Member Blog

2020 has brought many challenges to our region and it is never been more important to celebrate how our region’s businesses are making a difference. Throughout this year many organisations across our region have demonstrated how adaptable they can be, responding to challenges, grasping new opportunities whilst ensuring staff are safe and supported.

With our partners, Birketts LLP, we were delighted to co-sponsor and judge the Employer of the Year category at the 2020 Norfolk Business Awards. The judges were looking for how Norfolk’s businesses were making a difference in three key areas – care for employees and stakeholders, adaptability and being innovative.

Pure’s Executive Director Lynn Walters said “The quality of entrants this year has been exceptional and it has been truly humbling for the judges to witness the extent to which employers have gone above and beyond to innovate, look after their people and adapt under extremely challenging circumstances.”

Whilst we were sad that we were unable to celebrate with the finalists and winners in person, we are delighted to share with you why we felt East Anglian Air Ambulance, Rosedale Funeral Home, Saffron Housing and Panel Graphic, were worthy of the recognition that they worked so hard to achieve.

The judges were incredibly proud to announce East Anglia Air Ambulance (EAAA) as Employer of the year at the Norfolk Business Awards.

WINNERS – EAST ANGLIAN AIR AMBULANCE

This year is EAAA’s 20th anniversary and their people have shared the journey as they have grown from very small beginnings operating one flight per week to a 24/7 operation. The extent of their innovation is phenomenal and runs through the DNA of the organisation. In 2020, not only did they adapt all their normal operational procedures, but they delivered extraordinary innovation and care when it came to looking after their people, including inventing purpose designed PPE. Making the time to communicate each day, recording their ‘desert island discs podcasts’  from their staff, creating ‘furlough families’ and involving everyone in fundraising from cleaners to pilots, which enabled them to beat their fundraising target three fold, were just some of their achievements.

They paid attention to the small everyday things that affected individuals as much as the big operational challenges and their energy, compassion and belief is testimony to the incredible leadership. They excelled at staff wellbeing and through their efforts, generated huge loyalty from their team who adapted and innovated, enabling them to redesign the front line operational procedures as well as keeping team spirit high whilst most were working remotely.

Lynn Walters said, “As close runners up in last year’s business awards, we already knew that EAAA are exceptional employers, but the scale and pace of their response to COVID-19 has been incredible. They demonstrated a relentless focus on their people, ensuring everyone felt involved, connected and important regardless of their position and personal situation.”

WHY DID THE OTHER FINALISTS STAND OUT?

Rosedale Funeral Home is a privately owned, family run funeral home operating from 6 locations across Norfolk and Suffolk, employing ‘a family of 50 people’.

Nominated by their employees, the judges were impressed with how the Directors, Anne and Simon, run Rosedale as one big family business. They have worked relentlessly, leading from the front, to ensure their team were listened to, involved, and personally supported through the pandemic. With over 25% of their employees, being in the vulnerable category, they had to innovate fast to ensure they could continue to provide the exceptional care when families need it most. Through a combination of initiatives, they have enabled their team to work differently, developed new services and support for families and communities, looked after their staff’s wellbeing and still managed to have a virtual company away day to celebrate everyone’s achievements.

Panel Graphics is a privately owned manufacturing company based in Loddon that supply high quality plastic parts used for information display to companies across the world. It has been in operation for 21 years and employs 40 people.

In 2020, supporting their staff was at the top of the business agenda. Chief Executive, Steve Earl, wrote to every member of staff to assure them they did not need to be worried about finances or job losses as the company had set up a fund which staff could call on for support. The company stayed in touch with staff to ensure they were coping and not feeling isolated through monthly socially distanced coffee mornings, providing updates on company performance and discuss health and wellbeing. The business also paid for staff to have a cooked meal for their families at least once a week. They adapted their facilities to design and produce PPE in particular face shields for the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, County Council and local firms, producing 10,000 masks per day. The company hired many more local volunteers and local businesses were very supportive of the efforts and provided food and other local produce to staff. Panel Graphics are a great example of a team being creative not only in designing new products but involving their staff and making a huge difference in difficult times.

Saffron Housing are a fantastic example of how a business should engage its people in a national crisis and bring them along on the journey.

