In order to have a good business you need to learn how to delegate tasks to your employees.

Delegation is one of the hardest things for business owners to do – the thought of relinquishing control and allowing someone to do your work is out of the questions – surely?

In fact it is not hard at all and is one of the best things you can do in business. There is a saying that even if your employees do things at least 80% as good as you do then this is better than you doing it 100% right.

Take a look at your work for the following week and decide on which day you want to take off every week and then stick to that. Then take a look at the tasks you would need to delegate from your work load so that things will not fall behind because you are now only there for 4 days instead of 5 (don’t tell me you work 7 days or even 6 days – if you do then take at least one of these days off and even better two of them).

Now decide which employee or employees you can then award your work load to. You may need to spend a bit of time training them – but you will soon find that they will be quite happy to take on your work and they may even do a better job!

You can then sit back and enjoy that day off each week and every week in the knowledge that your employees are working hard for you. If you choose a Friday as your day off, then you have just created long weekends for you and your family on a long-term basis.

Once you have got used to taking one day off for pleasure purposes you should then take another look at your work load. Review how to delegate another days-worth of work so that you can spend that extra day working ‘ON’ the business instead of ‘IN’ the business…let me explain…Working ‘ON’ your business involves looking at the bigger picture and strategic planning of where the business should be heading. You should be looking at ways in which you can expand the business and how to grow the business.

By learning how to delegate task in your business will give you more free time and your business will become much more valuable. A business is much more valuable if it is less dependent upon the owners and as you will be spending more time on strategic planning and on building your business it will also be more profitable.

If you are looking to print business cards for your business then be careful about using services that offer “free business cards”.

There are two things to point out to you about these so called “free business cards” and the first is to be careful of companies like Vistaprint! We needed business cards in one of my businesses and our manager at the time recommended Vistaprint tome. My manager told me that the cards are free, so I thought why not and agreed to let her go ahead and order some “Free” cards – well we did pay for them because we wanted to add some extra services.

The cards arrived, but and a BIG BUT – my business card started to get charged with £9.95 per month for some kind of subscription service, which I am still not sure what this is.

When we contacted Vistaprint, which was not an easy thing to do in the first place, as they seem to make it incredibly difficult for customers to make direct contact, they agreed to cancel the subscription and did originally offer to refund the money already paid out. However, nothing of the sort happened and I felt that I was simply told a lie, I also feel that this was simply a delay tactic so that they could then take yet more £9.95 payments. Vistaprint never did cancel the direct debit and when we tried to make contact again we found it impossible to do so – they also never repaid the monies taken from my bank that were never knowingly agreed to in the first place!

The only way to cancel this was to contact our bank directly, who stopped any future payments, however, we were left out of pocket and no refund was made. What apparently happens is that when you register for the free cards, if you want to upgrade the business cards, if for example, you want to have then delivered more quickly, then you pay for this using a credit card. Vistprint then automatically subscribe you to this £9.95 per month charge and you only find out when you get your next bank or credit card statement.

To me this is a shoddy practice and to be blunt - it is a “Scam” – if you type in “Vistaprint scam” to a search engine you will see many websites listed telling you not to use Vistaprint and quite frankly I agree with this. I would certainly never recommend a company like this and would never ever use them again!

The secondary reason for not using “Free Business Cards” is that when you give them out to other business people they look “Free” and people get to know the designs used by these companies – so you look “Cheap” in front of other business people. It is much better to have your own corporate ID and logo on your own business card design, which in most cases does not usually cost the earth to produce when you use a reputable printing company.

With news springing up that the recession is over and there are signs of recovery in world economies governments need to be very careful not to repeat the problems of the past originally sparked off by 9/11 in the US – businesses need time to recover fully!

I previously wrote about how the attacks of September 11 sparked off a wave of interest rate cuts which began in the US and was followed across the world. This gave way to billions of “Cheap Money” and led to the banks lending to less credit worthy individuals. Once the economies started to regain composure post 9/11 the US government started to put up interest rates and we know where the story led after that with the American economy, the world banks and the collapse of major corporations across the world!

There is talk that with life coming back into the UK economy that the Bank of England could begin to think about putting up interest rates. However, the UK economy and the US economy and others across the world are far from out of the problems caused by past events.

Data is currently being released that unemployment is still rising with it being reported today by the BBC that “UK unemployment rose to 2.261 million in the three months to April, the highest since November 1996“. Government officials need to be considerate of the delayed effect or lag effect on world economies of unemployment.

