Your Business NE by Jeff Fitzpatrick

How will you make YOUR BUSINESS BETTER

Have You Got the Necessary Tools, Techniques & Guts?

Exclusive FREE instant access webinar gives you the simple secrets of successful networking

THE BEST BUSINESS

BOOK ever written? CRUSHING it with LinkedIn

Your BUSINESS NE

MAGAZIN E

The Editors

Angelina Bell Your Business NE Welcome to Your business NE a wholly new business magazine with a mission to inform and entertain the business owners of North East England. We take our mission very seriously. We don’t want to become a “look at us” gallery for businesses. Rather, we want to become a source of good, experience based, practical advice, information and interest that is of use on a day to day basis. We are delighted to hear from our readers with comments, questions and suggestions on how we can develop what we do to match their needs. At present, we most want to build our readership rather than to extract money from readers or advertisers. This puts a great opportunity at your feet! If you would be happy to point your business customers and contacts towards us then we will be happy to showcase your business through an article, advertisement or sponsorship of an article. Contact one of our editors to find out more.

A well known figure to business owners throughout the North East and beyond, Angelina is a very successful business owner in her own right. Having started, built and sold businesses, Angelina earned her spurs as a provider of advice and guidance to a range of businesses. Angelina is now a highly respected business coach and brings a fantastic knowledge and skills base to Your Business NE. Contact Angelina directly to find out more about how you could work with her to develop your business.

07971 174092 Angelina@activebusi nesscoach.com

Jeff Fitzpatrick Jeff Fitzpatrick went through a conventional management career and became Deputy Chairman of Burberry’s manufacturing arm. He went on to own several SME’s and in 2013 launched his first Apple iTunes and Google Play magazine. This quickly became a top 20 download in the Apple paid business and finance app downloads in 72 countries including the USA. Jeff also has interests in Engineering, trading, training and is Deputy Chairman of the North East Ambulance Service.

0776 468 0791 jeff@digitalpublishin gservice.co.uk

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Andrew Jackson

IN THIS EDITION Welcome to the first edition of Your Business NE Magazine. Our aim is to avoid the usual business of business magazines which we see, for example, as smiling people standing proudly outside their new warehouse! Instead we want to inform, educate and event to entertain the business population with material that they can enjoy. Unfortunately, some bits of business are more exciting than others. Some subjects are therefore included on a “you must know this” basis! Those authors know who they are!

Welcome – from the Editor Gary Lumby – demonstrates the business benefits of having a Non -Executive Director

Inspirational People That You May Not Know – Chris Sacca. Self-made billionaire

owner of the most successful venture capital fund ever

Transform Your Networking – our free webinar could transform your networking success in a few minutes

Recruitment – Why you should use an agency and what to ask before appointing one

LinkedIn – Are you one of the millions not

getting business from LinkedIn? We have reveal the secret of how to put that right

TED Talks – amazing, inspirational and, in this case, hilarious short video talks for everyone

Getting IT Right – without great IT support Chris Sacca, former Google star turned world’s most successful billionaire venture capitalist and cowboy shirt wearer

your business simply won’t reach its full potential

Tom’s Shoes – find out about the business model behind this remarkable business that would laugh out loud at the thought of simply “do no harm”

Marketing Tips – we reveal a exactly how to

build online engagement and how to profit from it

Making Tax Digital – it is the best of times and the worst of times for Accountants, find out why

The Emyth Revisited – We review what, in my humble view, is the best business book ever written

What’s On – If you are looking for a business

event to attend or if you want to promote an event, free of charge, this is the place for you

THE EDITOR SPEAKS

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

elcome to Your Business NE the digital magazine for business owners and managers in the North East of England. We have set out to publish something that is both useful and interesting. Before embarking on this adventure, we looked at many business magazines from around the world. Most, it has to be said, we were not very keen on. They tend to be forums for big business or even large SME’s to blow their own trumpets through. To us, it is quite dreary to hear that x company has built a new warehouse or similar. We are just not interested! The publications that we liked most were those that set out to inform and entertain us. Those that told us

something useful. We also want to present the views and opinions of people from the business world who have something to teach us. These can be local, national or global figures and we are lining up some terrific people for you. Being wholly digital, we don’t carry the usual legacy of print publications that have “gone digital”. We are digital through and through so expect lots of digital material such as videos, podcasts, links, webinars and similar. This is, and will remain, a free publication. Our main initial objective is distribution. We have many membership organisations and businesses helping us with this. Our proposition is that we will help you through articles or advertisements in return for drawing the magazine to the attention of your contacts. So get in touch if you would like some free publicity.

