Sussex Business Times - Issue 397 2016

SBT

ISSUE 397 FREE

SUSSEX BUSINESS TIMES

BEXHILL COLLEGE: GETTING THE GRADE EDUCATION IS WHAT MAKES A GOOD STUDENT OUTSTANDNG. BEXHILL COLLEGE’S PRINCIPAL, KAREN HUCKER TELLS SBT ABOUT THE COLLEGE’S EXCEPTIONAL POST 16 EDUCATION

SERVING THE SUSSEX BUSINESS COMMUNITY SINCE 1975

S R U E EPREN

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D E T N WA

ENTR

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SBTWelcome MEET THE TEAM

Lee Mansfield, Managing Director/ Publisher

Simon Skinner, Clare Fermor, Group Director/Editor Operation Director

Jenny Ardagh, Deputy Editor

Thomas Allen, Features Editor

Mason Ponti, Group Sales Manager

Lou Dobson, Sales

Elliott Mansfield, Sales

Geoff Diamond, Sales

Harriet Weston, Production Manager

Amy Watson, Amelia Wellings, Production Designer Financial Controller

CONTRIBUTORS

Farida Gibbs, CEO of Gibbs S3

Mike Chapman, Senior Manager Corporate Tax at Knill James

Matt Turner, Managing Director, Creative Pod

Tim Boag, Regional Managing Director, NatWest

Pete Cohen, Arron Hopkinson, Motivational Speaker Precision Massage

Lisa Beale, Checka professional.com

This month brings with it an exciting new development for Sussex Business Times, as in January 2016, we held the first session in the NatWest & SBT Roundtable series. See pages 16 through to 23 for an edited transcription of the event itself, covering the first topic: The Revitalisation of the South East’s Coastal Towns.

Panelists discussed how we can work collaboratively to reinvigorate coastal towns across the UK, in Sussex and more specifically in Hastings, where the event was held. See page 23 for information on getting involved yourself.

Our cover this month is Bexhill College. We interview Principal, Karen Hucker, who speaks about what the college offers its students, its standing within Sussex, and its relationships with businesses, as well as any new developments.

We review the Sofitel Gatwick hotel this month, leading into a more in depth article about business travel, and the importance of international business and trade, speaking to Lewis Scott, Regional Director at UK Trade & Investment in the South East.

As the way we do business changes, as does retail. This month, we look at how we’re using technology more and more to buy goods, and how the retail business sector can keep thriving under such pressures from online shopping. Indeed, technology as a whole is ruling the world as we know it, and we are looking towards an exciting year in terms of The Internet of Things.

Soon, everything will be connected and, again, businesses must learn to keep up.

Among our usual pieces, such as motoring, news, ask the expert and finance, we also bring interesting articles on the Psychology of Business, health and crowdfunding – a fantastic alternative for entrepreneurs and start-up ventures.

Christina Ewbank, ACES Facilitator

Enjoy your read Jenny Ardagh Deptuty Editor

www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk 3

SBTContents

Issue 397

SBT

ISSUE 397 FREE

SUSSEX BUSINESS TIMES

BEXHILL COLLEGE: GETTING THE GRADE EDUCATION IS WHAT MAKES A GOOD STUDENT OUTSTANDNG. BEXHILL COLLEGE’S PRINCIPAL, KAREN HUCKER TELLS SBT ABOUT THE COLLEGE’S EXCEPTIONAL POST 16 EDUCATION

SERVING THE SUSSEX BUSINESS COMMUNITY SINCE 1975

Cover: Bexhill College www.bexhillcollege.ac.uk Managing Director/Publisher: Lee Mansfield lee@lifemediagroup.co.uk 01323 819 007 Group Director/Editor: Simon Skinner simon@lifemediagroup.co.uk 01323 819 017 Operations Director: Clare Fermor clare@lifemediagroup.co.uk 01323 819 007 Sales Manager: Mason Ponti mason@lifemediagroup.co.uk 01323 819 014 Sales: Lou Dobson lou@lifemediagroup.co.uk 01323 819 007 Elliott Mansfield elliott@lifemediagroup.co.uk 01323 819 012 Geoff Diamond geoff@lifemediagroup.co.uk 01323 819 013 Deputy Editor: Jenny Ardagh jenny@lifemediagroup.co.uk 01323 819 011 Production Manager: Harriet Weston harriet@lifemediagroup.co.uk 01323 819 010 Production Designer: Amy Watson amy@lifemediagroup.co.uk 01323 819 018 Subscriptions: Linda Grace linda@lifemediagroup.co.uk 01323 819 015 Accounts: Amelia Wellings amelia@lifemediagroup.co.uk 01323 819 007 Published by Life Media Group, Unit1, Swan Barn Business Centre, Swan Barn Road, Hailsham, BN27 2BY Printed by Berforts 17 Burgess Road, Ivyhouse Lane Hastings, East Sussex, TN35 4NR 01424 722733 www.berforts.co.uk All material in this publication is strictly copyright and all rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. The views expressed in Sussex Business Times Magazine do not necessarily represent the view of Life Media Group LTD. Every care is taken in compiling the contents but the publishers of Sussex Business Times Magazine assume no responsibility for any damage, loss or injury arising from the participation in any offers, competitions or advertisement contained within Sussex Business Times Magazine. All prices featured in Sussex Business Times Magazine are correct at the time of going to press.

Copyright Life Media Group LTD 2016 ©

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News

View the latest local and national business headlines.

Spending it

Mother’s Day Gift Guide: Make Mother’s Day memorable with a gift she’ll be sure to love.

Finance

All businesses must start from somewhere, but what happens when entrepreneurs struggle to raise the finances needed?

There are many options, and many alternative routes.

SBT and NatWest Roundtable

In our first roundtable event in Hastings, we discuss issues surrounding the topic of revitalising coastal communities across the South East.

Technology

For businesses to thrive in the technology-driven world we live in, they must keep up with the latest developments, and endorse their use. So, what’s in store for expansion in 2016?

