Read. Review. Recruit. | Summer 2018

Read. Review. Recruit.

Recruitment Newsletter | Summer 2018

Best in Tech In the last few years, there have been rapid advances in cloud services, artificial intelligence, data management, IT services, and more that can make an impact on your business.

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Pending IR35 Changes in the Private Sector

Benefits of Mentoring

There are now serious rumours that contractors caught by IR35 in the private sector will be affected from April 2019.

You might already be successful - achieving excellent profits, no staff retention problems and a vibrant office culture - so why would you need a mentor?

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Contents

2

Welcome and Partners

3

Special Feature Best in Tech

4

The Skills Shortage Post-Brexit

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Pending IR35 Changes in the Private Sector

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Profit Extraction and the New Dividend Tax Arrangements

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Upcoming Events

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Employee Spotlight

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Are Your Overheads Taking Priority Over Your Profit?

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How to Maximise the Value of a Recruitment Company

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Top 10 Tips for Successfully Managing a Merger

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Benefits of Mentoring

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Business Growth Tips

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Staff, Client and Candidate Entertaining

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Five Things to Consider When Choosing the Right Invoice Factoring Company

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Raffingers Recruitment Sector Helpline

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Welcome to our SUMMER Newsletter We are pleased to bring you our latest newsletter focused solely on advising and supporting businesses in the recruitment sector.

We endeavour to bring you the latest news as well as our tips and advice from lessons we have learned from working with businesses in the recruitment sector.

Over the last 6 months confidence in the UK labour market has been high with the latest ONS statistics reporting record-breaking employment. The report looks at the market for February to April 2018:

• UK employment increases to 32.39million • The unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been

for 43 years at 4.2% • Wage growth continues. Average weekly earnings for employees in the UK increased by 0.4% excluding bonuses, These latest statistics are extremely promising; however, the need for skilled worked and evolving candidate expectations mean employers are having to do more to attract the right people. We look further into the skills shortage and its potential impact on businesses on page 6.

To help your agency succeed in the current market we also bring you advice on the ‘Benefits of Mentoring’, ‘Business Growth Tips’ and ‘How to Maximise the Value of a Recruitment Company’.

In this edition we also bring you a special feature on the ‘Best in Class Technology’ your agency should consider using to save time and improve your internal processes.

For help or advice on any of the articles discussed, please do not hesitate to contact one of us.

If there are any topics you would like to see discussed in the next edition, or if you would like to submit an article of your own, please get in touch with lauren. kelly@raffingers.co.uk.

Raffingers Partners Gary Inglis Managing Partner gary.inglis@raffingers.co.uk

Andrew Coney Partner andrew.coney@raffingers.co.uk

Lee Manning Partner lee.manning@raffingers.co.uk

Adam Moody Partner adam.moody@raffingers.co.uk

Suda Ratnam Partner suda.ratnam@raffingers.co.uk

Barry Soraff Partner barry.soraff@raffingers.co.uk

Paul Dell Partner paul.dell@raffingers.co.uk

Roy Butcher Partner roy.butcher@raffingers.co.uk

The Partners at Raffingers Neill Staff Partner neill.staff@raffingers.co.uk

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Best in Tech SPECIAL FEATURE

The technology your agency should be using.

Best in Class Business Technology helps you to do more with less.

you focus on your core business, not on the technology that helps operate it.

In the last few years, there have been rapid advances in cloud services, artificial intelligence, data management, IT services, and more that can make an impact on your agency.

The solutions we offer in this document are those that are the most common and which we have tried and tested for our clients in the recruitment industry.

There are now so many business solutions available that it can be overwhelming and difficult to decide on the ‘right’ solution for your needs. You want to make choices that let

To find out more about any of the systems recommended in this article, contact lee.manning@ raffingers.co.uk.

Core, Recommended and Optional Solutions for Your Business

6. Payroll

10. Online Marketing

7. Financial Services

2. Debtor Tracking

5. Time Tracking

1. Cloud Accounting Software

3. Bills and Expenses 9. Project Management

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4. Reporting

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8.CRM

Core Solutions

6. Payroll: Deputy

1. Cloud Accounting Software: Xero

Deputy is an all-in-one employee scheduling, time and attendance and communication software that seamlessly integrates with Xero.

