Instructor Newsletter 21st June 2012

Welcome to this week’s C2Go newsletter. As the newsletter has evolved into a weekly resource I suggest you print it off then take a pen and UNDERLINE and circle all the relevant points that apply to you, your teaching and your business.

Many readers tell me they get an avalanche of ideas when reading the newsletter, so don’t let those ideas escape……write them down the minute they come into your head on your print out.

Get a pen and print off this newsletter and let’s go…….

I think last week’s newsletter got the all time highest number of emails, tweets, Facebook messages and texts EVER.
Jayne’s piece especially appeared to hit a chord with many readers, who all whole heatedly agreed.
(Especially with the point… a PDF is NOT a book). Vikki’s article also resonated with many readers and I spent most of the day reading and responding to comments and feedback. Many Thanks I read everything so please keep your feedback coming in.

In this week’s newsletter we celebrate being an individual and how to use video soundbites from your participants to market your classes and create a personality on your Facebook pages. Yvonne Radley chats through Being Persistent, Vikki writes a fun article about running a fitness business in the sticks and Cori discusses Cyber-Bullying.

My First LIVE ONLINE Workshop will be held on Friday 930 -1030am it will be Fitness Pilates Advanced Updates and you will be able to talk part at home. You will need a web cam and be able to ask questions and interact with me as I do the class. Follow me on Twitter and Facebook as I will announcing the details later today @RachelHolmes

UNITE

What a fantastic event UNITE turned out to be.

90 instructors attended the event and Jayne and I had a ball presenting our new vision and concept. We designed the class for trendsetting Instructors who want to capitalise on the huge gap in the market for a mind/body AND conditioning class, set to awesome music spanning the last 3 decades. The class takes Fitness Pilates, Freestyle Fitness Yoga and powerful conditioning routines and delivers it in a precise, fun and enjoyable way.

We both wanted the class to embody all the amazing aspects of group exercises that are never measured, like how it makes you feel, the euphoria of working out in a group to empowering music, exercising with your friends with a unique Instructor who is an individual.

UNITE champions the creative Instructor who doesn’t want to teach like everyone else. We encourage individuality and different teaching styles backed up with a strong technical base.

UNITE Is a class different generations can work out together all improving week after week to enhance movement quality, boost body awareness and build on mental and physical fitness.

Over the last few years our timetables have been dominated by big brands dictating, how and what we teach and the music we play. It’s all been a tad formulaic for our liking and we both agree the fitness future needs to be about individuality and harness the uniqueness, quirkiness, knowledge and skill of every Instructor.

Look out for the launch of the UNITE ambassadors over the coming weeks.
If you are interested in getting involved with the UNITE program tweet @Jaynenicholls or @rachelholmes for more details.

The Dirty 30 Workout Club – JULY Fitness Training Thrills

30 Workouts in 30 Days has been a huge hit with Instructors and home workout warriors alike. I have created 30 home workouts, and due to the club’s success will be devising another 30 original workouts for July.

The Fitness Thrills project will be a daily “Training Thrills” workout where I will explore a variety of training concepts, ideas and workouts. Every day a fresh 10 – 15minute workout will be launched for you to experience and train with me.

This time I am including kettlebell workouts, which I’m really looking forward to be presenting.

If you would like to have a workout with me delivered every day to your in box that you can view on your phone, ipad, or lap top make sure you sign up for the JULY Dirty 30 Workout club. https://www.choreographytogo.com/the-dirty-30-club/

30 Second Sound Bites or Testimonials by Rachel

If you’re like most people, before you spend on a product or service, you check it out first, whether by asking a friend, looking at the customer ratings online, or reading the testimonials. No one likes to buy a lemon, so it just makes sense. If you see enough testimonials from people you “know” or people like you, it removes the risk factor, and you’re ready to dive in.

Our fitness classes and services are no different.

So how do you get great testimonials, especially when you’re just starting out or launching a new class or service whether it be on line or offline?

You could always run a “Trial” class or course first in exchange for testimonial and reviews.

Give a few complimentary or discounted sessions in exchange for a glowing testimonial.

After you start marketing your new class or course, make it a routine to ask for comments to keep your reviews fresh.
In addition to encouraging new people to come to class, endorsements will always enhance your expert status.

