Member Blog

Novagraaf UK’s Dr Peter Wilson sets out the IP elements to consider when developing or updating an export strategy.

When companies consider their assets, they may think first of tangible assets, such as equipment, stock, buildings or products. But, intangible assets are just as (and often more) valuable, and can be impossible to replace.

Brands and logos, company manuals and operating procedures, know-how and expertise, advertising materials, design, technology… your company owns valuable intellectual property (IP) that will help it to grow and expand overseas. But, to do that effectively, your IP needs to be appropriately protected with trademark, patent and/or design registrations, and associated filings and agreements.

Similar considerations apply whether you sell your products nationally or overseas:

Safeguard your brand and product names as trademarks:

• Why: By registering your unique company and brand names as trademarks, you’ll have the rights and procedures in place to stop others from using them without your permission, or registering them for their own use.
• Where: Ideally, you should begin by registering trademarks in your home market and key markets of trade, manufacture and transport.
• Extending protection into new export markets: National trademark registrations also afford a six-month ‘right of priority’ in most countries (meaning that you have a priority right to the registered name or logo should you seek to extend your rights into new markets). However, you can still file applications after this date, providing the trademark hasn’t already been registered in your sector (or class).
• How: Brand owners can choose to register their rights as individual applications in each chosen country, register a CTM for all EU countries, or a Madrid Protocol application (up to 81 countries, including China, Japan, Korea, US, Australia and the EU).

Find out more: What is a trademark? Protecting your brand, product, company name and logo

Protect inventions as patents:

• Why: Patent registration gives you the right to stop others from ‘working your invention’. Products and processes from all sectors of industry can be protected with patents, don’t assume it’s only the hi-tech companies that can benefit.
• Where: Businesses generally begin with a national right. But note, certain rules apply; most importantly, you must file the patent before disclosing the invention
• Extending protection into new export markets: National rights award a 12-month ‘right of priority’ in which that same patent can be filed in new territories.
• How: Companies can seek additional individual national applications, but it is generally advisable to use one of the multi-national patent systems such as the EPC (for the EU, plus other European countries) or PCT (provisionally covers more than 180 countries, and delays national filing requirements).

Find out more: What is a patent? Protecting inventions and innovation

Don’t overlook design protection:

• Why: The look and feel of a product can be as important to its market success as its function. In some countries, including the UK and the rest of the EU, unregistered design rights come into effect immediately on creation; however, where the design is a key feature of a product, model or drawing, it is generally advisable to register a design right to protect it. Registered rights are stronger, and last longer.
• Where: For a national (e.g. UK) registration, the design must be registered with the national patent and trademark office. Some countries have a grace period for prior disclosure, but beware of jeopardising patent rights for the same product.
• Extending protection into new export markets: It is generally possible to claim a priority date for a design application made in another country within six months of the first filing.
• How: Companies can seek additional individual national applications either directly or through the Hague Agreement; a Community Registered Design also has effect across the whole of the EU. The duration of protection varies by country (e.g. it’s 25 years in the UK and EU; 14 in the US).

Find out more: What is a design? Models, drawings and a product’s look and feel

Other forms of IP Other unregistered forms of IP include copyright and unregistered design protection, as well as the know-how shared with agents, distributors, manufacturing partners and licensees. These are all valuable forms of IP, which should be recorded and protected in writing, where possible.

Six-point strategy for success

1. Identify: Review your intellectual assets and processes in order to capture your IP rights that you have – or should register. 2. Value: What are your rights worth to you (if you lost them or other people used them)? 3. Protect: Both registered and unregistered IP rights – and remember that rights have geographical scope. 4. Beware other people’s rights: Ensure that you’re not infringing existing rights and consider monitoring what your competitors are doing for market insight. 5. Exploit: Use the rights yourself, or sell/license them to others. 6. Enforce: Act quickly to stop infringers – you don’t always have to end up in court.

Finally, seek advice: the systems are complex with various national and multi-national systems to consider. Prepare yourself in advance to make best and most cost-effective use of the IP registration process.

Dr Peter Wilson is a patent attorney in the Norwich office of Novagraaf UK.

Counterfeit activity is a threat to all modern businesses, affecting their profits, their reputation and, in some cases, the safety of their consumers. But, so persistent is the threat – particularly online – that it can be difficult for companies to know where to start. We set out the answers to some frequently asked questions.

