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Please click onto the document to read this week’s market summary.

The third event in our CultureShock series co-hosted at the Enterprise Centre by Fountain Partnership, University of East Anglia and Norfolk Chambers of Commerce was planned for May, but of course had to be postponed for now.    However, we wanted to keep the conversation around company and workplace culture going – especially at a time of so much change and challenge.  

  So, here’s introducing the CultureShock video series, in which Rebecca Lewis Smith (Fountain Partnership) discusses different aspects of culture with business leaders, experts and academics. 

 

So far Rebecca has had two engaging conversations which can both be found on the CultureShock YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4oeQN2msfwq1hCIGV_hIRg/videos.   

 

First, Rebecca sat down (remotely) with Gavin Drake, founder and director of Mindspan, to have a chat about culture and leadership during times of crisis. Gavin was kind enough to share his insights into motivation, leadership and so many other aspects of maintaining company culture in the context of the pandemic.  

 

Rebecca also spoke with Dr Helen Fitzhugh, researcher at UEA’s Norwich Business School, Knowledge Exchange Fellow and a member of the PrOPEL Hub, who shared insight into some of her research. Helen has been part of a team reviewing all the literature on isolated working, compiling incredibly useful information for us to learn from as we adapt our businesses in light of the pandemic. 

 

Make sure you follow the CultureShock YouTube channel, UEAforBusiness (Twitter and LinkedIn) and Rebecca Lewis Smith (LinkedIn) to keep up to date with the latest videos in this series.  

Freebridge Community Housing employees enjoyed their sixth annual Week of Wellbeing last week. The week aims to support the wellbeing of staff across the whole company and involved an array of activities.

Reflexology, creative writing, dance classes and meditation comprised just a small part of the list of events on offer. The week, which took place from 8 – 12 May, is designed to promote and support the six strands of wellbeing – Career, Physical, Mental, Social, Economic and Community Wellbeing – for its employee team of over 200 people.

While many of the week’s events were run by Freebridge employees a host of local organisations and businesses, including The Wellbeing People, Alive Leisure, The Engaging People Company, Paul Tibbs Photography, the Natural Therapy Centre and The Maltings Q Club were amongst those who provided expertise and facilities.

Local businesses generously donated prizes for a charity fundraising raffle. Proceeds will be going to East Anglian Air Ambulance, King’s Lynn Foodbank and West Norfolk RSPCA, who are all Freebridge chosen charities for 2017.

Tony Hall, Chief Executive of Freebridge, said: “Once again we have had a fantastic Week of Wellbeing at Freebridge. This week gives our employees the opportunity to gain news experiences that can have a positive impact on both their work and personal lives.

“Our tenants remain at the heart of everything we do at Freebridge, and we believe that by having a workforce that is both physically and mentally healthy we will be able to continue to provide the best service possible.

“We couldn’t have made the week such a great success without support from local businesses; we would like to express our thanks for all their efforts and generosity.”

B2B marketing experts and Chamber members Full Mix Marketing have been chosen by Norfolk Chamber Gold Patrons MIGSOLV to help them gain more customers in the East of England.

Full Mix Marketing were asked to pitch against four other agencies to secure the long-term relationship marketing Norfolk and Suffolk’s only purpose built data centre.

“We’re delighted to have the opportunity to help MIGSOLV grow” says Sarah West, Managing Director of Full Mix Marketing. “With the increased threat of terrorism, extreme weather and data theft, business continuity is a hot topic”

The Gatehouse in Norwich secures computer servers and data for national and international companies. Now Full Mix Marketing are delivering a comprehensive marketing strategy to help owners MIGSOLV target local businesses who need to increase their business resilience, save space and reduce costs.

“It’s been a fantastic and diverse start to 2107” continues Sarah. “We’ve begun relationships with businesses in manufacturing, energy, recruitment, IT and engineering. What they all have in common is the desire to identify and deliver the right marketing for the best results.”

As Chartered Marketers, Full Mix Marketing provide all the marketing businesses need to grow, including marketing plans & strategies, branding, full digital & social media marketing, as well as directing marketing campaigns, advertising & PR.

“Sarah and her team simply gave us the confidence they could deliver the results we need” says David Manning, Managing Director of MIGSOLV. “They showed that more than just having a new website or advertising, it’s about understanding our potential customers and finding the best ways to reach them”.

Gold Patrons of Norfolk Chamber of Commerce since 2016, MIGSOLV discovered Full Mix Marketing through the Chamber Directory. “Being members of Norfolk Chamber has been very positive for us” says Sarah. “It regularly generates opportunities and is often a strong part of the marketing mix we recommend our B2B clients”.

Norwich law firm Hatch Brenner Solicitors has appointed Legal Executive Abbey Englefield-Stangroom as a Conveyancing Executive in their busy team of Residential Property Solicitors in Norwich.

Ms Englefield-Stangroom specialises in all types of property transactions both locally and nationally. She has experience in dealing with both freehold and leasehold sales and purchases, new build purchases, auction sales and purchases, matrimonial transfers, transfers of equity, equity releases, re-mortgages, first registration applications and adverse possession applications.