The Power of the VLOG

It doesn’t have to be a written testimonial either. Often a more powerful testimonial is a video clip of the client talking about their experiences. Put this on your website and social media so potential customers can really see exactly what can be gained from attending your classes.

Ask your class members to tell you how they have benefited from attending your classes, you’ll hear comments like:

Have more energy
Feel fitter
Feel happier
Feel more positive.
Sleep better.
Feel better in my clothes
The list goes on and on.

Action this TODAY – Don’t waste another moment

Take your iphone to class and ask who will give you a soundbite.

Record 30sec testimonials from as many participants as you can and upload them all to your Facebook and YouTube.

Ask them to talk what benefits and results they have had from attending your sessions.
Let everyone see the amazing benefits customers gain from your classes.
We all know that word of mouth IS THE best form of advertising so cultivate this on your social media platforms.

This is SO powerful, much more powerful than spending ££££££ on newspaper advertising.
30 second soundbites are the fastest way to get people talking about YOUR class and will bring in so many new people.

I’ll look forward to seeing your 30 second soundbites on your Facebook this week. I repeat don’t delay go out and get 5 sound bites from happy customers TODAY.
Tweet me @RachelHolmes

How’s Your Summer Timetable Shaping Up?

Summer is a great time to trial new class concepts on your timetables, especially if you are in the community, where you have the flexibility to ring the changes and create some cool classes.

If you are planning to reduce down your timetable for summer then why not promote some masterclass events to get everyone buzzing and excited.
Scan the web, blogs, newspapers and magazines and find out which words and vocabulary is hip at the moment. Every year there are “cool” words that sum up the moment and are great to use in class titles and marketing blurb for your summer masterclass.

Here are some class names and ideas.

Olympics Theme – Olympic Circuit / Olympic Bootcamp / Athletic Conditioning / Sports Training Workout, you get the picture.

Summer Blissed Out Stretch – 11/2hour class featuring stretch, flexibility and relaxation.

Bikini Body Toning Project.

Summer Slim Down.

I’m sure you can come up with some cool, hip and happening names.

Plan your launch –  10 Step Launch

1.Create a funky logo and branding for your masterclass.
2.Record a Video with you talking about the class / demonstrating the class – upload to all social media.
3.Email your database with an early bird discount..
4.Create flyers/posters.
5.Send press releases, contact all of the local media, features writers, local radio.
6.Push it on Social Media – Facebook say that only 16% of your friends see any one of your posts so make sure you update your status and different times through the day. Get as much exposure as you can.
7.Encourage existing members to bring friends. Have a group pass or group deal for 4 or more people.
8.Go into as many local businesses and ask them for flyers to put in a goody bag in return for you leaving flyers in their business.
9.Plan your social media campaign. Use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to gain exposure and sell places.
10.O the day – Film clips and get video sound bites from as many attendees as you can.

I’d love to hear about your summer themed classes.

Community Fitness Business Check List.

I’ve talked about the following business basics many times, and here is a quick check list to reinforce you have all of the business basics in place. This applies if you teach 2 community classes or 202!

1.Professional website – VITAL.
2.Data Capture – People can add their emails to your database on your website.
3.Collect data from everyone who attends your classes – Via a Par Q collect all details and add emails to your database.
4.Weekly newsletter – Sent on the same day, same time, every week to build trust and reliability.
5.Social Media – Have a social media strategy, have a Facebook Page, Active Twitter and add videos to your YouTube channel to build you online presence.
6.Pricing Strategy – Are you PAYG, Block Bookings or Monthly Memberships or a mix. Set your pricing and payment structures clearly with all benefits.
7.Social – Include social events and build a social element to your class, where your attendees can make friends, mix and socialise.
8.Keep on top of new trends and offer Masterclass, events, talks, workshops and seminar monthly or bimonthly.
9.Work on your passive income stream and how to leverage your time- Release home workout DVDs, downloads, offer Small Group Training, 1 2 1, Personal Coaching, Telephone coaching, Nutritional packages.

Getting the basics right is CRUCIAL. Once these are in place you can build a tandem online fitness business, which will start to create a passive income for you.

