Category Archives: Personal Finance

Spring clean your finances

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Christmas has been and gone for another year, the commonly known blue and financially draining month of January has passed and Spring is soon upon us. Time for not just the traditional House Spring Clean, but how about a Spring Clean of your Finances?


The run up to Christmas soon arrives and slowly, slowly do you creep into your overdraft and fall into the red? Christmas passes, and coming out of the red is the next task. Time now to get your finances back on track ready for the Spring and Summer months of holidays, house repairs and enjoying life!

Simple steps can be taken in a bid to organise your finances. Review your finances regularly, open your Bank Statements, Credit Card Statements and don’t be afraid to challenge any high bills and question your utility bills – you never know, a phone call to your utility provider could potentially save a few pounds and help you keep on top of putting them all important meter readings in. If you have any unopened post mounting, OPEN THEM. It’s time to remove your head from the sand and start getting your finances in order.

If you do have Credit Card bills, Loans or the odd Catalogue from Christmas outstanding, call the Finance Provider or if it is to the stage of a Debt Collection Agency – CALL THEM!! Don’t be afraid of facing up to it. More than ever companies that provide finance and Debt Collection Agencies are heavily cultured by the “Treating Customers Fairly Principles”, which is commonly known as TCF. There are six desired outcomes that the FSA are aiming to achieve by embedding them in businesses’. Please be clear, Debt Collection Agencies are not regulated by the FSA but are regulated by the CSA, they do however follow the principles as agents of their subscribers, subscribers being the original creditor (Finance Provider).

The objective of TCF is to create a fairer and more effective financial industry. One of the six outcomes that the FSA are trying to achieve and the most fitting to you, if you are dealing with financial pressures would be the following outcome –
“Where consumers receive advice, the advice is suitable and takes account of their circumstances”

This can provide the Consumer, Finance Provider and/or Debt Collection Agency with a mutual understanding to provide a solution that fits all parties, where the Finance Provider and Debt Collection Agency is receiving repayments against the bill or debt and the consumer has an affordable repayment that is realistic and manageable in order to provide a win, win solution for all parties.

Making repayments is all about being realistic to your financial capabilities, whilst meeting the needs of your creditor, but please be honest with them. Being honest, open and truthful and at all costs staying in regular contact with your Finance Provider, Creditor and/or Debt Collection Agency is a must. If you have a change in circumstances keep all parties informed. Don’t avoid the red letters!

Spring Cleaning your Finances, is all about taking your head out the sand, keeping all communication lines open and most importantly being honest with yourself. Open your eyes to the options out there to take the right steps to a bright Spring and a prosperous Summer.

For free confidential advice please do not hesitate to contact Wilson Field or call 0800 458 3320

Managing in tough times – risk assess your business

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One of the characteristics of recession is that it shakes out poorly managed businesses. It’s the commercial equivalent of Survival of the fittest.  Regrettably it often takes many well managed companies too, which are simply victims of unforeseen events or those events which are outside of their control.

Life in industry is tough and is going to be tough for some time. We have all become familiar with Health & Safety requirements and procedures. Many of us have cursed them and the red tape associated with them but despite that have to admit that they have prevented accidents and saved lives.

In the past I have met many business owners who, even in difficult times, have been obsessed with matters such as tax efficiency when in fact as a matter of priority they should have been focussing on cash flow and survival.  Those business owners with foresight are undertaking “risk assessments” on all aspects of their companies – a sort of SWOT analysis to identify what might threaten their very existence and then taking steps to minimise risks.

As the manager of any size business, what can you do?

The starting point is having quality management information – an essential management tool. Scientia potentia est – “knowledge is power“. Trading blindly without such information is a high risk strategy.

Examples of some of the many risks which are quite easy to identify –

  • heavy reliance on one customer or a very small number of major customers
  • one owner or key staff member with no succession in place
  • dependence on one supplier
  • a single source of credit
  • exposure to currency or interest rate fluctuations

Any exceptional dependence results in vulnerability. There isn’t always a quick fix but planning to spread concentrations, succession planning and using multiple credit lines and hedging products can help.

It is always worth considering outsourcing – either outsourcing current operations or bringing in-house services which are currently outsourced. If your management information is such that it can separate various operations into cost centres this is a huge benefit. Some areas which are worthy of consideration may be:

  • Transport and haulage – this often evolves, perhaps starting with an individual vehicle and growing into a small fleet to deliver your products. If your vehicles are either standing idle for prolonged periods or driving around empty it may be worth looking at outsourcing. Another alternative may be to hive the haulage into a separate business and seek additional customers to ensure the fleet is profitable.
  • Credit control – many businesses are either not very efficient at collecting money or have in-house credit controllers. If you happen to be looking for an additional line of credit it may be worth considering factoring. A good factoring company will have an efficient credit control function. The saving in paying a credit controller will off-set the cost of the factoring facility.
  • Marketing  – important to any business, but  smaller and medium sized companies who cannot justify the costs often ignore it completely  - and wait for the phone to ring. If your business is not actively marketing rest assured that your competitors will be.
  • Project Management – often a false economy to undertake in-house. What is frequently overlooked is the lost production of the member of staff allocated to the temporary role and the fact that professional project managers are generally more effective. If lost production isn’t an issue …do you really need that member of staff?

