North Devon Business Alliance

Archive for North Devon Business

Budget delivers triple whammy to the South West

21/03/2012 / JamesH / One comment

So what did Budget 2012 bring for the people of North Devon?

Well, funding for Enterprise Zones in Scotland, ultra-fast broadband for small cities, a tax credit scheme for the television video games industries, and a consultation on improving the south east’s airports don’t really do anything for us.

So what did we get?

A triple whammy that hits pensioners, motorists and public sector workers, that’s what. And they’re three things the Westcountry has rather a lot of.

Age related allowances are being removed for new pensioners from April 2013 and frozen for existing pensioners until the personal allowance catches up. Not something many will welcome on top of the depressed annuity rates available in the current market place: less income and more tax.

The increase in everyone’s personal allowance to £9,205 is also not the gift it appears when inflation is so high.

The planned increase in fuel duty will do nothing to help people in North Devon, where for many a car is essential.

The third bit of bad news is the proposed shake up to public sector pay. While it’s necessary, we have a disproportionality high per centage of people in the public sector here and when they get paid less there’s knock on effect on their secondary spend.

Business taxes

The reduction in the Corporation Tax rate for large companies to 24% may be welcomed by them, but it does nothing to help small local businesses.

For those smaller companies, the Corporation Tax rate stays at 20%, but the reduction in available Annual Investment Allowances to £25,000 might mean you want to make capital spend now, rather than in April.

All in all a depressing Budget rather than one that’s ‘aspirational’. Unless you’re a higher rate tax payer aspiring to 50% relief on any pension contributions you make before 5 April.

Category: All Blogs, General Business, North Devon Business /

If things are bad, make them better

20/03/2012 / RobertZ / One comment

Recently, I have been very IMpressed by the North Devon business community.

I’m impressed by a number of businesses I’ve seen investing in and improving their operations. I’m impressed by young people who are eager to find jobs and who are doing impressive work in schools. I’m impressed by people I see working very hard to improve the economy.

Yet when I look at the many things that are wrong, I could easily become DEpressed.

Like everywhere else, the problems are big: unemployment, disconnected young people, empty shops, red tape and more.

I see a choice: moan about how bad things are – so they’ll stay bad – or work to improve them.

I choose the latter, even though I know any action taken now is likely to take several years or more to have a visible effect. Is that a reason not to do anything?

And who is going to do it? It’s not going to happen by itself.

I guess it’s up to us.

Many of us are already working hard to develop our businesses, but we need to improve the business environment in which we operate.

If we want to have up-to-date infrastructure such as superfast broadband, it’s up to us to demonstrate the market need. If we find council planning departments are obstructing economic development and deterring investment, we need to let councils know. If we find bureaucracy is stifling enterprise, we need to let our MPs know.

The voice of one business is unlikely to change anything. The voices of a hundred businesses won’t necessarily change anything either. Perhaps hundreds or thousands of vocal businesses can start to create a stir and continued lobbying by these hundreds or thousands of businesses over weeks or months will start to be heard.

Is it worth it?

Today I have been so impressed by the work of school students that it has inspired me to write this blog. These talented young people will soon be making career choices and the North Devon economy needs them to regenerate the local workforce. But it takes a lot of effort to create job opportunities and fund training. I think that these young people deserve the best chance possible and that we need it to achieve prosperity in years ahead.

I am impressed with the potential for the future in North Devon . . . even if it requires a lot of very hard work.

What do you think we can do to make things better?

Category: North Devon Business / Tags: businesses, development, enterprise, investment, North Devon, potential

Is 15,000 enough?

20/03/2012 / Kevin Woodward / One comment

As of the 14th March 15,278 have completed the survey to get faster broadband in Somerset in Devon – when we look at the map there is a good representation in North devon, but is this really enough – surely there are close to a million people living in these two counties with some rather large towns in Exeter/Plymouth/Taunton etc… and we can only find 15,278 people to complete the survey.

Will it be enough to persuade the powers that be that control the spending of the available funds that we really do want faster broadband.

North Devon traditionally loses out to the big hitting cities in Devon and we really do need to make our voices heard, so if you haven’t already, please complete the survey here http://www.connectingdevonandsomerset.co.uk/ and pass the message on to as many people as you know.

The more the merrier, as I don’t think 15,000 is enough!

Category: Internet, North Devon Business / Tags: broadband, faster, North Devon

Don’t have a favourite customer…

19/03/2012 / Kevin Woodward / No comments

..it’ll annoy the others!

Sometimes in business, it is easy to start taking more care and attention on one customer over another, it is probably because they spend a lot of money with you, they may even be a family member or a friend, but in the long run your other customers will notice and they will feel hard done by.

Yes, this is happening to me at the moment, and I am feeling like the hard done by customer and am seriously considering taking some of my business else where. Don’t get me wrong, I am paying the same as everyone else, but just not getting the care and attention! The supplier of services are taking me for granted and are working harder at looking after other customers, to the detriment of the service afforded me!

All customers should be treated the same, give them the same level of customer service, whether they are a brand new customer or one that has been coming to you year after year. It is often said that it is easier to sell to an existing customer new products and services than trying to get that new customer, so don’t go and spoil it by dropping your level of service to your existing customer, because once lost, it will be even harder to get them back!

Category: North Devon Business / Tags: business, customer, service

NDBA #ndevon magazine available now!

15/03/2012 / RobertZ / No comments

The latest issue of the North Devon Business Alliance’s #ndevon magazine is now available online and in print. Articles in this issue focus on social media and Twitter.

Open publication - Free publishing - More advice