UK Business News

Business owners around the capital are being urged to take advantage of the current suppressed property market in the commercial sector, by taking a look at the opportunities of purchasing their own freehold office space.

As well as the slump in the commercial property market, other factors currently in favour of the buyer are the government pressure on banks to increase lending and favourable pension structures.

Interest rates are at an all time low, but maybe not for too much longer. There is now serious pressure on the Bank of England to increase the current rate. Many financial experts are predicting that the rate will be raised to 2.5% by the end of 2010, so if buying an office is something that you have been considering, now is the time to act.

Nick Terry of Deveno Property is among those that expects a change in the interest rate, saying; “Our forecasts are that interest rates will make their first upward move before 2010 is out.”

Indeed, Kevin Daly from Goldman Sachs states “With unemployment stable for the past year, growth strong and tax revenues healthy we can build an argument that the MPC should be raising rates already”. He goes on to say that once a rise happens, “Rates could then rise rapidly to 2.5% by the end of next year”.

Ray Barrell of the National Institute of Economic & Social Research goes on to add, “If higher inflation from sterling’s fall persists, the Bank [of England] is going to have to raise [interest] rates”.

If you are in the market for commercial property, Deveno Property offers a Weekly Freehold List where it details every London office building that is available to purchase in one place.

jaguar sales up

Growing interest in the former British owned luxury marques Jaguar and Land Rover have helped the current Indian owners Tata Motors to move back into the black, recording a net profit for the three months to June 2010 of 19.9bn rupees or £273million.

Since showing losses amounting to 3.3bn rupees a year ago, Tata have seen revenue grow by 64% , with car sales in India increasing by over 50% to almost 78,000 vehicles.

For their part Jaguar and Land Rover sales combined rose by 60% from the previous year, with sales of 57,153 vehicles compared to 35,947 a year earlier.

In a short but sweet statement, India’s largest car manufacturer Tata Motors said:

“Overall economic growth, robust production and availability of liquidity led to robust domestic demand during the quarter, resulting in volume growth comprising both new products and the existing portfolio.”

The last twenty years or more in Europe has seen the rise and rise of 4X4 vehicles on the roads, a trend started by Japanese manufacturers in the late eighties with the Mitsubishi Shogun, an all singing all dancing monster truck that came with every conceivable extra for luxury motoring.

The Shogun was aimed squarely at company executives who had little interest in cars, but loved to have all the toys and gadgets that such a vehicle could offer.

The sad fact was that Mitsubishi could not make enough of these vehicles and other manufacturers began taking the Japanese offering very seriously, particularly when Mitsubishi shot itself in the foot by increasing the price for the later model.

Nowadays of course there is no better way to take little Johnny the half mile to school than in the safe confines of an enormous 4X4 and these lovely vehicles are often to be found parked half on the pavement half on the road blocking  school entrances around the country.

But hopefully the days of the gas guzzling utility vehicle will soon be over, if we were really as concerned about the planet as we make out to be there would be no market already.

It is another Japanese manufacturer who is making the headlines in 2010, at last we are being offered a vehicle, albeit not four wheel drive, but a vehicle none the less that can carry five adults and no matter how fast it is driven it will still record zero emissions.

The Nissan Leaf has been marketed as the world’s first mass produced, affordable, zero emission vehicle and interest in the car in Europe, has been strong, with 12,000 customers signing up for updates.

Government incentives make the Leaf an interesting proposition to anyone looking to renew their vehicle during the coming year, with first delivery in Europe expected in Portugal in January 2011.

Deliveries to the Republic of Ireland and the UK are scheduled for February and March 2011 respectively, with orders being taken in ROI staring from July 30th and in the UK from September 1st this year.

The US and Japanese markets have exceeded expectations with pre-orders of 23,000 vehicles since April, this high demand means that the car will now not be launched in the Netherlands until June 2011.

If you want to be one of the first in the UK to own this world first vehicle, there is only a few weeks to wait until orders from the UK will start being taken. Make sure to go compare car insurance before you make any commitment to order and don’t expect to be among the first cars delivered if you have not already registered with Nissan.

Are you in the position where you want to start your own company? Maybe you are starting a new online marketing company that you have been dreaming of beginning for years and years. Before you jump into anything, make sure you take the necessary precautions.

All business owners should consider purchasing different kinds of insurance for their business, such as employers’ liability insurance to protect their company.

As exciting as it might be to start your communications agency and round up interesting individuals with standout personalities, you need to consider the risk that having a business poses. Owning a business doesn’t need to be scary; if your protect yourself it can be exciting and highly rewarding.

Take comfort in knowing there are ways to avoid risks posed by taking the necessary precautions. All small business owners should consider purchasing different types of insurance for their business before they start getting things going. These insurance options will not only protect your company’s assets but will protect you and your employees too.