The Editor

Jeff Fitzpatrick

Gary Lumby MBE

Why SME’s should consider appointing a Non Executive Director (NED) Gary Lumby MD: Focus on Success Ltd any Directors and Owners of SME’s might be missing a huge opportunity to improve the performance of their business in terms of sales and profitability by not having a Non Executive Director on their Board.

Why is this? Well first, there is a misunderstanding about what NED’s actually provide to their SME clients. It’s not just all about Corporate Governance and Fiduciary Responsibility. Yes that is part of their role, making sure that Board and Management Meetings are held and the appropriate items are covered on the Agenda, making them worthwhile and action orientated as well as ensuring the financial performance and health of a business is in a good state by monitoring financial and other Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). However, NED’s bring far more to the table than this. NED’s offer a whole range of expertise and contacts in many areas crucial to the growth of businesses such as Sales and Business Development, bringing in new clients and contacts as well as attending Networking events and hosting Exhibitions and Trade Shows on behalf of their clients. They should be able to help businesses produce and execute robust Sales and Marketing Plans and contribute towards setting Marketing Strategy. They support their clients across the whole spectrum of HR, including recruitment and

Gary Lumby MBE

disciplinary issues, taking external expert advice were appropriate. NED’ s get involved with Client Relationship Management activities, were they support management in the deepening of existing client and supplier relationships. NED’s also get involved in funding and refinancing where they use their professional contacts to ensure that the best funding or investment deals are available to their clients. In Operations were they look at improving

productivity and processes and finally, introducing Performance Management Frameworks to improve sales and service performance and engagement from employees. The cost of employing a NED is also often over estimated and should be more than offset by the increase in sales revenue or a reduction in operational costs generated by ideas and the work of the NED themselves.

Finally, SME’s with NED’s benefit from that external independent, supportive and sometimes critical but constructive overview of their business and business strategies. Challenging management and bringing alternative ideas are some of the greatest benefits that NED’s bring with them. www.focus-onsuccess.co.uk Contact details : gary.lumby@focus-onsuccess.co.uk Tel :07500116507

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JOIN US

THE DIGITAL MARKETING CLUB

Join us on our digital journey, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s free! We have already established a magazine that is regularly in the top 20 best selling publications in the business and finance section of the Apple iTunes store. That taught us a lot and we want to share our experience he Digital Marketing Club was set up by Jeff Fitzpatrick a North East entrepreneur with a very successful stable of online and offline businesses including a top 20 selling app in the iTunes business and finance chart.

To achieve this, he had to become an Apple developer, a Google Play developer, a WordPress developer and a facebook developer. That journey gave him a unique set of skills that he realised some elements of would be of terrific value. Through the Digital Marketing Club he has set out to share his knowledge with other businesses. The Digital Marketing Club in partnership with Your Business NE have been set up as a main channel for helping North East businesses to become highly competitive, global players. Get in to the Digital Marketing club as a Founder Member for exclusive benefits.

Join us and be part of the Digital Marketing Club. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s FREE and will give you some of the best marketing advice you will find anywhere!

“

Chris Sacca – Self-made billionaire Founder of what is probably the most successful venture capital fund in history

“

SUCCESS STORY

Inspirational People You May Not Know

hris Sacca, was an early-stage investor in dozens of companies, including Twitter, Uber, Instagram, Kickstarter, and Twilio. Chris heads what is likely to be the most successful venture capital fund in history: Lowercase Capital. Previously, he was Head of Special Initiatives at Google

RANDOM BITS ►► Chris mentioned several books when he appeared on a podcast, including I Seem to Be a Verb by Buckminster Fuller. 48 hours later, used copies were selling for $ 999 on Amazon.

Article adapted from Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss (Author of The 4 hour Working Week) Click on the image to order your copy from Amazon now

ARE YOU PLAYING OFFENCE OR DEFENCE? Despite the fact that people refer to Chris as a “Silicon Valley investor,” he hasn’t lived in San Francisco since 2007. Instead, he bought a cabin in rural Truckee, Tahoe’s less-expensive neighbour and no tech hotbed. Back then, Chris hadn’t yet made real money in the investing game, but he had a rationale for buying the getaway: “I wanted to go on offense. I wanted to have the time to focus, to learn the things I wanted to learn, to build what I wanted to build, and to really invest in relationships that I wanted to grow, rather than just doing a day of coffee after coffee after coffee.” Advice from Chris on rising through a company ” GO TO AS MANY HIGHER-LEVEL MEETINGS AS POSSIBLE: “Go to all the meetings you can, even if you’re not invited to them, and work out how to be helpful. If people wonder why you’re there, just start taking notes. Read all the other notes you can find on the company, and gain a general knowledge that your very limited job function may not offer you. Just make yourself useful and helpful by doing so. That worked for me in a few different,

Chris Sacca

“

Be your

unapologetic weird self Chris Sacca

environments, and I encourage you to try it.”

