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Your EnterQuest Bulletin - 28 December 2005
| Thought for the week: "When you own your own business, you only have to work half a day. You can do anything you want with the other twelve hours." Anonymous |
In this week's issue:
Small business answers
If
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Send
your question to enterquest@cobwebinfo.com.
To
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Weekly stir 
Best of EnterQuest 2005 and the EnterQuest Christmas Turkey Award
In this week's festive edition of EnterQuest, we've decided to provide you with a summary, in fact more than one summary, of our favourite small business resources and tools that we've published in the bulletins over the past year.
Whether you're currently working, resting, playing or plotting a path for your enterprise over the coming months, we hope this week's newsletter and all of the bulletins you've read over the past year have helped you in your quest to run your own business. We are always grateful for the feedback we get from our readers, which continues to give us our own inspiration for keeping EnterQuest fresh, practical and thought-provoking. Please don't hesitate to e-mail us with your views - good, bad or controversial - as we take them all on board.
We're also delighted to announce our winner of the EnterQuest Christmas Turkey Award for 2005. This award goes to what we consider to be the most inane or preposterous small business hot air or garbage spouted by people who should, but sadly don't, know any better.
The winner is Barry Gardiner, the UK's Minister for Competitiveness, who bizarrely announced earlier this month that starting a small business is in fact very easy, doesn't take as long as you might think to plan and set up, and once trading you are, contrary to widely held beliefs, unlikely to fail.
Regular readers of our bulletins will, of course, have spotted that our view, and our long-standing experience, is somewhat different - several million light years apart, to be exact, from that of our whiz kid Minister.
If your stomach isn't still too heavy with turkey and rum pudding, you can have a peek at what he says in his press release.
On that note, we hope you've had a great Christmas, have a happy and prosperous New Year, and that you'll continue to read our bulletins, which hopefully provide you with a realistic, practical and balanced approach to running a small business.
Keep your eyes wide open, nose in the air, and feet on the ground.
Marketing
tip
The most useful marketing tools of 2005
Here's a summary of the most useful marketing tips, tools and resources that we've reported during 2005.
- For researching your market, you can't beat the postcode-specific demographic information available at www.upmystreet.com.
- Your trade association is one of the best sources of sector-specific advice, market reports and useful contacts that you can find - locate the professional body for your business at www.taforum.org.
- NetNews Tracker searches newsgroups for specified keywords twice daily, delivering results via e-mail and enabling you to keep up to date with news for your sector. It can look for personal names, business names, products, websites or any other relevant topic.
- Trade shows and exhibitions are a great place to showcase your wares to potential customers and network with others in your sector. You can find the shows and expos relevant to your sector by browsing UK Exhibitions or the TSNN website.
- UK Business Clubs is another useful networking resource which lists over 850 business clubs in Britain.
- There are dozens of practical hints and tips on writing effective media releases from Publicity Insider magazine.
- The-List.co.uk is a search engine for market reports and publications. If you type in keywords for your market sector or business activity, it identifies thousands of relevant executive summaries which you can browse free of charge - often these contain most of the report's key information presented in digestible form.
- The Direct Mail Information Service (DMIS) Sector Intelligence Surveys provide a wealth of information about direct mail as a marketing medium, including statistics on response rates and consumer perceptions about direct mail.
- Click Business Cards offers highly practical tips on designing killer business cards.
- If you have a business website and want to make sure it's as user-friendly and accessible as possible, you can't beat the usability portal Useit.
- You can also try WordTracker or visit Google's Sandbox for two of the best tools for finding keywords for your website. Overture's keyword suggestion tool is another useful resource.
- The Trendwatching news site offers frequently updated and fascinating information and articles on new business ideas and market trends across a range of sectors. Similarly, the Trends Portal lists market trends and different ideas, and is usefully categorised by sector.
- Finally, don't forget our own UK Small Business Marketing Bible, which is jam-packed with hundreds of cheap, easy to implement ideas and techniques for promoting your business.
Legal
tip
A preview of next year's regulations
Age discrimination
The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 will be applicable from 1 October 2006. Details of the Regulations have yet to be announced, but they will apply to all employers and in broad terms they will forbid you from discriminating on the grounds of age. They will:
- Oblige employers to set their minimum retirement age at 65 or justify a lower age.
- Require employers to consider requests to work beyond the standard retirement age.
- Give all workers the same rights to claim unfair dismissal and redundancy payments regardless of their age.
