The value of trade association membership has never been more evident than now.  LAPADA, the Association of Art & Antique Dealers, is supporting their members by not only collating the vital government information and advice to the business community but also providing superb tutorials from social media expert Ben Mason of The Tom Sawyer Effect who was a keynote speaker at the recent LAPADA Conference in March.

If you would like to learn about joining LAPADA please follow this link
https://lapada.org/apply-for-membership/

The first live webinar from the LAPADA series Social Media for Art & Antiques Businesses took place on Thursday 26 March when around 50 members logged on to watch. The next edition will be streamed on Thursday 2 April at 11.30 am.

For those of you who were unable to join as well as for those who would like to re-watch, a recording of the video can be found here: https://youtu.be/rsKfk74S6K8.

In the video, Ben mentions a few resources, the links to which are:

https://later.com/blog/instagram-shoppable-posts/

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ptgenx18dkcnsr0/Social%20Formats%20-%20Instagram.docx?dl=0

https://www.businessofapps.com/news/instagram-most-popular-social-commerce-platform-among-uk-shoppers/

There was also one question about posting to multiple accounts simultaneously, and the answer is yes you can post to multiple Instagram profiles if they are loaded and logged in within the same app.

This access is open to non LAPADA members are the first streaming session. To watch the recording and future recordings follow this link www.lapada.org/webinars and add your email address.

Notes about joining: Your audio will be muted on entry (meaning no one will hear you, but you can hear the speaker). If you would like to ask a question, you can click on the Q&A button and type it in. The question will go directly to the speaker. The Chat button allows you to type messages that will be seen by the entire audience. At the end of the presentation, the host will be able to un-mute attendees so that questions questions can be asked and answered more fluidly. During this time, you will have the option of having your video on so that the speaker and others will be able to see you while you are talking, if you choose to ask a question.

WEBSITE SUBSCRIPTION PROMOTION

Online, phone and social media networks are proving to be invaluable ways to stay in contact and also to conduct any business. One way to stay connected is through LAPADA.org. Traffic to the site has grown 40% year on year during the last few years and is currently averaging at 1,300 visitors per day. Added to this, 30% of our audience is based in the US, which is welcome news given the current exchange rate of the £ against the USD (the lowest in 3 decades).

As such, we are offering all LAPADA members one month free one their website subscription. For non-subscribed members we have introduced a 3-month introductory subscription offer to LAPADA.org for just £100 + VAT to help get you through the imposed isolation period (i.e. three months for the price of two from April-June 2020). This will allow you to list unlimited items of stock as well as be featured in various online marketing initiatives. For our existing subscribers we will be extending your current website subscription period for a further month, free of charge.

LATEST ARRIVALS ON THE LAPADA WEBSITE & LATEST BLOG POST

Follow this link to see details of the latest arrivals from LAPADA members.

If you would like to learn about joining LAPADA please follow this link
https://lapada.org/apply-for-membership/

VITAL GOVERNMENT ADVICE

• Deferred VAT and Income Tax payments: VAT payments can be deferred from 20 March 2020 to 30 June 2020. You will have until the end of 2020-2021 tax year to pay any liabilities that have accumulated during the deferral period. Be sure to cancel your DD with your bank so that HMRC's system does not automatically collect payment when you file your VAT return. Income tax self-assessment payments: if you are due to be your second self-assessment payment on account on 31 July 2020, this can be deferred to 31 January 2021.

• Protection from eviction for commercial tenants: no business will be forced out of their premises if a repayment is missed before 30 June 2020 (which date may be extended if necessary). N.B. You will still be liable for the rent at that later date.

• 3-month extension to file accounts with Companies House: You will need to apply for this extension. However the online application should only take 15 minutes to complete, and applications for late filing based on issues around the virus will automatically and immediately be granted the 3-month extension. Find the guidance here and the application link here.

• A Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme whereby HMRC will reimburse 80% of 'furloughed' employees' wages to employers with a PAYE scheme, capped at £2,500 per month, plus the associated Employer National Insurance contributions and minimum automatic enrolment employer pension contributions on that wage. This can be backdated to 1 March if appropriate and the Scheme is initially open for 3 months, but will be extended if necessary. N.B. this is to enable employers to retain staff whom would otherwise be made redundant as their work is no longer available for them to do: it does not apply to staff who are working from home. You will need to designate affected employees - i.e. those who are being kept on the payroll but who have been asked to stop working - as ‘furloughed workers’ and notify your employees of this change; changing the status of employees remains subject to existing employment law and, depending on the employment contract, may be subject to negotiation. Please see here for a pro forma which June Smith, H.R. For the Small Business, has kindly allowed us to share with our members, together with her explanatory notes on how to communicate with affected employees. You must then submit information to HMRC about the employees that have been furloughed and their earnings through a new online portal, which is currently being set up, together with a system for reimbursement: HMRC estimates the scheme will be up and running by the end of April.

• Self-employment Income Support Scheme: you will be able to apply for a taxable grant worth 80% of your trading profits up to a cap of £2,500 per month if you are self-employed (including if you are a member of a partnership) with trading profits of less than £50,000 and have lost income due to the virus. This scheme is also currently set for three months, but may be extended. HMRC will calculate the monthly average using your submitted figures from the tax years 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 (or the available returns if fewer). If you have not yet submitted your Income Tax Self-Assessment  tax return for the tax year 2018-2019, you have until 23 April 2020 to do so. However, the Scheme is only scheduled to be running in the beginning June. At that point, eligible people will be contacted by HMRC and invited to apply online.

• The government link giving information about all of these initiatives is: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-support-for-businesses