I was asked to give my point of view on a local radio programme today, regarding the latest government statistics about the increase in the amount of time the average employee spends at work. The argument was that the average worker in the UK works harder than their EU counterparts.

To me, the statistic says we are working longer, not harder. To be working harder, the statistic would be about output, results, even job satisfaction; not about how long we sit at our desks.

As a freelancer, I am always conscious about how I am valued. I have learnt that my value is assessed first and foremost by whether I get the job done. How long I will take, or how much I will charge is a secondary issue. If I do the job well, but take longer to do it than is really necessary just makes me more expensive, not better. Who do you know that would pay for unnecessary hours, or for poor quality?

And yet, that is what many employers do. They pay workers to be at their desks, measuring their contribution in time and cost, not quality. This charade is also played by employees, who are willing to put in extra time at work for free, perhaps hoping that this show of commitment secures their place in the company.

Do you value each employee by their cost, by how much time they spend at work, or by what they do for you?

Back in December 2010 I wrote about claiming expenses from your business relating to the business miles you drive (http://bit.ly/gh1s0t ).

Unless you drive in excess of 20,000 miles a year, you will be far better off claiming for each mile you drive, than to try and take a tax hit, or claim a percentage of your direct costs.

You may recall that, in the recent budget, the rate you can claim for the first 10,000 miles has increased from 40p to 45p. This gives you a potential extra £500 per year to claim.

If you use your own car for business purposes, you should be claiming expenses to offset the costs that you are incurring. As well as the fuel you use, you are allowed to claim for running costs such as repairs and maintenance, MOT, tax and insurance.

It doesn’t matter of you are self employed, or working for a company, as long as the miles you travel are for the business, and are not personal. The exception to this is your regular commute. You cannot claim for the miles driven to and from work, if you work at the same place most days. However, trips to the post office to buy stamps, to visit clients or suppliers, to visit business partners, or attend meetings are all allowable.

You may not know this, but you can also claim reimbursement if you use a bicycle to get around for business. A few years ago, the government introduced a mileage rate if you use your bicycle for business. A great way to stay fit, help the environment, and claim a tax deductible expense!

If you are VAT registered, you will need to collect VAT receipts for your fuel (not necessarily for the actual fuel you use), ensuring that the receipts are dated within your claim period.

I have created a very simple spreadsheet to help you calculate how much you can reclaim as expenses if you use your own car (or bicycle!). If you would like a free copy, please call or email me, and I’ll let you have a free copy.

In life and business there are three basic tensions, Cost, Time, and Quality. Is it possible to achieve high quality, at low cost, in a short period of time? Probably not, so if you see an opportunity that promises this, it is probably hiding something.

• To reduce cost usually requires a reduction in quality, or a longer timescale.
• To reduce the timescale usually requires an increase in cost, or a reduction in quality.
• To improve quality usually requires an increase in cost, or a longer timescale.

So what is the best way to balance these?

I would suggest that you start with identifying what you can’t change. For example, do you have a fixed budget, a timescale that can’t be changed, or an expected level of quality? And start there. Once you have a starting point, your options become clearer.

You can generally agree on two of the three factors, and have to accept the third. You want it high quality and now? You may have to pay for it… You want it now and cheap? You may need to accept low quality…

If you are challenged on why the cost is so high, the timescale too long, or the quality not up to standard, think about what you can do to one of the other two factors.

A colleague told me yesterday that a mutual client has called him by mistake, when they were trying to get hold of me. As the client launched into a detailed explanation of their challenges and voicing their ideas, he hadn’t been able to explain that they had dialled a wrong number until after a few minutes.

The thought crossed my colleague’s mind that the problem the client was describing might be something he could help them with. But on reflection he knew he had to stop the conversation and direct the call to the right person.

My colleague and I chatted about how important it was that the right person helps at the right time. The “presenting problem” is rarely the real issue. As a business consultant/coach, my role is to find the heart of the real issue, and to help suggest and implement some solutions. Sometimes it’s gut instinct, sometimes it’s noticing particular words, sometimes it’s just about asking the right questions.

Consultants are sometimes accused of borrowing your watch and then charging you to tell you the time. But if your problem is that you don’t know how to tell the time, then asking a consultant for help seems like a good idea to me.

Life is difficult, and there are enough challenges for each of us without having to feel like we must do everything on our own. Asking for help from the right person at the right time can sometimes be the difference between success and failure.

As you will have seen on the news, the rate of VAT in the UK is to change from 17.5% to 20%.

The new VAT conversion fraction is 1/6 (much easier to remember than the old one for 17.5%, which was 7/47).

If want to know the net cost of something, then divide by 6 and multiply by 5. For example, something sold for £100.00 has a net value of £83.33 (100/6*5).

