English Metas Blog

J.O. Barcelona

Jueves, 02.09.2010 Actualizado: 10:13

La alianza entre Infema y UP Capital para comprar pymes familiares con problemas de sucesión ya ha dado sus primeros frutos.  El family office y la firma inversora –ambas con sede en Barcelona- suscribieron este verano un acuerdo para realizar conjuntamente operaciones de este tipo (ver EXPANSIÓN Catalunya del 30 de julio).

La primera transacción ha consistido en la compra de la empresa Industrias San Isidro, fundada hace 43 años por la familia López Rípodas y dedicada a la fabricación de mobiliario para hostelería.  Con sede en Noáin, la firma factura anualmente 5,2 millones de euros.

UP Capital se ha hecho apcon el 66% de la compañía e Infema ha tomado el resto. Según Luis Unceta, socio de la firma inversora, el objetivo es duplicar en tres años la facturación de San Isidro “gracias a un plan de negocio ambicioso, basada en la internacionalización y en la especialización en mobiliario y componentes a base de alambre.” Entre los clientes de la empresa están Coca Cola, Heinelsen, PepsiCo y Cruzcampo.  Los ex dueños seguirán ligados temporalmente a la gestión.

Unceta, ex directivo de la multinacional de la automoción ArvinMeritor, fundó UP Capital junto con Jordi Patau, ex profesional de Alfa Consulting y PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).  La firma tiene también una alianza con el grupo inversor internacional OpenGate Capital.

Infema, cuyo primer ejecutivo es Alejandro de Dios, es la patrimonial de las familias Tey y Masó, fundadoras y accionistas de la empresa de iluminación J. Feliu de la Penya. Entre sus últimas inversiones destaca la entrada, con el 6,30% dl capital, en la biotecnológica catalana AB-Biotics.

Ver el articulo en EXPANSIÓN: http://www.expansion.com/2010/09/01/catalunya/1283369886.html

Is my first day in the blog and these are my first words!!!!
 
First i would like that you would know me.
 
My name is Alfonso, i have thirty four years.
 
I am studying english in English Metas and my teacher is Andrew. My goal because I want to learn english is because  the next year I will do a MBA.
 
In this MBA  some of the subjects are in english.
 
I have done two weeks of class and i am very happy because my level is enhancing day per day
 
My teacher do the classes very funny and i enjoy to learning english.
 
We do the class in different places with the aim that I will can have a conversation without problems in different places (inside of the coffee shop, in the street,… ) and different environment.
Now I explain you my work. I am working in a bank since 2 years ago.
I am employed at a French bank.
Everyday I do my tasks in the office. My office is near of the center of Barcelona. My task more important is that the customers that they have arrears in yours loans i have that to charge them.
If the customers do not pay his loans i have to call them with the aim that they will pay his loan
In Spain there are a lot of citizen that they spend more that his incomes.If they earn one thousand euros they spend one thousand  two hundred-.
 
The bank don’t allow that this customers don’t pay the loans and when it happen i have to call them
 
My question is: What will happen in the future? We will come back at the economy of the past?

Alfonso

KERS CONSULTING es una consultoría comercial especializada en la venta B2B (Venta entre empresas) y estamos enfocados en grandes cuentas a nivel nacional. Periódicamente contactamos y visitamos a las más importantes empresas nacionales de la mayoría de sectores (Banca, Seguros, Gran Consumo, Prensa, Editoriales, Laboratorios, ONG’s…) presentando  diversos productos y servicios, por lo tanto tenemos muchos contactos “decisores” actualizados y abiertos a conocer  nuevas empresas.

En función del producto/servicio que queramos presentar nos dirigimos a la persona responsable de cada departamento: Compras, Marketing, Comunicación, Informática, Logística, Administración, RRHH, E-Marketing…

El coste de nuestros servicios es inferior a la contratación de personal interno, ya que optimizamos visitas y contactos, y los resultados son mucho más inmediatos.

Actualmente desarrollamos proyectos para empresas de los siguientes sectores:

- Servicios de Marketing Directo e impresión de facturación

- Social media, Marketing participativo y Comunicación 2.0

- Transporte de paquetería y gestión promocional.

- Cursos de inglés para profesionales y ejecutivos. Servicios de traducción.

Entre los servicios que ofrecemos destacan: Dirección y planificación comercial, Captación de grandes cuentas, Externalización de ventas, Selección de personal, Formación de comerciales, Política retributiva, Planes de incentivos, Sinergias entre empresas, Acciones de Marketing, Campañas de fidelización.