As the saying in business goes, ‘you can never over communicate’ and Saffron’s approach to this has been impressive. They quickly increased communications in a range of innovative ways including virtual coffee mornings and drop in “huddles” to allow staff to consult and question business leaders, keeping staff entertained as well as informed. Saffron identified the need to support people’s mental well-being by doubling their trained staff first aiders and providing access to an Employee Assistance Programme. They set up and signposted a new Staff Engagement Platform and encouraged everyone to take regular breaks. Staff sentiment was  measured regularly by pulse surveys and the responses to their surveys enabled them to  address requests for long term flexible and home working options, and for a full redesign of their offices (a village hall concept) planned to complete by Christmas.

The management team lead strongly and continue to be aware of the ongoing challenges to wellbeing, as we come through the COVID pandemic and have created an engaged, relevant and positive working environment for the future.

Sponsorship of the Norfolk Business Awards ‘Employer of the Year’ category is part of our Best Employers Eastern Region initiative. Find out more at www.best-employers.co.uk 

UX designers will always argue that to have a successful, highly converting website you need to create a path of least resistance. The less clicks to conversion the better!

However, we now live in a world where we are responsible for protecting ourselves, our businesses and our clients from cyber-criminals. With that in mind, UX designers’ job is to try and make the whole process as quick and easy to use as possible.

Case Study – What we learnt from Recaptcha?

For a start if you don’t have Recaptcha for the sake of you and your users you absolutely should. It’s part of your defences against cybercrime and it shows your customers that you take security seriously.

Recaptcha is a service from Google that helps protect websites from abuse, spam and fraud. It once required users to prove that they aren’t robots by taking a mini test, which added many clicks, decision making and often drove users crazy.

How did Google improve the UX?

Version 2 of Recapture was the best Google could do at the time and when 2018 rolled around they had listened to user feedback and needed a new approach. With version 3 they removed the UX nightmare and instead opted to verify requests with a score and give you the ability to take action in the context of your site. This means the user is required to make no extra clicks, no extra decisions and no more headaches.

Our UX designer Ryan Farrow says “The change from V2 to V3 had a dramatic effect on usability, as most users of V2 were suffering from decision fatigue before the update. Decision fatigue in usability terms means that every page of your website provides the user with information and decisions to be made. The more decisions you ask of a user the more likely they are going to give up which increases abandonment rates and reduces conversion.”

How does the UX designers deal with security?

The problem normally comes when security isn’t considered during the UX/UI process. When developing a persona for the ideal user there won’t be many cases when security of information isn’t a priority. Having security considered early on helps you to consider the areas of weakness and research the best solutions. The best solution will 9 times out of 10 be the safest, but how the security effects the UX process should also be considered to make the final decision.

A good design and development team will carefully consider this balance between ease of use and security. Once a solution has been implemented, it is also important to keep the site updated with the latest security measures as they are released. Finally, the last important thing to do going forwards is to periodically review security to see when better options become available.

At Source Code Studio we provide carefully considered website design, app & software development for all our clients. Also, as part of “The Green Duck Family” we provide our clients with a single point of contact for IT services through Green Duck and cyber-security through Labsec.

If you’d like to speak to us about a new secure website or even how to keep your users safe from cybercrime, get in touch.

 “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” ~Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

Books are the gateway to a different world. You can explore places otherwise inaccessible to a common man. And when you read literature in a particular language, not only do you learn about their culture but also what and how they think. 

Russian is the largest native language in Europe with over 258  million speakers! It is the official language of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Belarus. It has got a large percentage of speakers in central Asia, Baltic nations, and the Caucasus. It is also the second most common language on the internet. 

With such a large and diverse geographical area, Russian literature is rich. The first-ever book in Russian, The Minor, a play, was written by Denis Fonvizin in 1782. After that, there was no turning back. To date, numerous books have redefined the literary course of Russian literature. 

7 Books That Redefined the Russian Language

It was not easy to shortlist just 7 books from a language as vast and diverse as Russian. Here, we are with our 7 magical books. Have a read:

1. Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak: Set in the backdrop of the Russian revolution, this novel is a classic tale of romance, tragedy, and misfortune. It intricately captures the struggles of people during the first half of the twentieth century. The protagonist loses his parents in his childhood. He is raised by his uncle. He goes on to marry a close friend. But then he begins to develop feelings for another woman. His strong moral values keep him tied to his wife. The complexities of the human mind are beautifully captured in this book.

1. A Hero Of Our Time By Mikhail Lermontov: This groundbreaking novel paved the way to realistic fiction in Russian literature. Lermontov introduces Pechorin, the first antihero character of Russian fiction to the readers. Set in the backdrop of the Russian Caucasus in the 1830s, the novel deeply probes the psychology of a young and powerful aristocrat. 

