Member News

As we all know, time is money, and there is nothing more time-consuming than the back and forth that happens when a brief to a supplier is lacking. The supplier either has to ask a multitude of questions to be able to respond accurately (with a quote, an idea, a script etc) or they just play a guessing game and inevitably disappoint the client and themselves.

With a good brief you’ll save time (both yours and your supplier), you’ll get a response in line with your expectations and you’ll no doubt save money (less time spent on determining what is needed and more time spent on DOING it). And of course you’ll be seen to be a client who knows their product/service inside out and can convey it effectively – always something to be proud of and not as common as you’d think.

I’ve been taking client brief’s for well over 10 years and I’ve learned a thing or two about what is a good client brief and what isn’t. So below is a selection of my top tips for writing a brief for your supplier, and although my experience is based in TV, Radio and Video production, I think many of the points apply to all sorts of suppliers.

Consider the supplier ignorant. Think about why you are sending the brief. What is your end goal, what do you want to achieve? Whatever the answer, keep that in mind when issuing the information. Don’t forget the recipient may know nothing about your business at this stage. So consider them ignorant and offer information accordingly.

Highlight your USP’s – we like to think that our business is unique but most are not ‘one of a kind’, in fact you may be one of a thousand offering what you do, however you will have your Unique Selling Points and you need to share these. Are you the biggest? Do you offer a guarantee? Ask yourself ‘why should a customer use me over a competitor?’ and answer it in the brief.

Choose one Call to Action – the needs for this will vary depending on the medium, but we always state for TV and Radio that you should stick to one call to action so as not to confuse. Two at the most, but I would suggest you don’t bother including a telephone number unless it’s extremely simple and catchy – it just won’t be heard or seen. Mobiles are a bit of a no-no for the same reason, plus they sound less professional. Stick to a website or Facebook name if preferred.

Include other RELEVANT information-We don’t wish to drown in pages of information but it’s better to have far more info than just a couple of lines. This could be links to your website, copies of your press advertising, branding guidelines, even examples of other advertisers you admire / hate to help guide creative.

So there we have just a few tips on how to prepare the perfect brief. This is one of the topics I’ll be covering in my free session at the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce. I’ll also cover:

– How to make the most of your video assets using other platforms. – How to compete with the ‘big boys’ in advertising, for less than you think. – How to avoid expensive hiccups.

Whether or not you’ve advertised on TV before, for the ins and outs of TV advertising sign up to my Chamber Session, free for all members, on 2nd February 2016 at 8.30am.

-Francesca de Lacey, Managing Director of JMS Group

Sandler have a very different approach to selling to the traditional methods. I’ve been enjoying and have made good and successful use of a lot of the techniques I’ve learned over the last twelve months or so. Never before have I been armed with Norfolk Voice, Metal Hammer, The Guardian, scissors and a gluestick! Neither have my wife and children been invited to the President’s Club before.

When Ermine told us that the first session of 2016 would be cutting and sticking and we could bring loved ones, including children, I was intrigued and not sure what to expect. However, it turned out to be a very enjoyable session. I took my wife and our youngest, Eddie (4), who was fully engaged throughout cutting and sticking Thomas the tank engine.

The task for the grown-ups was to create what is best described as an annotated collage of our aspirations and goals for the year. I always need to make more of my family time, but if there’s one other thing I learnt last year it was that I need to focus more on my business and not get sidetracked by other projects, while learning to say no to people (sometimes). I also need to do more things for me and make the most of the professional bodies and training I’m receiving by being more active. Flicking through Norfolk Voice and seeing the pictures of the Norfolk Chamber’s recent technology event also made me realise I want to be more like someone who is very prominent in our community. I included him on my collage, but I won’t embarrass him by mentioning his name here.

Again I learnt a lot and it helped me focus a bit more for the year ahead. Apparently, in December, the next session will be in the school holidays and I can take all three of my kids. Who knows, one of them might become the perfect salesperson.

