How can we help small business to get up and running?

CoyleJames

I've a few ideas on how to help get our small businesses up and running.

A 4 Point Profitability Proposal:-

1. RATES- 50% rates reduction funded by 50% Dublin City Council staff reduction.

2. RENT- Downward rent review for small business.

3. FINANCE- Collector General to extended credit for small business.

4. STAFF COSTS- Employer's PRSI should be reduced to help them keep their businesses and staff afloat.

Best wishes.

James Coyle

sarumite

CoyleJames wrote: »

I've a few ideas on how to help get our small businesses up and running.

A 4 Point Profitability Proposal:-

1. RATES- 50% rates reduction funded by 50% Dublin City Council staff reduction.

2. RENT- Downward rent review for small business.

3. FINANCE- Collector General to extended credit for small business.

4. STAFF COSTS- Employer's PRSI should be reduced to help them keep their businesses and staff afloat.

Best wishes.

James Coyle

Not to shoot it down....as someone who lives in Galway, I want some small businesses here as well please.

CoyleJames

I'm sure you have the same issues in Galway, but we really need the government and banks to get behind them, their the heart and soul of the nation.

RonMexico

Employers should be entitled to social welfare if their business goes tits up. The current situation is a disgrace.

CoyleJames

Yes, I totally agree and there are plenty of businesses closing down. On Dublin's Pearce street lot's of shops are boarded up. I wonder what becomes of the owners, probably emigrated.

n97 mini

We need a lot less red tape and a more efficient civil service. The Revenue staff are lovely on the phone but slow as treacle to deliver, and in many cases don't deliver. They are a major impediment to me at the moment.

zig

RonMexico wrote: »

Employers should be entitled to social welfare if their business goes tits up. The current situation is a disgrace.

I cant say 100% correct on this but im nearly positive that if you arent married to someone thats employed and your business goes tits up you are entitled to jobseekers allowance, just not the benefit(they're the same thing money wise).
I think its a common misconception that they can get nothing after a closure of business.

Could be well wrong on that one though tbh, its just I heard someone on the radio say something to that effect that once are means tested you should be able to get the allowance.

CoyleJames

Too true, I'm a small business owner and an accountant and I'm running in South East Dublin as an Independent supporting small business.

We made a video yesterday with vox pops from the public and business owners and they were talking about closing their businesses, and also over subscribed number of civil servants.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Asv4HuRrqW0

clouds

I wouldn't say 50% of rates collection go to 50% of staff.

toobeyshaw

1. Increase in VAT threshold amount for cash receipts accounting. It would give businesses a help in terms of cash flow.

2. Dedicated section of Revenue to deal with tax issues/queries for small businesses - not all business can afford to hire external advisors from large accountancy firms.

3. PRSI rebates for employers to hire new staff (I believe there are some of these in place already). They should be continued, advertised and extended.

4. A specific programme of lending for small business agreed with the banks i.e. certain overdraft limits, term loan interest rates agreed and set. A small business might then feel that they have a chance of getting some finance if they have achieved certain targets etc. I don't believe that the Credit Review Office is sufficient for ensuring that small businesses are getting the finance that they need quickly.

5. Maybe some courses for first time startups (similar to FAS courses) so that the prospective employer could get information on vital areas of business management including strategy, working capital management, people management, sales skills etc.

Most of all, the government needs to realise that the people who have set up/who want to set up small businesses in Ireland are employing people, giving tax back to the country and should be helped and protected.

CoyleJames

50% may be a bit extreme, but why should us private sector workers have to prop up cushioned civil servant's? Were paying their wages through our taxes!

RonMexico

There are loads of business owners who own the building but the business itself is failing. When it closes they are entitled to nothing from social welfare as they have assets (the building). Unfortunately it is practically impossible to sell such an asset in the current climate. Which leaves the business owner in dire straits.

What are you supposed to do - eat the building?:mad:

Many of these people have poured all their money into saving their business and are left with nothing, yet the staff they employed have more entitlements.

It is completely wrong and unfair. Until this changes I would say that anyone thinking of starting up a business is completely mental.

clouds

Right James if you really are standing for election you should come across a bit more measured than your average ranty poster. We need the Public Service, we need the Private sector. Really all any policy maker can do is fiddle around with the proportions. Reform grand, but ranting about how you pay them out of your own taxes doesn't make you sound any more credible than any keyboard/high stool proclaimer.

CoyleJames

But we really need new business to set up in Ireland. We need to grow our economy and small business with fresh ideas is key.

clouds

CoyleJames wrote: »

But we really need new business to set up in Ireland. We need to grow our economy and small business with fresh ideas is key.

