Did You Know?

Not more TAX

As from today letters from HM Revenue and Customers will start dropping on to door mats all over the country, as they start the process of informing good honest tax payers that they have calculated your tax liability incorrectly.

It is estimated that 5.7 million of us have paid the incorrect sum through our PAYE coding notice (the tax free allowance used to calculate your employment pay) 1.4 million will have paid too little and a staggering 4.3 million will have paid too much and therefore are due a refund.

How has this arisen, many believe that HMRC is a 19th century organisation attempting to operate in the 21st century, the PAYE system implemented in 1944 is unable to cope with the modern demands of tax payers having multiple income streams and changing employment more frequently than ever before.

The new computer system costing £400 million pounds to install in January of this year has fallen short of the mark and this has resulted in over 2000 HMRC employers being taken off normal duties to instead tackle the recovery process.

A HMRC spokesperson said they are issuing 45,000 a week and therefore if you have not received a letter yet then you could possibly receive one any time into December based on the current rate of letters being posted out.

From my experience with both working for HMRC and regular dealings with them there is a high possibility that they could be issuing such letters well in to 2011.
There may be hope if you are asked to pay money back although marginal; if you contact me I will be more than willing to talk you through the process.

Is it too good to be true?

A few days back I received an email inviting me to attend a seminar, although I am usually extremely skeptical of such invites from people I have not met. This invite has intrigued me slightly, is this the seminar I have been looking for the tips and skills offered could be just what I need to move my business on to the next stage.

So I decided to do a bit of research and find out a bit more about the speaker, yes his website appears on google page one, but not much is given away.

I post a tweet, nothing, I mention an associate of his and this gets one favorable response but only for the associate. What next I post a thread on the 4N Networking forum after some 8 hours and stacks of viewings one comment is left, and they doubt his credibility as a leader in his field although they have never heard of him.

What to do as I still feel tempted to attend the one day seminar.

A bit more research through Face Book I follow some of his friends and discover that I start noticing mutual friends, the emails have been sent and I await the response, but I’m thinking one day £65 what have I to lose you never know what you are going to learn do you?

I will keep you posted on the Peter Thompson Seminar......

Too much to blog

When I started my blog back in June I vividly remember thinking that i would struggle thinking of things to write, how wrong could I have been it seems to be almost the complete opposite, I have so much to say I do not get enough time to blog it if you catch my drift.

So many inspiring things have happened to me this week, firstly it started off on Monday with a 4N networking seminar, as the marketing assistant for the Aylesbury group we were whizzed of to a marquee in the very wet country side of Northampton. We were motivate by the 4 networking team, swapped ideas on how to grow our groups and shared in some good old fashioned networking (welcome to my blog for those of you I met on Monday...enjoy).

Last week a client so pleased with the result I had secured for him with HMRC dropped in a small gift to show his appreciation , firstly it was indeed my only ever gift from a client and secondly it was not a bottle of cheap wine.
In fact it was a book called Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, what an eye opening and inspiring book, which has certainly made me think about my financial position and future.

The book has influenced me to such a degree that I decided to use it as a basis for my Berkhamsted Speakers club speech on Tuesday evening.

Working from my “communicating on television” manual project 2 – the talk show, I asked Roger Leffare, to interview me. The idea behind the interview was that I had just entered The Times 100 Rich List. I was absolutely amazed at the end when the attendees asked me if I was actually rich and if I was on the list, the entire room had bought into what i was saying and the presentation was a fantastic success, so much so that I won the speech of the evening my first ever.

Like I said at the start so much stuff happens I cannot keep up with blogging it all, I am on such a high this week I just know that something truly amazing and fantastic is about to happen to me.

Watch out for the video of the speech on YouTube, as soon as I set up the account and work it all out I will let you know so that you can make up your own mind.

The Week that Was................................

Can you believe it as we looked out of our upstairs window on Monday afternoon the BT van was parked on the other side of the road and the engineer (word to be used loosely) was busy at work in his green box.

The van disappeared and if by magic so did our telephone line and broadband.

A quick question have you tried living without the internet?

Well we did for five days I continually reported the fault to BT, who told me it was a major fault at the exchange, I started twittering about the service now BT follow me (Big Brother).

