Proactive Paul

Duncan Bannatyne and views on non-doms

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Is The Telegraph contradicting itself?

The headline article on page B1 of today’s UK edition of The Telegraph, relating to Duncan Bannatyne and the non-dom issue is here.

The real detail is not (see foot note) on The Telegraph’s web site though! I wonder why that is?

So here you are, this is Duncan’s column from page B12  . . .

THE recent revelations about

Lord Ashcroft’s non-dom

status only serve to

strengthen my belief that it is high

time we understood fully the effect

of non-doms on the UK economy

and on business owners and

entrepreneurs.

Although non-doms are not

required to pay tax on earnings

made outside the UK, that’s not

the end of it. They can also reduce

the tax on their UK earnings, and

here’s how it can happen.

A non-dom simply needs to say

that his or her UK company is

managed by a board of directors

outside the UK and then make a

charge to the company for

“management services”. This

reduces the pre-tax profit of the

company and so reduces its

corporation lax bill.

The money transferred offshore

for “management services” is tax

free and can be used to fund the

non-dom lifestyle abroad - the

yachts, planes and mansions.

The non-dom situation is very

relevant to business owners like

me in the UK because we iind

ourselves at a distinct disadvantage

when competing with businesses

owned by non-doms. Normal UK

business owners pay taxes on all

earnings before paying for a new

car or a family holiday, unlike nondoms,

so there is less money

available to pump back into the

future of their businesses.

This is not. the fault of the nondoms;

rather, it is the laws that

allow them lo play the system that

need addressing.

Non-doms have to provide for

their families and they often give

generously to charities abroad. I

understand their motivations

completely. But the situation is not

fair and the laws need to be

changed; if they aren’t, the vast

majority of UK businesses will feel

unfairly penalised and more of our

country’s assets will be conn-oiled

by non-doms.

A case in point is the recent

announcement by my non-dom

friend and colleague James Caan.

He is venturing into the health

club industry and has acquired five

existing clubs.

As I pay UK tax on all of the

earnings that fund my lifestyle,

and corporation lax on all of the

profits made by my businesses, I

am clearly at an unfair

disadvantage. It’s just as well

James and I get on so well, and

there couldn’t be a nicer man to be

in competition with, but you see

my point. And what about all the

other health club operators up and

down the country without nondom

status?

The Lord Ashcroft story

highlights the inadequacy of the

domicile rule when applied to

taxation, and points to the urgent

need for reform.

In my view, all UK residents

should have a duly to pay UK tax

unless they can prove that they arc

paying equivalent taxes elsewhere

in the world. This would level the

business playing Held and

encourage, rather than stifle, the

growth of enterprise and small

business in this country.

A change would also create

badly-needed revenue to the

exchequer and help to ensure that

our economy emerges as strongly

as possible from the downturn, by

rewarding innovation and

productivity, rather than giving the

ability to exploit tax loopholes.

Duncan Bannatvne is the founder and

chairman of Bannatyne Fitness and

author of bestsellinq books Anyone Can

Do It and Wake Up and Change Your Life.

His new book, How to Be Smart with Your

Time, is out on April 15.

I agree with Duncan Bannatyne!

Foot note

What I found rather odd today was that the B1 article was easy to find, and this B12 article was “hidden away”! Thanks for finding it @pillsburyb

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Posted on 18 Mar 2010 by Proactive Paul

Apply a little lubricant

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Use your imagination

I’m working on a new Wiki at the moment, and Benjamin Ellis has given me a useful idea! In a tweet from SXSW - that’s a big conference for geeks (and others), held every year in the USA - Benjamin said:

Now, whilst he was probably thinking in broader terms than I, it made me think a bit more about the nature of the Wikis which I’m running. All of the business ones and the one I have personally.

What are the Wikis for? If not to reduce friction? Anytime I have to tackle something new, like getting a Huawei stick to work on a Mac, I add a new page to the Wiki. That means that the next time I have to do that task, I don’t waste time and energy trying to work out the solution. I simply go and search the Wiki to find the notes that I wrote last time.

