Last year saw businesses closing at the rate of around 100 a day, so it’s hardly surprising that the business community is being cautious about what is in store this year.

There may be signs that the economy is improving, but confidence among entrepreneurs remains shaky.

It is against this background that I am launching the Entrepreneurs’ Business Academy (EBA) to provide a forum where budding entrepreneurs can learn from the experts, network with their peers, and make their ideas a reality.

People may question the timing, particularly if 2010 turns out to be as volatile as forecasters suggest, but it will be a make or break year for a number of companies and I believe the academy will be capable of helping the seasoned business owner as well as up-and-coming entrepreneurs to weather the storms.

The academy will have the backing of high-profile entrepreneurs and experts and will provide the tools and a wealth of advice to those owners wanting a deeper insight into developing a successful company.

Yes I will be closely involved and will, for example, be talking about the techniques I employ to maximise sales, and the know-how to turn any business around.

I want the academy to provide an invaluable experience to emerging entrepreneurs, current owners of SMEs, professionals re-launching their careers, and ultimately, the man or woman with an idea, and the courage to make it a reality.

I was interested in a recent Dun & Bradstreet survey indicating that 90pc of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) fail because business owners lack all round knowledge about how to run the enterprise.

These disturbing findings show that the UK’s entrepreneurs still need a helping hand and with this in mind, I’d imagine any form of advice would be welcomed with open arms. After all, what entrepreneur can honestly say he or she knows it all?

The problem with being the boss is that there is no one to guide you and there’s a preconception rooted within entrepreneurs that asking for help signals failure.

It’s actually quite the opposite. Asking for advice in fact reflects a smart mind – one that will go far.

Even I’m still learning. At the age of 40 I went to Harvard to study the Advanced Management Program, a course that has proved invaluable. I’m still making use of the content.

It just goes to show you can never stop learning – irrespective of age or where you are in your career.

The EBA launches with the first event on March 20 when myself and my team of “Millionaire Mentors” will be making the first presentations.

There are still some spaces available. Details at www.the-eba.com

* James Caan is founder and chief executive of Hamilton Bradshaw and founded and ran recruitment group Alexander Mann between 1985 and 2002. Please send your questions to askjames@telegraph.co.uk

Nothing like a bit of blue-sky thinking to brighten business prospects. The General Election season is quickly gathering pace. The political parties are engaged in either leading with or misleading about their ultimate post-election intentions and plans.

Business organisations and lobbyists are mulling over the contents of their own manifestos. They face the same dilemma as the politicians, how to handle what could be a double-dip recession at a time when government spending and borrowing is out of control.

Business will be on the receiving end of whatever unpleasant tax or spending medicine is doled out, while the new administration will be looking to the industrial and commercial sectors to deliver the growth the economy so badly needs. Some task.

But it is not too late for business to go on the offensive and take the opportunity for a bit of blue-sky thinking in their wish list to the politicos.

The British Chambers of Commerce has taken a modest stab by suggesting a reversal of last year’s reduction in VAT and increase in National Insurance contributions (NICs).

It wants next year’s increase in NICs abandoned and a one percentage point increase in VAT substituted. In short, shift the tax-raising burden from employers and employees to consumers.

The arithmetic works in favour of business, representing a saving of £5bn against an additional £4.5bn yield from VAT – but as a well-known jingle points out, every little helps.

There is of course an element of special pleading in the Chambers’ submission and arguments for shifting the basis of one particular tax yield. Nonetheless, the suggestion marks a departure from manifesto convention.

Reductions in government spending along with less red tape and tax relief for the small businessman have traditionally been the staple diet in the business submissions around election time to the political parties.

There is scope for variations on the BCC theme. The credit crisis and the flow of so-called initiatives from Government after the banks put up the shutters to help small businesses raise finance was a combination of a knee-jerk reaction and do-goodery.

In the second year – or maybe third for some – of the credit crisis there are lessons to be learned from the failure of some of the schemes and the rules attached to them without producing another complex set of arrangements.

The age of the “big idea” may have been consigned to the “something to forget” in the history books, but perhaps the time is ripe for something more practical like giving small businesses a tax holiday to encourage more investment, start-ups and job creation.

The small business organisations and lobbies might also achieve more if they temporarily, at least, formed a coalition to make a joint submission. There should be strength in numbers.

http://www.workfromhomeinuk.com

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/

Just when you thought it was safe to come out into the open. As if it weren’t enough that the euro is crumbling, that the banking sector is still vulnerable; that Britain is steeling itself for its biggest spending squeeze in living memory, along comes Barclays Capital with some really bad news.