Chris was well known at Google for showing up to meetings with anyone, including the co-founders. Even if attendees looked at each other puzzled Chris would sit down and let them know he’d be taking notes for them. It worked. He got a front-row seat to the highest levels of Google and soon became a fixture in those meetings. Advice on business dress COWBOY SHIRTS Chris is known for wearing somewhat ridiculous cowboy shirts. They’ve become his signature style. “Steve Jobs had his black turtleneck. Chris Sacca has his embroidered cowboy shirt. A shirt might seem like a small thing, but Chris realised early on that being a successful investor isn’t simply knowing which companies to invest in. Part of the process is ensuring founders know who you are. If a single shirt can create seemingly unending media mentions and doesn’t hurt your reputation, it’s lowhanging fruit. On top of that: “It also saved me a lot of time thinking about what to wear and a lot of money that would’ve been wasted on suits. Advice on dealing with difficult times ”WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH THINK —“ TONIGHT, I WILL BE IN MY BED.” In 2009, Chris did a charity bicycle ride with the Trek Travel team from Santa Barbara, California, to Charleston, North Carolina: “I had a phrase I kept repeating in my head over and over again, which was, ‘Tonight, I will be in my bed. Tonight, I will be in my bed. Tonight, I will be in my bed.’. It was something I repeated to remind me that the pain of what I was going through was temporary and that, no matter what, at the

Chris Sacca was born 12 May 1975 (41 years old) in Lockport, New York, USA. He trained as a Lawyer and was one of Google’s first employees to be awarded their prestigious Founders Award. Following Google he began to invest in “small companies” one of the first being Twitter with an initial $20,000.

end of that day, I would be in my bed that night.” Early years SWEET AND SOUR SUMMERS “There is something my parents did, and it was pretty unique. My brother and I refer to it as ‘The Sweet and Sour Summer.’ My parents would send us, for the first half of the summer, to an internship with a relative or a friend of the family who had an interesting job. So, at 12, I went and interned with my godbrother, who is a lobbyist in Washington D.C. I would go along with him to pitch to congressmen. I had one tie, and I was a pretty good writer. I’d write up one-page summaries of the bills we were pitching, It was awesome. I learned so much and developed so much confidence, and really honed my storytelling skills. “But

Chris Sacca

then, from there, I would come home and work in a construction outfit, in a nasty, nasty job. I mean, hosing off the equipment that had been used to fix septic systems, gassing stuff up, dragging stuff around in the yard, filling up propane tanks, and quite literally getting my backside kicked by whichever on parole ex-convict working there was angry at me that day. I think it was part of their master plan, which was: There’s a world of cool opportunities out there for you, but let’s build within you a sense of not just a work ethic, but also, a little reminder about why you don’t want to end up in one of those real jobs. The guy who ran that construction company was my dad’s best friend, and he was under strict orders to make sure we had the roughest day there.” Advice on getting funded “GOOD STORIES ALWAYS BEAT GOOD SPREADSHEETS” “Whether you are raising money, pitching your product to customers, selling the company, or recruiting employees, never forget that underneath all the maths and the MBA talk, we are all still emotionally driven human beings. We want to attach ourselves to narratives. We don’t act because of equations. We follow our beliefs. We get behind leaders who stir our feelings. In the early days of your venture, if you find someone diving too deep into the numbers, that means they are struggling to find a reason to deeply care about you.” Advice on being weird “I gave a commencement speech at the Minnesota Carlson School of Management. The core of it was to be your unapologetically weird self. I think authenticity is one of the most lacking things out there these days.” An excerpt from that speech: “Weirdness is why we adore our friends. Weirdness is what bonds us to our colleagues. Weirdness is what sets us apart, gets us hired. Be your unapologetically weird self. In fact, being weird may even find you the ultimate happiness.”

No-one gets everything right as Chris found with Snapchat! Chris Sacca really regrets not answering an email from Snapchat CTO Bobby Murphy back in 2012. When Snapchat first approached Sacca in 2011, he was put off by its image as a sexting app, "The Snapchat guys came up to me after a talk once, and I said I'm really flattered but “no”. So I passed. Later I told my business partner ten years younger than I am and he lost his mind. (He said) 'do you realise what Snapchat is?' That probably cost me a billion dollars or two,“ Here is Chris’s regretted email and a recent Tweet.

