James Talks...

Did you know that in specialist security tests by Consumer Reports Magazine during the 1990s, it was found that most doors fail or simply delaminate when a small amount of force is applied to them?

Solid wooden doors withstand some force but it is steel doors that perform much better under rigorous testing, with steel edged doors outperforming the equivalent wood-edged doors by a ratio of 7 to 1.

When you consider the practically, two-thirds of all illegal entries were made through doors that were not suited to protecting the premises.

Burglary tactics

We have learned that in 87% of the break-ins that occurred when intruders defeated locked doors with tools such as screwdrivers or crowbars, the burglars usually target the most hidden door and the weakest. Burglars aren’t stupid. Small businesses are often a target for break ins. Whether opportunistic smash and grab, or a cool and calculated, and planned attempt to swipe particular items of value, it is never nice to be the subject of a burglary. The implications can be deep and hard hitting.

Value of your Business

Starting your own clothing range couldn’t be easier these days, and with the ever increasing indie / scene kid market dying to get their hands on the latest and greatest fashions, it would be silly not to capitalise on this trend by producing new and exciting t shirts in short runs.

The first stage is getting your designs together. These days, designs have to be transferred to digital, either scanned or photographed and touched up in some high end photo editing or design software. Solidify colours, neaten lines and sharpen finer details. Once this is done, save the image at high resolution.

The next stage where you really take a gamble, you have to commit to having your t shirts printed, and investing in the items you’ll need to do this with. There are a few options at this point:

Last week, I talked about a few things that small businesses could do to save money on their energy tariffs. This week, I wanted to expand briefly on this. Going back to the letter of termination that you will need to send some 8 or so weeks before the contract termination date. http://www.powerexperts.co.uk/ have kindly supplied us with a sample template for each letter (one for each tariff if you are not on a dual fuel tariff) and these can be found here. It's pretty easy to use these to get your letter constructed, you don't have to write an essay, a simple letter informing your supplier that you want to terminate the contract on the expiry date is enough. My advice would be to send the letter by recorded delivery, as you'll know when they've received it, because they will have to sign for it.

Small businesses can often be on the receiving end of huge energy bills. But did you know that with just a single, simple action, you could save yourself and your business a substantial amount of money year on year.

Many small business owners are unaware that when signing a business energy contract, there is an automatic renewal clause. This clause will tie you into a higher tariff for the continuation period, the cost increasing sometimes as much as forty percent higher – that’s 40%!!