I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy New Year – here’s to wishing you every success in business for 2012 whether with your eisting business or if you decide to start a new business or buy a business.

Time to reflect…

2011 was a good year for me and the business I purchased in late 2010, which had the best year it has ever had with two absolute record months for October and November 2011! I am looking forward to 2012 and taking this business forward.

I have also started to look at property again and just had an offer accepted for a property in Poole, which will be my second Dorset property, so this is a good start to the New Year.

Best of luck and I look forward to your comments over the next 12 months on my business blog, plus reading your threads in the business forum.

With Christmas just around the corner, perhaps it’s time to reflect on your business and how it has done over the last 12 months and how it might do in 2012.

Is it time to look at what you could do to expand, by looking at your business plan and preparing new cash flow forecasts. Keep in mind that you should take a positive outlook on things and see things how you want them to be rather than how you don’t want them to be.

Think about getting yourself a mentor for 2012 – most people who mentor do it for free because they enjoy it!

Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year from in-business blog, Russell Bowyer.

As we have seen in the news, since the credit crisis and the collapse of Icelandic banks, that voters in Iceland have overwhelmingly rejected proposals to pay the UK and the Netherlands in the wake of the collapse of the Icesave bank – in fact with just one third of results counted, 93% of voters said “No” in a referendum!

As a result of the credit crisis and the collapse of the banking system, governments around the world pumped billions into the system to prevent complete melt-down. The British and Dutch governments paid compensation of £3.4 Billion (€3.8 Billion; $5.2 Billion) to customers directly affected as a result of the collapse of Icesave bank and are seeking reimbursement from Iceland for this.

It is right (perhaps?) that the Iceland Government have sought the views of Icelanders (perhaps our own government should have doe the same with us before doing the bail-outs they did!) before making any such reimbursement, but are they being short sighted?

Are the Icelandic people not seeing the bigger picture and will their economy become a wasteland where no world economy will risk investing again? The world economy is a small place these days and works as if it were one, which is more apparent today than it has ever been before.

With the advent of the Internet and with world economies being highly inter-dependent it is vital for economies to recognise how they could quite easily become black listed for what could be deemed to be ‘Bad Trading’. For example, would you lend to someone a second time when they had reneged on a deal or failed to repay a loan the first time? It is important to recognise that the Iceland government is not contractually due to pay the £3.4 Billion, but perhaps morally it is and if it wants to be taken seriously in the financial world economy again then the Icelandic government needs to take responsibility for the actions of the bank that failed on their own shores.

It is important for Icelanders to recognise that the Iceland economy benefited hugely from the positive effects of the boom times, but appear to be unwilling to payout when times are tough. They are not willing to put their hands in the pockets that were lined from profits made as a result of people believing in their banks when things were good, to help out the governments of the countries that helped them line their pockets in the first place.

So far 2010 is looking good – we have UK inflation up to 3.5%, which would imply that people are buying at the stores etc. House prices are rising again, up by 2.9% in 2009, which gives people the feel good factor so it it looks like a good time to buy a business or perhaps to set up fram scratch.

Although things are looking like they are picking up, there are the doom mongers that are predicting a problem year and Europe is having it’s problems, not least Greece, Spain and Germany.

We are seeing reports of some excellent business growth and profits – only today Barclays have reported record profits of £11.6 Billion, which is up by 92%. Kraft too have recorded triple the profits in their last quarter, so the good news is filtering through.

The next problem that will be facing people is when the Bank of England and their foreign counter parts start putting up interest rates. These have been lowered and kept low so that world economies can recover, but the Govenor of the Bank of England will have to time any increases carefully to avoid the double dip effect, which some of the scare mongers are predicting.

A few good feel good factor news results:

Barclays profit up to $11.6 Billion

House prices up 2.9% in 2009

Dominos pizza sales soar

Kraft profits triple in last quarter

Japans growth exceeds expectations

Indian factory out fastest pace for 10 years

US sales growth beat expectations

Double profits at PepsiCo

Profits up at Mittal as demand increases

UK manufacturing see strong growth

If Microsoft can do it and increase profits by 60% and Amazon by 70% then other businesses can too.

I am hoping that people will begin to read great stories like these and get the feel good factor back. There is talk about the double dip recession but lets keep our minds focused on these great stories.

Profits jump at Microsoft by 60% boosted by Windows 7

Profits surge by 70% at Amazon

It is obvious that despite the US predicted to have a record deficit this year that America is out of recession and surging ahead. This in turn with bring along other countries like the UK for example and the rest of Europe.

ENTREPRENEURS looking for corporate ‘bargains’ over the festive season have been in luck as thousands of businesses are up for sale across the UK.

Those with ready money have been able to pick up businesses cheaply from specialist brokers and listing agents.

Business Sale Report, a leading listing service, has seen a 30 per cent rise in the number of owners advertising in December compared with November. Director Robert Moore says in addition to sales of distressed businesses, entrepreneurs who previously held back because the market had been depressed are now selling.

‘If you have cash and are able to move quickly, it’s a good time,’ he says. ‘Any business where it is easy to see future cash flow is in demand.’

Christopher Jones of business broker Sunbelt says there are lots of buyers in the market looking for the right opportunities. ‘We’re seeing buyers coming out of the corporate world looking for cash flow,’ he says. ‘There are also strategic buyers, picking up equipment.’

Kevin Uphill, managing director of business broker Avondale, says: ‘Buyers are there. After all, where do people put their cash now?’

Buyers can also try to negotiate lower rents and cheaper loans. The Government is pressing banks to lend to small firms and buyers are even finding it possible to borrow from the vendors through deferred payments.

