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JMS recently piloted Norwich-based financial lenders, Guarantor My Loan through their first ever national TV campaign.

With the finance sector currently facing some bad press and following the recent furore surrounding companies like Wonga, we felt it was time to re-focus on the benefits of financial assistance – and the human problems it can solve.

From past experience in financial advertising productions at JMS, we know only too well how many compliance issues such commercials must navigate through, so we had to tread a fine line between creating an informative and accurate explanatory commercial which would also appeal to viewers on an emotional level.

It may be cliché, but storytelling in advertising is key, and constructing a narrative in 30secs or less can be challenging. The audience must identify with the scenario almost instantly. A loan can be used for anything of course, so we opted for the simple life-changing scenario of dad being able to relinquish his role as the family taxi. With Guarantor My Loan he can help his daughter broaden her horizons (and also gain a lift!)

The shoot was outdoors, so as usual we were prepared for a range of challenges – even a bright, sunny day, which it turned out to be! The key shots of dad and daughter together were to be filmed through the windscreen, which sounds simple until you factor-in the intensity and constantly-changing angle of the sun, and the resulting shadows and reflections. Thankfully our Director of Photography, Emma Talmadge, is a veteran at handling sunlight, and arrived fully equipped with an elaborate selection of sunshades and nets to ensure the only highlights and sparkles came from the performers – not the windscreen!

The campaign is now running on channels throughout the UK.  

Larking Gowen LLP is delighted with the announcement that Norfolk ProHelp has secured significant funding, as well as new sponsorship. Norfolk ProHelp provides free professional and strategic advice to charities and community interest groups throughout Norfolk.  Julie Grimmer, Partner at Larking Gowen LLP, acts as voluntary Chair for the organisation. Larking Gowen was amongst the founder members of the group in the late 1990s. They identified, along with a number of other professional businesses, a need for charities and community organisations to access pro bono, top-level professional advice, including finance, law, architecture, design and structural engineering. The Virgin Money Foundation, an independent charity, contacted Julie to encourage a grant application in order to replace existing funding which was coming to an end. The new award is worth £30,000 over three years and will cover vital back office and administrative support. In addition, the organisation has secured funding from three new corporate sponsors, Leathes Prior, Hugh J Boswell, as well as Larking Gowen.

“Norfolk ProHelp is a lean organisation,” explains Julie, “and, while I and the rest of the board are volunteers, having paid administrative support is vital in connecting the businesses on the Norfolk ProHelp panel with the charity and community sector projects most in need of these services. In future, we will be partnering with Norfolk Community Foundation to match the Not for Profit Sector groups and projects with the professional organisations who form the Norfolk ProHelp panel. The panel, includes architects, lawyers, accountants, tax and property specialists, structural engineers, insurance brokers as well as marketing, media and design specialists, all of whom generously provide their expertise for free, to the charities and community groups that contact ProHelp. Working in partnership with Norfolk Community Foundation and supported by the Virgin Money Foundation, together with the commercial sponsors, will enable us to grow the number of businesses participating and spread the word about the pro bono work on offer.” The funding announcement was made by Julie Grimmer, and Richard Walton, a representative of the Virgin Money Foundation, on Wednesday 7 November, at the annual Norfolk ProHelp breakfast show case following the annual National Pro Bono Week celebrations. The breakfast was also featured in the Eastern Daily Press. “Norfolk ProHelp provides invaluable support,” says Julie. “We see the free support we give to be effectively a form of initial seed finance which allows projects to progress.

 “It is, however, often the panel members working together that makes the greatest impact. We may for example, be approached by a playgroup needing help with a building project. We can put the playgroup in touch with an architect, a planning specialist and structural engineers. However, a VAT specialist can advise the playgroup on possible VAT recovery, or developing a professional business plan which is then used to make applications for further funding,” Julie adds. “Larking Gowen has been involved in Norfolk ProHelp from the very beginning and remains an active member of the panel of firms committed to supporting the Not for Profit Sector. We are also proud to be part of the panel for Suffolk ProHelp.

