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Early warning!!
Employers - have you heard about it? Are you up to speed?
The year 2012 will see the introduction of compulsory employer-contribution pension plans for all employees. Previously known as the Personal Accounts scheme, it has been re-branded as the National Employment Savings Trust and the legislation seems to have grown some teeth since the previous attempt. The Chancellor proposes to help himself to 3% of all employees' "qualifying earnings". What percentage of your profit does that represent?
Will the scheme "save" anything? If so, that will differentiate it from the present Employers National Insurance Contribution which does not insure anything.
What about "Trust" - given the catastrophic mis-management of the economy over the last few years, isn't it quite bold to use the term in the name of the scheme?
The March 2010 CA Magazine ran an article on the subject.
To read more of the detail, click here. |
Leek, goat's cheese and walnut pasta
Click here for a seasonal recipe uses one of the last of the winter vegetables - leeks. |
West Lothian Chamber is running a series of business growth related interactive meetings.
Part of the Business Mentoring programme, these meeting allow the exchange of ideas and experience among businesses big and small.
Two dates are suggested for the next session:
Wed 14th Apr 5.15 - 7.00 or
Mon 26th Apr 5.15 - 7.00
Let Brenda Cumming know which you would prefer and the date will be confirmed by preference.
Contact Brenda on: 01506 777938 or
by email |
Stewart Deards
Ruth Forsythe
Malcolm Brebner
Insurance Broker
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LBA Meeting Wed 7th & 21st April at 8am, Star & Garter Hotel
LBA Event Wed 31st March, 7.00pm
Kingsfield Golf Centre
LinlithGROW
Sat 20th March 10am: Guided tour of Annet House Fruit & Veg garden
Mon 22nd March 7.30-9pm: Beginners Guide to Growing Fruit & Veg
West Lothian Chamber
Members Showcase Evening: Book a 'Table Top Spot' (£10+VAT)
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How about promoting your business by hosting an LBA Meeting at your premises?
Contact Elodie at the Language Room:
e:Elodie; tel: 670009
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Do you want to use the newsletter to promote your business?
An article?
A member's offer?
An event?
A FREE service to LBA members!
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After one of the hardest, and longest, winters in living memory we find ourselves already almost at the end of the first quarter of 2010. Equally unprecedented is the state of the national economy - has it ever been in such poor health, either within or outwith, living memory?
At the local level, is the current state of affairs to be seen as an opportunity or a threat? The LBA sees it as an enforced opportunity to review the workings of the community of which businesses are such a vital part and is persevering with its efforts to encourage fresh thinking in the way we go about increasing prosperity for all.
In that connection, Linlithgow Aspires has teamed up with the British Council and Architecture and Design Scotland to put on the "Linlithgow Futures Game" - for more details see below.
For labour intensive businesses especially, there is also a bit of a shock just around the corner in 2012 - read our article on pensions and start to prepare.
Details of the next LBA members' event at Kingsfield Golf Centre are confirmed below along with some thoughts and quotes from those who attended the Farmhouse Breakfast.
.........and remember you can use the newsletter to promote your business, advise of new products and services or special offers or events: contact@linlithgowbusiness.org.uk | |
Linlithgow Aspires has been offered a tremendous opportunity to participate in a highly successful programme run by The British Council throughout Europe.
The Future City Game is a project initiated by the British Council and takes place in Scotland in conjunction with their partner Architecture + Design Scotland. It is designed to share experiences across Europe, to help communities stimulate original thinking, and develop new and creative ways to improve the quality of life.
The main component of the project comprises 5 teams getting advice from experts then competing to come up with the best ideas. The teams will be made up from representatives right across the Community coming together to focus on issues that will affect us in the future. By means of a competitive "game" they reach conclusions that are then pitched to community groups (such as young people) and can be taken forward into real projects.
Inverness ran the game over 3 days in January and in Linlithgow we will be packing it into one intensive day on the 24th March. Sun/Oracle are kindly hosting the event and the teams and experts are in place. The Linlithgow event will be facilitated by Monika Komarowska from Warsaw, who has already run 7 successful games. A+DF have been instrumental the organisation and will participate in the follow through after the event.
