Good meeting last night

Thanks to everyone who managed to make last night’s meeting at Digby’s and to Loria who definitely got Brownie points

Message from St. James’s Place

I am delighted to tell you that St. James’s Place has once again won the prestigious award for the ‘UK Wealth Manager of the Year 2012’ at last night’s FT/Investors Chronicle Wealth Management Award ceremony.

Thank you to all of you who voted for us.

Kind regards

Neil
Neil Gubbins

www.sjpp.co.uk/neilgubbins

ST. JAMES’S PLACE
WEALTH MANAGEMENT
11 Hamilton Place
Mayfair
London W1J 7DA
T: 020 7495 1771
M: 07739 263334

Meeting at Peri Pera 5th April

OK – tonight’s meeting is full of good useful info. We have info and (if the signal is good) a demo of a free short-cut tool for all you social network marketers not already using it. There will be updates on some of the big events going on “down south” plus all the local news, your updates and more… Look forward to seeing you later

20th March Denia Meeting 4:30pm

Just to remind attendees of the Denia Branch meetings that the time of the meetings has changed to 4:30pm

MABC Meeting 15th March at Digby’s Bar, Jávea

The theme of last night’s meeting was Business Issues & Challenges for 2012.

We are still deep in the “crisis” and we asked our members to talk about the challenges that they are facing in the coming months. This elicited a very interesting discussion amongst the members, with each member outlining the challenges that they are facing within their own businesses.

The output of the discussions follows:

Business	Issues faced by the Business Owner
Business 1	Prices have not increased in 10 years but this has not prevented a decline in overall client volume. Customers are having to choose between a meal out per week or whether to afford the services on offer as the prices are similar and the exchange rate has been detrimental to a mostly British target market most of whom are reliant on pensions. However, this particular problem has been alleviated of late with the rise of the £ against the €.The service is provided at weekdays only, so younger employed and self-employed people are not generally able to attend events. Targeting schools is a possible alternative strategy, as schools are cutting back on the teaching of non-core subjects.
Business 2	The main challenge is getting business through the door, many communities are “tied” to their current providers and there is only a very small window of opportunity around the time of each annual contract renewal that can be exploited.Competition is predominately from traditional Spanish providers who tend to provide inadequate information on how community money is spent. A frequent lack of transparency and auditability opens up dangers of negligent or even criminal behaviour on the part of current incumbents. Whilst this is a concern for each community, it opens up opportunities for a business offering a transparent and properly conducted professional service. Apathy of the expatriates in Spain is perceived as a problem: they want to complain but they won’t actually do anything about their complaints. Getting concerted action for community voting is therefore a time-consuming process that eats into the profitability of each project. Another issue facing expatriates is that the laws governing communities are poorly understood.
Business 3	The owner of this business started it as a foil to Facebook pages that have information and offers that disappear very quickly due to the timeline nature of Facebook. Using an internet platform allows Facebook linkage – but permits posts to stay “live” and relevant longer – offering a discernible benefit to contributors.There are two key challenges facing the owner. First, start-up costs and barriers to entry are low and so competition is extensive. A second problem is that the owner also promotes the site with a Facebook page and potential clients post (at no charge) on the FB page rather than posting them (at no charge but slightly more effort) on the proper site.
Business 4	This niche business has been operating for four years and the main challenge is raising awareness. The size and scope do not currently justify significant expenditure and so most promotional activity currently takes place via Facebook.Hires are either nightly (special events) or weekly (e.g. cruises). Having business premises would be ideal to help generate extra custom.
Business 5	Outside the summer season, there is a specific part of the day which is extremely quiet and the challenge facing the owner was how to improve occupancy during this period. Members had several suggestions for improving trade during this period, drawing on their experience of similar businesses in the area.
Business 6	Trade has been steadily increasing, both in terms of volume of orders and order size but cash flow is a problem as they ask for a significant deposit with full payment on delivery.Filling backhaul and, to a lesser extent seasonality are issues that are challenges facing this business. Increasing fleet size is being examined by the business owner, but there are investment and employment legislation issues which need to be considered in more detail before taking this step.
Business 7	The nature of this business is that there are no barriers to entry relating to cost or qualifications. In addition, while the generic service can provide the opportunity for increasing each client’s business trade, no guarantee can be offered that this will be the case. The client needs to provide the goods and services required by consumers, but this is the owner’s ultimate responsibility.The business is particularly affected by the poor economic climate and a particular challenge facing all owners of businesses like this is the difficulty of selling a service which does not yield immediate benefit to clients.

