Member Blog

Client:A National Young People’s Charity

The client was looking for a venue hire only option so that they could minimise their costs and mould the spaces to be how they wanted them for the day.They needed a large main area with an additional breakout spaces and wanted to offer free parking and be within a short distance from public transport especially Norwich Station.

The client was keen to have exclusive use of the venue to ensure young people were safe.

The Space‘sVenueHire Solution:

• We provided the client with the auditorium and use of the atrium on a venue hire only rate including a 25% discount for the charity.
• Our flexible catering policy meant that the client was approved to allow delegates to bring in their own lunches to keep costs down.
• The Auditorium was virtually emptied of chairs which meant the facilitators were able to make full use the space in the manner that their activities required.
• The Atrium provided a light and airy alternative space to use during breaks.
• They had peace of mind that the young people were not going to be lost in the venue with it’s simple layout.
• Free parking was used and parents bringing their children were able to drop them at The Space without parking in the city centre or braving Saturday traffic. Attendees arriving at the station were able to make the short taxi ride and be at the space within 10 minutes.

We are thrilled to announce that we are working with award-winning company Catalyst2, focusing on helping them increase their visibility on Google through search engine optimisation. Catalyst2 are based all over the UK and provide managed hosting and dedicated servers, amongst other hosting products starting from £1 per month. Founded in 2000, they have become one of the leading hosting companies in the country and have won several ISPA awards for their customer service, providing 24/7 support for all their customers, including ‘Best Business Customer Service‘ in 2016.

How we have approached the Catalyst SEO project

We were conscious that Catalyst have a very big website, especially since it has been going since the year 2000. So our approach has beento make a small number of relevant changes, rather than try do too much at once. So we started with keyword research, working with the Catalyst team and confirming which keywords to target. We then selected which landing pages on their website would target each of these pages and optimised the meta-titles, descriptions, URLs and content accordingly.

Next, we want to maximise the user experience by removing any crawl errors, broken pages and broken links to ensure a smooth journey for any customer. By compressing images and cleaning up code, we have increased the site speed for both mobile and desktop from around 50/100 to 80/100 and this is a continued working progress to make the site as fast as possible.

In terms of the link strategy, we have added Catalyst to a few strong local websites to consolidate their positionas a local business – and also adhere to a recent Google algorithm update that is more local-SEO focused. With over 5,300 links pointing to the Catalyst, we have analysed the links in great depth, deciding which to keep and removing any via the Google disavow tool (or simply contacting the webmaster to remove these links).

Results

Despite only working on the Catalyst2 website for one month, we have already seen their ranking for ‘website hosting’ and ‘dedicated server’ jump around 25 spots, from page 6 to page 3 – so we are hopefullyon track to reach page 1 by the end of the year or sooner.

To see the Catalyst website and our SEO work, please visit:https://www.catalyst2.com/

Having a website in the 21st century is much like having a shop front in the 80s; a good balance of brand identity, a fancy window display and plenty of footfall is key to getting people through the door. The methods however, are very different. The sandwich board employee has been replaced by a business savvy search engine working for all of the businesses on your patch – and you need to engage in some heavy schmoozing to make sure they’re shouting loudest about your business.

Getting traffic to your website is only one of the challenges. Here’s 7 key things your website needs to have from the start if you want to hit the ground running:

1. Branding & Design

With so many templates and themes available for web builds, many sites are just blending into one. Make your website stand out with eye-catching branding and a memorable design. Like many creative processes, there will always be trends in web design and branding, with new possibilities and innovative features being developed every day. Ensure your site uses the best new functions to communicate your message, but don’t include functions just because they are available to you.

2. User Experience

There’s nothing worse than landing on a website, looking for an answer or product and not being able to easily find it. Make sure your structure and navigation is clear and user-friendly, with a bold introduction to your products or services instantly present. Use of white space helps the user to digest the information in manageable chunks, while creative copywriting and striking images complete the experience. Clear call-to-actions will guide the user to your chosen communication method. E-commerce sites should feature easy search and filtering functions, and an optimised route to checkout.

3. Mobile/Tablet Testing

More and more of us are using mobile devices for online search, and combined mobile and tablet visitor figures are now outweighing desktop computers for the majority of industries. If your website isn’t responsive, you really are missing out; Google have split their algorithm so that results for mobile searches are different to desktop searches – based on mobile-friendly scores. Make sure that you’re testing your website on all mobile devices to ensure that it displays and folds as you expect it to and doesn’t have any nasty design surprises.