Unfortunately, we live in a ‘claims culture’ where people target small businesses by taking legal action. They do this in hope that they will acquire large financial rewards. Regretfully, many claims are dishonest and far-fetched in nature.

Small businesses that have not purchased insurance become vulnerable to such claims. However, if you prepare for the unforeseen, then you will be able to take responsibility for your business and its wellbeing.

Perhaps we should look at the so called ‘claims culture’ as being somewhat ironically positive. As the public has become driven to take legal action, it is creating a business culture that is ready to combat risk. This in turn has fostered a professional workplace that is ready for anything.

So before you start your client list and your next up and coming marketing strategy, research different kinds of insurance options small business owners can acquire. Three insurance types popular with most business owners include the following: professional indemnity insurance, employers’ liability insurance, and public liability insurance.

Professional indemnity insurance protects your business in the situation that a claim is brought against you of professional negligence. This can take the form of a negligent act, breach of duty, or a civil liability.

This insurance type is most valuable to businesses that are offering consultancy-based services. Therefore, in the case of marketing, advertising, and PR agencies, if you lead your client astray in the information you provide them with they can take legal action.

Any misguiding or incorrect information you give a client can translate into a direct financial loss incurred on your client. With any financial loss you are responsible for, they can then take legal action. Professional indemnity insurance will protect you in this type of situation.

Professional indemnity insurance, like other forms of business insurance, usually only covers you while your policy is ‘live’. So if you happen to cancel your policy and close your business it is a good idea to acquire coverage for the period of time afterwards.

Another type of insurance you should consider getting is employers’ liability insurance. Through this insurance, you protect your business’s assets from employees’ claims of damage as a result of being employed by you.

Employers’ liability insurance will protect you if an employee gets injured in a work-related accident. The plan will help cover things such as lost wages, disability coverage, and also support payments to their dependents.

Through the purchase of employers’ liability insurance, you are benefiting both your business and your employees. They can rest assured that if something bad does happen they will be protected and your assets will be protected from any lawsuits that may occur.

Finally, every small business owner should consider the purchase of public liability insurance. This insurance option focuses on civil wrongs. For instance, a member of the public might sue your business based on negligence.

The term ‘duty of care’ refers to the standard people should be treated to when under another person’s care. Most claims brought against businesses are based on some injury brought against a member of the public that violates their duty of care.

The degrees of duty of care are situation dependent. For instance, if you invite someone into the grounds of your marketing agency they now fall under your duty of care.

Under the court of law, you should guarantee the wellbeing of individuals you have invited onto your business property. However, if they are harmed in some way then you have failed your duty of care, and they can then take legal action against you.

This could happen in many different kinds of instances where you would then be liable. For example, perhaps you invite a client over for a meeting and when they get there something falls on them and they get hurt. Although you hope this would never happen, accidents do occur!

We live in an unpredictable, unfair world. This is why in building your business you should take the necessary measures of protecting it from anything that might put it in harm’s way, in order to put your mind at rest.

Once you have purchased insurance for your business, you will be able to focus on your business ventures without worrying about the risk. This will transform you into a responsible and dedicated business owner, with employees that know you are looking after them.

So, begin speaking to other small business owners to see what kind of options they have purchased. Many will provide you with stories of how business insurance has already saved them when things went wrong. This can be the first thing you successfully accomplish as a business owner with many more to come!

For anyone who owns a company or is contemplating starting a business, owning a website is seen as crucial to the development of any business.

There is absolutely no doubt that the internet and in particular the World Wide Web has changed the way that most of the population of the UK go about their business.

Of course having a shiny all bells and whistles website is only the start of the journey and getting your website seen on the first page of search engines is a time consuming and costly process that may never be achieved.

Smaller businesses and the self employed seldom have the time or money to spend on optimising their sites for the internet search engines and many such websites are seldom seen and therefore have little value to the company.

Before the advent of the internet we all knew that if we were looking for good painters or decorators for instance we could find hundreds listed in the Yellow Pages phone book or in local press small ads.

Without recommendation finding suitable tradesmen was still a minefield, but the Yellow Pages was a local publication and we felt safer in the knowledge that the advertisers were also local businesses.

These days it is possible to restrict a search on the internet to local based businesses but the smaller or self employed tradesman who have not invested in search engine optimisation are still unlikely to be seen.

Fortunately for these tradesmen websites have sprung up over the last couple of years where smaller companies and self employed can advertise and tout for business.

These websites work on two levels and entering a search for good painters or decorators would bring up a list of people who are looking to have work done that tradesmen can then quote for. Clients who accept a quote are then encouraged to feed back to the site a suitable rating for the work they have had done by a particular business.

On the second level these sites can be used as directory for finding local tradesmen who have been recommended by users of the site, allowing you to check out the best ranking people to do your job.

The more people that use these sites the more information is gathered making life easier for those looking to have work done and of course offering some form of recommendation.