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Christmas wish: to develop more sector-specific products and services

David Robertson, chief executive of Bibby Financial Services, which provides cashflow solutions for business from start-ups to established businesses, explains what he would like in his Christmas stocking for the business:

“In additional to the usual socks, tangerines and chocolate money that we find in our stockings, I would also wish for health and well-being for our employees and a prosperous 2008 for all at home and work. In particular, I hope that in 2008, Bibby Financial Services has further opportunities to develop more sector-specific products and services and to continue with our global expansion plans. For the industry, I would like to see a greater unity amongst peers in promoting the industry and that influencers and SMEs would increasingly recognise asset-based finance as a credible alternative to traditional forms of finance.”

Christmas wish: no tax on profits

Julie White, managing director of Truly Madly Baby, sells quality, practical and unique products for mum and baby. She won investment on series two of the hugely successful BBC 2 business show, “Dragons’ Den”. Within five years she hopes to be amongst the top 50 female entrepreneurs in the UK.

“My first wish for Christmas would be that next year there are more hours in a day. It is wonderful running my business but as we grow it is becoming harder to fit all the work I need to do into each day.

In order for us to continue the growth we have enjoyed this year, at around 70%, we need to continually expand our number of consultants, so I would like a head start this Christmas of 200 more consultants across the UK to make January and February, which are traditionally quieter months – great months. This would give us our milestone total of 500 consultants, which Duncan Bannatyne thought we would never achieve when we appeared on Dragons’ Den…

One of my wishes would be for no tax on profits we make – we work very hard building our businesses, so please Santa can we not have the huge percentages of tax taken out of our profits anymore…?

Finally I would like a new Aston Martin DBS in a deep metallic red delivered on Christmas Day. Not much to ask and I’m sure Santa could fit one on his sleigh – just not sure if it will fit down the chimney…”

Christmas wish: a positive outlook in the media

Mike Gardner’s Christmas wish for Claremont Group Interiors, one of the UK’s largest office design and fit-out companies, is more philosophical.

It is: “… for 2008 to herald a general upturn in positivity about business conditions, and for there to be more confidence in the country’s economic future. Our company is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and is experiencing its best economic performance for seven years, with record order books involving larger and more prestigious contracts. We feel confident in our own ability and in the market in which we operate. However, the darkest cloud on the horizon is the country’s obsession with both looking, and talking, negatively, to the point where it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This results in a reduction in confidence which then translates into a reduction in both investment and consumer spending. Too little time is focused on the positive. The government and its opposition spend hours trying to undermine each other and their respective policies, rather than accentuating their own respective strengths. This results in a constantly increasing negative viewpoint. This is then amplified by a media that finds it so much easier to report bad news.

If we have growth, it is never reported as good news, it is either too fast or too slow! The vast majority of businesses in this country are small ones, even smaller than Claremont (we turn over £25m), but this important sector of the business community hardly receives a mention. The focus is on the world economy and world business. Whilst we all recognise that these global issues and companies can ultimately impact us, too much time is spent by both the government and the media focusing on them.

It would make a change for us to focus on the positives that have happened over the last many decades such as living standards improving, life expectancy increasing and the opportunity to be educated and to improve one’s lot; these have all improved for the better.

If we could focus on these positives, then perhaps we would recognise that we do get a lot right, and hopefully there is no reason that this will not continue for the foreseeable future.”

Christmas wish: an easy ride on “Dragons’ Den”

This positive attitude is echoed by Elaine Stephen, a teacher, UK Inventor of the Year and managing director of Red Island Ltd, the company which markets her first invention, the multi-award winning “Walkodile”, a child safety walking system, designed for groups of three to seven year old children.

She is in no doubt about what she’d like for Christmas:

“Sales, sales and more sales. We’ve done well so far selling Walkodile ourselves, but the time has come to move the business onto a new level. This means sales in larger volumes. More sales mean we need more sales channels, so a few good agents would be nice, with a proven sales record in the childcare sector behind them. If Santa’s elves can’t arrange that one, then how about a distributor who can help take my product right across the UK, one that won’t be too greedy for a large chunk of “wholesale discount”? – we’ve got to get our investment back as quickly as we can.
A couple of overseas distributors would be great. Walkodile can be used by kids anywhere so export markets will become increasingly important to us as we move forward. Preferably located somewhere nice like California, Paris or Rome – would make for some nice business trips!

More visits to www.walkodile.com would be great, and especially sales directly from the website – the cheapest and simplest way to get sales.

More funds for the cash-starved childcare industry: it’s all very well politicians going on about “education, education, education” but the reality is that there is not a lot of money in the sector… when a prospect is lost it’s more often than not down to affordability.

An easy ride on Dragons’ Den – we’ve been asked to audition a couple of times but even though I can handle a classroom of five-year olds, I’m not sure I could handle Theo Paphitis and Duncan Bannatyne giving me a hard time on my financials.

And lastly… 25 hours in a day… 24 just isn’t enough!”

Christmas wish: better communication

David Sear, the divisional managing director of Travelex Outsourcing, is responsible for Travelex’s global outsourcing operations which include its currency services, wholesale banknote, travelex insurance services, pre-paid card and travellers’ cheque businesses.

“All I want for Christmas…. is:

Better communication and less wasted energy – from a management point of view these are closely connected; more of the former will drive the latter. But with an ever-increasing number of e-mails, I think the challenges gets harder year-on-year to stay standing still. With a global team this is only made harder with different timezones and in my experience increases the importance of soft skills and a “can-do” attitude.