What is anti-counterfeiting – and is it a criminal offence? Counterfeiting describes the process of manufacturing and offering for sale a product (or a range of products) using the brand of a third party without their authorisation. Many counterfeit products are passed off as genuine branded products whereas others are sold to consumers openly as replicas. While some counterfeit products are of inferior quality, many counterfeit products are more or less accurate replicas of the rightful brand owner’s products. As they are sold using a brand that is identical to or substantially indistinguishable from the brand owner’s trademark, consumers may be led to purchase the fake product believing it to be a legitimate item. (Read more)

Do I need an anti-counterfeiting strategy? Counterfeiting affects companies in a wide variety of industries, from fashion to pharmaceuticals. If you have a product or a brand that is popular and in demand, then it’s likely that you are or will become a target for counterfeiters. The threat posed by counterfeiting activity can be hard to quantify, but it should not be underestimated. Typically, a company’s sales and revenue will not only be impacted, but it will also suffer damage to brand reputation (e.g. where a customer mistakenly believes that they have purchased an authentic product and are disappointed with its quality), as well as loss of licensing revenue. (Read more)

What kind of products are at risk of counterfeiting? Counterfeiting affects a broad a variety of goods; from t-shirts to handbags, machinery and automotive parts, toys, batteries, pharmaceuticals, perfumes and electrical goods.

Where are counterfeit goods made? According to recent estimates by the World Customs Organisation, the majority of counterfeit products (approx 75%) are manufactured in the Far East region, mainly China. Other high-risk countries include Hong-Kong, India, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. From these countries, goods are shipped into the UK/EU and sold to end users in retail stores, open markets and through online shops and marketplaces; although, the exact route and origin can vary greatly depending on your business sector. In fast-moving retail sectors, for example, counterfeiting may also take place in the UK.

What can brand owners do to protect their products and brands from counterfeiting? Brand owners can call upon a variety of tools to act against counterfeit activity once it has been identified, but tools and techniques to prevent and identify activity are of particular importance. This includes, for example:

• registering key brand and product names as trademarks, and innovative design features as design rights, so that you can seek legal redress for any unauthorised use of those trademark or design rights (e.g. for the manufacture, distribution and sale of trademarked goods);
• raising awareness of the issues within your business by educating your staff, business partners and customers;
• actively monitoring the online and offline market, recording, reporting and carefully analysing the findings;
• working closely with law enforcement authorities such as the Border Force (Customs) and local Trading Standards offices that have a statutory duty to enforce the criminal provisions of Trademarks Act; and
• taking enforcement action where appropriate.

(Read more)

Someone is trafficking counterfeit copies of my products, what can I do? Recording your trademark rights with Customs in the UK and overseas will enable Customs officials to spot and detain shipments containing related counterfeit goods. There is a cost involved, so focus on Customs in your key markets, as well as in countries that are well-known for manufacturing counterfeit goods or have major transit hubs and international trade ports, such as Dubai and Hong Kong. In addition, it’s important to educate Customs officials on an ongoing basis about your priority products, tell-tale signs for spotting counterfeits and details of who to contact if they have concerns. This can be done by providing a product guide, as well as regular face-to-face training. (Read more)

How do I record my trademarks with Customs? Working with customs authorities in the UK and EU is essential for the success of your anti-counterfeiting efforts. It’s important to record your trademark with customs departments if you are to identify and act against infringing products; however, we would also recommend providing customs with supporting information/examples of your genuine branded goods, their packaging and usual shipping routes when filing the trademark recordal/application for action. This will help customs to detect anything unusual at border control and to identify and alert you to suspicious consignments. A trademark recordal generally lasts one year and is renewable. (Read more)

Someone is selling counterfeit copies of my products online, what should I do? Depending on the circumstances, it may be possible to remove the offer/website from the internet or it may be appropriate to investigate the seller further to find out more information about the product’s suppliers, distribution channel and/or origin in order to stamp them out at source.

Someone is manufacturing fake copies of my products in the UK/overseas, what should I do? If in the UK, you should first investigate and collect all available information, then contact your relevant Trading Standards body in order to coordinate enforcement action with them. If the manufacture is taking place overseas, you will instead need to liaise with local agents or investigators and involve local police and authorities. In both cases, you might find it simpler or more cost-effective to work with a specialist such as Novagraaf to help you coordinate and manage enforcement actions. Novagraaf offers a range of anti-counterfeiting services, from online trademark monitoring to investigation, trap purchases, trademark training, trademark recordals and legal representation in customs seizure proceedings.

