Member News

Happy New Year from Layrd Design.

As we start the first working week of 2021, we have reviewed the past 12 months at Layrd in our latest blog.  2020: A Year in Review

To say that 2020 didn’t panned out as anyone expected is an understatement – but it hasn’t all been doom and gloom. In fact, there have been plenty of positives to be grateful for over the past year.

In this article, we take a moment to celebrate some of Layrd Design’s 2020 highlights and look ahead to what’s in store for 2021.

https://www.layrddesign.co.uk/post/2020-the-year-in-review

What a year it’s been. With the drive to support businesses any way they could, in unprecedented circumstances, business advisors James Lay and Mark Curtis, decided to launch a free podcast. Their aim, from the start, was to help, advise and guide business owners through the murky COVID-19 financial waters.

Back in May, To Furlough and Beyond – Use the job furlough scheme effectively, launched to great success. So, bolstered in confidence, Mark and James navigated the government’s regularly changing financial updates. Soon it became clear that there were other areas of business that needed addressing; in particular mental health and good leadership.

They chose topics each week that seemed most prevalent at the time based on what the media were saying, and feedback that was coming out of the Commons. They covered issues such as Handling disappointment – you can’t always get what you want, The office is dead, long live the office! – Work effectively from home, to Trust me, I’m an employee – Improve trust within your team and Ohh do the Covid Hokey Cokey! – Help businesses coming in and out of lockdown.

The real highlight of the series so far, has to be the insights gleaned from their special guest interview episodes which launched in September. Their first guest was Dr Chris Mason; Mindshop founder, with a PhD in Industrial and Organisational Psychology, he is the ultimate coach of the coaches. His tips for how he manages his time, and the importance of how to build capabilities, is a must listen for any business leader.

COVID-19 wasn’t the only thing on the news agenda in 2020. The Black Lives Matter movement throughout the world prompted an important discussion between James and Mark, Sue Liburd MBE, and Andy Nicol from Abstract; an award-winning learning and development company that changes people’s lives. They talk through the importance, for business leaders, of the key elements of inclusive leadership and how to ensure diversity in the workplace.

One of the most popular episodes to date was launched recently in November – a chat with Louise Newby, an experienced educator in the world of mental health and wellbeing. Louise’s first-hand insight and experience made for a fascinating, and ultimately important conversation, particularly framed against the COVID-19 backdrop.

The farewell episode of 2020 is Negotiation Skills: Everything is a negotiation, where inspiration comes from Return of the Mac – signing off with a bang!

The team at MHA Larking Gowen wish all businesses out there a fantastic and well-earned break, and a truly prosperous 2021.

You can find Impromptu Business Chat on Apple Podcasts, or you can catch up with all previous episodes by visiting the MHA Larking Gowen website here.

Just a quick update to confirm that all of the areas served by our network will be covered by Tier 4 restrictions from Saturday 26 December (Boxing Day) onwards.

There are no changes to the Greater Anglia timetable currently in operation or to the service alterations planned over the Festive Season.

We continue to operate our services as normal for everyone who still needs to travel and, if you are travelling, you can continue to travel with confidence.

As always, we advise everyone to check information about your journey before you travel. We will keep on updating our website with any further information and details as things change. Detailed information about the Tier restrictions can be found on the government’s website (www.gov.uk), but please note anyone living in a Tier 4 area is meant to stay at home and only travel for work, medical or other permitted reasons.

Please note that full refunds are available for anyone who was planning to travel between 23 and 27 December, but will now no longer be doing so. Details are on our website.  

