Leighton UK Business Information

As a small business, you have many disadvantages over bigger players. You have less money to play around with, perhaps less in-house skills, and you won’t have as much power when it comes to negotiation either. Although there are certainly disadvantages to being a small business, there are also benefits too. In this article let us take a look at what factors may be working in your favour, and how you can leverage them.

Know Your Customers

When you’re a small business, you can get to know your customers intimately. This is something that simply isn’t possible for a larger business, and is therefore something you can use to your advantage. Try to get to know your customers, what makes them tick, and what they like about the service you provide. When they get in touch, and someone who knows them always answers the phone, you have a major advantage over larger companies. To make sure you’re taking full advantage of this, make sure you talk to your customers and demonstrate that you understand and remember their needs.

Tailored Service

When a bigger business is asked for a service by a customer, and they don’t provide it, it probably won’t be worth the effort of tailoring a product or service to suit their needs. However, when you’re a small business this can be perfectly feasible. To give an example, as a t-shirt design company you might not make football shirts. And when you’re a large business, it might not be worth diverging from your core focus to help someone with this need. However, as a small business, you could divert a small amount of your time to do this for the customer. Not only might it give you a future revenue stream, but it also provides a method for you to further enhance your relationship through catering to your customers’ needs. The ability to act fast is a great benefit of being a small business. Are you taking advantage of it?

Charge Less in the Services Industry

As a small business in retail and manufacturing, the cost of buying products and raw materials will usually outstrip labour costs. And, for that reason, a larger business will usually be able to benefit from having economies of scale. But, in certain industries, the opposite happens – smaller businesses have higher margins than their competitors.

For example, a small design agency with two partners only needs to make enough money to cover the partners’ wages. With a larger design agency, they’ll have management costs, receptionists, sales staff, marketing costs, and lots more. Therefore, as a small business in the services industry, it is still possible to compete on price.

While it can be good to compete on price, especially as you try to build a customer base, it’s also important that your business is able to grow in the future. This means if you charge too little now, your customers might not be willing to pay more in the future when / if your overheads rise.

Healthcare business is one of the most flourishing and promising industries of the modern times, mainly due to the dramatic increase in life expectancy. The trend is further supported by the rising need of the working children of senior citizens on the lookout for trustworthy and high quality home care operators who can suitably tend to the needs of their aging parents.

Therefore, moving in line with this need, home healthcare business is indeed one of the most lucrative options for those looking for ideas for home business.

In order to pursue the above, an in-depth knowledge of how to start a home healthcare business and the related pre-requisites is highly crucial.

Choose a location

For the business to be a profitable venture, it is important that you choose the location with caution. It is advisable to check the census profiles of various cities around the place you live and shortlist a few ones that have the highest population of elderly citizens, especially aged 65 years or more. Cities with larger retirement communities can be an ideal location.

Get licensed

Licensing is another major step to be taken when an entrepreneur is planning how to start a home health care business. Since the general regulations vary in different areas, it is important to be sure of what the main licensing requirements are in order to establish a home healthcare business that follows local laws. In most of the cases, the procedure will involve filling out a series of forms and going through several rounds of checks to ensure the quality of the services offered along with the credibility of the healthcare staff. In order to be certified by the state authorities, you will need to demonstrate that you have a good business plan and also ensure that your employees pass the mandatory background checks.

In some cases, you might also need to obtain an additional license and certification that is required to take in specific clients / patients such as Medicare or Medicaid clients.

Recruit healthcare workers

When planning an appropriate strategy for starting a home healthcare business, one of the most crucial steps you will need for ensuring the success of your venture is to hire good quality and trained staff. Experts suggest that in order to minimize costs in the start-up stage, it is better to hire part-time, contracted staff. Meanwhile certified and trained caregivers add immense credibility to your services and ensure a sound long-term reputation.

Build networks and gather information

Knowledge is power. Gather as much information about how to start a home health care business for elderly or other patients in your specific region. Resources to help you are abundant and can include consulting companies who are equipped to help start ups hit the ground running. It is extremely helpful to built a strong network with the various healthcare institutions in the region which will help you gain knowledge of latest techniques and will also be of assistance in case of any emergency.

