13 minute read
training and events
Training and Events Diary
Members enjoy discounted rates for training
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Tailored Training
Sussex Chamber can provide company bespoke training courses which is a fantastic way of designing one of our training courses to suit your business needs. This is a cost effective way of training a group of your employees at the same time, on a date that suits you and at the premises of your choice.
Foundation Award in International Trade
These courses are delivered online and are structured to match the ten British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) courses. Each course offers one credit towards the BCC Foundation Award in International Trade and candidates attending six or more courses and obtaining six or more credits received the Award.
Note: receive a discount when booking any six of the courses at the same time. The following prices will apply:
£1026.00 + VAT per person (members = 10% discount)
£1425.00 + VAT per person (non-members = 5% discount)
Training Courses
Gold & Premier members - You can now use your credit pots to pay for training
6th Sep 9.30 - 12.30 Foundation Award in International Trade - Export Documentation
7th Sep 9.30 - 13.00 Foundation Award in International Trade - Understanding Commodity Codes
8th Sep 9.30 - 12.30 Foundation Award in International Trade - Understanding Exporting
20th Sep 9.30 - 12.30 Foundation Award in International Trade - Methods of Payment
21st Sep 9.30 - 12.30 Foundation Award in International Trade - Import Procedures
22nd Sep 9.30 - 12.30 Foundation Award in International Trade - Documentary Letters of Credit
4th Oct 9.30 - 12.30 Foundation Award in International Trade - Agents and Distributors
5th Oct 9.30 - 12.30 Foundation Award in International Trade - Preference Rules of Origin
6th Oct 9.30 - 12.30 Foundation Award in International Trade - Inward & Outward Processing
9th Sep 9.30 - 16.30 Introduction to Supervision
2nd Aug 9:30 - 11:30 Confident & Effective Communication (Virtual Training)
6th Sep 9:30 - 16:30 Time Management & Personal Effectiveness (F2F)
22nd Sep 9:30 - 16:30 Unshakeable Confidence (F2F)
4th Oct 9:30 - 16:30 Confident & Effective Communication (F2F)
5th Oct 9:30 - 16:30 Introduction to Emotional Intelligence (F2F)
9th Aug 9:30 - 16:30 Selling Skills for Results (F2F)
31st Aug 9:30 - 16:30 Great Customer Service (F2F)
20th Sep 9:30 - 11:30 Great Customer Service (Virtual)
Events
Virtual & Face to Face (F2F)
4th August 10:00 - 11:30 Grow Your Connections (Virtual)
8th September 10:00 - 11:30 Grow Your Connections (Virtual) Members: FREE, Non-members: £10
Members: FREE, Non-members: £10
9th September 08:00 - 10:30 Cyber Secutrity Awareness (F2F) Members: £25, Non-members: £50
29th September 12:00 - 14:30 Business Networking Lunch and AGM (F2F) Members: £25, Non-members: £35
5th October 18:00 - 19:30 An Evening with Jaguar Land Rover (F2F) Members: FREE, Non- Members: £15
11th October 08:00 - 10:30 Gatwick Airport Regional Update (F2F) Members: £18, Non- Members: £28
12th October 14:30- 16:00 Outlook for the UK Economy (F2F) Members: £15, Non- Members: £25
20th October 10:00 - 12:00 The Ultimate Sussex Network (F2F) Members: FREE, Non- Members: £20
8th November 10:00 - 11:30 Grow Your Connections (Virtual) Members: FREE, Non- Members: £10
15th November 09:00 - 15:00 Sussex Chamber Business Expo - EARLY BIRD RATES, valid until 19th August F2F
15th November 09:00 - 15:00 Sussex Chamber Business Expo - Rates from 20th Aug (F2F) FREE for Delegates, Chamber Members can Exhibit for £80 + VAT, Non- Members £295 + VAT including Bronze Membership
FREE for Delegates, Chamber Members can Exhibit for £100 + VAT, Non- Members £315 + VAT including Bronze Membership
30th November 10:30 - 12:00 South East Chamber Networking (Virtual) Members: FREE, Non- Members: £15
We are currently finalising dates for our events – both virtual and face to face.
For Sector-Based Forums, Bank of England events, Social gatherings, MP events, Purely Networking and many more, go to the following link on our website for an updated list of all of our events: www.sussexchamberofcommerce.co.uk/events
Summer’s here, but a deadline is looming!
