Why is Corbyn Pro-Brexit?

Whilst I have strigently attempted to keep political comment seperate to my blog on business issues, this is an accurate and important piece

 

Source: Why is Corbyn Pro-Brexit?

Britain “doesnt make anything anymore”

Within the current climate the whole issue of our exporting has become a prominent issue. But how important or succesful is the UKs export market. Looking at the above graph which illustrates a rish from £30 billion to £50 billion is under ten years, i would suggest very successful indeed.

However a familiar refrain from those that tend to throw around knee jerk opinions or have an unhealthy nostalgia for the supposed 60s and 70s heyday of British exporting is that “we dont make anything anymore”

In this country there is a strange tendency towards what has been described as the manufacturing fetish as if this sector is the only viable method of generating wealth. Nonsense of course but even so, manufacturing still accounts for 45% of our exports.

 

 

 

EU nationals in the UK. A disgrace

Walking past various high street outlets in my locality,  every other shop, barbers or cafe is advertising for staff. This resonates right through the market with at least two of my clients stating that staffing uncertainty has put a brake on their intentions to expand

Suprised?  Im not. The UK governments tardiness is guaranteeing rights for the 3m EU citizens who have made their homes here disgraces this nation and quite frankly the finger has to be pointed at the hapless PM

The Evening Standard under George Osbourne is no fan of May but these points are pertinent

Last June, in the days immediately after the referendum, David Cameron wanted to reassure EU citizens they would be allowed to stay. All his Cabinet agreed with that unilateral offer, except his Home Secretary, Mrs May, who insisted on blocking it.

And who can disagree with this?

So why prolong the uncertainty for these families? The Government should announce unilaterally that any Europeans who are living here will be able to remain here, work here, pay taxes here and use the public services they help pay for. You wouldn’t need any complicated reciprocal agreement with Europe, or provide any role for the European Court of Justice. It would be, as we said before, an act of national self-interest dressed up as a gesture of international generosity. It would almost certainly force the hand of European governments to offer the same to Britons. Morally right, economically sound and diplomatically smart: such opportunities don’t come along very often in life, and we should grab them.

 

Asset financing. Too flash?

At a recent get together of a (very decent) lender’s “business development managers” and brokers, I was again struck about one of the biggest issues the invoice and asset finance sector faces.

Image.

To put it bluntly and at the risk of offending some, too many particpants come across as the everyones worst estate agent nightmare. There is also the dismal laddish posturing with the attendant body language. Not that this applies to everyone of course, but its prevalent

I believe this matters. The lenders are sometimes still living in the world of hard selling facilities to borrowers. Admittedly this is less noticable than in times past but the attitude  still resonates with businesses many of whom remain hostile to debtor finance.

The industry needs a shift in attitude. The best business development managers are effectively advisors and partners to the clients. Of course, its my role to manage this relationship and it is vital because debtor finance is so vital to the businesses success of failure as well as being an ever shifting profile

The flash salesman might work fine when leasing a photocopier or buying some fringe product such as employee insurance but when imposed on the possibly the most vital decision a business may make then it is illustrative of the continuing disconnect between businesses and lenders.

 

Interest rate rise would “ruin 80000 businesses”

 

According to R3, the Insolvency body. And they are talking about a rise of just 0.25%

Do these people have calculators to hand?

A rise of a quarter % on borrowing of £300k is ….   £750.  Lets say we are dealing with fairly heavy SME borrowings of £2m then we are talking about £5k per annum

Are these amounts really going to tip these businesses over? You decide for yourself but the press should know better than simply parrot alarmist statements from certain professional bodies

Latest World Bank Ease of business index

Every year I drop in a summary of the very interesting World bank’s Ease of business index. This compares every nation on a range of criteria. Seperate indexs are available for items such as “ease of credit” and “setting up a business” which contribute to the overall rating which I am reviewing here

The first thing to note is that there isnt really much change but there are a handful of interesting ratings for those that may not be familiar

The UK comes in at 7, just above the US at 8. The cariation has been between 4th and 10th in the last ten years but I do also recall that there isnt a hige variation in the ratings between the top ten.

Germany comes in at 17, which is higher than previously but Ireland has slipped out of the regular top ten rating to 18th. On the other hand the Czech Republic has risen for 75 just four years ago to 27, which of course signals some major reforms. Less benefical major reforms might explain why Canada has crashed from 4th in 2007 to 22nd in 2017.

The constant surprise is The Netherlands. This traditionally enterprising trading nation is often stuck at around 30. France and Spain are similarly placed, which is less of a surprise. Switzerland is sliding down the index each year too, sitting at 31.

China barely ever improves, sitting at a lowly 78. South Africa is sliding towards the ratings of other African states, now 74 having been 28 in 2007. No real surprise given the situation there but where is the most startling result?

I would suggest it is Russia. Now 40 on the list, which is higher than Belgium Italu and Chile. In 2011 Russia was 123rd on the list. Clearly there are many reasons not to admire the Russian administration but under the radar it would appear that there have been some very significant reforms

 

 

Arrogant Peer to Peer lender

 

 

When blogging, I naturally have to be careful about naming names. This bothers some readers but the reasons why are obvious. The flipside is that there will be enough hints for regular observers to know who I am refering to

This week I received a mail from a major peer to peer lender (not invoice finance). I was told that unless I “Completed a deal” with them before the end of June then I would be deleted as an “introducer” (I dislike that description)

Once deleted I would be obliged to refer business through one of their appointed brokers, who will no doubt take a cut of the commission. My response consisted of two words.

It was hardly as if I had been inactive with this lender, having discussed around half a dozen accounts with them over the past year of which at least two resulted in offers which the clients didn’t take up. But thats by the by

The reason given is that it was “too much administration” to service so many “introducers”. What complete bollocks. What “servicing” do they think we need?

So what is the motivation here? Clearly there is an arrangement of some sort with the brokers they will accept leads from and we can only speculate what it is. Seedy is perhaps a word that springs to mind.

Perhaps they are simply trying to bounce certain brokers into handing them business during a slow month? The response to that is that I will never ever work for anything other than the clients best interests

The fact of the matter is that under no circumstances will any of my clients be obliged to be charged for a broker’s commission who has done absolutely nothing more than pass an email on on my behalf.

Fortunately there are plenty of competitors in the market, one of whom has already described this lender’s position as “mental”. Maybe being the market leader has gone to their head a little in a hubristic manner or maybe its just a little bit worse than that

Either way, i will not be dealing with them again