I think this should now be the final update until the first week of the New Year, but then these days you never quite know !!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Greater Anglia

We are delighted to share that we are hiring for a new role to start in the New Year. POSITION: Senior Systems Engineer DEPT: Managed Services REPORTS TO: Service Desk Manager HOURS: FULL TIME (37.5 p/w) HOLIDAY: 20 DAYS PER ANNUM (rising by one day each year to a maximum of 25) CLOSING DATE: Friday 15 January 2021 The Role  We are a fast-paced IT company based on Meridian Business Park on the outskirts of Norwich. Due to continued growth, we are looking to recruit a Senior Systems Engineer to become a part of our busy Service Desk team. Acting as an escalation point for the Systems Engineers, the role will involve fault diagnosis and resolution. As a Senior Systems Engineer, you will be responsible for providing both onsite and remote technical support for our growing client base. You will be responsible for managing onsite technical matters with client IT systems, ensuring SLAs are met.  For the full job description, or to apply for the role, please visit: breakwaterit.co.uk/careers Applications close on Friday 15 January. No agencies please.

Norfolk’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Lorne Green, has launched his annual consultation on the proposed budget for policing across the county, setting out some of the key challenges facing the Constabulary in the coming year.

In the published consultation information, Lorne stresses the importance of protecting the gains made in keeping our county safe since 2016 and ensuring the police have the resources necessary to provide strong community policing, fight fraud, and tackle the scourge of domestic abuse.

The PCC is required by law to set the budget for Norfolk Constabulary and, as part of this, determine how much the people of Norfolk contribute to the policing element of the Council Tax they pay to keep the county safe.

To inform this decision, each year Lorne has consulted with people across the county to explain the requirements and seek the community’s understanding.

In a consultation that will run from Monday 21 December until Friday 22 January, Lorne is seeking the community’s understanding for a policing precept rise of 5.68%, as allowed by the Chancellor in his spending review statement to Parliament recently. This represents the equivalent of 29p a week for a Band D property or 22p a week for a Band B property – the majority of properties in the county are in Bands A to D.

In seeking people’s views, Lorne has highlighted some of the biggest challenges currently facing policing, including the need for the Force to make £4 million of savings in the coming year.

PCC Lorne Green said: “As your PCC, I want to be able to reassure every man, woman and child in Norfolk that you will continue to receive an excellent police service.

“We can be proud that our police force has been assessed by national inspectors as outstanding for efficiency and that we remain one of the safest counties in the country – but the hard fact is that none of this comes cheap.

“We must not lose the gains that have been made to policing in our county over the past four years.”

In preparing for the consultation, Lorne asked the Chief Constable to come up with a costed plan that would maintain the level of policing services across the county and, importantly, enhance services in areas of particular demand – a tall order in an era of increased demand and growing complexity of crime investigation.

Lorne added: “In response, the Chief Constable advised me that we need the precept increase allowed by the Chancellor to ensure that Norfolk Constabulary can continue to provide current levels of service and also confront challenges to keeping Norfolk safe, such as continued high demand associated with domestic abuse and rising reports of fraud.”

“People across Norfolk continue to tell me that visible policing is a priority – they are right.

“I have championed that priority from the outset and, by the end of January 2021, there will be over 200 extra police officers in operation in Norfolk in uniform and detective roles compared to when I took office in 2016.

“The Chief Constable has assured me that with the proposed precept increase he will also be able to commit to a further increase in community policing, ensuring more warranted officers are engaging with communities across Norfolk.”

In previous years, the PCC has held consultation events across the county to hear the views of Norfolk residents. Restrictions on gatherings imposed by the coronavirus pandemic mean the consultation will, out of necessity, be taking place online this year, with all the information and a short survey available on the Norfolk PCC website.

Printed copies of the survey and consultation documents are also available for those who need them.

There will be an online Q&A session with Lorne and Chief Constable Simon Bailey on Tuesday 12 January which will be open to all, and Lorne will also be consulting community groups across the county.

The consultation information also highlights the improvements to service that previous precept rises have helped fund, from equipping officers with body-worn cameras and tablets, to a fleet of drones that help find missing people, track down hare coursers and prevent and detect other crime.

Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology has been rolled out across the county to track down suspects as well as investments in technology and trained officers to tackle the growing threat of cybercrime and fraud.