Retail Vs Online

How we shop has changed dramatically over the past decade, and business has had to adapt with it.

Apprenticeship Week

From 14th to 18th March, businesses across Sussex and the rest of the country will be celebrating and supporting apprenticeship schemes. How can you get involved?

Business Travel

The modern world is a web of interconnectivity, with technology allowing us to make social and business ties from one side of the globe to the other.

Tried and Tested in Sussex

If you want to start your holiday early, or have the stress of business travel taken away, the Sofitel at Gatwick airport is ideal.

SBT reviews the pre-travel accommodation experience.

Chamber News

All the latest news and events from ACES.

Motoring

Simon Skinner reviews the Jaguar XE and Land Rover Discovery Sport.

Ask the Experts

Local Sussex business experts advise on relevant issues.

Made in Sussex

This month’s home grown hero is Harrison James: bringing contemporary garden rooms to the home working business person.

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SBTLocal News Consumer Law Website Legal Beagles Launches LBCompare

Legal Beagles, the independent consumer law help forum established

by Kate Briscoe and Sharon Coleman, has launched a one-stop destination for detailed information on the legal services provided by all law firms and solicitors registered in England & Wales by the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority, called LBcompare. Brighton based CEO, Kate Briscoe, a former consumer credit litigator with Brighton law firm Howlett Clarke, explains: ‘’People constantly ask us how and where to find a solicitor for a particular legal issue and how much it might cost.

LBcompare will provide the answers in the same familiar format as comparison websites for insurance and financial products, except that we’ll include every single provider and not just those who pay us’’.

Over Half Of SMEs In The South East Lack Ethics Policy

The Close Brothers Business Barometer recently revealed that over half of SMEs in the South East don’t have a formal ethics policy in place, with 11% not knowing if they have one at all. Over a third of SMEs in the South East say they feel they don’t need an ethics policy and a third believe they are too small to worry.

Commenting on the figures, Mike Randall, CEO of Close Brothers Asset Finance said: “Business owners and managers will also recognise the importance of trust and ethics when they are on the receiving end of ‘unethical business practice’.

There are clear advantages to having a formal code in place – not least because they will inform business practice and greatly enhance the organisation’s reputation.”

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New Addition To Pacific House Expanding video production company, Smokescreen Visuals, is the latest edition to Pacific House, the new threefloor commercial development found at the forefront of Eastbourne’s Sovereign Harbour Innovation Park.

Smokescreen Visuals is Eastbourne’s premier video production company founded by Matt Derbyshire in 2004.

The company has gone from strength to strength and now has a strong team that creates bespoke films combining the corporate needs of clients with visual flair.

There are a number of suites and offices remaining on offer. Developer, Sea Change Sussex – the not-forprofit regeneration company for East Sussex – and its agents are undertaking viewings for other companies and are in

discussions with several about letting offices.

To find out more about any of these commercial developments or other business locations in East Sussex, please contact the Locate East Sussex team on 01424 205085.

UK Skills Is ‘Plane’ Sailing For SDC Joinery Student On Tuesday 15th December, Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) Skills Competition Manager, James Duffell travelled to Sussex Downs College to present SDC student, Simon McGreevy his second place certificate from the National Skill Show, and prize money of £500.

Simon McGreevy, 21, joined Sussex Downs College in April 2014 as an Advanced Apprentice Level 3 Bench Joiner after learning the quality basics working for the family company, Barn Joinery Ltd. Simon took part in the three day National Skill Show held at the

Birmingham NEC in November, where he won a Silver Medal for his timed assessment. This success means that Simon is now eligible to represent the UK as part of Team GB in the 2017 World Skills held in Abu Dhabi.

Businesses Should Prioritise Cash Flow Businesses need to prioritise cash flow in 2016 to ensure stability and help drive growth, according to Lewes based accountants, Knill James.

Many small-to-medium businesses will face new cash flow issues this year with the introduction of the National Living Wage (NLW), and some companies will also face the additional payroll costs associated with the ongoing auto-enrolment scheme for workplace pensions, but businesses will benefit from new rules on benefits-in-kind.

Under the new rules employers

will be exempt from paying income tax and national insurance contributions on benefits worth less than £50 that are provided to employees.

However, many businesses are likely to continue to struggle with late payments from customers, despite new rules from the Government that will enforce shorter and stricter payment periods.

David Martin, Partner at Knill James, said: “Most firms will be able to help you forecast future cash flow and manage current costs and payments to ensure your business’s cash reserve remains healthy.”

SBTLocal News A Sussex Downs College Student Supports BBC Get Inspired’s Bodypositive Initiative Nicole Allen from Seaford, who is currently studying a Level 3 Extended Diploma in Sport and Exercise Science at Sussex Downs College, has seized ‘a great opportunity’ to be involved in BBC Get Inspired’s, BodyPositive initiative.

As a young woman living with Cystic Fibrosis, Nicole astonishes and inspires many through her energetic, active and overwhelmingly positive attitude to life which is detailed in her own blog ‘Living

and Breathing CF’.

Mike Hopkins, Principal and CEO of Sussex Downs College said: “This is a huge achievement for Nicole and a testament of her hard work and dedication to sharing her positive outlook on life. She is an inspiration already to us at Sussex Downs College and we are proud that through this campaign she can now be an inspiration to others across the UK and, possibly, across the world.”

Surrey And Sussex Businesses Strengthen Their International Presence Surrey and Sussex’s midmarket companies have made significant progress in global markets, reporting international turnover growth of 14% and 40% respectively in the last year, according to new research from accountants and business advisers BDO LLP. Collectively the 552 medium-sized companies, with a turnover of £10m - £300m, have disclosed international sales of £2.9 billion, with 30 companies alone contributing £475m or 16%.

As economic power increasingly

shifts towards emerging markets, British firms need to adapt and be ready to seize international opportunities so that the products they offer outclass those of global competitors.