But alongside the festive crackers there are some real turkeys with hidden problems. ‘ There are opportunities, but you have to be pretty savvy,’ says Moore.

Buying a business that has already gone into administration is fraught with difficulties as the administrator must realise funds quickly, putting a tight deadline on deals. Buyers also have to question whether a business will withstand the departure of the owner, who is often the founder.

Uphill says: ‘ The biggest single issue is the quality of the information on smaller firms – without visibility, there are high risks. There are real opportunities but if you cannot see the risks, don’t touch it.’

Many of the potential buyers are first-timers, says Jones. But this market is also proving attractive for existing businesses that are seeking to increase their market share.

Chartered accountant Russell Bowyer, 47, from Linton, Cambridgeshire, is convinced that doing deals in a recession is a good idea and he is negotiating to invest in Deep Clean, a nationwide cleaning firm that specialises in commercial kitchens.

Bowyer has a long record of business ownership, albeit in the care and accounting sectors, and he has been looking to expand his portfolio for some time.

He believes Deep Clean fits the bill because insurers require all commercial kitchens to be cleaned. There is competition, of course, but Bowyer says: ‘There is a good market.’

Bowyer, who is a client of Sunbelt, adds: ‘There are thousands of businesses for sale and far fewer buyers.

‘Interest rates are also lower so, in theory, you can get cheap money. If you buy in a boom, there is more competition from other buyers and interest rates are higher.’

Copyright over this article belongs to The Mail on Sunday

If you own a business whether that is an online business or an off-line business with a website you might want to get press releases out there on the Internet.

in-business has a business forum for various business discussions and it also has a ‘Press Release’ Section.

So if your business has a new press release and you want to post it on oue business forum, then please feel free to do so!

I am again saddened and annoyed at the Unions and their short sighted view over the company that the staff they represent work for, that being British Airways.

The unfortunate insight they have missed is that the damage they are doing, not only to present customers and the damage to goodwill, but also to their long-term goodwill. Please don’t let this icon of a company go the way the British Car Industry and Coal Industry went, which were both destroyed by the British Unions – work together with the company to make the company profitable and ensure it’s future.

If anyone is a worker for British Airways and they happen to read this article – I would like to appeal to you and ask you to re-consider your views on strike action. If the staff of British Airways strike now during the festive period, not only are you destroying peoples holidays, wedding arrangements and Christmas’s, but you are also putting a huge nail in the coffin of the company’s future – thereby jeopardising your jobs.

I am certain a huge percentage of the people who will be affected by this strike would never book with British Airways ever again and it would make me think twice about booing a flight with them too, that’s for sure.

The government has to be answerable to this situation too and I think they should step in and change the legislation on Union powers. I am of the opinion, if staff are not happy in their work or in what the company is doing, then move on and get another job with another company or in another industry – don’t be selfish.

Unions need to recognise that there is a deep recession going on right now and that the airline industry is going through a tough time – British Airways made a stonking loss of over £400 million last year and will likely make an even bigger loss this year. No company can survive these types of losses and the management must make cost savings. If the company makes a loss then it is in real danger of going out of business. If British Airways goes out of business then no one will have a job – so that will have achieved nothing, except for the destruction of the company.

There is of course the possibility of a takeover and I am sure that Sir Richard Branson is rubbing his hands together right now and contemplating this eventuality, but even with this outcome there will undoubtedly be redundancies – so I would argue having a job is better than no job at all.

This week we saw the Nationwide bank launch a 125% mortgage which will hopefully be the beginning of the end of a time of limited borrowing during times of credit crunch lending!

The Nationwide’s new loan facility is to help existing customers who want to move, but can’t because they are in negative equity. The way this new lending works is that the customer will be able to borrow up to 95% of the value of their new home, so they will need to have a 5% deposit.

Subject to fulfilling certain conditions, customers will then be able to add the negative equity from the house they are selling to the new mortgage, so long as this amount of extra lending does not exceed 25% of the new homes value.

For example:

A customer has an existing house worth £175,000 with a mortgage of £250,000, which means they are in negative equity by £75,000.

They want to buy a new house that is worth £275,000, on which the Nationwide would potentially lend £261,250 (which represents 95% of the value) – they will need a deposit of £13,750. This extra lending is subject to a few conditions and their new “stress test”. This new stress test will ensure that customers are still able to afford the mortgage repayments if interest rates have risen to 9% or 10% once the fixed-rate element of the loan has expired.

The maximum extra they could borrow in this case would be 25 per cent of £275,000, which is £68,750. So in this example they would not be able to borrow the whole of the equity short-fall of £75,000 and would therefore need to put a further £6,250 into the deal.

Nationwide customers will be offered a three-year fixed rate mortgage at 6.73 per cent or a five-year one at 7.48 per cent on the 95 per cent portion of the mortgage. Interest charged on the negative equity element of the borrowing rises to 7.23 per cent for three-year fixed and 7.98 per cent for five-year fixed.

These rates are quite high in the present market so customers will obviously be quite desperate to move up if they are willing to pay these high fixed rate mortgages!

We have a free business forum that was unfortunately hacked by some mindless internet thugs so we are looking to start again!

If you are a business owner and you are looking to register and discuss business online at a new free business forum please feel free to stop by and register.

This hacking has certainly taught me a big lesson and now I will be backing up my forum database on a regular basis. I was under the impression that the host company would hold backups of this and to my huge disappointment this was not so!

It is back to the drawing board and back to inviting new members to join and contribute!

Register here at this free business forum.