Analyze the background

Before you actually begin formulating a strategy, it is important that you analyze whether your qualifications, interests and capabilities are suited to this type of a business. Some of the most important elements that need to be present for you to be a successful entrepreneur in this industry include:

1. Prior experience in medical field, or at least basic awareness of medical terminology and practices
2. Basic compassion and sense of empathy for patients, especially with serious illnesses
3. Ability to build a network and connect to related institutions in the industry
4. Ability to work out related financial modalities
5. Ability to arrange for the required infrastructure

Factors such as the above shall be highly helpful when you set out to decide whether home care is a good business to start as a part of your entrepreneurial journey.

Running a small business can be a legal mine field, and without appropriate knowledge and understanding of the relevant risks involved, you can quickly find yourself in some difficulties. Running a business without consideration for the law can be dangerous, particularly when considering the potential financial and even criminal risks you may be running. That’s why it’s a good idea to have an idea of the relevant legal provisions that may apply to particular circumstances in order to understand where you might be personally liable, and how you can avoid incurring such liability when managing a small business.

The first thing to bear in mind is that a business has its own legal formalities relating to the particular business form you choose. For example, running your business as a sole trader will require very little in the way of natural legal formalities, other than that you file appropriate tax returns annually and keep appropriate records of your financial transactions on a daily basis. This burden is far stricter if you choose to operate as a limited company. If you do decide to go down this route, it may be worth investing in a book on basic company law for reference. Don’t take the risk and try to muddle through; it’s better to know what is expected of you and what the penalties are by getting some form of expert opinion.

Secondly, you may face liability if you cause injury, either financially or physically to another party in the course of running your business. It is advisable therefore to opt for decent insurance coverage to protect against eventualities of this nature. Another good idea is to include an exemption clause or disclaimer whenever you can, although it’s important to understand these are not watertight. What they can do is limit your liability in damage to physical property where it is reasonable to do so, and in no way can they limit any liability you may have for anything deemed unreasonable or anything relating to a physical injury or death.

It’s a criminal offence as a business director to trade when you are aware that your business is insolvent. This is a general rule, and there are obviously intricacies involved, still this must be protected against. You could receive a criminal record if you breach these laws so take expert advice at an early stage if you face financial difficulties.

Similarly it is a criminal offence not to take records of your finances and to hold on to those records for three years. You are open to inspection of those records by the relevant authorities as and when they have a need to examine your business dealings. This is also compounded by legal requirements under the VAT regime, where you will be required to keep more rigorous accounts and are with almost certainty, likely to be subjected to periodical inspections.

There are a number of key legal provisions you should be aware of as a small business owner, and they are far too numerous to list here. Rather than spending fortunes on legal advice regarding simple matters, a better option is to purchase a beginners’ guide to company law. This will give you a quick insight into the practical requirements of running your business on a day to day basis and you can top up your knowledge bank with legal advice as and when required.

How can I protect myself from fraud?

Unfortunately, fraud does sometimes happen in small businesses. It tends to happen when a busy business owner puts complete trust in someone, and completely ‘leaves them to it’. The employee comes to realize that no one is really checking or overseeing what they are doing, and when a grievance occurs or money problems arise at home, they succumb to temptation.

Firstly, keep the means of payment under your own control whilst your business is small enough. Keep your cheque books locked in a drawer. If someone else writes the cheques, check they are all accounted for, instruct that any defaced cheques should have ‘cancelled’ written on them and stapled at the back of the book, rather than thrown away. For electronic payments, keep the password private. Ask for original documentation to be presented (invoices, delivery notes, statements as appropriate) at the time you make payment.

When your business reaches a size that you cannot personally control the payments, make sure there is segregation of duties. For example one person enters the purchase invoices and prepares the payment run/cheques, a different person signs the cheques and reconciles the bank account.

What reports should I be looking at?

The profit and loss account shows how well (or badly) things are going. However, looking at a profit figure in isolation isn’t really very useful. If you were to be told you were on a journey and you were currently in Darlington….would that be good or bad? It’s much the same with profit and loss. A figure doesn’t mean very much unless you add the context of where you are coming from and where you are hoping to get to. So you really want to see a profit & loss account for the month compared to profit & loss for the same month last year. Or look at year to date profit & loss compared to year to date for the same period last year.

If you really want to get serious – plan what you want to achieve. You are much much more likely to achieve it if you plan for it and commit it to writing. The plan in the form of numbers is what is known as a budget.

If you are serious about your business, and have a budget, look at a report showing year to date profit and loss against the budget.

Other reports you definitely should look at each month are the aged debtors report (how much your customers owe you and how old the debts are) and a sales by customer report (the Pareto principle usually applies where most of your sales will come from a small number of customers).

