Business News

Directors Jake Mountford, Gordon Hazelton and Simeon Chapman

HAZELTON MOUNTFORD FOCUS ON SUCCESS

Latest Chamber Patron Member Hazelton Mountford Ltd are an excellent example of local entrepreneurial success. Hazelton Mountford are Chartered Insurance brokers, specialising in business insurance. Their story began in 2008 when Group Managing Director Gordon Hazelton started the business with just himself and one assistant in a small two room first floor office in Droitwich. The vision was to provide business clients with the expertise of the large corporate insurance brokers with the personal service and value for money offered by smaller independent businesses. A few months later Jake Mountford joined Gordon and together they have driven the company forward with Hazelton Mountford now a insurance brokers controling in excess of £10m premium income. “The clients range from local tradesmen, SMEs to large multi-national companies’ says Gordon, ‘no matter who they are, each will be looked after and receive personal service and expertise. Our core values remain the same.” The company have built strong reserves over the years, have weathered the last two years, and continued to grow. Gordon concludes: “We are now looking forward to the next phase of success by recruiting new people and looking to grow our client base by working with those clients who would like to be looked after by a locally owned business with the expertise that can only be provided by one of only 5% of insurance brokers in the UK to be awarded Chartered Status.”

hazeltonmountford.co.uk

HEWETT RECRUITMENT ‘ROCKING’ APPROACH TO STRATEGIC PLANNING

The start of the financial year is when most businesses set goals for the year ahead and review performance over the previous 12 months. However, sometimes this annual exercise, whilst useful to set out intentions, can be quickly forgotten as other priorities appear and we move on. A few years ago, as a business, Hewett Recruitment went through the process of redefining their vision, values and strategy using Traction by Gino Wickman as a loose structure. They didn’t buy-in wholeheartedly to every element of EOS or the “Entrepreneurial Operating System” as Wickman calls it, but what they have continued to use years on is the idea of ‘Quarterly Rocks’. These ‘Rocks’, otherwise known as Strategic Priorities, are concrete attainable goals, set and reviewed every quarter, with the objective of maintaining momentum towards the longer-terms vision. At Hewett Recruitment, they actually do quarterly ‘rock reviews’ as part of quarterly company meetings – which keeps Hewett accountable to their employees and keeps communication wide open. The idea is that from the company level quarterly rocks, every individual in the business has their own rock(s) that they are responsible for, so everyone is very clear on their contribution to what the business is trying to achieve. This simple idea of quarterly rocks is a great way to formalise regular communication with teams and to empower employees – ensuring everyone really understands the importance of their role in the bigger picture. As we know, communication and empowerment are essential to employee engagement, which will not only improve productivity, but staff retention too!

www.hewett-recruitment.co.uk

Laura Hewett, Owner and Director of Hewett Recruitment

PLANNING FOR A SUCCESSFUL WEBSITE

When you’re selling a product and associated service to other businesses, a website that makes it easy for potential customers to find the information they need and get a feel for the way you work is essential. Achieving that takes a LOT of planning before design begins! The planning stages for their new website involved considerations like the customer journey, what information is critical and what extra should be available for the curious, how to make navigation intuitive and how to communicate our USP. Planning the structure first made it easy to direct the photo and video shoot to convey the personality of the business as they already knew exactly what shots were needed (and repainting the wall in the office to match the brand colours made ALL the difference). Time will tell but the team are pleased with the result - the planning was definitely worthwhile!

www.claritysolutions.co.uk

For you and your business

WHAT HAPPENS TO FAMILY LOANS AND GIFTS UPON DIVORCE?

Many parents will be familiar with providing financial assistance to their children and their spouses, whether it is to assist with the purchase of a home, to renovate an existing home, or to invest in a family business.

However, what is not always fully considered at the time of any monetary advancement is what implications there are for the repayment of the monies should the recipient and their partners separate. Often, gifts and loans agreed by family members are informal arrangements, which are agreed verbally rather than in writing. But what implication does this have on the ability of those providing the financial assistance to recover these monies in the future? When there is an application for a financial order made by a spouse in divorce proceedings, the court draws a clear distinction between monies which were gifted by third parties during the marriage and monies which were loaned. There is a ‘gift’ of money when parents (or other third party) have no expectation of either that money being repaid to them or having any interest in any property acquired with those monies. Although in some circumstances, the fact that a significant gift was made by one of the spouses’ parents can be seen as a significant ‘contribution’ by that spouse (which should therefore be taken into account in what financial order is made), in most cases the couples’ respective needs will override any contribution argument and the entirety of the couples’ assets (including the gift) will be divided in accordance with those needs. However, if the monies are treated as a loan, the divorcing couple will be required to repay the monies in accordance with what was agreed with the family member before their remaining assets are divided by the court. Often, because there was no formal written agreement entered into at the time or the terms of any agreement change, a dispute arises between the divorcing couple and their family members as to whether the monies advanced should be treated as a loan or a gift. In these circumstances the family members who advanced the monies may have to join or intervene in the family proceedings and give evidence. In the first instance, payments made by a parent for the benefit of a child are presumed to be gifts. However, this presumption can be rebutted with clear evidence that the transfer had a different purpose or intention (such as a loan) at the time of the transaction and that there was a requirement for repayment. The court is less likely to consider a payment a loan if the terms are vague, uncertain, or unlikely to be enforced. The court considers on the balance of probabilities whether it was the intention of the parties that the monies be paid on the condition that it should be repaid. The court will consider various factors, including:

The existence of any written loan agreement

The terms of repayment Whether any repayments have been made

Evidence of the discussions between the parties

Whether there was an expectation of repayment

Whether there was any security provided in respect of the loan If the court is satisfied that the loan is repayable, the court may order that the parties repay the loan from the matrimonial assets before the remainder of those assets is divided between them. Where the court is not satisfied that the loan is repayable then it is likely to determine the advance to be a gift and not repayable. Family members who have financially assisted couples (or plan to) should take advice from a family finance specialist as to how best to protect their interest and intentions in the event that the parties separate in the future.

Laura Williams

Associate Director, Family Law

lwilliams@thursfields.co.uk 0345 20 73 72 8 Laura Williams

Tel: 0345 20 73 72 8 | info@thursfields.co.uk | www.thursfields.co.uk

Is your business prepared for the big telephone switch off?

In 2017 Openreach announced their intention to turn off the PSTN and ISDN networks by 2025. It was recommended that businesses would need to be migrated to a single IP core network that ultimately will replace all legacy networks.

WHY IS IT HAPPENING?

PSTN has formed the infrastructure for our telecommunications system in the UK since 1876 when the first ever telephone call was made, it’s unsurprising that it has now become antiquated and costly to maintain. ISDN although newer, being introduced in the 1980s is a digital version of the analogue phone lines. Therefore it is time for the network to be modernised, using technology fit for the digital world we now live in. Openreach advised that they would be turning off the old analogue PSTN in 2025 to pave the way for a fully digital network which can meet the demands of the new digital era. The PSTN includes ISDN lines which many businesses have, which could be ISDN2 or ISDN30.

WHAT IS NEXT?

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephony, also known as IP telephony is the next generation of voice communication technology. With VoIP, calls are made over the internet rather than through wires like they are with PSTN. The pandemic has increased the need for video calling, conference calls and international calls and the use of internet communication applications such as Microsoft teams and Zoom. The use of these types of applications are only going to continue to grow with the shift towards hybrid working and we are starting to require more from our voice communication. VoIP offers higher quality calls, more features and more flexibility than traditional telephony. Switching over to IP telephony enables businesses to benefit from the numerous advantages of integrated communications, including messaging, rich presence and video communication.

HOW DO I PREPARE?

If you currently have a PSTN or ISDN contract you’ll need to think about switching to an IP telephony solution when your contract is up for renewal. Upgrading your systems now means that you can take advantage of the benefits of VoIP and hosted telephony sooner whilst futureproofing your business. Making the change sooner rather than later will give your business plenty of time to transition to the new system and learn how to make the most out of its features.

You’ll need a business-grade broadband solution to get the most out of your VoIP system and to consider your hosted telephony options to see which would suit your business best.

WHAT ARE MY OPTIONS?

When considering an IP telephony solution, there are two main options to choose from, SIP trunking or a hosted telephone solution. SIP trunking enables you to make calls over the internet through your onsite PBX (Private Branch Exchange). It works in a similar way to making calls on a PSTN line, except that instead of voice data going from your onsite PBX to the PSTN line, it is transferred from your PBX through your SIP trunk over your internet connection so in effect, the internet connection acts as the PSTN phone line.

Hosted telephony is a cloud-based solution, hosted by an external provider. With a hosted solution, your telephone system is housed in the cloud rather than your office, removing the need for costly physical on-site hardware and analogue or ISDN phone lines. A business phone system is hosted remotely, known as a Hosted PBX, and accessed via the internet meaning essentially your phone system becomes a piece of software rather than hardware.

EBC Group are experts in telephony and can assist you in finding the best VoIP solutions for your business needs. We work with leading communication software providers so can offer telephony solutions which are cost effective.

To find out more, visit www.ebcgroup.co.uk or contact us on 0121 3680154 or hello@ebcgroup. co.uk.

The simplicity of one Managed Service Provider for all your technology needs

0121 3680187 www.ebcgroup.co.uk