Outsourcing isn’t always the right option – each business is different. There may be functions which you currently outsource where you could add value by bringing in-house. If, for example, you find your business has surplus clerical staffing capacity, rather than consider redundancies it may be financially feasible to bring certain operations in-house, eg   Payroll processing. Inexpensive, off-the-shelf software is available which once set up makes processing payroll simple.

So, if you are running a business and you want to survive, the worst thing you can do is ….absolutely nothing. Inaction, inertia and complacency can result in disaster, whereas a good level of awareness and forward planning gives your company the best chance of seeing 2012 through.

For free confidential advice, please call Wilson Field on 0800 458 3320

 

Administration – a powerful & positive tool

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At a time when the economy is shrinking and unemployment is rising, many of the tools of trade of the insolvency profession exists to minimise the number of failed businesses which simply “disappear” and on the back of that to preserve jobs.

Unless you have chosen an insolvency-related career or you have been unfortunate enough to have experienced severe financial problems in the past, there is a good chance that you will have limited knowledge of what services are available from an insolvency practitioner.

Many people see headlines about large employers “going into Administration” and immediately assume the worst – it all sounds pretty grim and terminal. And some of it is – particularly if business owners fail to take early advice when they face financial difficulty. But the insolvency industry does much more than “bust” companies.

Administration is a powerful tool. It is a temporary arrangement whereby insolvency practitioners are appointed by the court to take control of the company. During their period of office they look into the viability of the business to see if part or all of it can be salvaged. And whilst the company is in Administration it is in a protective bubble – safe from potential actions taken by creditors, such as bailiffs seizing essential equipment, until a solution can be found.

Recently the retail group, Peacocks, went into administration. Part of that group is the women’s clothing retailer Bonmarché and this has been sold for an undisclosed sum. Although there will be some job losses, 2400 jobs will be preserved. Historically, the alterative would have been that the company would have simply ceased to exist and all the staff would have been unemployed.

The outcome of administration varies tremendously. In theory, the administrators could manage the business until it has recovered and then hand it back to the directors. In reality there are usually underlying problems which frequently result in the healthy parts of the business being sold on. Once no further improvements or sales can be brought about the administrators role is completed and they usually then take on the role of liquidators.

Running a business is not easy. If you are running a business, whatever the size, and are worried about any issues, the worst thing you can do is nothing. Discuss the problems without delay with a licensed insolvency practitioner. They have a number of tools at their disposal including access to private investors and specialist lenders.

For free confidential advice, please contact Wilson Field.

Stimulating Growth in the Economy

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It is reassuring to see references to “growth” emerging in political speeches instead of the constant mention of spending cuts. The economy desperately needs to grow in order to generate wealth and create employment. Although nobody can question the need to cut back on public expenditure, opinions are still split as to whether or not the cuts are “too much too soon”. The economy is already very fragile and the real impact of the cuts is still to be felt. Q4 saw an unexpected fall in GDP which was partly attributed to the snow but economic output was significantly less than predicted.
Whilst growth is certainly needed, it is unclear from where the demand for products and services necessary to stimulate growth will come considering that unemployment is high and still rising. Exports are a possible answer but we mainly export to countries which are also struggling economically rather than the emerging giants – India and China, who tend to export to us.
And there is the thorny issue of funding growth when the banks are still reluctant to lend. Most SMEs – the relatively small businesses which form the backbone of the UK’s economy – are finding it almost impossible to raise affordable finance.
It all points to a tough and uphill struggle for quite some time before the country is back on its feet.
If you have been affected by the recession or the impacts of cuts in public spending and are facing financial problems, whether you are a business owner or an individual telephone Freephone now on 0800 458 3320 and ask for Phil for an informal, no-obligation chat or visit our website at www.wilsonfield.co.uk .

The Real World?