“The firm’s involvement with Suffolk ProHelp is not quite as lengthy as with Norfolk but I am particularly pleased that, in my first year as Chair of Norfolk Prohelp, Larking Gowen LLP has supported a cross county project in collaboration with Suffolk ProHelp. “Larking Gowen’s long-standing support for ProHelp is part of the firm’s ethos of community and social responsibility. Continuing to appreciate and value the place the business has in the wider communities is a vital part of our vision and our business culture but there are a number of benefits to the firm and whole team. One is exposure to partnership working, whereby businesses, who would otherwise be unlikely to work together, cooperate to assist charities and projects requiring professional and strategic support. The projects are also a chance for the team to widen their professional experience.

“Aside from the clear good that Norfolk ProHelp does supporting grass-roots projects,” Julie continues, “employees of partner organisations get the opportunity to work in new sectors, and to work collaboratively with professionals from other sectors, which is both personally rewarding and helps develop skills fundamental to providing good client service.” “The funding and sponsorship announced today is fantastic news,” Julie concludes. “It allows Norfolk Prohelp to continue to provide advice and services to Norfolk charities and community groups free of charge, in turn enabling them to grow, and deliver vital services across Norfolk.”

These days the majority of us are growing ever more conscious of the need to control our businesses better. Unfortunately, watching doesn’t always mean knowing.

Psychologists state there are 2 ways to watch something – ‘overtly’ and ‘covertly’. Research concludes that the winning modern businesses will be those who are transparent in both their purpose and their method in overt observation. In watching in the open, so everyone knows the who, what, when and why.

Taking this approach, why might you choose to track your people or your products?

There are obvious ones:

• Saving money on unnecessary worker or logistic costs
• Being billed for hours that haven’t actually occurred
• Knowing where and when your workers clock in and out
• Access to work records, tasks done and hours accrued
• Ease of reporting, pulling down information and collating time sheets
• Seamless integration with payroll systems
• As evidence for customers or clients paying for your service

They’ll be others of course depending on your industry, but proof of time and attendance systems are meeting a growing need to keep a tight rein on company finances. Those workers who resist or resent the integration of these systems might be seen to be those likely to abuse existing in-house systems that rely on trust.

Essentially, a business that integrates tracking saves money. When all is said and done, money that stays in the business means the business can stay in business, keep their staff and move forward.

If you’re left standing still by money lost in inefficient systems then that’s exactly what you’ll be left with – a business that stands still.

For more info on how NFC tracking can help YOUR business, click to view our site

Gasway Services Ltd, a subsidiary company of Flagship Group, has strengthened its position as East Anglia’s largest heating company following the acquisition of Colchester-based Blue Flame Services.

Gasway operates across East Anglia, London and the Home Counties providing heating and hot water solutions for home owners, businesses and social housing landlords. Blueflame, which provides gas, oil, electric and renewable services in Suffolk and Essex has become a subsidiary of Gasway. Together, the two businesses will be stronger, have greater competitive scale to take advantage of more opportunities across East Anglia.

Both companies share similar values and have the same focus; the collaboration will bring together complimentary services to offer the market. The acquisition will create a total workforce of over 300 and a combined revenue c£30m.

Managing Director of Gasway Liam Betts said: “We are delighted with the acquisition which supports our growth strategy. It also firmly establishes our aim to continue to expand and grow our brand geographically. We are very much looking forward to working together with everyone at Blueflame during this next phase of growth.”

Director at Blueflame Kevin Bull said: “Although we have successfully grown over the last few years, for the business to continue to grow and achieve its full potential, becoming part of a larger group was vital.

“We are excited by the acquisition which will safeguard the futures of our staff, bringing about opportunities for individual growth and progression as well as organisational success under new ownership. As a stronger business we will be able to provide even better services for our customers.”

BEST (Business & Employability Skills Training) Initiative at the Iceni Academy

I would like to introduce myself as the Director of Business Innovation at the Iceni Academy in Methwold. As part of our academy’s drive for continuous improvement, my role has been developed to engage the business community with our curriculum to raise the aspirations and outcomes for all of our young people.

We wholeheartedly believe that engaging and maintaining external business links is invaluable in helping our pupils to develop essential employability skills and gain an insight into a range of career pathways before they leave us. We aim to equip all of our pupils with the essential skills required by local and national employers to make them ‘work ready’ and can only do this by working collaboratively with employers to identify and train our pupils in these skills.

I would therefore be extremely grateful if you could take the time to read the attached flier and consider working with us on one of the many programmes that we offer our pupils.