It may be Summer and a time to relax as we plan our time away from the office for either foreign climes or a staycation, but if your company has a December year end, it won’t be long after the end of the summer that your corporation tax falls due for payment. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could stretch that Summer feeling a little further into the Autumn, by giving HMRC a lot less of your hard-earned cash!
December and March year ends are the two most common for limited companies, that means August through to March are the busiest time of the year for Research and Development Tax Relief consultants. The peak is December, where companies with a December 2020 year end have a hard deadline for submitting an amended claim and companies with a March 2022 year end have their tax bills to pay on 1 January, so in effect it represents a bit of a double whammy.
With December 2020 being potentially the end of your first year coping with Covid, there may be additional scope for you to claim for adaptions made to work, or changes in manufacturing processes that may have had to be trialed in an attempt to meet the social distancing guidelines, or just a period of innovation while the world around us stopped. Just putting in place systems to work from home or buying screens to allow people to work, won’t cut the mustard. The rules for claiming haven’t been relaxed because of Covid.
If you have undertaken a project where the outcome or the way ahead was uncertain, where the competent members of your team couldn’t readily deduce a solution or where a solution couldn’t be sourced from the internet, then there is potential for there to be a claim. You have to be able to demonstrate that the company was trying to achieve a scientific or technological advance, and that in trying to create the advance the company faced scientific or technological uncertainty. If you can do that then there is a strong chance that you’ll be able to submit a claim.
That claim could be significant, you can include a percentage of staff time for people working on and supporting the project, you can also include materials that have been incorporated into a prototype or materials that have been scrapped as a result of failures. You can also claim for a proportion of light and heat that may have been consumed during the R&D. If you’ve had to bring in staff from an agency to support the project then their cost to can be included in the claim, and if you are an SME then you can also claim for work that you subcontracted out to a third party.
It is also important that you are able to demonstrate to HMRC the scientific or technical advances that your project was trying to deliver, in fact from next year, your claim will have to include a description of the project and the challenges. This isn’t designed to put companies off from claiming, it is to reduce the prevalence of erroneous claims that has been on the increase over a number of years, some of which could probably be described as fraudulent.
That is where we come in with 17 years of experience in preparing and defending R&D Tax Relief claims, we can help you to identify those projects that meet the criteria for inclusion and discuss future projects. If you have a large project in mind, speak to us before you commit to it, because you may be able to apply for an R&D grant as well. We can also help you to evaluate the costs that have been incurred in undertaking the projects.
If you would like to have a free noobligation discussion with our Director, Simon Bulteel, you can book a time that is suitable to you at www.calendly.com/ cooden/discovery-candi or you can call us on 03003730024. If you decide to work with us, we’ll get you onboard, we’ll obtain the financial information from you and have a more detailed conversation with the scientific or technical leads behind the projects to obtain information about the project and the challenges that were faced. We’ll then draft the report and provide you with the financial details, you can then review it, suggest changes and then we’ll send it all together with detailed instructions to your accountant to incorporate the information into your tax return and computations.
https://calendly.com/ cooden/dicoverybus-edge
https://calendly.com/cooden/dicovery-bus-edge
The Lessons we learn from Failure!
In today’s article I want to talk about the ‘F’ word. Everyone throughout their lives are faced with failure at some point and we have all experienced it in some form, failed exams, driving test, a sporting experience. When it comes to business it is a subject that we tend not to address or talk about. Since starting my entrepreneurial journey nearly 15 years ago I have failed many times, but the main thing to consider is how we reframe what failure looks like to us and our relationship with it.
Sam Thomas
Co-Founder, County Business Clubs
I started my first business in 2010 when I took a hairdressing franchise of Essensuals, the sister company of Toni & Guy, the largest hair dressing franchise in the world with over 400 salons globally. I was not a hairdresser, so it was purely a business venture for me. It was a tough experience, but I learnt so much from, about myself and business. For the first two years I commuted to Brighton on a motorbike from Essex 7 days a week, which, in itself was a challenge.
After three years of running the salon in April 2013 it hadn’t worked out and I had to take the tough decision to close the company down and inform the 10 members of staff that they unfortunately had lost their jobs. It was a really difficult period but can remember the morning I had to address the staff to tell them, I was sitting in a coffee shop and read an article about the 10 rules of success that had appeared on my linked in feed, the top rule was ‘Understanding and excepting failure’. This was a very pivotal moment for me and did my upmost to embrace the experience and take the lessons I had learnt over the past three years from the mistakes I had made and use those lessons to improve on the next part of my journey.
