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In terms of creating consistent profits or scaling them up to new levels, where do you invest your business resources and time on? Acquiring new customers or retaining the ones who already buys from you? While customer acquisition can increase your revenue and brand awareness, the results are not that significant when compared to customer retention. Repeat customers add more value to your business than new customers because their purchasing behavior is more accurate and predictable, and therefore will bring more profits to your business. New research suggests that almost 80% of your future profits might come from the top 20 percent of your repeat customers than from any other groups.

Small businesses in a post-COVID world are struggling to attract and retain loyal customers in an incredibly transient and competitive marketplace. Gas prices are £6 per gallon on a national average, cost of living has sky rocketed since the 1st quarter of 2022 and another economic recession is on the horizon. All this is reason for concern among Britons that it had heavily affected their purchasing behavior. How then, in all of this uncertainty and competition, can small businesses stand out from the crowd and build a base of loyal customers?

In uncertain times such as this, it is crucial for businesses to start focusing their efforts more towards retaining existing customers, turning them into loyal customers, and increasing their lifetime business value. But before we study the profitability of repeat customers, first we must understand what a repeat customer is.

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Table of Contents

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• What is Repeat Business and Why is it Important?

• Here are Top 10 Ways to Create Repeat Loyal Customers

• Deliver Excellent Customer Service

• Automated Customer Conversations

• Extensive Education about Products

• Create Customer Loyalty Programs

• Offer Discounts and Incentives to Repeat Customers

• Collect Feedback and Update your Products

• Add Value Through Email Marketing

• Grow your Customer Base Through Referral Programs

• Improve Customer Retention with VIP Programs

• Never Ignore Customer Complaints

• Repeat Customers are Vital for Every Business

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What is Repeat Business and Why is it Important?

The term ‘repeat business’ means that a customer (or a group of customers) keeps coming back to shop for products you offer. Alternatively, repeat customer is also the other side of this coin. In some cases, these customers will grow to love your products so much that they become loyal supporters of the brand and regularly shop with you over time.

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Below are some of the things that Constant Contact pointed out regarding repeat business and they actually make sense:

• Businesses thrive with customer retention - Indeed the saying that says ‘the customers are the life blood of a business’ is at the core reason why repeat business also exist.

• Word-of-mouth promotion - It is the most common human trait to talk about things that they like and you can tell that you’re lucky when customers like your products, because they will talk about it to their family and friends eventually. And what do you get out of it? Why more sales and profits, of course!

• More money - Customers are more likely to spend more money at businesses they feel they can trust and rely on.

• Eager customers - Repeat customers are actually eager to see new product offerings from your business, because they already trust your brand. Therefore, it’s also easier to sell to them.

• New customer costs - Spending money for advertising on existing loyal customers is cheaper and has better results than spending it to acquire new customers.

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Here are Top 10 Ways to Create Repeat Loyal Customers

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1. Deliver Excellent Customer Service

As an entrepreneur, your main goal is to keep the income flowing in order for your business to not just survive but also survive in highly competitive industry. The best way to do that is to create a loyal customer base who will support your business by making consistent purchases of your products or service. All you have to do is provide excellent customer service to achieve this goal.

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Here are a few tips on how to deliver excellent customer service.

• Offer live demos and training - We’ve talked to some people about their experience with learning and adjusting to the new products they’ve purchased and they all say that the user’s manual is either too technical, too lengthy or too complicated to understand. They would often go to YouTube to find video tutorials on how to use the products effectively. Why let other people demonstrate to your customers how your products work when you can meet them halfway yourself? Create your own live demos and training and interact with your customers in real time and help make them comfortable with your products.

• Live chat - In Forbes 2020 Achieving Customer Amazement Study that interviewed over a thousand people revealed that 96% of customers will leave you for bad service. This should be a wakeup call to all entrepreneurs and allocate time, resources and effort to avoid bad customer services – you can start by adding a live chat feature on all your channels.

• Resolving problems through co-browsing - Sometimes customers encounter obstacles in your business that just can’t be solved through videos and instructions. Take for instance, signing up to create a customer profile on your site. Despite your best efforts to make the entire process seamless and simple, some of them are going to find some areas to fill up difficult. For such scenarios, co-browsing can come extremely handy.

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2. Automated Customer Conversations

Autoresponders and AI customer service chat bots can help your business a lot, especially if you serve customers from all over the world. Obviously, you’ll have customers joining from different time zones at different hours of the day, and they’ll expect to talk or chat with someone ASAP.

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Here are some ways bots can help with your customer service.

