Pricing is one of the trickest issues for any business, but particularly challenging for a new or start-up business that is looking to establish market share and build a critical mass of customers to cover running costs. The key to deciding where to pitch your fees or price for your product depends on what you are offering to your customers. Here are the essential questions you need to ask yourself before setting a price:

1. Am I offering a commodity or a premium product? If you are simply looking to shift high volumes of basic goods where there is very little differentiation between your product and that of your competitor, then you are selling a commodity product and you will need to compete at the lowest price you can. Contrast this with a premium product like the Apple iPod. There are plenty of other great MP3 players on the market which play music as well as the Apple, but they are not selling the lifestyle image of cool and cutting-edge design.

2. Is my product unique? You can go a long way to making your product stand out from your competitors by looking again at your USP (unique selling point). What are the design, quality, service or unique customer experience that you offer that is not available from your competitors? What makes you special? Being able to identify and articulate this to your customers enables you to charge a higher price because you are delivering quantifiable value.

3. What is your brand? Are you going for top-end quality (bespoke furniture or clothing), mid-range quality, or budget fun? Can you offer a range of products to suit the demands of customers, rather than “one size fits all”? Can you offer a package that offers outstanding value while still making you a profit?

4. What is the ethos of your business? Look at a company like Smile, (the Co-op Bank) or First Direct. These are examples of businesses with a clear vision of how they wish to do business and treat customers. Smile takes an ethical stance while First Direct has invested heavily to ensure that it offers high quality customer service and responsive call centres. When you identify what inspires you and where the passion lies in your business, you can communicate this to customers in your interactions with them and your marketing literature.

5. How do you resolve problems? This is often the test of a well-structured operation and excellent staff training. Companies like Marks & Spencer, Lakeland, and John Lewis have all done exceptionally well in communicating that a positive customer experience is vital for repeat business. Given that clients and customers are now able to vent their frustrations much more publicly via social networking sites, it pays to have clear policies in place to deal with complaints. A customer who feels they have been treated well in the face of a difficulty is likely to become an advocate of your brand and your business.

In my next blog I’ll be looking at how to use social networking to market your brand and build customer relations.

Until then, best wishes, Marianne

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Watching The Apprentice last night, it struck me forcibly how little time or attention the contestants gave to working out how they were going to make a profit from their business.

The two teams were given the task of selling fast food to commuters with an initial budget of £250 for ingredients. Despite backgrounds in management, accountancy and sales, few team members seemed to grasp the concept that getting the pricing strategy right was absolutely fundamental to the success or failure of the project. They didn’t have profit targets and they weren’t keeping track of whether they were generating a decent return on Alan Sugar’s investment.

These would-be entrepreneurs demonstrated a trait which often leads to business failure – a lack of understanding of the fundamental importance of cash-flow.

If they had been in a real-life business environment, looking for investment from business angels (wealthy investors who support fledgling businesses), they would have been eaten alive. They may be called “angels”, but professional investors make Lord Sugar look like a pussy cat. They have very specific targets for the return on their initial investment, a timetable for exiting when they have made the money they want, and no hesitation in pulling the plug (ie the funding) if it is clear things are not working out.

In fact, it could be argued, as entrepreneur Luke Johnson does here in the Daily Mail, that The Apprentice does nothing to show would-be business owners the practical aspects of running a company, and instead sacrifices genuine business insight for pure reality-show entertainment.

So, forget about the circus show of television, and start to think like a real entrepreneur. Whether you plan to expand your business to the point where you will be seeking outside investment, or you want to keep it relatively small, but successful, you need to understand the principles of profit, cash-flow and putting together a balance sheet.

So here’s how to get your pricing right:

1. Work out your fixed costs: what are the recurring items or bills that you need to purchase or pay for each month in order to run your business?

2.  What are your variable costs? One-off or unusual items (capital expenditure: buying a long-term asset for the business), annual insurance costs (you can break this down into a per-month sum or build it into an annual balance sheet projection)

3. What is your  “break-even” point?  What do you need to make each month to pay basic bills like utilities, phone, rent or leasing costs for your premises, stock storage costs or staff wages? This is the amount you need just to stay afloat and keep your bank manager happy.

4. What is the cost involved per unit? ie providing each service or doing an individual job – ie travel costs, materials, phone calls?

