The Portuguese media yesterday highlighted an issue which affects self-employed people when they submit their IRS return this year, the deadline for which is 31st May. We have looked into the reports and have the following information for those people who are sole traders and work on the ‘green receipt’ system.

With the alteration of the Portuguese Social Security Contributive Code, it became mandatory to present a declaration that the majority of the taxpayers may not be aware of.

There is a golden rule in politics: Don't believe anything until it has been officially denied.

Three or four months ago I issued a warning to my clients that bank deposits were now fair game, and I quoted the sources.

One thing was missing: an official denial. In fact there was quite the opposite. All spokesmen agreed that depositors' money was fair game. Finally, the denial we have all been waiting for has come, from the Portuguese finance minister.

EDP did not join in the recent electricity supply auction as it did not want to "pay commissions to third parties."

In response to DECO’s recent auction, which resulted in the Endesa company being selected as the chosen supplier for 600,000 registered customers, EDP has now launched a campaign of its own with discounted energy costs to spoil and disrupt the work that DECO has done.

EDP's new campaigns, "Casa Total Click" and "Casa Click" offer a discount offer of 10% on gas and 5% for electricity.

Selling as a Package. What if you could sell two or three items instead of one, virtually every time a customer buys from you?  Selling a package of products or services together works for many businesses - here's how...

The reconstruction of the Portimão Retail Park, destroyed by fire last September, will cost an estimated €20 million, money that needs to be collected from various insurers, according to the president of the real estate company that manages the site.

The fire destroyed outlets of Continent, Moviflor, Radio Popular, DeBorla, Staples, Aki and Decathlon but the rebuilding is held up by complex negotiations involving multiple insurers.

Add an Upsell. When times are hard it is often hard to think about increasing profits ...but in hard times good businesses often grow profits extremely fast.

The example of an Upsell always quoted is the McDonalds method. Whatever you buy at McDonald’s staff are trained to add a question when acknowledging your order.  They’ll say, “Do you want fries with that?”, “Do you want to supersize that?” or similar.

Add a Deluxe Version of your Product or Service. This is one of my favourites. Most products or services can be repackaged and charged out with a higher price tag.