• Chat bots makes your customer service run 24/7 addressing customer concerns with impeccable responses. This gives you a higher probability of customer retention and prevent them from switching over to your competitors due to delayed responses or bad customer service experience.

• The best thing about AI-powered chatbots is that they’re self-learning software and today they are even sold to businesses that need such a program to help with their customer service department handle inbound calls from customers. Freshworks offers various plans and pricing for AI-powered chatbots to help resolve customer issues in real time. Find a plan that suits your business now!

• An improved customer service experience means you’ll have a higher customer retention, low churn rate, more repeat customers and higher profits.

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3. Extensive Education about Products

Any customer feels empowered and confident about products only when they understand the entire features and benefits of it. Hence, without timely customer education and training, your customers are likely to be lost and confused about how to get the maximum value out of your products.

If you focus on providing high-quality comprehensive customer education, then your customers will be highly satisfied with your brand and will stick around for much longer.

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Here are a few ways in which you can educate your customers.

• Make the best possible first impression through a comprehensive onboarding process for all your products and services.

• Utilize all kinds of communication channels such as blogs, social media, one-to-one live chats, video sessions, and chatbots to be available for your customers for every hurdle that they gave during their customer journey.

• Offer high-quality video tutorials and demonstrations so that your customer gets highly accustomed to your products.

• Frequently initiate conversations and connect with your customers to let them know that you are always available to educate them through their journey with your brand.

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4. Create Customer Loyalty Programs

A successful customer loyalty program can contribute heavily towards retaining your customers and turning them into repeat customers. In fact, a customer who is a part of your loyalty program is 47% more likely to make another purchase from you when compared to other customers.

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Tips on how to use customer loyalty programs to increase repeat customers.

• Offer attractive rewards - It is now widely known that the striatum (the reward center of the brain) can cause a person to be addicted to certain things and if you play it right, offering valuable rewards in your loyalty programs to your customers can make your customers feel they get more for their money’s worth and will make them buy from you again and again.

• Give customers a head start - Offer your customers a 50% bonus rebate or points to make them feel that they only need to make a few more purchases to complete the other 50% of the points/rebates to get the discount or freebie advertised on your loyalty program.

• Provide welcome points for new customers - Giving welcome points on top of your other rewards for your customer loyalty program incentivizes your customers and nudges them to come back for more. In fact, the most successful customer loyalty programs starts off with giving something of value to their customers for absolutely free.

• Make it interesting and creative - Don’t just offer rewards bluntly. Make the reward a secret surprise or put a twist to the prize money or item that you’ll give your customers once they’ve reached a certain threshold. You could, say, give them an expensive watch once they reach 100 loyalty points on their account, but add a secret surprise once they claim the reward and tell them that they’ll also get a lifetime gift on their birthday!

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5. Offer Discounts and Incentives to Repeat Customers

A little bit goes a long long way, isn’t that what they always say? Well, did you know that it applies to customer retention as well? Everybody loves something either free or half the price, heck these days they’ll even want it for 15% off! So what does this tell you? That’s right! Offer discounts on your products and services to give your customers an incentive and make them buy from you more and more.

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Below are some tips on how to give discounts and incentives to your customers.

• Provide onboarding offers - First impressions, lasts. The same is true when onboarding new customers and just by simply giving them offers like free shipping or some exclusive discount codes will make them think that you’re the greatest company in the world!

• Offers after first purchase - Make their subsequent purchases count by giving them discounts and price cuts. They’ll think they’re getting the same products for half the price which will not only make them happy, but will also make them share the experience with their family and friends, which can be your future potential customers as well.

• Keep experimenting - If you love what you do, then it won’t feel like you’re working or stressing out to make profits. You’re going to be very creative in your own right and come up with amazing ideas that will resonate with your customers and in turn keep them happy and buying from you. But if you really need to, then hire a creative team to help you brainstorm ideas.

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6. Collect Feedback and Update your Products

Since you may not be able to talk to your customers like you can talk to your close friends, you need to know what they want and what they think about your business. You do this by collecting customer feedback via surveys, social media comments, reactions and direct messages. You can also find out what your customers are saying about your business through the BBB (Better Business Bureau) or forums and discussion boards talk specifically talk about products similar to what you’re offering.

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Here is how collecting feedback can impact your recurring customers.

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• Proactive customer communication - Utilize all the tools available to you to get customer feedback like automated chatbots, in-app messaging, and live-chat sessions.