While being extremely capable, the protagonist fails to maintain positive human emotions. He takes pride in destroying lives, and brutality. Ultimately, this leads to his downfall.

1. Fathers And Sons By Ivan Turgenev: Fathers and sons depict the typical conflict between generations. It explores the dilemma of a nihilist young man upon falling in love and other human emotions. This makes him question his attitude and fall towards spirituality. The main characters of the book are Nikolai, his son Arkady, and his friend Bazarov, Nikolai’s brother Pavel and his maid Fenichka who he later married. Readers get a glimpse of the Russian society where norms were strict but it was getting an air of modernity. 

1. Dead Souls By Nikolay Gogol: Dead souls is a satirical take on the Russian provincial life. It explores the deeds of a man who convinces landowners to buy dead souls as these dead people were still alive in documents till the next census. Landowners in those days had to pay tax on the souls that they possessed. 

While the census was erratic, these landowners were forced to pay taxes even for the people who died in this duration. When the protagonist offers to buy these dead souls, he receives the skepticism of the landowners. Still, he manages to buy about 400 souls. Then the rumors begin to fuel the town and he loses his status stature. 

1. War And Peace By Leo Tolstoy: Talking about Russian literature is incomplete without Leo Tolstoy and war and peace. This masterpiece novel explores the psychology of people in the early 19th century when the fear of Napolean’s war loomed over Russia. The beauty of this novel lies in the fact that Tolstoy extensively studied the history of that era to create a realistic fiction.

1. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy: Another masterpiece by Tolstoy, this novel explores the complex life of Anna, a powerful socialite. She falls in love with a Vronsky but is not ready to give up on her marriage. Russian societal norms, her love for family, and fear of church keep her hands tied. 

Her life takes a drastic turn when she decides to run away with Vronsky to Italy. There she faces the harshness of society. She comes back to Russia where she is shamed and shunned by her family and society as well. What follows is the tale of insecurities, moral conflict, and isolation. 

1. Mother By Maxim Gorky: If there is one novel that explores the depth of a mother’s love for her child, it is Gorky’s mother. The novel is set in the backdrop of the great revolution of the 1900s. Pelagueya, the mother, is married to an irresponsible and drunkard husband who dies early. The whole responsibility of raising her son, Pevlov falls on her. 

She works hard in a Russian factory. Initially, Pevlov becomes an alcoholic but then he gets involved in revolutionary activities. Pelagueya is skeptical of her son’s activities at first. Being uneducated, she is unable to read the pamphlets that her sons bring. Still, her maternal instincts ask her to help her son out. she prints out her son’s anti-government speech and begins distributing it. A spy notices it and informs the officials. She is killed among the masses.

How Do I Read These Books In Their Original Language?

The truth is, the soul of a book is partially lost in translation. If you want to feel the true emotions, the best way is to read a book in its original language. But how can you do that if you do not know Russian? Well, there are plenty of online Russian tutor who can teach you at an affordable cost. The new age e-learning portals are your gateway to the literary marvel that is the Russian language. So no need to read the translations, you can enjoy these great novels in the native language!

For businesses preparing for the new rules on trade with Europe, now is the time to ensure everything is ready. Last week we shared the Import Export Support checklist for preparations for Jan. 1. If you’ve been using it, here is some detail on the first four tasks on the checklist. We’ll be following this up with more information, so look out for further updates.

Checklist notes: defining importers, exporters, agents and intermediaries

1. Importer/Exporter of record in UK. From January 1st 2021 an export declaration will be required when goods leave the UK destined for EU27 countries and vice versa.

• The consignor/exporter of record is responsible for any customs debt or liability incurred through a HMRC review
• Goods leaving the UK must be submitted using an EORI number starting with GB
• Goods leaving the EU must be submitted using an EORI number starting with an EU27 country code
• For goods leaving the UK, a P2P (permission to progress) message must be received from CHIEF before the truck will be allowed to enter the port.

2. Importer/Exporter of record in EU. From Jan. 1 an import declaration will be required when goods enter an EU27 country from the UK and vice versa.

• The consignee/importer of record is responsible for the accuracy of the declaration and any resulting customs debt or liability incurred because of inaccuracies
• When entering an EU27 country, the import declaration must be submitted by the Importer of Record (Consignee) using an EU EORI number starting with the EU27 country code like DE, NL, FR etc.
• When entering the UK this must be submitted by the Importer of Record (Consignee) using a UK EORI number starting with GB
• EU27 countries will have systems similar to the UK’s GVMS, to facilitate transit through ports of entry
• Goods will be customs cleared whilst they are making their crossing. This is when a decision is made whether the shipment can be allowed to disembark and go straight to its destination or whether it needs additional checks. Checks will be done by HMRC at a location away from the port.

