Member News

Always ready to take up a sporting challenge, and on the lookout for ways to raise money for Monthind’s chosen charity, Little Havens Hospice, Monthind Partner, Simon Biggs, is busy preparing for his next venture.

On Thursday 26th September 2019, Simon will be setting off from Little Havens Hospice in Benfleet on a 55-mile cycle ride to Harwich. He can have a rest on the ferry before cycling 60 miles from Hoek of Holland to Breda on the Friday and then covering the final 92 miles to Bruges on Saturday.

We caught up with Simon after one of his gruelling training rides in the less than glorious British weather: “This is going to be a physically challenging adventure for me, stretching over three days, so my training has begun in earnest. My fundraising target is £1500, which will help Little Havens to continue to deliver the amazing care they offer children and young people from Essex and the surrounding London Boroughs, who have life-limiting or life-threatening illnesses. Little Havens provides a holistic service by looking after the whole family which may include emotional or educational support for the child’s siblings, parents, grandparents and carers or assistance with social issues.

“Indubitably an amazing charity, providing a sadly necessary service in the most difficult circumstances, I feel privileged to be able to raise funds to enable the Hospice to carry on doing its incredible work, and it is only fitting that I have to push myself hard to make that money!”

If you would like to sponsor Simon, or find out more about the cycle ride, visit the JustGiving page.     

Alan Boswell Financial Planners are pleased to announce the introduction of our new Core Advice Team to help close the advice gap here in Norfolk, and further afield. In 2013 the Financial Conduct Authority removed most commission payments within financial advice. The advice now needs to be paid for separately from any charges that apply to the product being recommended and while this is entirely appropriate there have been some unintended consequences.

For example, a client who wishes to invest £30,000 often may struggle to find a financial planner to advise on this amount for a reasonable fee.

It has led to an advice gap, whereby a number of firms providing financial advice withdrew services for those with less than £100,000 to invest. Some companies introduced robo-advice, an online solution where clients were taken through an online journey and didn’t interact with a financial adviser at all! At Alan Boswell Financial Planners we recognise that financial advice needs the personal touch to fully understand the client’s circumstances. The Core Advice Team (CAT) is our answer.

Alan Boswell Financial Planners – Core Advice Team

The Core Advice Team can advise on virtually all areas of an individual’s financial planning needs. The team provides advice face to face in Alan Boswell’s Norwich office but can also operate over the telephone and via online systems such as Skype to ensure comprehensive advice is delivered in the most cost effective way possible for the client.

Quality advice that clients can trust is paramount and the dedicated team is led by Shaun Coleman, a Chartered Financial Planner with 25 years of advice experience.

 “Alan Bowell and Company has seen the increasing difficulty people have when they want to access high quality financial advice at a reasonable cost. This is of particular concern given the ever increasing array of options available and the sometimes significant impact a wrong decision by a person, who doesn’t have access to advice, can make. Alan Boswell’s decision to set up a specialist team to aim to address this growing issue is good news for those who need advice they can trust, at a price they can afford. As a Chartered Financial Planner, I am very pleased to have been appointed as head of this team and we are looking forward to addressing the gaps in the availability of advice that Alan Boswell’s has identified.”

What does the Core Advice Team charge?

There is no charge for the initial one hour consultation. Subsequently, the team typically charges a minimum initial advice fee of £750. The minimum advice fee will often be significantly lower than fees charged by other financial advisers who may charge £1,500 or more on a £30,000 investment and possibly up to £3,000 on a £100,000 investment.     

A higher fee may of course be chargeable for more complex or involved work, or for advice on multiple products but all fees would be fully discussed and agreed at the outset before any work is undertaken.

If you’d like to arrange your free, no-obligation consultation, call Alan Boswell Financial Planners on 01603 967967.

The 18 teams joining Credo Asset Finance for the Canaryball Rally later this year got together on Wednesday for an inspirational night of fun and fundraising ideas.