Having slid its slide rule over Britain’s demographics, it is warning that the real threat to the economy is not the fallout from the current financial mess, but the weight our ageing population will impose on the budget.

It is hardly a new warning: economists were getting hot under the collar about this decades ago. Back in the early 1990s it was all the OECD and IMF ever talked about. In a few years, they said, the baby boomers will retire and before you know it Britain, and for that matter most of the Western world, will see the proportion of its population in a retirement balloon.

The consequences are depressingly predictable: the budget deficit will climb higher and higher as those pensioners collect their retirement and medical benefits – all to be paid by a shrinking core of taxpayers.

The difference between then and now is that the squeeze is finally starting – this year, according to Tim Bond of Barclays. The bank forecasts that in a relatively short space of time, the interest rate on long-dated gilts – which in turn determine interest rates throughout the economy – will rise from around 4pc to well over 10pc. It is hard to overemphasise the significance of this sea change. Put simply, for the next decade, life will become increasingly expensive for the average household, squeezing ever deeper into their incomes. Standards of living will diminish.

The analogies with the financial crisis are plain to see: for years, Britons have lived beyond their means, financing it by, in effect, borrowing off future generations, whether through debt, by creating unrealistic pension obligations or social welfare systems that simply cannot be funded without an ever-greater contribution from the working population. Demographics is destiny, they say, and the statistics suggest the UK is destined for a major squeeze.

As if evidence were needed, it was provided in graphic form yesterday by BT, which admitted its pension deficit has now risen to a staggering £9bn. Shocking as this is, it is only a microcosmic example of what has happened across the UK and other Western nations over past decades. Once the financial crisis is well and truly over, the time will soon come for Governments to work out how on earth they intend to honour these unwise contracts without consigning vast numbers of their population to economic stagnation.

http://www.askhowtoearn.com

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/

How bloggers and new media will make their presence felt in the coming general election.

You can see why the political parties are nervous about the general election. The media playing field on which it will be fought has a new, unfamiliar terrain thanks to online competition. Local newspapers may have closed or slimmed down, but political bloggers have forced politicians to rethink their relationship with the press.

What was once a cosy, exclusive Fleet Street corps of lobby reporters must now include irreverent, self-made stars of the blogosphere such as Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale. And new technology, from the online video that exposed Alan Duncan’s belief that MPs were forced to live on “rations” to the Conservatives publishing shadow cabinet expenses in real time, has changed the public’s expectations.

Set-piece campaigns, for instance, are now more problematic than ever before. A £500,000 Conservative poster campaign featuring an apparently airbrushed David Cameron was intended to get the election year off to a flying start. Within a few days, dozens of photoshopped spoofs appeared on MyDavidCameron.com. But new media also presents politicians of all persuasions with a chance to talk more directly to the public than ever before. Tom Watson, Labour MP for West Bromwich East, is one of many who have become adept at using micro-blogging website Twitter to speak simultaneously to constituents and the media.

Mr Cameron himself has assiduously used websites such as Mumsnet to reach out directly – with varying levels of success – to specific groups of voters.

And blogging tools and idioms, too, have allowed nimble new pressure groups such as the TaxPayers’ Alliance, widely seen as a deniable attack-dog of the Tory Right, to emerge.

The fact remains, however, that the audience for political blogs is fairly limited. It may no longer be possible to dismiss them as a small band of bedroom obsessives poring over the traditional media’s droppings, but newspapers will still lead in setting the tone of the popular campaign.

Yet while many newspapers will still drip daily scorn on Gordon Brown rather than Mr Cameron, the social media will also play a key role. The internet, after all, can provide good copy. It is for their impact on the sociology of the political class and the Fourth Estate that this generation of political bloggers will be remembered.

Since the 2005 election, we have raced past the tipping point. Facebook has 23 million British users. About half of the eligible voters are social networkers, sharing and seeking recommendations among peers rather than trusting broadcast messages. The real contest is not the three-way blogs/newspapers/politicians fight, but how effectively each can cast its bait into the social networking sites, and who will have the greatest effect.

So what can we expect from this campaign? There will be widgets explaining tactical voting options to more people than ever before. As a result, the numbers voting against parties rather than for them will increase. Small parties without the resources to hit doorsteps may use these tools to reach that swelling protest vote.

The major parties will have “deniable outriders” to do poisonous negative campaigning on their behalf. Politicians will get personally savaged. There will be more tenuous attack-oriented arguments – ones that journalists wouldn’t have touched in the past.

The most interesting contribution social media may make is that it could offer the Tories an opportunity to project themselves as a responsible government-in-waiting. Tory strategists have already acknowledged that public pessimism may hurt them: if things really are that bad, the Conservatives know there’s a risk that the public could put aside their distaste for Gordon Brown and stick with the devil they know.

