Well, the impact for businesses will be quite positive – storage can be online rather than on a server, thereby reducing hardware and maintenance costs for business owners and managers.

In terms of services, Dropbox has already become popular with business users. Google is about to launch its own product which will compete in this space, called Google Drive. This will have an estimated 5GB of free storage space, charging only if users need more. Similarly, Dropbox offers 2.5GB of free storage with higher levels of storage available for a monthly fee.

Dropbox is quite user friendly and works by installing a Dropbox “folder” on to the client computer. Users can then simply drag and drop files into the folder in order to store them online.  Google Drive will reportedly come with a local client and its interface will resemble Google Docs. At the time of writing, Google Drive is yet to launch.

Dropbox has more than 45m users and reportedly even turned down an acquisition offer from Apple.

Either service should work well for businesses. Those who require larger amounts of storage can simply sign up to a monthly fee package.

One way to use social media to market your business is by advertising through Facebook. There are other social networks of course, like Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, and each offers users the opportunity to advertise. However, Facebook has the largest number of users.

Below are 3 ideas for a simple Facebook advertising campaign:

1. Ask questions

One of the most effective ways to promote your business on Facebook is to ask users a question. Whether it is a survey or just a bit of fun, users will click through in order to find out if they are right or wrong. If you offer a prize it may be easier to encourage users to enter an email address for future marketing purposes.

2. Choose a good picture which is relevant to your product / service or company

Creative images together with catchy tag-lines can draw attention from potential customers. For example, a recent IKEA Facebook campaign used a photo of a room decorated with IKEA products and invited users to “guess the price” of the products.

3. Know your target audience

A useful feature of Facebook adverts is that you can target your campaign based on various user demographics such as country, age, interests etc. For example, if you are a wedding planner working in London, you can create a Facebook advert that is displayed only to people who are both “engaged” and are located in “London”. Facebook also allows you to choose how you will be charged for your advert. You can either decide to pay a fee each time a user clicks your advert, or pay a fee for every 1000 times the advert is shown to users.

First of all, it looks almost identical to the iPad 2, which is a good thing as this design is fantastic. It is a few millimetres thicker and a few grammes heavier, but not to the extent that you would notice any difference if you held both devices at the same time.

The new iPad includes a high resolution Retina Display (similar to the one on the iPhone 4) and has a screen resolution of 2,048 x 1536, offering 264ppi. The screen also boasts 44pc better colour saturation than the iPad 2. In plain English, the picture quality is better than its predecessor and the screen is superb for watching video content. The device also comes equipped with LTE (4G) connectivity and an A5X chip with quad core graphics.

Apple have also equipped their latest model with voice dictation, allowing users to speak into their iPads to type a message. Languages currently supported include UK English, US English, Australian English, Japanese, German and French. This is a great addition for business users, as typing on an iPad isn’t nearly as effective as typing on a laptop.

The big question that many business users will ask is: “do I need to upgrade from an iPad 2 to the latest iPad?” The answer is probably no. 4G networks have only just been rolled out in the USA and although there is a huge increase in internet speed, the networks aren’t that widely available – yet. If you have a first generation iPad then an upgrade to the new iPad would make sense, as the increased processor speed and multi-tasking are vastly superior to the older device.

If you have an iPad2 you won’t really notice a huge difference and as such, the investment required to upgrade is not as easy to justify.

One reason that some owners and managers struggle to take time off is that they feel “wedded” to the business – they simply cannot switch off. However, just like your staff, as a business manager or owner, you should take holidays for the following reasons:

Rejuvenation

Remember the feeling when you first started your business? The possibilities, the wonders, and your new future… want that back again? Go on holiday. Get away from the office. Explore a new city, relax on a beach, etc. Enjoy the fruits of your labour, hard work, and relax. You might just find that you come back to the office with renewed positivity and more drive.

Re-energize

Only by taking time away and checking in every once in a while (most managers probably will check in while on holiday – just don’t do it every hour) can you regain your energy. Working day-to-day without a break, no matter how much coffee you drink, will drain your energy. You may find yourself hitting the snooze button a little more often or postponing ideas for tomorrow – all signs you need to get away.

Creativity

Similar to the above, your creativity will decrease and be less consistent. Getting away for a week and visiting a new place can spark your creative mind. Your best ideas need inspiration; a holiday in a new place may allow you to spot a new business opportunity, idea, product or service that you can introduce to your home market.

An awards strategy can be a big boost in helping businesses to build their brand, build awareness and communicate with targeted audiences. While many larger businesses understand the value of an awards strategy, many small and medium sized firms fail to pursue industry related awards. They either do not grasp the concept, do not allocate the time to professionally fill out forms, or simply do not make it a key part of their marketing strategy. Winning an award or multiple awards can produce a great number of benefits both inside and outside your firm.