As the jobless total increases there is less money spent within the economy and businesses suffer still further, and may need to make yet more people redundant and so on.

It is excellent news that we are seeing this positive news coming to the fore and this will in turn give businesses and people more confidence, which will hopefully begin a positive upward spiral.

The net profit in a business tells an investor or business owner how much money the company makes for every £1 it generates in sales revenue – the higher the profit the better the business.

The net profit margin is calculated by dividing total net profit by total sales revenue, for example:

XYZ Company Profit and Loss Statement for the period ended 30 April 2009
	£	£
Total sales		340,000
Cost of sales
Opening stock	11,000
Purchases	120,000
Closing stock	(13,500)
	________
Cost of sales		117,500
		________
Gross profit		222,500
Overheads*		150,000
		________
Net profit		72,500
		======
Net profit margin		21.3%

In the above example XYZ Company has a total net profit of £72,500 and total sales revenue of £340,000 and using the formula for calculating net profit margin, this gives a net profit margin of 21.3%, calculated as follows:

Net profit
——— (Divided by) —- x 100
Sales revenue

Or in figures:

£72,500
———- (Divided by) —– X 100
£340,000

The above formula gives the net profit margin for XYZ Company as 21.3%

Net profit margins for businesses vary by industry and depending on how a business is run within each industry will produce differing net profit margins. The more efficient the business then the more likely the net profit will be higher in comparison to the sales revenue it generates.

There are a number of ways in which to improve profit margins in a business one of which is to use “Profit Increase Software“, which looks at the ways to grow a business and improve profits.

Of course there are two benefits from having higher profits, which are increased money in the pockets of the business owners and a more valuable business, should you decide to sell.

If you are looking into how to start a small business this article is designed to give you some pointers of what you should be looking at in the Start-up stage of a business – at this stage in the life cycle of a business the considerations and planning needed fall into the following categories:

- Decide on whether to should I buy a business or set up a business from scratch or even buy a franchise business. There are relative merits of each route, as discuss in the article link here. A franchise is a good route to take where you are seeking banking finance, as banks like franchises.

- Decide on a name for the business - if you are starting from scratch, you must then consider protecting your name and of course your idea if it is an invention by using the patent protection process. Be very careful with this, as you cannot protect an invention via a patent if the idea is within the “Public Domain”, so don’t go telling people down the pub about your idea until it has been protected, this that would be deemed in the public domain.

- Decide on business bankers – I always suggest that you begin this with meeting up with your personal bankers, as you have a track record with them, which can help in the process here. However, always check around for the best deals on free banking for new businesses.

- Start-up finance required and do your business plans and cash flow forecasts. Whether or not you are looking for start-up finance you should prepare business plans for your business together with some cash flow forecasts. However, if you are looking to seek finance from a bank then a well written business plan is important which must be accompanied by properly prepared cash flow forecasts.

- Choose your business location – depending upon the type of business you are setting up the location may or may not be crucial or you may even be able to start it from your living room at home. However, if you are going into retail the location is one of the most critical decisions you make to get the necessary foot-fall.

- Decide upon a business structure – there are various trading structures for a business ranging from a sole trader to a limited company and the best route to take is discussed in types of businesses and setting up in business.

- Equipment for the business – even the smallest of small businesses requires some equipment and you need to decide how you buy or lease this. If you are looking at some major capital acquisitions you might need to lease or finance these to help with business cash flow. There are tax implications with how you acquire assets and you might want to take these into consideration, but never let the tax tail wag the commercial dog – in other words make your decisions based upon the commerciality of the idea and not the tax implication, but consider it within the overall commerciality of what you are doing. For example, governments sometimes encourage business to buy assets by giving away what is called first year allowances of up to 100% of the capital cost. This means that you would get 100% tax relief in this example for the purchase, whereas if you lease the item you would only get tax relief on the lease payments paid in the year.

- Get Licenses and Permits – certain businesses require licences and some need to have a permit before trading commences. For example if you are about to set up a pub or restaurant with a drinks licence (or buy one) then you will need to obtain a drinks licence.

- You might want to find a Mentor – A business mentor is invaluable and to have someone as a sounding board is a great asset to have. Never under-estimate the learning curve when first starting out on the “Going into business route” and to have someone to talk to is always a bonus. I used to spend many hours talking with my clients in my accounting practice about business “Problems” and how best to expand or how to finance assets or whether to move premises etc. Running a business on your own can be a lonely experience, so any support you can get from fellow businesses owners should be taken up.

