Creative HEAD Christmas 2017

#BusinessEdit
NHF WARNS OF
SEASONAL BREAK-INS
HAIR AND BEAUTY salons and barbershops
have been warned to be extra vigilant in the
run-up to Christmas, amid warnings that
top-brand professional hair straighteners,
especially ghd, are becoming a prime target
for opportunist thieves.
Hilary Hall, chief executive of the NHF, said:
“We are urging our members to guard against
these kinds of thefts following the Daily Mail’s
news of recent break-ins.”
She encouraged salons to check their
insurance policy covers stock and other contents
to ensure their business is protected. Police
advice includes:
• Use laminated glass in your window or apply
a strengthening plastic film to deter a ‘smash
and grab’ attack
• Keep stock hidden and, if you can, remove any
high-risk items from window-displays overnight
• Leave the till open but empty, to deter
cash-snatchers
• Bank cash every night or invest in a goodquality
safe
• Consider fitting grilles and shutters to doors
and windows, CCTV and alarms
• Get your team to be more security conscious
and make use of your Police local crime
prevention team
Photographic stylist
finalists revealed
CHECK OUT THE finalists of the NHF’s
Photographic Stylist of the Year competition
at nhf.info/photographic – winners will be
revealed at the NHF’s 75th anniversary
event at the Vox Conference Centre in
Birmingham on 19 November!
Don’t miss out, there’s still time to buy
your tickets at nhf.info
‘RADICAL CHANGE NEEDED’
TO EMPLOYMENT MODELS
THE NHF IS calling for radical changes to be made to tax and employment
in the wake of the government’s review into new models of employment,
including the “gig economy”. Hilary Hall, chief executive of the NHF, was
among participants at a high-level roundtable discussion on the findings of the
‘Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices’.
The review called on ministers to rethink how self-employment currently
works, including creating a new category of worker – a dependent contractor
– who would be a half-way house between being directly employed and selfemployed.
Hilary set out a series of recommendations that, the NHF believes,
will help to create a more level playing field for salons and barbershops
competing with low-cost mobile and self-employed stylists and barbers.
• Increasing National Insurance Contributions for the self-employed working
in salons to the same level as those paid by employers for their employees
• Reducing VAT from 20 per cent to 5 per cent while at the same time lowering
the VAT threshold from £85,000 to £40,000 or less, to ensure more businesses,
including the self-employed, pay VAT – but at a much lower rate
• Ensure the self-employed are better protected by backing Taylor’s idea
of a new dependent contractor category of worker, backed up by a written
statement of their rights
The NHF’s chair and room renting agreements can be found at nhf.info
Apprentice places ‘plummeting’
CHANGES TO HOW apprenticeships are funded, especially requiring small
and micro businesses to make a financial contribution for the first time, have
led to a “catastrophic” fall in training places, the NHF has warned.
The comments followed figures published by the Department for Education,
which showed a 61 per cent drop in the number of new apprentices starting on
programmes in the three months since changes to apprenticeship funding were
introduced in May 2017.
Hilary Hall, chief executive of the NHF, said: “Worries about new standards
will have contributed to the drop, but the NHF has consistently warned that
changes to apprenticeship funding for small and micro businesses – who make
up the vast majority of employers in our sector – would lead to a catastrophic fall
in take-up for apprenticeships.”
To find out more information and how to join the NHF, call 01234 831965 or visit nhf.info
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CREATIVE HEAD