Colin Cook, Hatch Brenner Partner commented: “We are all really pleased to welcome Abbey to our busy Residential Property team. Her experience means she is able to hit the ground running and help both our existing and new clients through the moving process. She is personable, positive and friendly and willing to go the extra mile for her clients.”

Abbey Englefield-Stangroom, Conveyancing Executive added: “It is great to be joining Hatch Brenner within the Property team – despite the current social distancing guidelines, I have received a very warm welcome from my new colleagues and existing clients alike. Moving home can be a very stressful time and I strive to make the conveyancing process as simple and stress free as possible via clear communication and always keeping clients and other parties up-to-date and informed throughout a transaction.”

Ms Englefield-Stangroom completed her law degree at the University of Leicester, her LPC at BPP Law School and has previously trained and worked for other Norfolk law firms. Outside of work she enjoys spending time with family and friends, baking, walking and interior design, decorating and upcycling.

With the release of the Health and Safety Executive’s new statistics on fatalities in the workplace, the team at Safepoint spoke to Johann Tasker, chief reporter at Farmers Weekly, about the exciting work they are doing to improve farm safety with technology

Read more here.”

We are pleased to announce that Tudor Lodge Consultants is now working with Playfair Capital (https://playfaircapital.com/). Helping to improve the online presence and search engine optimisation (SEO) of the Playfair Capital website and brand, we are working to ensure the brand and the company gets the exposure it needs.

Playfair Capital are leading, London-based seed stage investors, having worked with dozens of ambitious brands and companies offering a wide range of products and services.

Why SEO?

Although many people perceive SEO as only being perfect for product-based businesses and offerings, this is in fact not the case. SEO is remarkably effective at helping service-based businesses too. Helping company websites climb the search engine rankings allows for a great deal more exposure to one of the most engaged audiences out there; those that are already searching for your services.

By climbing the rankings, companies can expect to receive increased traffic to their website as well as increased engagement and much more time spent on the website generally. By increasing the numbers of engaged users and those that interact with a website, a brand and its offering, companies can reasonably expect to increase business and importantly, profits and sales.

As a medium to longer term strategy, SEO is also a lot more cost-effective than other marketing channels including pay-per-click (PPC) and traditional methods of advertising like radio, TV and billboard advertising campaigns.

Unlike PPC which charges advertisers based on each click, SEO is an investment in the ongoing presence of a website and contributes most strongly to the earned or ‘organic’ positions via Google and other search engines.

Key Elements of SEO Covered

Rather than a product-related offering where the key point of sale and conversion relies purely on individual and collective sales, service-based companies and businesses require a great deal more awareness online. This means that although ultimately offering a commercial or busines product or service, it is not just about ‘straight up sales,’ but is, in large part about ensuring they are seen and engaged with above and beyond their competitors in their target areas online.

There are a number of key areas within SEO which we are covering for Playfair Capita which include:

Crawling and Understanding – Key to how and where a site is positioned on Google is the ability of the search engine algorithms or ‘spiders,’ which crawl websites to discover and understand what is on a website as well as each webpage. Thus, we are working on ensuring Playfair Capital’s website is not just filled with content, but is understood in the context of the offerings, aims and their wider industry.

Online PR – The online reputation and therefore PR in SEO is important to websites. Acting a strong trust signal to Google and other search engines, online PR in the form of strong, clean and relevant backlinks are a key tenet to the SEO works undertaken.

User Experience (UX) – Although content used to be king when it came to SEO, in more recent years, it is a lot more user focused. This means that rather than having to fill up websites with inordinate amounts of content for the sake of it, it is the user experience and their interactions with a website which play a far more important role when it comes to where a given website should rank. Moreover, good UX allows for better experiences for the users that will inevitably reach the website in question.

After our recent briefing on the future of trade in Northern Ireland (NI), a new policy document has emerged with more on the Government’s plans. For exporters in the East of England, below is our summary of the key points.

Freight travelling from the UK to NI

Firstly, the document makes it clear that for freight travelling from the UK to NI:

• All goods must be declared to customs
• HMG has the opportunity to carry out checks at NI ports and airports before the goods are released
• No tariffs on goods remaining within NI
• There will be tariffs on goods which are at risk of entering the EU, eg crossing the border into Eire. The tariffs applicable may be 0% or lower than mfn (most favoured nation) dependant on the outcome of the UK/EU free trade agreement negotiations
• How the new arrangements will work 

NI port and terminal operators have been asked to choose between two models to carry out customs processes:

Model 1: Temporary Storage  

For businesses who currently export to the Rest of World (RoW), this system will be familiar, as it is used in existing ports handling RoW traffic. It provides storage for goods while customs declarations are made and customs clearance is given. Goods can be stored at the location of arrival for up to 90 days before they are declared to free circulation or other relevant procedure.

