It’s January and the first meeting of my favourite networking group www.3Cscommunity.org at UCL Engineering building in Malet Place just opposite where I used to give my swimming lessons. Host speaker is Tim Barnes of UCL Advances http://www.ucl.ac.uk/advances/ which helps fund projects. His introduction posts some impressive facts about University College: 20,000 students and 10,000 staff, 1 and half times the size of Cambridge University, 2nd largest university research department in the world after Harvard, 1st non-American university to hook into the internet which had been wholly-American up till then, discovered the binding receptor in human cells, opening up possibilities for a cure for HIV/AIDS - making me wonder why we are so modest in the UK about some of our best people?? Geeks, techies and software writers whose businesses are < 3 years old and have a turnover of < US$ 1 million might be interested in contacting them regarding a new Microsoft Initiative called BizSpark.
First speaker Chris Clegg announces a new funding network www.microfunding.co.uk for inventors, investors and managers, the latter being the people who have the skill to bring an idea to market. Most inventors do not have much in the way of business skills and vice versa – investors can participate in units of £2,500. Stating the obvious, these are high risk and unregulated investments – no investor protection.
Next is Rod Heap of Solar Limited with his SolarShades a light portable sunshade that is as simple as any invention gets followed by Jamie Parkins of www.vzaar.com offering a quality service for individuals who want to get a video to their website or maybe if they want to sell something on eBay – his former employer. Depending on the amount of data, prices range from US$5 to US$200 per month.
Next meeting Tuesday 3rd March at The British Library.
Back in the world of politics, life is less optimistic with one law for the Government it seems and one for everyone else. Pensions Guru Steve Bee points out the return assumed by the Government (10 per cent) in calculating Pension Credit http://www.citywire.co.uk/adviser/-/news/pensions/content.aspx?ID=326252 while an even more outrageous return is assumed with Tariff Income. This arises when a claim for assistance with the cost of Long Term Care is made to a (English) Local Authority. If savings/assets are < £13,500 the Lower Means Tested Allowance, full benefit (in theory) should be available and none of it, if these are above the Upper Means Tested Allowance of £22,250. Assets or to give them their proper name here Notional Capital between the two bands are assumed to earn £1 per week for each £250. £52 per annum on capital of £250 is equivalent to an annual return of 20.8 per cent – slightly more than the current 1.8 per cent return offered on Premiums Bonds for example, and one which would solve most investment advisers’ pension problems if they could offer a net return of that order.
My Employee Benefits work in reviewing a Death-in-Service scheme for a client reminds me that it is a legal requirement for an employer to have a separate trust account for any claim proceeds. Mixing any claim monies paid out by the insurer with ordinary trading receipts could end up a real mess - claim proceeds could be taxed for example, the auditors would have a field day and could even lead to litigation from the beneficiaries. This would be all the more sad in this case, as the employer is more generous than the average and offers other benefits as well.
BRX Bond Street www.brxbondstreet.co.uk offers its usual pleasant surprises on our dark Friday mornings. Karelia of www.manseandgarret.com is very busy and gets great deal for a client who had a monthly rental budget of £4,500 for a place in South Kensington. The place she found was originally grossly overpriced at a rent £1,800 a week but the deal is done within budget. A new visitor is personal shopper www.LizAsh.com whose clients are often busy female (and male) City executives. Accountancy Agency proprietor www.rgduncan.com is building up a database of credit controllers which could be of benefit to his client companies. Sending the boys round or litigating may well get the money due, but will probably destroy the client relationship – much better to have decent credit control in the first place.
Great to see ecademy Chairman Thomas Power on http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00gsmtp/MoneyProgrammeTheRealSir_Alan/ as he was the original Apprentice. An interesting point left out of the programme was when Alan (as he was then) spent his last £400 on a old minivan and went round to hi-fi shops selling anti-static mats for record player turntables. With no money for stock, he had to give a one-week post-dated cheque for his first van load but having sold enough for cash after 3 days, he paid the cash over and took back the cheque. The rest is history as the saying goes, and if he were starting now, one doubts if he would be very worried.
Continuing my Italian journey from the two previous week’s blogs, the day after the wedding is rather quiet and one guest from Japan has to fly back quickly. Pictures of me relaxing by the lake remind me of jokes about beached whales but I am still able to swim. Ordering food in local restaurants is interesting. Requests for spaghetti bolognese are politely but firmly shrugged off – wrong part of Italy and perhaps not far off walking into the wrong gate at a football match. There is plenty of other gorgeous food to choose from with my favourite being polenta taranga. The black polenta used here is a mixture of maize and buckwheat and it is cooked with grated parmegiano regiano or parmesan as we Brits call it. The texture is rather like a very thick porridge and doesn’t give me the indigestion that pasta or pizza does. Efforts to find an Italian deli which sells the black polenta mixture in London have been unsuccessful so as usual, a bottle of wine to the reader who helps me here. Luigi Terroni & Sons in Clerkenwell Road next to St Peter’s the main Italian Church in London, would have kept this but sadly closed in August 2007.
To be continued
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