Our cloud accounting system of choice for small to mid-sized recruitment agencies is Xero. The beauty of this software is the flexibility it gives you to run your business from work, home, or on the go.

You can be confident that you have an up-to-date picture of how your business is doing, no matter where you are.

Deputy works for agencies with 5 to 50,000 employees and allows for easy integration with Xero. This means any information can be synced, such as employee details, leave requests and timesheets.

Recommended Solutions

Optional Solutions

2. Debtor Tracking: Chaser

7. Financial Services: MarketInvoice

Chaser addresses two important problems:

MarketInvoice offers business loans and invoice finance solutions. Their integration with Xero means a quick and simple process, from application through funding.

1. Getting your invoices paid on time. £225bn in late payments are owed to UK SMEs. 2. Time spent on chasing customers to pay invoices. UK SMEs spend 336 hours a year chasing late payments.

Chaser delivers an average 16-day debtor day reduction that is equivalent to a cashflow boost of over £4,400 for every £100,000 of turnover. Chaser also saves customers on average 7.3 hours per week on credit control.

3. Bills and Expenses: Receipt Bank Receipt Bank saves time through more straightforward and real-time accounting.

The key benefit of Receipt Bank is its simplicity, allowing you to easily get receipts and invoices into Xero. You can take a picture using the Receipt Bank mobile app, send an email to your unique Receipt Bank email address or link it straight up to your PayPal account. Never will you have to worry about losing a receipt again.

4. Reporting: Futrli

Whether you are struggling to maintain a healthy cash flow or need access to cash to take on new projects, invest in growth or pay your staff and suppliers, MarketInvoice can help.

8. CRM: Bullhorn Bullhorn makes tracking communications, and acting on those communications, effortless. The system helps manage the end-to-end recruitment process, empowering recruitment professionals to automatically track candidates.

9. Project Management: Workflow Max From leads to quotes, to time-tracking, all the way to invoicing - WorkflowMax all-in-one, cloud-based job management software is the modern and efficient way to run your agency.

Futrli works alongside Xero to provide you with complete clarity of your data, allowing you to visualise and track your financials, as well as plan for the future.

WorkflowMax offers you everything you need to manage your workflow in one single integrated solution.

What makes Futrli so valuable is that every transaction from the beginning of time can be imported, which means absolutely any KPI can be looked at in real-time for operational, retrospective and future analysis. And if anything is amiss, you are always the first to know.

If you have limited marketing resources, BOMA makes it easy to deliver content to your audience, without having to invest time or resource into creating it yourself.

5. Time Tracking: TSheets TSheets works by automatically logging what your employees have been working on and how long they have spent on each task. You can also create schedules for your employees - assign or reassign tasks and see which employees are available to help with projects.

10. Online Marketing: BOMA

BOMA brings together all your email and social media platforms in one place. There’s no need to switch between accounts or re-create content – with a few clicks, you can easily create and share content across all your communication channels.

Your Your Business Business Our Our Passion Passion

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The Skills Shortage Post-Brexit BLOG

Blog by Adam Moody, Partner

9 in 10 employers are already struggling to recruit the skilled staff that they require.

It is vital that all industries consider the potential effects of a skills shortage when free movement within the EU might be restricted.

A recent survey carried out by the City & Guilds Group and Esmi revealed that 9 in 10 employers are already struggling to recruit the skilled staff that they require.

If that is the case now, what will the picture look like in 4-5 years’ time? How will sectors already struggling to meet demand for skilled workers cope with a further reduction in the availability of talent?

Further recent research suggests that two thirds of UK employers believe that the skills shortage is going to get worse over the next 5 years. So, what measures can businesses put in place now to try to avoid the potential problems around the corner?

Apprenticeships Recruitment of apprentices and modelling them in the way that your business works should be considered in all industries. The opportunity to plan a career path for many apprentices is the reason why they look at the apprenticeship scheme as a way of fulfilling their potential. If you are willing to put the right structure in place within your business to train, develop and nurture; you are in a position to up-skill and advance these people to fill the potential gaps that will exist moving forward.

Whilst there are stories of success and failure within the apprenticeship scheme, it is an avenue that should be explored.

Appraisal process Appraisals and target setting is key to the advancement of employees within an organisation. Without any plan in place, how do you expect your employees to want to better themselves and improve their skill set? Spend the time to identify those personnel within your organisation who you feel are up to the challenge and make sure that you set them a five-year plan to management (or whatever role is most likely to need filling). Without you pushing and encouraging them, the advancement will not happen, and it is likely that in time they will leave as

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they are not being challenged sufficiently.

