Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. - Blog

Apprentice Success

2010-04-06T22:27:00.001+01:00

Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. have successfully trained our first apprentice to pass the FICA exam and their apprenticeship.

More details to follow...

Visit Our Online Shop

2010-04-05T14:10:00.002+01:00

We have reopened our online electrical shop which is now hosted on eBay.

Our online shop will continue to develop over the coming months and will have available to purchase electrical wiring accessories - sockets, switches, lights and special offers.

Visit our electrical shop at www.theelectricalshop.com

Easter Holidays

2010-03-31T19:38:00.003+01:00

Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. will be closed for the Easter Holidays on Friday 2nd April through to Monday 5th April.

We will open again on Tuesday 6th April.

Have a happy holiday weekend.

Scott McLean is fundraising for Mary’s Meals - JustGiving

2010-03-28T12:53:00.004+01:00

Scott McLean is fundraising for Mary’s Meals - JustGiving

On 5th September 2010 Stirling Electrical Services owner Scott McLean and friend Alastair Paul will be taking part in the 10K Great Scottish Run.

On that day just like any other day millions of kids throughout the world will suffer from hunger.

This is a worldwide humanity problem but a Scottish Charity called Mary's Meals has a simple vision - that every needy child receives one daily meal in their place of education.

Mary's Meals aims to provides free school meals and other essential help to some of the world's poorest children.

It costs just £6.15 to feed a child in Malawi for a year. So for the sake of two pints of beer, eight litres of milk or six loaf's of bread you could provide one meal per day at school for one kid for one year.

It is our aim in the build up to the 10K race in September to fundraise enough money to provide 100 kids with meals for a year. Thats £615.00 we need to raise...but 100 kids will benefit for a whole year with a hot meal at school.

Mary’s Meals not only addresses the immediate needs of hungry children by giving them a daily meal, it also allows those children to receive an education that can provide an escape from poverty for themselves and their communities.

More information on Mary's Meals and how your money will be used can be found at http://www.marysmeals.org/index.html

Mary's Meals is a Scottish Charity that is endorsed by businessmen Sir Tom Farmer CBE and Duncan Bannatyne.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - We raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.

Scott McLean is fundraising for Mary’s Meals - JustGiving

New Logo For Building Warrant Certifiers

2010-03-25T20:29:00.001+00:00

We will soon be able to display the new combined Scottish Government/SELECT Logo to advertise our competence to undertake building warrant work.

A new logo has been produced to promote the companies that are already Approved Certifier's for Building Warrant Work.

More details when we receive the logo.

Details of the work we can carry out regarding Building Warrant work can be found at this link.

VAT v NI Increase

2010-02-18T16:37:00.007+00:00

It looks like later this year once the dust has settled after the May? General Election that VAT will be increased to complement the already proposed increase in Employers and Employee National Insurance rates.

I have never understood and probably never will understand the reasoning why businesses should get taxed 12.8% on top of employee wage rates (remembering that employees and business owners already contribute with National Insurance payments from their wages.) In other words this is a "tax on creating jobs".

An increase in National Insurance Contribution is set to kick in within 2011 and later this year many experts believe whoever is in control in Downing Street will increase VAT rates to aid the UK's financial deficit.

This increase will likely see the current 17.5% VAT rate rise to anything up to 20%.

This will obviously have an increase in the end cost of the electrical services we provide and ultimately an increase to our clients. Our client based is a mixture of domestic and commercial/industrial clients. Now the majority of the latter will be able to offset their VAT charges against their expenditure VAT but domestic clients cannot claim VAT back.

This will not just result in our domestic clients paying more which is bad enough in these crucial financial times but it will give our competitors who do not charge VAT an even wider advantage over our rates. Various clients are likely to go with these competitor's who's turnover is under the VAT threshold which puts pressure on our business to compete, which ultimately exposes more of a risk to "have we got enough work to employ someone" which in a roundabout way defeats the purpose of the VAT tax increase because if we cannot employ someone they cannot contribute in NI and Tax to the government who will then have to pay out benefit money.

If I were in charge then regarding VAT - if you are a business then you MUST be registered for VAT - its as simple as that and it creates a level playing field. Plus if all businesses were registered for VAT then more revenue for the Government would be created plus if they were playing fair(haha) they could reduce the VAT rate slightly and still create more revenue due more businesses contributing.

So after all that if it were only one of NI and VAT that was to be increased what would i prefer.

Ultimately I would still like to see the Employers NI Contributions removed or even slashed by at least 50%. It is this which see's us contribute tens of thousands of pounds per year to the government just because we employ people and keep them in employment. This Employers NI Tax is my biggest bugbearer in business.

So it would need to be an increase in VAT for me that I would like to see above an increase in NI.

But no matter what I think an increase to both will go ahead in the very near future - save up now folks, the financial clawback by the Government is just about to begin.

Create a Business, Create Jobs, Create Revenue for Government - That should be the motto for UK parties in the lead up to the General Election.

Newsletter - January 2010 - Issue 1

2010-01-30T18:08:00.003+00:00

To view the first edition of our new newsletter please follow the web link below.

Stirling Electrical Services Ltd Newsletter - January 2010 - Issue 1

2010-01-17T16:55:00.002+00:00

The first edition of our quarterly company email newsletter will be published this week.

If you would like to receive a copy all you have to do is make sure your email address is on our distribution list and you can do this by visiting this page.

Electric Heating - Our Install & Repair Service

2010-01-08T20:26:00.005+00:00

We are currently three weeks into the longest cold spell in decades so perhaps its a good time to repost a blog post from October 2007 regading our Electric Storage Heating Repair Service

http://stirlingelectrical.blogspot.com/2007/10/is-your-electric-heating-working.html

Free Electrical Advice Service

2010-01-03T17:40:00.003+00:00

One of our unique new services for 2010 is the introduction of our email advice service.