Friday evening they came to fix the major fault, or the two wires the engineer cut on Monday afternoon.

Thank you BT, I look forward to my compensation....

PRESS CONFERENCE

That got your attention, and so it should as tomorrow night at the advanced speaking club Cornerstone Communicators, I will be hosting the evening as Toast Master of the Evening (TME).

In this role it is for me to choose a theme for the evening, and I have decided that three or four speakers will have to present a press conference. I have chosen some themes such as “a breaking news story” “a celebrity” “Royalty”. I had thought that everything was well arranged until this morning I opened my email to find out I was a speaker less, thank the internet for Facebook (I never thought I would say that) a speaker was online Trevor Jones, and he has accepted the challenge.

If you fancy coming along to see how it goes please get in touch all are very welcome.

BLOG FOR SALE!

Blog for Sale, I have just read that Amazon are selling Iain Dale`blog and rightly so he is a bit miffed about it. This has got me thinking though do you think any would want to pay cash to read mine, don’t worry reader I have no plans to start charging to read my ramblings in the near future.

A Taxing Week

For those of you hoping to see my debut on You Tube the wait continues, even though afters hours of practice for my Toast Masters speech on Tuesday evening things did not quite go the way I wanted.

So for the time being the video will not be out there to view, although those there and my wife Beckie who has seen the video were all very encouraging and that is certainly appreciated, you just know when you fall short.

This leaves me focusing on something I have heard said “learn from your mistakes”. I will be.

As always life is very busy, new clients, Cornerstone Communicators and Aylesbury 4N next week and somehow I have my own VAT Return to do.

I don’t like networking I LOVE IT!

Yes it Thursday and more importunately it’s a fortnight since the last Aylesbury 4N breakfast meeting, which can only mean it’s time once again to make my way to The Holiday Inn Aston Clinton Road Aylesbury.

As the marketing assistant for the group I have spent the last few days plugging the meeting on twitter and the 4N forum, as well as ringing round all in an attempt to ensure that we have a well attended meeting well its August you now.
And I was not disappointed a fairly decent turn out for the holiday season and as always there were some great people there.

Steve Baker opened the meeting as Group Leader www.sbfinancial.co.uk and we quickly made our way on to the 40 second round (or the elevator pitch).
As always I was trying to think of something to say and it went something like this;
I don`t like tax .... I LOVE IT (now that got a laugh) Then I said repeat after me “I don`t like tax “and surely they did at which point I said great then I can look after you tax affairs.

Not a bad 40 seconds sure it got me noticed as I had a few positive comments on it throughout the meeting.

Today we were in for a real treat as Heather Salter of Jigsaw HR www.jigsawhr.com spoke to us about communicating with new clients, she discussed some NLP tips including mirroring which was a bit bizarre as earlier in the meeting during a conversation with Heather we started mirroring each other. Heather mentioned that some people are more open to hearing things others seeing things and others like to hear stories, a lot to take in and this is certainly something I will be looking in to a bit more.

Then we moved on to our 121 appointments this is a ten minute appointment with three other people in the room. Today I spoke with Roy Virjee of Direct Route; we talked about the launching of his new website and social media. I know Roy took this on board as he has already started researching and emailing links to me. Unfortunately Roy has not yet emailed me the URL of his new site, but rest assured I will let you all know about it as soon as I do.

Then I spoke with Margaret Keane of HRdept, who I have never had the pleasure of speaking with before, the appointment flew by and felt like just a couple of minutes and not ten, we enjoyed our self so much we never even got around to talking about our business, looks like we will have to have another 121 next time.

For my third appointment of the day was Roger Whitaker of Pink Connect roger@thestanigallery.co.uk Roger is a busy man, and he was telling me about his new project in which he is putting artists paintings into pubs to sell, sounds like an interesting idea as the artwork he is displaying is amazing.

After the meeting closed I just had time to catch up with my great friend Sue Rutson of Inspiration Coaching www.inspiration-coaching.com we as always had a fantastic chat in which she told me about the book she is writing, stick with it Sue I always wanted to know a famous author.

It was also good to see the return of my friend Lucy AWESOME Squires freshly made cakes not provided never mind Lucy it was still great to see you I look forward to seeing your 4 Sight.