Rachel Holmes Workout TV

Check out my free workouts every week on YouTube

Fitness Pilates on Fridays

Total Body in Ten

Jayne Nicholls

Hello my friends. To say that I am dazed and confused after Unite is an understatement. Why? because, presenting our information in-front of a group, in the physical interpretation of what we do, is all I need to be a happy and healthy individual. I am lucky that I have the resource to share this with you and assist you in making a better income by doing what it is that you do best. As my business has progressed, I find myself doing so many things, that I need to do to in order to conform to a bigger and better business profile BUT I can never forget that the very heart of what I and you do is presenting exercise to the general public.

HAVE WE FORGOTTEN THIS?

Maybe in our desire to achieve a new ”us” we forget where our strength lies – teaching the general public to be fitter and have a positive outlook. I have never met a husband, partner, friend or lover that can fulfill this role like we can. No new product or new approach will ever supersede our ability to do our own unique job.

jayne jayne@groupxtraining.com

Persistence Is The Key by Yvonne Radley

When I first got into journalism back in the 1980’s I had to be very persistent. I applied for a junior reporter post at the Loughborough Echo but didn’t get the job. I was a young mum of two at the time and my youngest had just started school and I wanted to be a journalist, even though I’d only worked in factories and restaurants and offices up to this point and of course been a busy housewife for the last 7 years. But I’d been studying while the boys were growing up and this was my dream.
So what did I do? Well I didn’t give up. I’d met the news editor at my interview so I rang him up and asked him if I could write the village news section for where I was living. They already had a correspondent for that though. Then I remembered we had our Easter bonnet parade coming up (this is the kind of thing they still love nowadays!!) so I offered to take some pictures and do a piece on that for them, they said YES and I had my first assignment.
To cut a long story short, I ended up writing more and more for them, did holiday cover, and eventually worked there for four years before being head-hunted by an agency that supplied stories to the national press and I went off to work for the likes of The Mirror, The Sun, News of the World (which was always fun) as well as magazines like Bella, Woman, and Chat.

So you see my persistence paid off. I wouldn’t take no for an answer and kept coming up with new ideas to get myself into the paper and that’s exactly what you need to do with your press releases.

If you keep sending them out and nothing ever gets into your local paper, don’t give in. Journalists themselves are very persistent people and will keep tapping away until they get their story. You’ve got to do the same.
The journalists will notice you, they will complain about you “oh bloody fitness guru Suzy’s sent in another press release about another boring fitness class, why doesn’t she ever send anything interesting?”, they may even give you a nickname, “oh bloody media whore Suzy’s sent ANOTHER press release” but do it week after week and you are on their radar, so when that big health story breaks and they’re trying to think of a local person to contact they don’t have to think very hard (journalists like that!) They will be ringing “media whore Suzy” because they know she’s always trying to get in the paper so will be good for a quote.

It is also worth adding onto the bottom of your weekly press release that you are willing to talk about any health issues in the news, especially helpful for local radio stations that have to act more quickly than a weekly newspaper as they will be looking for someone to talk on that day, sometimes within that hour.

Also if you hear a breaking health story, call the newsroom at your local station and offer to talk about it. This only works with news that’s just broken though as reporters often package their stories a day in advance.
Another good tip is to contact your local news rooms and ask them to put you on their list of contacts for health stories – try if you can to talk to their health correspondent. If you can become their go-to person it’s going to raise your profile in the local community.
Also, remember to make your stories current, tap into whatever is happening in the world at that moment, like right now Summer holidays are right around the corner so if you’re planning some kids classes get that out there now and include some quotes from mums raving about how good the sessions are, even get some pictures together if you can, you’ll need the parent’s permission if you’re using the kids in the photo.

Maybe you’re doing a Beach Body Blast, have you got some amazing before and after shots of customers, interview your customers and tell the story from their point of view for a change. You are changing people’s lives; there are good stories to be told out there.
Good luck with your press releases this week and next week I’ll be revealing where to find stories from.

Yvonne Radley Ex Journalist and co-founder of Action Boot Camp
Most Promising Fitness Entrepreneur 2012
Subscribe to my blog for more media tips http://www.yvonneradleymedia.com/

Vikki Scovell

My ten top tips for running a successful fitness business in a rural location.

Don’t bother!