BDO is hosting two roundtable discussions for senior management teams to discuss their challenges and share experiences with their peers at their Gatwick office on Wednesday 24th February and at GLive, Guildford on Thursday 25 February.

Natwest’s Sussex Branches Get A Makeover As Part Of A £450M Investment In Branch Network NatWest’s branches in Hastings, Eastbourne, Horsham, Lewes, Uckfield and Crawley have been given a makeover as part of a £450m investment into upgrading branches across the UK. The makeover, as part of NatWest’s overall £1bn investment into their branches across the UK, includes upgraded ATMs and Cash and Deposit machines, and new machines where customers can pay-in coins free of

charge. The ‘traditional’ bank counter has also been removed so customers no longer have to queue to speak to a member of staff, and all branches now have free Wi-Fi for customers and iPads so they can register and access Online Banking services.

Commenting on the new look branches Kevin Guy, NatWest’s South East Regional Director for Branch & Private Banking, said: “Although an increasing

The Office For National Statistics Reveal Britain’s Low Productivity

Data from the Office for National Statistics on the 12th January estimates that production output has decreased by 0.7% between October 2015 and November 2015.

According to an OECD UK Economic survey published last year, labour productivity per employee has failed to markedly rise since the global downturn; and recent CBI data reveals that the UK is 20 percentage points below the G7 average, the widest gap since the series began in 1991.

In line with the latest ONS release, the world’s largest independent measure of workplace effectiveness, the Leesman Index, believes the workspace is a major contributor to worryingly low total production output.

Tim Oldman, Leesman CEO, believes it’s imperative that business leaders analyse the reasons behind poor productivity levels in order to rectify the failings and improve business performance: “There’s a woeful lack of science being applied to the workplace environment. Organisations must, alongside skills, investment and infrastructure, include the workplace in their productivity focus. Those that do will boost productivity and their organisation performance.”

number of our customers are choosing to bank with us over the phone, online or on their mobile, our branch network plays an extremely important part of the service we’re providing to customers.

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SBTLocal News Hastings Charity Wins Share Of £2.5M Natwest Skills & Opportunities Fund

The Hastings-based charity Education Futures Trust has been awarded more than £30,000 from the NatWest Skills & Opportunities Fund by the bank’s South East Regional Board.

The £2.5 million Skills & Opportunities Fund was established to support organisations that support others in setting up their own business or getting work through training and qualifications.

Education Futures Trust’s ‘Working without Walls’ programme is a series of inspirational survival skills and conservation courses for young people in Hastings aged 14-21 years with low educational or economic outcomes. Carole Dixon, CEO of Education Future Trust, said: “We were delighted with our success in gaining the Skills and Opportunities funding for our Working without Walls programme. This allows us to extend our outdoor learning and conservation work to young people who struggle in education, and may be facing long term unemployment.”

Early Pay Rises For Ticketmedia Hove based, Ticketmedia plan to introduce the 2020 National Living Wage of £9.00 an hour, four years earlier than government targets suggest, meaning nine employees at the globally recognised printing business will benefit from significantly increased salaries in the New Year.

From next April, the National Living Wage will guarantee those over the age of 25 an hourly rate of at least £7.20.

This will rise to £9.00 an hour by 2020, replacing the £6.70 current minimum wage for people over 25 years old.

Jeremy Burbidge, Managing Director at Ticketmedia, said, “We are delighted to be able to offer the 2020 increase in wage to our staff from January 2016. The size of the increases are dependent on

current salary and skill levels, it will make a considerable difference to the salaries of quite a lot of them.

“Our employees are all skilled experts in their particular areas but we plan to train them further so they can do all functions at a basic level, working cross-functionally in order to do this.”

Fastsigns Of Crawley Employee Wins Top Award!

An employee at a local signage business, FASTSIGNS of Crawley, has recently been honoured with an award at the company’s annual convention.

Up against strong competition from employees at the 18 other owneroperated FASTSIGNS businesses, Alan White, Senior Graphic Designer at FASTSIGNS of Crawley, received the ‘Employee of the Year Award’ at the FASTSIGNS National Convention, which was held in Stratford upon Avon.

Alan, who has been working at the

Gatwick Road business since 1999 and is responsible for all the graphic design work from individual posters and marketing material to information signage and full company rebrands.

Commenting on his win Alan said: “I’m delighted to have received this award but really I’m just doing my job. We have some great clients who I enjoy working with and never mind doing a bit extra for. I work with a great team of people and know I couldn’t do my job without their support and assistance every day.”

DMH Stallard shortlisted five times for Insider’s South East Dealmakers Awards 2016 DMH Stallard, a leading law firm in the South East of England, has been shortlisted five times for Insider’s South East Dealmakers Awards 2016.

The firm’s achievements include: two nominations in the Corporate Lawyer of the Year category, for Partners, Abigail Owen and Jonathan Grant, as well as two nominations in the Deal of the Year category, for negotiating the management buyout of Brighton based artisan coffee

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business, Small Batch Coffee Company.

In addition, they achieved a nomination for the sale of Lewes based publishing business, Ivy Press to Quarto Publishing plc, and for for Corporate Law Firm of the Year.

The winners of Insider’s South East Dealmakers Awards will be announced at the gala dinner taking place at the Copthorne Hotel, Effingham Park, Crawley on 4 February 2016.

SBTNational News LawBite members of Charter Women in Shopping On Mobile Tofor Top £53bn Business

By 2024

LawBite, an online legal service that provides Simple Law for Small Companies, has become a founder member of the Charter for Women in Business, just launched by Prowess.

More women are starting their own business than men in the UK for the first time ever. Some 14% want to hire more staff this year. With nearly 1 million women-led SMEs in the UK that could mean around 140,000 new jobs, according to a government report.

But despite this, women’s businesses aren’t accessing the same level of support and they are less likely to survive and grow than men’s businesses. The Charter for Women in Business is a practical initiative to close the gender gap.

LawBite’s flexible working structure is advantageous for all but particularly for women who have childcare responsibilities.