Anyone or any business requiring advice on electrical problems or upcoming work can contact us by email where we will respond by email with our thoughts on your query.

This service is open to people and businesses in Scotland only and is limited to domestic and commercial clients and if we can give advice our initial responce is free.

We cannot gaurantee to answer or give advice on all queries. Arranged site visits may be required before we can give advice and these may incur a charge.

You can submit your problem/query to our email advice line at advice@stirlingelectrical.co.uk or by filling in our online form on our website.

Quarterly Email Newsletter

2010-01-03T17:23:00.004+00:00

In order that we can keep our clients up to date with our company news, special offers and legislation changes we will be producing a quarterly email newsletter starting in January 2010.

We hope that you will enjoy our quarterly bulletins and we encourage our readers to participate and provide feedback not only on our newsletter but also on our company and services so we can continue to provide a service to match our clients needs.

You can sign up to our email newsletter and receive the first newsletter which will be available in a few weeks time.

You can sign up for our email newsletter by clicking here.

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T08:00:00.004+00:00

All the team at Stirling Electrical Services hope you all had a merry Christmas and we wish you all a happy new year in 2010.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-23T07:20:00.003+00:00

Everyone at Stirling Electrical Services would like to wish all our clients and readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Prosperous New Year.

Our office and services will close down on Wednesday 23rd December and will resume on Wednesday 6th January.

Have an excellent festive period everyone.

Christmas Party Night 2009

2009-12-20T13:09:00.009+00:00

Our company Christmas night out was held last Friday at The Grange Manor Hotel in Grangemouth. An excellent fun filled night was had by all our staff and the other guests with lots of good food and alcohol consumed.

Below are a few photos from the evening.

How to Reset a Miniature Circuit Breaker

2009-12-17T20:05:00.003+00:00

Our electricians and myself are looking forward to a "well deserved" break over the Festive Season so I thought I would post this video of how to locate and reset a miniature circuit breaker (MCB) in your consumer unit.

We dont want your Christmas dinner spoiled and we want to enjoy our own dinners in peace ;-)

Merry Christmas.

Charity 5km Run - Santa Dash

2009-12-13T14:22:00.000+00:00

Well I did it in 31 minutes, I think that was not bad for my first ever 5km run.

Today I took part in the Glasgow Santa Dash where over 3000 runners, men, women and children, dressed in Santa suits ran 5km for charity through the centre of Glasgow.

I only signed up for the event seven days ago and will have over £200 in spnsorship money for good causes.

Thanks to all those who sponsored me and I'm looking forward to next years event already.

Time for a long warm bath though, it was -2 this morning in Glasgow.

Photos from today can be viewed on my Flickr Page

Another Year

2009-12-12T21:16:00.001+00:00

Well only 8 work days* until the work year ends and after another hectic year we are all looking forward to the break over the festive period.

We are also looking forward to our Christmas Party night which will take place on Friday 18th at The Grange Manor Hotel in Grangemouth.

Next year is already looking busy but before then bring on the Christmas and New Year festivities.

Everyone at Stirling Electrical Services wishes our clients a very Merry Christmas and wish them all a good and prosperous New Year.

* We will have an electrician working in between Christmas and New Year for emergency cover work.

Clean Up

2009-12-12T20:15:00.000+00:00

Just had a wee clean up of the layout on our blog page - let us know what you think.

Updates

2009-12-10T20:09:00.002+00:00

Not has much time to Blog recently but you can still catch up with Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. on Twitter - @StirlingElect and on Facebook.

Donation - Parent Education Programme

2009-10-29T20:30:00.003+00:00

Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. are delighted to forward a £30 donation to the Parent Education Programme which is run in Forth Valley.

The education programme is provided in a variety of settings in hospitals and the community and the programme is an integral part in the journey for parents from conception to the postnatal period.

Test Blog

2009-09-17T13:15:00.000+01:00

We have been setting up our various social networking pages this week,
so this is a wee internal test to see if it all works ok.

Students

2009-09-17T10:26:00.001+01:00

Thanks to all the students who have contacted us so far and good luck with your studies this year.

Details of our PAT Testing service for students can be found below.

Click image to go to our website for full details.

It's that time of year when Students are heading to university and like previous years we will once again be offering our Portable Appliance Testing (PAT Testing) service at discounted rates to Students heading to The University of Stirling.

All electrical appliances students take with them into their new residence at Stirling are required to be checked that they are are safe to be used and this is where we come in.

If you are a student heading to our City over the next few weeks and require Pat Testing carried out please click on the image above.

Facebook

2009-09-15T18:53:00.003+01:00

Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. now have a presence on social networking platform Facebook.
Users of Facebook can keep up to date with our company by visiting:-

our page

Facebook users can also keep in touch with company Director Scott McLean

at this page

Appliance Testing For Students

2009-08-26T20:37:00.002+01:00

It's that time of year when Students are heading to university and like previous years we will once again be offering our Portable Appliance Testing (PAT Testing) service at discounted rates to Students heading to The University of Stirling.

All electrical appliances students take with them into their new residence at Stirling are required to be checked that they are are safe to be used and this is where we come in.

If you are a student heading to our City over the next few weeks and require Pat Testing carried out please click on the image above.

Buy Stirling Albion FC Campaign

2009-07-20T07:33:00.001+01:00

Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. have been proud to sponsor and advertise with Stirling Albion Football Club for a number of years, including official website, trackside and programme advertising, as well sponsorship of tracksuits for matchday ballboy's and Young Reds teams.

Now we are also throwing our weight behind the buystirlingalbion campaign in what is such a critical time for the football club.

Click here to find out more details on the ongoing campaign to purchase the club for the supporters and the community.