Ha ha, not really. Although when I moved from the city, I telephoned local ‘fitness’ centers about running classes. One manager at a larger center said immediately- don’t bother, closely followed by- Good Luck! (In a sarcastic way). The country side has mixed blessings. Many don’t have lots of spare income to fritter on lycra and funky yoga bags, but some people have shed-loads of cash. Appeal to both of them. I have set up affordable community classes, with options to save money by block-booking, and I have also managed to hook wealthier clients by providing top-end weight loss courses and personal training.

Don’t EVER stop advertising.

All fitness business suffers from ‘natural wastage.’ Stay on top of promotion; flyers, networking, use special offers; bring a friend for free etc. Get people to bring their husbands, wives teens; use the people you have to hook more clients. I poster all of the shops, and always leave 4 tickets to my classes to make them feel I am not just going for free advertising. Usually my posters take pride of place. Think about local internet TV, they are always looking for content. I have also given people free classes in return for them flyering mums at the school gate, or their street. I have done drop off and pick-up at local schools leaving flyers and chatting to mums and dads. See if you can cross-promote with dress shops, salons etc I get a 10% discount for my clients on sports bras, they let me leave my flyers, and I advertise them; everyone wins, and clients love a special offer. On my list of things to do, is to ‘free ticket’ the ambulance, police and fire stations, and football club. We have had the fire brigade arrive at bootcamp before (broken alarm, although we were SMOKIN’ too), and believe me, if I can get some of those boys into boot camp, I’m going to get one heap of dedicated women turning up too. Not sure how professional that is; answers on a post card please.

Be FRIENDLY all of the time.

Chat to anyone who will listen, engage everyone in conversation, help old ladies cross the road; you never know where this may lead, you never know who is watching or listening. The great thing about rural people is that they do chat all of the time to anyone, and don’t have the OMG you’re a FREAK reflex that you get in the city.

AVOID ROAD RAGE at all costs.

You have to be an example of wonderfulness at ALL times. I am actually quite amazingly lovely, but…….. Ok, background; I lived in a city terrace for years, and finding a parking space was tough, so you learn to do some fairly stellar parking. When you live in the country side there are three factors at play; cars get bigger, lots of people have DRIVE WAYS; they don’t need to learn how to park, and they also spend a lot of time on roads which are EMPTY. This is a terrible combo; people in very BIG cars, who cannot park, or err…. DRIVE. In the local car parks, we do not use the word ‘parking’ we say ‘abandoning.’ OK so, there have been too many times when Ms. City Driver has suffered some EXTREME exasperation in the face of insanely awful driving. It is very probable that I may have indicated my distress in some way at this point. AND THEN…….. followed that person all of the way to (you’ve guessed it) my class. OOPS! Keep calm, and swear under your breath whilst smiling like an angel.

AVOID TROLLEY RAGE at all costs. (similar to the above) The supermarket and local shops are extremely important to you, when you are there, you are on a stage. I have picked up quite a few clients in the supermarket and local shops. Oh and EVERYONE will look in your basket, so it had better look good; drive many miles out of your way to buy hemorrhoid cream, Wagon Wheels, and rough cider.

Advertise yourself by what you wear. I have accrued clients by wandering around wearing clothing proclaiming PERSONAL TRAINER, BOOT CAMP INSTRUCTOR, YOGA COACH. Two of my most profitable PT clients arrived this way. I also sell my class members hoodies advertising the class. The first boot camp one said COURAGE and STRENGTH on the back (slightly tongue in cheek), with Monmouth Fitness Bootcamp underneath and my web address. The second said FIT with the same info. As a class we were deciding on the third. Here is what we came up with: ‘YOU CAN REST WHEN YOU’RE DEAD’ (one of my JOKE mottos which is not necessarily a good advertising strategy) NO VOMITING, NO AMBULANCES! (Again a bit of a Boot Camp joke, but won’t bring in the FRESH VICTIMS). The others were rude, so I won’t upset you with them. When there are five or six people wearing them in the local coffee shop, it creates a buzz, people ask questions. I also got people’s names printed on the front to build team spirit and allow people speak to each other with confidence, and bond.

