Arena Flowers (www.arenaflowers.com)  has been recognised as one of the UK’s smartest small businesses by Smarta.com in their Smart100 Awards.  Arena Flowers were chosen for this accolade by a panel including Deborah Meaden and other entrepreneurs such as Michael Birch Founder of Bebo.  The award celebrates companies who have strived to differentiate themselves from their competitors using different aspects of their business from their marketing plans to their ethical stance. 

Update & Call for Business Mentors 

The pilot project has commenced and is at the stage where we are registering interest from organisations in West London who would like to participate as mentors to employment and training providers in West London.

During April an event will be held for both mentors & mentees to inform them of the programme’s goals, structure and personal commitment.

Keep an eye on this site for developments.

Please contact Danuta Joyce at Park Royal Workforce on 020 3110 2372.

For more details, please look at our related document below:

 PRP ENews - Call for Mentors v2 March 10.doc

International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women. The first IWD was in 1911 and since then each year around the world the day is celebrated on 08 March. Events are usually planned throughout March and throughout the years they have been tailored around a specific theme. However, it is to the discretion of each country and group to determine an appropriate theme.

If you operate PAYE there are a number of key deadlines approaching which all businesses need to be aware of to avoid potential penalties.

By 19 April 2010 for postal payments and 22 April 2010 for electronic payments you must have paid any outstanding PAYE tax and Class 1 NIC’s over to HMRC.

The key requirement is to file the Employer Annual Return (Form P35) by 19 May 2010 and with few exceptions this must be filed online. If you have not already registered for PAYE online then bear in mind that the registration process can take up to seven days and therefore early registration is recommended.

If you are not required to complete a P35 Return you should notify HM Revenue and Customs in order to avoid reminders and a possible penalty.

Park Royal Workforce has launched their new Temp desk specialising in providing temporary and interim staff for Park Royal Businesses 

Every business that has employees will find itself in need of a little extra help sometimes. You might expect the need, such as when a female employee has to take time off for maternity leave or when you need extra hands for holidays. Or, you might be completely blindsided, such as when an employee is injured and needs time off or walks off the job.

More often than not you simply need to be highly flexible in today’s high pressure business climate. If you’re a busy Manager you need to respond to changes in demand and meet client orders quickly, or you may have a specific project where you need an individual with specialist skills on a short term basis.

Park Royal Partnership has partnered with Powerday, your local recycling and waste management company, to provide the ‘Park Royal Waste’ scheme, a cost effective waste collection and treatment service for businesses on the Park Royal Estate.  The aim of the scheme is to give small to medium businesses collective buying power, giving you access to top quality services at prices normally reserved for businesses buying in volume.

New VAT Rules for Services

Since 1 January 2010 if a business buys services from another business based in another European Union state then they may need to charge themselves VAT. This is called the “Reverse charge”.

The company will charge itself, rather than the customer, VAT at 17.5% which it will then enter in Box 1 of its VAT Return. It also then enters the same figure in Box 4 of the Return thereby reclaiming it making the whole exercise VAT neutral.

Conversely if you sell services to EU business customers you won’t usually have to charge VAT, but you will need to report the transaction to HM Revenue and Customs within 14 days of the end of the VAT period in which the transaction occurs.

Businesses need to ensure that they are compliant with the new rules as failure to make such a report will incur a penalty for each transaction unreported.

For more information please contact Park Royal Accounting by emailing Howard Beaumont at services@parkroyal.org or calling 0203 110 2326.

The graduate intern scheme is a revolutionary new initiative to tackle unprecedented levels of graduate unemployment.

The scheme runs for 8 weeks, 6 weeks of which is spent with the employer working on a project of benefit to the employer and two weeks is spent studying full time at the university on the accredited programme.

Graduates receive a generous bursary throughout the duration of the scheme and employers are only required to make a £500 contribution to cover the costs of the accreditation for the graduate. read more...