CHOICE NETWORKING

Could your business grow through networking?

egendary salesman and networker, Andy Bounds noted that at business networking meetings we tend to compare the “confident outside” of other attendees with our less confident “inner selves”. This is a game that we will never win!

However, with a few simple ideas we can all transform our networking performance, yes ALL of us! This twenty minute webinar recording could tell you everything you need to know.

Why not try out your new found networking skills by coming along to one of Choice Networking’s events. They start at 7.15 and are done by 9.00 and are available in Cramlington, Darlington, Durham, Gateshead, Middlesbrough and Sunderland. With Carlisle, Hartlepool, Gosforth, Newcastle, Team Valley and Whitley Bay coming soon. Book online at:

www.choicenetworking.co.uk

Choice Networking hosts morning meetings across the North East. We don’t have membership but instead allow a flexible, come when you wish, pay on the day approach at just £15 per meeting.

RECRUITMENT

Why you should use a recruitment agent and the questions you should ask before appointing one!

e have all questioned the sense in using a recruitment agent instead of saving money by doing it ourselves. It is however becoming more important, critical in fact, that we get recruitment right. We asked Recruiter Karen Chomse to explain through eight questions:

1. Has the recruitment agent been to meet you and see your working environment? Although many clients see this as a necessary evil, this will make a recruitment consultants job of finding you the perfect person, so much easier. A candidate who fits in one organisation, may not necessarily work well for another. Getting an idea of the working environment and the social and cultural environment is essential when deciding which candidates to put forward for interview. 2. Do they meet all of the candidates? In these days of modern technology, is it still vital to meet every candidate? Too right it is! If a recruitment agency has met the candidate prior to you interviewing them, they will know if they will be a good fit for your organisation. They will have given the candidate an indepth interview and will know if their skills match your job criteria. A chat on the phone does not work in the same way.

3. Have you given the recruitment agency a detailed job specification? Many clients have a good idea in their head as to the role they are recruiting for and the type of person who might fit in. Unfortunately, due to a busy work schedule and time constraints, they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t always have time to put it on paper. This will make it so much harder to fill your job. How can anyone fill a job without knowing what they are looking for? If you engage an experienced recruiter, who knows the area and the recruitment market, they will be able to assist you with this. Taking thirty minutes out of your day to spend time with a recruitment agency and to give a detailed job description will make things a lot easier in the long run. 4.

Does the cost worry you?

The price of a recruitment agency is probably the thing which niggles most clients more than anything else. But did you know that if you are working with a reputable agency, they will not only save you valuable time but money too.

Recruitment

that agency? Regardless of what another agency says – even if they get the candidate to send an email to you saying that they would prefer another agency to represent them. This has never been how recruitment works and it never will be.

Recruitment consultants spend a large part of their working week, meeting candidates and screening them. It is what they are good at. In a market where jobs are still not as abundant as in the heady days of the 90’s, everyone tends to get far more applicants than ever, many of which are unsuitable. A great deal of time is spent sifting CVs. Think about a recent recruitment campaign when you didn’t use an agency – try and work out how much time was spent by various staff sifting through CVs, ringing candidates, discussing experience, interviewing, sending offer letters. The cost will probably be a lot more than you think.

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur” Red Adair 5. Did you know? Agencies can help you with market trends, salary surveys, and pricing. 6. An honest service? When engaging an agency, make sure you have clear guidelines on how the recruitment campaign will pan out. Discuss timescales with them; when will you get CVs by, tell them when you are looking to interview, how many candidates you want to see, what happens if they are unable to find the right candidate. Make sure all of this is agreed in advance. 7. Recruitment protocol?

All that it does is leave a bitter taste for all parties concerned – the candidate feels compromised as they feel obliged to send an email (what happens if the agency asking them to send the email won’t work on their behalf again if they don’t). The client feels confused – which agency should they use, which agency has the best relationships with the candidate; which agency is telling the truth? It leaves everyone feeling disgruntled and you may end up with two agencies chasing you for a fee. 8. Follow up service? Do you ever feel that an agency just takes your money and runs? What is the follow-up service like? Do they call in the first three months when the rebate facility will still be valid or do they wait until after it? What happens if a candidate doesn’t work out? It is worth discussing this in advance. That said, you must also look at your own policies and procedures; has the candidate been given full training, are there any personal issues which are affecting the way the candidate feels? Working with a recruitment agency should be a collaboration, a partnership. You are paying a fee and they are there to make your life easier. If you trust them and work with them, they will make your working life so much easier. Karen Chomse KCR Recruitment Solutions Tel; 0191 230 4600

Did you know that if you receive a candidate’s CV from an agency, then you are tied to interview the candidate through

enquiries@kcrsolutions.co.uk

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKEDIN

Crushing it with LinkedIn

have lost count of how many times I have heard people say that they just can’t get business from LinkedIn!