4. Loading Times

Websites that take ages to load are sooooooooooo annoying, most people will click ‘back’ in their browser and go to the next search result if your website doesn’t load straight away. Image sizes, too many scripts, poorly developed plugins and poor hosting can all cause delays in your loading times. Google frowns on slow load time because its users don’t like it, so it is likely to hurt your search rankings as well as being a huge pain for your users.

5. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

Optimise your website for Search Engines by ensuring that you have keyword-rich Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, Image Alt Tags and website copy from the start. Your website will naturally tell your audience what you do, but make sure it includes the exact words or phrases they’re searching for so that Google knows to point them in the direction of your website.

6. Clear Message Delivery

If your online marketing is up to scratch, your website’s home page is your business’ opening pitch. Don’t let it waffle on with pre-amble; make it clear upfront exactly what it is you do and why your business is the best choice. Be aware of using relevant keywords in your copy and make sure your design is clear and easy to follow for your users. Focus the copy more on the benefits you offer to potential customers, rather than yourself.

7.Online Marketing Plan

Having a well-designed, easy to use, responsive website is just the beginning. You need to make sure that you have a strategy in place to get customers to your website. Online marketing is essential to get your website noticed, not just by your customer, but also by search engines, who will be valuable asset in directing customers to your site, and not your competitors’. Whether you choose SEO, pay-per-click advertising or social media marketing, make sure you have your sandwich board out for all to see.

There is a lot to cover when you’re building a website but if you get it right, your website can be a 24hr salesman working hard for your business.

Nu Image specialise in responsive website design in Norfolk and further afield, so if you need any help building, maintaining or marketing your website, give us a call, we’ll be happy to hear from you!

Chapter 64 of the UK Trade Tariff is where you will find nearly 90 commodity codes used on the import or export offootwearin the UK.

Classification is aone of the 3 key elements whichdefine the amount of duty that is paid on import and as footwear attracts duty rates between 5 & 17%getting it wrong could prove costly.

Applying the correct commodity code requires a greater understanding of the article of footwear. In order to confirm an accurate classification you will need to knowwhat materialit is made from, who will be wearing it, whether the shoe is for use in sportwhether it is, a wellington, a flip flop, or wornfor health & safety purposes.Tthe height of a heel and length of sole are also determining factors in shoe classification& whether the item covers the ankle or knee or whether if it is used for sport.

All of this can be daunting for the fist time importer or the seasoned professional so we at IEShave designed a tool to assist you with the classification of footwear and where the classification is still unclear (which can happen for new innovativefootwear designs) we can then assist with the submission of a Binding Tariff Infromation sheet to HMRC which will give you a decision as to the classification of the footwear.

Please see more https://goo.gl/xJu9NM​ and contact us using the link https://goo.gl/9Lebqf

Let your fingers do the walking to our contact us page https://goo.gl/9Lebqf & let us get your footwear correctly classifed

Many web site owners face a problem. Their search engine marketing strategy is failing. They don’t know why and they equally don’t know what to do to ensure a ranking on page 1 of all search engines, not just Google.

Here are some reasons I have come across why this might just be the case:

1. Your goals are either wrong or not clearly defined: If your web site is not getting traffic to it and is not ranking, how can you expect it to be on page 1 for the most valuable term(s) in your sector? You must start by targeting key terms or phrases. Try to optimise multiple pages with different key phrases with lower competition on each. The more high rankings your site has for the phrases which attract lower competition the more likely your site will get high rankings for the most competitive terms available.

2: You are not taking seo (search engine optimisation) seriously enough as part of an overall digital marketing strategy, of course: This isn’t a process which you can start and then just let go (unfortunately for you). It takes time to make things happen. SEO is an investment for your company and therefore you should treat it as any other investment – with care, time and attention. What worked last year may not necessarily work this. What techniques were employed are likely to be ever-changing.Monitor. Assess. Prove. Repeat.

3. Your focus is all wrong: Some site owners are obsessed with ultra long title tags, stuffing keywords in to meta tags etc. Others will constantly submit their site to the engines in the hope that this will bring higher rankings.