The Rally which will take place on 9th -13th October, will recreate the journey across Europe that Norwich City Football Club undertook in their famous 1993/1994 UEFA Cup run.

The teams will start at the Nest in Norwich, before driving to Arnhem in Holland, Munich in Germany and finally Milan in Italy all in the aid of their chosen charity Community Sports Foundation and their #BuildTheNest campaign.

Two of the rally teams shared their own inspirational stories – Jacob Bowles, Norwich City’s current Fan of the Season, who along with his family announced on the evening they had already raised over their £5,000 target for the #BuildTheNest campaign trading from his ‘On the stall city’ market activities; and the aptly-named ‘Team U Pukki’ shared how their wide range of fundraising activities had already pledged nearly £4000. 

Credo Managing Director Simon Gray said: “I was delighted to see such a good turnout and for our teams to network and share fundraising stories and ideas. Our thanks go to the Virgin Money Lounge for hosting the event and helping our teams set up their own fundraising pages.”

CSF Senior Fundraising & Events Manager Emma Fletcher said “It was wonderful to hear how rally participants are already doing such amazing things to raise money for the build the nest campaign.  I can’t wait to see what else happens over the next couple of months, it’s an exciting time!” 

  There are a range of commercial sponsorship opportunities for businesses interested in supporting the Canaryball Rally – for details of how you could get involved please contact Fran Brown at Fran@credoassetfinance.com. Follow the Canaryball Rally on Twitter! @canaryballrally

Due to the success of our Growing Future Talent Programme, Turning Factor have secured funding from Norfolk County Council for a further 50 places for our Leadership and Management course. The programmes are running in Norwich, Thetford and King’s Lynn, starting July, August and September 2019.

If you are an aspiring manager or want to gain confidence in your ability to lead others then this programme will help you increase your skill set.

The programme will focus on communication, commercial awareness, leadership, winning behaviours, motivation and managing the performance of your team. There is also an opportunity to gain an ILM Level 3 qualification.

If you would like further information please contact 01603 881689 and ask to speak with Philip Macdonald 

A Norfolk IT expert has been nominated for a prestigious international award for his work within the software development community.

Chris Sainty, Lead Software Engineer with Flagship Group, has been put forward for the exclusive  ‘Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award’ run by the software giant.

The award is given by Microsoft to ‘technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with the community.’ The scheme has been around for 20 years and is extremely exclusive – there are only around 3,233 MVPs worldwide with just 165 in the UK. This is out of a technical community of around 100 million.

Chris’s nomination is due to his work on a Microsoft product called Blazor. He has been blogging about the product for the last 18 months and he has even written about it for a number of high-profile technical publications.

He also offers support and expertise online to fellow software engineers, and more recently, he was  invited to take part in a podcast and present at a software development event in Cambridge.

Should Chris be successful, he will have the opportunity to spend time at Microsoft’s HQ. Chris said:

“From a personal perspective, the MVP award is a recognition that I’ve helped people. And that is the most important thing for me. I’ve always been passionate about what I do, about learning and sharing knowledge with fellow developers.

“One really exciting benefit of being an MVP is the opportunity to work closely with the teams at Microsoft. All MVPs are invited to the annual MVP Summit at Microsoft’s HQ in Redmond, a special, multi-day conference featuring lots of in-depth technical sessions and feedback groups. Having the opportunity to give feedback and help shape the products you love is pretty cool.”

Matt Brazier, Director of IT & S with Flagship said: “Myself and the whole team are thrilled to see Chris getting this recognition. He is committed to developing his knowledge and technical expertise to meet the needs of our colleagues and customers. Being considered for this award by Microsoft is a huge endorsement for a him, and we are very proud of all that he has achieved.”

MVP status is awarded for 1 year after which MVPs must re-submit for the next year.

