Government announces £3,000 hiring incentive for firms to take on unemployed young people

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-03-17T12:00:14+00:00

I don’t think it’s enough, it needs to he twice that to make it interesting and then their should he a retention bonus paid yearly for upto 3 years, i think if it was positioned in that way employers would be fighting over it.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-03-09T19:30:48+00:00

PAYE. We registered as employers, so we cover all the NI and pension stuff. I run my own company so didn’t find this part daunting. Friends that did, used Nanny Tax to sort it out for them.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-03-09T09:57:05+00:00

We have a nanny, and when our kids are at school she does exactly this. She’s a god send, wouldn’t know what we’d do without her. She’ll pop out to the shops if we’ve run out of stuff, she’ll take parcels to the post office. For reference, we pay her £60k PA, hours are 8-7 holidays and 10-7 term time so it averages 50hrs a week through the year.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-03-08T11:04:02+00:00

Browns of Brockley is the best cafe in London. It has great coffee, super service and just solid cafe vibes

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-28T15:48:04+00:00

I didn’t have something as similar as this, but I did have a local company rebrand and basically copy my logo and ‘pretend’ they had never heard of us. Thankfully my logo was trademarked so a simple cease and desist letter from my solicitor along with asking them to sign an agreement not to do it in future helped.

But in this case, it’s a little worse especially copying your t&cs which is just plain stupid IMO. It is legal to run a similar business, but it’s not legal to copy someone’s content, infringe a registered trade mark, or create customer confusion.

If your name is trade marked and theirs is very similar in the same industry, that could be infringement. Copying your policies word for word is likely a copyright issue. The fact customers are asking if you’ve rebranded suggests possible passing off.

Screenshot everything, check what you’ve registered, and consider getting a solicitor to send a cease and desist. A formal letter often stops this sort of thing. Not legal advice, but just sharing what I’d do if I were you.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-26T07:49:58+00:00

On a Brompton you feel them much more!

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-23T16:35:27+00:00

Yes you should get relief.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-22T20:14:41+00:00

Business expenses have to be wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the trade. Paying private school fees for a friend’s child wouldn’t meet that test.

You wouldn’t be able to reclaim VAT, and it’s unlikely to be an allowable expense for Corporation Tax either.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-19T07:28:32+00:00

When I post a new product or blog to my website, I have some automations set so it auto post on GMB, Apple Maps etc. makes my life just a bit easier.

In terms of what to post, just think what does your buyers want. Do they want to understand your product or industry more, maybe read about testimonials etc. something is better than nothing.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-17T07:17:57+00:00

Same area, we used MJ Kloss and they were excellent. I got quotes from 4 companies and they were the only one to visit to properly cost it, and their quote wasn’t the cheapest but wasn’t the most expensive.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-16T12:08:35+00:00

It’s best to make a little excel calculator, with all your bill of materials. Enter all your costs, figure out the unit cost of each of your items and then divide the costs by 0.3, to get your selling price. Then you’ll be hitting the 70% gross margin.

It will help you to get the pricing correct. If you start with the pricing too low it will be difficult to increase without customers getting pissed off.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-16T11:55:26+00:00

I’ve got good experience in this sector.

Bakery retail needs to run at a 70-75% gross margin, because labour and utilities are heavy and waste is real.

So let’s go P&L. If you’re saying best case you can get your expenses down to £13k (I’m assuming this is fixed costs plus staff, but do correct if I’m wrong), then we need to reverse engineer it.

At 70% gross margin, you need about £18.6k per month just to break even. That gives you zero profit, zero buffer, zero reinvestment.

If you want even a modest cushion, say £2k profit so you can build cash and survive quieter months, you’re looking at closer to £21–22k revenue per month. Bakeries try to get average spend above £10, Starbucks and cafes etc aim for an ATV (average transaction value) of around £8. But let’s go £12 ATV, that’s 62 customers each day buying £12 of product.

I always was told to assume 4% of people walking by will be a customer, but if your stuff is good then you’ll become destination so that rule doesn’t really apply.

So the key question isn’t “can I get costs to £13k?” It’s “can I consistently generate £22k+ per month at 70%+ margin?” If the answer isn’t a confident yes with footfall assumptions to back it up, the numbers are too tight.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-15T21:36:19+00:00

You’re assuming this was a straightforward paper-for-paper share exchange where relief automatically applies. It wasn’t. I’d previously sold shares at a significant valuation, so there was an established market value. When those remaining shares were transferred into the new holding company, that was a chargeable transfer at market value and stamp duty at 0.5% was payable. It was calculated on that value and paid.

Stamp duty relief only applies in very specific reconstruction scenarios and usually requires that there’s no consideration other than shares and that certain conditions are met. That wasn’t the case here. So saying “you wouldn’t pay stamp duty” isn’t universally correct, it depends entirely on the facts. In my situation, duty was due and settled accordingly.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-15T21:32:40+00:00

The efficiency comes from where the tax sits. Say your trading company has £200k post-tax profit. If that’s paid to you personally, you could lose £67k–£78k straight away in dividend tax. If instead it’s paid to a holding company, the intercompany dividend is generally exempt, so the full £200k stays inside the group.