If you want to know the gross cost of something, then divide the net value by 5 and multiply by 6. For example, a net value of £25.00 would cost £30.00 including VAT (25/5*6).

It may sound obvious, but changes to the rate of VAT affect the VAT amount, which in turn adjusts the gross value. £20.00 is not 20% of £120.00, it is 1/6 of £120.00.

As anticipated, my last blog about a simple web site related topic like the conversion rate between visitors to your web site and the number of potential customers engaging with you (for example by completing a contact form) created quite a bit of correspondence.

The vast majority of comments emphasised complex and (to be fair) quite interesting ideas about how to get the best out of your website. But I felt they missed the point. Most businesses are run by hard working individuals who have not got time to understand and implement subtle marketing ploys.

Which brings me to the question of how you eat an elephant. The answer is, of course, a mouthful at a time. To try and take too big a bite out of a problem leaves you with bad indigestion.

You need a website for two reasons, to increase your brand awareness, and to generate sales, and not necessarily both at the same time. Whatever tactics you use to achieve your goal need to be SMART (Google this if you can’t remember the acronym!).

I believe that life is complicated enough without making it harder than it needs to be.

The next time you want to make your business better, talk to someone who can talk to you about it in simple “plain English”.

Identify the problem, break it into manageable chunks, and deal with it! Life is hard enough, without it being taxing.

I was talking with a client about the amount of business they were generating from their website. The key interface between the business and the customer is the contact form, that tells the business about what the customer needs, as well as a contact name, number and email.

A brief look at Google Analytics revealed some interesting statistics:

• In the last month, their website had received just under 6,000 hits, and
• In the same period, only 54 click through’s to the contact form had been generated by the website, meaning that
• Less than 1% of visits had resulted in a request for a contact.

This was pretty depressing, but it explained why the business felt that it wasn’t getting much benefit from the website.

By looking at each page, it became apparent that there was no obvious “call to action”. Even if the visitor was keen to make contact, it wasn’t clear how they should.

I’m no web-master, but I do understand the importance of making sure the link between you, your product, your “shop”, and your customer, is seamless.

When was the last time you asked someone to give you honest feedback about how easy you are to locate, find out about, and to buy from?

I heard a speaker recently who gave an example of too much choice being a bad thing. The example involved offering free samples of jam to customers in a shop, and then offering them the option to buy a pot.

The research found that beyond a point, more choice led to lower sales. Some choice was good, too much was not so good.

So how much choice is good?

I am sure the supermarkets have worked this one out but, as usual, I found myself thinking laterally. When looking for a solution to a problem, how many options are there?

I reckon that, with enough time and resource, there is no problem that doesn’t have a limitless range of possible answers. Ask an academic if you are unsure about this one… The problem is that we don’t have limitless time and resource, and have to make do with a small number of options.

Unless you have a “no-brainer” of a question, possible solutions can be grouped into categories. For example, the obvious, the wacky, the seemingly stupid, the clever, the smart.

However you face challenges, the trick is to not let the question become overwhelming. Which leads me to a favourite saying: How do you eat an elephant? Answer, one mouthful at a time. The saying neatly illustrates the point that a complicated question, with too many possible answers, could probably be simplified if it was broken into smaller pieces, so you don’t get indigestion…

I gave a presentation to a business-networking group this week on the subject of Social Media and Business.

Realising the audience was at best sceptical (with a couple of exceptions!), and at worst cynical, I used the following images.

• Plain website = shop window, hopefully directing you to the door in.
• Blogging on your website = shop front glass now removed, allowing you to talk to potential customers, and for them to talk back (for example by leaving comments).
• Social Media (such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn) = you have left your shop and are walking about sharing your ideas, and encouraging others to talk about them as well (not always with you present).

It is a bit blunt, but seemed to get the key messages over:

1. Social Media is not something that only happens online – it’s a mesh of physical meetings and online activities.
2. Ideas that are spread through groups of people are far more powerful than ideas delivered to individuals.
3. Real engagement is when people do things for you that you didn’t ask them to.
4. Learn to lose some control – in return for greater reach.

With thanks to Steve Bridger (http://www.stevebridger.com/) for his insights…

Just picked up this great link about rejection.

http://cstadvertising.com/blog/2008/12/17/creative-rejection/

My maths teacher told me that everything was easy when you knew how.

Having learnt this, (pretty quickly as it happens, but then he was an inspirational teacher!) I have spent the rest of my life trying to work out how everything worked.

Those that expect life and success to be handed to them on a plate will either be very lucky or very disappointed.

There’s a great quote (I forget by who) about the balance between inspiration and perspiration.

Life isn’t easy, but by being persistent and ambitious, who knows how successful you can be.