Si desean más información acerca de como podemos aportar valor a su estrategia comercial, estaremos encantados de hacerles una visita donde analizaremos la situación comercial de su empresa y propondremos diversos escenarios para la mejora de su facturación.

Daniel de la Cruz

Director

Tel: +34 639 34 30 58

E-Mail: comercial@kersconsulting.com 

Web: www.kersconsulting.com

What is a cover letter and how important is it?  For a basic explanation you can click on Wikipedia’s article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_letter.  Personally, I believe that a cover letter is the applicant’s first opportunity to differentiate him/herself from the rest of the professionals trying to get the job.  The resume (CV) is a generic template that gives the basic framework to understand your past and present situation, but the missing piece, which really interests the reader, AKA your potential boss, is what you plan on doing in the future and how you plan on using your acquired knowledge to resolve potential obstacles.  The cover letter allows you to speak directly to your potential employer and it lets you say exactly how valuable you will be to them. 

Pretend like you are going to hire yourself.  Would you do it? Really?  Either way, why or why not?  After you really put yourself in their safety boots or Manolo Blahniks,’ you might prevent yourself from adding unnecessary information that will waste both your time and energy just as well as the HR director’s.

Here’s my simple guideline to follow in order to write a well structured cover letter that will offer you the opportunity to get closer to that job you are searching for (One simple rule to remember before writing the letter: Research the company before and use real examples of how your can align your skills to their vision): 

Introduction: Who am I? Who am I addressing? and Why!

Body Paragraphs: What specific skills, which are relevant, can I offer? What specific solutions can I provide?  What results should be expected? QUANTIFY!!! (You like having a concrete salary; they like having tangible benefits).  Give supporting evidence to prove that you can provide the services/results you are offering.

Describe the tools, budget, and support that you will need in order to be successful.  (Don’t forget that you should find out whether or not it is the right place for you.)

Write commitment statement, guarantee and deadline. (The market is changing and companies are looking for accountable professional who think like freelancers.  Show them that you understand why you are in the interview and why they need you and not anyone else to fill that position.)

Thank them for their time.

Name and signature.

Jesús López  07/06/2010

SPANISH TAXES ON LOTTERY WINNINGS

It is true that a winning prize with the lottery does not pay taxes. But this rule is not applicable to all lotteries and taxes neither.

The Lotteries and Bets organised by the Spanish State Lottery, Spanish Autonomous Communities , Spanish Red Cross and ONCE (Spanish National Blind Organisation) do not have to pay taxes.

This means that any other winning prize, coming from whatever activity, should pay taxes, so the prize will be declared along with the annual income, though usually it can not be considered as asset income to more than one year.   

Once obtained the income asset, its amount comes to increase the asset of the winner.

If the whole asset net amount of the winner, worth up to 31^st December of one year, overpass the minimum excluded, by the law of the asset tax, he must declare the result and pay the tax accordingly.

Could be possible to avoid the taxes, of the lottery winnings, on the asset tax?

It could be possible if the won prize , which has not been spent , has been invested on items which are not affected by this tax, like the consolidated rights of pension plans  (lets say , the won prize should be invested on a pension plan at its all ), the goods which comes, as a result of a professional activity ( it will happen when the professional , a doctor, lawyer , renew its equipment and tools with the income money ), event in the case of the investment on a primary residence, in such case the excluded amount has a limit of 150,000 E. per each person . It is important to remember that for this tax is not possible to deliver a joint declaration, and each person should consign its private goods, and in the case to be married, those which match with the economic jurisdiction of the marriage.

Good luck to everybody

Jesús López , May 22th 2010

Legal issues at job.

Most probably I have been in lucky in all of the companies I was working for, honestly I never have faced so much discrepancies with my bosses regarding the terms of the contract we signed at the time to join them. Taken in mind that mainly my job always have been involve in the commercial export branch I only was worried about the commitments regarding the commissions sales because that part should were absolutely clear for both sides .

Only in one company I made a mistake as per the terms concern, the fact was that they approach to me offering to join them in order to lead a new project, they were finishing the development of a new line of machines and the launch was scheduled into 4 months onwards taken the opportunity of a forthcoming Machinery Fair. 

They offered me an attractive package of salary plus commissions plus company car and the most encourage for me a sole responsible to introduce the new machines on the market with the aim to catch the compete customers. 

That was a great ability to climb professional as well as economically so I joined them.

Which was the mistake?  I never thought in my life to find a Sales Director as worse as the one of that company. He was always interfering on the negotiations I established with the customers, trying to spoil the terms and price mainly in this late point, for example I was not whiling to give especial discounts to any customer, I believe that the price at first sight should be the same for everybody only in some very especial deals according with the amount of the deal I agreed to reduce some percentage.

