Member News

Paul Robinson Partnership (uk) LLP are pleased to announce that Andrew Smith has become a Partner at the Practice, alongside Bruce Hart and Simon Nicholas. The Practice has been running for over 40 years and Andrew has built strong relationships with local businesses for the past 20 years. Having been an Associate for the last 8 years, it with great pleasure that he is now a Partner. Andrew says,

‘I’ve always valued the faith and support the partners have given staff allowing everyone to work to their strengths on all types of projects, whether it be a contemporary architectural brief, interior design or technical detailing. This has allowed me to enjoy running all types of projects, especially in recent years developing my conservation remit. Alongside Bruce and Simon I intend to encourage and drive this and help to build upon our architectural portfolio with our strong national workload in the holiday and leisure industry’ .

The Practice continues to look to the future, working with Clients nationally on projects ranging from holiday and leisure to commercial and retail.

This year, by popular demand, Adnams have launched a new Corporate Christmas Gifts service.

Packed full of Adnams quality and loveliness, the gift boxes are a great way to thank business colleagues, suppliersor clients.

Adnams offer a totally hassle-free service. Simply choose the gift boxes you’d like and Adnams will deliver them to any mainland UK address. They can also add a little note to give your gifts that personal touch.

There are four gift boxes to choose from including Beer, Bubbly or Gin, and there’s even a gift box with no bottles of alcohol in at all.

For more information, please contact the Adnams gifts team on T: 01603 613243 or email gifts@adnams.co.uk. Also please find pdf attached.

(To ensure your gifts arrive in time, you will need to place your order no later than 1st December 2016)

It would seem only yesterday that three rather ‘misguided’ friends and colleagues would set up a little business in the hamlet of Framingham Pigot with the key aim of helping other businesses grow.

10 years has passed in the blink of an eye, and yet the learning will be forever, the brows are now furrowed, the hair a little greyer (or considerably thinner – you know who you are), and the experience has been truly life-changing.

On Friday 14th October 2016, our team, our partners and our families celebrated a decade of development, hard work, and yes, some success.

A year in which we became Business Moneyfacts national award winners and were appointed to the membership of the Future50 in recognition of our innovation and growth potential, is also a year in which we have taken on 6 new team members, and achieved our best performance of our short history.

This performance not only reflects our own income growth but also represents the record amounts of lending we have facilitated to our business communities, thus continuing to realise our primary objectives in helping to drive growth, acquisitions, innovation, and jobs.

I would like to thank all of my colleagues, friends and families who shared the evening with us to make our celebration a very proud and special one for Ian, Nick, and me.

I would also like to sincerely thanks Richard, Sue, Lauren, Kate, Ed and all the staff at the wonderful Park Farm Hotel in Hethersett, for their professionalism, dedication, and warmth.

As we look to the next decade, we are excited about what we have achieved so far, and what the future holds for our growing business.

Tomorrow we welcome our newest team member, John Dunmall (ex-Barclays Bank), while we continue to work with three others to enhance the diversity of our skills and strengthen our geographical coverage.

Thank you to our customers, colleagues and professional partners for your decade of support.

Three recruitment consultants from Ipswich completed a seven-mile, mud-filled race, complete with 30 different gruelling obstacles, yesterday (Sunday 16 October) in aid of St Elizabeth Hospice.

Paul Sheldrake, Kelly Earl and Gabrielle Wright, who all work at the Pure Ipswich office, took part in the tenth annual Suffolk Whole Hog race as part of the professional recruitment agency’s own 10thanniversary campaign,#Ipswichbig10.

#Ipswichbig10 has been set up to mark a decade since the Ipswich office first opened and the team has pledged to take part in, or organise, a series of different events to raise money for 10 different local charities throughout 2016. The intrepid trio were the latest Pure team to brave a challenge in aid of the anniversary campaign, and they really did go the whole hog. They chose to take on the toughest of the two races, held at Wantisden Valley in Woodbridge, and signed up for the Boss Hog race: two miles longer and with ten more obstacles than the standard Whole Hog route. All three ended up crawling under cargo nets, sliding through muddy bogs, climbing up steep banks and walls, and wading through rivers to complete the course.

Paul Sheldrake, manager at Pure Ipswich office, said: “We all took part last year, so we thought we’d know what to expect. But it was far colder and a whole lot muddier than before. There was a really strong wind and about half way around the course it absolutely pelted it down. Luckily we were at least in the first wave of runners. I can’t imagine what it would have been like once we’d all run through and churned up the ground even more. However, the sense of achievement felt at the end of events like this always makes up for any discomfort along the way!”

Five pounds from every runner’s entry fee is donated to the St Elizabeth Hospice. The Pure team also looked to raise further sponsorship money and have so far collected an extra £200. St Elizabeth Hospice improves life for people in Suffolk with a progressive illness. It provides specialist support wherever it is required, whether at home, in the community or at the Hospice.