This will be a “downswing” election dominated by spending cuts rather than promised tax-handouts. Being positive will be difficult, and attack-bloggers won’t exactly help. So to sell the idea that responsible positive action is possible in a restricted economic climate, parties need a “big idea”.

The Tories’ “post-bureaucratic age” narrative relies heavily upon dynamic collaboration, a hallmark of the social web. It aims to apply open-source thinking to convene good judgment from a disparate community and to cut waste by reducing pen-pushers and consultants and by automating processes.

One of the brains the Tories have turned to is MySociety founder Tom Steinberg. His fingerprints appear to be all over shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt’s pledge of £1 million in Cabinet Office funding to the best idea for crowd-sourcing public intelligence.Several politicians would be tempted by the reflexive offer to let voters “have your say”, but this is a cannier step. Mr Hunt is looking to get the public to help interpret and re-present government data.

The Conservatives need the social web to help create a positive, reassuring buzz around them. Offering a narrative that breaks the economic stalemate may be Cameron’s brightest hope. Playing a part in that may be the real impact that social media has on the 2010 election.

Paul Evans blogs at blog.localdemocracy.org.uk

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/

Securing work experience can be pivotal to a young person’s ability to pick the right career path for them, research has found.

Securing work experience can be pivotal to a young person’s ability to pick the right career path for them, research has found.

Almost two-thirds of all teachers polled by think-tank the b-live Foundation said that the strongest tangible benefits to students come from taking part in work experience.

To help, Business in the Community, an organisation backed by more than 800 companies, is running a campaign called Work Inspiration – www.workinspiration.com – which aims to create an additional 100,000 work experience places by September.

Over the next four weeks, the chief executives of four leading companies will explain how work experience played a role in their careers.

First, it’s Sir Stuart Rose, chief executive of Marks & Spencer (M&S).

Many chief executives have described their early career years as a period of false starts and attempts to work out what they were good at. Is that something you can relate to?

Yes, I worked for the BBC for two weeks in 1967 in the programming department at TV Centre in Wood Green.

I did my fair share of filing, but I was also used as a runner for messages, chased outstanding information, attended meetings and even drafted some copy for a BBC publication. It was heavily edited but that didn’t matter, it gave me a great sense of achievement.

The experience sparked an excitement and passion for business that has stayed with me ever since. It was my first taste of deadlines and priorities, my first experience of meetings and it taught me business basics like letter writing, planning, to-do lists and agendas.

Then I wrote to lots of companies looking for a job. The first company that wrote back to me and offered me an interview, second interview, third interview and a job was M&S.

How did you put these experiences to good use?

I took a great deal from my work experience into my first role at M&S. I hit the ground running and knew what to expect from my colleagues and those managing me.

Perhaps most importantly, it gave me a degree of confidence that enabled me to find my voice early on and make progress in what was a challenging first job.

I look back with great fondness on my time at the BBC.

Can you describe what your first jobs entailed? At the time, did you enjoy the work you were doing?

My first job was as a management trainee at the Oxford store.

Day to day I was working behind the pyjama counter for a lady called Miss Wootten. She was one of the old established supervisors, as we used to call them in those days, who were given a trainee to make or break – and they would make or break you if they didn’t think you were up to it.

At the time, it wasn’t up to the manager, it was up to the supervisor to say ‘he’s a goodun’ or ‘he’s not a goodun’.

I was always slightly on
the edge, she wasn’t sure about me.

On reflection, do you think they proved to be useful experiences or represent wasted years?

They weren’t wasted at all and, to be honest with you, I never looked at M&S as a place where I wanted to go to the top or to get a senior job.

I mean, it was a good company, I tried to do every job as well as I could and I tried to enjoy every job. I didn’t think “oh, I am only here for a year, I want another job”, I actually enjoyed the job that I was
doing.

The great benefit of the company then, and still is to an extent, is that I had about 14 jobs in about 17 years.

I was a trainee in a store and then I went to Marble Arch, then I went into the head office as a trainee buyer, then I became an assistant buyer, then I became an assistant merchandiser, then I became a merchandiser and then I went to foods, then I was in delicatessen then I was in wine, then I was poultry, then I was in meat.

So it was constantly changing. I learnt all different trades and I learnt about the business. It was a great experience.

http://www.workfromhomeinuk.com/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/

Demand for rented homes is outstripping the supply of properties available to let, research claimed today.

Demand for rented homes is outstripping the supply of properties available to let following a rise in reluctant tenants, research claimed today.