- Alter the requirements for occupational pensions.
You can find out more from the DTI's Employment Relations Directorate.
TUPE regulations
On 6 April 2006, the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2005 will be introduced.
The Regulations amend existing law applicable when a business changes hands, which protects employees and ensures their entitlement to the same conditions and benefits following the transfer.
The Regulations will apply particularly to contract service providers such as cleaning firms, catering services, security and refuse collection. Among other things, they will ensure new employers are aware of employees' rights and introduce flexibility to make it easier to transfer businesses in liquidation.
More details can be found at the Department for Work and Pensions website.
Minimum Wage rise
The next rise in the National Minimum Wage (NMW) will apply to all business owners from 1 October 2006. The NMW will rise from £5.05 to £5.35 per hour for workers aged 22 or over, and from £4.25 to £4.45 for those aged 18 to 21.
Find out more at HM Revenue and Customs' site.
Health and safety changes
Under the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005, which will become law on 6 April 2006, business owners will have to carry out a risk assessment in noisy environments, provide ear protectors where necessary, limit and monitor noise levels where possible, and may be required to provide training on noise protection.
See the Health and Safety Executive's guidance for more details.
Pensions
The remaining parts of the Pensions Act 2004 will be implemented in stages throughout 2006. They include numerous detailed changes on occupational and personal pension schemes.
The Government has published a list of planned implementation dates, and the DWP has an up-to-date timetable of events.
Tax
The Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) (Amendment) Regulations 2005 apply to businesses and employees, and will come into force on 6 April 2006. They make small adjustments to the information which must be given in a P46 form.
See the Office of Public Sector Information for the text of the legislation.
Fire safety
Owners and tenants of commercial premises currently have to obtain a fire certificate, but the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, applicable from 6 April 2006, will abolish that requirement in favour of imposing a general duty to ensure the safety of employees and carry out risk assessments. However, the Order does not remove any of the existing obligations to provide emergency exits, fire-fighting equipment or training.
In the pipeline
Some legislation affecting businesses is currently under discussion, but the details and dates of introduction have not yet been fixed.
- From the point of view of small businesses, the Company Law Reform Bill will change certain details concerning the shareholder structure of registered companies and is likely to remove the requirement to appoint a company secretary.
- The Consumer Credit Bill, once it becomes law, will give regulators greater power, and aims to help consumers gain access to dispute resolution procedures more easily.
- The Occasional Sales Bill is aimed at illegal trading at occasional market events such as car boot sales, and will give Trading Standards departments increased power to prosecute where pirate goods are being sold. Note that this Bill is by no means certain to make it through Parliament.
The EnterQuest team will, of course, keep you up to date with the progress of these and other new regulations throughout 2006.
Finally, don't forget the UK Red Tape Buster has hundreds of factsheets and scenarios designed to guide small business owners through the maze of laws they have to face these days.
IT
tip
The ten most useful sites to make your tech life easier
Throughout 2005, we've used the IT tips section to look at a huge number of useful websites. So, with the year drawing to a close, here's a list (in no particular order) of the top ten websites we've linked to - the most useful for a small or growing business, the most enlightening, and the best at explaining things in layman's terms.
1) A 2005 study found that unprotected computers come under attack within 20 minutes of being connected to the Internet. Windows security patches from Microsoft are an essential stop for downloading protection against the latest worms or viruses.
2) Give the Broadband Checker your postcode and it will come back with broadband availability and prices in your area.
3) If you need to keep an eye on your industry or your competitors, Bloglines is one of the best ways of doing so. Type in and save as many searches as you want to create your own daily news report.
4) Blogging - keeping a daily journal or running commentary of events – has been adopted enthusiastically by businesses as a marketing and customer service tool. TypePad offers an easy way to start. Blogwise also offers a directory of blogs on every subject, presented in order of how recently they have been updated.
5) Planning a promotional drive, or need to attract more visitors to your website? Blankspace.co.uk is an auction site offering the opportunity to buy cheap, targeted advertising space on popular websites.
6) For those fed up with high software prices, OpenOffice.org is a free software alternative to the traditional word processor and spreadsheet.
7) Jargon-busting is easy with Google's definition search. Just type in 'define:' followed by the term you're looking for.
8) Designing a website doesn't have to be a technical nightmare. This guide to HTML takes you through the basics in layman's language.
9) The amount of free software available ('freeware') has never been greater. Sorting the good from the bad isn't easy though, so this freeware review site will save you time.