With a little effort it is quite easy and it is free! Even those in professions that are “not allowed” to advertise or where the weight of regulation makes it difficult, can do well. That is because potential customers can be tempted to visit your profile without an advertisement or offer. The short video above explains how this can be achieved. However, first it helps with getting your profile “battle ready”. It also provides a light bulb lighting insight

into how LinkedIn works as a search engine. The other LinkedIn “myth” that I hear regularly, is that we should not accept links to people that we don’t know. I hold that this is utter rubbish and that, as far as links go, it is definitely the more the merrier; unless, as happens, there is a good reason to turn a request down. This video and article is brought to you by the Digital Marketing Club. This is a free to join club where a lot more unique insights such as this can be found.

Https://thedigitalmarketing.club

Choice Networking hosts morning meetings across the North East. We don’t have membership but instead allow a flexible, come when you wish, pay on the day approach at just £15 per meeting.

Forex Trading

Try Your Hand at Currency Trading Forex or currency trading can be easy, safe and lucrative but only if put a little time and effort into learning the techniques involved. You can try it free of charge and completely risk free with a â&#x20AC;&#x153;demoâ&#x20AC;? trading account. Sign up below and get a series of three short videos that explain how, often against everything you may ever have heard, that trading can be a low risk, easy to understand and lucrative pastime or even a main income source. Of course, forex trading is not for everyone. There is no shortage of examples of people who have lost a lot of money through trading. More often than not though, such people have a lack of knowledge and a very reckless approach. Sign up for our free, no obligation series of short videos to get a better idea of whether this may be for you.

Forex Trader Magazine Written by home based forex traders for home based forex traders

http://forextradermagazine.co.uk

The Last Laugh! TED talks now cover a very wide TED TALKS range of subjects. They are generally of high quality and, like this one, sometimes very entertaining.

ED now has thousands of videos covering hundreds of topics. They cover many aspects of business, technology, design and entertainment but extend to just about every aspect of life and beyond. The talks generally have a serious point to make but are frequently delivered in such a way that they make enjoyable, though provoking listening. The talk featured here is a light-hearted look at comedian James Veitchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quite

hilarious response to the receipt of a spam email from deepest Africa offering to make him a very wealthy man. We have all had them but who do we know that has actually sought out a dialogue with the sender. I actually laughed out loud on watching this and hope that you will too!

www.ted.com TED is non-partisan, non-profit and devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks. TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today it covers almost all topics â&#x20AC;&#x201D; from

science to business to global issues.

GREAT IT SUPPORT IS ESSENTIAL FOR GLOBAL GROWTH

Getting IT Right

David Elvis of Teesside based Agile ICT Group Ltd explains why and also what to look for when seeking professional ICT support

T is critical to the running of businesses on a global scale in the modern era. Businesses rely heavily on their IT infrastructure to help communicate with clients, deliver projects and to service their clients. The slightest issue or error with a business’s IT system can result in serious problems, including downtime, low productivity and potentially, a major loss of earnings.

Fortunately, experts, such as Agile are around to provide sound solutions at a reasonable cost. The Teesside based firm enjoy working with a wide range of clients of varying sizes across multiple industries. Their experience and knowledge has allowed David Elvis to identify six key areas to look for when choosing the right IT support provider for your business. Service Level Agreement’s (SLA’s) When a business’s IT goes down, they want to have the comfort and knowledge that it is being dealt with as a matter of urgency. Downtime in a business can result in serious problems so having IT functioning as quickly as possible is a must. Finding an IT support provider who will guarantee within its SLA’s to ensure the rapid investigation and resolution of issues within is a must.

Engineer Experience and Knowledge The average business person isn’t particularly knowledgeable about IT. They understand the basics and why it is used in their business but don’t know how to resolve many issues. Having confidence in an engineer to fix your IT is critical. Knowing that your chosen provider can demonstrate their experience and knowledge across multiple industries over a significant period of time provides great peace of mind. Existing clients Having trust in your IT support provider is important and a key way to develop that trust is by looking into the clients they already work with. If you see that an IT provider works with leading national reputable companies you are more likely to place trust in them to do a good job, knowing their services are good enough to support large businesses. If you were in a position to choose a provider who worked with five large national firms or five local corner shops, who would you be more likely to put your trust and confidence in? Reputable IT is such a big thing for business now and the choice of providers is constantly rising. Whilst not necessary, working with an IT firm with a large and strong