The Association of Residential Letting Agents (Arla) said the number of homes available to let was falling, while demand for rented accommodation was rising as people struggled to find properties to buy or mortgages they qualified for.

Around 41pc of letting agents said there were more potential tenants than properties during the final quarter of 2009, up from 24pc during the three months to the end of September.

The situation is a marked turnaround from early last year, when the rental market was flooded with properties from so-called accidental landlords, as people who had been unable to sell their home while house prices were falling, were forced to rent it out instead.

But the number of accidental landlords has fallen in recent months as the property market has picked up, enabling them to sell their homes.

At the same time, many people who would like to buy a property are struggling to find somewhere suitable, due to the shortage of homes on the market, while others are unable to raise the deposits they need to meet the strict lending criteria of banks and building societies, forcing them to rent instead.

Around 54pc of letting agents said they thought consumers were being forced to rent a property rather than buy one.

The research also showed that the length of time for which a property is empty between tenants fell slightly during the fourth quarter to 3.9 weeks, down from four weeks during the previous three months.

Ian Potter, operations manager at Arla, said: “New tenants include those homeowners who were forced to sell their home during the last year either due to financial instability or a job move.

“And many people now in a position to buy are struggling to find the right property, as there is also a shortage of both properties for sale and realistic mortgages.”

But he warned that, while the private rented sector would be key to meeting the accommodation needs of future generations, it was likely to struggle without significant Government support.

http://www.workfromhomeinuk.com/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/

McDonald’s creates 5,000 jobs in UK after record sales in 2009.

McDonald’s will create 5,000 new jobs in the UK this year after seeing an 11pc rise in sales over 2009, chief executive Steve Easterbrook said on Friday.

The fast food chain, which has 1,193 outlets in the UK, saw sales rise by 11pc in 2009.

Mr Easterbrook said that McDonald’s had increased UK like-for-like sales by 30pc on a four-year basis. He said the new jobs would come from the opening of up to 15 new branches in 2010 and the extension of opening hours in existing outlets.

The strong UK figures came as parent company McDonald’s Corporation said global sales rose by 3.8pc last year. Sales in the US increased by 2.6pc, European sales rose by 5.2pc and sales in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa rose by 3.4pc. The company said that it served 60m customers a day in 2009.

Mr Easterbrook said that the UK jobs being created would take McDonald’s workforce to 85,000 in this country.

“In 2009 we thought we’d create 4,000 new jobs, in fact we created 6,000. This year we expect our growth to create another 5,000 new jobs,” he said.

He said that the company had responded well to the recession by tweaking its menu, improving the quality of its products and continuing to roll out a new restaurant format. The launch of freshly-ground coffee increased the number of cups of coffee that McDonald’s sold by 9m compared to 2008, Mr Easterbrook said.

He said that the chain’s performance over 2009 exceeded his expectations.

“The year started out strong and carried on throughout. The encouraging thing is that we think the job is only half way done,” he said.

McDonald’s UK has only refurbished half of its chain, with another 550 restaurants to go.

Jim Skinner, McDonald’s Corporation’s chief executive, said that the 2009 results reflected the “broad-based strength” of its global business.

“Our in-demand food and beverages, unparalleled convenience and superior value at every level of our menu enabled us to serve 60m customers per day during 2009, up 2m per day over the prior year. In addition, McDonald’s profitability increased as we marked our sixth consecutive year of positive comparable sales in every geographic segment and generated higher global revenues, operating income and earnings per share in constant currencies – all tremendous accomplishments given the tough global economy,” he said.

He added that the company’s sales trend has remained positive over the opening weeks of 2010.

“We will continue our fiscal discipline by investing prudently and returning excess cash to shareholders,” he said.

http://www.workfromhomeinuk.com/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/

Britain’s biggest energy supplier is inviting business owners to apply to join a new “listening panel”. The lucky hand-picked few will have “unprecedented access” to British Gas and its executives, we are told. They are to be flown to offshore gas fields, winched up gas-fired power stations and dazzled by energy trading rooms.

If they survive all that, they can tell managing director Phil Bentley and the senior leadership team exactly what they really think of British Gas.

For the “one or two business owners” chosen to join the 20-strong customer panel (the rest will be domestic customers) this is no doubt an opportunity to ask the company some tough questions.

They could start with asking why it makes switching from its services so hard and why its championing of “plain English” contracts do not stop it from hiding rules in the small print that would challenge even the most eagle-eyed linguist.

The more cynical commentators would suggest this is just a PR stunt. And they have. Consumer Focus energy expert Audrey Gallacher says that “only time will tell’’ if British Gas will take notice of its customer panel. “Consumers are already suspicious that all this talk of ‘listening’ is nothing more than PR window dressing,’’ she said.