Should I have stock control?

This is a difficult question to answer………..it depends.

Maintaining proper stock control is not easy, it requires a system and it requires discipline. Computer system costs are now at a level where even the smallest shop can afford to implement a full stock control system. However do they have the technical ability to operate it and the motivation and discipline to stick with it?

For a business that is prepared to go through the ‘pain barrier’ the benefits are

Advise customers at time of ordering on stock situation Reorder stock at the right time Have the stock figure available each month for the accounts Be aware of margins, and therefore get early warning on potential problems Increase potential for bank borrowing, with security over stock
Do I need a separate bank account for the business?The short answer is YES.

HM Customs and Revenue would expect to see a separate account for your business. In the event of an inquiry they would probably ask to see your business bank statements. If everything is in order it would be unusual to have to provide them with your private bank statements.

From your own point of view, it is much easier to separate things and make sure all business expenses are included in the accounts if you run a separate business bank account.

How do I handle quotes/estimates?

If you are preparing quotes on a word processor, a proper system should make your business much more efficient. Your estimates should be easily converted into invoices (or part invoices). No more time wasted checking on the original quote.

How do I handle credit control?

If your business gives credit to customers, then credit control is an important issue. Indeed, if you fail to address this, it could well lead to the failure of your business. You need to think about the following points:

How do we decide whether to give a customer credit? How much credit to give each customer? How do we deal with customers who exceed their credit limit? Should we charge interest on overdue payments? Who deals with overdue accounts? Look at an aged debtors report each month, so you can see any problems arising.

Implement a credit control policy which addresses the questions above. This will ensure you handle your credit account customers effectively and consistently.

Often the only effective way to make sure a small business owner gets all the information he or she needs is to outsource the bookkeeping. For more information see the bookkeeping.org.uk website.

Many sole traders and small business owners in the UK are oblivious to the insider dealings of HMRC, formerly known as the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise.

Many seem to think that because their businesses are very small, the “Tax Man” will not notice them. How wrong they are. HMRC have the most state-of-the-art technology at their disposal and are very much aware of the activities of individual traders. Most often under the spotlight are market traders and construction industry workers, but more recently the work-at-home entrepreneurs have attracted much interest.

More and more individuals are setting up online businesses and selling just about every type of product imaginable. Some are earning five and six-figure incomes from auction sites like ebay and some are doing very nicely from Google’s Adsense program. It’s not difficult for HMRC inspectors to track down website owners and ebay sellers and they also have the power to access trader’s PayPal records and accounts.

Anyone not declaring their incomes from these business activities are putting themselves right in the firing line. Tax fraud and tax evasion are serious matters, which can result in very serious consequences. Should a tax inspector become suspicious of a trader, he can instigate a full investigation. The whole process could take months, during which time they will uncover every single piece of evidence needed to prosecute the perpetrator.

Depending on the severity of the tax fraud or the extent of the tax evasion, the individuals concerned could find themselves facing a heavy financial penalty, business closure, loss of the family home or even imprisonment. And they will still have to pay back all taxes due. Is it worth the risk?

It’s a gamble with unfanciable odds and overwhelming risks. The only answer is to play it straight and play it fair. Who wants to be looking over their shoulder for the rest of their working life? Like it or not we all have to pay our share of taxes. But that doesn’t mean you have to give it all away to the taxman. Just be sure to claim for every single allowance available and for every single tax deductible item which is applicable.

You’ll find that your tax bill will be a lot less than you thought. And more importantly you’ll be able to sleep at night. The best advice is to get the best advice. Better still if you can get an inside view of how the government’s HMRC organization works and stay ahead of the game eh? If only…

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Understand that the purpose of the business requirements document is to ensure that the design and development team has a clear and well-defined understanding of the tasks that are going to be automated, how those tasks fit into the organizational context, and who the role players are.

Ensure that the requirements analyst meets with the major stakeholders in the project for a series of meetings designed to flesh out the requirements of the system. Subsequent meetings may include secondary stakeholders and actual end users. This is to make sure that all roles are uncovered and properly documented.

The business requirements phase of the projects consists of these three steps:

Phase 1: Conduct meetings with all stakeholders and role players.

Phase 2: Assimilate all of the information that was gathered at the meetings.

Phase 3: Create the business requirements document.

Phase 1: Steps to conducting the business requirements meetings

1. Prior to the meeting the analyst should create a list of questions that will be asked of each stakeholder and user involved in the business requirements gathering process.

