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."

You can read the document in full using the document viewer below, or alternatively click here to download the document in PDFW format.

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