All posts by : janinepaterson

HMRC may well be interested

If you prefer your favourite biscuit coated in chocolate, you’re probably unaware that it’s costing you an extra 20%.

The reason – VAT

When VAT was introduced in 1973, products were determined as either essential or luxury.

Essential items were exempt from VAT or 0% rated.

Luxury meant either 5% or the top rate, currently 20% extra.

Cakes and plain biscuits were seen as essential foods, more likely to be homemade, whereas biscuits containing chocolate in any way – even just as decoration –  were seen as luxury items and more factory made.

So, you can imagine, HMRC (formerly HM Customs and Excise) are keen for as many of these sweet treats to be chocolate biscuits.

The best known case was in 1991 when HMCE claimed McVities Jaffa Cakes were a biscuit, and therefore due to its chocolate coating, subject to Vat.

The case went to the Tax Tribunal, which found in McVities favour.

Apparently they baked a 12” Jaffa Cake to prove it was a cake, not a chocolate covered biscuit.

So next time you are munching your chocolate covered biscuit remember, courtesy of the UK’s sometimes weird tax rules, it’s costing you an extra 20%.

Tax law is not my speciality, but if you’ve got a question about marketing and advertising law, that’s a different story.

🛒 I used to sell washing machines

When I had to pop into our local appliance shop recently to grab some vacuum cleaner bags, it took me back to the time when I was on the other side of the counter.

I’d been made redundant for the second time and was living at home.

We had a local appliance shop that sold washing machines and dryers, but also offered a repair service.

The shop was run by some friends of the family, and one day I was asked whether I could come and help out for a couple of weeks while one of the owners was on holiday.

So began my first experience of retail management.

I’d worked in various shops before, but as an assistant or supervisor, but never running the place! 😧

I looked after the shop, serving customers that came in, ordering stock and booking in repairs for the engineers.

I really enjoyed the experience, and 2 weeks turned into 6 months.

But I then got the opportunity to get back to being a solicitor, a legal advisor at Which?.

I couldn’t really turn that down.

I’d also gained 6 months of experience of consumer law from the trader’s viewpoint, which really set me up for my new role.

This period really gave me an insight into how a small business works, which I have put to good use in the 4 years I’ve been running my business.

So, if you need expert legal advice on your marketing and advertising dilemmas, together with the ability to apply those rules to the real world, you know what to do.

What a joy!

I love the Spring. It’s such a magical time of year.

With the daffodils and tulips in full flower, it’s great to be back in the garden, sewing seeds and planting.

And walks with the pup in the fields and woods around my house, watching the animals and insects make their preparations for a new year.

One thing I have noticed more of this year is the gardener’s friend: the solitary bee.

They are quite fascinating creatures.

I was aware of them but what I didn’t know is that there are about 250 different types. If you see a bee it’s likely a solitary one as there are only 20 types of bumblebee and honey bee.

As their name suggests they don’t live in hives with others but on their own, building nests in mud, clay, wood, plant stems and, in the case of the ones in the fields around us, the earth.

They emerge as the warmer weather comes and there have been many hovering over the grass.

The females can sting if threatened or touched and although it’s not a strong one, I’m sure the pup would not appreciate this on his nose 👃

They are better pollinators than the bumblebee or the honey bee, so we need to encourage them into our gardens.

We have sewen some wild flower seeds down near the veg garden.

Hopefully they will come.

Roll on that bumper harvest

It’s often the little things that get forgotten

I was invigilating again last week, an A-level biology mock.

Everything was going swimmingly when…

… the screen with the time and exam details on went blank.

The software the school uses has a clock on the right of the screen, counting down the exam minutes and details of the different exams on the left.

And when you add in the start time, it automatically displays the finish time, so the students know how long they have left.

We tried to revive the laptop, but to no avail, so we called for help.

A guy came in – I did wonder if he was the right person, as he looked about 12 years old! – but he tapped some buttons and hey presto, the screen came to life.

But he did something else – he disabled the screensaver.

The clock on the screen was not enough to tell the laptop that it was still needed, which is why it decided to snooze. 😴

It was something that had been forgotten when the laptop was set up.

The screensaver is a great tool, meaning you use less power, but in some cases, it’s not helpful!

It’s easy to forget some things when you’re planning an exam or putting together an advertising campaign.

There was no real harm caused this time, but when it comes to your marketing and advertising legal compliance, the outcome could be very different.

So if you want to make sure you don’t miss anything, you know who to ask 🤔

But I still remember – well some at least 😊

Last week I was faced with a biology exam paper!

Luckily I was not sitting the paper but invigilating.

I was helping a student who needs additional support when it’s exam time.

I needed to read the questions out loud and then write down her answers.

I quite like invigilating like this, as I’m helping the student with the sometimes daunting task of exams.

And sometimes, when it comes to subjects I covered when I was at school, I can exercise the little grey cells and see how much I remember.

As we went through the paper, I realised that I remembered quite a lot, despite it being a while since sitting my O-levels. 😉

I was amazed I could recall information from that far back, as there has been a lot of knowledge that I have crammed into my brain in the years since.

As a solicitor, I am learning new stuff every day as rules change and evolve.