5. What is the value your product or service provides to your customers? The Business Link website has an excellent explanation of the difference between the cost to you of providing the service, the financial reward you receive in return (ie the price) and the value the customer places on your service.

6. What benefits do you provide and on what criteria do customers buy – reliability, reputation, speed of delivery?

7. Establish your value. This is vital, because it helps you work out your unique selling point (USP), enables you to explain to customers why you are different from your competitors, and means you are not selling on price only, which is a dangerous game.

You may have the most brilliant business idea in history, but without a sound understanding of the way finance works, you will struggle to grow your fledging business. One of the most common mistakes when starting out is to concentrate too much on the names, logos, website or premises of your business, and spend too little time on working out the hardcore finances.

In my next blog I will be looking about how to assess your prices in comparison to your competitors, and whether to pursue volume or a smaller number of high-value sales.

regards, Marianne

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Nurture your business

By Marianne Curphey

1. Business plans don’t work…. or rather, they don’t come to fruition in the ways you expect. When you have a fledging business it is very hard to predict the speed and way in which it will develop over the next year, never mind the next five years. So although it is important to have goals and objectives, don’t be too rigid in implementing them if new opportunities come along.

2. The business idea you start with won’t be the one you finish up with. One of the most exciting things about running your own business is watching it evolve into a bigger and better project than the one you started with. Dream big!

3. Nobody pays on time. Many a brilliant business has suffered and/or collapsed because creditors were tardy in paying up. Plan for late payment, and put measures in place to ensure you chase up unpaid invoices at regular intervals. This means having a robust system for logging work, invoices and payments, which will become more important as your business grows.

4. It’s harder work….and better fun than you could ever imagine. No more office politics, boring meetings, tiresome commutes to work…..but also no more being paid to chat by the water cooler or take long lunchbreaks.

5.People in PAYE jobs secretly think you watch daytime TV all the time. Some of them say it to your face. Relax, they’re just jealous. Disarm them by telling them how they too can make the break for freedom.

6. Cashflow, not a great business concept, is what keeps your business afloat in the long run. You can have a whole stadium’s worth of fantastic ideas, brilliantly executed, but if you don’t keep on top of your utility bills, tax payments, NI costs and other administrative tasks, your business will fail.

7. Diversification can save you in tough times. Try to think of as many ways as possible to monetise your ideas, both through active and passive sources of income. Think creatively.

8. Carry your business card everywhere. There is nowhere that’s out of bounds for networking, as long as you do it subtly and respectfully.

9. You are the brand. Your unique blend of skills and experience are what makes your business special.

10. Admin takes up about 50% of your time. When you plan your week, make sure you factor in enough time to deal with the boring stuff – bills, insurance, and well as the fun bits.

In my next blog I’ll be looking at how to manage your finances in a small business,

regards, Marianne

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Why now is the perfect time to launch a business

So you want to run your own business, either because you are sick of your job, you’ve been made redundant, or you’ve had a long-held dream of creating something special? That’s great, because there has never been a better time to run your own show.

Contrary to received wisdom, new businesses can and do survive in tough economic times. The difference between launching your own business in a time of austerity is that you really have to think through your niche, your offering and your unique selling point (USP) in a way that you might not have needed to when money was plentiful.

And here’s why now is the perfect time to become self-employed:

1. Secure jobs are illusory: cut-backs, redudancies and downsizing in companies big and small show that there is no such thing as a job for life…..or even for the next five years. Just because you are on PAYE does not mean that your salary has a gold-plated guarantee. Self-employment offers a much more bumpy ride, income-wise, but no-one can ever fire you.

2.You can’t get finance: in my opinion this is an excellent discipline. We’ve all seen the figures about how one in three small businesses fail in the first few years, despite their creators writing fabulous, long-winded business plans to soothe the nerves of the bank manager when they are trying to get a bank loan. Creating a business that requires minimal investment and leaves you in total control is the best way to control costs and survive in a tough economic climate.

3.You’ll awaken your passion: who wants to hang around in a job they hate until the economy picks up…. or until they retire? Life is too short to spend eight or more hours every day doing something you hate. Finding an outlet for your creative business energy will inject more excitement and fun into your life than you ever dreamed possible.

4. Your business idea will need real focus: lots of flakey business concepts struggle on in good times because of the glut of disposable income. In a recession, you need to find an idea or product that people really need. This is absolutely the best discipline for concentrating your mind on how, why and where you will sell your products, and to whom.

