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Business Awards with Karren Brady

By Jessie Wilkens on April 22, 2014 in

The Federation of Small Businesses’ WorldPay UK Business Awards will be given out on May 21. At the moment, 47 companies have reached the final stages of the competition, which is in its second year. Almost 1000 applicants entered the contest. In addition, one overall winner will be selected and will receive an additional prize of £5,000.

Karren Brady will announce the winners at the event that will take place at the London Hilton Waldorf hotel. The awards are divided into four categories including Business Innovation, Young Entrepreneur, Micro Business and Online Business. Each of the category winners will receive £4,500, plus a half-day Marketing workshop. In addition, one overall winner will be selected and will receive an additional prize of £5,000.

As Karren Brady said,

“I’m thrilled to be involved in this year’s FSB WorldPay UK Business Awards and it will be a huge honour to meet and present the awards to the winners. I know all too well from my role as the Small Business Ambassador to the Conservative Party that SMEs and entrepreneurs are the back bone to our economy and they should be championed and acknowledged for their contributions – which is exactly what these awards set out to do.”

Ron Kalifa, Deputy Chairman of WorldPay, adds: “These awards are designed to highlight innovation and celebrate the achievements of small businesses across the country. With Karren’s wealth of experience and business insight, she is an admirable role model for our finalists, and perfectly placed to announce our very deserving winners at the awards ceremony.”

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Peppersmith For a Healthier Gum Experience

By Jessie Wilkens on March 22, 2014 in

peppersmithOne company is making a splash in the UK with its gum, mints and other products. Started by Dan Shrimpton and Mike Stevens, Peppersmith sells products that are made exclusively with natural sweetener. Their business is located in Putney, south-west London, and they saw a turnover of £3.2million in 2013.

What makes their products so unique? They are extremely particular about the ingredients they use, ensuring that their products have no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Most modern gum, they explain, is made with synthetic rubbers, but they use chicle instead. This is a natural product that helps to protect the Rainforest and doesn’t contain synthetic ingredients.

They also don’t use aspartame or intense sweeteners, but rather use xylitol. They also explain on their website that,

“You may be surprised to learn a lot of confectionery products, including gum and mints, are made with ingredients that are made from animals not plants. Many use use Pork and Bovine Gelatine or Sterates made from animal fat (normally cows) but we stay well clear of any animal-derived ingredients and choose to use vegetable extracts instead. All of our products are suitable for vegans and vegetarians.”

 

 

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Brits Get Their Money Worth Traveling Abroad

By Jessie Wilkens on March 2, 2014 in
Currency chart from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/holidays/article-2564902/Bag-safaris-carnivals-Seven-holiday-destinations-25-money-thanks-strengthening-pound.html

Currency chart

This just might be the year to travel abroad from England. The strengthening pound has made it an ideal time to get out and enjoy. British visitors to South Africa, for instance, who exchange £500 will get £134 more this year than they did last year.

Anyone going to Brazil, for instance, will get an extra £125 for every £500 they exchange at the moment. In Thailand, British tourists will find more than 20% extra cash in their pocket and will also find that resort prices have gone down, according to Post Office Travel Money.

Jamaica is another great spot for Brits. The sterling can buy you 28% more Jamaican dollars than it did a year ago. Tourists will also find good deals heading to St Lucia, Antigua, Barbados, Tobago and the Dominican Republic.

The sterling will also open doors in Indonesia, Turkey, Russia, Jamaica and Australia, offering more than a quarter more than last year in these places.

As Andrew Brown of Post Office Travel Money said: “UK tourists can look forward to having more spending money in every holiday hotspot this year and they will be even better off if they pick a destination where local prices are down. “

”Our barometer research found that resort prices were as much as 56 per cent higher last year than they are now so it will be well worth doing some holiday homework before booking an overseas trip.”

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Vegesentials: Bringing Healthy Drinks to the Market

By Jessie Wilkens on February 13, 2014 in

patienceSometimes a great idea just comes to an entrepreneur, and sometimes it takes a health scare to invent a wonderful alternative. Patience Arinaitwe-Mugadu has created a company called Vegesentials. These are healthy smoothies that are now on the shelves at Waitrose, Boots and Whole Foods.