2. The analyst should note the answers to the questions and identify new issues that were not previously identified.

Phase 2: Steps to conducting the business requirements meetings

1. The analyst should summarize the information gathered at the meeting, prepare a report, and then create another question and answer form targeting the new issues that came to light in the previous meeting.

2. This process should continue until the analyst is able to produce a final report that everyone agrees encompasses all of the business requirements.

Phase 3: After the business requirements gathering phase is completed

1. The analyst prepares the formal business requirements document and presents it to all stakeholders for approval and signoff.

2. If signoff it received, the business analyst’s work is finished unless and until additional requirements are identified later in the software development cycle.

3. If signoff is not received then it is likely that the project will go back to Stage 1 for additional business requirements gathering and analysis.

Because the success of the projects depends upon it being built to the client’s specifications and expectations, the business requirements document is a key deliverable. This stage of the project should never be skipped in order to expedite the development cycle.

Failure to identify and document all business requirements creates unnecessary project risk that will be very difficult to mitigate later in the software development project lifecycle.

One of the best ways to advertise your business is to use a Hot Air Balloon and it is considered to be one of the fastest new forms of advertising. A hot Air Balloon becomes a very mobile Billboard and can travel and is viewed over many miles by thousands of people.

They can provide a very dramatic and lasting impression on the consumer especially at Hot Air Balloon festivals as many are photographed and reported some are videoed and can be available on you tube and other internet video sites.

Specially designed Hot Air Balloons that have a funny shape or have a much known recognisable shape can be the most stunning advertising concepts. I was recently at a show in Bristol UK and there was a vast array of different special shaped kinds.

It was great to see some shaped like Beer cans and others shaped like bottles of fizzy pop these forms of advertising can bring a big impact they can be seen over such a wide range of area and have a very lasting impression on the consumers.

A Hot Air Balloon travelling over a busy city centre is likely to catch the attention of over 90% of the people in the city this is a great medium and has chance of raising your company’s awareness providing a lasting with consumers that people remember long after the event has passed.

Having one made for advertising, is not as expensive as people imagine compared to large TV ad champagne. It has a longer and more effective publicity as it can be flown most days in summer and brought and flown at festivals.

Good photographs of them are very good for promotional pictures in your company’s literature and can enhance your marketing strategy. There are many forms of advertising and most cost serious money but sometimes you have to consider that using a Hot Air Balloon could be a cost effective method for your companies needs.

At most festivals most of the Hot air Balloons have now got advertising slogans on them or are shaped like a product. As they drift across the sky producing and awe inspiring spectacle that emblazes your company logo in the sky.

They are the original way man has learnt to fly and ever since the first Hot Air Balloons took to the sky they have always managed to stir something within us to look up into the sky and wonder.

A balloon ride is a excellent day out and well worth looking into but remember that safety is very important within this industry and what goes up will come down and having flown in a Hot Air Balloon then it does come down quite often with a bump even with the most experienced pilots.

They are great fun and gliding over the countryside silently looking down at the ground from an unusual angle often seeing familiar objects from a very different angle makes you realise how special a Hot Air Balloon flight can be.

Many small business retailers are worried about all the talk of a recession. Some analysts are predicting that there will not be a recession at all but instead we will have a long period of much slower growth. Either way, what with high fuel prices, larger gas bills and rising food prices, your customers are more likely to have less ready cash to hand over at the tills.

Here are some strategies you can use to get your retail business through this patch in one piece ready for the upturn in the economy that will hopefully come soon.

Opening Hours

Close early on the days business is guaranteed to be slow so that you can open longer hours on the busier days.

Store Layout

Redesign your store layout so that lower cost items have more prominence. Look at ways to improve the lighting in your store so that the displays are brighter and buy some spotlights so that all areas are well lit.

Inventory

Find suppliers that can meet your requirements just in time so that you can carry lower stocks; order less but more often. Markdown and shift slower selling lines, so that you can make room for faster moving value items. Get rid of all dead stock and monitor how quick or slow each item is moving so that you can utilize the best areas in the store for faster moving stock.

Special Offers

Introduce discounts, like buy 3 for the price of 2 to persuade your customers to buy more. Offer special promotions of the day, week and month so that customers feel that if they don’t come often they might miss out on a bargain. Introduce loyalty cards so that regular customers get preferential treatment.