Advertise with Face Book. I have started this in earnest since the Fitness Business Marketing course with Rachel, but in a short time have built a real feeling of community within my classes. I take quick Iphone pics during class when I can, or get a stray kid to do it, edit them with Camera+ ap and get them straight on face book. They always get lots of comments, people post them on their timelines, and news spreads. (7a) The darker side is that if something goes wrong you could end up with some advertising too. Someone did put something terrible on my page (sharp intake of disbelieving breath from you the reader), but hilariously my other clients were up in arms; they were sending messages of support , expressing their disgust at the other person, promoting me left right and center on their business pages.

Make as much money AS YOU CAN out of your existing client base. Sell them anything you possibly can think of. I sell weights, mats, clothing, hula hoops, courses, and try and draw them in to other projects through my email marketing, newsletters Etc.

If your car looks like mine; do not use car stickers/magnets or signage. My car is my most treasured (if decaying) possession and I would not swap her for any bling-mobile. But I would NEVER use her to advertise myself because I would look like a FAILURE! I used to live near a PT who had a mangy, dented old banger, and despite the fact that he was really rather good, I always looked at it and thought hmmmmm; not the right message.

READ THIS TWICE: If it’s a small place, everyone is going to know your business; we are not so much talking grape vine here, as something more along the lines of Jack and the Beanstalk with high-surveillance monitoring, and night-vision goggles thrown in for good measure. Be VERY,
V E R Y careful who you date (see7a). Nuff said.

Vikki Scovell. Tweet Vikki @Fitbite

Cyber-bullying by Cori Withell

More and more I am seeing fitpros slating one another on Facebook, Twitter, Four Square – everywhere! What is going on? My first thoughts when I read these posts are ‘sad little idiots’ – not very professional I grant you, but that is what I think. Then I got to thinking, if that is what I am thinking, god only knows what their clients are thinking. I mean, what would you think if your personal trainer was getting involved in blatantly slating another trainer, even though they would never dare to name names. The last thread I saw, they even justified it by saying they were taking the mickey out of each other. Well, that is all well and good but when you are taking phrases that are well associated with another trainer, can you really be so naive as to think that your clients are not going to see what you are doing?

There are different points to this. What if YOU are the one that is the victim of this onslaught? I mean, for all the bravado and bigging up some of us do on Facebook, that may well be miles away from the real you in the real world away from the social media network. I mean, let’s face it, it is extremely easy to pretend to be the life and soul and happy as larry on Facebook when, in reality you could be crying as you type and feel like you are falling apart inside. Do any of these people that partake in this, quite frankly, horrible, conversation, ever stop to think about what damage they might be causing? I doubt it. With what I have seen lately, it doesn’t seem nasty (in the sense of true bullying) but nonetheless potentially damaging. Is it just jealousy? Do they want what you have? Does it actually matter? If you are the victim of this and it is affecting you then they are quite simply bullies – end of. What if you want to make a point or voice an opinion but are too worried for fear of what these bullies might say? Their actions are affecting you and that is bullying.

Then of course there is the group x instructor to group x instructor bullying. This is normally more subtle and sometimes you can be left thinking have I actually imagined all this? Am I seeing more into it than is there? It can get really bitchy and wear you down. You start to doubt your ability as an instructor, you doubt whether you are in the right industry and worst of all, you start to take it really personally. I don’t think this is any different, this is rarely personal, this is jealousy, whether of your class numbers, the rapport you have with your clients, your ability to instruct, the list goes on. If you know there are things that you can improve on as a group x instructor, then you owe it to yourself to improve those things. Not because someone tells you that is what you need to do but because you want to.

The of course you get what I call the add on bullies. The ones that never initiate a conversation but as soon as one starts, they are in the top five to comment! These guys opinions really are not worth bothering with. They are not brave enough to have a voice on their own so have to tap into someone else’s. Maybe you think I am being too harsh and maybe I am, these are my opinions after all

BUT

Bullying is bullying in any shape or form and should never be accepted or stood for. So, for me, I will never partake in a conversation that’s aim is to bring down another individual. Why would I? I don’t want to be associated with the slating of another individual, whether I like that individual or not is irrelevant, whether I respect them as a trainer is irrelevant, whether I agree with their thinking is irrelevant. I am totally against bullying whether mild or serious and slating another individual is bullying no matter how you look at it. Whether it is a sly dig, a mickey take or a direct attack – bullying is bullying – it doesn’t make you bigger or better, it just alienates from the very people you say you are trying to help.