How should I evaluate my anti-counterfeiting strategy to measure its success? As with any business strategy, the basic criteria against which to measure success should be set up before you begin to target and implement your anti-counterfeiting activity. This will enable you to objectively assess the results of any actions taken against counterfeiters. It is essential to keep results under regular review and to revise tactics and strategy on an on-going basis. In particular, you should look to assess and re-assess the commercial damage caused by counterfeiting and to ensure that actions taken are appropriate and proportional. (Read more)

What are the benefits of a criminal action? As well as being actionable in the UK under civil law, the infringement of trademark rights through counterfeiting can constitute a criminal offence. Both Trading Standards and the police have the power (and duty) to enforce the criminal provisions of the UK’s Trade Marks Act; although, in practice, the majority of criminal prosecutions are brought by Trading Standards. Criminal proceedings offer a number of advantages to the trademark owner. For a start, they are generally much quicker than civil actions, and are often completed in around nine months. (Read more)

Trademark watching is an important tool in the proactive monitoring of registered marks and devices, helping companies to identify and act against infringement and misuse of trademarks in a timely manner. Here are five tips for getting started or revising your current strategy.

1. Get the rights in place Your trademarks serve as a badge of origin for your business and its brands and products, and are valuable business assets. A valid trademark right will enable you to prevent others from copying or otherwise taking advantage of the goodwill in your brand or company name. Consider registering as a trademark any word, sign, symbol or graphic that you apply to your company, goods or services to distinguish them from those of your competitors; for example, a brand, product or company name, or logo. Rights are territorial, so you may need to extend registration to cover all the countries and regions in which you trade, manufacture or transport your products. (Find out more about trademark registration.)

2. Prioritise between core and non-core If your company owns a sizeable trademark portfolio and trades globally, it may not be possible or cost-effective to watch every trademark in every jurisdiction. Where that’s the case, you should seek to prioritise your efforts by identifying and focusing on core brands and core jurisdictions that warrant complete protection. Secondary or ‘nice-to-have’ marks may warrant lesser attention (budgetary or otherwise); although bear in mind that some of those brands may also become core in future.

3. Develop a watching strategy Whether managed in-house or outsourced to a specialist, a brand owner’s trademark watching strategy should ideally cover all relevant trademark registers to identify applications for identical and similar trademarks. This will typically take one of three forms:

• Identical trademark watch: Identifies marks or devices (e.g. logos) that are visually or phonetically identical;
• Similar trademark watch: Identifies identical and confusingly similar marks;
• Trademark watch with opinion: Includes an attorney’s recommendation on the results of the identical or similar trademark watch based on their consideration of prior rights and the likely impact on a business and its market share.

4. Monitor your rights online Consider extending your trademark watching strategy to cover the web, including social media platforms. Online monitoring services trawl the web, including online message boards and auction sites, to identify instances of infringement, counterfeit activity and other possible threats to a brand or reputation for specified trademarks and keywords. Again, such services need to be designed with a company’s core trademark rights in mind.

5. Create a response plan To be effective, a trademark watching programme needs to be accompanied by an action plan for responding to infringement once it has been identified. This is particularly the case where a third party is seeking to register a potentially conflicting trademark, as brand owners with prior rights need to adhere to strict deadlines for submitting objections (or oppositions) to challenge such registrations. Early detection is also important when it comes to identifying and monitoring markets or brands at risk (for example, of counterfeit activity) and for building up evidence of misuse to be used when acting against such infringements.

Helene Whelbourn is a trademark attorney at Novagraaf UK.

We are 4 days into the true 12 days of Christmas, and I thought I would share the 12 days of Christmas- according to Elf and Safety

On the First day of Christmas (Christmas Day) my true love sent to me a Partridge in a Pear Tree….. This for me is all about Work at Height; the biggest cause of fatalities in the workplace; key control here is plan what you are doing – be stable and secure. Use the correct equipment, maintain stability and think about falling objects!

On the Second day of Christmas my true love sent to me Two Turtle Doves and a Partridge in a Pear Tree. The 2 key pieces of documentation you need in place are a Safety Policy and a Risk Assessment – the Safety Policy details your commitment, outlines responsibilities and gives specifics on key Hazard Areas; this enables you to have sensible Risk Assessments that reduce the Risk so far as is reasonably practicable.