Delegation Encourage your management team to delegate work to members of their team to see how good they really are. Nothing gives employees more motivation than the positive feedback that they receive from doing a great piece of work. If you don’t give them that work in the first place, then you will never know how good they really are (and neither will they). Encourage the team to grow and learn skills that they would never otherwise have had.

Promote from within When employees within your organisation see others being promoted due to the great work that they have done, it should encourage others to want the opportunity to do the same. That motivation should lead employees to want to learn and impress you with the hope of a promotion when the opportunity arises.

Training Never be afraid to invest in training. You should set a budget each year and create a training plan for each employee to ensure that they receive the relevant training required during the course of the year. Whether that is in excel/word advancement course, time management or an MBA, a key to closing the skills gap is to advance those that have the ability within your organisation to fill it.

Above are just a few ideas that should help to address the future skills shortage. Working from within your organisation can prove to be the most cost-effective way of dealing with the issue.

Adam Moody 020 3146 1601 adam.moody@raffingers.co.uk

Pending IR35 Changes in the Private Sector HMRC are very good at disrupting the market with their subtle propaganda, which has been seen in their drive against tax avoidance schemes and most recently with IR35. Now, HMRC is looking to introduce IR35 in the private sector.

The suggested success of the changes in IR35 in the public sector has been shrouded in controversy, both from contractors themselves and through the fact that planned projects have been put on hold due to increased costs. Despite this, there are now serious rumours that contractors caught by IR35 in the private sector will be affected from April 2019.

HMRC has launched and is calling for responses to its consultation: ‘Off-payroll working in the private sector’.

However, I cannot see how any lobbying, even by people such as Dave Chaplin from ContractorCalculator will hold any weight. Previous consultations, such as the Advanced Payment Notices were deemed against Human Rights and commentators said this would never be introduced, yet we all know how that ended up.

If IR35 was implemented, the effect on businesses, recruitment agents and contractors would be catastrophic. Look how unprepared the public sector was when it was introduced last April. It took the BBC 6 months to get their house in order and to start taxing companies at source; they are now having issues recovering the arrears.

see if companies will take a blanket approach to the CEST test and deduct tax at source, leaving contractors worse off by 30%. Many contractors will want to be added to the payroll to obtain the employment benefits that go with being an employee, and why shouldn’t they? If they are being paid as an employee, surely they should get the benefits of being one? This would then have a huge impact on businesses and their HR departments.

Also, will recruitment agents have the time and manpower to assess every contractor to see if they are caught by IR35?

The only saving grace is that April 2019 is when there are a lot of changes being planned. MTD is being implemented for VAT registered businesses and the UK is leaving the EU. We have already seen MTD for individuals delayed due to these issues, so hopefully IR35 might get delayed. Although, that’s the important point to note, IR35 will not go away, only delayed.

This blog comes with a health warning, be aware of what is coming and make sure you are prepared if you are a recruitment agent, so you can make the necessary changes quickly and with as little disruption as possible.

Andrew Coney 020 3146 1602 andrew.coney@raffingers.co.uk

Learning from the BBC example, it will be interesting to

There are now serious rumours that contractors caught

by IR35 in the private sector will be affected from April 2019.

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Profit Extraction and the New Dividend Tax Arrangements the optimum position for 2018/19 is to set the salary at the NIC primary threshold of £8,424.

Since 6 April 2018, the dividend allowance reduced to £2,000. The following changes also occurred:

• • • •

The personal allowance increased to £11,850 The basic rate tax band increased to £34,500 The dividend allowance reduced to £2,000 National insurance for employees and directors: • Lower earnings level - £6,032 p.a.

• Primary threshold - £8,424 p.a.

• Upper threshold - £46,350 p.a.

• National insurance for the self-employed: • Class 2 NIC is £2.95 per week • Class 4 NIC is £8,424 p.a. and is paid at 9% on any excess up to the Upper Threshold of £46,350 • The Class 4 NIC Rate above the upper threshold is 2% Incorporation Historically, incorporation became worthwhile (from a tax perspective) when profits reached £25,000 a year.