Staff

Reduce the number of full time employees and take on more part timers. Train your staff so that they have better product knowledge and know how to treat your customers better. These two strategies combined, will give your business more flexibility to cope with any expected downturn.

Costs

Examine all your outgoing costs and be ruthless with any unnecessary expenditure. Check out your energy suppliers, telecoms providers and courier companies and if they are no longer competitive, switch quickly to the lower cost operators. Monitor all your bills paying close attention to the top ten that probably account for more than 80% of all your outgoings.

Cashflow

Buy as much as you can on credit and reduce the amount of goods sold on credit. Cash is king and having some at hand will mean that you can cope better through any downturn and also take advantage of special offers from your suppliers whenever they arise.

Information technology (IT) refers to the management and use of information using computer-based tools. It includes acquiring, processing, storing, and distributing information. Most commonly it is a term used to refer to business applications of computer technology, rather than scientific applications. The term is used broadly in business to refer to anything that ties into the use of computers.

Mostly businesses today create data that can be stored and processed on computers. In some cases the data must be input to computers using devices such as keyboards and scanners. In other cases the data might be created electronically and automatically stored in computers.

Small businesses generally need to purchase software packages, and may need to contract with IT businesses that provide services such as hosting, marketing web sites and maintaining networks. However, larger companies can consider having their own IT staffs to develop software, and otherwise handle IT needs in-house. For instance, businesses working with the federal government are likely to need to comply with requirements relating to making information accessible.

The constant upgrade in information technology, along with increasing global competition, is adding difficulty and hesitation of several orders of scale to the business and trade. One of the most widely discussed areas in recent business literature is that of new organizational network structures that hold survival and growth in an environment of growing complexity.

Effective implementation of information technology would decrease liability by reducing the cost of expected failures and increase flexibility by reducing the cost of adjustment. The businesses reaction to the environment remains to be the vital determinant for its effectiveness. The capabilities and flexibilities of computer-communication systems make them gradually more appropriate to businesses by being able to respond to any specific information or communication requirement.

Information Technology is having impact on all trade industries and businesses, in service as well as in manufacturing. It is affecting workers at all levels of organizations, from the executives to middle management and clerks. Information technology is increasingly becoming a basic factor of all types of technologies such as craft, engineering, routine, and non-routine.

The advances in Information Technology would result in remarkable decline in the costs of synchronization that would lead to new, concentrated business structures. It enables the business to respond to the new and urgent competitive forces by providing effective management of interdependence.

In the near future businesses would be facing a lack and a redundancy of information called information glut. To solve the information-glut companies will need to introduce methods for selective thinning out of information. Improvements in telecommunications will make it easier to control business units dispersed over different parts of the world. Advances in telecommunications, would result in increased distance-communication. Indirect communication would be preferred for well-structured information for routine, preprogrammed and decision processes.

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Key Note’s fourth Market Assessment report on Men & Women’s Buying Habits shows fundamental shifts in the traditional balance of economic power between men and women. The impacts of both prolonged prosperity and the rise in the number of women entering the workplace have brought male dominance of big ticket consumer spending to a new tipping point. Similarly, the growth in Internet retailing has brought a reversal in the previous male dominance of this distribution chain. Key Note research indicates that women are now the leading Internet shoppers, in terms of both volume and value. Elsewhere in the economy, new developments i retailing and marketing are challenging those stereotypes that had influenced strategic thinking in retail.

The UK economy underwent a short, sharp shock in 2004, after interest rates rose. Consumers were forced to rethink outstanding credit arrangements and to rein in their spending. Consequently, consumer expenditure slowed in the latter half of 2004 and beginning of 2005 and the levels of savings began to rise again. Key Note research indicates that this shift in attitude was particularly significant among men who tend to carry higher levels of debt and to have more concerns about repayments. The underlying strength of the UK economy remains undisputed, as other key indicators of low unemployment and inflation do not fundamentally challenge the pattern of rising consumer expenditure set in the 1990s. Leisure and holiday markets continue to benefit from the rise in prosperity.

Other key demographic data are also of primary importance in considering gender differences in buying habits. This report highlights the rapid rise in employment among women. A far greater proportion of women are employed in less well-paid sectors, but women are making inroads in the higher echelons of business and as entrepreneurs. Of greater long-term significance is the gradual rise in women’s wealth. Disparity remains as far as rates of pay for men and women are concerned, but Key Note has identified trends and report findings that support the view that women are gaining a far greater share of the UK’s personal assets as a result of a wide range of factors most notably, early financial independence. The high cost of housing is beginning to have a major impact on young people’s spending patterns and longer-term financial planning in relation to gender. A far higher proportion of men remain in their parental homes for longer than women. These men might have higher disposable incomes for a period of time however, in broad terms, they lack the determination that many women have to set up independently and acquire their own assets at a young age.