But, my superpower, so to speak, is being able to take that knowledge from laws and regulations and apply it to the real world.

So if you’ve got a question about how the rules that govern marketing and advertising apply to your business, you know who to come to – don’t you! 😇

Not for me!

In my early years as a solicitor it was my job to deal with the £15 fixed fee appointments.

These were part of the legal aid system allowing people to get initial advice on a legal issue, exploring whether they have a case to pursue.

My main practice areas were criminal law and matrimonial, so typical questions were around minor offences like driving under the influence or speeding, and less often issue over child maintenance or access.

These initial meeting were very rewarding. I never know what would come through the door and sometimes I could resolve the problem for them there and then.

However, there was one major downside to these – making sure we received the £15!

It was the bit I hated, but to my boss it was vitally important. Legal aid doesn’t pay that well so I needed to make sure I collected every penny.

I usually left this until after the meeting. I would see the client, talk through the issues and give some advice and help, and then my secretary could deal with the finances.

This worked well for ages. But then one client didn’t have the money on him. He promised to drop it in the next day – but didn’t.

The next thing I know I’m called onto one of the partner’s offices and told to make sure my secretary collected the money BEFORE the client came into see me!

I know that a solicitor’s firm needs to balance the books, all businesses do, but I was there to help people.

Sometimes you might not get paid; this was just one time in months, but starting a potential relationship with a demand for money didn’t seem right.

There were other things about private practice I didn’t like, but this was, as they say, the straw that broke the camel’s back.

So I looked for a new challenge – a story for another time.

Happy Birthday 🍺

It’s my dad’s birthday today.

He would have been 96, but he died 40 years ago.

He was the youngest of 5 and lost his dad when he was 3.

He was a Cockney, having been born within the sound of Bow Bells in London.

He worked hard at school and won a scholarship to the local grammar school.

Being the youngest, he looked after his mum when she became unwell.

Because of this responsibility, he didn’t meet my mum until he was in his early 30s, on a coach touring holiday in Europe.

They married within 9 months.

He set up his own business, industrial heating, and ran this with my mum and uncle til he died.

He was a great dad, full of sage advice.

He stayed awake until I was home from babysitting.

He helped me get lots of practice when I was learning to drive and was able to celebrate with me when I passed my test a month before he died.

I often wonder what sort of person I would have been if he was still around, but I hope he’d be proud of what I’ve achieved.

Happy birthday Dad.

And in the dark!

I had a few jobs before I embarked on the life of a solicitor.

Saturdays in the local bakery (loved that one 🎂 🍪), weekends and evenings as a supermarket cashier, but I got my first proper job when I was 13.

I’d had a paper round but that’s not a real job is it.

So I looked for something else and found myself on Sunday mornings picking mushrooms at a farm just outside the town where I lived.

My poor dad would drive me up and return to collect me after my shift.

It wasn’t the best job, in dark, damp sheds filling box after box with the lovely white fungi, but it couldn’t have been all that bad as they are something I still love, especially garlic mushrooms. 😋

It was my first taste of freedom, a chance to be independent.

Looking back I realise that the lessons I learnt there, and in the part time jobs that followed, shaped how I have tackled the ups and downs that life has thrown me since.

I’ll tell you about some of these another time.

What a wasted journey 😞

We’ve a broken plane of glass in our greenhouse (2 actually) and need to get it replaced before the growing season really gets going.

We do try to buy as local as we can, so we contacted a business a little distance from us but it’s well known and has a good reputation for quality and having what you need in stock.

So Mr P spoke to them a few days before about popping over, and then drove over specifically one morning.

When he got there the place was deserted, so he gave them a ring:

“Hi, I’m at your door but there’s no answer. Doesn’t appear to be anyone here”.

The glass guy: “Oh, I’m out at the moment. Be back in a couple of hours”.

“We spoke the other day about the glass I need and you said you’d be here so just pop in.”

The glass guy: “Sorry, but I’ll be back around 2”.

Customers can make or break you.

They’ll definitely talk about you to friends and family, especially if their experience is not what they expect – bad news travels fast as they say!

You may be really good at what you do but if you forget why you’re in business, i.e. providing that expertise to your customers, you may as well pack it all in!

Being a one woman outfit, I know this all too well.

I believe I provide my clients the expert advice they need and the best customer experience I can muster – you’ll have to ask them! 😉

Unless it’s me!

When I applied to uni I was torn.

Law or accountancy?

My mum wanted the latter.

She was running the business my dad started after he had died suddenly 6 months previously.

An accountant would be of far more use to her!

But it was a sandwich that made the decision.

Not one of these 🥪, but a thin sandwich degree.

With accountancy it was 3 more years of academia.

But the law degree, although 1 year longer, had a combination of studying and work placements in the real world.

As someone that benefits from practical learning as well as hitting the books, there was no competition really.

And as they say the rest is history.

I have now spent 32 years in the legal world, 17 of those in the wonderful world of advertising and marketing.

Learning not only what the law says, but also what this means in the real world, as knowing what the law says is no good if you don’t know how to apply it in practice.

So if you need some help, you know where to find me.