• Observe common patterns - Sift through the feedback information that you got from your customers and start analyzing them to look for patterns, which are potential problems that needs your attention. It can be anything from, for example, 70% of your customers complain about certain features of your product or the lack thereof. By simply addressing such concerns, you not only will boost sales but get more repeat buys from your loyal customer base.

• Upgrade your products - Listen to what your customers want about your products or services and make the necessary corrections or upgrades in order to please them. Remember, a happy customer will always come back for more!

• Inform your customers - Create new ads to showcase the new upgrades and features you’ve included in your products, so your customers will know that you heard their feedback and actually done something about it. The second they’ll know that you care about what they think, you can bet they’ll be back at your store and make more purchases.

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7. Add Value Through Email Marketing

According to LinkedIn email marketing drives 3.5 times more conversions than just doing the basic across-the-board marketing. Sending out those weekly and/or monthly newsletters to your subscribers actually improves your overall sales and profits.

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Here’s what you can do with your email marketing campaigns to see improvement.

• Change your order confirmation email - The probability of turning a new customer into a repeat customer is high if you do these things: sending information about related products, special offers, and discount coupons to your customers with the order confirmation email of their first purchase

• Send follow-up emails - If the new customer has agreed to share their personal information including their email and they have opted to receive newsletters from you, then send them follow-up emails to let them know that you value their business. Make your emails personalized and proactively invite the customer to interact with your customer service agents who can assist them with any queries that they may have about your company.

• Add immense value - Don’t just firebomb your customers with sales emails. Anyone can tell you that such action is annoying and will easily get old, instead add value to your content. You can include personal testimonies from other customers who have used your products or services and they explain how it had a positive effect on their lives. This way your email newsletters will have more depth and people will actually want to read it.

• Keep your customers updated - Include updates on your products or services in your email newsletter that you’ll send out to your customers. You never know some of your customers are on the look out for new product releases from your company and are interested to make a purchase.

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8. Grow your Customer Base Through Referral Programs

A lot of businesses capitalize on referral programs for a good reason and that reason is because it drives sales. Create a referral program of your own and reap the benefits in sales and profits! This also has a sort of a double-edged sword benefit to it, where if you reward your customers who refers their friend to your company, you not only gain new customers but also keep your current customers loyal to you.

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9. Improve Customer Retention with VIP Programs

VIP programs essentially makes the customer sign a long-term agreement with you. This means a steady sales year after year, albeit limited to the top 10 percent of your customer base. Still, it beats spending a gazillion ton of money to gain new customers and get a meager amount of profits from it. There are customers who have more money than they can spend who also want to be first in line on getting your latest products and they want to maintain their elite status with your brand. Give them privileges such as invitations to special events, quick access to your new products, or sales days that they can choose for themselves.

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10. Never Ignore Customer Complaints

Keep in mind one very important thing – your customers are not children and so if you hear them complain about your products or company, do not treat it as a child throwing tantrums. Instead, do the sensible thing and listen and then help them resolve the issue so everybody can be happy. You must also understand that your relationship with your customers helps drive sales and boost profits. You basically asked them to trust you and your products indirectly and they in turn agreed. That trust can be destroyed in a matter of seconds through some misunderstanding or bad customer service. Resolve whatever concern they may have about your business to prevent it from going out of control due to your negligence, be it unintended or deliberate.

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Some mind-blowing statistics related to repeat customers:

• Repeat customers tend to spend 300% more on your products/services compared to new customers.

• You will spend 5 times more in acquiring new customers than to keep repeat customers.

• Repeat customers are 67% more likely to purchase new products from you than new customers would.

• The amount of money you need to spend to encourage a new customer to spend as much as your repeat customers is 16 times higher.

• Just a mere 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a 75% increased profitability for your business.

• It’s estimated that a repeat customer is worth 10 times more compared to the average first time customer.

• About 44% of companies today blindly spend more on customer acquisition, while only 18% of companies work on customer retention, which causes the disparity in profitability.

• Approximately 62% of customers have a common negative belief that the brands they are most loyal to are not doing enough to reward them for their loyalty.

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Repeat Customers are Vital for Every Business

From what we’ve learned above about repeat customers, we can surmise that these small part of your customer population have a vital role for any business, be it B2B or B2C. If you’ll divide your resources to a 50-50 setup where half of it goes to customer acquisition and the other half is used for customer retention strategies, you can scale up the profits of your business consistently. And when it comes to retention, engagement is still the best solution.