If you have not been to a 4 Networking meeting give it a go it works, have a look at their web site http://www.4networking.biz/.

I am certainly looking forward to the next meeting

Clients Poem

Its good to be in the sunshine,
to feel the stroke of the sun,
It makes me feel so sublime
and you want to spoil my fun!

I know I have to do it
I know it must be done
I know its a business remit
but for me its just not fun!

And so dear Jonathan
I hear your wails from here,
And just for you I'll get it done
so please put away your fear!

Just tell me what I have to do
before we sit and meet
and I will do what the good ones do
- won't that be quite a treat?

Raise Your Profile?

Has the penny just dropped, what am I talking about you ask?

Raising your profile for my Tax & Accountancy practice Tax Matters

It’s simple I need to work on a speech that I can deliver to a wide ranging audience; I therefore need to find an angle that makes tax interesting.

So how do I make such a subject interesting, the word itself makes many switch off immediately do you talk about how to avoid paying, do you explain how it works, do you explain where it goes or do you explain the history?

Did I miss anything, surely the answer has to be a combination doesn`t it?
And that is the easy part, once I have crafted my speech and practiced and practiced I then need to find an audience.

Maybe that’s were all the social networking comes in Twitter Face Book and 4 Networking.

I am always open to suggestions please feel free to let me know what you think.

Tax Matters

Please Remember to sign up to follow Sspeeches & Cream, and you are always welcome to leave a comment at the foot of the posting.

Tough Challenge

Well who would have thought it the task in hand must be relatively easy one, all I had to do was deliver a three minute speech at Berkhamsted Speakers Club on Tuesday evening what could be simpler?

The catch was I had to sit down and deliver the speech, sounds easy, not. After a year of delivering speeches walking around my stage area using body language, this task completely through me. Although the feedback from the club was supportive I had to ask my self the question was I satisfied with my performance and the answer truthfully was NO.

So based on that answer I have decided to rework the speech a little and present it again at the next meeting on Tuesday 10th August please come and support me.

As promised here is the speech and I will be reworking it a little for next time.

What Goes Up Must Come Down!
On the afternoon of the 22nd June the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne presented his first coalition budget address to parliament and the country.
As he took his place at the dispatch box in which he gave a 55 minute address and banged on the dispatch box 85 times whilst taking 3 sips of Water he announced that VAT would rise from 17.5% to 20% on the 4th January 2011.

Harriet Harman replied to this by saying that this increase would punish the poorest most.... and that pensioners would have less money in their pockets.
Unfortunately, the new coalition government have to find ways to address the deficit and by raising VAT by 2.5% it is expected that this will raise an additional income of £13 Billion a year by the end of parliament.

The increase will mean that the government do not need to make extra cuts or raise income tax.

Although, many would argue that raising taxes is a fairer and more appropriate alternative as those earning more would pay more tax.

This would not have the effect the government desire, extra income tax rises would force employees to ask for pay increases that would both eventually drive up inflation, and increase the wages bill which could deter foreign employers from trading in the UK. As the government are actively trying to tempt new business to the UK by decreasing corporation tax over the next four years tax rises are certainly not an option.

However it can be said that a VAT rise has a minimal effect on the poor as many items are except from VAT, items such as food, children’s clothing, newspapers and books items that could be described to be the necessities of life.

If you are on a low income are you likely to be buying items that are subject to VAT on a regular basis?

The more positive tax payer may choose not to focus on the VAT increase but on the increase in the personal allowance which will rise from £6,475 to £7,475 next April putting an extra £1,000 in our pocket for those of earning.

Wasn`t it Sir Isaac Newton who said What goes up must come down, who knows in a couple of years time we could be saying what a great chancellor when he reduces the VAT rate by 1%.

I have a dream

When the chancellor George Osborne said, his dream was "that people might actually understand the tax laws which they were being asked to comply with". What was he talking about?

Well last week the Office of Tax Simplification was launched the chancellor stated that the "spaghetti bowl" of UK tax law is to be simplified to cut the burden on business and attract foreign investment.
It is very true that we have an extremely complex tax system with 11,000 pages on tax codes.

The intention is to initially focus on two areas, the first being the allowances exemptions and some 400 reliefs with the intention to streamline the system.
Secondly will be music to many ears, as the OTS will examine the controversial IR35 legislation. They hope to be able to announce a simplified alternative to this unpopular tax system introduced in the late 1990`s.