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During these difficult economic times, when there are high levels of redundancies and unemployment of some very capable people, I was astonished to read a recent claim by producers of Panorama that only 18 school teachers have been “struck off” for incompetence in 40 years. This doesn’t include accusations of violence or sexual abuse. By comparison more than 240 doctors were reportedly struck off (for a variety of reasons) in a 4 year period and over 160 solicitors in the last two years alone.
So statistically, it would seem that people who choose teaching careers are of a much higher calibre than the rest of the working population …I should cocoa! The reality is that those who are responsible for monitoring standards are shirking and avoiding their responsibilities.
The real world is far more ruthless. Anybody who has worked in sales, commerce, industry, finance, etc., will know that if you don’t perform you firstly receive guidance and retraining, and then if there is no improvement you face a series of progressively stronger warnings and ultimately dismissal.
What’s wrong with a softly, softly approach, and how does it impact on the country’s finances? Many not-for-profit organisations have to be paid for from central funds. Unlike the private sector, not-for-profit organisations (eg those involved in education, health, law and order, etc.) are predominantly driven by forces other than profit. But this doesn’t mean that robust, financial controls and drivers should not be implemented, monitored and people made accountable in the way that exists in the private sector. It also doesn’t necessarily mean that people in the private sector, whilst driven ultimately by profit, cannot deliver an efficient as well as compassionate and caring service. At a time when we face huge fiscal cuts, good housekeeping is an obvious essential.
It is also grossly unfair to:
• Children & students who are not receiving the standard of teaching the education system promises & pays for
• The majority of other hard-working, dedicated teachers who are effectively carrying their under-performing colleagues
• Skilled, newly-qualified teachers and graduates who cannot find jobs
I am not advocating a witch hunt. I have sympathy for those who will never be world-beaters but are trying their best and do a reasonable, if unspectacular job ( I can relate to that situation). In contrast I have no pity whatsoever for those individuals (- who exist in all walks of life, not just education) – those with attitude, the bigoted and arrogant people with chips on their shoulders who are lazy and do as little as they can get away with in the knowledge that other colleagues will “carry” them.
The Head teacher’s role is principally that of a manager in a teaching environment. Managers should be expected to manage and not take the easy route and avoid addressing tricky issues, otherwise they too are under-performing.
Whether or not you are in the public sector, if you are unfortunate enough to have been made redundant and are facing financial difficulty or if you are in the private sector and operating a business which is feeling the effects of the economic downturn, please phone Freephone 0800 458 3320 and ask for Phil or visit our website at www.wilsonfield.co.uk.

Ladies! Are You in Control of Your Belly Button Money?

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Japanese housewives call it へそお金 – Heiso Okane – “Bellybutton Money”. In the West we might refer to it as a “Squirrel Fund” or a “Runaway Fund”. It’s the secret hoard of cash that (mainly) women skim from the family budget. Traditionally, one reason women gave for having a secret stash was “just in case”. In a scenario where the husband is the main bread-winner it is easy to imagine an unsatisfactory relationship with the wife being trapped, unable to “escape” for financial reasons.

With around 40 per cent of marriages ending in divorce, and co-habiting relationships breaking down even more often, it’s no surprise that many British couples keep a bit of money stashed away in case something goes wrong. But what is surprising is that in most cases this is quite a sizeable sum – totalling around £6bn, according to research from internet bank Cahoot back in 2003. As a psychologist recently quipped “– it’s not just a wad of tenners in your knicker-drawer”

In that same Cahoot survey, 61 per cent of respondents admitted to secretly hoarding cash. Interestingly, 69 per cent of women are likely to keep a secret stash of money, compared with 53 per cent of men.

Some refer to it as financial infidelity, although in many cases the other spouse is totally aware of the situation. In some cultures during the early 1950s there were many marriages where men simply turned over their pay to their wives. The wives would then give their husbands some spending money and they would run the household with rest. That contrasts sharply with other marriages, where the husband would take care of all financial responsibilities and give his wife “an allowance” to spend how she wishes.

Meanwhile, it is reported in Japan financial hardship has forced many to use their bellybutton money to make ends meet. The annual survey of housewives’ financial arrangements by Sompo Japan DIY Life Insurance showed that the average “bellybutton stash” has plunged by 20 per cent since 2008 to an average of just 3.7 million yen (£25,000). The Sompo survey also reveals alarming insights into why the housewives are so attached to their secret money: a good proportion are hiving-off the funds in the hope that they can secure a divorce at about the age of 50 and enjoy their late middle age in financial comfort and away from their husbands!

The fact is that financial security is very important to most of us and a lack of it can be extremely stressful. Even if you have no savings and have perhaps found yourself in changed circumstances as a result of redundancy or illness there are ways of managing the situation. If you are experiencing financial problems the worst thing you can do is nothing. The sooner you take advice the more options are likely to be available and the sooner you take control the sooner the stress eases. So do something now – ring Freephone 0800 458 3320 and ask for Phil or visit our website at www.wilsonfield.co.uk