“These are enormously complex, time-consuming and demanding crimes to investigate, but no victim should be left behind. We will not let the fraudsters, the drug dealers and violent offenders win,” said Lorne.

“I fully appreciate these are really tough times for our Norfolk community, ravaged as it is by the continuing consequences of a pandemic. I know that the last thing you want to hear is a proposal for increased demands on your household budget. And yet, we absolutely must do all possible to keep our community, our vulnerable, our families, our young people, and yes, ourselves safe, while preserving the gains you, as Norfolk taxpayers, have helped us make.”

Find out more and have your say

Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, TaxAssist continued to grow its presence opening 20 new shop-fronts across the UK between July and December.

A TaxAssist Accountants shop is a showcase, promoting the friendly, full service offering of accounting and tax services that are available to clients. Ever since the first fully branded shop opened in Norwich in 2002, walk-ins to shops have continually been one of the largest sources of client growth for the network, being conveniently located, offering a visible presence in the local community and effectively reinforcing local, national and online marketing initiatives.

There are now 237 shops open all around the UK and, with growing interest in joining the TaxAssist Accountants network and an increased demand for our services from clients, the indications are that the network is set for further substantial growth.

In September, Mark Gibbs unveiled his shop in Southend-on-Sea. Mark said: “It’s great to finally have the shop open and we’ve already had lots of people walk in and comment on how good the shop looks. One of the major reasons for joining TaxAssist Accountants was the modern, fresh look of the shops which can effectively showcase the services we offer and provides a convenient meeting place for clients.”

Confident of the shop model and keen to maintain her growth plans, Olivia Palios opened her fourth shop in Sandbach in November 2020. Olivia, the youngest female franchisee to join the TaxAssist Accountants network at 22, back in 2015, now looks after over 1,000 independent business clients across Cheshire and Staffordshire along with her team of seven accounting and tax professionals.

Olivia said: “2020 has been quite a year, but we’ve continued to sign up new clients, both over the phone and face-to-face, albeit socially distanced in the shop.

“I know that to continue to grow, I need to open more shops because they’re such a draw for clients. I’m looking forward to maximising the potential of the four shops and I can see many opportunities ahead.”

James Mattam, Group Business Development Director, said: “It is fantastic that so many new shops have opened in the UK this year, further promoting the brand creating ever more locations to meet with a TaxAssist Accountant. Our recent client satisfaction survey showed that our clients are keen to meet with us and talk through their financial needs.

“We are witnessing an increase in demand from business owners who have not received the service they deserve this year, when they needed it the most. Our brand values have shone through and we’re proud to say we’ve gone above and beyond to ensure clients were supported and guided through the Government support schemes for grants and funding.

“With the combination of our prominent online brand positioning and high street visibility, we are well placed to service this increase in demand, just as we saw in the previous recession.”

Here is the list of all 20 TaxAssist Accountants shops that have opened in the past six months:

Ashford – Anthony Royle Barnes – Abdallah Bello Beaconsfield – Mike Melling Bedminster – Keith Adams and Anna Baradad Clacton-on-Sea – Stuart Burge Clapham Junction – Martin Thomas & Sarah Kay Coventry – Jay Gosal Farringdon – Gary Bugdale Glasgow Tradeston – Adnan Tahir Hampton – Sunny Srai & Amarita Dosanjh Huntingdon – Charlie Walker Kingswinford – Lloyd Evans Llangefni – Peter Sewell Preston – Prakaash Manivannan Prestatyn – Peter Sewell Sandbach – Olivia Palios Southend-on-Sea – Mark Gibbs Stafford – Jugdev Dhillon Uxbridge – Khaliq Ur Rahman, Owais & Sadia Saad Walkden – Lee King & Louise Gravina

If you are interested in finding out more about joining the TaxAssist Accountants network, please call 0800 0188297 or visit www.taxassistfranchise.co.uk