Key markets reviewed on http://www.marketsensus.com show the following key trends: a more cautious pattern of consumer spending in the light of the recent corrections in interest rates and the housing market, and a consequent reluctance to spend on big-ticket items; and major alterations in patterns of distribution, e.g. the growing dominance of the supermarket retailers and increasing parity in patterns of demand between the sexes, which is paralleled by the rise of Internet retailing.

The car market, in common with many other markets, has entered a competitive period in which, although volume sales have increased, market values are declining as a result of high capacity, high levels of imports and market saturation. Women are still far more likely than men to live in households with no car, although the pattern is far more equal among younger men and women. Women’s increased earning power and rising economic wealth therefore make them of growing importance in expanding car manufacturers’ threatened sales targets.

The UK brown goods market shows a similar pattern of slow growth in 2005. Key sectors, such as flat-screen televisions and camcorders, are driving market sales. Competition in the market as a whole is ensuring radical changes in distribution. A high number of retail outlets are closing as a result of competition from supermarkets and the growing success of Internet retailing. Key Note research shows little variation in levels of brown goods ownership between the sexes, but one of the key factors in the success of supermarkets’ strategy of selling more electrical goods is the high number of women attracted to their simplicity and value-for-money approach, which contrasts with the fact that specialist retailers are often preferred by men.

The holiday market has been one of the greatest beneficiaries of new spending power. Despite the setbacks of natural disasters and terrorist attacks of recent years, the sector remains strong; expenditure and market volumes are expected to have risen over 2005. One of the biggest transformations in the market has been the impact of Internet sales, which are reported by some providers to account for up to a half of all bookings. The impact of the Internet, low-cost flights and the rise in independent travel are creating a revolution in the way in which consumers both perceive and purchase services. Key Note research clearly indicates that women are no longer playing second fiddle to men in browsing and buying on the Internet.

Several providers report that women now form the majority of online visitors and bookers.
Attitudes towards shopping are clearly also changing in line with changes in lifestyles and the increased possibilities of Internet and home shopping.

Key Note’s research for this report shows a reduction in the use of cars for shopping by both sexes and an increased alignment of shopping trips with patterns of work. There is evidence of a growing distribution made by both men and women of shopping for essentials and non-essentials. For the former, consumers now want efficient and quick solutions. For shopping for clothing and non-essential items, expectations are building for environments that entertain, inform and make a trip to a shop worthwhile. There is abundant evidence within the report of radically different approaches to shopping for non-essentials between men and women with men being much happier to go for the kill, whereas women are still far more inclined to value shopping as a social and therapeutic activity.

Different shopping environments and customer policies that accommodate different tastes of the sexes may have their place but today’s marketplace also demands a far more complex approach, which takes a much more varied customer base into account. For example, research from the US suggests that patterns of shopping behaviour between young men and women who have grown up in affluent households are becoming more similar (see Chapter 4 Buying Habits for further detail).
A growing gender convergence in patterns of employment is beginning to lead to more subtle marketing approaches and a rejection by consumers, and women in particular, of those marketing strategies that stereotype and do not acknowledge the massive societal changes that have been experienced as more women become workers as well as mothers.

Key Note highlights study findings that show an increasing dissatisfaction among women with advertisers’ representations of modern women. Gender complexity is the emerging trend in marketing to both men and women. Just as more younger men now shop more frequently, more women do not want to be characterised as domesticated shoppers even if their appetite for shopping remains as strong as ever.

The success of both the supermarkets and Internet retailers can be said to owe more than a little to a gender-free approach, where men and women are treated on a more equal basis. The growth in broadband access in UK homes will be a major driver of future UK sales growth. Key Note research indicates that women have now overtaken men as online shoppers and, by 2010, around 20% of UK shopping will be carried out online. Other significant findings include a focus on women’s growing independent wealth which will impact on the markets for luxury goods. Key Note’s consumer research for this report also offers extensive detail on different patterns of decision-making between the genders in terms of shopping, car use and home shopping and the remarkable rise in solo shopping for both men and women.