Getting IT Right

reputation often allows a business to know what they can expect. The regular fear of ‘just becoming a number’ with large IT firms is misrepresented. Clients will have a dedicated account manager and engineer to be on hand for any issues and required support. Using case studies as testimonials is a great way to clearly see the work done by an IT support provider and for understanding how they can help your business. Choice of Software There are endless software options for business functions now including sales, finance and management. They often dictate the procedures adapted by business in their day to day operations. Working with a business that can adapt to

having an engineer who instils confidence in you is vital. By having a strong and confident personality they can help allay concerns and fears on the role the engineer has. Most businesses want an external IT support engineer to come into their business and feel part of their team, meaning a responsive, flexible and positive personality is key. Case Study

using and supporting different software options will help your business massively. Even better is to find and work with a provider who can help with the decision process on which software to use to improve business processes. Personality IT is regularly seen as a dull and boring industry full of geeks and nerds, and often this is right. But when it comes to protecting and repairing your IT systems,

The Agile ICT Support Team

Based in Middlesbrough, Psyche has a strong national presence as one of the UK’s best fashion retailers. CEO Steve Cochrane has built a business and a team that has won numerous awards and gained recognition for bringing some of the World’s biggest designers to the North East for the very first time. Through careful attention to detail and a lot of hard work, Psyche has carved out a reputation as one of the leading retailers in the UK. function of the business runs smoothly and complements the other functions to ensure a succinct customer experience. Having an efficient IT infrastructure in place is vital for Psyche. It allows the cash tills to function, easy management of stock control and access and functionality to their website, a source of high custom. Right from the beginning of dialogue, the necessity for continuation of a functioning ICT network was demonstrated by Psyche. It was highlighted how business critical ICT was for the retailer. Having this open dialogue between the two parties from such an early stage made it easier to

Getting IT Right

identify and propose a clear strategic plan for ICT support. Agile looked into the specific needs and requirements that were laid out by Psyche and were able to comfortably deliver services to ensure everything was met. A full audit of the existing ICT infrastructure was conducted. An analysis on the equipment and security status of each device was recorded with an implementation then put in place to ensure each device with any vulnerability was made secure.

From the very first discussions I had with Agile, I have been very impressed with how they have conducted themselves. They were able to quickly understand our ICT requirements and then set about recommending and implementing a suitable solution. We use Agile for a wide range of ICT solutions now and that is testament to the team there for giving me the confidence to do that.” – Steve Cochrane, Psyche

Within the audit of the infrastructure, equipment was checked to see what was functioning and what wasn’t. Agile advised on and implemented ways of maximising the return on the devices and equipment already in place throughout the store. For more information about Agile ICT, please contact David Elvis at the below details. 01642 610720 David.elvis@agile.uk.com

Steve Cochrane of Psyche – rapid, massive online expansion and growth required first class support for success.

Would you like to see your business featured in Your Business NE or to advertise FREE of charge in the magazine? You can include text, images, video footage, sliding images, sound files, links and more. We will even help you with Creative input! Let us have your ideas for articles or advertising by email: jeff@digitalpublishingservice.co.uk Light touch T&C’s apply

One For One GIVING? NEW WAYS OF GIVING

Formed in 2006 Tom’s Shoes give away one pair of shoes for each pair sold

Blake Mycoskie formed Tom’s Shoes after taking a holiday in South America and accidentally coming across a charity that was giving shoes to barefooted kids and finding that there are tens of millions of kids around the globe that don’t have shoes. The risk is of injury, disease and, frequently, being barred from school for the want of shoes. The Tom’s Shoes concept was simple. Give away one pair of shoes for each pair sold. Then, use the giving concept to allow marketing to be restricted to free social media channels and free PR to keep costs down so that the margin remains available for the cause.

Tom’s Shoes is a FOR PROFIT business. However, it has gone on to give and to raise money for other causes.

These other causes now include restoring sight, providing clean water and safe birthing facilities across the third world

The shoes are brilliant and reasonably priced too. They are available in the UK from stockists and online. Find out more about the shoes, the causes and how things work at http://www.toms.co.uk/

Hear Blake interviewed later in this magazine

Fantastic Social Media Marketing Tips

MARKETING TIPS

You have worked hard to build a contact list but how can you get more engagement?

o, what’s the problem? The issue is that the “normal” response to emails that form part of a marketing campaign is for the addressees to ignore them altogether. Open rates of just 3% are often considered to be “good”. Add to this the fact that only around 7.5% of prospects who open them will go on to make a purchase within 90 days. Bear in mind, I am talking about emails that have been sent to people that have agreed to optin to a list for the purpose of finding out more about the product or service involved.

