A new year is dawning.

As many BOB readers will, I am sure, agree, this moment seems to be come quicker every year. Whether it’s because each year seems successively smaller in proportion to what has gone before (when you’re 10, one year is a tenth of your life; when your 40, it’s only a fortieth), or some neurological shifting in perception, life just seems to get faster.

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Eclipsed by its neighbour China in the media, India is often overlooked as an economic power.

Yet like China, it consistently posts high rates of economic growth, which is similarly enabled by an abundance of cheap, skilled labour. India also has a lower dependency ratio – the median age is only 24 – and, unlike its neighbour, it is democratic and boasts the largest English-speaking population in the world.

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From Businessweek: Despite big discounts, pressured shoppers cut back on spending during the holidays. And the new year may not be much better.

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BusinessInaCan.com interviewed HSBC start up award winner Gavin Wheeldon about his translation business. His clients include Primark, Nike, Eriksson, the United Nations and Robbie Williams.

Initially a one-man operation, Applied Language Solutions now has 55 staff, translates into 140 languages, and has offices in California, Paris, Barcelona, Sofia and Guatemala City.

Interviewer: You started your translation business in your bedroom. Now you provide translation services for Robbie Williams. How does that feel?

Gavin: Pretty good; it’s not bad going in less than three years.

Interviewer: What made you go into this industry?

Gavin: I come from a technology background and starting working with a language company, so that gave me a view of the translation industry as a whole. I found it so archaic – I couldn’t believe it. I thought, well, if you put some solid processes in, get a decent sales structure and use technology properly, then this market is ripe for a new type of company. We were really bringing technology to an academic-based industry.

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From Businessweek: Before design evangelist James Dyson invented the bagless vacuum cleaner, he swept through 5,126 iterations that didn't work.

This freedom to fail, he believes, is missing from the public education system. 

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From the BBC: In the 80s, fast-food burger joints flooded UK town centres. By the 90s, coffee shops took their place on every streetcorner.

But now that the noughties are well established, the new fast food fight is on a rather healthier battlefield.

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With just six weeks to go before the 31 January tax return deadline, here’s a reminder to the three million higher-rate taxpayers (whose income exceeds £38,335) who have to submit a tax return.

To ensure you don’t get caught out, Tracy Ebdon-Poole, CEO of TaxCalc.com, offers her top tips to keep you out of the red and get your new year off to a healthy start. 

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A door-to-door leaflet distribution business has got its first franchisees up and running.

Distribution Unlimited, which started in Edinburgh, opened franchises in Cheshire and Dundee last month.

Intent on establishing a presence across the UK, the company cites a lack of effective competition and the performance of its own systems as reasons for it being an attractive proposition to someone looking to buy a franchise.

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With Britons spending more than £20bn on credit and debit cards over the Christmas season, many people will be waking up to a huge financial hangover on New Year’s day. 

To turn your finances around, Tracy Ebdon-Poole, CEO of TaxCalc.com,  offers her top tips for January to keep your business out of the red and get your new year off to a healthy start. 

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Are you starting a business but are unsure about what your target market is and if that market is ready for another competitor?

Are you an existing small business looking to maximise your market potential?

Business consultants Exceptional Thinking specialise in market research, marketing and business plans for both start-ups and existing businesses.

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From BusinessWeek: Accepting credit cards is becoming a must for entrepreneurs and small businesses in today's business environment.

There are numerous social, demographic, and technological factors combining to make plastic the payment form of choice for increasing numbers of people.

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Succeeding in business takes a number of ingredients.

Having a good idea is paramount. Raising the finance to put it into practice; marketing the idea effectively; recruiting reliable, skilled and enthusiastic people; taking risks at the right times; and of course, a lot of hard work – these are other critical factors.

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A recent study reveals that many organisations are still bottom of the class when it comes to learning from past mistakes, despite much talk of the "learning organisation".

Instead, the report by the Advanced Institute of Management Research says organisational politics and the blame culture prevent managers from acknowledging and learning from failures. 

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From the New York Times: One of the things that have changed in the last few years is the number of people saying that lots of things have changed in the last few years.

There are more of them, and what they have spotted are trends.

Many trends. In fact, Reinier Evers has taken to saying that “trends are the new trend”.

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Everyone smiles, the sun shines constantly and everything's cheap.

Small wonder then that 41,000 Britons now live in Thailand, many of whom have set up businesses in the country.

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Having being on the receiving end of banks' punitive charges for exceeding my overdraft limit, a programme about the issue on the BBC caught my eye last night.

What makes it relevant to this blog is that business people are literally paying out hundreds, sometimes thousands, of pounds for going just a few quid over their limit on a number of occasions.

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Poor old Santa.

He sits around bored for 364 days a year, and then has to deliver presents (the biggest and best of which, it seems, unfairly going to the wealthiest families) to billions of people  all in one evening.

But employees across the UK are seemingly encountering a similar problem. It’s not that they don’t work hard for most of the year – UK workers work longer hours than most of Europe, after all – but the Christmas shutdown is increasingly resulting in a stressful January backlog for workers.

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New statistics show increasing appetite for asset-based lending.

UK businesses are increasingly turning to syndicated deals involving invoice finance providers to maximize working capital available for growth. In the last quarter alone the value of syndicated deals undertaken by the invoice finance industry has grown by 40%, according to new statistics from the FDA.

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The majority of applicants for the £10k prize being given away in a major UK business awards ceremony said they would spend their prize money rewarding staff.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) decided to consult participants in its Small Business Champions Award 2007 over the prize because they thought that only the businesses themselves truly know what will boost their business best.

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