At a future meeting, we will also discuss possible solutions to the challenges faced by our members. This is also bound to be a very interesting meeting.

Meeting 15th March 2012

Digby’s in Javea Park in the Arenal, Javea – 7:30pm for 8 – Adam Simmons is hosting tonight’s meeting. We look forward to seeing you there.

All dressed up tuxedo hire.

We have a extensive range of tuxedos for hire for a variety of social occasions including formal events, dinners, parties, and school proms.
As well as tuxedos we also have formal shirts, bow ties and cuff links available. We also have a small selection of cummerbunds. Please call 966470770 or 647790340 or email us at alldressedup.espana@gmail.com for an appointment or with an enquiry.

Tenemos una amplia gama de trajes formales para alquiler para una variedad de eventos sociales como proms, bodas, cenas especiales, fiestas y bailes.Tambien tenemos camisas formales, pajaritas y gemelos disponibles. Por favor, llámenos al 966470770 (teléfono fijo), 647790340 (móvil) o envíenos un email a alldressedup.espana @ gmail.com para hacer una cita o si tienes alguna pregunta.

easy flatpax- IKEA shopping, delivery and assembly service.

Everyone knows IKEA Murcia sells stylish and innovative home furnishings at very affordable prices. Shopping for their products however can be an incredibly stressful experience. easy flatpax’s™ standard delivery area covers the Costa Del Azahar, Costa Blanca, Costa Calida and Costa Almeria. So let us provide the shopping and delivery service for you and remove that stress completely.

No more trying to track down Murcia shopping information for opening times etc. No more hassle driving hours to get there and back. No more crowds, checkout queues and hauling heavy boxes around (have you seen the size of those Pax wardrobes?) No more problems trying to fit it all in your car. No more finding the items you really wanted are out of stock. And, no more having to go back and do it all over again, when something is missing or damaged!

Then when you’ve finally got all your flatpacks home, you want to change something? Want to send something back? Even more hassle with yet another trip with all the costs, and strain involved!

Don’t worry, help is at hand. Check out IKEA online, then let easy flatpax™ take your order, shop at IKEA in Murcia for your furniture and deliver to your home, right into the room you want it in. We’ll even build it all for you if you want, with our highly professional flatpack furniture assembly service. For us it really is that ‘easy’. We have all the right equipment, vans, all the tools and big muscles…

…Oh, and don’t forget the brains as well!

Shopping in Spain doesn’t need to be difficult! Call us and we can show you how we provide a totally relaxed shopping experience for you. Just sit back and let it happen!

We guarantee to be at least 10% cheaper than anyone else.

Visit our website www.easyflatpax.com for more info.

UK Financial Bulletin 20 Feb – from Neil Gubbins, St James Place Wealth Management

Please download the Market Bulletin 20 February 2012 which contains the following points:

Global equities resumed their upward path last week as investors put to one side the worries over Greece and took heart from further signs of a brightening outlook for the US economy.
The relative strength of recent market performance masked another week of twists and turns in the ongoing Greek saga, which saw the prospect of a ‘disorderly’ default by Athens increasing in the minds of many.
The price of Brent crude, the benchmark for oil prices in Europe, has been steadily rising over the past few weeks as investors grow increasingly worried about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, with the US, UK and Europe all imposing sanctions to restrict Iran’s ability to sell oil.
The official measure of inflation, the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) fell sharply last month to a 14-month low of 3.6% from 4.2% in December, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Regards

Neil

Neil Gubbins

www.sjpp.co.uk/neilgubbins

ST. JAMES’S PLACE WEALTH MANAGEMENT

11 Hamilton Place
Mayfair
London W1J 7DA

T: 020 7495 1771
M: 07739 263334