Ever wondered what actor of the moment, BAFTA-nominated, Michael Sheen, star of newly-released Brian Clough biopic The Damned United and box office hit Frost/Nixon, famed for his portrayals of Tony Blair and Kenneth Williams, thinks about business?

Nope, neither had we.

In fact, it’s fair to say, when Smarta popped along to today’s Prince’s Trust Awards with reasonable hope of bumping into the odd big name entrepreneur to interview, Michael Sheen, admire him as we do, wasn’t on our hit-list.

He was, however, sat one seat away from us in the celeb-packed and seemingly-entrepreneur-free Leicester Square Odeon. And in an even stranger twist of fate, Sheen, a Prince’s Trust ambassador, had been handed the job of giving out the Enterprise Award.

With HRH Prince of Wales out of reach, it was our duty to grill Mr Sheen a little further on his latest role of small business expert (well, award giver). Now we know he’s a dab-hand at slipping into character quicker than you can ‘Ooh Matron’, but he actually made a lot of sense. Here’s what he had to say:

“Organisations such as The Prince’s Trust change people’s lives.

“By giving disadvantaged people a break and the help and financial support they need to start their own businesses, they’re helping that person create something sustainable for themselves which is very, very powerful.

“For every person the Prince’s Trust helps into business it also builds a bond with society, giving back something to the economy and, like all of its work, creating a better world for us all.”

Fairy nuff, Mr Sheen. Indeed, it could have been Prince’s Trust and Dragon James Caan speaking, mentor to Gina Moffatt, who founded florist Bloomin Scents from HMP Holloway where she was serving a six year prison sentence.

“Prison took my life away, my confidence, I was so low I didn’t even want to come out. I couldn’t see a future,” tells Gina, who thanks to the help of the Prince’s Trust now has a very rosy business, supplying among other clients, the prison that once incarcerated her.

Or Sheen’s words could have belonged to Lora Leedham who grew up the tough way in a poverty-stricken area of the West Midlands but wanted a better life than her peers whose only ambition was seemingly pregnancy. With the help of a Prince’s Trust loan and mentor she’s since started her own jewellery business, has 38 stockists and has been featured in magazines such as Vogue and Cosmopolitan.

Then again, when Sheen talks about changing lives he’s more likely portraying the story of winner Louise Firinne who suffered appalling abuse while growing up in Australia and fled to Belfast only to become homeless and suffer yet more mental and physical ill health. With the help of the Prince’s Trust she’s not only got her life back on track but has established Simply Rouge, a corporate and wedding stationery business that’s rapidly expanding.

As always, the Prince’s Trust Awards were littered with celebrities and royal attendance but the stars of the show were those collecting the awards for the truly-phenomenal achievements its work has supported.
 

Great news for budding entrepreneurs – now seems to be the time to register that million dollar idea after the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) announced it is to slash the price of registering a trademark. 

Trademark applications have fallen 30% from their peak, indicating a drop in business expansion and new product launches during the recession.

Ian Fletcher, chief executive of the IPO, which has funded the new Wallace and Gromit exhibition at the Science Museum in London, said the belly flop from the rocket high results of March 2007 was a ‘leader indicator of the economy’s health’.

To encourage businesses to continue  investing in their intellectual property, the IPO is planning to reduce the cost of applying for patents and trademarks, giving entrepreneurs a better chance to get their new ideas up and running.

Minister for higher education and intellectual property David Lammy used the launch of the exhibition last week to emphasise the role of new business ideas in pulling Britain out of the recession. 

“The upturn in this country will be about the future economy,” he said – which means the green industries and other creative industries play an important part in the future of our economy. And so, “there’s no doubt intellectual property and invention are centre stage so Britain will be strong in the twenty first century.”

Peter Mandelson has said several times it’s entrepreneurs who are the key to boosting the economy. The economic downfall has meant that there is less competition, more market share and finally more scope for new ideas. So what are you waiting for?

After weeks of whining, criticism, and even a near revolt by his shareholders, M&S chairman and chief executive Sir Stuart Rose has finally done something to be proud of.

Yes, while newspapers were predicting his demise and yet more shareholders were calling for him to resign, Sir Stuart was toiling away in that office of his, trying his darndest to save the company - and he's kind of done it. Sort of.