Don’t chase the latest trend. You will fail. If you succeed it will only make the difference between position 10 and position 9 – not great enough to warrant the time needed to achieve this menial goal. If your website is not listed on page 1 on the search engine of choice, then you have not even got the fundamentals right!

4. Your key phrases are wrong: A massive mistake a lot of people make. There are tools like Google’s Adwords Keywords tool, but this is totally directed toward the advertising push of Google toward their services. There are other open source tools (free on the web) which you can find, but most are inaccurate at best. The issue of misguided keywords is probably the most popular and people are left scratching their heads as to why they are not ranking. It is not always the case that the number of searches equates to the number of clients/business transactions you will make on-line. It may actually be better to find more targeted phrases and get a foothold with these, before attacking the main phrases. If nothing else this will give your site a higher level of authority with the search engines.

5. Your links to your site are wrong: To get highest rankings on any search engine you must have good, relevant, high quality back links. However, there is a balance in this covering averages, as there is with all things online. Links can and should be a mix of do follow and no follow, exact match and phrase match, and padded; again in balance. Automatic links or paid links do not work. Actually, they can cause issues with Google which could see your link disavowed, and your website come up negatively on Google’s ‘radar.

In conclusion: To get anywhere on the search engines does not necessarily have to cost a fortune. Neither should the time needed to attain long term success be undervalued or underestimated by you. If you are in a geographically targeted market sector your improvement should be seen more rapidly than if you are not. However, be warned, as already mentioned on here many times over the years, the understanding of rank, Meta information, competitive analysis, page speed load (quality of hosting), social media engagement and quality of code, coupled with commercialism, ease of use of website for the viewer, and a clear and simple defined path, coupled with trust by using SSL certificates across the site, and by being open about your business, should have viewers and engines beating a path to your door. Failure in any one element may be tolerated. Failure in more may not! Chris.

Digital marketing refers to the type of promotion for your business that is done in the online environment. If you have a website, a blog, a social media account for your business or send emails to your customers, you are already doing digital marketing. The job is to find out what you are doing and how you are doing it, and then to make some minor (or occasionally major) changes to make your efforts more successful.

Digital marketing involves:

SEO: Your lovely flashy website is worth nothing to you if people can’t find it. Modern SEO is a combination of external authority link building, on page coding, content in abundance, links to social media. It is not likely to be the panacea for success, however, just an integral part of it.

Social media: Are you on Facebook? What about Twitter? Should you be using Pinterest, Instagram or StumbleUpon? What about Tumblr & WordPress? The number and complexity of social networking platforms can be daunting to say the least. In order to increase the efficiency of your time spent socially marketing your brand, you may need help. There are over 300 social media bookmarking sites on the Internet – choose the ones that fit your business.

Website design and development: Whether you need a brand new website for a new business or product, or want to revamp your existing web presence. Affordable starter packages for new businesses can include web hosting, but you may want to build a huge eCommerce website featuring thousands of products. Cheap sites are normally cheap for a reason: poor code, repetitive theme, poor mobile experience, poor viewer one generally!

Email marketing: Email is still one of the most powerful ways to reach out to your customers. Get it right, and you’ll develop brand loyalty, customer referrals and ultimately, more sales. But get it wrong and you could be doomed to the ‘junk’ folder forever. Think about your message, your audience and your calls to action.

Branding: From logo creation to a complete branding strategy for your business, your agency should be able to assist you in exuding business quality through your brand.

..and none of this matters at all if you are either not competitive or you simply don’t answer the phone when it rings with an enquiry!

What are contextual links?

Contextual links are deep links from your web page content. This content is the main part deciding the uniqueness and relevance of a web page. Hence, giving links from that section transfer premium URL power to linked ones. They help search engines in developing relevancy factor for both the pages i.e. linking & linked ones. You can’t have all the information on one URL page. Additionally, it is (typically) good to split a lot of information into bite size pieces. Once you have done this these pieces can be linked internally with optimum key phrases to boost them. Linking to authoritative and well known external resources like Wikipedia (citation) increase the credibility of your content for search engines, since it means that written content is not spam. Instead it is researched based and is relevant to the linked URL. Contextual links will typically mean lower bounce rates. It is comparatively easy for the user to navigate your website through links in content since they are reading it. Users may not bother to click on links in other navigational schemes like menus, footer or other links. Enriched reader experience is highly appreciated by Google. This results in higher rankings in search engine ranking positions (SERP’s).