However, a sole trader with profits of £25,000 in 2018/19 will only save around £700 in tax and NIC by incorporating. The additional compliance costs of operating through a limited company once incorporated, is likely to far outweigh these tax savings.

Once profits get to £50,000, the tax savings are approximately £2,000, making incorporation more attractive, but due to the changes to dividend tax, this is no longer a one size fits all solution.

The savings continue as profit levels increase, but not indefinitely. At £70,000 of profits, the tax saving is £2,380, but above this level, savings start to reduce.

Therefore, at this level, the key to further savings depends on the ability to utilise the family unit to take advantage of lower tax bands and rates.

Marital Tax Break The married couples allowance is limited, with the maximum savings being just £237. Although, involving a spouse in your business is much more tax efficient – with the opportunity to utilise two personal allowances and basic rate bands.

Profit Extraction If you are already incorporated, determine the optimal balance of salary and dividends from a tax perspective.

Single Company director / shareholder Profits

£70,000

£70,000

Salary

£8,424

£11,850

ER Nic

£0

£473

£61,576

£57,677

Retained Profit Corporation Tax

£11,699

£10,959

Maximum Dividends

£49,877

£46,718

Personal Tax

£6,321

£6,409

£0

£411

Net Drawings

EE Nic

£51,980

£51,748

Effective Rate

74.26%

73.9%

As shown above, if the salary is taken at the personal allowance level, you are in a worse position by £232. So, the optimum position for 2018/19 is to set the salary at the NIC primary threshold of £8,424.

If the employment allowance is available, a salary at the personal allowance level is the best option but only gives a saving of £28.

Other Strategies Other strategies that could be used to increase profit extraction in a tax efficient manner include: -

• Smoothing – the company may be able to “smooth” the tax payable on profit extraction - by possibly deferring the taking of dividends into a later tax year.

• Making use of a spouse as a fellow shareholder – to make use of lower tax bands if possible.

• Paying a commercial rate of interest on any directors’ loan account that is in credit with the company • Using the company to make pension contributions on your behalf Of course, your own individual circumstances need to be considered when planning for any of the above. Contact paul.dell@raffingers.co.uk for tailored individual advice.

The above information is based on our current understanding of tax law and practice – this can be subject to change without notice.

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Upcoming Events July 2018 Cash Management Solutions 11am-12pm | 24 July 2018 | Webinar It goes without saying that running a profitable and sustainable business is dependent on good cash management. Yet, this is difficult when expanding the business and employing more staff, when customers take longer to pay than normal or when large payments are going out at once, e.g. rent, VAT and corporation tax.

At this webinar, we will be discussing two solutions - Chaser and Fidelity Payment - that can help with cashflow as well as our own tips.

To register visit our website or contact ingrid.beya@raffingers.co.uk.

September 2018 Raffingers Foundation Charity Ball 6:30pm-12am | 15 September 2018 | Prince Regent Chigwell, Manor Road, London, IG8 8AE Join us for our roaring 1920s Charity Ball. As well as a three-course dinner we have live music from Frog on a Rocket and will be entertained by a cabaret musician (as seen on TV!). Last year we raised over £12,0000 for Raffingers Foundation and hope, with your help, we can achieve this again.

To find out more or to attend contact lauren.kelly@raffingers.co.uk

into NWN Blue Square Ltd and now Raffingers, making her a dedicated and committed Payroll Manager heading up the payroll department.

Employee Spotlight In this slot we introduce you to a valued member of our team, allowing you to put a face to a name. This quarter we speak to our Payroll Manager, Wendy Martin.

Name: Wendy Martin Email: wendy.martin@raffingers.co.uk Career: Wendy has worked in the financial sector for 21 years. Wendy joined Stonehills in 1996 to provide temporary maternity cover, which lead to a full time VAT and payroll opportunity. Stonehills eventually morphed

Interests: Wendy is not shy about blowing her own trumpet – well, cornet actually - playing in the North East Counties Royal British Legion Band. They can be heard as part of her local Essex Remembrance Day Service, as well as giving concerts around the Home Counties.

Wendy is also a keen photographer and, along with her husband, can be found doing street photography and family shoots. As a stepmother and grandmother, she makes the kids a priority and occasionally finds time for a bit of gardening…just to relax.