Firstly, winning an award sends a strong message to customers and potential target customers alike. It reinforces your marketing efforts and demonstrates to your current customers that they are doing business with a sound and reliable company. It informs prospective customers that your business is reputable and reliable.

Secondly, winning awards can be useful in generating press coverage. You can create a campaign based on winning the award, which could include press releases, email campaigns, adding the awards logo to your website and marketing materials, etc.

The business can also create a social media campaign and highlight the award on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

In developing an awards strategy your business should consider which awards are relevant to the business and its customers. Then develop a calendar which includes dates and submission details for each award category that you wish to enter. Finally, you should designate one person in the office to champion the cause and entrust them with the responsibility to make submissions on time.

• No matter what type of business you are in, chances are good that your customers spend lots of time online. Your website should be attractive and easy-to-navigate. Customers need to be able to find what they’re looking for, otherwise they’ll go elsewhere.

• Engage with your customers online. Getting to know your customers will offer the greatest opportunities to keep them happy, which is why social media has become so popular. Use it to learn from your customers and engage with them in conversation.

• Once they’ve found what they are looking for, the buying process must be fully functional and easy to use. If you have a retail premises, you need to make sure you have plenty of staff available to deal with any queries your customers may have.

• Don’t make promises you can’t keep. The promises your business makes need to be upheld and seen through to the end, from delivery dates to prices. Customer loyalty comes from trust. Build their trust by following through and delivering what you say you will. If you want to be the best in your market sector then you should create opportunities to “over-deliver”.

• Invest in telephone training for all staff. You don’t want customers on hold for a long time, or reaching an operator who is unhelpful. Many larger businesses get around these common problems by using outsourced call centres. Smaller firms often cannot justify such an expense and should instead invest in appropriate staff training to ensure that their customer experience is second to none

Interested in working with a team of dedicated professionals, managing your own portfolio of clients from sole traders to small and medium sized businesses?

We wish to recruit a qualified accountant with at least 2 years private practice experience in managing a client portfolio. Skilled in the preparation of accounts and tax returns, knowledge of Iris and Sage is ideal together with good technical ability.

This is an exciting hands-on client facing role where you will have direct contact with business owners. You should have excellent inter-personal and communication skills.

This is a great opportunity to work within a forward-thinking firm, where you will be rewarded with a generous salary together with excellent prospects.

To apply, please send your CV to: Richard Suswain, Tyrrell and Company, Suite D, South Cambridge Business Park, Babraham Road, Sawston, Cambridge CB22 3JH

Sir Mervyn said that some business surveys had indicated a pickup in the economy at the start of this year, but said this may not last. “The fiscal consolidation and tight credit conditions at home and the weakness of our major overseas trading partners are acting as a drag on growth,” said Sir Mervyn.

“The underlying need for repair of balance sheets means that the path of recovery is likely to be slow and uncertain. For much of this year, there is likely to be a zigzag pattern of alternating positive and negative quarterly growth rates.”

For 2013, the Bank is predicting a pick-up in growth to about 1.8%.

At least things look like they are now going in the right direction, albeit slower than we had hoped!

How can this happen? It’s all down to the withdrawal of the personal tax allowance by £1 for every £2 that your income exceeds the magic figure of £100,000. And with the large increase in the personal allowance (the plan is to get that up to £10,000 eventually) it is a tax trap that will affect more and more people each year. Here is what it means in figures for 2011/12:

And for the next tax year 2012/13 it is even worse in terms of the number of people affected:

As if the above was not bad enough, add in your national insurance contributions at 2% if employed or self-employed and you suffer a marginal rate of 62%!

There are several techniques available to avoid this unacceptable tax rate. Please contact us for help.

The first thing to do is sit down and think about your strategy – what you want your turnover, profit, market share to be and set targets.

Then think about increasing market share.  Smart businesses with competitive products and astute marketing skills are well placed to grow their respective market share at the expense of weaker or ailing competitors.

The big question is: “What can we do to increase our market share?”

Maybe if flexibility is the key – consider adding to your product or service offerings – this may give you the scope to move into adjacent markets that are currently underserved, maybe there is some space for newcomers.

Also consider selling into new foreign markets.  Foreign exchange commentators suggest the level of sterling will continue to favour British exports in 2012.  With this tailwind, UK companies that can hone their products to the specific needs of overseas customers have the opportunity to open up new international markets with competitive prices.

Opportunities in 2012 do exist for those businesses that can demonstrate the right approach and product offerings.

The top three strategies being adopted by our clients in 2012 are:

1)            Taking business from competitors;

2)            Lowering costs; and

3)            Using technology to improve efficiency.

Take time to think about these and how you can maximise your opportunities!