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There are now more UK billionaires than ever before in the country it is the first time the figure has risen past the 100 mark according to the Sunday Times. The official figure is 104 billionaires who are living inside the UK. The total combined estimated figure is £301bn between the 104 who are worth more than £1 billion. This figure is hugely substantial and important as it means the UK now have more billionaires per head of population than any other country. London in the main center for billionaires, it holds more billionaires than any other city on Earth.

The exact figure is 72 billionaires and the next closet city is Moscow which has a mere 48 in comparison. The Indian run company Hinduja Group are at the very top of the list with a fortune of £11.9 bn. The Arsenal FC main shareholder Alisher Usmanov was downgraded to second after his approximate figure shrank to £10.65bn.Many of the billionaires will be 'non-domiciles' who will pay very little tax when compared to a resident of the UK. This gives the owners tax benefits if their resident country has less strict tax regimes.

The number of billionaires living in the UK has increased from 88 in 2013 to the latest figure of 104 in 2014.New people who have joined the list include West End producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh who is now worth £1bn and the founder of estate agents Foxtons who has a fortune of £1.07bn.Philip Beresford, who compiles the list, told the BBC "culture, financial services, nice tax regime, good education for their kids and a nice lifestyle where they meet their friends" were some of the key reasons as to why they were attracted to the United Kingdom.

Update June 2016:

According to the Forbes Rich List 2016, the Hinduja family, who top the list of the UK's richest, rose to number 58 from number 60 richest families in the world. The family, whose riches came from Indian-born business tycoon and investor Srichand P Hinduja, has a net worth of $14.6bn.Among the UK's richest are landowners and real estate bosses, as well as Virgin's business tycoon Richard Branson. According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2016: The number of billionaires in London has fallen, but it's still the super-rich capital of the world. However, the number of billionaires calling London home has fallen for the first time since the financial crisis in 2008. (source: Sunday Times rich list).The capital has lost three billionaires compared to last year, a fall of three per cent, but remains home to more than any other city in the world with 77.

The number of billionaires in Moscow, Los Angeles and Mumbai also declined, down 15 per cent, 12.5 per cent and 22 per cent respectively, according to figures from the latest Sunday Times Rich List. Overall, the number of billionaires in the UK grew, hitting an all-time high of 120 and with a combined wealth of £344bn.There was a shake-up of Brit-born billionaires, with James Dyson overtaking Sir Richard Branson at the top, and 17th overall, with a £5bn fortune. There is some differing of opinion between Forbes and the Sunday Times Rich List.

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Here is a list of countries with their number of currently resident billionaires this year according to Forbes:

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US, 540 billionaires

China (mainland), 251 billionaires

Germany, 120 billionaires

India, 84 billionaires

Russia, 77 billionaires

Hong Kong, 64 billionaires

Japan, 64 billionaires

United Kingdom, 50 billionaires

Italy, 43 billionaires

France, 39 billionaires

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Here are the world top 10 billionaires, their net worth, business, age, and where they live: (source Forbes)

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#1 Bill Gates $75 B, 60, Microsoft, United States

#2 Amancio Ortega, $67 B, 80, Zara, Spain

#3 Warren Buffett, $60.8 B, 85, Berkshire Hathaway, United States

#4 Carlos Slim Helu, $50 B, 76, telecom, Mexico

#5 Jeff Bezos, $45.2 B, 52, Amazon.com, United States

#6 Mark Zuckerberg, $44.6 B, 32, Facebook, United States

#7 Larry Ellison, $43.6 B, 71, Oracle, United States

#8 Michael Bloomberg, $40 B, 74, Bloomberg LP, United States

#9 Charles Koch, $39.6 B, 80, diversified, United States

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The UK`s economy is seeing signs of positive growth. It is reported that the economy grew by 0.8% in the first quart of 2014. This is now the fifth period of continual positive growth, which has been overseen by the conservative government. It is the longest run of positive growth since the financial crisis in 2008.Gross Domestic Product measures an economies activity and if it has increased or decreased in size. However the Office of National Statistics has explained the economy is only 0.6% smaller than its highest peak in 2008.The Chancellor George Osborne has stated "Britain is coming back".

However has warned that Britain`s biggest risk would be to abandon the plan of prosperity and restraint. The US and Germany economies have now surpasses their pre-recession growth peaks, the UK is still not ahead of its economy peak from 2008.However the UK did suffer from server weather which would did have an impact on large industries such as agriculture. Agriculture dropped by 0.07% as a direct result to the server weather the UK faced earlier in the year. Further good news is the International Monetary Fund explained that the UK is to the most impressive performing economy from the world`s largest economies in 2014 with growth forecasted to be 2.9% for the 12 month term.