Ok, it’s not exactly brilliant news, because it turns out sales are actually down -  but Rose can still afford to give himself a little pat on the back because they were only down by 4% - less than the 7.5% forecast by analysts

Rose, who became the golden boy of British business in 2006 after he executed a dramatic turnaround of the brand just as many were mourning its loss, has been the subject of much speculation of late.

The brand saw its food sales plummet at the end of last year as shoppers switched to bargain supermarkets Aldi and Lidl in droves, causing whispers the company would close its Simply Food stores. Even Rose admitted he had made mistakes: “We didn’t give [our customers] the right innovation, we didn’t give them the right value for money in some cases and we didn’t give them the right promotions.”

To avert the near-crisis, the company adapted to recession tastes by cashing in on the trend for staying in, introducing £10 ‘meal for two’ deals and even a special mothers’ day deal, as well as targeting families struggling with additional costs by introducing cheaper school clothes, with a £1 pinafore which even undercut Asda.

In a BBC article today, Richard Hunter, head of UK equities at stockbrokers Hargreaves Lansdown, said the company is likely to weather the storm. “M&S seems to have been here before,” he said. “After criticism of misguided offerings, along with the company’s own admission of strategic mistakes, the turnaround seems to have begun.”

 

Although he was trying to do a good thing, Lord Peter Mandelson has delayed guidance to business owners on new regulations.

Business owners were only alerted to a series of new regulations on Thursday (via BusinessLink), even though many of them come in this week and next.

As of April 6, employees will be entitled to request flexible working hours if they care for an adult who needs care, if they are a parent or guardian of a child younger than 17 or a disabled child younger than 19, and if they have been working at the company for at least 26 weeks.
 
(This issue has been much debated and although many business owners originally opposed the idea of flexible working hours, in recent years more have started to recognise the potential benefits.)

There will also be new penalties for employers who pay less than the minimum wage, increases in the statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay from £117.18 to £123.06 and the increase in statutory holiday from 24 to 28 days (including bank holidays) which comes in tomorrow.

Also, insolvency practitioners won’t need to advertise company insolvencies any more.

Ironically, Mandelson was trying to postpone the introduction of the new regulations until the economy started to recover, to minimise the amount of red tape business owners need to deal with on top of all their other woes.

But while he was busy lobbying his Cabinet peers for the postponement, the guidance on the regulations was delayed until a decision was made, meaning that the necessary guidance will now come only briefly before the regulations come in. (Assuming, of course, that nothing drastic happens today and all the postponements suddenly take effect, which seems pretty unlikely.)

What a pickle of irony. We salute him for trying, but, really, this has ended up as a bit of a mess.
 

It looks as though London’s small businesses have spotted a niche in the G20 protest marches this week.  West end fancy dress shop Angels is doing its bit to support beleaguered city workers, offering city slickers the free hire of punk wigs ‘to help them escape the notice of anarchists and anti-capitalists’.

To qualify, city workers need to present a business card that proves they work in the Square mile.  Emma Angel of Angels said: “We would encourage City staff to try to make light of a bleak situation by pushing the relaxation of company dress code to the limit.”

So what might City slickers don with their punk wigs? Well, JP Morgan’s staff have been instructed to slip on informal clothing this week. The staff memo advised they wear ‘jeans and trainers’ – perhaps fearing, I presume, the idea of hordes of men sporting chinos, shirts and loafers – might attract angry protesters.

Interestingly they also told the staff to avoid briefcases, branded bags and advised employees to put materials in rucksacks or carrier bags - Tesco, rather than Harrods.

So as bankers are encouraged to don punk wigs, trainers and jeans - they are also warned against ‘spectating’ any uproars and they are advised not to leave the building to see what’s happening.

Such a sensible and passive decision until I discovered what will happen if any anarchist enters the JP Morgan building: “If protesters do gain access to lobby areas, these will be ‘locked down’ by security.” I’d pay big money to watch that!

Image taken from Flickr:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordkhan/181561342/sizes/l/

We’re sure it was only a few years ago that Amazon could be counted among the ranks of start-ups, but it looks as though the tables have turned after it was revealed last week the company plans to impose new payment terms on beleaguered small publishers.

In an email sent last week, the company gave publishers using its Amazon Advantage payment system the choice between accepting an additional 2% off the list price of stock or six-week payment terms.

