September 19, 2010
Filed under: Uncategorized — Alan @ 8:26 am
The Office of Fair Trading has launched an investigation into hotel rooms that are sold online thought to be involved in price fixing.
The investigation is the result of a complaint from Skoosh.com, a discount website. The website reported that it was forced to offer certain rooms at a standard price. Skoosh stated that they opened wide discounts and as a result hotels would call them and threaten legal action against them if they did not charge more. An employee from the site stated that they were told to increase their prices or stop offering hotel rooms for each hotel that complained.
Internet sales of hotel rooms have blown up in the past few years dominated both by the websites that receive commissions when they sell rooms and by hotel businesses themselves. The result is customers can shop around and find the best price for certain hotel rooms.
September 5, 2010
Filed under: Uncategorized — Alan @ 3:51 am
When someone starts to talk about a business plan most people start to think about sitting down to right out an official business plan. A quick glance for reference material will reveal plenty of software, articles, books, and consultants that are prepared to aid you create your own business plan, but ironically there are little resources that will actually help you build a planning system that is continuous and able to evolve to meet today’s changing business environment.
Most business theory suggests that in order for a business to prosper and survive in the competitive environment it must be flexible and able to switch directions as conditions change. Therefore, a five year written plan of how things should progress hardly seems helpful in the long term. In actuality, trying to stick to a five year plan long term may actually hurt a business in the long run because it is a bit like trying to be flexible and follow a schedule- it’s impossible.
Ironically, even though it is almost universally accepted that a formal written business plan is the key to a successful business there are not any surveys or studies that actually show whether this is the truth.
After all, if business plans were truly a necessity there should be a clear discrepancy between businesses that have a plan and those that never bothered to craft a business plan. With this thought in mind, perhaps more focus should be shifted on how a business processes instead of how planners think it should before it actually is launched and tested in the business world.
August 28, 2010
Filed under: Uncategorized — Alan @ 2:09 am
Angel Investors are more likely to follow their intuition than most financial calculations when they decide whether a company would make a good investment or not. This is according to research done by Angels Den. Angels Investors are individuals with a very high net worth who put their money and their knowledge into companies who need funding.
In the Angels Den survey, over 70% of the 50 Angels that were asked said that they would mainly use their ‘gut feel’ to determine the value of a business in its early stage. Every single Angel questioned said they used their ‘gut feel’ to some extent. Lois Cook, the co-founder of Angels Den, said that using intuitive judgment when a company is just starting out and has nothing that a valuation can be based on.
Many Angels also take into account the management team of the company, and how likely they would be able to work with them effectively. But perhaps the most surprising result is that few of the Angels noted that they do not rely on their advisor or accountant to a great extent.
Angels Den co-founder Bill Morrow says that Angels tend to work with “entrepreneurs with passion”, and that personality can play a large role in judging companies. Angels Den, since it launched three years ago, has become one of the largest networks for Angels in Europe and the UK. There are currently several thousand Angels who are registered on the website.
July 16, 2010
Filed under: Uncategorized — Alan @ 8:20 pm
UK Health and Safety Consultants EDP encouraged SMEs to look over their health and safety policies. In doing so, they created the HSEasy which allows small business owners to stay complaint with all safety and health aspects within the workplace.
Included in the HSEasy package are safety and health solutions for SMEs available in three different levels that begin at £995.00 per year. The system allows for risk management, gives companies the tools for legal compliance with templates and forms, and comes in both digital and hard copy versions. Within each package is a step by step guide that helps SME owners through every situation that could arise concerning health and safety.
Among the guidance and services that are included in the HS Easy are Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations, Display Screen Equipment, Reporting of Injuries, Electrical Safety, First Aid, Plant & Equipment Regulations, Fire Safety, Risk Assessment and Health and Safety Training, and Reporting of Injuries.
EDP Chief Executive Officer, David Skews, stated that the HS Easy concept s focused on providing health and safety services that are usually required by SMEs. He continued to say that access to a website that lets companies request information on the packages is available at hs-easy.co.uk so that companies can make sure that all legal procedures are followed at any company that has more than five employees.
May 21, 2010
Filed under: Uncategorized — Alan @ 8:56 pm
The impending Royal Mail sell-off has been brought back to light by the coalition government that signals that the state owned postal provider may soon be in need of private capital.
The announcement came at the same time that Royal Mail announced that mail volumes had decreased which caused a 26% increase in operating profits up to £404m.
The decision to privatize Royal Mail was led by the Conservative Government and was met with tensions from the Communications Workers Union and staff members. It also met with opposition from the Liberal Democrat MPs.
Conservatives previously felt that 49% of the Royal Mail stakes should be sold to private equity investors, and it seems that now it is likely the shares will be up for auction.
However, the future of Royal Mail in general is still in jeopardy given that there is not yet a solution to address the £10b pension fund deficit.
Royal Mail stated that it was able to improve profits in the March year to year end analysis even though mail had fallen in volume by about seven percent.
Over a third of all letters that are posted within Britain are now handled by private post companies.
In addition, many customers are now choosing to pay utilities and other bills via electronic formats such as emails and texting that utilize automatic withdrawal.
Chairman of Royal Mail, Donald Brydon, stated that given the poor economic conditions last year’s small increase in profit was a positive sign.
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