Update June 2016:

The UK Economic Outlook has seen a 2.2% rise in real GDP growth in the first quarter of the year giving the UK the 2nd fastest growth rate in the G7 membership. Figures for the first quarter also show a 3%consumer spending growth with inflation standing at 0.5 percent. Although our economic recovery has been relatively slow since mid-2009, it is still growing at a faster rate than most of the other G7 member economies over the same period. Consumer spending has remained strong and many economists put this down in part to lower global oil prices meaning less cost at the petrol pumps for British consumers.

Financial experts have mixed outlooks globally for the rest of the year with the unknown effects of the EU Referendum, as well as the continued recessions in Brazil and Russia, plus a slowdown of growth in China. Many economists have predicted an average growth in UK GDP of just over 2 percent during 2016, mainly driven by consumer spending. This will be helped by a combination of low food prices and energy bills being kept down. The Capital city of London is expected to continue to lead the UK recovery with growth levels predicted to be around 3 percent for this year, but other regions across the country are also expected to show growth levels between 1.4 to 2.3 percent overall by the end of the year.

Long-term views held by economists predict that inflation will remain low for now, but may see a small rise in rates over a gradual period as we head towards 2020.With Government targets set to clear the budget deficit before 2020, we may see some further drag on the economy due to fiscal tightening of budgets, but it is thought that the strength of the private services sector will help to offset this with continued job growth and productivity. Are you looking for a virtual office service? why not get in touch with our expert team today, we can really help to boost your businesses presence and give you that professional edge that others in your sector may lack. Take advantage of the UK's growing economy with the prestige of having a London based office service.

With Britain's economic recovery,  there's the prospect of the fragile growth being thrown off course by the damaging impacts of recent flooding? Mark Carney, The Governor of the Bank of England, warned last week that farming and other businesses hit by floods could have a negative impact on Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In previous periods of bad weather such as heavy snow, this has reduced quarterly GDP by up to 0.2%. However, severe cold is more widespread whereas flooding tends to effect a relatively small area of floodplain and coastline.

Extensive snow makes it almost impossible for construction to take place - since construction accounts for around 7% of economic activity, a wide-scale pause in building works has a much bigger impact than flooding. If there is any possible 'upside' to natural disaster it is that, in purely economic terms, GDP tends to bounce back quite quickly. Japan for example has often experienced devastating earthquakes which produce an immediate hit to GDP as well as immeasurable human cost. However, once the reconstruction of houses, roads, bridges and other infrastructure takes place, the economy receives a tremendous stimulus and recovers quickly.

In the UK it will be the insurance companies who are amongst the first to count the cost of the wettest January on records by comparison, the 2007 floods cost insurers about £3 billion. Some economists have pointed out that repairs to roads and railway lines will probably help support the economic growth not to mention retailers of items like carpets and kitchens in affected areas. There will clearly be some negative statistical impact of this years floods on the UK's fragile economic growth. Although this is no consolation to people who have been severely affected, the flooding is unlikely to derail the recovery and could even provide a modest stimulus over the rest of the year. Richard Bloomfield is the website editor at The Workplace Depot

Update June 2016:

Figures released in January this year by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) predicted that losses caused by flood and storm damage during the winter of 2015 would far exceed those of two years ago resulting from the wettest winter on UK record. Insurance companies were expected to pay out around £1.3 billion for claims following a series of storms, flooding and heavy rainfall during the winter of 2015.The economic losses from the winter 2013-14 have been worked out by the Environment Agency but are yet been published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The ABI predicted that insurance claims would cost £1.1 billion, including £446 million for businesses and homes that were affected by heavy flooding. The bill for damages recorded this past winter is expected to exceed the roughly £600 million in losses caused by flooding during 2012, but will be much lower than what was claimed for the summer floods of 2007, which totaled around the £3.2 billion mark. The UK Climate Change Risk Assessment that was published in 2012, estimated that losses from coastal and river flooding in England and Wales could possibly rise from about £1.2 billion per year today to between £1.6 and £6.8 billion by the 2050s.

December 2015 was the wettest December for the UK since 1910 when Met Office records began. Climate change experts say that six of the seven wettest years on record in the UK have all occurred from the year 2000 onward. The UK has also experienced its eight warmest years on record. Climatologists are predicting that climate change is making the UK a warmer and wetter country overall. The UK Climate Change Risk Assessment estimated that about 6 million residential and non-residential properties in the UK are exposed to some level of risk of coastal, river or surface water flooding.