I really don’t think any of these bullies think about their own image and their brand when they partake in cyber bullying. If my trainer did that, I wouldn’t go back, what might they be saying about me? You are your image and your brand and everything you do on the internet is up for the public domain to peruse as they see – maybe we need to remind ourselves of that every time we look to update our status?

Should we not be supporting and encouraging each other, as we are all in the same industry, even though are niches may be far apart? Are we not all aiming for the same goal? To improve the health of the nation? Maybe you think that sounds too grand but that IS what we are trying to do!

Health and happiness x
Best wishes
Cori x

Don’t forget! The Mood Food Cookbook comes out on 25th June – sooooo excited about this! www.cwfitness.co.uk/shop/

Facebook www.facebbok.com/cori.withell
Twitter www.twitter.com/CWFitness
Blog www.cwfitness.co.uk/blog

50 Shades of…………………….??
By Andrew Crawford

Those who know…..know………those who don’t. …don’t….!!
Apparently, there are ‘scores’ of people who lock themselves in a private room to devour the ‘spell bounding’ content that is spread between the pages…Sounds interesting…uhh?

In many situations people will find a way to seek out and read and learn information to get ahead of the crowd, this will ultimately put you in a better position and be the first to get in on the action…!!

However, information is no good unless you do put it into action or indeed know what the hell the hidden message or agenda is written between the lines.
To some…who know..will chuckle..the others …well…it will go right over their heads…!! (see…I got it in again…lol…and again…tee hee….)

Sorry….I seem to be in one of those moods tonight…as my fingers do the walking..please don’t think I’m sick or anything…it must be the effects of ‘The Dirty 30 Club…!!

All those of you who are on that program right now, do you feel more invigorated?

In fact I would go as far as to say more flirty….ain’t that right? ..you fine, firm, eyes of pearls, good looking, curves in all the right places, aesthetically pleasing, ruby lipped, you blow my mind, I like my eggs scrambled, pleasant, adorable, eye candy-like, mint, amazingly gratifying looking, agreeable to the retina, arousingly delightful, cute, I would if you would, radiant, fresh complexioned, smooth as a well johnsoned up babies skin, super, lovely to behold, luscious looking long lean legged person you..!!!

Another hot under the collar move this week was the announcement that a further £140BN over the next year will be embezzled….I mean.. pumped into 5 banks..!

The banks are to use this tax payers windfall to bolster the UK economy.

They ‘promise ‘ to pass this money directly to fund cheaper business loans and fund mortgages. The first thing I believe they will do is have a good old knees up, sipping on champagne and chomping on lobster canapés in the board rooms before declaring outrageous bonuses to themselves.

I’m gonna ask the bank for a development loan of £1m… I suspect they will try and make me sign personal guarantees in order to get my hands on that lolly…!

Why has the Govt decided to give the banks that money…surely they have more sense than that..? They could have given a brown envelop loans out DIRECTLY instead of pulling in the ‘middleman’.

Talking about middleman…the leader of HMRC did have those secret behind closed door meetings with Goldman Sachs and wrote off £20m from its tax…Vodaphone had similar meetings and paid only £1.2bn of a £6bn tax bill.

In fact he was wined and dined and no doubt his bill, hotel and family travel around the world cruise expenses picked up by the Sachs….maybe
a brown envelop stuffed with red notes accompanying the journey..!!

Yes…I feel hot…my blood boils to think that for the likes of me and you, the HMRC crawls, trawls and digs up evidence in order to extract hundreds even thousands of pounds from us it tax payments whilst writing it off for certain types of blue chip ‘bribery’ companies.

Then…..only a day or so later…..the powers at be tried if not deflected your attention to make you get angry.

What did they post on front pages and in the news?

“The Tax Avoiders” and used Jimmy Carr as a scapegoat.

Don’t stop me now…..

Another thing…..

The G20 is set to meet in Rio……now that’s not the issue I have..it is this…… remember back in 2009 when an innocent man named Mr Tomlinson was walking home with his hands in his pocket minding his own business..when..BANG…he was struck by the fully protected and armed aggressive policeman PC Simon Harwood and pushed to the floor?