Vincent Crouch, former Auditor for high profile, international firms including BDO and Grant Thornton has joined Aston Shaw and will be based in the firm’s Norwich Head Office, but will head up the firm’s growing Audit department covering all 5 office locations – Norwich, Cambridge, Ipswich, Dereham and Great Yarmouth.

A Chartered Certified (ACCA) Accountant and FCCA qualified, Vincent completed his training with local regional firm Larking Gowen, where he worked in general practice on tax and accountancy jobs. For the past 5 years Vincent has been working for international firms BDO and Grant Thornton as an Auditor specializing in providing statutory audit and accounting services for small and medium size corporate clients.

Vincent commented: “I am looking forward to working as part of the management team at such a fast growing, innovative accountancy practice. My role will focus on expanding the audit department and ensuring that a high quality service is provided to all clients – no matter the size of their business.”

Before joining Aston Shaw, Vincent spent his time pursuing his personal interest of travelling – for 6 months this year he travelled around India and Sri Lanka – but is now back and ready to take on his new role as Aston Shaw’s Audit Manager.

Vincent’s new role at Aston Shaw will consist of providing statutory audit to medium sized companies, and assurance reviews for smaller companies. Also, he will be focusing on SRA compliance work for solicitors and Independent Accountants Reports for registered charities. For small companies which are not required to have a statutory audit, Vincent and the team will be providing Independent Review engagements which are more cost effective to the client than an audit, but can still provide many of the benefits.

Having already been named a ‘UK National Champion’ in this year’s prestigious European Business Awards, Norfolk based Norse Group is now aiming for the title of National ‘Public’ Champion and the subsequent international stage of the Awards.

As public voting opens for the first time, the company, nominated a ‘UK national Champion’ from the independently judged stage of the competition, has posted a video giving a powerful insight into the story of its business and its success online at https://www.businessawardseurope.com/vote/detail-new/united-kingdom/17652

Competing against other UK National Champions for the public vote, the company with the most votes will be named National ‘Public’ Champion for the UK on 7th March 2016.

The first phase of the online voting is open from 11 January to 26 February 2016.

Norse Group brings together facilities management specialist Norse Commercial Services, property consultancy NPS Group and care homes provider NorseCare, and was recently shown in an independent report to be boosting UK economy by £286 million a year, and has put £70 million back into the public purse.

Mike Britch, Norse Group Managing Director says: “With just over seven weeks for people to vote online for their favourite company, we are hoping that as many people as possible will watch our video and vote for us. The public vote means a great deal as it is our existing and potential clients, staff and stakeholders showing their approval of our success.”

“We are asking everyone wanting to support us to take time to watch our video, and cast their vote for us,” he added.

Adrian Tripp, CEO of the European Business Awards said: “Last year the public vote generated over 170,000 votes from across the world. It is a very important part of the Awards as it gives these entrepreneurial companies another way of showcasing their achievements.”

The European Business Awards was created to recognise and promote business success and support the development of a stronger business community throughout Europe.

A BIG new year welcome toBarenakedfoods, the latest Norwich based business to jump on board our Digital Signage networks across Norfolk. Barenakedfoods are using our network of screens to increase brand awareness, and maximise on the new years health kick by targeting our audiences inside the gyms.

Barenakedfoods was founded in 2011 by Ross Mendham who after years of dieting and worrying about the food he was eating, decided enough was enough. Producing low carb pasta, protein noodles, gluten free sauces, shirataki noodles & konjac noodles, he created food stripped barenaked of the bad bits! After successfully securing further investment from Dragons’ Den Peter Jones in August 2013, barenakedfoods can now be found in some of the UK’s leading supermarket chains,WaitroseSainsbury’s& Morrisons. You’ll also find these delicious products in wellbeing stores such asHolland & Barrett&GNC Live Well. So if you’re looking for a tasty meal and wanting to lose those christmas pounds, then grab yourself some of their tasty rice or noodles from you’re local supermarket or online. Ross has even created a recipes section on their website, helping you create some inspirational dishes such as barenakednoodles with baby crab, thai green curry or stir fry veggie.