True.
But what's the 'niche in the market' nowadays? Much less disposable cash floating around. These new businesses have to chase exports, or offer life's neccessities cheaper than than their (probably established) competitors. I dunno.

CoyleJames

Great chat. I have to go out to the hustings now. Have a good weekend.

James Coyle

Amhran Nua

Here are a few thoughts, James:

Create a network of nationwide enterprise hubs based on the Business Employment Co-operative model which has proven successful in several countries. The idea of this scheme would be to provide an easy transition from inactivity to self employment.

A primary phase might be entrepreneurship educational schemes outside of the FAS framework, aimed at giving people real skills they can use to start their own businesses. This would include basic business accounting discipline.

They remain technically unemployed but develop their business idea under the wing of the BEC. Take experienced but unemployed businesspeople and give them equity in startups in exchange for their knowledge and contacts. At this stage the business plan has been dismantled and put back together again by people who have experience.

If it looks like being a success, they become a "salaried entrepreneur" with the security of a part-time employment contract. In addition, shares in the company can be sold to the public via an online credit card facility, up to say two fifths of the company; if even 1% of the population put €100 a month into those new companies, you'd have a budget of a million euros a week to invest. Open it up to foreign investment in Europe and the US and there is no limit to how high the numbers can run, as well as bringing in capital from other countries.

At a certain point the entrepreneur can take out a loan up to three times the amount of investment and money they put in themselves from the BEC hub credit union, although they remain personally responsible for the loan. Office space and advertising funding might also be supplied prior to this point.

Finally they become a self sufficient business, sharing in the ownership and management of the co-operative, or optionally going it alone.

Legislative and governmental groundwork:
- Create a specific entity beyond a limited company in Irish corporate law, the BEC.
- Change the rules for certain unemployment benefits to fit the BEC model.
- Reduce the complication involved in hiring new people as PAYE employees, which has benefits beyond this concept.
- Create a new classification of debt, enterprise debt, with much more lenient terms than the traditional Irish bankruptcy structure.
- Tax incentives for public investment in the BEC companies, say no taxes at all on profits made from shares in these companies for a period, and make them a tax deductible write off.
- Prior to the company becoming self sufficient, have a reduced tax rate for company income.
- An initial government advertising campaign and funding to provide an incentive for the BECs to be set up, with very limited ongoing involvement. This funding could be taken from the enterprise boards and other services which are no longer required, or whose usefulness is reduced.

lmimmfn

all rates should be abolished, money should be taken in via vat which also should be reduced. We need to get people buying stuff and businesses to find it easy to startup. At least give a moritorium on new businesses for 6-12 months free rates.

Amhran Nua

Just start charging rates on empty buildings and watch rents collapse.

HellFireClub

I've very recently started up a new business, I've been on the dole for 1.5 years.

I'd love to be able to put up a diary here of how every single state agency that was meant to be helping someone like myself, to get off state dependency, has actively opposed every single action I took to try to get off the ground and get off the dole. I know what I'm writing here sounds like the thoughts of a bitter or angry person, but until you try dealing with the Civil Service in this country, you have no idea what it is like.

My first obstacle was the Dept. of Social Welfare... They have a scheme for folks who want to start up a business called the Back to Work Enterprise Scheme. The idea is that there is a small grant structure to give to people who qualify for the scheme. First of all you have to be unemployed for a minimum of 12 months before you can apply to go on this scheme. After ticking the 12 month box, I applied to go on the scheme, after which they told me they hadn't a red cent to give to any applicant. This was last October. So I had to wait until January of this year, after which they announced that they had a new budget but it had been cut to 500 Euro per applicant.

Between last October and this January, I met with my local TD's and I argued strongly in person and in writing that first of all, I should not be given a grant of any money, I should be given a loan and it should be repaid. I argued that it makes no sense to pay someone 10K a year in state support and leave them on 10K a year rather than exploring the option of lending them 3K of that 10K and having it repaid.

I may as well have been talking with my dog on this, there was not the slightest acceptance that the system was not working, not just for me, it wasn't working for the state either which is paying me 188 Euro a week.

Then I get approved for a 500 Euro grant (the business start-up is a website), and I wanted to use the 500 Euro grant for a Google Adwords campaign. 6 weeks after being told I was approved, they cannot pay Google because they cannot do an electronic bank transfer in a manner which is acceptable to Google (requires the attachment to the transaction of a credit reference number), and Google will not take a cheque and the Dept. of Social Protection will not issue a cheque to me directly.