5. The power of the internet is perfect for small businesses: once you were constrained by geographical boundaries, now thanks to social media, Google searches and the power of Facebook and Twitter you can potentially reach hundreds of thousands of prospective customers across the country – and the globe. This is perfect for tightly-targeted niche products which may have a limited market in the UK but a huge market on a global scale via internet marketing and selling.

In my next blogs I’ll be looking at what business schools don’t teach you about running your own business, and how to set up a micro-business while you are still in a job,

regards, Marianne

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A surprising lesson I learnt from a top money coach

What makes us spend or save? Is it to do with personality, upbringing, conditioning or life choice? How come different children in the same family treat money in wildly differing ways, and why do some people seem to be totally on top of their finances, while others are always skint?

These questions have been occupying me for years, as I write for magazines and newspapers about managing money and saving for the future. What intrigues me is that being good with money is not linked to income scales (some of the highest earners I know are the ones with the biggest debts), class or age. It is about something deeper – about our most basic needs to feel secure, loved, valued and acknowledged.

Which is why I was fascinated to undergo my own session in the psychiatrist’s chair recently. What became clear during my consultation was that our brains are hard-wired to seek pleasure – through shopping, spending, and new experiences – and that beneath this pleasure-seeking principle is an attempt to escape from pain. When you understand what  is motivating this behaviour at the deepest level, then you can begin to identify your triggers and make a more conscious decision about your spending patterns.

I think this is particularly relevant right now, while the January sky is steel-grey; it is cold and we are all missing the festivities of Christmas. Next Monday is, apparently, the most miserable day of the year when credit card bills come in and bank accounts are empty. All triggers for a bit of retail therapy.

So when money coach Becky Wright of Harley Street Coaching, London, offered to look deep into my soul and explore what my own money issues were, I could hardly refuse. She has a background in psychotherapy, so she is able to provide some very interesting insights into motivation and behaviour. Given that I spend most of my time writing about other people’s financial successes and failures, it was time for me to face my own demons.

What emerged was that my strong work ethic, which has enabled me to live successfully as a freelance journalist for nearly a decade, even in the teeth of a brutal recession, has tipped over into being a workaholic as times got tougher. Becky encouraged me to look at what was driving me and what I was afraid of. 

She recommended that I set up three accounts – one for bills, one for savings and one for treats (now known affectionately as the “pamper” account). This assuages any guilt involved in paying for treats out of the household budget.  She also recommended that I give over space each day for creativity and thinking time – sometime that is the lifeblood of a freelancer and writer but which I had neglected recently.

The final task was to create a vision board of how I wanted my life to be, using photos and words torn from magazines and brochures. Those who know me well would not be surprised to discover that many of them involved surf beaches – a not-so-subconscious desire to live by the sea. 

A vision board is simple to create – you can do it alone, with a partner or as a family. Flick through old magazines and tear out any pictures or words which appeal to you, on whatever subject.  Assemble the pictures on a board or piece of large cardboard, then put them away for a week, and when you take it out you will be amazed by what it reveals.
Having had my own money counselling, I thought I would share some of Becky’s tips and secrets with you. Here are a couple of exercises you can do in five minutes with just a pen and a piece of paper which will get you thinking about your relationship with your finances:

1. When I feel the urge to spend money and I don’t need to, what is it I am trying to self-comfort?
2. If I am spending money I don’t have then what aspect of my life do I need to feel more in control of?
3. How else could I reward myself in life without buying something?
4. What does “enough money” mean to me?
5. If money was a relationship how would I rate my relationship right now, and what is the conversation I need to have to move things forwards?
6. If I feel guilty around money pause for a moment and think about what is it that keeps my behaviour from changing? Guilt is often the glue that keeps certain behaviour in place.

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Time for change in 2011

They say time speeds up as you get older – 2010 certainly whizzed by for me, and so here again towards the end of year, my thoughts turn to New Year Resolutions.  Whatever your income, money situation or financial aspirations, here are ten of the best ways to ensure the next 12 months are as prosperous as possible:

1. Find some cheap debt: being in the red is the number one way to stay poor, as you’ll always be paying more on debt than you can earn on your savings, making it impossible to be financially net neutral.