Both documents need to be communicated to all affected by them; it is not a case of having some shiny folders in an office; but some living documents, that positively add to an effective Safety Culture.

You are getting the gist now-On the Third day of Christmas my true love sent to me Three French Hens Two Turtle Doves and a Partridge in a Pear Tree. There are 3 Enforcement Bodies; the Health and Safety Executive, the Local Authority Environmental Health and the Fire Officer – each has broad ranging powers to protect us all, and to ensure compliance in businesses which we all use.

The best way of not having an Enforcement Officer visit is to comply! The HSE introduced the Fee for Intervention scheme is 2012; you pay if a material breach is found- avoid this but have a great Safety Management System in place

4th day- Four Calling Birds- there are 4 elements to a Manual Handling assessment; Task, Individual, Load and Environment – Manual handling injuries/ harm still causes huge numbers of days off work, especially as we have now become more sedentary at work! Key aspect of a Manual Handling Assessment is to reduce the risk of injury, are we all guilty of poor techniques?

Five Gold Rings- there are 5 steps to Risk Assessment – identify the hazards, decide who is going to be harmed, look and what controls you have in place and decide/ evaluate whether you need to do anything else, record & review; key thoughts- focus on those tasks which are likely to cause more harm, or more frequent harm. Use someone competent to do the assessments so that control measures are suitable and sufficient!

Six Geese-a-Laying- The HSE recommends looking at six key hazard areas when approaching Stress at Work; The Risk Assessment should look at Demands, Role, Responsibility, Control, Support, Relationships and Change Stress is the biggest cause of work related ill health and there are 11.3 million days lost each year – Christmas can be a particular stressful time for some so do be mindful of this when at work

Seven Swans-a-Swimming; there are 7 main ways equipment can harm you – Entanglement, Ejection, Contact, Impact, Crushing, Electrical fault and lack of Stability. Equipment needs to be fit for purpose, maintained and serviced and used by competent persons

Eight Maids-a-Milking- There is lots of free help on the HSE’s website – including the Approved Codes of Practice – each has a Number L8 relates to Legionella; a specialised Risk Assessment Think Hot & Cold Water systems, showers as well as massive cooling towers

Nine Ladies Dancing- there are 9 points on the Hierarchy of Control; Elimination, Substitution, Isolation or Enclosure, Ventilation (Local then General) Good Housekeeping, Limiting Exposure, Good Welfare & Personal Hygiene, Information & Training & lastly Personal Protective Equipment

Ten Lords-a-Leaping – 10 days is the timescale for have to report over 7 day Injuries to the HSE under RIDDOR – reporting is now online apart from fatalities, Slips and Trips account for 63% of injuries Slips and Trips- look at floor, usage, risk of contamination, footwear, lighting, changes in level

Eleven Pipers Piping- there is a HSE Briefing note No 11 on Human Factors on Organisational Change; not exciting you may think; but the fact is our & our staff’s behaviour has a huge impact on Health and Safety; you need the 3 elements of Premises, Policies & procedures plus PEOPLE to ensure a great Health and Safety Culture (How you do things)

Twelve Drummers Drumming- this finishes with review; if there has not been a significant change your Health and Safety Management System should be reviewed every year (12 Months) Taking the Noise lead here- 12 Decibels is a quadrupling in noise levels – and would need actioning – to reduce the risk to the lowest practicable level

I hope you have enjoyed this seasonal look at Health and Safety

Earlier this week our bank Nat West phoned us to say a payment had arrived for £58,400 which we knew nothing about and they we concerned it could be a scam.

A few days before the call from the bank a company called ARIX GENERAL TRADING Co. had contacted us to purchase some software for £1,500. We supplied them with a Pro Forma Invoice for this amount and gave them details of our bank account as we wanted payment before we delivered the order.

Not long after the call from the bank Mr Bruno Alves of Arix General Trading Co.emailed us and told us there as a mistake with the payment plus he followed it up with a phone call. The email address was arixtrading@gmail.com, I don’t like email addresses of companies from gmail or Yahoo as I am always suspicious.

I understand from the bank the nature of the scam is for Arix General Trading to greatly overpay for something they order. They then ask for the balance of the funds to be transferred back to them by a bank transfer. In the mean time they cancel the cheque and you are left with a massive loss, in our case it would have been £56,900.

