MP shows the Wright way for the FSB

Shropshire Branch

MP shows the Wright way for the FSB

David Wright MP bought himself closer to the Telford business community, recently, by listening to and taking up causes from members of the Federation of Small Businesses at the recent Shropshire branch networking meeting.

On a warm night at Meeting Point house in Telford, David Wright MP answered questions from members on VAT, finance, the local council and future policies to see the country out of recession, there was also discussions on how the Shropshire business community can become more powerful, and approach the council in stronger ways.

David took on board a lot of the comments, offered his view on most and assisted in looking at ways forward.

Ray Hickinbottom, membership manager and event organiser for the branch said “we are a non-political lobbying group for small businesses, and David Wright MP very kindly offered his services to come and listen to how life is on the shop floor so to speak, indeed one of our members had a call from the MP in regards VAT, just as he was about to pose the query in the House of Commons. It is part of our series of events, our main aim is to bring the issues real people are experiencing, into sharp focus to the people that need to know, and our thanks go out to David for making the time to see us.”

The conversation was free flowing and everybody got to make their point at the meeting, it was local business owner of a logistics firm and FSB member, Ben Coates, that posed the VAT question, and he added “I recently spoke to the VAT office with regards setting up a monthly payment scheme, rather than new businesses having to find a huge lump sum every 3 months, however this was not available, when I mentioned it to Mr Wright he seemed to agree that the idea of enabling new businesses to budget this way, made sense, and of course it would help with Cash Flow.”

“I wrote to David as he asked me to, then I received a call three weeks later, with the question that was to be asked. The MP said he was about to table it and was outside the chancellor’s office as we spoke. Without the FSB I would feel isolated, so I have to thank my local branch for offering me the chance to move my idea forward.”

Ray added, “Since we met with David, he has invited us to take a group down to parliament for a tour, and has also booked a committee room so we are able to move discussions forward, we are not committed to any political party, our ties are firmly with the local business community who we represent.”

Up and coming FSB events include:

Monthly Networking meeting at Meeting Point house, 21^st June, 19^th July and the yearly social event, September 20^th, venue to be arranged.

Please feel free to contact FSB Shropshire on the following:

Ray Hickinbottom – Membership Manager – 07733 603052

Ben Coates – Committee member – 07738 715038

Twitter: @fsbshropshire

Facebook Group: FSB Shropshire group

Another Van into the fleet, here we go for year 2.

BK Sameday has just begun its second year of trading, and is celebrating by adding an additional Transit van to the fleet. Tucked into their distribution centre in Trench Lock, Ben Coates has decided it is time to start filling the warehouse and becoming a distribution centre for local businesses.

With the more vans they bring on board, the easier it is to offer a reduced price to customers who can wait a day or two and add the items to the appropriate van, Ben said “it has been difficult with the small van’s, we have had to be purely a same day company only, get the goods and take it to the destination, therefore charging our per mileage price, this will still be our main service, however with the new vans coming into the fleet, we expect to cover the UK most days, thus enable a collection in the North, and promise a delivery down South within a couple of days, but at a cut price, because we can get more than one job on the van.”

BK Sameday know the importance of the local economy, indeed being a courier business, there are many factors that affect margins, none more so than the rising cost of Diesel, the weather slowing traffic down, and cash flow dictating the amount of vans are on the road, but Ben said “We are building slowly, our first year accounts are near completion and they show a small profit, and that was with a big marketing splash just before the end of year, we appreciate market conditions are poor, but if we can improve year on year then we will be happy, we are not a major player, but we are ensuring our long term sustainability and not over-stretching ourselves.”

BK Sameday will have three full time workers from Mid-January, but is looking for self-employed van drivers looking for work, working off a trade exchange means that work can be supplied to several people in different areas of the country 90% of the time, Ben added “We have some fantastic tools in our industry, and if we can pass on some of this business to local drivers, we would be proud to assist, we can put on where people are returning from as well and ensure they are loaded for return journeys, which is where we can really make our margins higher.”

To take advantage of this or to discuss working alongside BK Sameday please call 0844 826 2614 or visit www.bksameday.co.uk.