If you have any questions or queries then please do not hesitate to contact me or one of my team via email: best@iceniacademy.org.uk or telephone during term time on 01366 728333.

We look forward to working in partnership with you to improve outcomes for the workforce of the future.

Mrs Denise Skeels Director of Business Innovation Iceni Academy Methwold

A rising-star technology firm has joined forces with East Anglia’s world-class data centre to offer businesses with increasingly expensive public cloud costs a way to seamlessly migrate to a more affordable private or hybrid solution.

Data Processing firm Spicule have partnered with MIGSOLV to launch a private cloud service which not only dramatically reduces costs but ensures a safe and seamless migration of significant data out of the public cloud.

“For many businesses, public cloud compute and storage resources are a cost-effective way to operate compared to alternatives” reports Tom Barber, Managing Director of Spicule. “However, the balance can soon tip when even modest levels of virtual servers and data begin to grow. Partnering with MIGSOLV, we’re able to give businesses a way to dramatically reduce the costs whilst benefitting from even greater protection.”

Data intensive businesses, deploying in some of the world’s major cloud providers, are finding their increasing needs are resulting in spiralling costs which are difficult to resolve without impacting their business. The two tech-innovators have come together to create a highly secure cloud solution which lowers costs whilst delivering a number of additional benefits.

The new ‘private’ cloud service will allow businesses to own their own unique fully functioning private cloud, all stored and managed by MIGSOLV and Spicule. Spicule will provide the software and expertise to seamlessly migrate and manage business’s existing data and services. Exclusive use of MIGSOLV’s data centre to house the required hardware will provide greater assurances, unfettered access and UK data sovereignty. As well as these advantages, the service will provide significant cost savings for many businesses, compared to mainstream cloud services.

“Spicule are a new and exciting company with very impressive experience and expertise” says David Manning, MIGSOLV’s Managing Director. “With their data know-how and our world-class facilities, we’re very excited to work together to deliver something unique for medium-to-large sized businesses.”

Established in the University of East Anglia’s Enterprise Centre in Norwich, Spicule have recently expanded to larger offices just outside the city. Specialising in solutions to collate and analyse large quantities of data, their software already boasts use by organisations including NASA, Netflix and the US government.

MIGSOLV’s data centre, The Gatehouse, is the East of England’s only purpose-built commercial data storage facility. The heavily guarded building houses computer servers and IT equipment for its customers, protecting them from threats including theft, extreme weather and power cuts. Hardware is installed within a temperature and humidity-controlled environment, with eight days back-up power and some of the fastest connectivity in the region.

It is anticipated the new services will be popular with medium to large businesses, as well as public sector organisations. “There is a gap in the market for truly first-class and affordable public to private cloud migration solutions for fast growing companies” concludes David Manning. “We’re very excited to be working with Spicule to deliver the type of private cloud offering usually reserved for the very largest global businesses.”

More information can be found at www.migsolv.com

TaxAssist Accountants once again provided its franchisees with personalised versions of the Budget 2018 material on the day to share and communicate with clients, prospects and business referral contacts.

With the added challenge of the Chancellor Philip Hammond starting his Budget statement three hours later than usual, the Support Centre team in Norwich, wrote and published a summary highlighting the announcements that will affect small businesses and the self-employed, and an e-mail newsletter for its 70,000 clients.

The latter was personalised for franchisees’ individual websites, and produced for print and e-publications, enabling franchisees to share with their clients the changes pertinent to their businesses just hours after the Chancellor delivered his Budget.

During the day, the Support Centre team also posted live updates to the @TaxAssistUK Twitter account, as well as posts on the national Facebook and LinkedIn channels. The following content was added to the website www.taxassist.co.uk for franchisees to share on their social media profiles:

Budget 2018 – Summary for Small Business

Budget 2018: Small firms get much-needed attention from Chancellor

Budget 2018: Landlords hit by lettings relief limit

Budget 2018: VAT threshold frozen until 2022

James Mattam, Group Business Development Director at TaxAssist Accountants, said: “Our Support Centre staff pride themselves on producing an informative Budget commentary for the benefit of both the accountants in our network and their clients.