Prowess Director Erika Watson, who was awarded an MBE for services to women’s enterprise, says: “The Charter builds on international best practice and more importantly the women we’ve surveyed give it their full approval. We’re inviting business support and services providers to join LawBite by signing up to the Charter and let their staff and clients know that they are serious about sharing in women’s business success.”

Collaboration Confirms London’s Position As Leading International Green Finance Centre India’s fifth largest private bank has formalised the Memorandum of Understanding signed with The London Stock Exchange.

YES BANK was the first issuer of the Green Infrastructure Bonds in India, confirming that it plans to list a Green Bond of up to $500m on London Stock Exchange by December 2016. Nikhil Rathi, CEO, London Stock Exchange plc & Director of International Development, LSEG said: “London is the world’s most international financial market

and has a long history working with partners in India. London Stock Exchange is a natural partner for YES BANK for their significant debt and equity issuances and as a partner for their clients. YES BANK is a leader in sustainable finance in India. We are honoured to welcome Mr. Rana Kapoor and his team from YES BANK to sign this important MoU which demonstrates our commitment to supporting the raising of green capital for India.”

deVere UK Forecasts d 50% More Business and Launches HNW Division deVere UK, part of the deVere Group, one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations, expects a significant increase in its business levels in Britain in 2016.

Mike Coady, Managing Director of deVere UK, says that it is forecast to further raise standards, whilst doing half as much business as it did in 2015. He explains: “Clients continue to demand more from us across our brands - deVere United Kingdom and deVere Mortgages – and we are up for the challenge. We expect to be able to satisfy this appetite for our service by achieving at least 50 per cent increase in our business in Britain over the next 12 months.”

Business Leaders Reveal Cost Control Priorities For 2016

As businesses focus their attention on corporate strategies, cost control experts Barcanet have conducted a survey looking at how organisations will control costs in 2016. Findings from the survey include: • Three-quarters of survey responders have a strategic objective to reduce costs, a quarter of these requiring savings greater than 10%.

• One-third of responders say lack of good quality data as the biggest obstacle to cost control.

• Almost two-thirds of responders have the responsibility of cost control with the CFO, with only 5% looking to all employees to control costs.

VAT To Be Charged On Council (Official) Local Authority Searches As an established search provider, Searches UK has always charged VAT on their Regulated (Personal) Local Authority Searches despite this often creating a commercial advantage for regional councils offering Council (Official) Local Authority Searches without VAT. After a recent announcement from the CIPFA VAT committee who advised that Local Authorities should begin charging VAT on Council (Official) Local Authority

Searches from 1st February 2016, most councils will have to look to incorporate this into their current ordering processes.

Regulated (Personal) Local Authority Searches are produced by Searches UK’s expert search agents who visit the council to review the records for each property and use their local knowledge to produce the report. All searches are covered by £2 million information accuracy insurance plus an additional £2 million in PI cover

for greater peace of mind about receiving accurate and reliable data from Searches UK.

www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk 9

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Funding Options for Start-Ups

All businesses must start from somewhere, but what happens when entrepreneurs struggle to raise the finances needed? There are many options, and many alternative routes The Sussex start-ups scene is positively booming, especially Finance in the tech sector.

Brighton in particular has grown into one of the UK’s most vibrant tech business hubs, with a focus on creative digital and gaming. Recent statistics from the Centre for Cities 2015 Outlook found that Brighton has the highest number of start-ups per capita outside of London.

Start-ups have often struggled to raise finance from traditional sources of business funding. However, the investment landscape for early stage businesses has been changing over recent years, driven by a combination of factors, including Government-led tax policy and incentives, technology innovation and a recognition by larger commercial enterprises that supporting smaller businesses makes good business sense. Against this backdrop, entrepreneurs are now able to access a

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wide variety of different funding sources to launch and grow their businesses, including: Grants: Grants are typically in the thousands of pounds to tens of thousands of pounds range and are available from public bodies, principally at local, national and European level. They are usually awarded for a specific purpose or project. There is a very high demand for grants that are available, and application levels often means that grants are run via a competition with strict eligibility criteria and tight deadlines. Another feature worth noting is that, while these are not loans (strictly speaking), grants may nevertheless become repayable if certain conditions are not met or deliverables/ targets are not achieved.

Start-up loans: These are personal loans, again typically in the thousands of pounds to tens of thousands of pounds range, and

are funded by the public purse. They have relatively low interest rates and favourable repayment terms. However, while no security would normally be required over the assets of your business or personal assets, they are not without legal risk or consequence if repayments are not able to be made when due.

Incubators and accelerators: These offer a limited investment (c.£10,000-£20,000) for a small equity stake and also provide mentorship and resource e.g. technical expertise, office space, PR and marketing services. Legal documentation is often in “standard” form with little room for negotiation, but it is always recommended to ask a lawyer to check for onerous obligations and restrictions.

Friends and family: Friends and family members may invest or provide loans to start-ups. As with any investor, such investments should

Money Matters

be documented in legal agreements to avoid disputes and uncertainties.

peer fundraising, such as ‘crowd’ invoice discounting and debt factoring platforms.

Business angels: Angels may typically invest between £10,000 and £100,000 each. Angels may be entitled to Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) or Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) relief, which offer generous income tax and capital gains tax reliefs to private investors. Both SEIS and EIS are subject to a raft of conditions and eligibility criteria and so it is very easy to fall outside of the rules and lose the tax advantages.

Venture capital: A number of early-stage VCs focus on smaller deals (‘pre-Series A’, ‘seed’ and even ‘pre-seed’ rounds).

The proposed deal terms need to be negotiated, understood by all parties and implemented – having a robust legal document in place will ensure there are no misunderstandings. According to a recent study by London & Partners, VC funding of UK tech startups reached £2.46bn last year, an increase of more than 70% on 2014.

Crowdfunding platforms: These facilitate fundraising from large numbers of individual investors, each investing relatively small amounts of cash.