Ditch the storecards, transfer your credit card debt to a card that allows 0% balance transfers (check out http://www.moneysupermarket.com for the best deals on cards, and make more than the minimum payment every month.

2. Get someone else to pay your debt for you: take in a lodger, rent out a room, turn your house into a pop-up hotel (see www.crashpadder.com), rent out your garage or parking space to someone who needs it more than you.

3. Sell your unwanted presents, possessions and general stuff on eBay: it’ll make more room in your house, and it is amazing how extra space lifts the spirit.

4. Shop around for better deals on utility bills: www.uswitch.com and www.switchwithwhich.com are my favourite comparison sites.

5. Pay yourself first: get into the habit of making money for yourself before you pay everyone else. Set up a regular savings account (Lloyds and Barclays have some good deals) and make sure your direct debit pays in every month.

6. Open an Individual Savings Account (Isa), either with cash or investing in shares. Do this before the end of March so you don’t lose out on this year’s allowance of £10,200

7. Make a will: it costs less than £300 to have a solicitor write a simple will for you. It sorts your life out after your death, saves your relatives tons of hassle, and keeps your money out of the hands of the state.

8. Start a pension, or up your contributions. Guess what, you’ll be paying more to have less of a pension if you are in the public or private sector, but the earlier you start, the less you’ll have to contribute overall. Join the government’s NEST scheme, which is being rolled out in the spring, if you don’t currently have a pension at work.

9. Get some life insurance: if you have any dependents they will thank you for it if you die early.

10. Make 2011 the year you research ways to generate alternative, passive income, either from a sideline business or income from bonds and shares.

Happy new year! Regards, Marianne

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It’s a time of year that tests even the most strong-minded of money managers. it’s a time when people end up in debt, and wish they could escape debt in the New Year. Whether it’s a passion for gadgets (iPhone, iPad); a rush round the shops for a new Christmas dress; the temptation of lovely food; or the desire to make your childrens’ wildest gift dreams come true, it’s an expensive time. 

But it doesn’t have to be a financial hangover in January if you plan ahead in December. Here’s how to budget for Christmas, and have a happy Christmas without breaking the bank. This is my checklist for handling the family finances to ensure that I can be generous with my gift-giving, but cool-headed with my purchases: 

How to budget for Christmas

1. Decide on a budget. Calculate what you can afford for the whole of your Christmas that includes food and drink, eating out, party-going, new clothes, presents and hotel costs. Girls, that means you have to include the spray tan and manicure for the Christmas ball in the calculations, no cheating. 

2. Set aside a portion of your budget for presents, and make a list of what your friends and family would like. Take this list shopping (or use it to shop on the internet). This saves time, stops you buying rubbish and panicking at the last minute and spending lots because you feel guilty. 

Stores and website often offer good incentive deals (3 for 2 at Boots, for example, CarphoneWarehouse‘s iPhone4 (32gb for £25 a month and £309 for the phone), or special offers at toy shops, 50% off at Early Learning Centre, or cheap Zhu Zhu pets at Argos) in November and early December to capitalise on early trade. These deals often disappear as it gets nearer to Christmas. 

4. Shop when you have plenty of time. Impulse purchases are often the most expensive, and the least appropriate. 

5. Personalise your gifts. If you are on a really tight budget this year you can spend time instead making a gift that means something to you and the person who will receive it – maybe a framed photograph or something you have made yourself. 

6. When you have bought all you need, STOP. It’s easy to get carried away in the last few days before Christmas, especially with the wall-to-wall ads of perfect, happy families. You probably already have more food and more presents than you need, so don’t be lured into buying more. 

7. Use a smart credit card like the Barclaycard Platinum Credit Card which doesn’t charge you any interest on anything you buy for 12 months. Ideal for managing your Christmas spending. 

8.  Price comparison websites, such as LowerMyBills.co.uk, are an easy way of cutting the cost of household essentials.

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Ten ways to create a booming business in a recession

Top tips and survival strategies to create a booming business in an economic downturn

Times are tough but you can actually build your business and grow your business income, even during this tough economic climate, if you employ the right strategies.