The publishers, many of whom are already giving the company up to 60% off the list price of their books, are understandably in uproar. One publisher told industry magazine The Bookseller Amazon is ‘trying to take an extra month . . . In these tough times, it’s absolutely outrageous picking on small guys’, while The Sunday Times reported another saying: “It it just a further hit on our margins – and at the worst possible time, with many of our high-street customers struggling in a really difficult retail environment.”

Amazon is one of the world's largest retail websites, grossing £2.2bn last year. The revelation is bound to be a bit embarrassing for the company - it hit controversy just before Christmas after The Sunday Times found it makes its packing staff work long shifts and penalises them for being ill.

It's a shame, because buying from Amazon used to feel a bit cool – a bit like giving the proverbial finger to big, faceless book chains such as Waterstones or Borders. Now, though, it looks as though that particular love affair is over.

Time to find somewhere else to buy our books: Smarta thinks it might that cosy-looking second-hand place down the road...
 

The minimum statutory holiday entitlement is set to increase this Wednesday (April 1) from 24 to 28 days (inclusive of bank holidays).

Research by Humyo, who offer online storage and file access for small businesses, found that 65% of the small companies questioned didn’t know about the change. Luckily for you, you’ve got us to tell you about these things.

We all know it’s important to give employees a break. It makes them feel valued, it recharges their batteries so they come back more focused and energised, and it gives them a chance to sort out their own personal admin so – in theory – they have less stressful things to think about when they’re working hard for you. Plus a lot of people come back with that happy glow after they’ve had a few days off that spreads a little joy across the Monday morning catch-up.

But from your point of view, this also means you have four less days of work per employee. That’s basically a week. At minimum wage, assuming eight hour working days, those four days cost you £183.36.

The Humyo survey found that 55% of small companies asked thought the increase would have a detrimental effect on their business. That’s only around half though, so not the end of the world.

But if you are concerned, the best way to deal with the change is to ask employees to only take their holiday in fortnight or less blocks (or however long you think you can spare them for). If you are typically fairly snowed under, convey the situation politely. You can’t ask them to not take holiday, but you can help them understand that the business really needs them and is there any chance they could take holiday later in the year.

You could also offer other incentives if you really need them in the office rather than on holiday – more holiday in the following year, the promotion they’ve been after, and so on.

But be really careful not to pressure an employee too much – it’s a legal requirement and you don’t want to seem like the boss from hell. Worst comes to worst, you’ll be able to sort the wheat from the chaff by recognising which employees are happy to sacrifice a bit of holiday to help the business at a critical time, compared to those who would rather be sunning themselves regardless of what’s happening in the workplace.

Also, just so you can work out how many days inclusive of bank holiday the increase results in: England and Wales get eight bank holidays, Scotland nine and Northern Ireland has 10. (The luck of the Irish, eh.)

What do you think of the increase to statutory holiday? Leave your comments below.
 

Bulldog founder Simon Duffy tells Smarta what he thought of last night's episode

"I think the standard of what we saw last night was pretty poor, to be honest. The boys were smarter in that they didn’t take the expensive stuff – that was the key thing that mucked the girls up because they overspent.

"The person I thought was really lucky in terms of how the cards fell for him was the boys’ project manager, Howard. What went unnoticed by Sir Alan was that he spent all day shining shoes and made something like £70, while the other lads had secured 30 cars for £16, which I thought was very smart.

"They were all mucking around getting the insides of the cars wet, but they had more work than they could do. Howard should have called the Philip and said ‘are you going to be able to do this in time?’ He should have realised and got over there and done all 30 cars.

"I thought the key player for the boys in that episode was Phillip Taylor, the estate agent from County Durham. He was the one on the phone, looking in the Yellow Pages, and getting a deal with Addison Lee, which I thought was a very good move. I think we’ll have a lot of fun with Phillip as we go through the season. He’ll get towards the end but I don’t think he’s going to be the winner.

"I think the smarter players keep their cards close to their chest to start with. I don’t think it’s a smart play to be the project manager at the start because it’s a numbers game as much as anything. You don’t know what the other members of the team are like and it’s easy to be let down by other people. Especially as they’re going to bring some quite chaotic characters into the team.

"My advice to them would be to really try and understand what they’re being asked to do once they’ve been presented with the task. They needed to have a business plan and focus on the key metric they were going to be measured against, which on this one was profitability. I think it’s up-front strategy, how are we going to win this, how are we going to be measured, and quickly look at three or four ways to win this.

"You’ve got to look at your team if you’re the leader, look at what you think people’s core strengths will be, and be pretty visible and direct in terms of how you manage and delegate.