3,4. Customs Intermediaries. It is usual to appoint an agent or customs intermediary to submit customs declarations on your behalf. They will normally act as a direct representative, which leaves the importer of record, ie your business, wholly responsible for the accuracy of the declarations submitted and liable for any resulting customs debt, fines or penalties levied by HMRC. It is therefore imperative to give clear instructions to your agent, to perform regular checks on key information and to have a documented process to ensure that any errors are corrected on a timely basis.

Our advice is that businesses should prioritise preparations as the new trade environment starts in just a few weeks.

If you need more insight or advice, please contact me here

The highlighted numbers refer to the job number on the checklist

The trend of promoting your products and services through an online platform is becoming very popular. One great benefit of online business is that you are not required to pay rent or take care of your assets. Covid-19 has made work in the outside environment almost impossible. In times like this, online businesses provides a great opportunity to earn money and run your business. Here are some great tips on how to effectively run your business on the internet.

Properly Organise Your Website

To make your brand popular and stand out more, you should perfectly create your website. From website designing to marketing, everything should be planned out with care. Post content that provides useful and detailed information about your products. You can optimise your website using SEO (Search Engine Operation). It helps in making your website trend in search engines, which provides it more exposure. Exposure to your website attracts more traffic to your site.

Safely Maintain Your Records

Online businesses should plan out a proper way to maintain their customer information and other records. Brands have a responsibility to protect and secure customer information. Information regarding your business transactions should only be kept with your employees. Set up a proper system on your computer to record information. Also, make sure to have a back-up software to avoid any data loss.

Communication

In some cases, you may not have an office set up when running your online business. Your employees will have to work remotely in their own space. In such circumstances, the need for a secure communication system arises. By using the Zivver application, you can safely send messages and make video calls with your workers. It helps in protecting your confidential information. Your information will reach the other device without any leakage. You can also secure email by using Zivver to protect your work-related information.

Use of Social Media

One of the best digital marketing strategies is done through social media accounts. To increase traffic to your site, you can promote it through your social media. Make your business accounts on different platforms and update it on a daily or weekly basis. You can post creative content and mesmerising photos of your products. You can also hire famous influencers on social media to advertise your business. They tend to have a huge fan following, making it easy to gain the public’s attention.

Strong Internet Connection

For your online business to run efficiently and without any error, make sure you have a strong internet connection. A poor connection can make you miss out on a customer order or fail to reply to them right away. It can lead to poor customer service, which negatively affects your website. Your remote employees should also have a great connection so that they can complete their tasks on time. As the business runs entirely on the internet, you should not miss out on any opportunities caused by a poor internet connection.

Expand Your Knowledge

Before planning to start an online business, you should train and learn about it. It is best to know everything before you indulge in online business. You should take training in programs like digital marketing to help you with website designing. It also provides you valid information on how to increase your online traffic. Expand your SEO knowledge, as well. Search engines are of great importance to websites. With the help of SEO, you can optimize your site to come up in the top searches. It will also help you in choosing relevant keywords for your content that can help promote it.

We all need to spend money with third parties to keep our businesses going.

Whether it’s products for distribution, IT support or PPE, we have to buy them, but we make sure that we’re not spending over the odds.

It can be hard to know where to start, which is why I’ve put together 5 tips to save money with your suppliers.

Group Items Together

We call this ‘consolidating spend.’ It’s where you sort all the different types of products you buy into one category, such as: stationery, PPE, nuts & bolts.

When you have this list and the quantities that you’re likely to buy each year, you can approach suppliers for a price list that covers all those items.

It’s a bit like bulk buying, but you don’t have to buy the items until you need them. You just know in advance how much it will cost and your supplier ‘rewards’ you for your loyalty with preferential pricing.

It can also save you time because you don’t need to get quotes for items or decide which supplier should be used.

Note, the quantities that you give should be guidelines and you shouldn’t have to guarantee to buy a certain quantity.

Right-Size Your Suppliers

You want to be treated like a valuable customer. That way you’ll get better pricing and better service. I think we all know from our personal lives what it’s like to deal with a giant company that puts you through to random call centres!

Right-sizing is about finding the supplier that is big enough to cope with the quantities you want to buy but small enough for that volume to be valuable to them.