I applied to Revenue for a VAT number, my application was refused on the first occasion because I was starting up the business from my home. They wanted me to go out and get a signed lease, (I'm on 188 Euro a week don't forget).I appealed that decision, my appeal was upheld, some 4 weeks after filling out my VAT3 form (I'm due a small repayment of VAT), I'm still waiting for my VAT repayment, because whoever processed my TR2 (VAT Registration form), decided not to enter my bank details, so the whole process had to be repeated.

So to summarise, last October I applied for what was advertised as a 1,000 Euro grant to assist a small business start-up, some 5 months later, the department in question cannot issue a f*cking 500 Euro payment to Google, one of the biggest businesses in the world with its European headquarters in Ireland.

The problem in this country is not just the political machine, it's the public service beaurocracy that will oppose everything that is put in front of them. There is no sense or understanding within the public service, of being central to the solution of the national economic problem, as opposed to being bitter, aloof and completely disconnected because of pay cuts.

We are so far removed from supporting small business start-ups in this country, it's actually scary I think. All the money is going to the IDA to entice US multinationals here to give us what are not in all reality high skilled jobs. There is too much emphasis on FDI and importing entrepreneurship, this in a country where we are constantly self congratulating ourselves on being one of the best educated races on earth.

srsly78

Are you a sole trader or a company? I had no problem getting a VAT number as a company, I didn't have to show lease or anything, just company reg number.

As a director if things went tits up YES I can get social wefare, however it would be the means-tested one (jsb or jsa?) and I would have to wind the company up. Problem is they won't give it to you for a short period to tide you over bad times, you MUST terminate your business completely (not a trivial thing to shutdown and startup again).

galwayrush

I have a small business, busy enough but many clients can't pay me (and in some cases won't.) They say their banks won't release funds for them to pay, a nasty circle of debt follows, combined with revenue obligations and and rates, they are the main reason i have laid off 5 of my 6 staff. I can't afford to pay the charges due as the cash flow is not there. ( Profit margains are , but not much good when the money does not come in on time). Now 2 of us work crazy hours, i would love to be able to employ the people i need, but i can't afford to because of the lack of cash flow.

zig

HellFireClub wrote: »

I've very recently started up a new business, I've been on the dole for 1.5 years.

I'd love to be able to put up a diary here of how every single state agency that was meant to be helping someone like myself, to get off state dependency, has actively opposed every single action I took to try to get off the ground and get off the dole. I know what I'm writing here sounds like the thoughts of a bitter or angry person, but until you try dealing with the Civil Service in this country, you have no idea what it is like.

My first obstacle was the Dept. of Social Welfare...

cheers for the insight, im going down that road myself soon so ive learnt from this not to hold my breath.

HellFireClub

galwayrush wrote: »

I have a small business, busy enough but many clients can't pay me (and in some cases won't.) They say their banks won't release funds for them to pay, a nasty circle of debt follows, combined with revenue obligations and and rates, they are the main reason i have laid off 5 of my 6 staff. I can't afford to pay the charges due as the cash flow is not there. ( Profit margains are , but not much good when the money does not come in on time). Now 2 of us work crazy hours, i would love to be able to employ the people i need, but i can't afford to because of the lack of cash flow.

I've a mate in the very same situation as you, he's in the transport business, he has been literally BATTERED by bad debts, the whole business is a credit model, so he is extremely exposed to payment issues. It's actually surreal watching this election campaign, and seeing that not a single person seeking election seems to get what is going on with small businesses at the moment.

HellFireClub

zig wrote: »

cheers for the insight, im going down that road myself soon so ive learnt from this not to hold my breath.

Best of luck with your venture, my advice to you is just don't bother dealing with the Dept. of Social Protection in relation to any grants or funding. The best resource you have starting on this journey is your inherent optimism as an entrepreneur, your energy and your drive. These are not infinite resources that you have, and the likes of the Social Welfare people will reduce you to a broken person, the politics of dealing with them, their disgraceful attitude towards anyone on the dole, their endless paper trail of beaurocracy, their "for the file" attitude to everything, "the computer says no", "that's not my job you need to see someone else", it will drain you of your drive and enthusiasm. You could run with it if it was just for a week or two but they will wear you down over months and months, you'll go through the elation of thinking you are finally getting somewhere with them, only to be crushed with a horrendous feeling of deflation when they come up with another hurdle or section of small print that you have to write letters over and give them more stuff "for the file"...

If you have any money at all, stick it in the credit union and if there is any way possible at all that you can do so, keep the Social Welfare people completely out of the loop...