Do I really need a tax accountant if my business is based in Sunderland? This is the question that most small businesses will ask themselves, not just by those based in Tyne and Wear, when their looking for ways to cut down costs.  The truth is employing a tax accountant is likely to save more money than not employing one. Consider the facts. Sure it’s relatively straightforward and easy enough for most to prepare your tax return using some basic accounting software, such as Sage 50, Quickbooks Pro (1 user) or one of the new online accounting services such as Liquid Accounts, Xero Accounting  or crunch.  As a small business the annual accounts do not have to be audited. Nevertheless by choosing a professional tax accountant you can not only benefit a lot from their business financial knowledge throughout the year,  for the tax return it self and for the future, but you can also save yourself critical time. It is always cheaper to pay a professional to do an important job one is not highly skilled at or familiar with. Accounting is a case in point.

A good tax accountant worth his money will not only check all your business accounting and finances, prepare a balance sheet, including income statement or profit and loss statement, but will also advise on how to treat all the other business liabilities and assets, as well as  help you find a way to mitigate the amount of business tax payable for your business tax computation. As a business you get more than simply accounts preparation for filing of tax returns etc.

There are plenty of professional tax accountants in Sunderland that will do the job for you, but we would always advise businesses to compare the fees and services offered of at least 3 accountancy firms that specialise in small businesses.  Also it helps to check the credibility of the 3 accounting firms online by accessing any reviews other businesses might have left, positive or negative, before you decide which is the most appropriate firm to work with.

Of course, the same guidelines and advice would apply to which region of the UK your business is based.  To choose an appropriate tax accountant is a worthwhile task, which will pay dividends, and free online services such as Accountant Now or the service offered by ICAEW are likely to be extremely helpful.

As you might know The Sunday Times’ organises a Profit Track 100 league table.

What you might not know, and is the purpose of this business blog article s that there are several travel firms in the business Profit Track 100.

In recent article Four travel firms top profit league tables by the well acclaimed travel website Travelmole the following travel firms were highlighted (see below for further details):

1. Airline Services (9th)
2. Jac Travel (15th) [Profit £6.5 million, 2011]
3. Travel Counsellors (80th) [Profit £4.5 million in 2010]
4. Audley Travel (90th) [Profit £8.8 million in 2010]

This information might shock or surprise some business experts, who traditionally regard the travel industry as second rate or too hot to handle.

Are the names familiar to you?

Airline Services - cleans, de-ices and maintains aircraft at 11 UK airports

Jac Travel – hotel rooms for travel co’s + sells packages & corporate travel

Jac Travel plans further growth in the Middle East, India and China and has seen profit grow 93% a year from £893,000 in 2008 to £6.5 million in 2011.

Travel Counsellors –  1,200 self-employed ‘travel counsellors’ sell bespoke/ tailormade holidays (i.e. cheapest flight + cheapest accommodation). International Franchises in Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia, South Africa and Canada.

Audley Travel – specialist tour operator

Research carried out by Fast Track, the Oxford based business unit. To qualify UK firms had to be registered here, independent, show consistent profit growth in previous 3 years, with latest profits in excess of £3m (latest audited financial information).

Trip Advisor scraps new ratings system after strong widespread criticism from the hospitality industry that it purports to serve.

Would Trip Advisor be better off by hiring a business consultant to advise them on how best to raise the standards of consumer reviews for the hospitality industry. Who might be better? An internet  adviser who understands online consumer behaviour or a hospitality consultant who understand how consumers relate to hospitality and tourism.

Trip Advisor, considered to be amongst the top global travel review websites, had recently upgraded its rating system by introduced a new scoring system out of five last week but Travelmole reported that the initiative immediately came under fire

We are always open to the results of these tests and have listened to the valuable feedback we have had over the past few days. From this feedback, we recognise we have some work to do to ensure that ratings are as useful as they can be and so we have decided to remove displaying ratings from a business’s listing page today. (Trip Advisor).

Read more of the Travelmole article on TripAdvisor

I was re-reading an article I published on Ezine Articles entitled E-Marketing Ideas For Small Specialist Book Publishers where I suggest various ideas for spreading the reach of the bookstore.