With the announcement of cuts in spending highlighted by the coalition government, combined with Mr Osborne` earlier words “push for a bonfire of the quangos" Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrnehow raised the question of how the OST is to be funded?

Mr Gauke said the OTS would be paid for out of existing budgets.
In addition the chairman of the body will be former Conservative MP and Treasury minister Michael Jack and its director will be John Whiting, formerly of PricewaterhouseCoopers, who is tax director at the Chartered Institute of Taxation. Neither will be paid.

It is hoped that any reforms will hope to stimulate Economic growth.
Many will applaud the government’s decision to look at the UK tax system any especially the position of IR35, let’s just hope that the desired result of SIMPLIFICATION is achieved.

We all remember the introduction of Self Assessment which was supposedly introduced to let the average tax payer take control of their tax affairs in an easy to understand way.

We will all be waiting on the side lines with bated breath.

Not me again?

How do I get roped in?

Although it has come of no real surprise to me, I have to say a few words at the Cornerstone Communicators meal this evening.

The meal is a celebration of the club chartering and now being officially recognised within Toastmasters International.

As the club president is unfortunately unable to attend, it has fallen to me as Vice President of Education to step into his shoes and say a few words at the start of the evening.

Apparently, there will be some very senior officers from Toastmasters present this evening, just adding a bit more pressure on me.

So here we go my third public speaking performance this week.......

After Eight (and not the mint)

News Round up a bit like John Craverns legendary children’s TV news programme but without the now so awful jumpers.

It seems unbelievable that the last week has flown by so quickly, as you will recall I was planning to present my first speech from the communicating on television manual at the Berkhamsted speakers club last Tuesday, however for the first time everI had to cry off due to being slightly under the weather which was very disappointing. If you were hoping to see a transcript of my speech you will have to log in next Wednesday.

Thankfully, I was fit and well by Monday and able to attend the advance Toast Masters speakers club Cornerstone Communicators, where I delivered my speech “After eight (and not the mint)”.

I thought that I would kill two speech opportunities with one stone (speech), using Monday night as a practice run for the Berkhamsted Speakers after dinner competition on the following night.

With seven entries for the competition I was not expecting to win which is just as well as I did not, but to be fair that are some remarkable speakers at Berkhamsted toast masters and the trial run from the previous night proved to be extremely useful.

It was nice to receive an email suggesting that I should have been placed but the truth is there can only be one winner and I am just learning a new skill which just needs a bit of fine tuning.

So what is ahead, possibly a minor speaking roll at the Cornerstone Charter meal on Friday evening if the club president arrives late, and then we start of where we started with next Tuesday.

I am sure there are some more possible speaking opportunities at 4N Business Breakfast Networking which I should be exploring but I need to ensure that I have a good theme and I am sure you will agree speaking about Tax can put many people back to sleep, however there is a thread and with a bit of thought it will definitely come to me before I know it.

For those of you who missed my speech here is the transcript I look forward to hearing your comments.

After Eight (and not the mint)

This is the scenario you have attended a lovely meal with colleagues and friends and then the host for the evening stands up to introduce the name of the after dinner speaker.....That person is you.

When you were asked several weeks back to say a few words it sounded such a good idea, but a couple of days before hand the realisation set in and you started to appreciate the difficulty of your task...and you’re not even doing this for money
An after dinner speech is in some ways very different to that of a normal presentation the guests will have had one hopes a fine meal and several glasses of wine, and now they want to sit back and be entertained.

Your first hurdle of the evening is a simple one how are you going to entertain them. You could tell them about the time you put salad cream on your pudding at school by accident. That joke you tell so well, if you could only remember the punch line. And don’t forget to then tell them a heart breaking story about a man from somewhere who overcame a personal tragedy and through hope and determination became a much stronger person.

You see it wasn`t that difficult was it?

Did I mention the fear, the dry mouth the sweaty hands the shaking that desperate need to visit the little room.

But what is FEAR every time we get ourselves into a situation where we need to “Fight or Flight” a pair of small endocrine glands just above the kidneys secrete a powerful hormone that pumps it way through our blood stream raising our heart rate and causing a face to go red.... that hormone is Adrenaline.