It all began in 2010, when Patience went for a routine visit to her local GP. They told her that she needed a brain tumor scan. As she explained after this experience, “On my way back home, I was literally numb from the weight of worry on my shoulders and I remember making a conscious decision to do all I possibly could to better my health and this started with radically changing my dietary lifestyle that very day.”

She started juicing, and soon found herself developing all sorts of nutritious drinks. Now, she uses HPP Technology, which is a process that squeezes fresh fruit and vegetables in cold temperatures to retain their raw properties. She uses no pre-packaged purees, heat treatments, added sugars, water, additives, powders or concentrates.

She turned her hobby into a business when she noticed a gap in the market for raw fruit and vegetable drinks. As she said, “Taking my business to the next level took a lot of faith in terms of believing I was up to the challenge and a drastic change from being a housewife to entrepreneur. I have received incredible 24/7 support from husband, Andrew, from the minute we decided to start Vegesentials. We worked together day and night creating a vision for the brand from a basic idea.”

She continued, “We also spent a lot of time reading and researching the technology that was capable of replicating what I had been doing in my own kitchen on a much larger scale – in order to attain the same home-made quality of our drinks.”

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Losing Weight Shouldn’t Make You Lose Your Wallet

By Jessie Wilkens on February 1, 2014 in

dietLosing weight has become a billion dollar business. According to a survey by Engage Mutual, the average woman will spend over £25,000 on diets during the course of her life. The average diet lasts only 19 days, showing that most diets truly do become a waste of money.

As Azmina Govindji, the spokeswoman for the British Dietetic Association said, “Quick-fix diets are alluring because they promise rapid weight loss with little effort. But it took time to put on weight and there is no easy solution to losing it.”

“Worst,” as she said, “are crash diets that offer a magic-wand approach to weight loss. They can be expensive and even dangerous if they miss out essential food groups such as  protein, carbohydrates and healthy fat.”

Interestingly, dieters often think that their grocery bill will go down if they are eating less. But this isn’t always the case. Dieting actually adds £20, or almost 50#, to the average person’s shopping bill.

Here is the lineup of some of the expenses for that diet. Diet Chef costs as much as £245 a month. The LighterLife Total programme starts at £65.40 a week; and every session with an expert will cost £15.

There are a few ways, however, to find less expensive choices. You could ask your GP for a referral to a dietician, which could be free through insurance. You can also look at The British Dietetic Association Food Factsheet. And membership at Weight Watchers is also free if you get there through your GP.

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Ignoring What Others Say Works

By Jessie Wilkens on January 10, 2014 in

satchelSometimes the most important thing to do when starting a company is not to listen to what people are saying. Julie Deane wanted to find a way to earn money to send her daughter to private school and away from the bullies who were bothering her. She and her mother, Freda, set up a company in 2008 from the kitchen table in Cambridge with only £600 creating satchels. When she was first starting out and trying to find a manufacturer, she was told that there was “no demand for satchels”

Fortunately, she didn’t listen. Today, Deane, 47, has a multi-million pound company called The Cambridge Satchel Company selling her satchels worldwide. She is one of England’s most successful exporters, and she was recently in China with David Cameron to drum up trade for England.

In the last twelve months alone she has won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for the company’s exporting success and she was also named Entrepreneur of the Year at the European Business Awards in Istanbul in June.

The Cambridge Satchel Company first opened an internet operation and has since started three shops in London as well. They also sell throughout the country in other stores and they’ve recently launched a men’s collection. The top cities for the sales of their bright satchels include London and New York.

They are also popular in Eastern Europe. As Deane explained, “We were very big in Azerbaijan for a few weeks. It’s always strange because conventional wisdom would take you to look at the markets you want to target for the next year and what resources you are going to put in. It feels a lot more satisfying when you can see an enthusiasm for the brand from somewhere that you haven’t paid to be noticed.”
Customers include singer and Strictly Come Dancing finalist Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Fearne Cotton and singer Pixie Lott.

As she explained to people who want to become entrepreneurs, “People can give their dream a try.”

 

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Brits with Second Homes Beware

By Jessie Wilkens on December 19, 2013 in

British homeowners who have holiday homes in Spain and France will want to take note. They may soon be kept from renting to tourists, squashing the primary reason that many people have these second homes. New laws will soon be in place that require holiday revelers to rent from larger companies rather than from individual home owners. In France, such laws are expected next week in Paris, Lyon and Marseille. In Spain, these bans are expected to take place next spring.