Well…..he died on the spot within the hour. What amazes me….but doesn’t shock me is the fact that the PC didn’t report this when he was writing up his report.

It was only because a holiday maker taped the incident on his mobile that it received attention…….now that should worry you…because that could have been you or me that day.

So…..what’s happening with that..??

Despite the video evidence PC Harwood is pleading not guilty to manslaughter..claiming his actions were “..necessary, proportionate and reasonable in the circumstances…”

What more evidence do they need for a conviction? Mr Tomlinson is dead. GUILTY as charged….Full stop.

So Andrew…

What has 50 shades of …?…whatever colour you wish to insert there, ‘secret’ Head of HMRC behind the door meetings and the G20 meetings behind closed doors got to do with Accountancy and Tax?

Well…..

Whenever things are done in secret, behind closed doors under the sheets…you either don’t want people to know or the information is so valuable you want only the select inner circle to know..!!

This brings me back to the issue of Tax Avoidance.
Those who know…..know………those who don’t. …don’t….!!
Let me remind you that Tax Avoidance is LEGAL.
You are allowed to organise your Tax Affairs in such a way as to minimise your tax liability.
The K2 scheme which is being bantered as “aggressive tax avoidance” is just that…..tax avoidance which is legal…Smoke screen and mirrors…they are trying to deflect the fact that they have been prostituted into reducing millions and billions of pounds in tax from the big b**ll** boys..!
I have looked how it is done and like to report that it is very clever and legal. It uses off shore companies to bill the UK for the services of an individual.
I taught this the other day using a UK company and loans as my examples. I’m not sure if the people in that room got it at the time but I will try and explain how YOU can set one of these up yourself.
I call it Tax Planning….Your Planning to pay less tax.nothing wrong with that. I am very passionate……………………ohhh ………….at tax planning.
I must say…this is for those highly paid people who have high salaries, there are other methods for those of you with smaller incomes than say,,£250,000. So here goes.
Eg. Suppose you were employed on a salary of £250,000+
Step 1: Resign from your employer. Let’s say Employ Ltd
Step 2: Set up a New company outside of the UK (eg Jersey-based)
Step 3: Sign an employment contract with this New company.
Step 4: The ‘New’ company hires you back to your former employer
Step 5: Old employer pays New employer for your services
Step 6: New employer pays you ‘minimum’ wage and loans you say £20,000 interest free loan each month. (‘interest free’….wakey wakey)
Step 7: New company ‘assigns’ the loan to a ‘Trust’ in Jersey
Step 8: You now owe the Trust the loan. (Which I doubt they will EVER ask for….uh erm…!!!)
Step 9: You pay tax on the mickey mouse minimum income.
That there is a Blueprint worth £40,000.
Why do I say that? That is what the Accountants were charging the clients such as Jimmy Carr to put this structure into place….more in some other cases.
What you have to remember is this……..Open your ears…..
“If you set a company abroad…you pay tax in THAT country for that company…conversely, if you set up a UK company, you pay UK tax…!”
For those abroad, the UK is one of the biggest tax havens for them…think of the City of London, the financial Capital. Do you think it is UK companies invested there?????
Print off those steps. about…£40,000 remember. I want some BIG love for that..!!
Take this scenario for example….
“A very successful businessman (you’ll know who I’m talking about in a minute) creates a structure that transfers most of the ownership of [his] company to his wife through offshore companies based in the Channel Islands. She lives in Monaco, he takes a huge dividend – it’s paid to her, it’s estimated that this reduces his tax bill by hundreds of millions of pounds.’
In addition…this person is a Government Adviser….!!
Do the Govt KNOW about this structure?? Of course they do…!!!
This is what Cameron recently said …
“For instance we have put £900m extra into HMRC to enable them to go after aggressive tax avoidance.”Aggressive tax avoidance was wrong, he said. ‘It’s right that the government is going after this activity. Everyone should pay their taxes properly.’
There you have it folks, “aggressive tax avoidance” is whatever the government chooses to define as “aggressive tax avoidance”; the fact that it is perfectly legal seems to escape them.
Finally…
I gonna get myself a bit of hot tart now and pour cream over it….delicious..!!
See ya xx
Andrew Crawford
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Hope you have a wonderful week
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Rachel xxx
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