For example, if you have an office that has 50 people in it (normally!), it would be too big for a self-employed cleaner to take on the work. Conversely, it would be too small for a national company like Interserve or Serco to care much about the business. The trick is to find that (local) cleaning company who has capacity to service an office your size, but it’ll represent enough money to make a difference to their annual turnover.

Don’t underestimate how valuable good service is! Remember the times when you’ve had to deal with an incorrect energy bill or you’ve been overcharged for your mobile – it takes an awful lot of time to correct problems. It’s much more cost-effective to make sure you’re given good service from the beginning.

Ask!

You don’t always have to change suppliers to find a better price. Over time, contracts and pricing get rolled over automatically, and you see ‘price creep.’

Your supplier might not have realised that this is happening! Or, they might have an idea for how you can buy the items cheaper, such as in larger quantities or a different brand.

It’s seems counter-intuitive that suppliers would want you to spend less with them, but most want to give good customer service. And if they’re over-charging then they’ll lose you as a customer eventually anyway.

Share Your Goals

When you’re talking to your supplier, tell them about your business goals and ask them about theirs.

If your business is looking to expand, give better customer service or boost output, your suppliers might be able to help.

For example, if you’re a distributor and you want to be able to ship goods to your customers faster, your key suppliers might be able to do ‘drop ship’ orders direct to your customers under your branding. And that might tie up with their goals of increasing that side of their business.

Saving money is about more than just the price tag – it can mean reducing the amount of time you spend on everyday tasks.

Also, your supplier is going to be more motivated to give better pricing if they understand why you’re asking for it.

Reduce Your Transaction Costs

Every time you interact with a supplier it’s costing your business money, because you could be doing something that adds value to your customer.

These steps could include: asking for a quote, asking about a product or service, raising a Purchase Order, receiving the product into your warehouse and paying the invoice. That’s if there aren’t any problems with the delivery or order!

Taking out these steps will reduce your overall cost of working with a supplier. You could do this by:

• Having consolidated invoices, such as one per month instead of per order
• Having ‘vendor managed inventory’, where the supplier looks after your stock for you
• Using online ordering platforms

Conclusion | Price vs Value

My final tip would be to not confuse ‘price’ with ‘value’ – if something is cheaper but doesn’t last as long, it’s not good value.

Price is important but getting the right product or service for you is the key.

For support on how to get more value out of your supply chain, feel free to give me a ring on 07588 071975 or check out my page where you can get more procurement resources.

With less than two months until the Brexit deadline, Chris Scargill, Partner and business advisor at MHA Larking Gowen, believes trading with Europe after Brexit, deal or no deal, will be more challenging than many businesses are currently willing to admit.

Chris explained: “Due to COVID-19 the majority of British companies involved in exporting to Europe have not been able to give Brexit the attention they should, and unfortunately, some are in denial about the scale of the challenge. While there are a number of solutions available to facilitate EU trade, it is not as simple as getting an EU EORI number* to solve all supply chain challenges.”

A poll of some 50 import and export businesses held during our recent MHA Larking Gowen Brexit webinar noted only 8% of businesses felt fully prepared for exiting the EU, although pleasingly, 37% felt they were more than 50% prepared right now.

Chris continued: “The problems Brexit will throw up are surmountable, but they also require a long-term strategy to adjust to new trading arrangements and regulatory issues. The lack of preparedness is very understandable given the pandemic, but businesses now need to act promptly and get in the right mindset to see Brexit through over the next five to ten years.

“It is crucial to realise that although a deal will bring great relief to businesses and their bottom line by removing the cost of duty tariffs, the legal and regulatory as well as administrative costs will remain. For example, customs declarations cost money, irrespective of any actual duty being charged. As an estimate, if a company has 2,000 declarations to make, it could cost potentially £50,000 to employ an agent to handle this volume of paperwork. Being unprepared and getting caught out will cost even more; if goods turn up at the border without the right paperwork they will just be stuck in the port.

“Due to COVID-19 and the misconception that a deal means trading will continue as normal, we have sleepwalked into a situation where, less than two months away from the biggest change to the UK’s trading relationships in our lifetime, many businesses are unprepared. It is not too late for companies to get their house in order, but for many, this will have to entail looking beyond specific fixes, like hiring a customs agent or thinking about a subsidiary in Europe, important though these steps are.”

*An EORI number, or Economic Operators Registration and Identification number, is needed to move goods between the UK and non-EU countries.