Other local charities which have already benefited from Pure’s 10-year-anniversary campaign include: The Papworth Trust, East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, East Anglian Air Ambulance, St Helena’s Hospice, Brightstars and Ormiston Families. Further charity events already confirmed as part of the #IpswichBig10 anniversary campaign include Paul Sheldrake and Gabrielle Wright putting on their running shoes once again to take part in the Adnams Southwold 10k Charity Run in November.

It’s easier than you imagine to start benefitting from the capabilities of SharePoint – here at Breakwater IT we are now offering an introductory package, enabling you to harness its resources simply and cost effectively.

SharePoint Online can be utilised through the Office 365 suite, removing the overheads associated with managing the infrastructure on your own and giving you access to Exchange, OneDrive for Business, Skype for Business and the Office clients.

What is SharePoint?

SharePoint works seamlessly with your other, day to day, applications as a secure place to store, organise, share and access information from almost any device and location.

Using Office 365 you can set SharePoint into action pretty swiftly, employing it to create content and share documents and information with colleagues, partners and clients – essentially SharePoint brings the individuals that make your business work together.

SharePoint, wrapped up for you

The Breakwater SharePoint starter package will get your organisation up and running with this extremely smart platform, and with the assurance of two days consultancy it is an opportunity to truly get to grips with all of the functions if offers.

Read the full details of our SharePoint package

We were thrilled to be an exhibitor at this year’s Talking Technology, an annual event hosted by Norfolk Chamber focusing on ‘Unlocking Digital Growth’. Each year the event aims to develop the use of digital skills and innovative technologies in business to boost productivity and profitability. This year’s speakers were both national and local specialists on the subjects of Big Data, Cyber Security and Business Growth.

On the subject of Big Data we heard from John Fagan from Axon Vibe and Simon Thompson from BT. John covered the evolving mobile era and the way we socialise and maintain relationships. He also touched on The Internet of Things and Wearable Tech era advancing. Simon spoke about his expertise in leading a team of research scientists developing next generation approaches to Big Data infrastructures, Data Analytics for Big Data sets, Novel Test and Diagnosis and Social Physics.

Next up was the importance of Cyber security. Joe Cooksey worked alongside Barclay’s fraud team and utilised their findings to help customers understand the importance of Cyber Security and to identify the changes they needed to make to improve it. Joe challenged how many of us were actually secure and it was really surprising to see just how many of the audience use one of the top ten passwords and would click on an unknown link!

Paul Maskall was the cybercrime Security Advisor and Coordinator for both Norfolk and Suffolk Constabularies. He was in charge of the Prevent, Protect and Prepare agenda of the UK Serious and Organised Crime Strategy. He articulated that his primary objective was to engage with businesses and deliver cyber security advice to both them, the safeguarding community and the public.

The final subject was Business growth. We heard from Venetia Scott-Dalgleish telling the Airbnb story, how it started and how it had grown. Venitia was working particularly to grow and develop the host community outside urban areas in the UK.

Lastly was Tom Haczewski of The User Story. Tom gave a short exploration of UX principles and how they might help businesses see the light, using research and heuristics to develop an unbiased view of their services. Remember, Tom said, “Check yo self (and yo users) before you wreck yo self.”

As if we hadn’t learnt enough, there were further workshops. ‘Getting Seen Online’ by Jonathan White from Traded Network was the first of the day. Jonathon offered his expertise in helping businesses to gain a better online presence.

The second was ‘E-Commerce’ by Alex Tosh from Creative Sponge. Alex identified 10 practical ways to maximise sales online – all the way from engagement and the customer journey through to product promotion.

The third was ‘Website Analytics’ by Darren Lawes from Conversion House. Darren guided listeners through how to find problems on their website that may be slowing down the sales process. He also explained the biggest opportunities for improvement.

Lastly was ‘Building Mobile Apps and the Benefits an App Can Bring to your Business’ by Neil Garner from Thyngs. Neil and his team created the talking tech app that allowed attendees to scan the QR codes at each exhibitor’s stand and reveal a giveaway/prize with a scratchy reveal box. Doesn’t everyone love a scratchy reveal box?

Overall a fabulous day for seeing some old faces, making some new connections and learning more about a number of techy topics. I would also like to say congratulations to Charlotte Hubbard from Norwich Print Solutions for winning our luxury Norfolk hamper! Also well done to Aaron Fickling Director of Laszlo Creative, Neil Garner Director of Thyngs and Barnaby Greenfield, son of Sarah and Chris from Bright Yellow Marking in winning one of our signed Software Development Books. Thank you everybody for taking part.