The ad was created by our creative partnersThe JMS Groupand can be seen on our domination circuit which has a weekly audience of 350,000+

Accountancy Age has recently published its Financial Power List 2016 with CEO of The TaxAssist Group Karl Sandall being recognised as the 47th most powerful figure in the finance and accountancy world, up three places from 2015.

Karl and TaxAssist find themselves in illustrious company with Lin Homer, Chief Executive of HM Revenue and Customs taking the number one slot and Mark Carney Governor of the Bank of the England 4 places above Karl at number 43.

Accountancy Age is one of the leading resources for finance, business and accountancy news, features, advice and resources for accountants and other UK finance professionals. Every year they produce a ‘Power List’ of the most influential and powerful hitters in the accounting and finance world for the year ahead.

Accountancy Age listed the reason for Karl’s inclusion in the Power List as, “The coming year is likely to be pivotal for Sandall and TaxAssist as the firm embarks on an ambitious international expansion plan, taking in five branches across Australia, before turning its attention to Canada, Scandinavia and the US.”

Karl is listed alongside his Executive Management colleagues Sarah Robertson, Phil Sullivan and Ray Clarke and the TaxAssist franchisees, who make up the UK’s largest network of small business specialist accountants.

In 2014 a ground breaking Franchisee Assisted Management Buyout (FAMBO) took place with a tranche of franchisees breaking new ground in their ownership of the company. Franchisees currently own a 32% stake in the business, with the Directors of the company including Karl owning 53% and 15% by long-standing external business partners.

Karl comments “Whilst it is a mark of distinction for myself and TaxAssist to move up in prominence in the Power List because of our controlled expansion plans, I would like to reiterate that we will in no way be taking our focus off the UK, which continues to be our priority.”

“Myself and my fellow Directors are happy to report that the second half of 2015 saw an acceleration in the TaxAssist UK business performance with double-digit growth in our main KPIs. We finished the year with 58,000 small business clients in the UK and a network fee bank of over £38m, both up 11% on 2014. Combine our network’s successful performance in the UK with the fact that we sold a Master Franchise Licence for Eastern Australia, who now has three territories trading, 2015 proved to be a very successful and interesting year. These are indeed exciting times for TaxAssist.”

Fendercare Marine wins Certificate of Excellence for ship-to-ship (STS) operations

• Certificate of Excellence awarded by Dubai Maritime City Authority
• Recognition of high safety standards within STS process
• Fendercare Marine celebrates 21 years of providing third party STS services

The foremost global provider of ship-to-ship cargo transfer services, Fendercare Marine, part of James Fisher and Sons plc, has been awarded a Certificate of Excellence for STS operations throughout 2015.

This award has been presented by the Dubai Maritime City Authority in recognition of Fendercare Marine’s “excellence in conducting STS operations to the highest safety and professional standards in Dubai waters and the excellent communication updates received from the STS team”.

The Certificate of Excellence is a new award which will be presented annually to an STS provider who is meeting Dubai Government criteria for conducting safe and professional STS operations with high standards.

Elizabeth Skinner, Fendercare Marine Operations Director said, ‘We are delighted to have received this award. We have been providing STS services for 21 years and operating in Dubai for over 10 years. This is a real testament to the safety standards we aspire to continually improve, as well as the strong communication ethos we have embedded in the company.”

Fendercare Marine has provided STS services to the oil and gas shipping industries globally since 1995. Transfers can take place between vessels of any size and a variety of cargoes including crude oil, white and black products, LPG and LNG, as well as dry bulk.

Today these services are provided by Fendercare Marine from a network of over 50 worldwide bases, currently handling in excess of 2,800 transfers a year. Fendercare Marine has an exemplary safety record, without a single environmental incident since they began STS services.

The operation has grown significantly since 1995 as clients have recognised the trading opportunities and logistical benefits of being able to transfer cargoes between vessels at any time and almost anywhere.