The falling gold price was halted this week and saw a shift in the up-ward direction again closing at $914.10 per ounce which is up by 5% on the week.

One of the biggest currency movements this week was with the Japanese Yen with Sterling weakening by 3% against the Yen closing at 141.956 and the US Dollar dropped by 2.4% in the same week.

End of the week saw:
Stock exchanges:
FTSE 100: 4,156
DOW: 8,076
S&P: 866.23
Nikkei: 8,708

Currencies
UK Sterling £ to US Dollar $ 1.46677
UK Sterling £ to Euro € 1.10805
UK Sterling £ to Japanese Yen 141.956
UK Sterling £ to Aus $ 2.03524
US Dollar $ to Euro € 0.755327
US Dollar $ to Japanese Yen 96.7912
US Dollar $ to Aus $ 1.38694

Commodities
Nymex Crude oil – $51.55
Gold – $914.10

The noticeable thing for the second week in a row is that gold prices have continued to fall all be it at just 1.5% this week.

In a crisis investors always run for the hills and invest in gold – so when this reverses and the price starts to fall back then it could signal an improved view on the way things are going in world economies.

End of the week saw:
Stock exchanges:
FTSE 100: 3,984
DOW: 8,083
S&P: 856.56
Nikkei: 8,964

Currencies
UK Sterling £ to US Dollar $ 1.46575
UK Sterling £ to Euro € 1.11071
UK Sterling £ to Japanese Yen 146.869
UK Sterling £ to Aus $ 2.03629
US Dollar $ to Euro € 0.757775
US Dollar $ to Japanese Yen 100.200
US Dollar $ to Aus $ 1.38925

Commodities
Nymex Crude oil – $52.24
Gold – $883.30

Sterling saw a bit o f a recovery this week against a few currencies and in particular by over 4% against the US Dollar and just under 6% against the Japanese Yen.

Gold has dropped below $900 this week having dropped by 2.8% on the week, which offers encouragement for world economies when gold prices drop.

End of the week saw:
Stock exchanges:
FTSE 100: 4,030
DOW: 8,018
S&P: 842.50
Nikkei: 8,750

Currencies
UK Sterling £ to US Dollar $ 1.48549
UK Sterling £ to Euro € 1.09911
UK Sterling £ to Japanese Yen 148.935
UK Sterling £ to Aus $ 2.07451
US Dollar $ to Euro € 0.739870
US Dollar $ to Japanese Yen 100.319
US Dollar $ to Aus $ 1.39713

Commodities
Nymex Crude oil – $52.51
Gold – $897.30

The was a mis-match of markets this week between the UK and the other leading economies with the Dow Jones moving ahead by  6.9% and the Japanese Nikkei by 8.6% and yet the FTSE 100 only gained 1.5%.

Turning to commodities gold saw a drop of 3.2% this week falling to $923.20 per ounce whereas oil remained relatively unchanged on the week. Also, the currency markets did not move a great deal in this week.

End of the week saw:
Stock exchanges:
FTSE 100: 3,899
DOW: 7,778
S&P: 815.94
Nikkei: 8,627

Currencies
UK Sterling £ to US Dollar $ 1.42670
UK Sterling £ to Euro € 1.07684
UK Sterling £ to Japanese Yen 140.515
UK Sterling £ to Aus $ 2.06798
US Dollar $ to Euro € 0.754900
US Dollar $ to Japanese Yen 98.0334
US Dollar $ to Aus $ 1.44924

Commodities
Nymex Crude oil – $52.38
Gold – $923.20

On a recent visit to Swanage in Dorset I visited a bakery for a coffee and cake and noticed that the owner had labelled the “Gingerbread Men” as “Gingerbread Persons”.

I asked the owner why he had named them this way and told me that the Trading Standards had told him he was not allowed to name them “Gingerbread Men”! What is this country coming to and shame on the people at the trading standards – They have gone one step too far in my opinion and this just shows how crazy things have got. This country wastes so much time and money on such petty things as this, rather than getting it right with the finances and letting the banking industry going into melt-down – shame on the Government too for allowing this charade to happen.

Gingerbread men will always be Gingerbread men because that is how they were first created and I urge bakers to revert to the traditions of the UK. Stand up against the time-wasting PC brigade! Businesses have much more important issues to deal with than having to comply with crazy politically correct rules set by people that have absolutely no idea and nothing else better to do!