Thank you to Jill at the Space and all staff at the Norfolk Chamber.

We better start getting ready for 2017!

After a years’ study and an interview with a panel of industry experts, Richard Chatten has been awarded the qualification, bolstering the already highly experienced and qualified team at the Norwich based Support Centre. Richard is the third member of staff at TaxAssist along with Karl Sandall CEO and David Paulson Senior Manager UK & International Franchise Development to gain the qualification.

QFP is the only nationally recognised qualification specific to the franchising industry. It signifies a highly developed level of expertise and experience in franchising and a thorough understanding of its complexities, ethical standards and best practices.

Unlike membership of the British Franchise Association (bfa), the QFP is specific to an individual and not to a company. It’s a recognition of a personal level of commitment, time and continuous professional development by a member of the franchising community.

Karl Sandall CEO of TaxAssist Accountants comments; “Many congratulations to Richard for his hard work and dedication in gaining the QFP qualification. Richard has only been with TaxAssist Accountants for a year, having joined us in 2015 following seven years at a leading international franchise consultancy and publishing company, but in that time his passion and commitment to TaxAssist and franchising has been clear. His work is of an exception level and he has delivered absolutely first class levels of support to our Master Franchisees as they have worked to establish the TaxAssist brand in their territories.

“Richard’s qualification bolsters an already very experienced team at TaxAssist who have been growing the TaxAssist brand internationally and I look forward to working with Richard as we expand further into Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA.”

Business improvement specialist, Jonathan Madden, has been celebrating success as his business reaches its first anniversary.

Joules Resource Management was launched in October last year. Since then, Jonathan has been supporting a whole variety of clients throughout the UK and Ireland. But it’s his work closer to home that has really inspired Jonathan:

“In my role, one thing I do is encourage business owners to stop and take some time to reflect on their business every now and then. This milestone has been a timely opportunity for me to listen to my own advice. It’s my work in Norfolk that’s been the real highlight over the past year.

I’ve worked with some fabulous local businesses who have a willingness to change and benefit from my high performance delivery background. I’ve been able to successfully provide organisation direction, strategic planning and lean implementation, and those businesses I’ve been working with are beginning to reap the rewards.”

Jonathan uses his years of experience and global connections to bring the ‘best in class’ tools and techniques to his clients.

“I’ve been delivering real business improvement and, as significantly for my clients, true value for money. That’s what I set out to do, my value proposition, so my plan is working!”

As part of developing his own business, Jonathan is also proud to be an associate of The People Kit. The People Kit is a collective of professionals who are able to provide expert consultancy in HR, legal, recruitment, occupational health and safety, design, engineering, apprenticeships and, of course, business improvement. Working together they’re able to support various clients through any of their business requirements. Jonathan continues:

“On reflection, I could not have asked for a better start to my new venture. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of my clients. I’d also like to thank my respected supply chain for their professional support throughout this year. I’m really looking forward to helping more clients in 2017 and beyond!”.

By following the TaxAssist Accountants model, seven of its 200 franchisees are each celebrating 10 years of business success.

Between them, the seven franchisees look after 14 shops and offices around the country, which are part of the UK’s largest network of accountants who are experts in helping small business owners and self-employed people with their tax and accounting needs.

Barnsley and Huddersfield-based Nick Brook is just one of the seven marking their first decade with his local small business community and has recently appointed a new member of staff, Kirsty Eastwood, after seeing client numbers soar to over 450.

Nick Brook set up TaxAssist Accountants on Lockwood Road, Huddersfield and, in response to growing demand from existing and new small businesses in neighbouring Barnsley, decided the time was right to expand and open a second office in Barnsley’s Business and Innovation Centre last year.

Nick said: “We’re thrilled to be celebrating our 10th anniversary in Huddersfield and a successful first eight months in Barnsley. Since opening in 2006, we have seen the business go from strength-to-strength as the small business community continues to look for jargon-free tax and accountancy advice.

“At a time when demand for our specialist small business services continues to grow, we’re delighted to have Kirsty join us, and she is already proving to be a great addition to the team.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my 10 years with TaxAssist Accountants.The experience of running my own business has more than met my expectations, and the support from TaxAssist has been first class.I’m really looking forward to the next ten years!”

Sarah Robertson, Group Operations Director of TaxAssist Accountants, added: “Congratulations to all of our franchisees who have reached their decade with us this year. This is a real milestone and something they should be justifiably proud of. We are seeing an increasing number of franchisees renew their franchise agreements with a term of 10 years, which is a positive reflection on the level of support we provide to our network and their optimism for the future.”