You see it wasn`t that difficult was it?

Did I mention the heckler?

Although you are unlikely to encounter such a situation its always a good idea to be prepared for the drunk at the back of the room who is bitter and twisted because he was not asked to be in your shoes right now, and because he knew that he could not have delivered such an entertaining speech.

However, he has started heckling what are you going to do, ignore him smile pause and continue, but you feel the need to say something, “Thank you” this should keep you on the moral high ground and prevents a slanging match incurring.

He continues you need to say something the audience are fed up with him, don`t try to be a comedian it is unlikely to work, you could however try something like “I really should ask my dad to stop coming to hear me speak” and smile. Always SMILE, hopefully this will get you some laughter and empathy from your audience.

I recently read this exchange of words between Bessie Braddock and Winston Churchill

“Winston, you are drunk, and what’s more, you are disgustingly drunk.”

Churchill: “Bessie, my dear, you are ugly, and what’s more, you are disgustingly ugly. And tomorrow morning at least I shall be sober.”

You see it wasn`t that difficult was it? WAS IT?

New Aussie PM

Perhaps not quite the headline Julia Gillard had wanted

A New Chapter

It’s the second Tuesday of the month which can only mean one thing its TOASTMASTERS night.

Although giving a speech is still quite a big deal for me Tuesday night is the start of a new chapter yes the first chapter of the new book “Communicating on Television”. The first project is a 3 minute news presentation on a topical news story.

Now that sounds like it could have been written for me, but strangely enough it’s me who has done all the writing.

So what do you think I could possibly be speaking about BP the Labour Leadership Contest (saving that for my Humorous Speech contest entry) no I am speaking about VAT.

I am sure you are all sitting on the edges of your seats, well if you want to hear it I suggest you make your way down to the Quaker Hall in Berkhamsted for 8pm for an entertaining evening.

If however you cannot make you may be lucky enough to get to see the published article together with the evaluation notes over the next few days.

Don`t pay too much tax in July

For those of us who have to prepare a Self Assessment Tax Return the 31st July is a date in our diaries that we fear as much as the dreaded 31st January.

On the 31st July we will be making an additional payment to HM Revenue & Customs against our estimated tax liability for the tax year ended 5th April 2010.

However, when we submitted our tax return on or before the 31st January 2010, we did not know what our tax liability was going to be for the 2009/10 tax year so HMRC assume that it will match your 2008/09 tax liability and ask you to make two equal payments on 31st January and 31st July in order to settle your liability in full.
So what happens if you tax liability is higher, easy you pay what is called a balancing payment on the following 31st January 2011 together with the first payment on account for 2010/11, and so the cycle goes round.

But and there is always a but, your taxable income has dropped in the year ended 5th April 2010. Maybe you are struggling to get funds together to pay your Second Payment on Account.

Don`t worry, you can always apply to reduce your payments on account to even as low as £Nil, the down side is that if you over reduce them and there is in fact tax due HMRC will charge you interest on the shortfall.

The best thing to do is to prepare your 2009/10 Tax Return as early as possible before 31st July 2010, by doing this you will be able to confirm your tax liability and therefore establish if you can reduce your Payments on Account and by how much without any fear of suffering interest charges on an inaccurate claim.

Also in my experience the summer months are always a good time to send your book and records to your accountant as this allows him sufficient time to ensure your return is correct instead of attempting to beat the deadline date of 31st January 2011.

Tomato Plant

After the chaos of Wednesday with both having to blow up balloons at my pub for the England football game, and Ashleigh-jo my daughter playing with my laptop, she managed to get the display on the screen to rotate 180 degrees. I never thought I would get my 4 Networking presentation prepared for the following morning.

Thankfully with the assistance of Jim Symington from Chiltern business Computing who remotely fixed the problem after a few scary movements, I was up and running again and able to print off all the hand outs for the following day.

I arrived Thursday morning at the Holiday Inn there were 17 booked in and a few extra guests also turned up. The presentation or 4 Sight as it is called is a ten minute talk on an insight in to your business. So of I went ten minutes to talk about the budget, all though it started off a bit shaky (probably nerves), the 4 Sight lasted a record breaking 25 minutes it felt like ten. I really enjoyed there were questions all the way through and I also asked questions to get the audience involved.