There are different crowd-funding models, based on equity investment, loans and ‘rewards’ (i.e. where a company provides products or services in return for investment). Several other innovative tech businesses are facilitating peer-to-

Banks: Banks, particularly the so-called ‘challenger banks’, are becoming more innovative in terms of developing products and services aimed specifically at earlier stage businesses and SMEs. Corporate venturing: Larger corporates often invest

“According to a recent study by London & Partners, VC funding of UK tech startups reached £2.46bn last year, an increase of more than 70% on 2014” strategically in smaller, early stage tech companies. The drivers for this include larger corporates seeking access to innovative and disruptive technologies with synergies to their own business and strategies, which would take too long to develop in house, and/or gaining access to talent – again, which would take too long to hire or develop/up-skill internally.

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Money Matters

Top 5 tips for start-up success

1

Founders Agreement – it is important to have a simple shareholders agreement in place between co-founders from the outset of the business formation. This will ensure that a number of key issues are agreed and documented, in particular relating to how the business is to be run, how decisions are to be made and, crucially, what happens to the shares held by a co-founder if he/she leaves the venture.

Companies who have not invested in such an agreement run the risk of being ‘held hostage’ by a co-founder who leaves with a significant proportion of the shares, with no legal way to require those shares to be returned to remaining founders. This is potentially a deal-breaker in terms of being able to subsequently raise external investment, and the costs of negotiating a settlement without any legal documentation in place can far exceed the costs of putting a founders agreement into place in the first instance.

2

Web Terms and Conditions/privacy policy – these are particularly key for businesses with an online presence, in order to minimise liability and reputational damage in respect of customers and users. The requirements will vary from business to business, so there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach.

3

Trade mark registration – another key step for early stage businesses is to invest time in protecting their brand and developing an intellectual property strategy. Trade mark registrations advice should be sought, in order to avoid potentially costly litigation and/or rebranding exercises at a later stage.

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4

Hiring – there is often confusion around hiring employees versus interns versus contractors. Companies should understand the differences between the terminology and ensure that advice is taken to ensure the most appropriate contracts are in place.

5

Fundraising – Founders preparing for an investment round from angels or VC investor should familiarise themselves with example term sheets (that is, short summaries of the key investment terms which investors propose). This will put founders in a much better position of understanding of the legal terminology and commercial provisions involved when term sheets are received and need to be negotiated. While the majority of

provisions in term sheets are not legally binding, it is very difficult to subsequently seek to amend the investment terms once they have been signed, so a detailed understanding is a must.

Jonathan Snade is a Corporate Law Partner at Thomas Eggar, a trading style of Irwin Mitchell LLP. Jon advises on a broad range of UK and crossborder private company transactions, including angel and venture capital fundraisings, private equity investments, management buy outs, mergers and acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures and reorganisations.

Jon has a particular focus on the technology sector and advises both large international players as well as early stage, high growth digital businesses. www.thomaseggar.com

CONFERENCE & MEETING FACILITIES When hosting a conference or corporate event at Dale Hill you can be assured that your experience will be distraction free with every request being simply on point. Our rooms enjoy plenty of natural daylight and magnificent views across the Weald.

Day Delegate Rate £24+VAT per person

24 Hour Delegate Rate £99+VAT per person

• Morning and Afternoon Tea, Coffee and Biscuits • Mineral Water and Mints • Buffet Lunch • Main Room Hire • Flipchart, Paper & Pens • Projector and Screen

• Inclusive of the above Day Delegate Package • One Nights’ Accommodation • Breakfast • 3 Course Evening Meal • Reduced rates on Green Fees • Complimentary use of the Leisure Facilities

Dale Hill Hotel and Golf Club - Ticehurst, Wadhurst, East Sussex TN5 7DQ For further details on all our delegate rates please contact our events team on 01580 200 112 Opt 4 or email Lauren@dalehill.co.uk

www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk 15

NatWest & SBT Roundtable:

The Revitalisation of the South East’s Coastal Towns

The SBT and NatWest roundtable series began in Hastings last month, with discussions surrounding the topic of revitalising coastal communities across the South East, in particular focusing on Hastings itself NatWest Bank and Sussex Business Roundtable Times has come together to bring a dedicated series of roundtable discussions to Sussex, and the surrounding community.

The aim of these events is to gather individuals from the Sussex business community and to address regional and national business issues: particularly those that affect businesses operating across the region. As with our monthly publication, we aim to bring businesses in Sussex the latest and most prevalent news, sharing and attempting within these sessions, to solve the issues that they face.

Our first topic of discussion was: The Revitalisation of the South East’s Coastal Towns. We were all very pleased with

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how this session went, with opinions, concerns and, most importantly, solutions shared from one side of the table to the other, between businesses and between passionate people. Joining the panel for our first session were: • Tim Boag, Regional Managing Director, NatWest • Ben Chubb, National Enterprise

Manager, NatWest • Neil Crawford, Retail Development Manager, Legal & General • Matt Smith, Director, Centre for Entrepreneurs • Philip Johnson, Director, Locate East Sussex • Carole Dixon, CEO, Education Futures Trust • Christina Ewbank, Chief Executive, Eastbourne Chamber of Commerce

1

Host: Tim Boag, Regional Managing Director, NatWest

Ben Chubb, National Enterprise Manager, NatWest

Christina Ewbank, Chief Executive, Eastbourne Chamber of Commerce

Matt Smith, Director, Centre for Entrepreneurs

Neil Crawford, Retail Development Manager, Legal & General

Philip Johnson, Director, Locate East Sussex

Carole Dixon, CEO, Education Futures Trust

Chair: Jenny Ardagh, Duputy Edtior, Sussex Business Times Magazine

Coastal Towns across the UK

Jenny: There are some common themes across the country, and certainly some issues which need to be addressed. What do you think is the situation across the UK in terms of the vitality of coastal towns?