“The growth in STS operations carried out worldwide demonstrates Fendercare Marine’s professional performance in carrying out these operations and reflectsthe trust placed in Fendercare Marine by the world’s leading oil majors in protecting their valuable assets.” Skinner added.

We hope you have enjoyed a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year. 2015 was a great year for Norwich Business School at the University of East Anglia and we look forward to developing new and existing relationships with businesses into 2016.

We would like to introduce you to the Graduate Trainee Management Scheme which is now in its third year. The GTMS is a free recruitment service for local organisations within the East of England area and is exclusive to our bright NBS graduates. In addition, many of our students will have had summer internships with major employers, part time jobs, competed for employability prizes or been involved in our various university societies. As you can imagine our graduates can hit the ground running and will be able to make an immediate impact with your business.

We provide a mock assessment centre experience and shortlist the most suitable candidates to participating companies. We work in partnership with our fully resourced careers service and experienced interviewers from within the business school. The final decision is down to you, the client, and if the calibre of the candidates do not meet your requirements, you are under no obligation to recruit. Successful graduate appointments are paid at market rates, circa £20,000 pro rata.

Our free service can save up to £5000 in recruitment and advertising costs and the reason we offer this is simple. We do all the leg work leaving you to do what you do best – run your business.

For further details about GTMS and how to join our mailing list, please see the attached brochure or email us at GTMS@uea.ac.uk.

The New Year is a great time to research the relevant business and industry awards you’d like to put your organisation forward for during 2016, so we’ve put together a timely reminder as to why it’s really worth the time and effort involved.

At Pure, we are a keen advocates of business awards as they celebrate and promote the fantastic employers and places to work in our region. That’s why we sponsor several different business awards each year including the Best Employer category at theCambridge Business Excellence Awardsand Eastern Daily Press Business Awards, as well as running our ownBest Employers Eastern Region awards.

Everyone loves winning an award, but there’s actually significant business benefits from just going through the application process itself, let alone potentially being crowned the winner!

Gain a fresh perspective

Going through the award application process also doubles up as an extremely useful business management exercise. The judging criteria for business awards can be seen as a benchmark of what leading experts in the field believe businesses should be achieving to be celebrated as outstanding examples of success. Taking the time to sit down and really think through the criteria, finding relevant examples for your own application, will not only help you identify what your business has already achieved but also any areas for further improvement.

Carry out competitor analysis

Being involved in key industry and regional business awards can be a great way to continually monitor and update your competitor analysis. Seeing which organisations have entered awards, and how your business has fared against them, is an opportunity to benchmark your business against its competitors. Case studies of winning and shortlisted businesses are also often published during awards, providing easy access to information about what your competitors are up to.

Raise your business profile

Winning or being shortlisted for a business award is an excellent endorsement for your business and helps to distinguish you from your competitors. Promoting an award win will help to strengthen your reputation as a credible business and will raise your profile amongst the businesses’ key stakeholders. Plus the award events themselves are a great opportunity to network and build relationships with other business leaders and to meet potential new customers.

Increase employee engagement

Business awards recognise the hard work of everyone involved in an organisation and winning an accolade is great way to boost employee motivation and staff morale. Make sure that you celebrate the award with all the staff involved, especially if you can’t invite everyone to the award ceremony itself, to enable all employees to share and enjoy the success.

Attract future talent

Winning an accolade really helps to raise your employee brand. This will inevitably help you to attract future talent to your organisation as it will be seen as an attractive place to work, with great career prospects.

TaxAssist Accountants further strengthened with appointment of new Executive Director

The TaxAssist Group is pleased to announce a further strengthening of its Board with the appointment of Ray Clarke FCCA, CTA to its board of Directors with effect from 1 January 2016.

Ray, who has been working at TaxAssist for over a year already as Group Head of Technical, comes from a varied background, having served in the Royal Navy for 5 years before entering the world of tax and accountancy with the Inland Revenue. He then moved over to working in practice, spending 26 years looking after owner manager businesses in the small and medium business sector. Ray joined TaxAssist straight from a specialist London tax practice where he was Senior Corporate and Business Tax Manager.