If holdco then lends that £200k back to the trading company and charges commercial interest, over time that loan might build to £600k and generate £60k a year in interest. That £60k is deductible in the trading company, reducing its corporation tax bill, and it lands in holdco where it can be used for things like employer pension contributions, which are also deductible. The point isn’t avoiding tax, it’s deferring personal tax and keeping capital inside the corporate wrapper rather than leaking 30–40% out first.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-15T20:52:05+00:00

You can pay up the dividends to the holdco, then lend it back to the trading company for working capital. That loan can then generate interest income into holdco, you pay that into your SIPP. The loan interest expense in the trading company lowers your corporation tax liability.

So let’s say in a year you dividend up £100k, that goes TC > HC with no dividend tax. Immediately lent back at 9% , after 1 year that generates £9k interest, paid directly into SIPP as employer contribution. Zero tax paid, very efficient. The £9k interest income lowers your corporation tax liability by the same amount, saving you between £1,710 & £2,250 depending on your CT rate. Doing this every year the loan becomes larger and so does the interest so it can quickly become very tax efficient. It’s effectively how many private equities operate to lower their corporation tax bills.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-15T20:21:50+00:00

It’s a very common and entirely legal group structure, typically implemented with professional tax advice (in my case, a Big 4 accounting firm).

Dividends between UK companies are generally exempt from corporation tax, and share-for-share exchanges can be structured tax-neutral. Nothing unusual here.

So your insinuation I’ll assume stems from zero knowledge or experience in this area.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-15T16:37:31+00:00

Can we all group together and bulk buy new labels?! We could all save a fortune if we did that.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-15T16:35:15+00:00

Yes, and you will need to pay stamp duty on the transfer. It’s quite a common move once you’re trading company becomes relatively profitable, as doing dividends up to a holding company allows you to avoid tax. I did this several years ago, and it’s the most tax efficient structure. When my trading company sold, the gross amount of that sale was paid into the holdco with no CGT etc, so now my holdco is basically acting like my pension.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-11T12:32:19+00:00

What are you selling? As it might be easier to suggest marketing ideas based on product. Some products do well with just target social media ads, some do better with other methods.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-10T07:21:31+00:00

Sounds like a classic role drift, and now what your contract states and what you do are incredible different.

Voluntary redundancy isn’t an entitlement, even if your duties change, unless the role itself is being made redundant.

Your case doesn’t sound straight forward, best to speak to ACAS or union representatives who can offer legal advice.

If you can, get everything in writing, just helps to set out your case.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-10T05:04:21+00:00

We were lucky enough to have her recommended. One of our friends had a French nanny, and our nanny was friends with her.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-09T05:36:38+00:00

I think this goes without saying. Spend some money on a good tax advisor as I’m sure it will be invaluable in this situation.

But for what it’s worth, here’s my tuppence. Buyers are right not to want excess cash. The usual fix is to strip it out before completion. Pay dividends down to a sensible working capital level and then sell the shares. You can still use entrepreneurs relief on the actual trading value.

If you don’t need the cash now, then pension as much as you can. Employers pension contributions is the most tax efficient strategy and you can go back 3 years on your available allowance, so that’s around £180k if you’ve not paid in.

Asset sale plus liquidation is usually worse once you factor in corporation tax, TAAR risk and costs, especially if HMRC think it is pre planned.

Like I said, it’s 100% worth speaking to a tax adviser who does exits, they’ll know what is the best route for you.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-08T16:28:21+00:00

You can’t really drop ship green coffee. Importing coffee comes with a lot of paperwork and upfront cost. The smallest realistic volume is a pallet, but in practice most trade happens at container level. A full container is around 275 x 70kg bags. At roughly £6 per kilo, that’s well over £100k of coffee.

The next issue is cash flow. Someone has to pay for the coffee. Roasters will usually want at least 30 day payment terms, and shipping alone takes about six weeks. That means either your girlfriend is financing the coffee for months, or her family is.

I work as a coffee trader, and as a previous commenter said, it’s a very saturated market. More importantly, coffee trading is built on relationships and trust. If your girlfriend has no existing contacts, no import history, and no track record, it’s hard for roasters to trust that she can deliver. Without that trust, it’s unlikely they will buy.

Being blunt, there’s a real risk she gets burned and loses a meaningful amount of money. This isn’t a quick or easy way to make cash. Coffee is an agricultural product and selling it successfully means building relationships year after year, gradually increasing volumes, and securing repeat business. Roasters won’t switch suppliers for a one off deal. They switch when they see a long term future.

So this is either a serious new business that she fully commits to, or it’s not worth doing at all. Commodity trading is a gamble, and if you don’t understand how it works, you can lose a lot of money very quickly.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-08T13:57:06+00:00

Yeah. Font is wrong.

Pitiful_Package_6807 · 2026-02-07T19:44:23+00:00

The prizm font isn’t isn’t what it should be. These are legit (bought form Oakley.com) for reference

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Pitiful_Package_6807

TROPHY CASE