News le t te rNews le t te r NovemberNovember 20122012

Issue: 8

Telephone: Telephone: (01978) 292092(01978) 292092

Email: Email: businessline@wrexham.gov.ukbusinessline@wrexham.gov.uk

Website: Website: www.wrexham.gov.uk/businesslinewww.wrexham.gov.uk/businessline

Adverts and articles contained within this publication do not imply or Adverts and articles contained within this publication do not imply or

infer in any way an endorsement by Wrexham County Borough Councilinfer in any way an endorsement by Wrexham County Borough Council

Please contact Businessline should you be interested in advertising Please contact Businessline should you be interested in advertising

within future newsletters.within future newsletters.

Page 1: Business NewsPage 1: Business News

Page 2: Businessl ine FeaturePage 2: Businessl ine Feature

Page 3: Business (not) as UsualPage 3: Business (not) as Usual

Page 4: Lean Six Sigma Benif i tsPage 4: Lean Six Sigma Benif i ts

Page 5: HM Revenue and Customs: Key November updatesPage 5: HM Revenue and Customs: Key November updates

Business News

• Google for Entrepreneurs: http://ow.ly/eR1nY

• Looking to upgrade your business van? Plug-in Van Grant: http://ow.ly/eQUg8

• Micro loans available through Finance Wales: http://ow.ly/eQLde

• Have your say - Wrexham Town Centre Survey: http://ow.ly/ewq3h

• Want to apply for "crowdfunding"? Comprehensive guide to the key crowdfunding platforms: http://ow.ly/eW1Fa

• 18 ways to market your business on a tiny budget: http://ow.ly/ewpG5

• Facebook is a good tool to raise brand awareness but how can you turn your 'likes' into 'buys'? http://ow.ly/ewoeO

• Pinterest: one of the fastest growing social media sites offering UK businesses plenty of opportunities to drive growth: http://ow.ly/ewkDj

• Do you have a website selling your products? Make sure it's not in breach of regulations: http://ow.ly/ewnHP

• What’s New with Twitter? Learn more about profile headers etc: http://ow.ly/ewlnS

• A guide to late payment legislation: http://ow.ly/eW2zu

• Have you started up a business in the last three months? Free opportunity to broadcast your start-up business: http://ow.ly/ewjcu

• How to deal with upset and unhappy customers: http://ow.ly/ef8T5

• Free "Ready to recruit" workshops available across Wales: http://ow.ly/ef8Cn

• Start-up Loans scheme already has 2,000 young applicants. Entrepreneurs aged 18-24 urged to sign up: http://ow.ly/ef8r8

North East Wales Family Information Services

Parents in Employment:

• Help with finding childcare and childcare costs

• Access to training opportunities

• Balancing work and life

• Accessing tax credits

• Family Finance

Employers:

• Information surgeries to support employees

• Balancing work and life

• Helping to reduce absenteeism and improve retention

• Supporting employees with training and career progression

01978 292094

fis@wrexham.gov.uk

www.wrexham.gov.uk/fis

A Great Business Opportunity in the Health

and Wellness Industry

Who Are We Looking For?

• Anyone who wants to take their wellness programme seriously and receive a 25% discount on future orders.

• Personal Trainers/Fitness Instructors who would like to provide nutritional products to their clients.

• New mothers torn between going back to work and staying home full-time.

• People who dislike their current job, but don't know what to do instead.

• Couples wondering how to manage with just one income after deciding to start a family.

• Graduates who don't want to follow the normal '45 year plan'.

For more information: www.Discover.TheWellnessOpportunity.co.uk

debswellnessnutrition@gmail.com 07581436446

Businessline Feature

Ignite your Business Review:

The Ignite your Business event we held on 3rd

October featuring Ross Sleight – Co-founder of Virgin Games and

the Chief Strategy office of Somo, the third fastest growing digital media business in Europe, was judged to be a

highly valuable and worthwhile event by the large majority of delegates in attendance.

During a captivating presentation delegates were able to learn about:

• The opportunity cost of digital marketing where cost is lower, but the time required is higher

• The relationship between paid, owned and earned social media marketing

• The availability of free website creation resources, tools enabling websites to be converted to a

Smartphone friendly format and the importance of considering “multi screen customers”

• Delegates also learnt of the primary, secondary and tertiary means of digital marketing and how to best

utilise resources such as Facebook and various Google tools

After the event we received very encouraging feedback, which included the following comments:

“Excellent speaker - really knowledgeable and I have a mass of ideas to take back! High class event - would

recommend to others.”, “Wonderful to be able to access a speaker of such calibre and relevance in Wrexham.”,

“I thoroughly enjoyed the 'Ignite your Business' seminar - really great and learned plenty from it - possibly the

best £15.00 I've spent for a long time.”

Business-to-Business Discounts:

Businessline has a firm commitment and passion for supporting the formation of new businesses, together with

assisting local enterprises thrive, resulting in a more vibrant and successful business community. With this in

mind, we are delighted to facilitate a local business-to-business discounts scheme aimed at attracting additional

commerce and inward investment into the Wrexham area, benefiting both new and existing enterprises. If you

are interested in offering a discount on your products / services please see the web-page link at the bottom of

this article for further information. A year long listing on the Businessline web-pages will:

• Be seen by a large audience, last year our web-pages attracted 4000 user sessions, although we expect

this number to grow significantly once we start promoting our business-to-business discounts page to all

our clients i.e. people in the process of starting their own business together with existing SME's.