*You can read Chris’ personal website here: https://chrissainty.com/

MHA Larking Gowen, Corporate Finance Partner, James Lay, has been named as High Achiever 2019 for the European Region, at last week’s Mindshop annual conference, for his work advising businesses on maximising their potential.   “Mindshop is a leading global network of business advisors. It provides a fantastic resource of tools and technologies, which we use to help our clients get the most value out of the businesses they have worked so hard to create,” explained James Lay, on receiving the award.    “The High Achiever Award is something to be really proud of, particularly as we joined the organisation only two years ago,” James continues, “and while the award came as a surprise, it recognises the commitment of Mark Curtis, Becky Ames and myself in delivering business advisory services to our clients at MHA Larking Gowen.”    Mindshop supports over 1,000 advisors and business leaders globally. It was founded in 1994, and has hubs in Australia, the US and Europe.    “Our objective is to provide clients with the latest thinking in how to grow their businesses, maximising profits, making best use of time, and opening up the potential that so many business owners are sitting on,” says James. “We provide clarity and objectivity to what can at first appear a rather daunting process. Mindshop helps us do that.   “We establish where a business is now, understand where they want to get to and then work out how to get there in the most direct and effective manner, holding people accountable along the way. We tackle a broad perspective of challenges, coaching leaders and their teams, embedding a positive growth mind-set, profiling ideal clients, developing pricing strategies based on consumer psychology, and so on. Mindshop’s famous ‘Now, Where, How’ principle has a real energy behind it, creating the impetus for change across a huge range of businesses,” James concludes.   “I congratulate James Lay on this prestigious European region award,” says Jon Woolston, Managing Partner at MHA Larking Gowen. “The Business Advisory team’s work to maximise business potential is a valued and effective approach, being taken up by more and more of our clients. I’m delighted that the commitment and vision of James, as well as Mark and Becky from the team, have been recognised.”

13 franchisees and senior practice staff recently graduated from The TaxAssist Training Academy’s management and leadership course.

Run over two years, the bespoke LEAD Diploma course, which is offered to both TaxAssist franchisees and senior staff, develops the skills required to be a leader and to help build and manage an effective team.

This is the second group of staff and franchisees to complete LEAD, with the first group of 25 graduating in 2017.

Samantha Skyring, Senior Training and Technical Communications Manager at TaxAssist Accountants said: “To successfully build a practice, you need to have the skills and knowledge to successfully build and manage a team of staff. This is important in the early days as a franchisee begins to establish their business, and equally important to mature franchises with an eye on exit strategies and succession planning.

“This totally bespoke course continues to be very popular with everyone in the network, who can see the value it adds to the running of their practice.”

TaxAssist has received some fantastic feedback from those who have successfully completed the LEAD course.

Steve Doyle, of TaxAssist Accountants in Plymouth said: “The LEAD course has been extremely helpful in building my confidence and ability to deal with situations and aspects of work that I have previously had minimal experience in or avoided. I now feel able to conduct formal staff communications, deal with conflicts and delegate work effectively.

“Everyone on the course wanted to get the most that they could from it, therefore we were all very supportive of each other and it was very interesting to gain different perspectives on how to complete day to day tasks from other people on the course.

“I think the LEAD course is very helpful to anyone who is hoping to become a more influential and effective member of staff within their team, no matter what their job role is.”

To learn more about The TaxAssist Training Academy, our business model, the support that we provide and of course to meet with us, we run regular franchise Discovery Days at our Support Centre in Norwich. Contact Nikki Haythorne on 0800 0188297 for an initial chat.

Flagship Group has developed a unique system which will transform how it manages the thousands of trees for which it is responsible.

The Group, the largest housing provider in the East of England, has replaced its time-consuming manual office-based process with a bespoke app-based solution which will free up Flagship’s team of arborists to spend more time out on site.

With 3,500 individual and 1,000 groups of trees covering an area from North Essex to North Norfolk within Flagship’s remit, the Group’s Business Intelligence Team was tasked with redesigning the process to be more streamlined.  Victoria Green, Business Intelligence Developer, explained: “Our passion is delivering a great service for our customers, so we were very keen to support our arborists by designing a solution to help them work as effectively and efficiently as possible.”