Partners Report: Wendy’s commitment to ensuring that the highest standards are attained and maintained is unsurpassed. Her knowledge is wide ranging as is her continuing commitment to keeping her knowledge up to date. Clients continually give positive feedback about her, and never has a negative word been said. All who have worked with her are grateful for her loyalty, but woe betide if you mess up her filing system!

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BLOG

Are Your Overheads Taking Priority Over Your Profit?

By Lee Manning

“The new definition of success is not about the most revenue, employees and office space but the most profit, generated through the fewest employees and with the least expensive office space. Make the game of winning based upon efficiency, frugality and innovation, not on size, flair and looks.”

- ProfitFirst by Mike Michalowicz The challenge for any business is to make it into a cash generating machine. One way to do this is to really understand your overheads. Are your overheads taking priority over your profit (and importantly, your wages)? Understanding this will help you to make the right decisions. Mike Michalowicz outlined the process in his Profit First book...

You need to categorise your overheads as either:

• P for any expense that generates (P)rofit • R for any expense that, whilst necessary, can be (R)eplaced with a less expensive alternative, and • U for any expense that is (U)necessary for delivering your offering Then, go through the previous years’ accounts, credit card statements and loan statements and on a spreadsheet start allocating overheads to each category. Once you have done this, you need to make yourself accountable and, I advise, to work with your accountant to understand what costs are necessary.

Once you have allocated your overheads and resources, you can begin to look at costs that can be reduced. Start by cutting the U expenses, then find ways to reduce the R expenses - with replacements or alternatives. Then, evaluate the P expenses to see if you can structure the expense more favourably.

Note, it is important to begin with small savings as you cannot jeopardise the running of your business and create uncertainty within your workplace. The secret is to have a goal that you want to achieve within a certain time period.

Another cost cutting strategy is to, before investing or spending money, to sit back and assess if the cost is necessary. Ask yourself whether you can get away without buying that item, if you can, then the business doesn’t need to spend that money.

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Wesley Rocha didn’t take a raise in 10 years. The founder of LinkUSystems watched his company grow and his own income remain stagnant. “I don’t understand why it seemed like even though we would make more money, we never had any left over. I felt stressed about finances all the time.” Wesley finished reading Profit First in a weekend and realized quickly that his expenses were way out of control. “I couldn’t immediately implement cutting costs without grossly damaging projects or the business. I literally needed all of my employees and 90% of everything we had been paying for because we were stuck and committed to it.” Little by little Wesley started chipping away at his expenses. “over the past year unfortunately I have had to release 6 employees but have been able to replace their efforts by eliminating unprofitable products and services, re-creating and optimizing processes and streamlining other portions of the business. Now, I’m able to determine what expense is allowed for a project before we take it on.

Otherwise, we have to figure out another solution.”

Figure out another solution. Music to my ears.

Not, “We have to find more money to cover it.”

In the first year of implementing Profit First, Wesley was able to double his profits, which allowed him to increase his annual income by approximately 46%.

Profit First gets you to think differently about spending money on your overheads. Obviously, there are going to be times when you do need to replace that old PC, but I bet you’ll do some research and compare prices now, rather than just going ahead and purchasing it.

Lee Manning 020 3146 1604 lee.manning@raffingers.co.uk

How to Maximise the Value of a Recruitment Company At some point most recruitment company owners and directors want to sell. Preparing the business in the right way is therefore crucial to maximise the value buyers are willing to offer. But even if you have no intention of selling your business, the ideas and principles in this short article are worth adopting to help you grow your recruitment company more sustainably and efficiently.

Building a robust structure When considering what to pay for a business, investors will consider the future earning potential of their proposed investment and the associated risks. Many owners are so focused on exploiting opportunities that they lose sight of what de-risks the business.

And risks matter. Investors buying a business take a similar approach to you or me buying a house. If you spot a crack in a wall you will scrutinise the purchase with even more caution to ensure you identify any potential surprises. And furthermore, you will use that information when negotiating with the seller to get the best possible price.

Future-proofing your recruitment company isn’t rocket science. Start by breaking your business into different operational areas, for example: internal recruitment, candidate care, marketing, account development etc.

For each of these areas you need to: review the current process; document it in a strategy; establish a process; and then improve it. It isn’t realistic for one person to do this for every area of the business. Instead make different people responsible for reviewing and continually improving each of the different areas.

Growing efficiently I cannot over-emphasise the importance of a three-year plan and how it will steer you towards good decisions.