The UK is said to have missed the export targets of doubling the value of its exports to £1 trillion by 2020. The PAC said the UK is not performing as well as its European counterparts, France, Germany and Italy. However a government spokesman stated "real progress" has been made on the increase of exports worldwide. The foreign & commonwealth office (FCO) and the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) offices spent over £420 trillion on 2013 on promoting exports worldwide. However reports state that the growth did not really increase, remaining 'flat' reported by the BBC. One factor which has been sighted in hampering the UKs export increase are tighter visa restrictions.

This is seen to put potential business travelers off from vesting the UK. This can really have a major effect in building relationships with foreign companies. A spokesperson explained that despite the coming shortfall in the governments, progress is being made. The spokesperson explained: "As part of the government's long term economic plan we have set ourselves an ambitious target to double exports by 2020. We make no apology for setting a stretching target and we are working hard to achieve this."" We are shifting our focus towards targeting high-value opportunities, providing more support and advice for UK small and medium sized businesses.

We are also establishing an overseas business network which will include British Business Centers in key markets across the world including India, China and UAE."" We have made real progress through our increased efforts in some of the growth markets further afield: exports to China, for example, have increased by 91%, and exports to Russia are up by 118%."

Update June 2016

Despite the government's aim of increasing UK exports to £1trn by the year 2020, recent projections are showing that we are still falling short of meeting that goal. However, UK businesses have even more opportunity to export than ever before. As a country with a proud history of trading, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed that our goods trading deficit did in fact narrow during January this year, despite the gap growing overall as Britain imported more goods into the country. According to Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, “exports are being hampered by the sterling's overall strength in 2015, particularly against the euro, and moderate global demand."

While there are many reasons that cause figures to fluctuate, exporting still remains a key component of a healthy economy, and those companies who export their goods have been shown to be four times less likely to fold and go bankrupt. Even during times or recession, exporting companies are around ten times less likely to fail than other companies, according to figures released at the Global Trade Review UK trade and export finance conference. The head of UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), Catherine Raines, has urged British companies that export, as well as foreign buyers and business investors to work together to boost exports – namely through Exporting is GREAT, a programme launched by the Government to help UK companies benefit from real-time export opportunities in all sectors, across the world.

Taking part in the programme has offered companies up to 40 new opportunities each day to export - or roughly an opportunity every 37 minutes. The programme links together 109 different countries across 44 business sectors, and export opportunities are not limited to the EU either with chances to trade with other countries such as China and Finland to name but two. The advancements in digital technology has enabled British business to potentially trade with the whole world, so even the smallest of UK companies can have a global reach and a chance to grow new markets. Capital Offices Virtual Office Services in London are great way for foreign companies and business investors looking to setup in the UK without having to outlay expensive overheads which are associated with London office space. Our complete Virtual Office London package is ideal for businesses who are wanting to get ahead and want to impress their clients and associates.

Our virtual office package combines our highly sought after central London business mail forwarding address with a professional and experienced virtual PA telephone answering service. Our team is highly experienced, having been based in City Road since 1971, we understand how businesses operate and have helped many countless clients expand and reach their goals. Why not take a look at the range of comprehensive packages we offer at very reasonable prices.

Individual insolvencies in England and Wales are at an all time low for over eight years. This is according to the latest government report. It is said that bankruptcy rates were the lowest rate since 2005.A reason to why the rate is falling is said to be due to people finding it harder to get credit due to lenders not willing to risk on individuals with lower credit ratings. However this can all change, the Bank of England is expected to raise its interest rate for the first time since 2009 due to the strengthening of the economy.

People will find it hard to repay mortgages due to the hike in interest and this can lead to further difficulty for people who are already stretched financially. So forecasters are expecting insolvency to rise in the near future. An insolvency partner at HW Fisher said: "These are the best insolvency figures we've seen in a while" "But with many of Britain's businesses still just 'hanging on', thousands of our weaker firms are far from out of the woods yet."" Sooner or later, interest rates will rise and bank forbearance will end - and when that happens the weaker firms will be in serious trouble," he added.

Update June 2016:

According to figures released in May this year by the Money Charity, UK personal debt statistics now topped £1.474 TRILLION at the end of March 2016. This rose from £1.434 TRILLION at the end of March 2015, which means an extra average debt of £793.13 per UK adult according to current population figures. The average borrowing per household, including mortgage loans, was calculated to be £54,597 in March, making the average debt per adult £29,190,which is around 111.9 percent of UK average earnings. Consumer credit levels still outstanding was shown to be £182.4 billion at the end of March 2016, up from £171.1 billion at the end of March 2015. This works out at an increase of £198.45 for every adult in UK, making average consumer credit borrowing per UK adult £3,613.Credit card debt in January 2016 accounted for £63.3 billion, an average of £2,381 debt per household held on 'plastic'.