The announcement is timed with the rollout of the company’s new Smart meters. Households can chose to use these devices if they want but will not be forced to do so by law until 2020.

The Government is, however, expected to announce soon that it will require businesses to use smart meters more quickly than previously expected. The decision will affect approximately 2.2m electricity meters and 1.5m gas meters.

Adoption of new technology on such a large scale will inevitably generate problems: meters failing; vital gas and electricity supplies cut off because of misunderstandings.

For that reason alone, having some small businesses feeding back their concerns into British Gas will be invaluable. Volunteers should visit: www.britishgas.co.uk/listening

http://www.askhowtosave.com

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/richardtyler/

Richard Tyler is the Daily Telegraph’s Enterprise Editor. He writes about all aspects of business life and edits the Telegraph’s Your Business page, which appears in print every Tuesday and Sunday and is updated daily online.

United Utilities has warned that it will have to lower its dividend by 12.5pc and make more job cuts, after accepting the regulator’s decision to reduce customer bills over the next five years.

The FTSE 100 company said it has already cut 500 jobs and more will go as it undertakes a large cost-saving programme, primarily in its regulated business.

“It is inevitable that there will be more job cuts,” said Philip Green, chief executive of the water group. “But we are also bringing costs down in other areas, like customer service delivery, where costs have gone from £23 per customer to £19 per customer. We are also looking at pension costs.”

United has also signed new supplier contracts which it hopes will deliver significant savings and improve operational efficiency.

The company will pay a total dividend of 34.3p per share for the current financial year, dropping to 30p next year. It hopes to grow the payout by 2pc a year after that.

United has spent two months deciding whether to refer Ofwat’s tough pricing review to the Competition Commission. It was asked to reduce household bills by 0.4pc and accept a capital investment programme of £3.6bn rather than the £3.7bn it wanted between 2011 and 2015.

Shares in the company, which has 3.2m customers, rose 16½ to 525p and analysts expressed relief that the dividend cut was less than the 20pc-40pc many had feared.

United’s decision not to challenge the review came as Bristol Water, now majority-owned by French utility giant Suez Environnement, decided to challenge Ofwat’s pricing restrictions with the Commission. The regulator said it could raise bills by 7pc – a generous settlement compared with other companies – but Bristol Water wanted a 29pc increase, lifting average bills from £157 to £202 over the next five years.

Jeremy Williams, a spokesman for the company, said Bristol Water had “absolutely no choice” but to launch an appeal. “We have never done this before but it’s the only way we will be able to finance our investment programme,” he said.

“We don’t think Ofwat has taken into account the special circumstances of population growth and need for investment in the Bristol area. We are putting our faith in the Commission to do the right thing.”

The company serves 450,000 customers in the Bristol region, where the population is forecast to grow by 40pc in the next two decades. Severn Trent and South West Water owner Pennon announced this week they will not challenge Ofwat.

http://www.askhowtosave.com

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/utilities/

Buying a home costs four times as much as it did half a century ago in real terms, according to research by Halifax.

Average house prices, allowing for inflation, have increased 273 per cent in the past 50 years, making homes increasingly unaffordable.

A typical home could be bought for £2,507 in 1959, the equivalent to £43,713 in today’s money.

But home buyers are actually paying significantly more to buy an equivalent property now, needing £162,085.

Despite the recent housing slump, prices rose the most during the last decade with a real rise of 62 per cent, Halifax said.

It is slightly ahead of the 61 per cent increase during the 1980s and significantly higher than the 22 per cent drop during the 1990s, the worst decade for house prices.

Despite the price increases during the past four decades, Britain’s fondness for home-ownership has gone from strength to strength, rising from 43 per cent in 1961 to 68 per cent in 2008.

Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said there has been a significant shift towards buying a home with the majority of households now living in their own homes rather than renting.

The proportion of single person households in England has jumped from less than one in five households in 1971 to one in three in 2009.

He added: “There have been substantial changes in both the number of households and their composition; the typical household now is very different to 50 years ago.”

In 1960, 14 per cent of homes did not have an inside toilet but by 1996 this had decreased to 0.2 per cent.

Just over a fifth of households were without a basic hot water supply in 1967, but this had dropped to 1 per cent by 1991, while central heating in British homes increased from just 35 per cent in 1971 to 92 per cent in 2000.

The number of married households is down by almost a fifth since the 1970s, although these are still the most common type, while the number of co-habiting couple households has increased from 1 per cent in 1971 to 11 per cent in 2009.

http://www.workfromhomeinuk.com/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/