• Include a link to your web-page, which could improve your websites presence on Google

• We expect local enterprises to be referred to our business-to-business web-page by business advisors

within Wrexham Council, the Welsh Government and many other professional business support

organisations.

If you would like your business to stand out from the crowd, please see the following link to find out more. Details

of all business-to-business discounts which are presently available can also be viewed via the following link:

http://bit.ly/business-discounts-Wrexham

As a small business owner you have to apply yourself to every aspect of your business, leaving little time for you to work on, as well as in your business. You put things off till tomorrow, but what if tomorrow brings even harder times? Is your business plan just a distant memory? Did you set all the right goals and then somehow get too busy to achieve them? Get back on track:

• Schedule regular timeslots to spend alone, away from your desk to consider where you want your business to go

• Start with manageable amounts – say 10minutes/day or 4 hours/month and slowly increase

• Keep a log, notes or mindmap, of what comes into your mind, what you think about, decide, understand or don’t understand

• Add any related thoughts that pop into your mind between sessions • At your next session reflect on your log and start to categorising the ideas and

thoughts • Repeat until you see a theme or direction emerge then act on it – but don’t stop the

sessions, the future never ends!

Soon you have:

• Proved to yourself that you do have time to spend on your business and will schedule longer periods of time to achieve even more

• Changed your thought patterns to see past the obvious the possible • Identified a direction / train of thought / revised goal or restated goal that you want to take

forward

NOW GET EXCITED AND TAKE YOUR BUSINESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL!

Article submitted by: marybradley.co info@marybradley.co 07592 932667

http://bit.ly/business-discounts-Wrexham

Business-to-Business Discounts:

New discount offers:

Discounts are now available via Businessline from the following Wrexham based businesses, please see the web-page listed above for further information:

Lean Six Sigma Benefits

Advertise your Business Here

For more information

please contact:

businessline@wrexham.gov.uk

01978 292092

Lean Six Sigma can enable any operation to drive many tangible business benefits. Quality may

increase through improved process yields and reduced scrap and rectification costs. Cost improves

through increased efficiency, improved cash flow, and higher return on assets. Delivery can improve

through shortened production lead times which more flexible operations that can respond quickly to

changes in customer demand.

Despite attempts, most businesses have not been able to capture or sustain the benefits of a Lean Six

Sigma implementation. Lean Six Sigma represents a fundamental change and most businesses have

pursued change in a tactical, rather than a strategic manner. Most failed Lean Six Sigma

implementations can be attributed to lack of true senior management commitment and understanding of

the change process. Moreover, the methodology of many companies is to rely on a series of

quick-hit approaches that deliver short term benefits, but aren’t sustainable in the longer term. Add to

this the reluctance of many companies to consider the business as a whole rather than just

concentrating on operations or manufacturing and you have a recipe for failure.

Ultimately, no-one can guarantee the sustainability of the system if the Business is not willing to invest

the required time, resource, and commitment to the change process. Implemented correctly, Lean Six

Sigma will not only deliver a competitive advantage, but also new strategic opportunities.

If you aren’t improving, you’re declining. To simply stay still, you must move forward at the same pace

as your competitors

Article submitted by: Beyondlean Limited www.beyondlean.com 01978 661437

businessline@wrexham.gov.uk

01978 292092

We can help you:

• Grow your business

• Market your business

• Research your market

• Credit Check companies

HM Revenue and Customs: Key November Updates

Do you know about Gov.uk?

www.gov.uk has replaced the Business Link and Directgov sites.

GOV.UK launched on 17 October, initially replacing Business Link and Directgov. This is the first step

towards making GOV.UK the definitive website for interacting with central government.

In the meantime, HMRC’s website is still available as a primary source of online support. And it’s

important to note that there will also be no immediate changes to the HMRC’s online services.

Real Time Information (RTI) reporting starts in April 2013.

From April 2013, employers will send PAYE data electronically to HMRC each time they pay their

employees as part of routine payroll processes, rather than sending a separate return at the end of the

year. Returns will include details of all employees’ pay and deductions.

Letters were sent to over 1.4 million employers in October letting them know what they will need to do

to prepare for the new way of reporting PAYE Real Time Information ( http://bit.ly/PcAUWR ) in April

2013. Employers who operate specific PAYE schemes ( http://bit.ly/RpKrMi ) will start data reporting in

April 2014.

Download Employer Bulletin Issue 42 (includes RTI information).

The latest Employer Bulletin ( http://bit.ly/OOMmNH ) is now available and contains important

information and updates about Real Time Information plus a summary of other news which may affect

the operation of your payroll responsibilities.

National Minimum Wage rate changes: effective from 1 October 2012.

The rates of National Minimum Wage ( http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/rates-thresholds.htm ) for pay

periods starting on or after 1 October 2012 are as follows:

• the main adult rate (for workers 21 and over) will increase by 11p to £6.19 an hour (currently

£6.08 an hour)

• the rate for 18-20 year olds will remain at £4.98 an hour.

• the rate for 16-17 year olds will remain at £3.68 an hour.

• the rate for apprentices will increase by 5p to £2.65 an hour (currently £2.60 an hour).

HMRC: new addresses for incoming post.

We are making changes to the way we handle post sent to us.

The provision of new PO Box addresses ( http://bit.ly/VMNil4 )

will enable us to respond more quickly and efficiently.