The other six franchisees celebrating their 10th anniversary are:

Keith Adams – Bath, Trowbridge and Melksham

Steve Andrew – Oldham

Drazen Coric – Islington and East Finchley

Gary & Cheryl Jacks – Queensferry, Ellesmere Port and Chester

Indira Mandalia – Pinner

Alex Smith – Peverell and Plymouth

October 2016

Peerless plastics & Coatings Update

New plant As part of our on-going commitment to providing the very best product and service possible we have invested heavily in our facility over the last couple of years. At the beginning of September we completed another major investment project on our coating line. This has seen a new purpose built UV system installed, together with a separate new UV curing system for “taller” components. Our new UV system installed on the main coating line will enable us to coat and cure a wider range of products, improve efficiencies and lower energy usage, which is in line with our constant commitment to reduce our carbon footprint. Direct to Media Update -New Coatings We are proud to announce the launch of our new Anti-Microbial Coating. This is a UV cured hard coating which offers our usual abrasion and chemical resistance – with the addition to imperishably halt the development of, and kill over 99% of E-Coli, MRSA, Salmonella, Pseudomonas Aeruginosa (Mould) and Campylobacter. There are many applications for this coating in all areas of industry, such as; Healthcare, Veterinary, Dentistry, Food Processing and Aerospace to name a few. With our large format coating capabilities we are able to apply this coating to sheets, moulding, components and surfaces of many sizes.

Practical examples of the application of this coating include:

Door handles and push plates. Toilet partitions Hospital bed headboards Food processing and food preparation areas

Effectively if there is a flat/low graduated plastic substrate surface which would benefit from Anti-Microbial properties we can apply it. As the coating is hard wearing due to its anti-abrasion properties it will not wear away under day to day conditions even in high traffic areas of any facility. Furthermore the coating offers excellent chemical resistance meaning that harsh cleaning chemicals will not damage the surface, which is a great benefit to printed/decorative surfaces.

Norwich-based market research consultancy Insight Track has appointed Chris Murphy as Non-Executive Director in readiness for the next phase of the research agency’s development.

With a successful 10-year trading history since Insight Track was established, the appointment confidently recognises the growing maturity of the business, and the ambition to continue being a leading player in the marketing services sector in the East of England for the next 10-years too.

Chris has a well-proven pedigree within the regional business community, having owned and managed a clutch of successful marketing services agencies. Chris was latterly CEO of Balloon Dog (formerly Fox Murphy), the region’s largest advertising agency, before divesting by an MBO to pursue wider business consultancy ambitions.

Furthermore the appointment re-kindles the dynamic working partnership between Chris Murphy and Will Herschel-Shorland, first formed when Will was Client Services Director for Chris at Fox Murphy, before Will branched-out to set-up Insight Track.

Chris is relishing the opportunity to realise the potential within Insight Track, saying: “Knowing how important customer insight is to guide business decision-making, I have kept an interested eye on Insight Track since its launch. The business has a great team and I’m looking forward to playing my part in taking the business forward”.

Will Herschel-Shorland, Managing Director, is delighted to be re-united with Chris, saying: “Chris’s appointment underlines our ambitions to realise Insight Track’s full potential and our determination to provide best-in-class client service. The experience he brings is self-evident and we are looking forward to harnessing his skills and energy to drive the business forward, with an exciting future in prospect.”

For the fourth consecutive year, TaxAssist Accountants, the UK’s largest network of small business accountants, has been awarded ‘5-star franchisee satisfaction’, based on positive feedback from its network of more than 200 franchisees.

TaxAssist Accountants rated higher than industry standards for all 29 questions, which inform Smith & Henderson’s final Franchise Satisfaction Benchmark (FSB) report.

A leading independent franchise consultancy, Smith & Henderson creates its FSB reports by inviting a franchisor’s existing franchisees to complete an anonymous online survey containing questions about their experience of owning franchise.

Using a consistent methodology, the franchise is assigned an overall FSB score and the highest performing franchisors are recognised in the Best Franchise Awards, sponsored by RBS.

Steven Frost, CEO of Smith & Henderson, said “TaxAssist Accountants was awarded 5-Star Franchisee Satisfaction based on positive feedback from its franchisees.

“They rated it above average across all five key areas that we measure in our industry benchmarking programme, like training and support and relationship with their franchisor. While nothing guarantees a particular franchise is a good fit for you or you will be successful, franchisors like TaxAssist Accountants have recently been awarded 5-Star Franchisee Satisfaction status are a good place to start.”

Sarah Robertson, Group Operations Director at TaxAssist Accountants, said: “As every good franchisor knows, the success of the franchise is totally dependent on the success of its franchisees.

“Feedback from our network is invaluable to highlight what we are doing right and what areas we can enhance. Every year we look forward to digesting each and every comment and with so many positives, the report was a pleasure to read.”

For more information about the Franchise Satisfaction Benchmark please visit www.bestfranchiseawards.co.uk/

October 2016