Southgate recently ran a promotional campaign with its customers providing an alternative ‘rainbow’ packaging tape to their usual tape donating a percentage of each sale to the NHS. Southgate chose The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn, being the local NHS Trust, donating £5,000. The campaign was inspired by a project the company had worked on with a client who replaced their packaging tape with a rainbow tape on gift packages sent to key workers across the UK making the packages feel very personal. Craig Turner, Managing Director at Southgate said: “The Southgate Rainbow Tape initiative was a great campaign for us, and it allowed all of our team to feel like they had an opportunity to contribute towards a worthy cause. It was refreshing to see how many of our customers brought into the programme and the team at Southgate are have been very cheered by the final contribution from their efforts.” Darren Smith, Head of Marketing at Southgate added: “For us it was all about raising awareness of the great work that the NHS are doing. We thought as most people would be spending more time at home and ordering more online, it would be a great reminder to help protect the NHS and stay alert.” Steve Barnett, Chairman at QEH said: “It’s wonderful to receive this donation and particularly at this time of year.” Caroline Shaw, CEO at the Trust echoed Steve’s appreciation adding: “It’s such an honour and we’re incredibly grateful.” QEH hope’s to work closely with Southgate in the coming year as part of their corporate mission to engage and work with local communities help improve the health and clinical outcomes of their patients.  

In this weeks show, Mark and James talk about the importance of negotiations skills in business and in life generally. As always they provide 3 valuable top tips, and along the way they make reference to former FBI negotiator Chris Voss, hostage negotiator George Kohlriser and Return of the Mac by Mark Morrison.   If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe on Listen here!

When it became apparent that the effects of the new coronavirus would define 2020, Captain Fawcett Ltd applied for and was successfully awarded a New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership ‘Business Resilience and Recovery Grant’, administered by Suffolk County Council and intended for the support of businesses affected by Covid-19.  Now approaching the final weeks of the funding period Captain Fawcett Ltd has made excellent use of the most welcome allotted grant.   Alert to customer demand for a product which swiftly became obligatory in everyone’s 2020 personal hygiene kit, the company quickly switched production to create essential hand sanitiser. With the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership grant, the company was able to make essential upgrades to storage facilities, production equipment and stock control systems. Furthermore, with 2020 being Captain Fawcett’s 10th Anniversary year, a range of new products had been scheduled for release. Following many months of investment in development, design and production, to delay would have posed a real financial risk. Thanks to the support of the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, Captain Fawcett was able to forge ahead with the planned launch of 8 new products. One of these, Nebula, a Signature Series collaboration with the American rock star John Petrucci, led directly to Captain Fawcett’s most successful trading weekend since the company was established.   In this hugely disruptive and unpredictable year, the world’s purchasing habits switched nigh on overnight to mass shopping online. Ever attuned to the needs of the customer and with the help of the grant, Captain Fawcett achieved rapid improvement in product stock control. This enabled swift response to new consumer habits in facilitating smooth deliveries to customers in 48 countries. Indeed, with the significant increase in orders, Captain Fawcett Ltd has witnessed considerable business expansion in this the company’s landmark anniversary year. 

This business expansion has been supported by New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, through the Business Resilience and Recovery Grant Scheme.   The scheme’s assistance has been of huge value both in expanding the business and sustaining full time and freelance staff in the UK and maintaining relationships with distributors and partners worldwide.