The great news is that we can do many things to improve the open rate and that this will lead to more sales.

www.thedigitalmarketing.club

There is lots of general advice, which is very good and that needs to be followed. This includes personalising the email, getting the time of sending right, having a great subject line, making the email short and to the point etc. However, one of our recent campaigns at the Digital Marketing Club had an open rate of over 30% and a reply rate of over 10%. We don’t know the sales outcome yet but it is looking good! The secret? We made the email short, just nine words long. We made sure that it was personally from us rather than an autoresponder. We used it to pose a compelling, none sales oriented question that asked for a response. The question posed was one which sought engagement not to qualify a lead. We wrote the email using the assumption that was already qualified and we used it to begin a personal conversation.

The Digital Marketing Club is a FREE to join, North East based business collective. Our aim is to keep on top of what works in digital marketing and to deliver that to our members in a straight forward way. Our ultimate goal is to help businesses to do the best they possibly can in maximising their ROI in respect of their online business activity. FIND OUT MORE ►►

FINANCE

Making Tax Digital

Things are about to change in the world of business tax collection. If you’re in business you need to find out more and to be ready to act. Start here!

aking Tax Digital – By Clive Owen LLP At Clive Owen LLP we believe that the HMRC’s plans to revolutionise the tax system with the Digital Tax Account and Making Tax Digital for Business (MTD) will have a huge impact on many businesses.

The biggest impact is on those with inadequate systems to keep their records up to date and those who do not keep records in a digital format, therefore, now is the time to review those systems and see how they can be updated to your advantage as well as to meet the needs of MTD. HMRC have confirmed that many aspects of the proposed change which will be implemented for some businesses from April 2018 and for almost all businesses by 2020. We believe Cloud Accounting tools offer many benefits to SME businesses and will be instrumental in the ability to report data under MTD. What does MTD mean? Businesses will be required to keep their records electronically and submit quarterly income and expenditure reports to HMRC. This will require up to date accounting software to facilitate the process, as well as

up to date management accounts to ensure the information is accurate. The proposed deadline for submission of these numbers to HMRC is one month after the end of each period. Do note that this is shorter than the current VAT return deadline of one month and seven days. The VAT deadline may also be subject to future change so that the return has to be submitted within one month and the additional days are only for payment. You will need to ensure that you are collecting and recording costs quickly and efficiently so that profits are not overstated or understated on submission to HMRC. We use app’s such as Receipt Bank to facilitate this with Cloud Accounting packages like QuickBooks Online and Xero. End of year activity will need to be concluded for businesses by the earlier of 10 months after the last day of the period of account or 31 January of the year of assessment in which the profits for that period of account are chargeable to income tax. For corporate businesses, this could mean an acceleration of the deadline for filing their corporation tax returns in line with

Clive Owen

Call Clive Owen & Co today: 01325 349700 Or email el ian.jarvis@cliveowen.com their statutory accounts. Individuals and businesses will have a clearer view of their current tax liabilities position through their digital tax account. HMRC will also have that same view. HMRC will also be able to apply a much more targeted approach to inspections and issuing of penalties. Therefore, the need for accuracy and staying up to date with record keeping is vitally important. Who does MTD affect and when? This will affect all businesses in some way or another, creating a huge rush of systems reviews and renewals in the run up to the proposed deadlines. HMRC are aiming for MTD implementation for the first accounting period beginning after 5 April 2018 for some business. If this is achieved, it will be a huge challenge for businesses and software developers.

accounts purposes) will be optional and won’t have to be submitted to HMRC. Our Managed Services (COMS) team regularly review systems and processes to establish efficient means of obtaining meaningful Management Information (MI) for business owners and operators. This will also ensure that records submitted to HMRC will be up to date and accurate. COMS also prepare VAT returns and MI monthly or quarterly for their clients, with Cloud Accounting, this can now be achieved remotely if required. Excel may be allowable as a digital record keeping tool, However, this will only be the case if it is integrated with another add-on capable of submitting the data correctly to HMRC. Simple and easy to use Cloud Accounting tools are the alternative solution to outdated spreadsheets and our experience is that these are picked up very quickly by clients.

At present, the proposal is as follows, subject to confirmation: • April 2018 – Unincorporated Business and Landlords with turnover over £10k or gross annual property income of over £10k. • April 2019 – Likely all VAT registered businesses. • 2020 – All businesses with income tax, National Insurance, VAT or corporation tax obligations will be within the scope of the requirements subject to the available exemptions.

Businesses will still be able to make accounting adjustments; the time scale for doing these will be no later than when a business must finalise its end of year activity.