“This year our team faced a tighter than usual turnaround time due to the Chancellor choosing to deliver his Budget statement at 3.30pm rather than 12.30pm. Their dedication and pure hard work ensured that our network had various content to share with their clients not long after the Budget speech ended and ahead of the competition.

“The efficiency of delivering our client newsletter is thanks to the proactive centralised mailing service we offer to our network. It lets us communicate on behalf of franchisees quickly and efficiently, leaving them free to concentrate on running their practices. This and our highly regarded content are just two of the many business development services we offer our franchisees, as well as being among of the many reasons people decide to join our network.”

With the health, supplement and nutrition industries growing hugely in the UK, there has been a great increase in the number of businesses selling these types of products online. This has means that the industry both online and offline have become more competitive than ever. Having been approached by the team at Missfits Nutrition, we are pleased to announce that we are working with them to get them found online, building on what is already a strong brand presence.

Missfits Nutrition sell a range of health-related, protein and dietary supplements including whey and vegan protein amongst others.

Having a brand that is known online, poses a number of challenges and our search engine optimisation (SEO), design and lead generation teams are working hard on these aspects for Missfits. With a newly designed website, we have been able to start getting Missfits on the right path to success online via Google, Bing and other search engines.

What we are doing

The Missfits Nutrition website was currently only ranking for brand terms and a few other, lower volume terms. This has been in part due to the lack of various crawling factors’ implementation across the site as well as a lack of clear targeting. We have therefore been working on the following, amongst all other factors to improve how Google and other search engines can rank the site:

Meta data – one of the first criteria that search engines assess, we have been updating and optimising their meta data. This is all based on thorough keyword research and industry analysis. This data allows the site to target what is needed with relevant pages and make sure that users are presented with the most relevant search results subject to their searches online.

Website code – the source code upon which a website is built is key to the performance and the rankings of any site. With Missfits’ website being built via a strong content management system (CMS), we have been able, along with their development team to implement a number of fixes, updates and changes to ensure the code is optimised for search engines and can be crawled effectively. This has also helped to improve the website’s overall responsiveness and speed.

Content, headings and targeting – we have been carrying out keyword and industry research to determine the best terms to target in their industry based on their targets. This has led us to begin a comprehensive audit of all of the website content. Furthermore, this ongoing keyword research means that we are consistently honing what the site is ranking for, ensuring it always remains relevant.

Online PR – a key part of SEO and online marketing is the overall reputation and PR of a site. We are working with a number of relevant websites to feature Missfits Nutrition, helping increase the degree of exposure they are likely to enjoy online, acting as a powerful trust signal for Google and other search engines.

Tracking performance – Key to monitoring and building on success, we are tracking the performance of the website from both a speed and responsiveness point of view as well as in terms of which keywords and search terms it ranks for to make sure we are on top of all happenings.

This well attended annual series of events keeps franchisees abreast of the developments being driven from the Support Centre and provides a useful networking and discussion forum.

Three of TaxAssist Accountants’ Executive Directors, Sarah Robertson, James Mattam and Daren Moore, and key Support Centre personnel, recently visited nine locations around the UK to host the annual round of Regional Meetings. The events were well attended with over 180 franchisees in attendance, representing over 90% of the network.

The core content of the regional meetings concerned three areas:

• New Software Estate

Sarah Robertson, Group Operations Director, presented on the new Software Estate, which includes TaxCalc, Practice Ignition and Receipt Bank and the practical issues around software migration and training.

She reiterated that the Software Estate was the foundation to enable franchisees to be more productive, gain efficiencies in their practice, be more profitable and be best positioned to capitalise on the forthcoming opportunities.

• Service Development

Group Commercial Director Daren Moore FCCA, announced the launch of 2 new services that will be provided directly from the Support Centre.

These new insourced service offerings will cover all aspects of Payroll and Tax and will be delivered through new teams of specialists. Delivering services in this way will help franchisees deliver services more profitably, to generate additional fees and to win new clients.

Daren also presented a new ‘Our Services’ document, setting out the huge range of services clients can access through the TaxAssist Network. This document will prove to be a hugely valuable tool, helping franchisees to differentiate their services and deliver new fees through cross selling activities.

• Increased marketing of the brand via national television campaigns and social media awareness and local marketing campaigns

James Mattam, Group Business Development Director, presented the new Brand Awareness Media campaign to increase more exposure for the business via TV, social media paid programmes and social media engagement along with localised planned marketing plan support.