 In fact some small businesses have found their income is booming in the recession. I’ve interviewed scores of company owners and self-employed people to establish just what it is that separates the winners from the strugglers in times like this, and here’s my summary of what they are doing right, that you can do  too:

1. Refocus: in good times it is easy to have a scattergun approach to sales and marketing. Clients, customers or companies who might not be natural buyers from you have the budget to indulge side-projects, and you are the beneficiary.
In a recession, when budgets are more tightly controlled, only the essentials are purchased. Therefore, it’s time to refocus your business and identify which customers regard your products as essential.
2. Define your customers:  In order to know your core market, you need to define your key customers. How to define your customer? Think about the following: from whom have you had your best repeat business? Who provided the funds for your single biggest source of income last year? If your market is seasonal, what additional products might your key customers need at other times of the year?
3. Visualise your ideal customer as a person, give them a name and think about what is their definition of a good day. You can find greater detail on this at Liz Strauss’s business blog: Successful Blog where she explains how to understand your customer and your market.
4. Identify your unique offering:  What are your personal qualities, and those of your business, which make you different from other competitior businesses? Go through the feedback you have received from past clients – what was the recurring theme of their positive experiences? When you distill down what it is that makes people return to you, you can build on this and incorporate it into your marketing message.

5. Be confident in your pricing: How to charge more for your business and services? When you have defined your USP, then you can explain to customers the added value that you are offering. It is business suicide to compete on price alone, because there will always be those who are cheaper than you. If you can justify being “reassuringly expensive” – in terms of enhanced client or customer experience, value and outcomes – then you don’t need to reduce or discount in order to grow. You can’t do this unless you have followed step 2, which is to identify who your key customers are, and what they define as “value”.
6. Be disciplined about your time: Try to establish which effective marketing campaigns – newspaper ads,  website, blogging, Twitter, Facebook, personal referrals, webinars, trade shows, speaking engagements – have generated the greatest and most lucrative leads. Especially if you are an owner-manager of a business you can’t afford to spread yourself too thinly, so work out what is the most productive use of your time. Measure your results through Google Analytics and other web tools.

7. Create positive habits: When you work alone or in a small business it can be mentally challenging to stay focussed during lean periods.  Have a strategy for dealing with times when income is not coming in regularly – such as budgeting for quiet periods, keeping cash on deposit to maintain positive cash flow when clients pay late, and building in sufficiently daily periods of rest, relaxation, and exercise.
8. Let go of the old stuff: it may have worked in the past, but if the market has shifted and it is not working now, don’t continue to flog it. Move on. You need to know when to change business branding, especially if you have identified that you are not currently playing to your full strengths. The book “Who moved my cheese?” takes only an hour to read, costs less than £4 but will make you rethink your objectives and challenge your attitude to change.

9. Think positively: Resolve to implement one positive action every day that will grow your business, produce additional income, raise your profile or promote your brand. To quote Aristotle:  “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence therefore is not an act, but a habit.”

10. Pay down your debt: Interest rates are historically low, but are certain to rise over the next 12 to 24 months. Position your business well, maintain healthy cashflow, and reduce your overheads as much as you can. Debt is often necessary when you are establishing a business, but you should aim to get out of debt as quickly as possible, because until you do, the profits you are making are benefiting the banks, not you or your business. Check whether personal loans have penalty clauses for early repayment, and consider using the money saving tips in my last blog post to make extra money to free up cash to pay off debt, invest in marketing, or reposition your business.
Regards, Marianne Curphey

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How to fund your dreams when you have no cash

So you think you’re skint? You’re not alone. Debt is a big deal for a lot of people. Getting out of debt can seem like a mountain to climb, and it can be hard when you want to start to saving for the future but have got credit card bills and loan payments to maintain.

However, unless you are on the breadline, there is always a way to loosen up a bit of spare cash, so here are five ways to generate a bit of extra money. See which apply to you, then read on to see how to turn that surplus income into long-term savings and investments.

1. Cut your energy bills: gas and electricity companies have been quietly raising their tariffs but there are still good deals if you are prepared to switch online, opt for duel fuel and direct debit discounts with switching services like http://www.switchwithwhich.com The average household could save £285 a year, or just under £24 a month.

2. Hunt down your old accounts: have you got bits of money scattered around building society accounts that your parents opened for you when you were a nipper? Track them down at the Building Societies Association if you can’t find your old passbook.

3. Reduce your shopping bill: I like the suggestion of Martin Lewis from MoneySavingExpert who recommends you buy a cheaper supermarket brand when you shop, and see if you can taste any difference. Some of the cheaper products actually have fewer additives too, if you care about that sort of thing.