SocialB, an international digital marketing & training agency who has a base in Norwich boasting clients such as, Visa, PwC, Elsevier, Aston Martin and Just Eat to name a few, has responded to the Covid-19 crisis by developing and building its international footprint.   Having historically had a couple of team members based around the globe, the company saw the opportunity with remote working to open up its search for leading digital personnel across the globe. In response to one of its busiest years, SocialB has recruited new team members based in Kenya, Spain, Manchester, Scotland and the Philippines.   Lynsey Sweales, founder and CEO of SocialB said,   “Covid-19 has accelerated digital growth both for businesses with an existing digital presence and those looking to revolutionise their current business models. Having taken our team remote during the pandemic when our requirement for increasing team numbers became obvious it seemed silly to restrict ourselves in our search for the best digital people.   It’s been really exciting opening up our recruitment process like this. It feels more in line with our typical operations. As an international agency pre-covid, we were travelling all over the world on a weekly basis to deliver training and to meet our clients. Having a global workforce will just support this as the world looks to open up again.”   SocialB was established in 2008 and quickly grew its international reputation delivering exciting training solutions and sophisticated digital & e-commerce campaigns that generate leads and increase profitability. With this approach, it didn’t take long for the company to grow its exceptional global client base.   Not surprisingly the pandemic saw many businesses turn to SocialB for digital solutions, making the most of their online training sessions, podcast and toolboxes aimed at helping businesses large and small build their digital presence with practical market-leading advice which has been a ‘go-to’ for hundreds of businesses throughout the pandemic.   Lynsey Sweales, CEO holds a local position on the Chamber of Commerce’s board, until recently was on the Skills Panel for New Anglia Local Enterprise, she’s a trainer for Google as part of their digital academy and a mentor for Digital Boost. As the company continues to grow Lynsey’s support for the local business community remains evident.

We are pleased to say that further to our last update in July 2020, we have continued to adapt some of our core processes and our team have adapted to working in the ‘new normal’, to continue to provide all of our regular services during the usual working hours. Our previous investments in recruiting and training the right people, combined with developing robust IT systems, have enabled ASAMS to demonstrate a good level of resilience during the pandemic. (Pictured: Andrew Page, Director, ASAMS)

All of our staff have worked hard to adapt to the changes to ensure that our company can continue to give great service to our customers, and we are pleased that we have remained open for business throughout 2020″ said Thomas Whiskin, Director, ASAMS.

  In this months issue:

ASAMS Covid-19 December Update

Christmas Closure Dates ASAMS will be closed from 24th December and open on 4th January 2021. If any urgent work is required during this period, please contact ASAMS to discuss out of hours working arrangements. Thank you to those who have supported us this year.

Reinforcing Steel Tests

SPE Conference, Aberdeen 2021

Mental Health Awareness and Wellbeing

SocialB, an international digital marketing & training agency who has a base in Norwich boasting clients such as, Visa, PwC, Elsevier, Aston Martin and Just Eat to name a few, has responded to the Covid-19 crisis by developing and building its international footprint. Having historically had a couple of team members based around the globe, the company saw the opportunity with remote working to open up its search for leading digital personnel across the globe. In response to one of its busiest years, SocialB has recruited new team members based in Kenya, Spain, Manchester, Scotland and the Philippines. Lynsey Sweales, founder and CEO of SocialB said, “Covid-19 has accelerated digital growth both for businesses with an existing digital presence and those looking to revolutionise their current business models. Having taken our team remote during the pandemic when our requirement for increasing team numbers became obvious it seemed silly to restrict ourselves in our search for the best digital people. It’s been really exciting opening up our recruitment process like this. It feels more in line with our typical operations. As an international agency pre-covid, we were travelling all over the world on a weekly basis to deliver training and to meet our clients. Having a global workforce will just support this as the world looks to open up again.” SocialB was established in 2008 and quickly grew its international reputation delivering exciting training solutions and sophisticated digital & e-commerce campaigns that generate leads and increase profitability. With this approach, it didn’t take long for the company to grow its exceptional global client base. Not surprisingly the pandemic saw many businesses turn to SocialB for digital solutions, making the most of their online training sessions, podcast and toolboxes aimed at helping businesses large and small build their digital presence with practical market-leading advice which has been a ‘go-to’ for hundreds of businesses throughout the pandemic. Lynsey Sweales, CEO holds a local position on the Chamber of Commerce’s board, until recently was on the Skills Panel for New Anglia Local Enterprise, she’s a trainer for Google as part of their digital academy and a mentor for Digital Boost. As the company continues to grow Lynsey’s support for the local business community remains evident.