Contextual Linking for Users

Contextual link building will impact on your trustworthiness. Linking to other URL’s means that you admit that you don’t have the answer to everything, and also that you care enough to send your user to the right factual place. Links, at appropriate locations in content, build user interest to explore linked pages. The information can’t be put in one single article at one URL; contextual links help to piece together one subject or topic scattered across the website. If your linking is optimal your content may is likely to be shared on social media by your audience. In-content links normally offer high quality information to your reader, which should always be at the top of your priority list. More recognition will typically deliver more traffic to your website or URL. An increase in traffic can mean different things to different webmaster’s. It may mean more enquiries or, in the case of eCommerce, more orders. It may also mean a better Alexa Rank – a factor in Google ranking.

Contextual Linking Best Practices

There is no doubt that contextual linking is one of the most important SEO strategies in your internal linking and digital marketing strategy, but if you want to make the most out of it, make sure you have optimised your links properly. Here are a few best practices you should consider to create fruit-bearing linking structure:

Use Main Key Phrases as Anchor Texts

Your anchor text should be composed mainly of key phrases. This helps search engines understand the relevancy of the linked URL, and the page can be then ranked next time when a relevant query is performed.

Typically Use Descriptive Phrases – Long Tail

Don’t stuff your contextual links with key words or phrases. It is a practice frowned upon by search engines. Instead, use descriptive phrases, importantly long tail phrases that contain your keywords in a natural way. This said, however, and because all of this activity is targeted against your competitor, you may find you have to compromise. You will need to know your competitor’s spread of phrase and broad matches to be able to compete.

Natural is Optimal

You contextual links should not look like they are forced into the content. Keep them natural where possible (as above).

Link to Authoritative Sources

Link only to websites and URL’s that are both factual and which are known to be a trusted authority on your topic. This increases your credibility among viewers as well as search engines.

Link to Relevant Pages Which Offer Viewers Something of Value

Do not include content linking on a URL for the sake of the benefits of visitors and ‘link juice’. This will cause more harm than benefit.

Is this the future of SEO? Of course not. However, you can see how valuable these links are and both from a search engine and viewer perspective. If you are not carrying out this kind of linking building strategy, I suggest you start now. You’ll love it and your rankings will increase as a result!

If you are one of thousands of people in the banking and finance sectors facing an uncertain future, why not take control of your working life and become part of a burgeoning network of accountants who specifically service the needs of small businesses?

For more than 20 years, TaxAssist Accountants has helped many finance professionals establish their own accountancy practice, earn a good income, as well as building a saleable asset for their future.

Franchisees can either carry out the accountancy work themselves or employ accountants while they concentrate on building the business, holding client meetings and networking. What is important is that you have plenty of energy, a friendly persona and have a desire to succeed.

Phil Sullivan, Group Operations Director of TaxAssist Accountants, knows the advantages of having experience in banking, first hand.

“During a 26-year career at a major clearing bank, which culminated in me gaining Executive Management status, I saw the way that job security within the finance sector ebbed and flowed with the times,” explained Phil. “I decided to leave the bank as I wanted to work for myself and be the master of my own destiny – something I would encourage anyone working in the current precarious world of banking to consider.

“Our franchisees join TaxAssist for a variety of reasons – some are seeking a better work/life balance, some wish to commute less, while others want to break free and work for themselves.

“Becoming a TaxAssist franchisee offers a fantastic opportunity to use skills, experience and knowledge that you have built up over your career to maximise your success. With our help and support, we can help you to achieve your personal goals, whether you’re working towards a five or 25-year contract. With our retail style shop concept which is so convenient for the small business owner we know how successful you could be.”

With its well-established brand and reputation for breaking with tradition, TaxAssist Accountants stand out from the crowd. The majority of its franchisees operate from highly accessible and welcoming shop front premises designed specifically to appeal to the small business target market.

TaxAssist Accountants’ franchise model focuses on working with hundreds of small business clients rather than a few larger ones, so that should one client leave, the risk to the overall business is negligible.

