Next year the recession will end, the Olympics will come to London and hvac businesses will realise they're facing new pensions obligations.
The long-lasting economic downturn will end on Friday 27th July 2012. This forecast, so confidently precise, is not mine, so please don't fill my in-box with disappointed emails of complaint or jubilant congratulations on my brilliance in the days after that date has passed.
The prediction was made, in fact, by someone far better qualified than me to talk about the economy. It came from Martin Vander Weyer, business editor of The Spectator, in his role as guest speaker at the recent HVCA President's Luncheon.
As a former investment banker who worked for Schroders and Barclays in London, Brussels and the Far East, and as author of 'Falling Eagle: the Decline of Barclays Bank,' Mr Vander Weyer knows what he's talking about.
Tongue in cheek
Talking at the HVCA luncheon, Mr Vander Weyer had to entertain his audience as well as inform them. That's why, if you'd looked closely at his face when he commented on the exact date he expects the economic downturn to end, you may well have seen his tongue in his cheek.
But Mr Vander Weyer went on to explain that the point he was making was completely serious: 27 July, 2012 is the day the London Olympic Games open, and that's when the Great British public will cheer up and become more inclined to spend money.
When UK consumers rediscover optimism, the logic goes, their confidence will be contagious, spreading to businesses and banks and starting the gradual process of economic recovery.
The Olympics won't be the only 2012 event that could affect us economically. Another landmark next year, not at all exciting when compared to world-class sport, but certain to be longer-lasting in its effects, will be the introduction of a government-backed workplace pensions scheme.
Sorry to switch your mind from sport to business, but this new scheme deserves your full attention: if you are an employer, you will be required by law to pay into a pension for your workers, and if you are an employee, you will automatically be opted-in to the scheme.
The implications? I can make a prediction with even more certainty than Mr Vander Weyer. For some businesses, there will be time and financial costs in establishing such schemes, particularly those firms currently with low pension participation.
All businesses will have to put in place a system to automatically enrol all their eligible jobholders (that is, anyone aged between 22 and State pension age earning more than the minimum earnings threshold, currently £7,475). This must be a rolling system which automatically identifies whenever jobholders become eligible, either through new employment, change in age, or wage increase.
To assist companies with this auto-enrolment, the Government is setting-up a new scheme known as NEST (the National Employment Savings Trust).
It's every bit as important as following the Olympics next year to remember this: a qualifying scheme, either run by your company in-house or by an outside provider, may be better suited than NEST to your business needs.
Company-wide pension scheme
For example, Welplan Pensions - which has been providing pensions for the building services industry since 1988 - takes care of auto-enrolment and re-enrolment, providing a company-wide pension scheme for operatives and clerical staff, and providing advice and support through a dedicated helpline.
Welplan Pensions is the preferred pension supplier for the H&V Operative National Agreement, reached between Unite the Union and the HVCA, and has already developed the sort of auto-enrolment systems which relieve clients of administrative burden.
While the biggest businesses will have to start contributing to employee pensions during London Olympics year (in October), smaller firms won't have to enrol until later.
• Mike Jenkins is business development manager at Welplan