Because I was forced to inform about the verge of all negotiations the Director was pushing me to finalise the deals quickly and I always told him that everything should take its time, if you are in a hurry the customer will catch that you are eager to sell and immediately he will ask more and more discount, so its better keep in touch continuously with the customer making clear the advantages and benefits for him buying your machine instead to talk about the price.

I found out that the Director was calling directly to the customers offering some discounts if they were keen to finalise immediately of course the customers agreed and as I result of that I fell in bud position with the customers further more due to such discounts affected my commission sales so that I resigned of that company.

07 May 2010  Jesús López

United Kingdom General Elections.

Last Thursday  on 6^th May 2010 , have been held the General Elections in UK in order to elect the Prime Minister for the next four to five years and of course to renew the House of Commons where stays the sovereignty of British citizens.

The main Parties which were able to achieve the final victory and get the power in Westminster Parliament as usual were Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats headed by their three leaders, Mr. Gordon Brown actually Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron who latest poll quizzed regarded him as the next PM winning with majority and Mr. Nick Clegg who seemed he was increasing day by day his chance to get a great support from the constituents and even could be the next PM.

Despite all these fore-sights the reality have come true and the British voters have kept their confidence for the next years into Mr. Cameron but not on majority bases he has to make an agreement most probably with Mr. Clegg who at the end reached worse results than the previous elections loosing 5 seats at Parliament.

In the UK Elections it is so complicated to advance the results based on poll quizzed because the Election System is far away from its counterpart of other European Countries for example Spain , in hear our System has been established according with a proportional share called D’Hont which is the result to split the number of votes that have got each candidates list into the cardinal numbers 1,2,3,4 and so on until reach the whole number of seats in each constituency thereby the seats will be distributed between the lists which have reached the best results. This System allows the small parties to have some seats at the Congress so it is difficult to achieve the majority at all in order to rule alone. In the opposite the British System concentrate the power on the big Parties so it is easier to achieve the majority at all of the seats because there are 646 areas called constituencies in each there is only cast one eligible so the constituents select one candidate to be their Member of Parliament the candidate who gets the most votes becomes the MP of that constituency. The purpose of this system is to promote the useful vote so that in some fore-sights may appear some candidate with great expectations because the voters have said their intentions but when the time to decide has come most of them change their mind.

Finally after the elections the results shows a clear situation for the forthcoming years without a majority at all thereby the Liberal Democrats have the key to allow to rule the power to next Prime Minister Mr. Cameron.

03rd  May 2010 , Jesús López

The U.S. National Basketball Association.

The N.B.A. championship is much more than just a sport event, have you ever had the experience to see in lives a basketball match in U.S.? if not and if you have got the chance you can’t miss it.

Does not matter which are the teams playing on the match, all of them are fantastic and they always outperforms up to the end, all teams have one or two stars players , this is thanks to the draft rules which allows the teams to asses the best player they consider for their team, each year the preference order draft changes so that all teams have the opportunity to choose the best player, this system makes sense cause gives all  teams the chance to win sooner or later the championship, for instance if we have a look at the winners history we will settle that various teams have won alternatively, lets say , Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, LA Lakers, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, etc.

As I said this event is not only a match, from the atmosphere point of view is a family day out, usually the Stadiums are surrounded by the commercial centres with all kind of entertainment, so the complete family goes to watch the match and of course with the kids cause there is no violence between the fans and fault language either.

The fans gives support to their team shouting and enjoining how the players fight with the aim to win the match, they don’t border if closed to them are seating fans from the other team, the trouble makers are not welcome so nobody scare about violence.

Definitely if you go to U.S. you should book some time to have the experience of living a basketball match.

As the summer heats rolls in with a fury, I would like to recommend an amazing Thai style dish that I prepare that leaves you feeling energized:

CHICKEN PAPAYA SALAD WITH HONEY-LIME DRESSING

One medium sized papaya
Bunch of cilantro
Avocado
White onion
Whole chicken breast
Honey
Fresh lime
Olive oil
Salt

Method:

Cut papaya and avocado into small cubes
Clean and separate leaves of cilantro from the stems
Heat olive oil and caramelize onions to a golden brown
Add whole chicken breast
Salt to flavour
Cut chicken breast into very small shreds and let chill in the refrigerator
Mix fresh lime juice and honey
Mix papaya, avocado, cilantro, shredded chicken and caramelized onion and drizzle honey/lime dressing atop.

Enjoy