In business, areas of friction benefit from a bit of lubricating with a Wiki! We are always trying to make our credit control procedures a little better at Proactive. More effective, more of a regular routine and less of a daunting task! We work on that Wiki page regularly. And today it’s Tuesday, so it’s credit control phone call day. Did you get a statement from us yesterday?

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Posted on 16 Mar 2010 by Proactive Paul

The KCL City Networking Breakfast

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Global Regulation - what do customers want from banks?

Allow me to introduce myself! I’m the guy who likes GTD. That’s “getting things done”. I got you to look at my blog didn’t I!

I’m known as Proactive Paul and I am The Proactive Accountant Dot Com. At Proactive, we like getting things done! We are the sort of accountants that don’t hang around, don’t delay the work, and don’t waste time. Interested?

And we’re paperless, so that makes the relationship with the accountant easier, quicker and cheaper. Now you are interested! We also have a great working relationship with HSBC, and what we want from a bank is the same thing that we give our clients . . . accuracy, brevity and speed.

And all that stuff about Turkeys and Hawks? It’s here.

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Posted on 11 Mar 2010 by Proactive Paul

A new approach to insanity

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If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got

Apparently, Einstein is credited with the expression . . .

“Insanity . . .”

“the art of doing the same old thing and expecting better results”

That’s probably why businesses try to re-invent themselves every three years, and try to modify where they sit in the market. Many years ago I started on the professional speaking circuit by being a small fish in a small sea, centred around (what was then called) Ashford Chamber of Commerce.

Jim Collins suggests that we should all have BHAGs, or Big Hairy Audacious Goals. So, I’m aiming to be a big fish! Watch this space.

What’s your BHAG?

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Posted on 9 Mar 2010 by Proactive Paul

London traffic is getting worse

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When is it safe to use a bicycle?

Over the height of the winter, I barely cycled anywhere. In the past few days I have been out and about again, on the bike, rather than on the Tube.

Two things occur to me. On a bike I can time my journeys perfectly. On the Tube, the changes to the Circle Line and the Hammersmith and City Line have had an adverse effect. I have regularly spent between 15 and 17 minutes standing on a platform at Aldgate East station waiting for a Hammersmith and City Line train. At first I couldn’t believe it was that long, so lately I have been timing it. The timetable says every 8 to 12 minutes (off peak) and the reality is 15 to 17 minutes.

So, I am back on the bike. And in the past few weeks, lots of new roadworks have sprung up. Some junctions have been modified, and (what are they doing to Oxford Street?) everywhere seems to be narrower. Motorists who sometimes cycle, do at least try to allow some space for cyclists. Motorists who never cycle are obviously identified by their ill thought conduct.

I also drive in central London from time to time, and it looks to me as if the initial impact of the congestion charge has worn off completely! I know all the main routes and many quick work arounds. You know, the sort of route which is longer, but gets you there quicker. And these are changing. One way streets are appearing where they used to be two way. Traffic light phasing is becoming ever more delayed.

It looks to me as if there is a political undercurrent which is saying “make it worse for them, and some of them will give up . . . and that will make it better for the rest”.

So, watch me cut down on personal meetings, and start investigating video “meetings” on Skype!

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Posted on 5 Mar 2010 by Proactive Paul

Using a Web-n-Walk stick with Snow Leopard

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Thankfully users step in where the vendor doesn’t

I pushed out a tweet yesterday, because I was unable to get my 18 month old T-Mobile broadband stick to work on my new MacBook Pro. I was also unable to find out (a) why there was a problem and (b) what I needed to do about it. Thanks to Chris Dobson on a discussion forum, we all have the solution. Here are my abridged details based on Chris Dobson’s original.

The problem - the software built into the Web-n-Walk stick (and also on the CD) does not have a driver for Snow Leopard. The solution . . .

1. Remove the stick from your MacBook before starting this.

2. The driver is available from a packge on T Mobile’s Austrian web site as per Chris, or you can download the one file you need from my server.