Visit our dedicated Brexit Hub for more information and further updates 

The internet, and further technological advancements, have changed many industries and in lots of cases, for the better. Online gambling has seen a massive shift in terms of how people place wagers and the number of options that are available to them. More and more bookmakers are taking their attention away from the high street and the betting ring at racecourses, to instead focus on building the very best online product possible. Of course, some punters still prefer the traditional betting shops, but from a convenience standpoint, online betting sites are unrivalled.

Betting Offers

More online betting sites means more online betting offers. Every new bookie that enters the market has a new customer offer that new users can claim. Usually, you have a choice between a sports betting bonus or a casino deal. Offers and promotions are not just for new customers. There are mobile-exclusives, live betting offers, and other innovative deals that would not be possible without the increase in technology over the last two decades.

Mobile Apps

It is important that betting companies have a state-of-the-art mobile app on top of their standard desktop website offering. Lots of bettors like to wager whilst on the move, but even for users that are watching a sporting event from home, it is easier just to grab their phone and lock in a bet rather than setting up a computer. Betting apps have improved drastically over the last five years. The very best bookies have incredibly fast and reliable mobile products and the Face ID login functionality on the iPhone has made a massive difference too.

Live Betting

Betting sites offer in-play odds on the biggest events as well as niche sports around the world all day, every day. Users can now follow the action through graphics and up-to-date stats, or even live streaming in some cases. Most bookies will have a dedicated live betting section, and some will even offer odds boosts and requested bets in-play, especially for the Premier League or Champions League football.

Social Media Marketing

While the betting products themselves have had a huge makeover, the same can be said for the marketing techniques and overall digital content output. Betting companies can use targeted adverts on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in order to try and generate acquisitions, but there are also more creative techniques that are being utilised, such as influencer marketing and viral content. Additionally, YouTube channels and podcasts have been set up by various bookies, and this can help with brand awareness as much as anything else.

Rise of Esports

Emerging as one of the most popular sports on online betting sites, Esports has made its way into the mainstream. You can now wager on popular titles such as CS:GO, Dota 2, League of Legends, Overwatch, and many more. Some sportsbooks have a separate tab for Esports and therefore can optimise an entire section of their website for gaming fans and bettors. Even when most major sports shut down during the spring of 2020, Esports was able to continue and even the likes of Formula One and the NBA arranged for their stars to take part in Esports events.

2020 has been a tough year for many businesses, so why not spread some joy this festive season? Christmas emails are a great way to thank business contacts for their custom and let them know your plans for the coming year. Smart Messenger is here to lend a hand and have released their Free Christmas Email Templates early to allow you to get planning your Christmas email campaigns! Plan ahead

Don’t leave planning your Christmas emails too late. People have a lot to think about over the Christmas period and may even take extra days off around Christmas. Ensure your recipients are aware and receive your messages in good time. It will make things easier for you further down the line and demonstrates to your customers that you are prepared.

Smart Messenger’s Free Christmas Email Templates really help you to take the legwork out of creating your campaigns as our festive templates are all ready to go. Simply add your content and logo and you are away!

Show your appreciation

Christmas emails provide a good opportunity to thank people for their custom over the previous year and let them know about your plans for the year ahead. With the events of 2020, it has never been more important to show appreciation for your customers’ support. Saying thank you builds upon your relationship with your customers and when people feel appreciated that helps to build loyalty. Those who feel their custom is appreciated are much more likely to exercise loyalty by doing more business with you.

Tell your story

2020 has certainly been a ‘different’ year with many businesses needing to adapt to changes quickly. An end-of-year roundup of how your product or service has helped customers throughout the year makes for great reading! Give real examples of how you have helped others. People love a good story! 

The people within your business are also important telling the story of how you have supported your employees throughout the year is. By sharing these behind-the-scenes stories you are showing customers what they could be doing in their businesses and humanising your own. It has been an interesting year for all of us, so why not share your story? 

Support a charity

Charities have had a rough time this year. Your Bespoke Christmas Email Templates created specifically for you. We will put together the ideal template for your campaigns and can even add animation!

If you are separated from your family members by oceans and borders, you may be concerned about how best to financially support your family overseas. Even after you save up the money to send back home, there are many different services that offer international money transfers. Each offers its own benefits, and you can find the right service to meet your needs depending on how quickly you want to send the funds and which country you are sending to. Here are a few of the top choices when you want to transfer money internationally.