Using existing software, the solution has streamlined the arborists’ workload and made requesting of tree work much easier. Through the new solution, Flagship staff can request tree works via a bespoke PowerApp, adding pictures and location to provide clarity to the arborists. The arborists are then able to assess the work via another bespoke PowerApp, identifying what resources are needed. Finally, the lead arborist can geographically manage the team’s workload effectively and the arborists can log their work using the GIS-based system, provided by ESRI.

Andy Blackman, GIS Developer said: “Our system enables us to visualise the team’s work on a map –  combined with the arborist’s live location to enable maximum efficiency when assigning and recording work. This allows the arborists to amend existing and add new tree data while in the field, allowing the Group to better understand and manage our assets.”

The solution, which is unique to Flagship, offers huge benefits to the tree service which was brought in-house from January 2018. Jonny Worden, Lead Arborist said: “This new system will transform the way we operate and allow us to more accurately pinpoint the work that is required. It will mean that we are better informed before we go out on site and able to easily plan and deliver our work.”

The team are continuing to develop the solution, looking for ways to enhance its functionality.

*Anyone interested in finding out more about the solution which has been developed by the Business Intelligence Team can get in touch with Andy Blackman (andy.blackman@flagship-group.co.uk) or Victoria Green (victoria.green@flagship-group.co.uk).

Bukky Shonola has opened a new walk-in tax and accountancy shop on 53-55 Station Road in Letchworth.

Bukky is a qualified AAT technician with eight years’ experience working in various roles in accountancy. She runs the practice with the assistance of her husband Dapo, a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), who has more than 20 years’ experience in accounting.

She bought the Letchworth TaxAssist Accountants from retiring franchisees in April 2018 and is excited to have opened the shop, which offers the perfect location to meet with the 250 existing clients of the practice, along with potential new clients who can pop in for a free consultation.

Bukky explains what attracted her to become part of the TaxAssist Accountants network: “Having worked for other people throughout our working lives, we thought it was time to pursue our dream of owning a business. Both being accountants, we thought buying a TaxAssist would be a good fit and the discovery day convinced us that this is the right opportunity for us.

“We are very excited for the future and for the opportunity to work as a family to grow the practice into something much bigger, including having multiple shops.

“The TaxAssist Operational Support Centre Team has been excellent and we really couldn’t have done this without them. At every stage of the process, they have been there for us.” 

If you would like to find out more about joining the TaxAssist Accountants network, please give Nikki Haythorne a call on 0800 0188297.

We love an after hours event at The Norfolk Chambers! Last Thursday we got together at Redwells Brewery for our annual Pub Quiz. 

It was the perfect venue for drinking beer, eating pizza and enjoying an evening with your colleagues!  We had a mix of companies competing against each other for the prize of Office tea-time goodies.  With the entire Brewery at our disposal, the evening kicked of with wine and beer, and thanks to the amazing chaps at Brick Pizza on the premises, we didn’t have to wait long for the delicious food! The quiz kicked off with five rounds of questions, and over the next two hours we really made the brain cells work.  It was a close call on who the winning team would be, but coming in at first place were the reigning champions – The Return of the King Quizzard and the Lizard Wizards, the brain box team from Tiger Eye Consulting Ltd. Thank you to everyone who came, it was a fun, noisy evening with a fantastic atmosphere! Enormous thanks to Harley at Redwell’s for loking after us, and to Emiliana and George at Brick for providing pizza to soak up the beers!

This month, Copy & Content Executive, Clare Crowe, celebrates 12-months working with Full Mix Marketing. We caught up with her to discover how she’s found her first year in a growing marketing agency:

What bought you to Full Mix Marketing?

I’ve always loved to write. Whether it was scribbling scripts to perform with my childhood friends or now writing press releases for clients, words come naturally to me.

I moved from my native Canada to Lincoln almost 7 years ago to study a MA in Script Development and Playwriting. After graduating, I moved to Norwich and became a content writer for a busy media agency, writing for brands including McCain, Warner Brothers and Expedia.