Not good news for for many people with credit card debt who can only afford to pay the minimum rate each month. With average credit card interest rate at current levels, it would take 25 years and 6 months to repay by only making minimum repayments each month. The number of personal insolvencies declared now stands at an average of  222 people a day.  This is equal to one person going bankrupt every 6 minutes and 13 seconds. You can see the full breakdown of these and other figures on the Money Charity site here.

Fears over a property bubble with over inflated prices causing many people to borrow more in order to get on the housing ladder. It is a 6 year high for residential house sales, the highest peak since 2008.The increase can be related to more relaxed credit lending and a more confident consumer. Over Christmas lending was almost double of that in the same period in the previous year. Growing availability of affordable mortgages has released some pent-up demand from a market that, in recent years, has seen many viable buyers unable to enter the market, said Peter Bolton-King director at RICS.

On the face of it, this seems like good news but unless we see a marked increase in the number of homes coming up for sale we could well be looking at a price rises becoming unsustainable in some areas. Mortgage approvals are on the increase, lending is up approximately 15 percent when compared to the same period in the previous year. If you look further into this, this can also be attributed to government schemes aimed to help first time buyers through shared equity schemes.

Update June 2016:

Mortgage lending rates have seen a fall since the rush to beat stamp duty changes announced in the last budget came to an end. There was a spike in mortgage lending during March as the new higher stamp duty rates changes date approached, followed by a sharp drop during April. These changes caused a rush on the housing market as people were trying to snap up available properties before the stamp duty increases came into effect. According to recently released figures from the British Bankers' Association, a total of 78,301 loans were approved during April, which was down almost 5,000 in number from 82,971 mortgages approved during March. Loan values also slumped, falling to £10.9bn in April from £16.1bn in March. While the sharp rise and fall in mortgage approvals can be attributed to the changes in stamp duty, overall mortgage lending is still continuing to rise quickly on an annual basis.

According to the figures there was a 5,000 increase in the number of loans granted in April 2016 when compared to April last year, and the value of those loans was worked out to be 12 percent higher year-on-year. Landlords scrambling to buy up properties before the extra stamp duty rates came into effect meant that banks and building societies issued more loans during March this year than in any other month since November 2007.Chief economists are predicting a brief slowdown of house sales across the housing market over the next few months as a result of the uncertainty over the EU Referendum. However, they expect a renewed rise in sales and house prices next year as the market settles down. Looking for Banking? We can help.  Check out our Barclays Fast Track Banking service! We are proud to provide all of our clients with Barclays fast track banking.

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The trade deficit the UK faces has decreased to £3.2 billion in the November period. This can be directly associated with the higher exports of goods to Europe. The UK exports of products increased by 2% between October and November - the total being £25.3bn. The reason for this increase is mainly due to the increase of trade with the European Union.The main exports which have helped increase the exports to the EU are being attributed to Chemical Export. However the UK has also started to import more from the EU. The current amount imported is at an all-time high of £19.2 billion attributed to European car manufacturers.It`s not all good news; forecasters are predicting long term exports to fall over the coming years. This will result in a widening trade deficit something the government will want to tackle.

Update June 2016:

UK trade deficit falls after record rise in exports

2016 is proving to be a good year for reducing the UK trade deficit according to recently released figures. In fact the volume of goods exported from Britain climbed by a whopping 11.2% in April this year - that is the biggest monthly recorded increase since records began back in 1998.Due to this increase in goods export, the country's trade deficit fell to a lower level than was predicted for April. This is good news too as it has also been revealed that the UK high street, as well as the manufacturing business sector, have both seen healthy figures reported. Business analysts are now saying the the UK economy has steadied since January, despite the announcement of the EU referendum.While the growth in exports from the UK mainly came from other EU countries, there was also a small rise in sales from countries outside of the EU. Compared with last year, UK exports have increased by 10.3% inside Europe, and 1.9% outside of Europe.Despite the rise in exports to the EU, during April alone our exports to the rest of the world saw a rise of £1.3bn to a new record level of £14bn. That is not bad at all when compared with a £900m rise in exports to the EU.According to the figures from the Office for National Statistics, the trade deficit in goods fell to £10.5bn from a downwardly revised £10.6bn in March. Our increased exports to the EU comes after a general rise in economic growth in other member states, and in the face of previously fast growing economies such as South Africa, Russia and Brazil falling into recession.Despite the heightened uncertainty of the European Referendum, the figures give a lot of hope to exporters and the rise in industrial production in April, along with good retail sales growth, has certainly helped them to achieve decent levels of export rates.

