Tag: marketing

Can you Zero Rate Charity adverts?

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The supply of advertising to a charity is zero-rated. The zero-rating covers advertisements on any subject, including staff recruitment. A charity can also purchase pre-printed collecting boxes, envelopes and appeal letters at the zero rate. Low cost lapel stickers, emblems and badges that a charity gives in acknowledgement of a donation can also be zero-rated. More information can be found in Notice 701/58 Charity advertising and goods connected with collecting donations.

In what media can charities advertise VAT free?

Any medium which communicates with the public. This includes all the conventional advertising media such as television, cinema, billboards, the sides of vehicles, newspapers and printed publications. The important factor is whether the advertisement is placed on someone else’s time or space. If it is not there will be no scope for zero-rating.

If space is sold to a charity for advertising on other items, such as beer mats, calendars, or the reverse of till rolls, this will also be covered by the zero rate. The sale of the items themselves will not be VAT free, unless they qualify for other reliefs for example as books or children’s clothing.

Recently I was asked if a website would be able to zero rated, but its specifically excluded under UK Law VCHAR11000

10B None of items 8 to 8C includes a supply used to create, or contribute to, a website that is the charity’s own.For this purpose a website is a charity’s own even though hosted by another person. 10C Neither of items 8 to 8C includes a supply to a charity that is used directly by the charity to design or produce an advertisement.

steve@bicknells.net

Is your business ignoring Mobile?

Mobile phone in the wallet

A OnePoll survey commissioned by AppsBuilder reveals that £52.6 billion of potential revenue to be gained via mobile is being ignored by over 3.2 million UK SMEs. It found that 65.8% of the nation’s 4.9 million SMEs don’t currently have a mobile presence, equating to potential lost revenues of £52.6 billion in the next 12 months alone. The number of consumers in the UK using mobile phones to access the internet has doubled over the past three years and about 5% of all UK retail sales come via mobile phones. (Law Donut)

Its not just about Apps, websites too need to be optimised…

With only 10% of the UK’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) having a mobile optimized website, businesses could be missing out on £77 billion in annual revenue a study has found. And only 13% of those without a mobile optimized site plan to have one by the end of 2014.

The survey, conducted by Impact Research for hibu, asked 900 UK SME owners and IT leaders about their companies’ websites, revenues and future plans for the mobile web. It showed that 45% of UK SMEs do not have a website, yet believe their annual revenue could rise by 5.4% if they had a website that was optimised for mobile transactions, equating to an average of £11,155 extra turnover annually.

http://internetretailing.net/2014/02/ignoring-the-move-to-mobile-is-costing-uk-smes-77bn-a-year-study-find/

I find it incredible that 45% of SME’s do not have a website? how will customers find them?

The days of looking yellow pages and printed directories are long gone, most people search google to find the goods and services they need.

steve@bicknells.net

 

Have Accountants in Oz gone mad? who is the dancing accountant?

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Accountants are normally reserved, professional and controlled, but a new type of accountant is taking social media by storm, the dancing accountant.

Dressed in his signature accounting ‘uniform’ that includes a tie, glasses, sweater-vest, and obligatory black briefcase, once a week the Dancing Accountant performs a one-man ‘flash mob’ style public dance, which is uploaded to his YouTube channel.

After attending a music festival a couple of years ago, the character was born after the Dancing Accountant realised that his unique dance moves were being copied by a group of people standing behind him. Unperturbed, he continued before realising that the crowd of imitators soon grew, until almost fifty had joined in.

“It was then I realised that people just enjoy seeing someone let loose, and that’s where the idea of the videos came from.” Viewers suggest the location and make song requests.

http://www.charteredaccountants.com.au/News-Media/Charter/Charter-articles/Member-profiles/2013-10-Dance-like-everyone-is-watching.aspx

Is this totally crazy? obviously the bank didn’t like it because they called the police

Does this help to improve the image of accountants?

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

Could Referralkey.com work for your business?

In the last few days I have started receiving lots of requests to become a colleague on Referral Key. Its Free, its measurable, you set a price you are prepared to pay to get successful referrals, so it sounds pretty good to me, but is it any better than any other form of social networking? I am always happy to refer business to people I know without looking for financial reward because I believe in the ‘Givers gain’ philosophy.

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