Tax and accountancy services are always in demand, and servicing this bountiful market (small businesses accounted for 99.3% of all private sector businesses at the start of 2015) means your work remains relatively uncomplicated. Services offered by the TaxAssist Accountants network include year-end accounts, tax returns, bookkeeping, VAT returns, payroll and cash flow projections.

After consistently winning awards in both the franchising and accountancy sectors, TaxAssist continues to help its network achieve double digit growth year on year and now services over 60,000 clients from more than 280 shops and offices.

Each franchisee operates an exclusive territory, and there are still many areas and resale opportunities available across the UK.

Phil added: “I am more than happy to meet any interested parties at one of our regular discovery days in Norwich to discuss the TaxAssist Accountants franchise opportunity in more detail. These events are a great opportunity for prospective franchisees to meet the senior support team, and learn more about how we work with you to help you to establish your own substantial business.”

August 2016

Amazingly quick and easy office exercises… lets get moving!

In years to come, we may well look back at the way we have worked for the last 150/200 years and describe the chair/desk set up as an instrument of torture, designed to inflict as much pain, discomfort and lasting damage on the world’s office population as possible!

Our addiction to sitting for long periods of time is responsible for a number of serious health issues surrounding our sedentary working lifestyle. With recent research linking high blood pressure, heart disease and type 2 diabetes to prolonged sitting. Add into that equation increasing problems with our posture including chronic neck and back problems and a depressing picture begins to emerge.

We are forcing our bodies into a lifetime of sitting with a hunched over, neck craned posture, it was never designed for. Throughout our 100,000 plus years of evolution we walked, ran, climbed, squatted, crawled, swam….we moved!

So what’s the answer? A revolution in the workplace is needed

A sit, stand and move approach – incorporating simple movement focused exercises that get your heart rate up, simple breathing exercises that get oxygen pumping around your system and a stretching and mindfulness program that makes you re-engage with what’s happening with your body.

Workplace exercise for the office environment

In this blog we’re concentrating on some of our favourite pieces of equipment, they should help you to get motivated and moving more in the workplace, add a bit of fun and variety into your routine. We’re not experts, but we’ve found everything here has something to offer and is great for a quick office workout. The attached jpegs show Bev and I going through some of our simple routines.

The equipment is easily purchased online and links are attached for further information.

1. Wobble Board 2. Resistance Band 3. Balance Pad 4. Balance Ball

The benefits to your overall health and wellbeing can be truly life changing over the long term and include –

* Increased energy and focus, improves productivity. * Better muscle tone and posture, increasing the feeling of wellbeing. * Less fatigue and tension, better equipped to deal with stressful situations * Improved moods and levels of happiness.

If you spend all day sitting:-

1. Take a microbreak every 30 minutes, change your position and stand, move, go for a walk around the office, or even better do some stretches.

2. We recommend 3 minutes of exercise every hour, mix up what you do using some of the equipment shown, the idea is to increase your heart rate!

3. Keep hydrated, drink plenty of water.

4. Take a proper lunch break, go out for a walk.

5. Try and aim for at least an hour of exercise a day, this includes walking.

Using a sit-stand desk

If you’re already a fan of sit-stand working you’ll be aware of the many benefits including burning extra calories. A height-adjustable desk makes it a lot easier to move, stretch and exercise from a standing position.

Try these exercises out at work and tell us what you think! Get your co-workers involved and – Discover the power of movement!

All the above equipment is easily purchased online.

See the full images here:https://www.flomotionstudio.com/flomotion-blog/

Do you need help to get moving? Flomotion can help, our height-adjustable desk are the perfect solution. Book your free trail online or call us now on 01603 490054.

Want to find out more about our desks and see our most creative projects? Follow us on Facebook and on Twitter at @FlomotionStudio.

Tudor Lodge Consultants are delighted to be working with short term loans provider, TrueBlue Loan. The company offers an unsecured loan product of up to £500 repaid over 6 months which customers typically use for emergency purposes such as medical bills, home improvements, car repairs and more.We have been working with the local company for 3 months, focusingon their user experience, content andsearch engine optimisationfor their main website.

The Brief

The website (https://www.trueblueloan.co.uk/)had a very old-fashioned approach to search engine optimisation which was implemented by a company overseas.True Blue Loan’s briefwas to improve their search rankings on Google byoverhauling their content strategy, fixing errorson their site and ensuringthatcustomers can find them online before their competitors.