We also understand they target this time of year as staff could have gone out on a Christmas Party and will not be so alert to spot this.

Really glad we bank with company which is alert to scams.

I have lost count of the number of times I have been asked this question over the last 18 years or so. A top placing in Google is seen as essential for many business websites, and with good reason. There is a lot of data from research which suggests that the top 3 positions on a Google search results page account for between 60% and 80% of the clicks, with the top position taking anywhere between 25% and 35% of the clicks, up to 3 times as many clicks as position 2. And what about the difference between Pay-Per-Click (PPC) paid adverts and the organic listings? How does that affect the number of clicks that can be expected? The simple answer is: it depends.

My own view is that the statistics don’t really matter that much. The crucial elements for a website owner or marketer are relevance to searches made and the intent behind them. When a search engine user is performing a search, the most important factor to them is finding the closest result to the intent behind their search. The closest results may be in the organic listings, the paid adverts, both or none. In which case they may try to modify their search.

So back to the question of how to get a top placing in Google. A website marketer has two main options: natural organic listings or PPC paid adverts. The reality is that it takes a great deal of effort to get both working effectively and to keep them working. Ideally both strategies will be used. Running a PPC campaign will not influence the natural organic ranking of a website but having both working well increases the chance of a click and reduces a spot for a potential competitor at the same time.

What decides the position of a PPC advert, or a natural listing, is highly complex and really only known to Google. A PPC advert’s position is decided in an auction and relevance to the keyword that triggered the display of the advert is a key factor that decides its position.

A guaranteed number 1 position cannot be given by anybody and any search marketer who tells you they can guarantee this is not being realistic. Even with PPC, a number one position cannot be guaranteed, but you do have a good chance of controlling a top position with a properly structured PPC campaign.

Top organic listings are achieved through a well-structured website that has clean and properly marked up website code, and that offers authentic quality content aimed at the web visitor, not a search engine!

And it has never been any different. People think they can cheat the search engines somehow by inserting keywords with sufficient frequency, or having lots of links to their website. It’s all rubbish. Instead of trying to cheat the system, work with a system that rewards websites which focus on the quality of user experience for their customer.

Paid search advertising is the only form of marketing I can think of where as a marketer, we can put our message in front of a potential customer at exactly the time they are seeking our particular product or service.

If this is such a powerful form of marketing, then why do people sometimes say to me that Google AdWords does not work for their business?

Having been managing Google AdWords Campaigns since 2001, I have worked with many businesses and in my experience; there are some common reasons why Google AdWords Campaigns might not be working as well as they could for the advertiser.

Poor objectives What is the purpose of driving qualified visitors to your website? You are paying for each click, so you need to consider the reason for incurring the click cost.

For example, are you seeking to:

• Generate enquiries for your sales pipeline?
• Increase your opt-in marketing database?
• Secure direct orders from your website?

No conversion cost calculation Paid search is completely measurable and advertisers should calculate the value of each converted click (a completed goal on their website) to their business. This then enables a sustainable campaign to be developed, as each click is contributing to a positive Return-on-Investment (ROI).

Not considering the ‘lifetime value’ of an action that originates from a paid search campaign For example, a customer who has clicked on an advert in Google might place a small order as a result of that click, but they will then be a customer who you can communicate with over time and who will buy again and again.

Do you know the typical order value of your customers, how frequently they buy and the length of time that they may remain a customer? From this information you can calculate your customers’ ‘lifetime value’ to you and this may enable you to bid more aggressively in your paid search campaigns.

Poor keyword targeting While it may seem obvious that keywords relevant to the advertiser’s business should be selected (positive keywords), equal consideration should be given to keywords searched upon that you would not wish an advert to be displayed for (negative keywords). For example, if you specialise in selling ‘running shoes’, you may wish to use negative keywords such as ‘baby, tennis, ballet, dance,’ etc. to prevent your adverts displaying for searches that are not relevant to your business.

Correct keyword matching options are also important for effective keyword targeting.

Poor relevance of keywords to adverts Paid search advertising is all about relevance. A person searching for their particular thing is more likely to click on an advert that promises the exact thing they are looking for, rather than an advert that uses very generic text. Ideally your advert will include the keywords searched on as part of the text.