"Often the tasks seem to unravel as they go through, because the project manager is in one place and part of the team is in another - which means things are turning to disaster and the project manager isn't there to sort it out. The project manager needs to be as hands-on as they can and should always make sure they are around to make key decisions."

“Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity,” clichés Geordie estate agent and Apprentice contestant Phillip Taylor knowingly as he lounges on the sofa sipping cocktails, no doubt attempting to assess who is the weakest so he can bear down on them vulture-like, and crush them into helpless oblivion with only the help of his enormous Geordie ego.

The Apprentices have just returned from their first task, and it’s already becoming clear who the weak ones are.

My money’s on Monna the moaner, the girls’ first project manager who spent much of last night fighting back tears as she whined her way through the first task, where contestants had to bring back as much profit as possible from a temporary cleaning business.

Both teams chose cars, and though the boys spread their risk by polishing people’s shoes at St Pancras station as well (“Four quid for a pair of shoes?” enquired one surprised customer. “I used to be in the army! I can do it myself in two minutes!”), neither team did particularly well, spending a tremendous amount of money on expensive waxes and polishes when really, they could have done fine with a bucket of water and a sponge.

Upside-down faced lawyer Anita became the first Apprentice to be fired after Monna blamed her for the girls’ downfall, saying she didn’t participate enough. It was an interesting choice by Sir Alan: faced with Anita, cocky-but-cool Debra, and moaning Monna, my choice would have been Monna – just so I didn’t have to look into those tear-filled eyes again – but as we all know, Sir Alan has his reasons.

As for Anita, on the cab on the way home she was full of speculation about those reasons. “Let’s see in ten years’ time whether he doesn’t think, ‘maybe I made the wrong decision’.

“Without having a chip on my shoulder, I just think that Sir Alan doesn’t particularly like lawyers.”
 

“The governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, does not try to be interesting. He just can’t help it,” proclaimed Evan Davis on this morning’s Today programme, after King spoke out over rumours the government plans to introduce further tax cuts during next month’s G20 summit.

Davis made this morning’s rather dubious assertion after King’s warning against a further fiscal stimulus package yesterday, saying the UK “is not in the position where we could say: ‘Well, why don’t we just engage in another significant round of financial expansion’.”

The comment represents a ‘highly unusual intervention’ from the governor, said the Telegraph. Until now, King has avoided talking about the Treasury’s tax plans – but after speculation that the Prime Minister plans to announce ‘another multi-billion pound fiscal stimulus package’, he warned it would be ‘sensible to be cautious’.

Most experts agree if it is announced, the stimulus will deliver some relief to pensioners, but where else could it go? Businesses are still struggling, so Smarta has decided to help the Prime Minister by rounding up some areas which could do with a bit of relief. Think of it as a sort of crib sheet of the needy for Mr Brown to peruse at his pleasure – despite Mr King’s reservations.

1. Property

With global property sales down by 60%, house prices set to fall by 30%, and thousands of new build apartments standing empty, the property market is badly in need of a boost from government. Could a cut on empty property tax be part of Brown’s plans?

2. Retail

High streets across the country are suffering and could do with a break: latest figures show sales were down 1.8% in February, while Scotland suffered the worst sales decline in eight years. New laws to make rent payable monthly rather than quarterly would help to ease cashflow, while a reduction of regulation on retailers would help to nurture high street spending.

3.Car manufacturing

While Peter Mandelson agreed a £27m deal to help Jaguar-Land Rover, the car manufacturing industry is still in a bad state. Figures out last weekend revealed car manufacturing had slumped by almost 60% last month, and while most factories have made significant job cuts or implemented a four-day week, the industry is still on the verge of collapse. “It is not a question of propping up lame ducks, but ensuring we have a solid manufacturing base for a successful future,” warned David Frost, chairman of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) in January.

4.Pick’n’mix

After the untimely demise of Woolworths, the pick’n’mix industry has been plunged into turmoil, leaving confectioners everywhere in a sticky situation. “We don’t know what to do with our stock now they’ve gone,” sobbed one sweetie manufacturer last week*.

“We’ve got literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands in our warehouse and nothing to put them on. We've had to fight off a plague of sugar mice and we’ve got liquorice laces hanging from the rafters.

“We miss Woolworths,” he moaned. “We never thought we’d have to survive without them.”

*may not be an entirely accurate quotation