Search Engine Optimisation

We noticed that there were hundreds of pages created that were targeting very similar keywords. The purpose of this is to rank for different keyword variations e.g lenders in the UK, online, direct lenders, not brokers, flexible etc. To make a better user and SEO experience, we redirected several of these pages into more specific landing pages. This means that we could focus on optimising just a few pages and avoidany pages conflicting (showing up twice on Google) and users being confused by such similar content.

We reviewed all the meta data and descriptions on the website to ensure that they were not duplicate, perfectly unique and relevant to their proposition and keywords. This was optimised further with matching headings and making sure that there was only one h1 heading on each page.

Over time, the site had developed several crawl errors and links which expired or were no longer in use. We used our specific SEO tools to remove all the broken errors and pages, ensuring a much faster site speed and better user experience (because they weren’t taken to error pages).

Next Steps

Our next steps to further the user experience include creating specialised videos about the loans offered by True Blue Loan which will compliment the user experience and SEO. We also plan to create more useful guides on personal finance, online loans and consumer credit to educate the market and allow TBL to become a ‘true’ resource for financial services in the UK.

We have recently reached page 2 of Google for their target keyword ‘short term loans’ and look forward to reaching that elusive page 1 by the end of the year.

Since 1st August 2016, the administration of the Apprenticeship Age Grant has beed devolved to the NEW ANGLIA LEP resulting in some significant changes for the benefit of employesr and apprentices.

Apprenticeship Grant for Employers (AGE) of 16 to 24 year olds in Norfolk and Suffolk supports businesses that would not otherwise be in a position to support individuals aged 16 to 24 into employment through the Apprenticeship programme. The following information is relevant to employers starting an apprentice from August 2016 in a business with a postcode within Norfolk or Suffolk. For businesses outside of this area should refer to www.gov.uk for details of the national AGE scheme or contact their training provider.

The scheme is being administered by Norfolk County Council on behalf of both counties. The grant will be offered to those employers who are eligible and such employers may receive up to 5 grants in any one-year period. The value of each grant is as follows:

• £2000 for each apprentice who is aged 16 to 18 at the time they start their Apprenticeship;
• £1500 for each apprentice who is aged 19 to 24 at the time they start their Apprenticeship.

The grant will be paid as a lump sum direct to the employers nominated bank account, once the apprentice has completed 10 weeks on the Apprenticeship programme and the necessary paperwork has been received: see “How do employers apply”? below.

So, which Employers are eligible? To be eligible employers must

• Have fewer than 250 employees in total;
• Start a new employee on an Apprenticeship or place an existing employee on an Apprenticeship programme on or after the 1 August 2016;
• Commit to continuously employ that apprentice for a minimum of 12 months or as long as it takes them to complete the Apprenticeship;
• Confirm that they are aware of and do not breach any state aid rules by receiving the grant;
• Agree to pay the apprentice in line with legal minimum requirements or more;
• Ensure that the apprenticeship is delivered by a training organisation that is funded by the Government to deliver Apprenticeship Frameworks.

For the purposes of this grant, the start date for the Apprenticeship is taken to be the date at which the Employer, Learner and Training Provider sign the Apprenticeship Agreement

Which apprentices qualify? To qualify, an apprentice must be:

• Aged 16 to 24 at the start date of their Apprenticeship
• Enrolled on an Apprenticeship Framework. (Starts on Apprenticeship Standards are not eligible)
• Be working with an employer based in Norfolk or Suffolk
• Eligible for Apprenticeship funding from the Skills Funding Agency
• Eligible to work in England
• Be starting a new Apprenticeship framework or progressing from a lower level onto an Advanced or Higher Level Apprenticeship

How do employers apply? Employers in Norfolk or Suffolk, once they have selected an Apprentice and the start date has been agreed, should go to www.apprenticeshipsnorfolk.org/agegrant and complete an online application form for AGE. The following details will be required:

• Name of Business
• Name of the Apprentice*
• Apprentice Date of Birth*
• Name of Training Provider or College delivering the training.
• Address of Business where the apprentice will be employed
• Telephone Number
• Name of contact within business
• Email address
• Bank Details (into which payments are to be made)

*Employers must seek permission from the apprentice to share these details with Norfolk County Council for the sole purpose of claiming the grant before submitting an application. It is recommended that this permission be obtained in writing.