Poor relevance of advert to website landing page Having gone to the effort of setting up properly targeted keywords that display a relevant advert, the relevance theme has to be carried through to the landing page that the person will be taken to when they click on an advert. If they have searched for ‘red roses’, link the advert through to a red roses page, rather than a page with all the different types of roses that you supply, or worse, to a page listing all the flowers that you have.

Your campaign should do the work for your potential customer. Pick your targeted keywords very carefully so that they trigger a relevant advert, which clicks directly to the page that the searcher needs, without any further clicks or navigation needed on your website.

The advertiser thinks that paid search marketing is ‘set and forget’ Google AdWords is very simple in concept (selected keywords trigger adverts to be displayed that link through to relevant web pages) but can be very complex and sophisticated in execution. Campaigns need continual development to achieve maximum ROI from the ad spend, through testing and refinement of keywords, adverts and settings.

Competitive activity and search trends will also affect campaign performance over time, so regular campaign review and development is essential. To give you some idea, we review most of our campaigns at least weekly and some daily.

Google AdWords paid search engine advertising is a very powerful and sophisticated marketing tool, but it has to be set-up and managed correctly. Stay on top of your campaign development and you will be rewarded with profitable paid advertising campaigns and discover new opportunities along the way.

Telling taxpayers that most people pay their tax on time reduces the number that do not – telling people from, say, Norwich that most people from the city pay their tax on time reduces late-paying still further. Painting green footprints leading to bins reduced littering by 46% in Copenhagen. Changing the layout of a Cafeteria so junk food is not as easy to reach as healthier options improves eating habits more effectively than, for example, increasing the price of junk food. The cost of these interventions (or ‘nudges’) is tiny but the benefits are significant.

In the five years since the publication of ‘Nudge – Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness’, Thaler and Sunstein’s influential work on the application of Behavioural Economics their ideas have been enthusiastically adopted by Governments around the world. Here in the UK, David Cameron established the Cabinet Office Behavioural Insights Team – better known as the Nudge Unit. The attractiveness of low cost interventions against a background of constrained spending are obvious but an appreciation of Behavioural Economics extends well beyond public policy to embrace choice behaviour in all areas.

So, what is Behavioural Economics? It is an emerging science; a blend of concepts from economics, psychology and sociology. The classical economics starting point of a rational decision-maker is at odds with real-world observation and this new science tries to better understand what lies behind our choices. In the fifty years since it started to be seen as a discipline in its own right Behavioural Economics has moved to the centre of economic debate.

Early pioneers such as Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky identified a number of underlying traits that lead us to routinely misjudge situations. These traits are driven by heuristics, the mental short-cuts we use to make life easier for ourselves. We tend to treat superficially similar problems in the same way; we are herd animals, if we see a bandwagon we can’t get onto it fast enough; we tend to be over-confident and we feel the pain of loss far more acutely than the joy of an equivalent gain.

One explanation for these responses is that our brain operates as two separate systems.

Here’s a couple of maths teasers:

2 x 2 =

23 x 17 =

As you looked at these the answer to the first question would have come to you straight away – an example of you using System One – our fast-thinking, automatic response. It can be thought of as an evolutionary development that meant that when our caveman ancestors heard a low growling sound behind them they ran rather than waiting to work out whether it really was a sabre-toothed tiger eyeing them up for lunch.

The second question (unless you’re a maths genius!) would have required a different approach. You may have been able to arrive at the answer quite quickly but the point is you would have had to work it out rather than just ‘seen’ the answer. For this you would have engaged System Two, the part of our brain that gives us our considered response. System Two needs time to weigh up the pros and cons and will probably come up with a better answer – if System One doesn’t jump in first.

Of the two, System One is dominant. It takes a conscious effort not to follow our first instinctive response and our rough and ready System One frequently ‘crowds out’ our more polite System Two so we don’t even start to think problems through properly. Nudges and other forms of ‘Choice Architecture’ can be seen as ways of redressing the balance between System One and Two by encouraging our brains to engage System Two.

Increasing our understanding of how and why we make decisions holds out the hope that we will be able to make better choices in the future.

We run regular Masterclasses introducing Behavioural Economics – why not come along to one and find out more about this fascinating field?

For more information and to book a place visit www.chadwicks.co.uk

Howdy ~ my name is Shannon, I am 21 years old and I am a new Swarm apprentice. My new job role is Operations Assistant.