As Ryan Levitt, who works for the holiday rental website housetrip.com said, ‘This law is closing the door to working and middle-class families who want to book a break to Spain at an affordable price. Instead of being able to share a whole house with friends, you face being stuck with your kids in a cramped hotel room.’

There are an estimated one million properties in Spain that are owned by Britons. Up until now, it was easy for them to bring in income when they weren’t using their holiday house by renting out their properties. Now, however, those second homes in Spain would need a license from the local council, which includes a fee, long waits and headaches.

If the laws influence property owners as they do in Catalonia, the Canary Islands and Balearics then Britons have cause for concern. These places already have strict restrictions and in the past year, thousands of apartments and villas have been fined as much as £15,000 each. Others have been banned from renting out their properties and others are putting their properties on the market. But with the number of sellers, they are finding it difficult to sell.

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Five Tips for Money Savings

By Jessie Wilkens on December 1, 2013 in

Whether you have credit card debt or your mortgage is simply taking over a massive chunk of your monthly expenses, it’s always helpful to read about ways to save money. Here, Richard Browning shares 50 tips for saving money. Here, we share five of them:

1. Clear your credit card debt: Financial planners will always say to clear your most expensive debts first, and for most people that is their credit cards. Try to clear your balance every month. If you can’t, consider a low-cost loan.

2. Switch your gas and electricity supplier and find the one that best suits your needs.

3. Install a water meter: This could actually help you decrease your water bills by 50%.

4. Cut your home phone bill:Look for a program that packages your phone, television and broadband together and that will offer a low-cost alternative to using your existing BT line.

5. Make a shopping list: And stick to it. This will really cut down on unnecessary expenditures for items that you either don’t need or will simply throw away at the end of the week.

Learn more here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/bills/article-1591904/50-ways-save-money-.html.


 

 

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How Do Your Earnings Compare?

By Jessie Wilkens on November 11, 2013 in

If you’re wondering how you’re paid compared to the national average, wonder no more. Here is a very interesting guide that was recently put out by HM Revenue & Customs and Pay As You Earn. The earning data is published in the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. It take into account the average pay for workers and covers over 400 trades and professions.

Interest pieces of information include that big business professionals had a 3.8% fall in their salaries in 2012. The average annual salary for full-time employees was found to be £26,664. The top earners included brokers, pilots and aircraft engineers, marketing and sales directors, mining and energy bosses and lawyers.

Here are some of the numbers. For the complete list, visit http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-2269520/Best-paid-jobs-2012-Official-figures-national-average-UK-salaries-400-occupations.html

1 Chief executives and senior officials £120,830
2 Brokers £98,924 -15.2
3 Marketing and sales directors £82,866 -3.2
4 Aircraft pilots and flight engineers £77,906 12
5 Financial managers and directors £74,709 -10.2
6 Production managers and directors in mining and energy £72,587 27.3
7 Legal professionals £70,731 -0.2
8 Information technology and telecommunications directors £70,393 6.4
9 Financial institution managers and directors £69,890 3.3
10 Functional managers and directors £69,879 -5.6

 

 

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Pets Pyjamas Opens for Business in the UK

By Jessie Wilkens on October 20, 2013 in

petsSome might think the economy is struggling at the moment. But this doesn’t appear to be hurting those who love their animals. This is the hope behind Pets Pyjamas, a website that has recently launched to cater to all of your pet needs.

Estimating that the UK pet industry is worth a whopping £2.7billion – with £500 million that goes to play things, beds and blankets, the website is ready for business.

Here’s what Pets Pyjamas has to say about their site,

“PetsPyjamas is the ultimate shopping destination, social network and on line information source for stylish pets and their equally stylish owners. Browse the latest fashion trends, shop 1000s of fabulous pet and pet themed products from the best designers and the coolest brands, or let PetPyjamas’ in house stylists inspire you with their Edits. Choose from a wide range of fashion influenced collars, coats and leads to suit all budgets, the latest gadgets and accessories for your pet or treat yourself to fabulous animal inspired interiors products for your home. Make new friends by connecting with fellow pet owners and use our Pet Neighbourhood guide to find the hottest pet-friendly places, many with exclusive money off deals and offers.”

They say that their site is more than a “shop; it’s a lifestyle magazine, a blog and a community.”

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