Digital record keeping and what will be submitted? The proposed data fields/breakdown of the information submitted to HMRC are in line with those currently submitted on your tax return. Further breakdown (which we would recommend for management

What exemptions will be available? Exemptions are not going to be easy for most businesses to obtain. The likely exemption list is going to be:

If you haven’t considered if your accounting system is adequate for your needs, now is the time to do it and we have specialists in this area.

Clive Owen

• Unincorporated businesses with less than £10k turnover. • Landlords with gross annual income from property of less than £10k. • Charities (although trading subsidiaries would be within MTD obligations). • Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs). • Those who cannot submit due to the basis of being ‘digitally excluded’ due to: ▪ Broadband, Age, Remoteness, Disability, Religious society or beliefs ▪ Exempt Unauthorised Unit Trusts ▪ Property Income Distributions to Individual Shareholders ▪ Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) ▪ Property Authorised Investment Funds (PAIFs) The above remain to be confirmed. It may also be the case that many exemptions will need to be applied for, as opposed to being automatic. This should be

confirmed later in 2017. Here we still believe that even those who do qualify for an exemption may still benefit from a transition away from traditional accounting software and that it is beneficial to do so. What have Clive Owen LLP been doing about MTD? We have a number of businesses testing new software, the roll out and promotion of which will be greater once the rules under MTD are finalised. We have partnered with Intuit for QuickBooks Online (QBO) and Xero as preferred Cloud Accounting options. These products can give great visibility to a business, allow integration with other apps, are extremely user friendly and often much cheaper to operate than desktop alternatives. Speak to one of our Partners or the COMS team today to arrange a consultation on your existing accounting software and processes so you know your business is ready.

The Editors Podcast Pick

Hear a one hour podcast featuring an interview with Blake Mycoskie, the founder of Tom’s Shoes. His company has grown hugely since its foundation in 2006. It is a for profit business that gives a vast amount of money to great causes. This is made possible because of a very unusual marketing strategy. See the next page to find out a little more about Tom’s Shoes and visit at: http://www.toms.co.uk/

THE BEST BOOK ON BUSINESS EVER WRITTEN? By Angelina Bell

THE E MYTH REVISITED

Everyone has heard the phrase “work on your business and not in your business.” The term was coined by Michael E. Gerber in his book The Emyth Revisited and it is just one of a thousand gems in his work. only thing left is work. If you want to build a successful small business, then I highly recommend that you read this book. An easy read, it describes the story of a Sarah, who runs a pie shop, and explains very well how different running a business rather than working in someone else’s business. I think that most business owners should be able to relate to this book no matter what industry they work in. When the pressures of running a business become too much, Gerber describes this as an Entrepreneurial Seizure; when the work you once loved to do, suddenly becomes an unpleasant chore.

f course, it is very hard to do the everyday technical work and keep on top of all the extra responsibilities. When there is more work to do than we can possibly get done we need to act. Simply working harder for more hours will result in disaster.

The result will be exhaustion and or poor customer service. When our customers start to complain, it is time to accept that we can no longer do everything our selves. The book explains how taking on staff members and having them in the right roles is critical. More importantly, it makes it very clear that failure to manage in times of growth will end in an even bigger mess. Many small business owners then revert to just working by themselves and are left with nothing more than just a job. Then the business can’t run without them and they struggle to take time off, can’t afford to be ill. Suddenly the dream has gone, the

Sarah, is suffering from exhaustion and has lost her sense of purpose. She is busy doing everything in the business herself and is having no fun at all. We often begin our entrepreneurial journey with the dream of making lots of money, being our own boss and having more spare time. The reality is often very different and many business owners quickly feel overwhelmed and trapped by their own creation. This story explains what actions Sarah takes to turn her business around, re-ignite her passion and to start living the life she had always hoped for. You can do this too! The fact is, we can’t be the technician in your business if we want the business to work. If we ignore our financial, marketing, sales, admin, leadership and management responsibilities our business will, in time, fail.

Get hold of your copy of Michael E. Gerber’s The E Myth Revisited – Click the image

Angelina Bell

STAFF PROBLEMS

Are your people holding you back? How do you feel about the productivity of your team?

We have all experienced team issues somewhere along the line! In fact anyone who has employed people for some time will know that effectively managing people can be very challenging. The problems can vary from not being able to get good people, employees not caring about their work, relationship conflicts or, in some cases, repetitive mistakes in delivery or quality control causing issues for you and your customers. All can have a huge impact on your bottom line and can lead to frustration and sometimes, even resentment over time.

If you are experiencing a team challenge right now, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d love to have a confidential chat with you. I might just have the solution you want and need! 0797 117 4092

Angelina@activebusinesscoach.com

What’s on

WHAT’s ON – April & May 2017 Tuesday 18 April 7.15 am Choice Networking – Middlesbrough

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