Model 2: Pre-Lodgement

This model uses a new system developed by HMRC to carry out customs processes, and the Government is hoping this will become the preferred system in NI.  It is designed to speed the flow of goods through NI ports by requiring customs declarations to be pre-lodged prior to goods departing for NI. Traders will have to:

• Ensure all goods have the appropriate declarations before they board a ferry or plane to NI
• Communicate to the person in control of the goods (e.g. the driver of a lorry for accompanied goods or the carrier for unaccompanied goods) by the time they arrive in NI whether goods are cleared to proceed on their journey or need a check

How Pre-Lodgment will work

To facilitate pre-lodgement, the Government will introduce a couple of new acronyms into the exporter’s vocabulary

GMR

Every consignment will need a Goods Movement Reference (GMR), the single declaration that will be the key to goods moving smoothly through NI ports. The GMR pulls together three documents:

• Import declaration with customs codes
• Safety and security declaration
• Transit Accompanying Document (TAD) which will remain with the vehicle at all times

GVMS

The Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS) is the new IT system that will support the pre‐lodgement model:

• GVMS will handle all GMR declarations. The person moving the goods (e.g. a haulier) will present one single reference before boarding to prove that their goods have pre‐lodged declarations
• As soon as the goods board GVMS will link up the movement of the goods with the declaration and process the declaration whilst the goods are en route
• By the time the goods arrive at the NI port, GVMS will notify the exporter whether the goods are cleared or uncleared, so they know what they need to do as goods disembark
• The document indicates most trucks will be green-lit to proceed, some will require further checks or processing.

We have seen rumours that the pre-lodgement system will be trialled in November, but we have no confirmation of this yet. The system is scheduled to go live in January

Importing goods from NI

If you currently buy goods from businesses in NI, the information is much simpler. The policy document says: In the majority of cases, there should be no additional processes or paperwork and there will be no change to how Northern Ireland goods arrive in Great Britain ports compared to today. Click the button to read the full document HMRC plans for NI We can expect further developments on this and other import and export systems, we will endeavour to keep you updated. As always, please call or email me with comments or questions, we’re always happy to discuss individual issues.

Please click onto the document to read this week’s market summary.

Did you know that nearly half of all care workers leave within a year of starting? Care work can be incredibly challenging – both physically and mentally.

The team at Safepoint have analysed this sector to answer the question: How safe is the health and social care sector?

Read more here.

The Norfolk Mead, which reopened to guests on 4 July, is delighted to have received two industry standard accreditations for their Covid-prevention measures.

Firstly, the Norfolk Broads National Park-based destination venue has been certified as AA ‘Covid-confident’ following an assessment by the AA Hotel and Hospitality Services. The Norfolk Mead successfully passed the AA’s stringent criteria including: – Supplying evidence of a completed risk assessment document. – Providing clear evidence that relevant safety procedures and measures are in place. – Showing that staff training has occurred. – Signing up to the Covid Confident Charter, a code of conduct that will include a commitment to update procedures and measures as guidelines change, and to submitting to future audits as required.    Secondly, The Norfolk Mead was one of the first hospitality establishments in the East of England region to sign up for the VisitEngland ‘We’re Good to Go’ industry standard mark demonstrating that they had quickly made the necessary changes to their day-to-day workings, including social distancing measures and staff training.    James Holliday, Owner of The Norfolk Mead commented: “We are very proud to have received both the AA and VisitEngland accreditations to recognise the measures we have and continue to take to ensure the safety of our guests and staff. We welcome these schemes as an easy way for guests to identify the businesses which are taking the threat of covid-19 seriously, and hope they help provide reassurance and confidence.     “From cold fogging of rooms, through to Perspex screens and staff temperature checks and PPE, we are providing both a safe environment, but also one that continues to deliver our high quality, luxury home from home level of customer service, despite circumstances being slightly different from normal. Our staff are so happy to be back at work, and it is a complete delight to see the Hotel welcoming guests once more. This has been reflected in the joy our guests have shown when coming in for drinks, a meal, or a trip on our boat.    “We also welcome the government scheme offering reduced VAT on hospitality and tourism services and the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme for August. We have reviewed our prices accordingly and will be offering three courses for £36 in our two star AA Rosette-standard restaurant. We will also be delighted to offer the Eat Out scheme in addition to guests once it is up and running … meaning diners can also save 50% of their bill up to £10 per person on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday throughout August.”    The Norfolk Mead are taking bookings for Hotel Rooms, Dine and Stay packages, Lunch, Afternoon Teas, Dinner, Spa Treatments and Day Boat Hire. Call 01603 737 531 or email info@norfolkmead.co.uk

Can you afford to spend £6500 dealing with the impact of a cyber attack?

According to Techradar that is the average cost of a breach in the UK. Whilst we hear most about hackers targeting big businesses the majority of targets are SME’s. The reason hackers prefer them is because they often don’t have the resource or the know how to adequately protect themselves.

That’s where we come in. To help SME’s from falling victim to cyber crime we are now booking 15 minute no obligation Cyber Surgery calls with one of our Security Consultants. We are happy to answer any Cyber Security questions you have, even if you aren’t sure where to start!

Click the link below to set up your call.

https://labsec.co.uk/cyber-surgery/