For more businesses to review how they purchase foreign currency for staff – our research shows most employees are left to sort their own out. This risks uncompetitive exchange rates and with a heavy reliance on cash puts them and their funds in unnecessary risk. Organise Corporate Cash Passports, the new prepaid currency card, for your staff stockings!

An iPhone – as an Apple devotee I have most of the rest of the kit but this looks like the best yet. It’s great to see a great product matched with great design.”

Christmas wish: better banking for SMEs

Phil Rothwell, managing director of Actinic, www.actinic.co.uk, ecommerce and EPOS supplier, thinks that banks could do a better job for SMEs.

”What I’d like for Christmas is a banking system more tuned into the needs of small businesses. The same challenges are faced by every small business and new start-up. They can be summed up in two words – time and money. Every business struggles to deal with a host of requirements imposed by the government and the banks.

The Internet can help. By putting real effort into making the application process easy and idiot-proof, the banks could save themselves costs which could be passed on, while simultaneously saving their small customer’s time.

Especially irritating is the duplication of effort. For instance, why do you always have to re-key your information into every online application? Why isn’t it possible to enter your company number and the bank to be able to pick up your company details from the companies house database? There’s an XML service available. The underlying problem is that the banks see small businesses as meaning more effort, higher risk and lower revenues for them. It’s a poisonous cocktail, particularly when they put jam today ahead of jam tomorrow.

There has been some progress. Lloyds TSB provides an easy and clear online business account application. Barclays offers BeproStaff as part of its Business Manager Subscription. It just goes to show that when they try, they can make a real difference.
However, starting-up in business is a hard thing to do. The banks are in a unique position to help. The more they bother, the merrier Christmas can be.

PS An electric blue Fender Stratocaster guitar would be a lovely surprise!”

Christmas wish: help with the cost of business travel

Jamie Landale, managing director of Wilde Thyme – www.wilde-thyme.co.uk, the bespoke event, catering and food design company is wrestling with travel issues:

“For Christmas, Wilde Thyme would like more help with the cost of business travel to reflect the huge rise in fuel and general running costs of cars.

One of the biggest expenses we have as a business is fuel and vehicle costs. As a small business we cannot afford to buy our event managers cars in which to travel to visit clients, so we rely upon them to use their cars and then to be reimbursed for the mileage they have done. Vehicle costs and fuel are constantly rising and yet the allowances are not matching these increases. In our business of organising events and parties for clients, it is vital that we visit every site that we will be working at so we can prepare and order everything that we need from marquees, to cooking equipment and electrical requirements.

We are a rural business and we are very proud of the growth of our company and therefore the amount we now support the local community through employing people and providing business for other local suppliers. As a rural business we have to travel further to see our clients, a lot of whom are located in the cities. So the decision we have to think about is do we stay in our current location and continue to support the local community or do we move closer to where most of our business takes place and where there are more travel options (like trains and buses)? But if every business felt it had to move to be closer to its clients and better transport links, we would leave behind rural communities to suffer and possibly die. Our event managers do a lot of miles in their own cars to see clients on site and, as we now know, Scotland is a very large place and more and more they are becoming almost out of pocket on the returns they get for their mileage. As a business we understand about green issues and saving the planet but for Christmas, please can we have fairer payment for reimbursement on business mileage in your own car?

I think everyone in our company is also wishing that there could be another Christmas Day in February when they have had a chance to decorate their homes and do their Christmas shopping. In our business, Monday to Friday is quickly swallowed up with all the important things which need to be done running a business. Then evenings and weekends are busy helping people have the party of their dreams: whether it is a Moroccan theme in a wet and windy Scottish garden complete with original Bedouin tent or a Christmas Bavarian Market in the centre of Edinburgh.
 
What I really want for Christmas Day is the chance to switch off my mobile phone, sit down and watch “The Wizard of Oz” again.

Christmas wish: a green Christmas

Ed Olphin, joint managing director, Jordans Cereals, which employs just under 400 people, is now the largest UK-owned cereal manufacturer and also the largest producer of organic breakfast cereals in the UK, would like a “green” Christmas:

“I love Christmas. At Jordans we close the factory for the Christmas week so everyone gets a proper break. With several small children, things are likely to be more exciting than relaxing in the Olphin household. Here are my ideal stocking filler ideas for 2007:

A new copy of “Ogilvy on Advertising” – the bible of the advertising world. My original copy is completely battered so I could do with a replacement before it finally falls apart. Alternatively I would like something on word-of-mouth marketing as I believe this is going to become increasingly important as consumers increasingly reject standard methods of marketing.

I’d like a fleet of bikes for the company as we are split over several different sites and having bikes would mean people not only getting some exercise but also reducing their carbon footprint when going to and fro between meetings. I wish I could cycle to work but I would have to tackle the A1 which is an issue! At the weekends, especially during the summer, I like to get out on the bike with the kids.

Wish list for 2008

Research from Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank has revealed small businesses’ (turnover less than £1m) wish list for 2008:

25% of small businesses are hoping to sell their products/services into new sectors

25% of small businesses plan to review their finances

23% of small businesses are looking to set aside money for savings

22% of small businesses would like to develop new product ranges

Other desires small businesses quoted included: opening additional sites, expanding internationally, increasing the number of employees and selling their business.