One of the most common conversations I have when starting work with clients is “I wish we had done / hired xxxxxxxx twelve months ago…”. Occasionally this is simply hindsight, but often, it is the result of a lack of planning.

The plan doesn’t need to be a big document – a three-year budget forecast, a hiring strategy (i.e. details of which positions will be recruited for and when) and three years of financials (including cash flow). When building your revenue forecast, it is not enough to predict 20% year on year growth without justification. Identify whether revenue will be from new or existing clients and ensure you will have the staff to achieve it.

To predict the staff you will need, work out your key ratios as it is activity that drives revenue. For example, if every 100 calls resulted in five interviews and one placement last year, then the same will most likely be true this year. This means that if you monitor the right KPIs then you will know what needs to be done to hit each of your targets over the next few years and the staff needed to hit those activity levels.

By The Recruiter Club Visit www.mynonexec.com/recruiter-club for free, immediate access to a full 30 minute training session (along with other recruitment webinars).

Top 10 Tips for Successfully Managing a Merger When proposing a deal that will change a major part of your life, you must be clear about why you are doing it. if there is not an imperative reason driving you to do it, strongly consider whether it is the right thing to do; you don’t want to end up regretting it.

There are a number of reasons to enter a merger, such as: acquisition of a smaller company or two businesses merging to become stronger.

Mergers and acquisitions are expensive, time consuming, and loaded with potential problems, if not done correctly. But, they can create economies of scale, help you better meet your client’s needs or even enter a new market.

Here are our Top Tips. For further support or advice, contact ed.niman@raffingers.co.uk.

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2.

3.

4.

Understand why you want to do the deal Identify what the end result will look like Do your due diligence on any future partners Ensure that future partners’ expectations align with yours 5. Identify the red lines in the requirements of the deal 6. Identify a timescale and ensure you can commit the time 7. Discuss with your professional advisers 8. Make sure your two cultures mesh 9. Be prepared to invest time and money in making a deal happen 10. Do not lose focus on the day-to-day requirements of the business

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Benefits of Mentoring Being specialists in the recruitment sector means we are always looking to help our clients move to the next level. Often, this is to grow into a business that gives them an opportunity to sell and enjoy the fruits of their labour, or, if they are young enough, sufficient income to reward them for all the effort and hard work. We always ask our clients what their short-term and long-term goals and objectives are and then assess if they have the sufficient skills to achieve them. In most cases, there are knowledge or skills gaps. However, this can be resolved by having a mentor guiding you and keeping you on track.

Do you need a mentor?

You might already be successful - achieving excellent profits, no staff retention problems and a vibrant office culture - so why would you need a mentor? The best way to answer this question is to consider a successful sportsman or woman; despite being a success they are always trying to improve and better themselves and for that they have the best coaches. They get so far in their career or hit a ceiling where they cannot improve upon their natural talent, so they look to a coach to help them move to the next level. This is the same in business, coaches help grow businesses, increase the breadth of skills and improve the vision for the future, as well as give belief and encouragement to think bigger and not be afraid of pushing boundaries. They also support you personally, helping you to understand the importance of the time you are away from the office and how getting your work/life balance right, not only benefits you and your family, but can help you perform better at work.

Example One of our clients owns a small, successful recruitment business in the financial sector and decided to further his knowledge by signing up to the Cranfield Business School. He felt he needed further qualifications as he

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did not have a degree, but a strong work ethos, and wanted to start working smarter, rather than harder. It was whilst studying that he realised he could not achieve his full potential without external help and decided to take on a Non-Executive. As a result, the business tripled in size and gave rise to a second business. In addition to the increase in turnover and profit, both businesses were far better structured and built on solid foundations. It was this structure and these foundations that were vital in allowing both businesses to maintain profit in the extremely tough trading conditions during the recession.

Benefits The mentor made our client accountable and made sure the following were put in place: Planning meetings - Having monthly planning meetings stopped my client from being sucked into the day-today running of the business and kept him focused. As your business grows, of course you will still need to be working on day-to-day tasks. But for your business to truly reach its full potential, you need to step out and allocate real quality time to working “on” your business planning. Thinking about where you want the businesses to go, how you’re going to get there and how to improve the business as it is now (such as staff retention, hiring smarter, having a strong staff development strategy, looking at new technologies, the list goes on).