4. Remortgage: It’s trickier in this “tough love” environment from the banks, but a friend of mine told me yesterday she had saved £500 a month switching to a different loan. Who doesn’t want a £500 a month tax-free income boost?

5. Ditch the takeaways. Just for a month, try to cook in a couple more nights instead and save £20 each time. It’s better for your waistline too. 

Now that you’ve hopefully identified £20 a month savings, what should you do with it?

Most people would advise you to use it to pay off debt, and they would be right. However, I am not here to dispense conventional wisdom.

I know all the arguments about why you should pay off debt before you start to save:

1.The cost of servicing debt is almost always more expensive than the rates you would get on an instant access savings account.

2. As I have argued previously, compound interest  roulette is a very dangerous game to play.

Nevertheless, saving and investing are as much about psychology as they are about cold cash, and I believe that we all need a bit of carrot as well as stick when it comes to motivation. By all means pay off your credit card bills with the spare money if it makes you feel good.

However, we humans are complex creatures, and as the researcher BF Skinner discovered, positive reinforcement is a more effective method of changing behaviour for the long-term (if you are a parent you’ll know what I mean here).

So if you want to get into the savings habit it is, in my opinion, good to give yourself both a long-term goal and a short-term reward. Start to pay off your debt with the money you  have freed up and, at the same time, open a savings account paying the best rate you can find on the money advice website MoneyFacts.

Deposit around 25% of your new money and make this your account to spend on short-term rewards. This is what money counsellor Becky Wright calls the “treats account” (or “pamper account” if you’re female)

Then put the remainder, after paying off your debt,  into a share-based savings account (or cash Individual Savings Account if you are new to investing and not yet ready to venture into the stockmarket).

There you go, sorted. I believe that once you are receiving positive feedback from your bank accounts in terms of accumulated interest and capital growth rather than receiving just painful credit card bills every month, you’ll be motivated to continuing saving.

By creating a savings habit, you’ll be keen to continue to save, and hopefully, be more motivated to pay off your debt as well.  It’s all about tricking that pesky mind of yours to do stuff that’s good for it, for a change.

Marianne Curphey

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Do you really want to work until you are 70?

A villa in the sun on a palm-fringed beach? A round the world trip to see the seven wonders? Chilling out with friends and family and playing golf when you want? The freedom to pursue interests, hobbies, voluntary work that you never had time for when you were working?

I bet it doesn’t mean trudging into the office every weekday, sitting in traffic jams, squeezed onto the tube, face pressed against the armpit of someone you’ve only just met.

Yet that, my friends, is what most people seem to think they’ll be doing for most of the rest of their active life. A report from Friends Provident suggests a significant proportion of Britons believe they will have to work until they are 70. London and Birmingham are the cities with the lowest rates of pension savings in the country.

Firstly, it is great that people are being realistic about the prospects of state support when today’s working generation are looking to retire. If I gaze into Madame Marianne’s Crystal Ball I see in the future a state pension barely keeping pace with inflation, or worse still, means-tested, and a decline in property prices which lasts a decade.  

So here’s the strongest argument for a bit of deferred gratification now, so that you can at least start putting some regular cash away in a pension or share savings account that will beat inflation and give you more than beans on toast in your retirement.

When you’re in your 40s or 50s you are still pretty physically fit and this continues into your 60s so long as you take care of yourself and keep your mind and body active.

However, my observations of those close to me in their 70s demonstrate that this is the decade when you start to feel your age and your physical limitations. Do you really want to be still working then? Sorry to be depressing, but time is running out, folks.

So seeing as it is still grey and raining here, and I think I’ve been depressing enough, here’s the solution: get saving now. It doesn’t have to be loads: maybe £20 or £50 a month into a share-based savings account.

Regular savings benefit from what Albert Einstein called “the most powerful force in the universe”, that is, Compound Interest. It works the same way whether you are saving or borrowing – it simply amplifies what you own or owe. By ensuring compound interest is working FOR you, rather than against you, your savings will grow passively.

Even though we’ve had a volatile time in the stockmarkets recently, equities are still the only proven inflation-beating investment vehicle, aside from property, and as I argued in one of my past blogs, this is no time to start filling your boots with UK property.

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