3. Snow Leopard driver - huaweidatacarddriver26-intelpkg.zip

4. Unzip the file and then install the software in the normal way.

5. Plug in your Web-n-Walk Stick.

6. The ’Network Preferences’ utility appears.

7. The list includes Huawei Mobile.

8. Click on that to configure it.

9. Enter *99# in the telephone number box.

10. Check the box to show modem status in the menu bar.

11. Click ‘Apply’ and the modem icon should appear.

Each time you need the service click on the icon and connect and disconnect as required. And just to prove that it works, I disabled Airport for a moment, connected with the stick and behold . . . this is the first blogpost I have ever written on a Mac.

Now that I can use the web when I’m mobile, I’m really looking forward to making use of the 7 hour battery on the Mac. That’s in contrast to the 7 minute battery on the old Acer!

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Posted on 4 Mar 2010 by Proactive Paul

The Social Media Dilemma

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Feedback from FastTrack

I was at the FastTrack event in London last night and the gathering illustrated the gulf between those who are on-message and off-message, in the world of Social Media (SM).

For the moment, there are a few SM experts around, and a number of people who claim to be SM experts.  Fifty years ago, this sort of discussion would have been about the telephone and not SM, and in fifty years time (perhaps just twenty or even ten)  anybody claiming to be an SM expert will be laughed at, in the same way that we would laugh at somebody today who claims to be able to teach us how to use telephones.

So my first point is, if you’re an SM expert (genuine or make-believe) then you have no more than ten years to make your fortune and retire. If you’re failing to capitalise on that market now, give up and go back to your day job.

The second point is that, according to the experts, an SM backlash is in the offing. By the end of this year, we are going to see people adopt a love hate relationship with SM and there’ll be few people in the middle. If you’re aiming to make an impact, don’t set your targets too high. As one speaker said at FastTrack, it’s better “to go for the low hanging fruit”.

I picked up two useful tips.

• Give - give something to the market and build your SM presence around that
• Lion - on LinkedIn the expression LION means “I will follow you without question”

Here’s my profile on LinkedIn. LION actually stands for Linked In Open Networkers. Making use of both of those nuggets of information, we can all grow our SM networks. But can we make them work? Well, if that gets me nearer to some more low hanging fruit, that’s good enough for me.

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Posted on 2 Mar 2010 by Proactive Paul

Happy New Year!

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Lifestyle Saturday

A new year and new plans! It has also been a time to reflect on the old year. And here are three things that worked for me in 2009, and which I had only just dabbled in previously . . .

• A wiki
• A blog
• A Samba server

All three have been around for more than a year, but 2009 will be remembered for being the year when they all began to stand on their own two feet. I’d like to be able to say “reached their maturity” but that would be too ambitious! Ah . . . perhaps this year?

Posted on 2 Jan 2010 by Proactive Paul

A beautiful garden

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More Profit in Less Time - The Wednesday Tip

Business owners often focus on individual clients and individual needs. Whilst that can be a good thing in some ways, it can be detrimental in others. Particularly when you unintentionally end up neglecting other clients.

It has been suggested that we should take a holistic view. Concentrate (as it were) on making a beautiful garden. Birds and butterflies will come and go. Often it will be the same ones returning time and time again. But it doesn’t always have to be the same ones. Sentimentality leads us to nurture clients who need more time and attention. Is that good for the whole business?

Could you achieve more by focusing more on the garden, than on the birds and the butterflies? Is it time to become hard nosed businessman?

Posted on 9 Dec 2009 by Proactive Paul

The changing face of work

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Technology Thursday

I have had a computerised to do list for a long time now. However, at work there has still been a lingering feeling that you can judge how much work has to be done, by the amount of paper lying around.

Where I work we went paperless on 1 Jan 2008, that’s nearly two years ago. However, we still receive paperwork from lots of clients, and our hybrid system retains processes from the days of paper management. There are still batches of paper in pigeon holes, although the quantity is only around 20% of what it used to be.

Going paperless was relatively easy and one day I’ll write a book about it. An e-book? Anyway, what has been less easy is letting go of the “visualisation” of the work load and relying on the computerised to do list as a primary driver of activity. It was always rather than a secondary management tool, rather like a daily to do list on paper.

This year, the computerised to do list has become a critical mangement tool, and it’s time to change the way we think.

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Posted on 3 Dec 2009 by Proactive Paul