Ray’s new role will be to take responsibility for all technical aspects of the TaxAssist franchise network, primarily support and training on all aspects of accounts and tax, the visit & audit programmes and being the main contact point for technical partners.

Phil Sullivan, Group Operations Director comments, “We are delighted to welcome Ray to the TaxAssist Accountants Executive Team and Board. His combined experience and knowledge will be invaluable to enable us to continue to deliver the very best quality support to our network of franchisees.”

Ray joins Karl Sandall, Phil Sullivan and Sarah Robertson on the Executive Director team which ensures the smooth operation of the franchise in both the UK and internationally.

With ambitious growth plans and a strong focus on local business, Indigo Swan is set to make a splash in Norfolk this year!

2015 was a fantastic year for us; sales were up 40%, we recruited 4 swans, our MD Emily Groves was named IoD Young Director of the Year (East of England) and we were awarded “Most Trusted Consultancy” and “Best Small Consultancy of the Year” at the National Energy Live Consultancy Awards (TELCAs) in London.

“We believe in a better way of managing energy.” saidChief Plan Hatcher, James Wortley. “Our focus is taking the headache out of managing energy and energy contracts and giving our clients the information they need to make better business decisions. We have been recognised for our innovative and customer focussed approach with a number of awards, the Future50 and our excellent client retention, and we are excited about building upon this in 2016.”

Moving forward, we plan to double our turnover by the end of 2017 and increase the flock to 20 swans. We are currently recruiting for aClient Guideto help our clients reduce their energy headache and have at least 2 more positions coming up this year.

“Attitudes are as important to us as skills when we recruit” saidManaging Director, Emily Groves. “We look for people who fit with our values;Be Trusted,Be Responsible,Be EffortlessandBe Exceptional. Innovation is at the heart of culture, we are always looking for a better way, so it is essential we find new people who push the boundaries and challenge the status quo.”

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About Indigo Swan:

Founded in 2010 by Managing Director Emily Groves, a company whose culture is rooted in strong values, has grown organically thanks to Client referrals and excellent reputation. Their philosophy of doing things ‘A Better Way’ has led to national recognition, awards and a reputation as an industry leader.

The Company’s Norfolk-based Clients include The Forum, YMCA Norfolk, The Broads Authority, The Royal Agricultural Association, Norwich School, Pleasurewood Hills, Norwich Colour Print, Ashton KCJ, Desira Group and Marriott Motor Group.

www.indigoswan.co.uk

SMS, a subsidiary of Alderley plc, are excited to announce that they have relocated to larger premises at the prestigious Beacon Park business park in Great Yarmouth at the end of 2015.

SMS have proudly named their new £3 million headquarters, Starling House, after a major contract win which marked the beginning of SMS’s ongoing success in the manufacture of topside equipment, such as hydraulic, pneumatic and electrical control systems for major subsea EPCs and North Sea oil and gas operators.

The new building occupies a prominent 100,000sq/ft. plot allowing SMS the capacity continue servicing the needs of its expanding client portfolio globally as well as the introduction of new product lines.

The larger purpose built facility comprises spacious bespoke offices and meeting rooms and a workshop designed for operational testing complete with modern observation zones for improved safety and a built-in overhead lifting crane.

SMS is an ISO 14001 accredited company and we are committed to reducing the impact we have on the environment and we are proud that the facility has an EPC rating of B.

Dave Howlett, Managing Director of SMS comments. “The new facilities have been purpose built for our needs to allow us to continue to work efficiently and deliver technical excellence to our clients. These new facilities along with the strong and talented people here at SMS will ensure we meet the rising global demand for our products and services.”

SMS’s new address is:

Starling House Lancelot Road Beacon Park Gorleston-on-Sea Norfolk NR31 7BF United Kingdom

www.sms-alderley.com