The BCC Has stated the UK economy to grow in the next year. The following was posted here in January 2015:The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) is stating the UK`s economy is set to strengthen in the coming year. Looking at important indicators coming from over 8,000 businesses it shows that the factors are higher than the crisis in 2007. Specifically manufacturing sectors, showing orders and employment are at all time highs. John Longworth, director general of the BCC said: "It is a fantastic to start the New Year with a very positive quarterly survey. Firms across the board believe they can create jobs, invest, and export." It is especially pleasing that the spurt in manufacturing has proven not to be a fluke. But businesses have major ambitions, and to be able to meet them, more support must be provided," he said. The findings predict the UK economy to grow by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. The BCC has also said that they expert higher full-year growth in 2014.This is excellent news for UK business and shows the conservative recovery might just be working after all.

Updated June 2016:

The UK economy is predicted to continue to grow strongly during 2016 despite the global slowdown, according to a recent report by EY. With the continued growth in house prices, increasing demand for exports from the UK and a rise in the average household budget, financiers are now predicting this will boost Britain's economy and UK businesses further during the remaining months of 2016, according to research published earlier this year. Top London economists estimate that Britain's economy will grow by an average of 2.6% this year, compared with just 2.2% during 2015, despite a disappointing start to the year from global markets. With the rise in the new national living wage to £7.20 per hour, householders have an increased disposable income, and with a combination of low interest rates and low inflation, economists are seeing a boost in consumer spending resulting in a forecast growth of 2.8% over last year. The report by EY also predicted that house prices would rise by an average of 6.5% this year, but on the downside the levels of new house building is still set to fall short of what is needed to satisfy demand.

In a separate survey conducted by the Confederation of British Industry and accountancy firm PwC, showed nearly 50% of financial services companies reporting an increase in their business in the latter quarter of 2015 and into early 2016, with activity expected to continue to increase over the rest of this year, according to 30% of companies surveyed. It is clear that London remains to be one of the most desirable cities in the world to conduct business. Even if you don't have a London address for your own business, you can still benefit from the prestige of having your office listed here. Take a look at our Virtual Office Packages to see how our services can help you build credibility and good standing for your business.

London`s property prices are set to rise further more as London has been voted the worlds top city for investment in property by foreign investors. The investment from outside the UK is causing a housing bubble which could push out first time buyers. Being voted the best city does carry problems for the native home owners. The rise of prices on London property is happening at an unsustainable rate and is squeezing the average person out of the city. The conservative government are fully aware of the issue and have announced that as of the their will be a capital gains tax on foreign investors to help try and curb the soaring property prices. The house prices in London rose by nearly 9% in August alone, compared with around 2% elsewhere in the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics. Read more on Capital Office Virtual Office London services.

Update: June 2016

London is still ranking high on the list for business investments - both from home and abroad! In fact in a recent report earlier this year from EY's annual Attractiveness Survey revealed that London has overtaken New York and Shanghai in a global ranking of top tech cities, thanks to its "incredible entrepreneurial attitude". The report goes on to predict that London is the second most likely place to create the 'next big tech giant', only one place behind San Francisco. This means that compared to last year, London has jumped from fourth place to second place in the rankings - something that was hardly imaginable just five years ago. London has always been a world hub for Financial Services, and these will always remain as important to the Capital, but other businesses such as the tech industry and business services are now booming, making London a very attractive place to the rest of the world's investors.

The strength of London that has made it the financial capital of the world will also help the city as well as the whole country grow and prosper further over the coming years. Britain is a world leader with a prosperous future, and we have an environment that is well suited to entrepreneurs and business investors from across the world in all sectors of industry. The survey conducted by EY shows that 2015 was a record year for foreign investment into the UK and especially London. In fact during 2015,  London secured 406 foreign direct investments (FDI) projects – up seven per cent on 2014 – which created an estimated 7,026 new jobs.

With London now outperforming all other European cities, nearly 60% of business investors surveyed cited London as one of their top three cities for foreign direct investment, beating Paris into second place. With all the world movers and shakers enjoying the prestige associated with having a London based business, we feel that you shouldn't have to miss out on having a high quality London address for your business. Why not check out our great value for money London Address Services here to find out for yourself how you can benefit from having a London Registered Address.