After I had finished I received plenty of complimentary comments, which I am sure you will agree is pleasing to the ear. I am confident that if I had not joined toast Masters last year I would never have had the confidence to stand up there. In fact it is because of 4N that I joined TM, as I wanted to improve my 40 second introduction. It is true to say that I still suffer from nerves and this is evident in the opening moments of my speeches, this however gives me something to work on.

So would I recommend raising the profile of your business through public speaking YES, after the event I spoke with three people who were all very interested in engaging my business TAX MATTERS.

As I sit in my tiny office finishing off this and that as the sun is shining outside, I will shortly be switching of my lap top for the week as I head of to Devon with the family, I’m sure you will agree a well deserved rest. But before I leave I must report that Tomato plant....

The Red Box

A day late I know but just like George, Osborne that is the Chancellor of the Exchequer I have been a bit busy.

The Chancellor yesterday came to the dispatch box and delivered his first Budget address to Parliament and indeed the Nation. Throughout his 55 minute address he sipped on his water 3 times and banged on the dispatch box 85 times he announced cuts in public spending freezes on civil servants pay over £21,000 and he talked about tax yes TAX.

The Personal Allowance is to increase by £1,000 in April 2011 from £6,475 to £7,645 leading to an additional £200 in each tax payer’s pocket, and at the same time removing 880,000 people from the tax system.

VAT is to increase from 17.5% to 20% on the 4th January 2011, it is anticipated that this increase will raise an additional £13 Billion pounds which will certainly help reduce the deficit. All though this has come as a shock many commentators were predicting a rise of anything up to 22%. It is somewhat of a relief to discover that only the standard rate of VAT has been raised, as prior to the announcement there was speculation that Reduced Rate 5% and the Zero Rate may have been altered.
Although I appreciate that the increase is unwelcome we still have a moderately low VAT rate compared to other countries in the EU such as Sweden 25% and Ireland 21%, however Spain rate is 16%.

It is also worth remembering that Zero rate is applied to Food Children’s clothes and newspapers and fuel is charged at the Reduced Rate of 5%.

Capital Gains tax again there was much speculation within the media that the tax charged on the disposal of such assets as share portfolios and secondary homes could rise from 18% to anything up 40%. Thankfully the Chancellor acted in my opinion appropriately by raising the rate to 28% for higher rate tax payers and maintaining the rate for basic rate tax payers at 18%.

So much occurred in this announcement not only the tax implications but there were also the cuts in public spending, one of the most sensational newspaper headlines focus on the cuts on Tax Credits for people earning in excess of £40,000, although it was confirmed that the poorest would receive an additional £150.

The Chancellor anticipates that the average house hold will suffer by £400 even though the 10% poorest people will suffer £200 this is in contrast to the richest who are expected to suffer in the sum of £1,800.

George Osborne described this budget as progressive and necessary.
This budget will be known as the Tax & Axe budget, but the question for all of us how did we get in this situation and is this the correct way of solving it.
Take this thought with you, the only person permitted to take refreshment in the chamber is the Chancellor when presenting the Budget Denis Healy drank Brandy and Water, Nigel Lawson drank a wine Spritzer, Gordon Brown ....Water ....(always the prudent chancellor!!)

TME

What am I talking about TME, well if you attend Toastmasters or any other public speaking club no further explanation would be required? However in good TME style I shall explain to all those present.

Toast Master of the Evening, has the duty of hosting a Toastmasters meeting, they are invited to take control of the lectern once the club president has welcome all to the meeting. You start the evening my running through the agenda and confirming any alterations before explaining how the evening will progress from the short topic section to the prepared speeches and the evaluators. It is also necessary to explain how the voting slips work together with the feedback slips. After all that you have to introduce all the speakers throughout the evening while trying to link the evening together smoothly.

Although I felt the evening went well, I certainly picked up on several points in which I could improve on, saying that I received some very encouraging feedback from the club members. So there we have it another fear faced full on and still here to tell the tail.

