Mortgages
As many as one in three customers are paying more than they need to for mortgages. There are so many special offers at the moment and it is a great time to get a free check to see if you are on the right package with insurance also being far too high on some policies.

This applies to business as well as domestic mortgages – Get a free 30 minutes check free of charge for peace of mind – telephone the North Somerset Enterprise Agency 01934 418118.

Innovation
Innovation and diversification are major factors in who will cope with the recession, even during these hard times we see plenty of examples of local companies who are doing well and bucking the trend. In fact many of the world’s largest corporations were founded during times of economic downturn, such as Microsoft and Disney! Some of the positive aspects of a recession are labour is easy to find due to large amounts of redundancies, competition is less fierce due to cost-cutting and rivals going out of business means more trade for those still operating. What is your business doing to stand out from the crowd?

Health & Safety Straightjacket!!
David Cameron is currently reviewing Health and Safety Legislation, and is looking to clear out alot of the bureaucracy involved to help us run our businesses. Its election time in a couple of months so maybe common sense will return!!!

VAT
VAT rates return to 17.5% on 1 January 2010, so remember to update all your books and systems for any finances or invoices due beyond the 31st December 2009

Bank Loans
Bank loans for small businesses allegedly readily available, enquire with your Bank manager today and let us know your experiences in the comments section below!

The Grand Pier
The world will be watching our pier which is growing every day, and is on track for completion for the summer season in 2010. We all need to use this – if they can rebuild the pier, we can all rebuild our business – onward and upward!

Terry Gilbert is Business Support Manager for the North Somerset Enterprise Agency www.northsomersetenterpriseagency.co.uk as well as being the director for the Weston Town Centre Partnership and Chair for Weston 200 and Weston Arts Social Enterprise

Here at the Weston Echo not all of our articles are focused on serious news, we like to take a light hearted look at local affairs too! Enclosed for your viewing pleasure are the top YouTube videos based around Weston-super-Mare as decided by our panel, enjoy!

Weston-super-Mare Tourist Information Film

Prehaps the most well known YouTube video locally, this comical parody of a local tourist information is well thought and and keeps you amused all the way through, a brilliant effort by Youtube user bluecrayon77.

Lads on tour Weston Super Mare 2008

When we first read the title of this video we almost dismissed it, but after watching it could almost be said that this film was very similar to the kind of tour video’s used by travel companies to promote their island getaways. Very well put together, with a wide range of local attractions and venues promoted through video and photo slideshows.

Grand pier fire at Weston-Super-Mare 2008

There are literally hundreds of videos of the Grand Pier burning down in 2008, so when we saw this one we were impressed with the style of filming and the way the video was put together.

Building the Grand Pier 1903 – 1904

Our final video was uploaded by the owners of the Grand Pier and is an interesting look at rarely seen photos of the original Grand Pier being built in 1903 (the first pavilion caught fire and was destroyed in 1933).

Matthew Stone is the Editor of the Weston Echo. He is also an established I.T. Professional working for a local database marketing company