10) This year saw broadband rolled out to almost every corner of the UK. Skype is an Internet telephony service that will allow you to make free calls to other subscribers to the service.
New business idea
Each week we provide you with summaries of some popular or emerging business ideas in the UK. Because it's the last edition of our newsletter for 2005, here is a list of profiles of some of the trendiest, kookiest or simply most unusual new business ideas that have emerged over the past couple of years.
Lifestyle services that make life easier for consumers are big business - here are just a few ideas in this area:
The wedding industry has never been more popular, boosted by the new legislation that permits same-sex marriages - here are the biggest emerging trends in this sector:
People spend more time and money caring for their pets than ever before - and the petcare industry has spawned some fascinating business opportunities:
With all the cookery shows on TV, it's no surprise that food-inspired enterprises have been big news this year:
The dating game has blossomed as cash-rich, time-poor consumers seek ever more innovative ways to meet new people:
Finally, why not check out this year's trendiest transport idea, which may give city centre taxis a run for their money:
Just one word
Regularly improving your vocabulary is not just about learning a new word and its meaning. It will improve your general knowledge and make you feel and act smarter in all sorts of personal and business situations.
Can you match the following grammatical terms with their correct meanings?
a) palindrome
b) oxymoron
c) synonym
d) paradox
1) a word that has the same meaning as another word
2) a statement that appears contradictory to common sense yet is true in fact
3) a word, sentence, or number that reads the same backwards as forwards
4) a combination of two seemingly contradictory or incongruous words
Answer at the end of the Bulletin.
Website review - the best of this year
We've reviewed over 30 Government, professional body and other useful business websites this year, and generally found that issues such as clear navigation and good accessibility options often fall by the wayside. However, here are five of the highest scoring sites and a quick review of why they're so useful for small firms.
- The Food Standards Agency, for its clear layout, exemplary range of practical guides and content for food businesses, and dedicated food hygiene section.
- The Office of Fair Trading, for its excellent dedicated PDF leaflet, entitled 'Running a Business?', which explains both generic and sector-specific trading legislation to firms.
- The Patent Office, for its excellent homepage and Newcomers' Guide for those new to the website, as well as its practical sister site explaining intellectual property law in layman's terms.
- The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, for its good design, impressive accessibility options, and vast array of factsheets and publications about planning permission, building regulations and fire safety rules.
- The British Library, for its dedicated approach to helping users navigate through the huge range of business information on the site, through the provision of handy guides to the content and tips on how to use it.
You really need to know...
Tighter security pledged for new Microsoft browser
Microsoft has confirmed that the next version of the Internet Explorer (IE) browser, known as IE 7, will incorporate a number of enhanced security settings designed to stop users falling victim to the spyware scams and other malicious code that have plagued the current version of IE this year. IE 7 will feature additional security settings to reduce the potential for attack, and is also expected to include anti-phishing functions. A test version of the new browser is anticipated before the end of March 2006. PC World has a useful summary of what is expected of the new browser.
Worth
a visit
Handy gadget directories
The Times Online has a useful list of the best gadgets of 2005 for business travellers. Meanwhile, Time magazine has published a summary of the best inventions of this year.
Worth
a read
A great, light-hearted Christmas read for any entrepreneur who is frustrated and baffled by the volume of red tape present in today's UK. The book takes a humorous approach to describing the boggling array of absurd legal rules, claims and red tape, from unusual health and safety claims to strange compensation cases. It's based on local newspaper stores and parliamentary reports, and makes for an amusing - if disturbing - festive read. Check out:
Just one word answer
a) palindrome matches definition 3) - a word, sentence, or number that reads the same backwards as forward.
For example, 'Never odd or even'.
b) oxymoron matches definition 4) - a combination of two seemingly contradictory or incongruous words.
For example, 'Almost exactly', 'Only choice', 'Original copy'.
c) synonym matches definition 1) - a word that has the same meaning as another word.
For example, 'traditional' has the same meaning as 'conventional'.
d) paradox matches definition 2) - a statement that appears contradictory to common sense yet is true in fact.
For example, 'A well-known secret'. |
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Good
luck
The EnterQuest Team
This information is meant as a starting point only. Whilst all reasonable
efforts have been made, the publisher makes no warranties that the
information is accurate and up-to-date and will not be responsible
for any errors or omissions in the information nor any consequences
of any errors or omissions. Professional advice should be sought
where appropriate.
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