Matt Smith: The Centre for Social Justice and Think Tank put out a report in 2014, which makes for some fairly depressing reading. Across a lot of seaside towns, you see very high levels of deprivation - whether you’re looking at mortality rates, obesity, unemployment; any measure, seaside towns do worse

than most others. Why? You’ve got very limited digital connectivity and infrastructure in these places, and actually over the past few decades, poverty has spread poverty. So, if anything, the situation is getting worse too. We, at Centre for Entrepreneurs put together a few reports last year telling the story of how entrepreneurs are starting to revive these seaside towns. If you look back on the history of a lot of these places, it was entrepreneurs who created them. Our ethos is therefore that entrepreneurs are the key to reviving them. When you start looking at the towns themselves, we find some pretty encouraging examples, not least in Hastings: some very interesting business ideas and opportunities that can be taken advantage of.

Carole Dixon: One of the things about coastal towns is a huge inter-generational issue – young people don’t have role models, which is essential for continuing the entrepreneurial community. We need to support young people on their way to becoming successful entrepreneurs and starting to think about business from a young age. If they haven’t got the evidence that it’s possible from role models, they won’t go anywhere.

Jenny Ardagh: Have you seen any impact from Government schemes on coastal communities?

Carole Dixon: Yes, there has been an impact, looking at things like education across the whole country – but there has been particular investment in Hastings: we’ve got the university campus, we’ve

www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk 17

© Adam Hollingworth Photography adamhollingworth.co.uk

In Partnership with

NatWest Roundtable

got the college and academies. If you look right across the board in Hastings, right down from foundation stage through to key stage 4, you can see progress.

That progress is fragile though and it’s about quality of teaching.

Philip Johnson: I think that’s one of the things that we’re finding: the colleges and the universities are now teaching the kinds of skills that are appealing to young people to actually encourage them to stay and perhaps set up in their town, rather than immediately head off to London, Bristol, Manchester, or wherever.

2

The Current Situation in Hastings

Christina Ewbank: The situation in Hastings, as I see it, is that there are all sorts of great things happening. There are still areas of deprivation, but there are all sorts of plans afoot to improve what’s available to the people who live here.

And all sorts of people, from the Chamber of Commerce right through to the council and local entrepreneurs, are working on finding reasons for people to come to Hastings.

Philip Johnson: Just before Christmas, the new link road opened up, connecting Hastings with Bexhill and providing not only shorter journey times but also reducing congestion in and around the town, and on the coastal road.

Another very exciting development that Hastings, in particular, and Bexhill are looking forward to is the extension of the High Speed 1 rail service, so that direct trains will be able to run from Hastings, via Ashford, into St Pancras, reducing journey times to around an hour. And if that happens, that will have another really major impact on the town.

Matt Smith: I think one of the greatest opportunities in Hastings is a very entrepreneurial economic development team in the council. They have very entrepreneurial and, perhaps, risk-taking local politicians. And you can see the impact of that. So, The Source BMX track that’s opening soon, came from the entrepreneurs partnering with White Rock Trust to find the location, working with the local government and the MPs to secure the coastal community’s funding, and the council taking the risk of giving a tenyear lease to the entrepreneurs. And that will pay off.

Carole Dixon: I think, from the perspective of the local people, having that level of support—as you say, both at government level and the council—is crucial. So the council has continually worked to improve buildings, particularly along the seafront which, actually, has taken years and years of persistent working by the council. Likewise, the local minister is very much prepared to support local causes and is quite strong in linking schools with businesses.

Tim Boag: One of the things we’ve seen in a couple of places is a real ecosystem.

And if you’ve got the ecosystem right, whether you’re starting up a business or whether it’s part of education or the local council, it has an amazing impact. It’s a lonely place for a lot of entrepreneurs and what they struggle with is not just getting their businesses off the ground, but once they do, the question is, how do I grow the business? That access to advice is something that is lacking. So, I think it’s great if you’ve got a minister, I think it’s great if you’ve got an entrepreneurial environment and you’ve got some politicians prepared to take risks, but it’s

18 www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk

“Young people don’t have role models, which is essential for continuing the entrepreneurial community. We need to support young people on their way to becoming successful entrepreneurs” - Carole Dixon

You can view film edits from the 1st roundtable discussion at www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk and @sussexbusiness

joining all of that up and connecting it that really helps, so everybody can support each other.

Jenny Ardagh: How is Locate East Sussex helping in Hastings?

Philip Johnson: Well, what Locate East Sussex has been able to do is work with local companies who are already here, to help them access some of the new properties that are being developed, particularly around the link road. This is creating the opportunity for companies to expand and develop bespoke factories and offices. Those are already being occupied by a number of local companies. What we’ve also been able to do is help companies, such as The Source, to access regional growth fund

money, provided by the government, to help them expand. We’ve been able to identify areas through working with the local council, the economic development team, where growth can be encouraged further as well.

Christina Ewbank: Infrastructure is a problem that needs facing. The train service out to London is going to be a game changer - to get people to visit the town and to spend their money, they need to be able to get here easily. The roads need improving, and we need to see ultra-high-speed broadband, which is really important for the businesses that are here to carry out their work.

Neil Crawford: Having a good relationship with the local council is

massively important when it comes to tackling town issues like this.

Legal & General has a very positive relationship with the council in Eastbourne, who are very proactive in trying to remove barriers and bureaucracy - they basically see themselves as a large capital investor in their town, and therefore ask what they can do to facilitate development coming forward. You would think that would be the case in any town, but we develop and buy throughout the UK and it very much isn’t the case.

And it’s something that we need to look very long and hard at with Hastings, in terms of whether there are development opportunities. What is that local authority that we are going to partner with like?

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© Adam Hollingworth Photography adamhollingworth.co.uk

In Partnership with

NatWest Roundtable

3

A South East Comparison

Neil Crawford: Legal & General are owners of the Arndale Centre in Eastbourne and, for a number of years now, we’ve been bringing forward a large extension to the Arndale Centre, which will hopefully go on site this year with a view to opening around Easter/Spring 2018. In addition to what we’re doing, as you rightly said, there are a lot of other things going on in the town centre. For example, there’s a lot being invested in Devonshire Park and the Winter Gardens. There’s been a lot of capital investment in terms of the public realm in the town centre and improving, in particular, the areas around the train station and the gateway of the station through which people enter the town, as well as making the centre a generally nicer environment to be in.