PayPal

PayPal is one option for overseas money transfers. The online service is available in over 200 countries and 25 currencies, and it’s easy to make the transfer using your PayPal account, which you can link to a debit card, credit card and/or bank account. However, while many domestic PayPal transfers are free for family and friends, the same is not the case for international transfers. PayPal charges a fee and, like other money transfer services, sets its exchange rate for the transaction. If you fund the transfer using your bank account or funds already in PayPal, the fee has a low cap, but if you use your credit or debit card, you may pay 5% of the transaction in fees, in addition to a funding fee based on the source of the funds. Recipients get the money right away in their PayPal accounts. However, PayPal is not available in all countries, so check with your relatives before planning to use this online service.

Wire Transfers

Wire transfers from your bank are one reliable, classic option for sending money overseas. You can send a wire transfer to almost any receiving bank in the world. In many cases, you can also send a bank transfer to certain types of credit cards and prepaid cards, depending on the country. Wire transfers typically take only a day or a few days to receive. However, depending on your bank and the recipient country, you may need to go into a branch in order to complete your transfer. In addition, many international wire transfers also have a fee attached, although it is typically a fixed fee rather than a percentage rate.

Western Union

There are two reasons why Western Union is incredibly popular as a means of sending money to your family members in your home country. First, Western Union is found almost everywhere in the world, including in countries where PayPal and other online services are unavailable and difficult to use. Second, Western Union offers its best-known “money in minutes” service. Your recipient can pick up cash in hand from any agent location instantly after you send it, and these locations are available in a wide range of grocery stores, corner shops and other local businesses, in both large cities and small towns. Fees for Western Union money transfers vary, depending on the sending and receiving countries as well as the services you choose; you can often save by choosing to send to a bank account instead. Western Union transactions can be completed online, through a mobile app or at an in-person agent location.

There are many great options to help you send money to your family overseas. Make sure to check the fine print when completing your transaction, including the amount your recipient will receive in their home currency.

With just a few weeks to go until the 31 December 2020 Brexit deadline, businesses appear to be in two categories. There are those businesses who’ve had a Brexit plan for what feels like forever and are constantly fine-tuning it. Then there are those businesses which are holding off before making any detailed Brexit plans. So, the question for the businesses holding off is… what are you waiting for?

Whilst there are still a range of potential Brexit deals on the table (Brexit latest mentions no deal, Canada deal and Australia deal), what steps to prepare for Brexit can UK businesses be taking now which are simple and cost effective? 

Where to start? 

The first step to prepare for Brexit is to look at your supply chain. Where do your goods come from and where do they go to? This will help you identify the impact Brexit is likely to have. 

No direct involvement with the EU, so nothing to worry about? 

If, having reviewed the supply chain, there are no immediate cross-border transactions, then you can breathe a little easier knowing there is no immediate direct impact from Brexit. 

However, is that the case with your major suppliers and customers? For example, if you’re a manufacturing business purchasing raw materials from UK suppliers, there’s no direct, immediate upstream impact on your business from Brexit. However, if your supplier is importing all of the raw material from the continent, it would be useful to know if they’ve taken steps to mitigate the impact of Brexit on their supply chain or if, come 1 January, you’re going to be facing shortages or cost increases.  

Similarly, if your main customer sells all of its goods to EU customers and hasn’t done any Brexit planning, they may not have a customer base if EU tariffs price them out of the local markets, resulting in a lack of funds to pay bills and the loss of a significant part of your business. 

Finding this out will cost little, but could have a big impact.

Importing from the EU 

If you directly import goods from the EU, have you considered what duty rates may apply from 1 January 2021? Duty is an additional, irrecoverable cost to businesses and will need to be factored into budgets and pricing.  

Who will be responsible for completing customs declarations, which will be required for movements of goods between the EU and UK from 1 January? If in-house, then training may be required or possibly even an extra employee to take on the administrative burden. If outsourcing, there will be an additional cost to the business.

For cashflow purposes, it’s also important to understand when and how import VAT and duty will be paid. The UK Government is taking steps to mitigate the impact of Brexit on UK businesses, so understanding what can be done to lessen the impact of taxes on cashflow should prevent unpleasant surprises in January. 

Exporting to the EU

If you export goods to the EU, have you considered whether you’ll need a local subsidiary, a local VAT registration, or a local fiscal representative in the countries you sell to? 

In some cases, these can be avoided, but it’s unlikely to be as simple as changing the shipping terms and placing the onus on the customer to deal with the import requirements and costs (there may well be a similar customs duty cost for goods going to the EU as mentioned above for goods coming to the UK). 

In addition, some sectors (particularly food businesses) require an EU business address on the packaging. Understanding and dealing with these issues will ensure compliance with EU law and avoid needing to reprint all of your packaging. 