Board meetings - Having a Non-Executive led to regular “board meetings” and educated our client that, when done properly, board meetings are highly productive.

However, these meetings will not work if they are filled with lots of blue-sky thinking that evaporates the moment you leave the room. Taking minutes at the meeting, which include actions and is circulated afterwards is critical, especially for disciplining those with actions to complete them.

Setting your business goals - Hopefully your goals will grow as your business grows, giving you confidence

Business Growth Tips to think bigger, but you can only do this if you get into the habit of setting quantifiable business goals. The mentor will help you define your aims and will make sure you are working towards these on a regular basis.

Planning to achieve your goals – There is no point setting goals if you do not have a clear plan of how you are going to achieve them. The plan must have clear milestones, targets and project definitions. A plan is useless if you don’t implement it and having a “board” or Business Coach to update on the progress of these actions will, without doubt, make them more likely to be achieved.

Improving personal growth – It is common for business owners, especially recruiters, to become complacent when it comes to personal development. Clients tend to slip back into bad habits of relying on a small number of skills and neglecting those that have helped them in the past. A good Non-Executive will not only share with you their own skills and experience, but they should also keep you on track with seeking further learning from outside the board room.

Ideas to be challenged - Most recruiters can be impulsive or have that drive to get things done, and it’s this that can lead to rushing the formation of ideas. A good mentor should help you stand back and look at your ideas to ensure they are well worked through, will add value and can be practically actioned. It’s only then you can evolve those ideas into a plan.

Having a third party look at your business, without the emotional ties that a business owner has, is of great benefit to you and will help you become even more successful, providing you with a clear vision of where the business is going, making sure the business stays on course and does not deviate away from the goals and objectives that have been set.

Barry Soraff 020 3146 1603 barry.soraff@raffingers.co.uk

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Give your team more responsibility Give your team the opportunity to develop and don’t take everything on yourself.

Teach people on the job and allow them to grow in the business. This will help you to retain your staff.

Develop a strong culture Having a strong culture will not only lead to a happier, more productive team, but will also help you attract talent. Be consistent and open with your team, find out what motivates them, getting your employees involved in the business means they will be more committed.

Identify your weaknesses Understand your own weaknesses as well as your strengths. Surround yourself with employees who have different strengths and let them teach you. You don’t have to know and do everything.

4.

Focus on your customer experience

5.

Get the right structure in place

6.

Work with the board

7.

Take a break and enjoy what you do

Customers’ perceptions of your business can really make or break your agency. Fast growth depends on making your current and potential customers happy with their experience.

Growing from a small to medium-sized business can be a big change, particularly when adding a more vertical management structure. Don’t kill innovation by creating unnecessary chains of command.

Often the biggest disagreements that happen in a business are between the founder and the board, particularly where the founder has been used to making sole decisions for a long time. Boards make changes to how a business operates or the direction that it’s going. Sometimes founders must accept that and aim to work with them, not against them.

Make sure you are looking after yourself and taking some time out. This will allow you to look at your business from a fresh perspective, especially if you use this time to speak to like-minded entrepreneurs and people who are going through the same changes as you.

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Staff, Client and Candidate Entertaining

It is easy to get caught out with entertaining costs.

Recently, a new client of ours was caught out by a standard PAYE visit by HMRC as they had fallen foul of HMRC’s rules and regulations.

The client in question has approximately 20 consultants and, like many other recruitment companies, they have various incentive schemes in place. The company rewards their team regularly and has an annual summer party, Christmas party and a trip to Vegas for those lucky enough to meet their targets. They also have team meetings at the wine bar next door and consultants are encouraged to keep their clients sweet by taking them out for dinner and drinks, as well as meeting their candidates often for a coffee or quick lunch.

So, when HMRC reviewed the payments and expense claims for the consultants and the travel agent invoices, they had a field day: Firstly, client entertaining can be paid for by the company, but it will not be allowable against your corporation tax. These costs should be shown separately in your bookkeeping system as Client Entertaining and should not include any staff or candidate expenses.

In regard to candidate expenses for coffees and lunches.

These are fine for the company to pay and, if the cost is not excessive, these are an allowable cost and there are no tax consequences on the employee or company.

As in my opinion, the cost is wholly and exclusively for a business purpose and allowable as business entertainment due to there being sufficient quid pro quo as per HMRC Business Income Manual BIM45014.