Carole Dixon: Infrastructure and transport links really are key because they’re two of the things that often get

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criticised in Hastings. So we talk about the schools and we talk about the hospital. And what a scrutiny review done by the task group that are working on that drew out was that it’s actually infrastructure that makes the difference to getting the right employees down, so you get good teachers, good doctors, good council members, and so on. It’s about change and attracting people down.

“Having that hub in Brighton has helped because it’s given us that focal point that brings the community together, and other people feed off of that” - Tim Boag

Neil Crawford: And I do think all of these things are interrelated and sometimes a town just needs a large catalyst - if you put one piece of the jigsaw in place then you’ve got a far better chance of delivering the rest.

Ben Chubb: So, one of the things that we’ve done at NatWest is partnering up with Matt and Startup Britain, travelling around the UK on the NatWest Mobile Business Bus, which visited Brighton last summer. But what we’ve been doing specifically in the Southeast is working with colleges and schools. So it’s about bringing the idea of starting your own business enterprise, which encourages people to do that: to think differently, to enterprise, to encourage people to start their business and think differently. It’s about going out into those communities, trying to encourage them on that journey with us. And we’ve certainly done that in other parts of the UK, and I know we’ve already been talking about how we can get the bus down to this neck of the woods and how it can fit into some of the areas.

Tim Boag: In Brighton, the success rates for businesses that have gone through Espark (an entrepreneurial program that lasts 18 months) are in excess of 80% - whereas normally, 80% of startups fail. So I think if you can get 80% of your entrepreneurial businesses succeeding for more than 12 months, then you have a chance of creating

In Partnership with

Matt Smith: I think one of the really great ways to attract people, and therefore entrepreneurs, are these one-day festivals—so, Pirate Day, the Seafood and Wine Festival. I think one of the nice examples from elsewhere is the Vintage Festival in Morecambe, which was set up by Wayne Hemmingway of Red or Dead, starting maybe two or three years ago.

They now have 40,000 people visiting Morecambe for a four-day weekend.

It’s all things vintage: clothing, cars, music, anything you can imagine. The entrepreneurs follow the people, and I think when The Source opens, you will start getting the BMX crowds amd surrounding industries will develop.

Philip Johnson: I think this year Hastings also has, in addition to The

Source, the opening of the new Pier and the 950th anniversary, of the Battle of Hastings. There’s a huge programme of fantastic cultural events happening towards the back end of the year, called Route 1066. That, again, will bring visitors in, not only from the rest of the Southeast but also from the rest of the UK and internationally, to showcase what’s going on here.

Christina Ewbank: Those events are really important, but the Chambers of Commerce are focusing on the period between October and February, when it gets a bit quieter. Eastbourne also had their first Christmas market this year and around 30,000 people came to it over a five-day period, and that’s the first one. So I would recommend to any other seaside town that they look at having a Christmas market because, if they get it right, it will bring people back.

© Adam Hollingworth Photography adamhollingworth.co.uk

employment. I think having that hub in Brighton has helped because it’s given us that focal point that brings the community together, and other people feed off of that. It won’t necessarily work in every town, but I think with the right sponsorship, it would start to attract people into that community and everybody can help each other.

Tim Boag: One of the interesting things from the CFE report was around identity, and coastal towns have that identity. So I think the events are great but, actually, having a sustainable identity is key.

www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk 21

NatWest Roundtable

“We need to work very hard to get that message out to other businesses in the Sussex area and highlight what a fantastic location, and entrepreneurial community there is in Hastings”

Christina Ewbank: Hastings can learn from other towns. Margate has been focusing on their identity quite hard; Eastbourne has actually employed a brand specialist to look at their identity and they got all of the local business people together to get them involved in understanding the identity of Eastbourne.

A lot of people think Eastbourne is a retirement town; it’s not. So, we need to communicate to people that, actually, we do have a lot of exciting, younger people who are coming up with new ideas all the time for new businesses, and we need to support them.

4

Directions for the Future

Jenny Ardagh: In 2010, the Hastings and St Leonards Strategic Partnership was working with regional and local agencies to try and come up with a strategic plan for the next ten years, but we can see that there is still a lot of deprivation in Hastings and business turnover rates aren’t growing very much.

Do we need a strategic master plan for the coastal communities across the Southeast?

Phillip Johnson: I think from an economic development perspective, Hastings is actually very well positioned.

I think we need to work very hard to get that message out to other businesses in the Sussex area and highlight what a

22 www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk

fantastic location, and entrepreneurial community there is in Hastings.

Ben Chubb: On improving identity in Hastings, a couple of people have mentioned a few things. I believe education is key. I think with anything, when you’re moving house or you’re trying to attract people, people want to send their children to a good school.

Working collaboratively to focus on education and structure, which will take a long time but is still always worth having a go with, is key here.

Carole Dixon: Improving that education in Hastings goes back to getting good teachers. It’s about getting support, as we have done for the academies, and trying to improve the opportunities in those academies and those schools for young people. And it can be done by businesses, going in and encouraging young people as best they can.

Neil Crawford: I am often talking to national businesses, i.e. retailers, caterers, leisure occupiers, but I really struggle at times, even with Eastbourne, to sell its worth with just facts and figures. However, once I’ve managed to get people down to the town itself, they completely change their attitude. You’ve really got to create an identity and break through people’s preconceived ideas to get them there in the first place, and that’s the challenge. There are lots of great things about Hastings, as we’ve discussed today; it’s just trying to put them all together, market them and come up with the right image.

Tim Boag: Sometimes we talk about all the negatives, but actually if there are things that are working really well, for example having role models in business— individuals and companies— that will help retain skills, we should publicise them. I think finding those success stories and highlighting them to say this could be an attractive place, and putting all of those strengths and positives into the public domain is important.