Once the first stage of the application is completed, a password should be created which will allow login to the site after 10 weeks. The online system will issue a reminder to employers after 10 weeks to remind them to provide documentary evidence that the apprentice is still employed and in learning. This should be provided electronically by the training provider or college and can take the form of a progress review or a record of support or assessment. This must be signed by the employer, apprentice and the College or Training Provider representative. Once we have checked this document and verified the claim, the authority will make payment to the nominated bank account within 28 days. If there are any queries or issues, the authority will be in contact by telephone or by email to ask for clarifying information.

This payment is in the form of a grant and therefore it is exempt from VAT.

Employers should note that if the apprentice leaves or is not in learning after 10 weeks, eligibility for any proportion of the grant will lapse.

Employers who have already received a grant for an apprentice under this scheme and who apply for a further grant (maximum of 5) will be asked to provide evidence that the original apprentice is still employed on an Apprenticeship or has completed their qualification in full. If this is not the case, we reserve the right to withhold or refuse to pay any further grant.

Next Steps Employers looking to recruit a new member of staff then visit www.apprenticeshipsnorfolk.org and choose “Employ an Apprentice”.

When the apprentice has been recruited and the college or training provider has completed the paperwork, the employer should visit www.apprenticeshipsnorfolk.org/agegrant and complete the application. After 10 weeks, upload the required evidence and receive the money within 28 days of the claim being verified. Note: Most Colleges and Training Providers provide a free service to help employers to recruit an apprentice.

Training providers will be able and happy to offer assistance with the process, recruiting an apprentice and making sure that he/she is on the correct Apprenticeship qualification. Alternatively, contact Apprenticeships Norfolk/Apprenticeships Suffolk on 0344 8008024 or apprenticeships@norfolk.gov.uk.

The primitive economic principle underpinning any business is revenue – costs = profit. Your business will have plenty of factors to be taken into consideration in order for that base sum to work in your favour, and your profit will usually vary daily, monthly or annually depending on foreseen, and unforeseen circumstances such as seasonal changes, customer demand, supplier costs etc.Hopefully, you have a good accountant and a business savvy director who can pinpoint changes in the market and project potential profits throughout the fiscal year. IT downtime, however, is an unforeseen drain on revenue which is difficult to attribute a cost to.

Many businesses rely on IT to keep everything running smoothly. It could be that only your accountant works on a computer, or perhaps just your Director, Managers and Payroll, perhaps every employee uses IT to some degree, or maybe your whole business operates using IT. However much you use IT, there is always an associated cost when things go wrong. What varies is how much that cost is to your business.

Let’s talk numbers The estimated cost to your business can be worked out with a calculation which factors in how much you pay your employees, and how much revenue your business takes each year. Of course, accurate figures would also consider the extent of the issue; if you’re a writer and your internet goes down, you might be ok to continue working, albeit with inconvenience, if you’re a call centre working on a web-based data management system, internet issues could grind your business to a halt and you may even lose potential customers.

This is the raw calculation:

Employee cost per hour + Revenue earned per hour = Approximate cost of IT downtime

So, for example, if an average employee salary is £24,000.00 per year, the estimated annual cost to you (with Employer NI of 13.8%) is £27,312.00, which is approx. £13.13 per hour.If your estimated annual revenue is £250,000, your hourly revenue is approx. £120.19.

Employee cost per hour (£13.13) + Revenue earned per hour (£120.19) = Approximate cost of IT downtime per hour (£133.32)*

So, working in a small, IT-dependent business, with between 15-20 employees, you could be losing approx. £2000 – £2666of revenue per hourof IT downtime.

How managed IT support can save you money So, now you know how much money you could lose with IT downtime, it might be time to look at a more cost-effective solution.Managed IT servicesoffer you a pro-active, efficient, local, IT support package which ensures that your IT downtime is at its very minimum. We’ll monitor your IT remotely, so we’re usually aware of an issue before you are. We’ll get straight on it and often we’ll have it identified, diagnosed and resolved before you’ve even noticed. No downtime = more revenue, simple.

If you’re interested in saving your business’ profits and reducing your downtime, give Andy at S2 Computers a call and we’ll help find anIT supportsolution to match your business.​