Now I have to step on to my next challenge Grammarian or even worse General Evaluator, combine this with starting my bronze medal manuals, officer duties (PR) completing my Competent Leadership manual, starting a second Competent Communicator manual, joining the Advanced speakers club Cornerstones and becoming the Vice President of Education I have certainly got involved with Toast Masters all most to addiction, but in all honesty I just love it.

If you fancy coming along to a meeting to see what it’s all about please let me know

A Busy Day

Talk about hectic with an ever increasing work load, and the sun shining outside which is always tempting, the chancellor decided to hold his Emergency Budget today.

With lots to report and little time to do so, as I am now heading off to Toastmasters - Berkhamsted Speakers to host this evenings meeting. I am to be as they lovingly refer to as TME (Toast Master of the Evening), this is my first visit to the lectern in this role and I look forward to it with both trepidation and excitement ( I feel a bit like George at lunch time).

As i said to little time today so i will give you more details on the budget in my next post, to add even more to my day as you may have previously read I am to give a 10 minute presentation at 4 Networking Breakfast meeting at Aylesbury this Thursday please feel free to come along.

I need a holiday to get over this hectic period roll on Saturday Devon here I come.....

And I have`t even told you how I was saved by the Bell at cornerstone advanced Speakers on Monday night.

My View

my wife said to me earlier today that my blog appears to becoming very political, at first I assured her this was because the political climate revolves currently around TAX which relates to my line of work as a Personal Tax adviser.

Although, in reality I have to say that I feel we are actually living through historic times and we all need to be active and embrace the decisions that are to follow in the following days.

Maybe just maybe we should think back to Napoleon who described the British as a Nation of Shop Keepers, what I am attempting to say is we need to take matters in to our own hands and create our own destiny instead of complaining and claiming benefits.

Today, I felt compelled to post a comment on the Blue Blog in response to a an article from Clare Perry - The new government is committed to taking tough action on the deficit.

I am sure we all appreciate that the decisions that are about to be announced on Tuesday will have significant impact on many of us. In addition I am confident that as a nation we have a real understanding of the consequences that will unfold shortly if these painful measures are not taken.

However, Alastair Darling continues to attack and criticize the measures and solutions proposed by our new chancellor to repair the mismanaged economy of thirteen years.

History I fear will not remember Brown and Darling in such high regard as they may have possibly wished.

Furthermore, although the press today appear to support George Osborne and have a real grasp of the economic situation , we need to remember that by Wednesday morning they may have returned to being a fickle breed and both George and David will need to stand proud and firm, so that history will remember them as Strong, distinguished and fearless leaders who guided us through tough times in to prosperity.


Please take the time to visit the blog and make up your own mind Blue Blog

Political Times

As Tuesdays Emergency Budget fast approaches, I feel that the details outlined below as published today, certainly spell out for politeness the MESS we are in.

The Conservatives have published Labour's Last Will and Testament, outlining thirteen years of economic failures.

The document, published ahead of next week's Emergency Budget, sets out why we must act now to reduce the deficit the previous Government left behind.

Commenting on the release of the document, Conservative Party Co-Chairman Sayeeda Warsi said:

"Let no one be in any doubt about the mess that Labour have left behind. We are all in this together and must realise the consequences of their 13 years in charge."

This is Labour's legacy:

* Every man, woman and child in Britain now owes £22,400
* We now have one of the worst deficits in Europe
* There are 2.47 million people out of work
* One in five young people is unemployed
* £3 billion on benefit overpayments and £10 million on tax credits for the dead
* Selling off Britain's gold at a 20 year low in the market.

Sayeeda added, "The cuts that are coming are Labour's cuts."

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Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I have just got my 100th twitter follower.......

Next goal 500 easy

Breakfast Networking

Breakfast Networking in Tring, this morning I was out of bed earlier than I planned as my 21 month old daughter thought 5am was a good time to wake up for the day. So by the time I made it to the Tring Together Breakfast Networking meeting I was certainly well awake. As usual there was a warm welcome from Vivian and the coffee if a bit strong was very good.

Always a great event for meeting new leads, today was certainly no exception as I was fortunate enough to speak with two people who may be interested in doing business together and all this before 9.30 in the morning.
David Sidwell, gave an interesting and informative presentation on marketing your business on the internet, I was pleased to hear that he suggested using a blog glad I started mine this week.