Well so far I have constantly been enthralled by everybody’s enthusiasm to get things up and running and it has been quite exciting. I am glad to be in a training position again because I just feel that there is so much more that I need to learn. I also met Robert Ashton a couple of days ago, and first impressions…well, let’s just say that he is quite a character; someone with a quirky and spirited personality. Everybody here is kind of like that, really. This will make life working at Swarm much more interesting, yes indeedy.

Before I applied for the first apprenticeship I did, my perceptions of being an apprentice were very much outdated. In fact, when I thought of the word apprentice, a blacksmith came to mind… so you can probably imagine how surprising it was when I saw how many different ones there were and discovered what they were actually like.

So before I enrolled with Swarm, I thought that being an Enterprise apprentice would just be the same as any other apprenticeship role. But no, it is actually better in a lot of ways (not that my last one was rubbish, of course). I really enjoyed the last one and learnt a lot from it – I could have just got a normal job afterwards – but I chose to be a Swarm apprentice instead because it will give me the confidence to reach my potential, and do the maximum that I can do, not the least that I can get away with.

Well, it’s better than just sitting there doing nothing but converting oxygen into carbon dioxide until your boss gives you another mundane task to finish off, at least until they trust that you can do some of the more complicated stuff – which is understandable I suppose, but not really challenging enough.

Doing an apprenticeship then joining Swarm has also really opened my eyes, helped me to set goals for myself and the business, and given me more understanding as well – that you can’t just come out of some university and expect to be doing a high-powered job that will get you earning a huge amount of money. It just isn’t going to happen. Most employers these days want EXPERIENCED employees, so obviously it’s not good enough just to have a wealth of knowledge on a particular subject but not have a clue what you have to do when it comes to actually doing the job. So I also have the chance to get a good job that would usually be given to a highly-trained experienced expert before a university graduate. (It’s not that I’m against doing a university degree. It’s one of my future goals.)

My goals for the Swarm business within the next five years are to help raise awareness of the value of doing an apprenticeship, and of course the benefits. I would also like the business to find ways of supporting young people by using other means. Basically though, I would just like to help Swarm become a well-known organisation throughout the country.

My personal goals for me are to eventually pass my driving test, gain a thorough knowledge of the Swarm Apprenticeships business, complete the enterprise qualification, and as I mentioned earlier – start doing a degree with the Open University.

So, in conclusion… to any employers, please think about taking on an apprentice. To anyone who has just finished doing their GCSEs, their A-Levels, or perhaps just want a fresh start in life doing something else… I say go for an Apprenticeship, you won’t regret it – or at least think about it, because you would really be missing out on something great!

Shannon Watkins

Statutory Compulsory Pension Contribution Legislation came into effect from October 2012 and affects ALL employers withone or more employees upwards. It requires employers to make compulsory pension contributions and to auto-enrol mostemployees, with certain exclusions, into an appropriate pension arrangement.

It affects the largest employers first, rolling out to small employers between April 2015 and August 2017. The amount ofcompulsory pension contribution starts at a minimum level, rising to the required statutory minimum levels by October 2018.

The Pension Regulator has statutory powers to oversee this process and ensure all employers comply with this legislation.Failure to comply will be treated as a criminal offence, with the possibility of severe financial penalties, ranging from £50 to£10,000 PER DAY for non compliance.

All employers are required to carry out the following duties:-

• Assess their entire workforce
• Indentify who to automatically enrol
• Choose a pension provider(s)
• Register with The Pensions Regulator
• Make appropriate contributions
• Process relevant OPT-OUT notices
• Process relevant OPT-IN or JOINING notices
• Avoid inducements
• Keep ACCURATE records
• Provide all workers and other relevant bodies with information about pension changes

Not only is there a direct cost implication in respect of compulsory employer pension contributions, but there are additionalcost and time implications in managing the process and providing relevant reports to The Pension Regulator, proving you arecompliant with the legislation.

The new compulsory pension reforms have two important elements:-

• Compliance with the legislation
• Pension provision

To help employers with assessing the requirements to meet the legislation, Smith & Pinching have put forward an autoenrolment assistance programme. This service will deal with compliance in respect of the legislation and advice in respect ofpension requirements either from existing arrangements or if not qualifying for auto enrolment an appropriate alternative plan.

If you are uncertain about any aspect of the new legislation, or you would like some advice as to when you should start toimplement the required changes, please feel free to contact our pensions expert Paul Rayner on 01603 786812 or email himat raynerp@smith-pinching.co.uk

If your website doesn’t work well on mobiles and tablets, you’re missing out. If users are forced to ‘pinch and zoom’ to read your content and click your links and buttons, they’ll soon get fed up and go elsewhere. So how do you create a mobile-friendly website?