What to do now?

Once you know what the potential risks and costs of Brexit are, you can then consider where the opportunities are. 

• If you’re bringing goods into the UK and then shipping them out again, there may be duty reliefs available. 
• If your teams need training to handle customs declarations, there may be grant funding available. 
• If there are logistical issues making supplies to a certain EU member state, is there another way you could operate, which may also open up new markets? 

It won’t be possible to exploit the opportunities without first understanding your supply chain and potential risks.

Which camp are you in?

Whilst change can be daunting, particularly after the year we’ve had, if you were to ask, “What’s the worst that could happen?” would the answer be that you find out in mid-January that you can’t source materials or there was an unexpected price hike? Or that your main customer has ceased to trade, owing you lots of money? Or that you have an unexpected tax bill in an overseas territory you didn’t even know you had to register in?

However, with a few weeks’ Brexit planning, you can foresee additional costs and manage customer expectations while ensuring these are passed on. You may identify a new way of selling to the continent which opens new markets. Even if you spend some time planning for a scenario which never happens, it will be worth it just to make sure you don’t get caught out. If the latter is the worst that happens come the Brexit deadline, then I think we will all be grateful.

So, the questions remains, what are you waiting for?   

Need help?

If you have any concerns or need help preparing your business for Brexit, please get in touch with your usual MHA Larking Gowen contact. You can find contact details on the Our People section of the MHA Larking Gowen website. Alternatively, call 0330 024 0888 or email enquiry@larking-gowen.co.uk.

Rob Skilton

The UK has announced its new UK Global Tariffs which identify the rate of duty due on goods imported into the UK from 1 January 2021. The Farms and Landed Estates team at Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors, MHA Larking Gowen, has studied the potential impact of the new UK Global Tariffs on businesses purchasing agricultural machinery. Their study shows that importers of agricultural machinery may be better off under the new tariffs. 

Whilst many tariffs remain unchanged or have merely been converted from Euros to British Pounds, there are also a significant number of simplifications and liberalisations. Simplifications are where rates have been rounded down for simplicity and liberalisations are where rates have been reduced to nil to assist UK manufacturers, such as in the agricultural machinery sector.

For businesses who are used to importing goods into the UK from outside the EU, there may be a reduction in the amount of duty due on those imports. However, for businesses bringing goods into the UK from Europe, there may be an additional cost from 1 January 2021 which needs to be identified and budgeted for.

MHA Larking Gowen agriculture specialist, Laurie Hill, said: “Our analysis of the UK Global Tariff confirms that the new tariff favours the importers of agricultural equipment as the rates have been liberalised (0% duty) for much agricultural machinery, such as sprayers, loaders, ploughs, rotovators, some harvesting machinery and more.”

Normal tractors (e.g. with a cab) with engine power above 18kw will remain at 0%.

Laurie continued: “Therefore, for businesses importing from the continent, there will be no additional duty charge, and for businesses importing from outside the UK and the EU, there may be a saving. It should be noted, however, that just because the UK is proposing liberalised rates, the EU cannot be expected to do likewise, therefore UK businesses exporting to the continent may find prices squeezed or customers looking elsewhere on mainland Europe for goods.”

Agricultural machinery experts, Ben Burgess, is just one firm who may be affected by the UK Global Tariff.

Ben Turner, Managing Director at Ben Burgess, said: “We, like many other agricultural dealers, are keeping our fingers and toes crossed as our industry is focused on improving the efficiency of farmers who produce food for us all to eat and hopefully will be spared any increases in duty.

“We are also lucky as most tractors and equipment are sold to us by the manufacturers in British Pounds, which is a great help as it allows us to be competitive as we know our costs.” 

Commenting on exporting used equipment, Ben continued: “Our concerns at this moment are with the sale of used equipment either to Europe or further afield which are vital to the success of our industry as dealers cannot trade when their yard is full of used machines. 

“DEFRA’s Certification of used farm equipment for export (certificate of cleanness, meaning no soil) is being demanded by more countries. This requires all the wheels to be removed from the tractor or machine so it can be thoroughly cleaned, costing about £250 plus per machine. We also have to arrange a visit by our local DEFRA inspector, meaning time spent, and pay the certification fee of £180. If soil is found at the port of entry a cleaning fee for removal of the potentially contaminated soil could cost many hundreds of pounds before the machine will be released to the end buyer. There are a lot of places for soil to hide on a machine that has spent its life immersed in it!”