on products and services for regular customers. Not only will this encourage existing customers to return, but more customers are likely to become members.
6. Offer bulk discounts. Put them in place at particular times (Wednesday nights: two pizzas for the price of one) or offer ongoing deals. But check you are making enough money before you ever offer a discount.  
7. Watch your competitors' progress. If they are having great success with a particular product or service, see if you can modify an existing product of your own, or lower the price, to take advantage of the interest.
8. Launch a new product or service. And plan a marketing campaign around it to give publicity to your business as whole. 
9. Join forces with a competitor against the others. You may both be able to reach corners of the market that were previously inaccessible. Or you might be able to work productively with a business in an entirely different market. Coffee shops and bookshops have long been joining forces for reciprocal benefit.
10. Take customer service levels to new highs. Customers are more likely to return to a business where they feel valued than to one which may have slightly cheaper products but surly staff

Source: www.marketingdonut.co.uk

Europe 2020: a good business plan, but will it be implemented?

In the current economic climate, most small businesses in Europe are looking no further ahead than the end of the month or the quarter. But they know that Europe requires a radical and cohesive long-term reform agenda - and they are looking to policymakers to define and implement this agenda. 

The "Europe 2020" strategy - presented by the European Commission on 3 March - offers hope, on paper at least. Few would argue with the pursuit of knowledge, innovation, competitiveness, sustainability, employment and social cohesion.

For each of the five headline targets of Europe 2020, EUROCHAMBRES has proposals on how they can be delivered. 

1. A "Pact for Sustainable Employability". EUROCHAMBRES repeats its call for a 'Pact for Sustainable Employability' that should establish the framework for far more effective collaboration between training organisations, universities, businesses and public authorities to ensure that the provision of training responds to the results of skills forecasting. 

2. Linking R&D to business. Spending on research & development per se will not contribute to growth. R&D must respond to the needs of businesses, which in turn requires far closer links between business and the research community and radical changes in the governance and philosophy of academic institutes.

3. Energy efficiency. The '20-20-20' targets to fight climate change of course remain valid and should be integral to Europe 2020. As a short term measure, a forthcoming Chamber survey indicates that much more should be done to encourage small businesses and consumers to grasp the low hanging fruit of energy efficiency measures. This is a potential quick win that would deliver considerable economic and environmental benefits. 

4. Employability. Employability must be a key indicator of education systems. To this end, tertiary education must be more demand-driven and should embrace vocational education, which has become worryingly devalued in some parts of the EU. 

5. Employment to fight poverty. The most effective route to poverty reduction and social inclusion is employment, so businesses are key actors in reducing the poverty gap. There are 18 million job seekers in Europe, while 4 million vacancies remained unfilled last year. Designing tools that would 'match the unmatched' could cut unemployment by nearly a quarter overnight. However, these targets will prove meaningless if national governments do not pursue them rigorously through their domestic agendas. The real challenge is to ensure the acceptance by Europe's elected representatives - and, indeed, electorate - of the painful truth that reform is no longer simply an option, it is essential.

Thus, a sixth target has to be added, as a pre-requisite to the whole strategy's success:

6. Ensure governance. National budgets, priorities and actions must be regularly monitored, reviewed and adapted by the Council in line with the priorities and targets of Europe 2020.

Europe 2020 is a sound business plan for Europe. But it is worthless if not implemented.

I like this advert

In my quest for examples of good advertising, I came across this today on FLICKR -



The advert is the work of Laurent Nivalle whose website can be found at - www.laurentnivalle.fr