Joining Full Mix Marketing was a great opportunity to expand from copywriting alone to a more varied role. Despite being relatively new, Full Mix were clearly going places and delivering successful marketing for their clients. I had heard good things about Sarah (Managing Director) and was excited to learn from someone with so much experience.

What does your role entail?

As the Copy & Content Executive, I help with all things written. I support our clients with press releases, articles, blogs, website text and award entries, as well as written content for sales materials including brochures, mailers and advertising. I also take a lead on social media, making sure our client’s online presence is strong and consistent.

My role is very creative which puts me in my element. Whatever the medium, I love using words to communicate our client’s strengths, connect with their customers and help them stand out.

How has the job impacted on your skills?

Working at Full Mix Marketing for the past year has challenged and grown my abilities as a writer.

I’ve developed new skills, particularly when it comes to uncovering opportunities to create content and carefully weave in the messages our clients want to pass to their prospective customers

Having previously worked with retail brands, I’ve now gained a lot of experience working with companies who sell business-to-business too. The variety of clients we work with means I have to carefully tailor my writing to many audiences. In any one day I might write for an IT provider, engineering firm and online retailer. Each needs their own voice.

Our directors are very supportive and keen to help everyone develop their skills. It’s great to have the freedom to get on with the work whilst having an experienced team around me for support. It’s been a great environment for my colleagues and I to explore outside our comfort zones.

Which part of the role do you enjoy most?

Seeing our client’s success is always the best part.  It’s great to hear something I’ve written has directly resulted in new sales for one of our customers, especially when we’ve worked hard to get the messaging just right.

I enjoy writing press releases most. They’re all about identifying opportunities and turning them into a compelling story which journalists want to share with their readers. Sometimes there doesn’t initially seem like much of a story to tell, so it’s even more pleasing when I can turn it into a widely published and interesting article!

What excites you about the future?

I’m pregnant with my second child so that very exciting! I’ve been very fortunate to find the right balance between work and family life at Full Mix.

Despite the rise of digital marketing, good content and copywriting will always remain about storytelling and painting a picture with words! In particular, social media and content marketing have created a great opportunity for almost any business to demonstrate their strengths and leadership to a wider audience.

I’ve learnt a lot working with a very talented and enthusiastic team of marketers and gain new knowledge I couldn’t have predicted a year ago. Following maternity leave, I’m hopeful my skills will continue to grow and I’ll keep getting the same buzz seeing our client’s content online and in print!

For more information and support in creating blogs or press releases contact Full Mix Marketing today: www.fullmixmarketing.co.uk

Head to the Maids Head Hotel on Norfolk Day, Saturday, July 27 for two free events that focus on Norwich at the time of Kett’s Rebellion, 1549. Donations welcomed to the Maids Head’s charity of the year, Break.

Meet Sir Thomas Paston to hear tales of his involvement during this tumultuous period in the history of Norwich. This costumed talk by Rob Knee from the Paston Heritage Society, will include readings from the famous Paston Letters. Arrive at 10.30am for coffee and cake, view the Paston 600 exhibition and listen to Sir Thomas at 11am.

Then in the afternoon, there is an opportunity to join Norwich tour guide Paul Dickson for Shardlake’s Norwich, a two-hour walking tour celebrating CJ Sansom’s best-selling novel Tombland.

The tour starts and finishes at the Maids Head Hotel, beginning at 2pm and includes Tombland, Augustine Steward’s House, Norwich Cathedral Close, Bishopgate (Holme Street in the novel) and the Great Hospital, Bishop’s Bridge, the site of Bishop’s Gate and Lollards Pit, followed by a climb up to Kett’s Heights with its fabulous views across the city.

The return journey follows the north side of the river with views of the medieval Cow Tower before crossing the river and visiting the site of the Battle of Palace Plain.

Advance booking required for both events online at Eventbrite:

Book here for Sir Thomas Paston

Book here Shardlake’s Norwich