This is an exciting time in the development of Linlithgow Aspires. Everyone with an interest in the future of Linlithgow is invited to get involved at www.linlithgowaspires.co.uk
For more info on Future Cities Games, please click here. |
Linlithgow Business Association event - March 31st 2010
is a family run business located on the eastern outskirts of Linlithgow. As new members of Linlithgow Business Association, we are hosting a Members' event at Kingsfield on Wednesday 31 March 2010.
At this event we will showcase our operation to the members with a brief tour of our excellent facilities followed by a presentation on our business and a question & answer session.
The aims of the evening are as follows:
- Provide an opportunity for members to meet and socialise
- Provide an opportunity for a member to showcase their operation
- Provide an opportunity for all members to give feedback to Kingsfield but also perhaps to learn something from the session that they might use in their own business
The event will officially begin at 7.30pm but we will be running a fun putting competition at 7pm for those who can make it along early.
LBA will be making a small charge to members to cover the cost of catering for the event and Kingsfield have agreed to provide the venue free of charge to LBA.
We look forward to welcoming you to Kingsfield. |
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Farmhouse Breakfast is the Business |
Winter's last riposte couldn't defeat the intrepid Farmhouse Breakfast Corps, as Field Marshall Nan Hay rallied the troops to overcome all the odds.
Some people say we don't do much, but they can't argue that what we do, we do in style. So, for the fourth year in a row, a winter Wednesday was brightened up by the peerless hospitality of Nan Hay, propietrix with the mostrix, at Belsyde House - where she, family, friends and staff all laboured admirably to host yet another fantastic Farmhouse Breakfast for members and guests.
Let's just dwell on the effort here. Belsyde House is a great location. Just west of Linlithgow, with great views over the Avon Valley, Nan and husband Tom generally cater for about twelve paying guests, enjoying the countryside charms, complete with sheep and Shetland ponies, grazing in the paddock opposite. On the day of the Farmhouse Breakfast, around thirty more guests descend on the Georgian property, and, somehow, Nan copes, with her broad smile undiminished.
This day though, things were a little different. Winter chose to remind us that the fight was not over, and Belsyde more resembled Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. The weather threw everything at us, and, like the Ninth Army expecting a straightforward victory, we were plunged into disarray, under a merciless torrent of snow, snow, and more snow.
To read more, please click here. |
QUOTES FROM THE FARMHOUSE BREAKFAST |
From the big smiles in the photos you can tell that members really enjoyed the Farmhouse Breakfast. Here's some of the quotes from after the event:
"A wonderful warm welcome and a spectacular
breakfast............ a very relaxed setting ........"
Catriona Staddon, Hyndberry
"The Farmhouse breakfast was a great success for us.........as new members, we met a whole range of local businesses.................. all in all a great morning and time very well spent"
David Mitchell, Kingsfield Golf
"...........it cut my weekly food bill by 74%......... tone & mood was spot on......."
Tom Robison, Converse Living
"I would like to take this opportunity to praise the Linlithgow Business Association for one of the best breakfast meetings I have attended............ networking possibilities second to none........... looking forward to the Kingsfield event on the 31st March"
Alex Stewart, ocean70
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New LBA member, Go Ape, will shortly be opening for business at Beecraigs. Manager Stewart Deards enjoyed making contacts at the recent Farmhouse Breakfast event at Belsyde House and gave this brief account of the origins and plans for Go Ape
"The origins of Go Ape lie in France. Back in 2001, Tris and Becs Mayhew were on holiday in the Auvergne and came across a French family swinging through the trees. From the looks on their faces, it was clear both the kids and their parents were having the time of their lives.
Eight years and 22 courses later, they've built one of the fastest growing companies in the country and have plans to take the Go Ape message all over the UK and beyond. They plan to grow to 40 courses by 2012.
Their vision is pretty simple really - to create adventure and encourage everyone to live life more adventurously. It's so much more fun that way.
Continually plotting ways to get the whole world swinging through the trees, the least they would like to be is the best high-wire adventure company on the planet."
We wish them great success at their venue in Linlithgow - sounds like a great spot for an LBA event!
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