Then it was straight off to Amersham to have a meeting with Mark Hall of Access Business to discuss the possibility of working together in the early autumn in putting together some seminars. The meeting went well and it looks likely that this will be happening so watch this space to find out more.

Of course on the way I was busy twittering on my blackberry as I have now turned in to a twitter addict and have now got to 94 followers will I make the 100 today? Surely I will, and just in case you were following I managed to get some new shoe laces from the nice man in the shoe repair shop in Tring who always puts up the entertaining notices in the shop window when he closes up.

And just to add a bit of a feel good factor for the day, I was able to refer a friend on to a client always nice when the networking pays off.

Twitter update 96

The Morning After.....

The morning after the night before well to be fair I was very fortunate as I did not drink that much and Beckie let me stay in bed till 8.30 which is quite a late start for me. I must have needed the sleep I expect it was something to do with walking around the Zoo all that exercise, fantastic afternoon I enjoyed every minute of it.

Now that I have spent some time setting up my blog, I concentrated today on working on my Twitter account. I started the morning with 24 followers and at the time of writing this I have 62 followers. The goal for the day was to reach 100 and there are still a few hours to go so fingers crossed, I will let you know how it goes in the morning.

I understand from some of the mails I have received that some of you are having difficulties in following my blog, don`t despair the IT section (Ian Nicholls ) is going to have a look at me when he is back from his whistle stop tour of Australia.

Early start tomorrow morning I knew I would suffer for the late start today, firstly I am off to TRING TOGETHER a local Business Breakfast networking group at the Akeman in Tring, followed by a mad dash to Amersham to have a meeting about presenting some seminars (sounds both nerve racking and exciting all at the same time)....

As it is the day after my birthday I think it is only proper that the celebrations continue with a large glass of Port and fish & chips from the chip van if he ever arrives......................well I need to build my strength up for my 4 Sight presentation at the Aylesbury 4N next Thursday 24th June “the budget & you” I think I need to work on a more punchy title.

What ever your politics

What ever you politics, you have to read what Ed balls said and make sure you as they say lol "We now hear that unemployment is heading back to three million under the Tories. If anything makes me want to lead our party it's the chance to do something about it."

Birthday

It only seems like this time last year that it was my 40th Birthday probably because it was, but seriously where does all the time go. If the last few days are anything to go by it seems like I have been in the front of my laptop attempting to understand how TWITTER, FACEBOOK and BLOGGING work together.

I expect over the next year I will spend just as much if not more time in the same place as TAX MATTERS my tax & accountancy practice grows, also with now speaking in two clubs I will also be writing more speeches.

So what have I planned for the rest of the day, well I`m off to the Zoo with Beckie and Ashleigh-Jo and fingers crossed the sun will shine, I can tell with out even looking out of the window that its not a hot June day as historically June 15th is always the worst day of the hay fever season for me and touch wood not a sneeze yet.

Hectic week ahead with a breakfast network meeting in Tring on Thursday morning and then straight on to Amersham for a meeting to discuss speaking at a series of seminars (I will keep you posted on how that develops).

I will leave you for this link to Facebook of a remix of a Marvin Gaye track by a guy called Neil Tomo he was hoping to get it released but the last I heard the record company said no anyway give it a listen its amazing

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=103424873010259&ref=nf

Free Hugs

Take a look at this clip

Early Start

The delights of watching Peppa pig and the little princess at 6 in the morning, they are quickly becoming my favorites along with bottle Top Bill

Festivals

Just watching The Isle of Whight Festival on TV, wish i had tickets to GLASTO have not been for years

Welcome

After some thought and after a few days of sorting out my twitter account and Facebook page, I decided to go the whole hog as they say and set up a blog.

Being the landlord of The Queens Head in Long Marston and growing my Personal Tax & Accountancy Practice I certainly make the day busy for myself, however last year I decided to join Toastmasters International.

I expect you are thinking of those guys who do a lot of shouting at a formal dinner, WRONG. TI is all about Public Speaking (Communication and Leadership Skills). The idea is that you work your way through a serious of manuals to obtain a series of awards with the goal being distinguished toastmaster.

I have just completed my first manual the competent communicator which required you to complete ten speeches, I started the manual in Sept 09 and finished it in May 10, I must say I am very pleased with my self.

Thats all for today