Category: Bartercard

Tax Free Fitness

January has got to be a time when we all want to burn off the Christmas calories, but joining a Gym can be expensive so is there a way you could get your company to pay and get it as a tax free benefit.

HMRC allow tax free treatment provided sporting or recreational facilities (or vouchers that are exchangeable for their use) that meet all of the following conditions:

  • The facilities are available for use by all of your employees.
  • The facilities aren’t available to the general public.
  • The facilities are used mainly by employees or former employees or members of employees’ families and households. (The facilities don’t have to be used mainly by your employees – this condition also covers use of the facilities by employees of other employers if you’ve grouped together with them to provide the facilities.

The tax and NICs exemption doesn’t apply if you provide any of the following:

  • facilities based at premises used wholly or mainly as a private dwelling
  • holiday or other overnight accommodation (including any associated sporting facilities)
  • use of a mechanically propelled vehicle (including road vehicles, boats and aircraft)

So that seems to rule out most Gyms, so what can you do?

Personal Trainers could be your ‘sports facility’ provided they are made available to all employees as part of  a benefits package

Join a club run by other employers, many large businesses have their own sports and social club perhaps your company could use their facilities

Get together with other employers and hire a local Gym or Health Club at specific times for example set evenings and exclude members of the public on those evenings

If these options don’t work for you, you could still get your employer to pay for Gym Membership as part of your package, the benefit in kind tax will be less than if you pay direct out of net pay.

For employees earning at a rate of less than £8,500 per year, you have

  • no reporting requirements
  • no tax or NICs to pay

For company directors or employees earning at a rate of £8,500 or more per year:

  • report on form P11D – section K
  • pay Class 1A NICs on the value of the benefit

It goes without saying that you must have written policies in your employee handbook and contracts, you also need board minutes to support and explain the new benefits and all charges must be to the company (you can’t claim on expenses).

steve@bicknells.net

Is cashflow killing your business?

Many small businesses are suffering slower and slower customer payment as highlighted in this link

http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/2011-07-12-small-business-late-payments_n.htm

Lack of cashflow is the main reason for business failure.

Bartercard can help because they can provide an interest fee credit facility to buy goods and services from their members, Bartercard have 4000 UK business members including solicitors and debt collectors (which can help collect your cash)

Contact me for more details steve.bicknell@uk.bartercard.net

How do you get new clients? take part in this poll and lets find out

This is a great opportunity to find out what techniques are being used and what your views are, I look forward to your comments and votes

steve@bicknells.net

 

 

How do you market your business?

Bartercard give a 100% guarantee of sales included as standard in their membership, what do they do to get those sales?

Did you know Bartercard promote your products and services in 17 ways?

Yes thats right, 17 ways and here they are:

1. Members Directory
2. On line Directory
3, E Auction
4. Account Managers (TCOs)
5. E Mail Campaigns
6. Mail shots
7. Fax Campaigns
8. Networking events
9. Trade Shows
10. International Hot Deals
11. Value Added Services
12. Moving Inventory
13. Last Minute Deals
14. The Barter Bulletin Magazine
15. Member Referrals
16. Offers to Supply
17. E Market Place

Thats why Bartercard confidentially guarantee that they will generate sales from their members for you, if you want to know more or want to link in my e mail is steve.bicknell@uk.bartercard.net

Whats the Return on Investment from Bartercard?

To join bartercard there is a “once only initial investment” so how can we quantify our return on investment?

Every business has had to make an investment in their business to get it started, for example a hairdresser would need to fit out her shop with fixtures, fittings and equipment, so in accounting terms how can we evaluate the investment that we make when we join bartercard?

1. Pay Back Period – how many years does it take to get back our initial investment in profits – for normal investments anything less than 3 years is considered good – because Bartercard specialise in selling spare capacity and as such only product replacement costs are relevant, its likely that the profit on each sale will be around 70% profit (as used in our hairdresser/accountant trading story) – as Bartercard guarantee to get more than the joining fee in sales in the first year, the payback period is likely to be less than 2 years – so thats an excellent return on investment

2. Average Rate of Return (ARR) – this method of appraisal takes the average of the profits made over say a 3 year period (or the life of an asset) and shows the result as a % of the initial investment I estimate a 70% ARR, obviously this will vary from business to business, but I am sure you will quickly be able to work out the return for your business

3. Net Present Value/Discounted Cash Flow – this method of appraisal takes into account the time value of returns, its often considered the best and most precise way to assess returns, to calculate the Net Present Value you create a cash flow table year 0, shows the investment as a cost, then the net profits are shown in the subsequent years and a factor is applied to remove the effect of inflation, the higher the NPV the better the investment

4. Internal Rate of Return – this is also described as the effectie interest rate, to calculate this we increase the Discount Rate in the DCF (3 above) until the NPV equals zero and that produces the return rate

If you need help doing this analysis for your business drop me an e mail

steve.bicknell@uk.bartercard.net

Increased Sales without discounting, guaranteed!

The reason most businesses join bartercard is to increase their sales. Isn’t that what everyone wants? it’s why we go networking, why we advertise and its generally the reason we went into business in the first place – because we thought we could earn more (by selling more) than working for someone else.

When you barter using bartercard you swap your services at their full value, there are many discount schemes now being promoted, they generally get you to heavily discount your product/service and charge you a fee on top. The theory being that the new clients who use the discount scheme will want to come back and pay full price, it could work, but I suspect many people just take the special offers.

Bartercard now have 75,000 worldwide members, so there are plenty of businesses to swap with and Bartercard give a guarantee that they will get sales for your business. So if you want more sales, why not give it a go?

steve@bicknells.net

Training Grant of upto £1000

Matched funding is now available from Skill South East for Leadership and Management Training, the maximum funding is £1000 Grant when you spend £2000 on Training.

Provided you have at least 2 employees and can show that your business has the potential for fast growth you should qualify.

Bicknell Business Advisers are approved providers but we also have access to bartercard trainers who can provide training too.

If you want to know more drop me an e mail steve@bicknells.net

Can you help?

Bartercard are looking for the following businesses to join due to demand, all referrals gratefully received, we can guarantee business for them

Coffee Supplier

Payroll

Dry Cleaning – Hampshire, Devon, Cornwall

Equipment Maintenance – Garden Machinery, Catering Equipment

Tool Hire

Business Insurance Broker

Promotional Items

Contract Cleaners – Regular office cleans, kitchen deep cleans, Duct cleaning

Car / Van Hire or Leasing

Garage in Bournemouth

Restaurants – All areas, Southampton especially

Hairdressers – all areas

Retail – Shops of all types in all areas

Thank you my e mail is steve.bicknell@uk.bartercard.net