Posts

THE HOGGING OF THE LANES ON MOTORWAYS 3rd January 2016 9:55 PM

“I think some of these lorries have got very dodgy limiters .. Had a few of them over take me while I have been doing 70mph ,scary stuff ..”

Trouble is, UK wagons are actually physically limited to 56mph, which in reality means 56 for one and 58 for another. Which is why you will see a lorry taking ages to overtake another once it pulls out of its slip stream. Throw in a slight gradient, then any heavy trailers will start to slow down, which is why it is very frustrating to be overtaking a wagon, only to be blocked by someone poodling along oblivious to the 38 tonner in their rear mirror.

Then you will get unrestricted wagons from Southern Ireland blasting past at 70mph, who are normally the worst culprits.

When it comes to driving a coach or a lorry, you have to have very good forward planning and a sixth sense for idiots, which includes other wagon and coach drivers from various nations. But speed wise, you will rarely see a UK wagon speeding. Check the number plate when he goes by, bet it's Irish

What do you want from your accountant/bookkeeper? 30th December 2015 5:18 PM

Hi Emma

What a great question! Short answer, blood

Having been burned over the years by a variety of bookkeepers and accountants, I've become quite cynical to claims and abilities.

A lot of accountants will offer (and charge more) for business advice, useful when you are in the early learning days. But from our experience, advice was inconsistent, poor or incorrect. Bookkeepers have also varied in quality, albeit supplied by whatever accountants we used, and a lot seemed to be young trainees or apprentices, so more prone to mistakes and human error.

Our current bookkeeper/accountant is a breath of fresh air, and is everything we want (and expect).

Regular and consistent onsite book keeping. He could be virtual in theory, but it's nice being able to ask any questions or go through any issues face to face.
Proactive financial related business advice, eg claiming R&D, making sure we are tax efficient.
Keeping current on all the latest regulations and walking us through anything that impacts us, such as the recent pensions changes.
Giving us the confidence we are squeaky clean with HMRC and have no unexpected surprises or worries.
Last one is cost, because whoever can deliver and give confidence, probably won't be the cheapest.

Does that help?

Business Plan Infographic - useful for new business owners 30th December 2015 4:03 PM

Mark Jones has published a great blog post about how to write a business plan. He has also created a useful infographic which new and aspiring business owners may find useful.

Thanks for this post:

Thanks from: Rebecca (PayforPrecision)

Somethings up with the weather... 30th December 2015 1:00 PM

Poor folk in Cumbria and York, what a nightmare xmas they have had.

I'm amazed our local River Avon hasn't burst. It's high but looks like it's peaked. Down the road, Tewkesbury is one that normally regularly floods, where the Avon and Seven meet, but looks like they have escaped serious flooding so far.

Anyone else in work this week? 30th December 2015 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by Barney

“just about to unblock a toilet (I'll post a pic of it later)

”

lovely

Just had a panic stations phone call from a charity looking for an emergency plumber in Edinburgh, along with a call yesterday from someone looking for a roofer. Obviously ideal weather for allied trades, although I seem to have become a personal 118 service

Right back to spreadsheets, fudging numbers and browsing facebook...

Anyone else in work this week? 29th December 2015 9:05 AM

Judging by the lack of cars in the car park, and ghost town feel of the business centre, it looks like few of the 80+ businesses based here are opening up.

Great chance to catch up while it's quiet, downside is I'll have to make my own coffee

Anyone else working, or am I talking to myself

Somethings up with the weather... 24th December 2015 11:19 AM

My kids have asked if we will get snow tomorrow

Tried explaining the weathers not really co-operating, but have been told by one of my daughters it must snow because the elves told her it would. With logic like that, I've got no where to go, so have explained it's the BBC weather reporter ladies fault. I'm sure she won't mind..

About as much chance of having snow at xmas these days as Labour winning the next election.

Do pretty websites convert sales? 24th December 2015 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by Digitalhound

“For instance, we use GA on our own site but have also had deploy 81 filters to weed out spam traffic from dubious sites originating mainly from Russia that redirect you to affiliate offers etc. - we were hit last night from this traffic2cash.xyz URL with the following”

UA spam is one of my biggest headaches. Was going to do a thread about this, but forgot

Here's we get regularly targeted and filter out:

Can't believe GA hasn't addressed this. It's such a powerful tool, and this is just an annoyance that needs to be fixed.

Still don't really understand what spamming your GA number achieves? It's not genuine traffic, what do they get out of it?

BUS LANES INTO CYCLE SUPER HIGHWAYS 23rd December 2015 11:19 AM

Originally Posted by Rebecca (PayforPrecision)

“How do you expect them to do it? They can't carry a spade and bucket round...”

Horses, like tractors and any agricultural machinery should be banned from the road! That's what god created fields for

That's It... 23rd December 2015 11:09 AM

lol the script for Barney the screenplay continues!

Could be the new national Lampoons, or maybe confessions of a heating engineer?