All of the proposed changes were greeted with enthusiasm by the network as Sarah explained: “I am pleased to report that the network is on good form and very positive towards the changes that lie ahead.

“They understand the strategic decisions that have been made with regards to our new software estate and the benefits this technology brings in making them more efficient, productive and cutting edge with clients and they understand that technology is the foundation for how we drive this business forward.

“It was pleasing to hear that the network fully appreciates the amount of work that the Support Centre team is doing to help and support them to be more successful in their practices and I’ve enjoyed reading the positive responses from franchisees following their regional meeting.”

Concerning the new software suite, Nigel Starkey, franchisee in Leicestershire, said: “Today I have signed up with Receipt Bank seeing the virtues of what it can bring us. The pricing deal that has been secured has been the deciding factor. Keep up the good work – still love being part of the ‘TaxAssist’ network and fully appreciate all the hard work you carry out at Norwich!”

Richard Brookes franchisee from Cambridge is also a fan of Receipt Bank and says:” I really enjoyed our regional meeting – very useful as always. I have been using Receipt Bank for years and the new deal has nearly halved my cost.” 

Hampshire-based Doug Clanchy commented on the new software suite: “We have implemented Receipt Bank already. It’s early days but I’m pleased with the time saved so far. We have 34 new client proposals signed up through Practice Ignition to date, and 11 awaiting acceptance. I can see that there will be considerable benefits from this when we have been able to evolve our procedures to take full advantage of the functionality. Thank you for a great meeting. The strategic thinking, energy and momentum is back in a big way.”

Andrew Thornton, a franchisee in West Yorkshire, commented: “I took a lot from the regional meeting; there seems to be a lot of good ideas and interesting developments going forward.”

This was a view mirrored by Nick Brook, a franchisee in West and South Yorkshire:” I thought yesterday’s meeting was one of the best I’ve ever attended and full of useful content.”

The shop on High Street, Banchory joins Steven’s first shop on 92 Rosemount Place in Aberdeen

After taking over the reins from his father in December 2017, Steven has moved premises in Aberdeen, taken on additional staff and opened a new shop in Banchory, which marks the next phase in Steven’s ambitious growth plans.

Chartered Accountant Steven, who runs his practices with the assistance of seven staff, said: “Building my own business and working in the small business community has always been my ambition.

“I am a passionate supporter of small business as the lifeblood of the local community and there is a real need for a network of local, approachable business services, and this is why we’ve taken the step to open a new shop.

“As demand for our services continues to grow, the new shop in Banchory gives us the opportunity to grow with it.

“Having looked at TaxAssist with my father back in 2010, I was really impressed with the business model, so when the opportunity arose to step into his shoes, I jumped at it. He built an outstanding business, which is well respected within our small business community and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed meeting existing clients and spreading the news of our services to new clients.”  

TaxAssist Accountants now has over 290 shops and offices around the UK. If you would like to run your own TaxAssist Accountants practice, call us today on 0800 0188297 to find out if your preferred area is available.

From January 2019, the Adapt Group will become part of UEA’s Research and Innovation Services, led by UEA’s Director of Research and Innovation and Chamber Board member, Helen Lewis.

Adapt operates the multi-award-winning Enterprise Centre on UEA’s campus, and the Low Carbon Innovation Fund, which so far has successfully invested over £20.5m, leveraging over £48m of private co-investment and supporting over 70 companies to grow.

Helen Lewis said: “This is an exciting opportunity to improve further the entrepreneurial culture at UEA, supporting the ambitions of staff, students and regional businesses; and to place The Enterprise Centre at the heart of our business engagement.”

While the Adapt brand will cease, existing projects with collaborators will continue, and staff will continue to be based at The Enterprise Centre – however they will now work within the University’s Research and Innovation Services.

The change (prompted in part by the December departure of Adapt CEO Prof John French) will allow The Enterprise Centre to fully integrate with the University’s other business engagement activities, expanding the support available to tenants and other stakeholders. The new approach will also provide one central place for businesses to contact to access University funding.

Helen added: “This will allow us to build our offer to The Enterprise Centre tenants and businesses in the region, and provide a truly integrated range of support from funding, access to expertise, recruitment, business incubators, and a whole host of other services.”