There are basically two options: have a mobile template, or build your website using responsive design. In the simplest terms, a mobile template is designed as a completely separate entity to your desktop website. Responsive design on the other hand requires you to have just one website which is coded such that it adapts to the screen size it’s being viewed on.

For example, you might see two columns on your desktop screen with a navigation menu across the top. When you view the same page of a responsive site on your mobile, content might realign itself to a single column, buttons resize and the navigation menu might become a drop down list so everything is easier to see and use on the smaller screen.

Why is this so important?

1) Mobile usage is massive

Stating the obvious, I know. It’s predicted that this year, mobile internet will take over desktop internet usage so ignore mobile users at your peril. The proportion of mobile searches is even higher for local search so if you’re trying to reach a local audience, this is even more significant.

2) Positive user experience has a direct impact on your sales

According to Google’s Think Insights, a user who has a positive mobile experience on your site is 67% more likely to buy a product or use a service. That’s pretty compelling.

3) 55% of social media consumption happens on mobiles*

Part of your digital marketing strategy might be to get people to interact with you via social media by Tweeting about your recent blog posts, for example, or getting visitors to share your content on Facebook. If mobile users follow your links from social media and end up on a website that’s not mobile friendly, chances are that they’ll bounce right back out again which is a waste of your efforts. *source: study by ComScore

4) Responsive is usually a better bet than a separate mobile site

There’s been some debate in the web design industry over whether responsive or mobile is best. I sit on the side of responsive for a number of reasons. Because responsive design sites adapt to screen size, your site will still work well with brand new phones and tablets which may have different screen sizes, and even with other devices that haven’t been invented yet. That saves you the extra work a separate mobile site might require. A responsive site also has a single URL which makes it easier for search engine bots to crawl the site. This typically means a responsive site will perform better in search than a separate mobile site. You also only have one site to maintain which can save you time and money.

How do you get a responsively designed website?

As a small business, you might be wondering what you can do to your current website to make it responsive. It is possible to do a bit of a coding bodge to help improve your current site to make it more responsive. However, it’s likely to be a better idea to start again. There are likely to be other improvements you can make to the content of your site at the same time to improve it for the mobile audience.

If you’re starting from scratch, creating a responsive site is easier than you might think. WordPress, for example, has ready-to-use themes which are responsive and will take care of everything for you. Why not use this change as an opportunity to have a complete revamp? It’s likely to prove a very worthwhile investment.

I will apologise inadvance for any pork based puns. As the Pig Idea campaign gains momentum (an initiative to raise the ban on feeding food waste to pigs), it’s got me thinking a little bit more about how much waste actually costs.

There is evidence that up to 30% of all our food is wasted, whether by us as consumers, during transport, storage or processing. Hardly surprising some might say given the length and complexity of food chains and as consumers become more affluent, this only makes the problem worse.

We, as consumers, have to pay for this. It would be ham-fisted (sorry) to suggest that we are overpaying on our weekly shop by 30% to compensate for this excess, but pay for it we do. On top of this, those businesses in every area of the supply chain need to pay for the waste to be removed, incur additional regulatory and legal obligations and pay for the extra labour.

As the Pig Idea suggests, the waste from supermarkets, restaurants etc could be used to reduce feed costs, reduce air miles, produce energy and could even generate jobs. It seems to make sense to me – if we can’t effectively reduce our physical waste perhaps we should put it to good use. And what’s good for Pork seems to resonate throughout the sector.

Large scale nationals struggle with the challenges of managing waste but regional producers can use this to their benefit. As our region is blessed with many small local producers, the same levels of waste can be avoided as the final product doesn’t pass through many hands.

Local producers also have the significant benefit of knowing who their suppliers are, who they are doing business with and how the food is being produced. This leads to greater information sharing, a closer food community and an atmosphere where good food becomes a “norm”.

Local producers do not have the buying power of the supermarkets, so the cost of production may be higher for our Norfolk and Suffolk businesses. But this potential 30% saving highlights why regional businesses can continue to thrive whilst delivering quality.

Disclaimer: Please note that this article is provided for information only. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy, information contained herein may not be comprehensive and you should not act upon it without seeking professional advice.