HMRC also allowed the regular team meetings as an allowable cost as the company demonstrated that the meetings were business related and was able to produce

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minutes from them. If the company was not able to produce sufficient evidence, then HMRC would have had a good argument to disallow these costs.

However, the cost that HMRC scrutinised, even going back as far as 6 years to recover tax that was not dealt with correctly, was the team rewards. You need to be aware that there is a £150 per person, per annum limit that you can spend on your staff entertaining for any annual staff functions. Staff functions include trips to Vegas for these purposes. So, in this case the summer party cost £60 per head, the Christmas party £100 per head and the Vegas trip £1,500 per head. Consequently, the £150 annual threshold would be used against the most expensive function, being the Christmas party.

Therefore, my client should have either declared the £1,560 on the employees P11d and the employee pay the tax at the relevant tax rate, or my client should have declared it on a PAYE Settlement Agreement and paid the tax and employers NIC on behalf of the employee.

As a result of HMRC’s scrutiny, the resultant tax for the current tax year totalled £4,500. This wasn’t a huge issue, but when HMRC went back 6 years and charged interest on penalties on the underpaid tax, the company got a bill for £30,000, which, as you can imagine, created cashflow problems. Thankfully, HMRC agreed to a payment plan.

The moral of this story is to look at your staff entertaining costs and declare the tax or run the risk of having a large tax bill. HMRC are very aware of staff entertaining in the recruitment industry and it’s easy pickings, so don’t make life easy for them.

For further support on entertaining expenses, contact me at gary.inglis@raffingers.co.uk.

Five Things to Consider When Choosing the Right Invoice Factoring Company The importance of the right invoice finance for recruitment agencies cannot be denied, which is precisely why your own company shouldn’t rush into the first half-decent deal it sees. Here are some of the things that you should think about.

Fees and Penalties A factoring company may tout that it has the lowest factoring fees in the industry. What that factor will not tell you is that there are additional fees that can drive up the cost considerably. These fees are often hidden in the agreement’s fine print. A few things to look for:

• The advance percentage (normally 70% to 90%) • Factoring fees (usually 3% to 8%) • Reserve requirements • Processing fees • Set-up and/or application fees • ACH fees Experience Work with a well-established, experienced factor. They have the financial reserves and experience you need.

Value-Added Services In addition to invoice factoring, many factors offer additional services that work in conjunction with their primary service.

Examples of value-added services offered by factoring companies include: • Credit and background services on potential and current customers • Online account reporting • Invoice management • Customer Service Integrity This is the hardest thing to figure out when researching invoice factoring companies. But, it is one of the most important. Put simply, you need to trust the factor to do the job you are paying them to do, professionally and with integrity.

Taking time to research different factoring companies will let you find the one that fits with your business and its needs. Consider it an investment of time that will pay off in the long run.

Raffingers Recruitment Sector Helpline Get rapid answers to any tax and business-related queries you have through our recruitment sector helpline.

We have launched a free helpline for recruitment agencies – recruitmenthelp@raffingers.co.uk. Whether you have a question on your tax return, are looking for funding options or want advice on the best IT software, our team is here to support you.

We have the following teams available to answer any questions you have on:

1. Tax. Our tax team can advise you on your personal tax return, what expenses are allowable, whether you are eligible for Research and Development tax credits, on a tax enquiry and everything in between – including IHT and how to protect your wealth now and in the future.

2. Payroll and auto enrolment. Whether you outsource your payroll or look after it in-house, our team is here to answer any questions you may have.

3. Bookkeeping. Our team can advise you on the best cloud bookkeeping packages.

We also have a small business team who can provide you with training and help you with your existing system.

4. Internal Systems. Through working with agencies of all sizes, we can advise on the best systems that you should be integrating to speed up your internal processes and save you time.

5. Funding. Looking to set-up, grow, sell, or need a short-term fix to help with your cash flow?

We can provide independent advice on the best solutions for you.

6. Business Advice: Uncertain whether you are in a position to grow, should recruit more employees, expand overseas, when the right time to sell is? Our team can point you in the right direction.

We specialise in the recruitment sector and have a mission to help you fulfil your ambitions.

Please note, this is purely an advice helpline. We will point you in the right direction and guide you as much as we can. If your query requires additional work, we will provide you with a proposal and quote accordingly.

Contact us at: recruitmenthelp@raffingers.co.uk.

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