In reflection I knew I had got the culture wrong at the salon, I was a boss and not a leader that inspired people. Focusing on creating a strong culture is a lesson I have taken into my next businesses, and something I always talk about on my podcast show today. I knew that closing the salon was the right thing to do, a tough a decision as that was, but I asked myself a question at the time and it was:
‘Did I do the best I could, with what I had, at that time’
The answer to that question was YES… I had given blood, sweat and tears for three years and it just hadn’t worked out, which on many occasions it just doesn’t. As long as you can say I did my best, then is it really a failure?
For me the best way to reframe failure is by using this one liner from the brilliant Steve Sallis, who was a guest on my podcast:
‘There is No Failure, Only Feedback’
Sam.thomas@countybusinessclubs.co.uk
Baldwin Boxall Announces ISO14001 Certification
Baldwin Boxall, UK manufacturer of life safety communication systems, is delighted to announce its successful implementation of ISO14001 Environmental Management into the business. During the company’s BSI audit, many different aspects of its Quality Environmental Management System were examined to ensure it met the extensive criteria. The auditor was genuinely impressed at how Baldwin Boxall’s team had integrated its environmental strategy into its existing ISO9001 systems and processes.
Alison Cousins
Marketing Manager, Baldwin Boxall Communications Ltd
For many years, the environment has been at the forefront of Baldwin Boxall’s manufacturing processes to ensure it has a clear focus on sustainable development, guiding the team in all they do. Adopting ISO14001 ensures it continues to measure its short and long-term environmental impact, which fully supports the company’s environmental mission statement and shows commitment to sustainability.
Nick Baldwin, Sales & Marketing Director outlines “Gaining ISO14001 helps us improve our environmental impact in many different ways. Our whole team is excited to work on projects and opportunities to actively reduce the company’s carbon footprint and preserve our natural environment. We can assure our customers and end users that we will continue to work to maintain (or exceed) this stringent international standard.”
Bob Schulz, Manufacturing Director, added “As well as maintaining and expanding on our ISO14001 accreditation, Baldwin Boxall will also be investigating how to become carbon neutral - which we will set as a future goal for the company.” Baldwin Boxall being both ISO9001 and ISO14001 accredited allows the company to continually improve the way it operates to fulfil its vision for ‘Life safety for every building - for everyone – everywhere’.
Baldwin Boxall Communications Ltd was founded in 1982 to offer industry leading communication solutions. The company has remained an independent organisation ever since with a benchmark to fully meet and exceed, wherever possible, its customer requirements.
Baldwin Boxall designs, manufactures and markets voice alarm, public address and emergency voice communication equipment for varying sectors, including commercial, industrial, retail, leisure, transport and public service facilities.
Baldwin Boxall is now renowned for being a leading independent UK manufacturer in the industry with installations in prestigious sites worldwide. The company has a strong network of UK and overseas customers and offers a wide range of products serving the voice evacuation, emergency voice communications and public address markets.
Product design and manufacture includes meeting core requirements of legislative compliance under varying British Standards and EN54 certification.
The sale of these products is complemented by the provision of commissioning, ongoing maintenance support and training. These services are provided by Baldwin Boxall’s own team of fully qualified engineers. International distributors also provide similar support facilities to end users.
The company enjoys the benefits drawn from having a loyal and dedicated workforce with proficient skills and adaptability. The manufacturing department also utilises a network of local suppliers, again many having long standing association with the company, with experience in its procedures and rigorous quality control requirements.
With R&D, sales, projects, specials, assembly, test, quality, packing and despatch teams all based on the one site in Crowborough, East Sussex, UK, Baldwin Boxall is able to work efficiently and effectively.
Over the years, the Baldwin Boxall brand has become a steadfast symbol of reliability and quality. When you choose a Baldwin Boxall system you can be certain of the company’s unique and clear commitment to the highest standards in life safety communication systems.
Baldwin Boxall products are robust, reliable, dependable and are backed by a friendly and knowledgeable customer care team and a seven-year warranty. The results of the company’s annual customer surveys are a testament to the assured knowledge that their systems, service, and aftercare are valued so highly that 99% of Baldwin Boxall’s customers would recommend them*.