In the recent past (2000-2010) nearly two thirds of independent book sellers have closed their doors. This means loss of income, loss of jobs, loss investment, loss of self worth, loss of competition, and loss of uniqueness and added value that these specialist book stores offered. The loss is much maligned. I have not time now to discuss what the booksellers could have done, but I wish briefly to continue to look at what more small independent book publishers could do, that they might currently not be doing.

The sad tale of the demise of the book seller does not tell the story of a lack of demand, despite the youth market preferring text, online chat, facebook, video games, you tube video style presentation, i-phone, amazon kindle and e-books to the book. It is a story of what the Boston consulting group described so eloquently in their book: “Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy” and the niche market sector undergoing “profound fundamental change” (Luke Johnson on the demise of Borders bookshop). If whizzo entrepreneur and investment financier Luke Johnson of Patisserie Varlerie, and Pizza Express fame can lose money on a book store then we all can, especially when in his opinion he bought it cheap in the first place (less than 10% of written down net worth). Johnson confesses that

no one is as big as the market and you will get crushed (if market is undergoing fundamental change)

The truth is more that book buying consumers go online thanks to Amazon and others. Simple, you might think, get a website. Not so simple when your stock inventory is not being found, and if it is it is being found on ebay (listed on 2nd page of Goggle) and priced sometimes 40% above the selling price, as has been happening with the high acclaimed and respected specialist book publisher, New City Books

The good news is that there are solutions to these challenges and competing effectively online needn’t be a dilemma. What is needed is the business services of a professional internet consultant with online expertise. It should be noted that although mildly preferable sector knowledge or exposure e.g. publishing in this case, is not essential. Online consumer behaviour is similar in many products and services sold on the internet, and especially in publishing.

The American food giant – Kraft Foods, which bought Cadbury for £12 billion last year, announced it was investing £6 million to make Oreo and BelVita biscuits at the Sheffield factory. This is the first time these biscuits will have been made in the UK. Bosses said 60 new jobs would be created in Sheffield – including manufacturing, team leader and technician roles.

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CenFRA, based in Doncaster, was established in 2007 as the UK’s centre of excellence for all robotic and automation activities serving the food and drink industry. The centre will retain its brand, and its services will be integrated into the Stafforce group.

“Planning CenFRA’s role within Stafforce, and putting the right people and resources to work will be the key to unlocking its potential”.

Stafforce, based in Rotherham, has over 25 branches and on-site operations nationwide with a workforce of over 150 people.

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Harvard Engineering is celebrating another successful year after increasing turnover by 50% and expanding into a new manufacturing facility. The new premises in Wakefield, includes a world leading research and development centre, a manufacturing facility – with some of the best automated assembly equipment in the industry – a showroom and a large open-plan office space. The larger premises are essential in contributing towards Harvard’s ambitious and ongoing growth plans.

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A drop in share price at chilled foods giant Greencore could spark up renewed interest, according to city analysts. Greencore, which supplies retailers Asda and Marks & Spencer, has been the subject of takeover talks since October. The Yorkshire Pudding business experienced what it described as “a challenging year” as the firm upgraded the ovens at its Leeds manufacturing site following the devastating fire in March 2010. Last year, pre-tax profits dropped to £12m from £26m.

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Business Start Up Consultants Consider Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.

BBC Business News highlighted the additional credit promised to small businesses in its article: Autumn Statement: Small firms get £40bn credit help
The biggest new policy is a £40bn “credit easing” scheme to make it simpler to underwrite bank loans to small firms.

Small businesses with an annual turnover of less than £50m qualify for the scheme.

Mr Osborne says it will cut the average interest rate for those firms by 1%.

The chancellor also said he wanted to help medium-sized UK businesses – “who have been neglected for too long” – and announced a £1bn business-finance partnership aimed at companies.

Read more on BBC Business News article: Autumn Statement: Small firms get £40bn credit help

Business Consultants highlight Black Friday and Cyber Monday as most popular US online shopping days

Black Friday, in the US, the day after Thanksgiving, is treated by many retailers as the start of the Christmas shopping season.  Around 50 million Americans visited online retail sites on Friday, according to Comscore. Analysts said heavy promotional activity helped drive demand. It said Amazon was the most popular destination, with 50% more visitors than any other retailer.

NRF said nearly eight in ten online retailers would run special promotions including “flash sales that last an hour” and “free shipping offers”.

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