© Adam Hollingworth Photography adamhollingworth.co.uk

In Partnership with

Carole Dixon: And I think if we’re working strategically, perhaps, it might be a good idea to pick out some of the things that will work in the coastal towns - so that you are actually highlighting the positives. We know the issues that are there; that’s been brought to the fore. But how do we identify what works in these areas and what we can do to make a difference? That’s what we must highlight.

Philip Johnson: I think Neil’s point is very pertinent. In Hastings in particular, there is something of a gulf between the perception that people have of the town, who are non-visitors who don’t know the town, and the reality that’s here: a vibrant and exciting place to be. There are a lot of positives that, as Locate East Sussex, we need to work very hard to communicate, in particular to highlight all of the benefits of being based on the coast in beautiful East Sussex.

Matt Smith: I think the future is very much linked to the strength of the local networks. Once the businesses are plugged in, they will naturally support themselves. I think part of the overall identity and the brand, looking outwards, has to celebrate Hastings’ entrepreneurial drive and actually outline how it rivals, and perhaps differs from, some of the other competitors.

Christina Ewbank: Each town needs a capture team, and on that capture team there should be the leader of the council, the Chief Executive of the

council, one of the senior planning officers, the Chamber of Commerce, a variety of local business ambassadors that work with Locate East Sussex and other similar organisations, and the Chamber of Commerce team as well. And they should be prepared to communicate with, visit and encourage new businesses to come to the town.

Tim Boag: My view is that collaboration and cooperation will yield more results more quickly than trying to do it on your own. I think having a louder voice, a bigger stakeholder group on those core, bigger strategic issues will help a number of communities, not just one or

two in isolation. Collaboration is key, but that doesn’t mean to say that you don’t have your own priorities and identities that you need to protect and build on as well.

Christina Ewbank: Aristotle said that the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Even though Eastbourne competes with Hastings, Uckfield competes with Eastbourne and so on, ACES finds that when we work together, we can get more people to come to the area from the rest of the world, rather than just fight amongst ourselves. It’s much better if we work together.

How can you get involved?

With NatWest’s dedication to business and economic growth, and Sussex Business Times’ focused and dedicated coverage of business within the Sussex community, this is a partnership full of potential and we hope to bring you coverage. However, we would like you to get even more involved, so get in touch with us for a chance to be on the panel.

Which topics will be covered?

Next on the agenda is: Growth and Innovation within the Technology Sector & Professionals Focus – on Friday 11th March. Followed by: • Entrepreneurship and StartUp Business Ventures: Supporting Us, Supporting Them • Education: Its Standing Within the Business Community and Local Economy • Infrastructure, Housing and Commercial Development

Follow the roundtable discussions and more from Sussex Business Times via our Twitter page @sussexbusiness, our Facebook Page and www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk

www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk 23

Tech Trends for 2016 For businesses to thrive in the technology driven world we live in, they must keep up with the latest developments, and endorse their use. So, what’s in store for expansion in 2016?

“The password centric model of security is dead.

People cannot remember passwords and get confused or discouraged by complex multi-step sign on processes”

24 www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk

Technology is what innovates businesses.

It’s what dictates Tech where businesses stand in the arms race that is customer service, growth and profit. As well as their specific contribution, the CDIT industries (creative, digital and IT) are central to the UK’s cultural brand, and therefore to its tourism and export industries. Furthermore, the digital economy permeates all sectors and evidence suggests that continued adoption and exploitation of ICT could

generate an additional £35 billion of GVA to the UK economy over the next five to seven years.

The technology and content industries currently contribute £102 billion in gross value added to the economy and are set for above average growth for 2016.

Last year saw numerous developments in technology and breakthroughs in various industries. At the forefront of technological developments in the business sector was cyber security, which in 2015 caused some big issues.

FinTech is a term that’s hot on people’s lips this year, referring to new solutions

Social Media

which demonstrate an incremental or radical innovation development of applications, processes, products or business models in the financial services industry. Security in particular is essential to the financial industry, with numerous companies making huge losses due to malfunctions in their servers, allowing internal and external hackers to access their finance. This year, 2016, is not only set to see these security issues combated (or at least working towards that aim), but also set to build on the technology we already have, and bring it all together.

So, firstly, how is cyber security being improved for the future?

Challenging the traditional password centric security model is something that seems completely necessary if we are to stop cyber crime and hacking, in any industry. Some companies were already working on a more technologically advanced model in 2015 – and we were all impressed with Apple’s touch password function as a very basic example of things to come. According

to new research undertaken by Planet Biometrics, ‘the total market value of the mobile biometrics and fingerprint recognition segments is expected to grow at an annual rate of 215% between 2014 and 2019’. With a large proportion of the general public now able to access their finances, make transfers, create and cancel bank accounts, this is something that needs to be developed properly.

An example of a solution is AimBrain, developed by Episode1 Ventures. AimBrain is working towards a more modern, and safer means of password security. The technology incorporates biometric data under three modalities: behavioural, facial and voice.

AimBrain has developed a biometric security layer for any mobile website

or application that dynamically tracks individual user behaviour. Using Machine Learning algorithms, AimBrain’s software both detects what people interact with online and how they do it. It learns user behaviour to create a unique biometric signature through touch location, touch pressure and typing speed. Now that’s smart security!

AimBrain’s founder and CEO Andrius Sutas commented: “We are working towards building the marketleading mobile biometric authentication platform.” He adds: “Our goal is to disrupt the biometrics field and make multiple biometric modalities extremely easy to integrate by anyone.”

Paul McNabb, Partner at Episode1 Ventures commented: “The password centric

www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk 25

Technology

model of security is dead. People cannot more and more in the foreseeable years remember passwords and get confused to come. ‘Big data’ will also continue to or discouraged by complex multi-step grow, with a lot of stored data transferring sign on processes. The end result is often over to cloud services: traditional servers lost commercial opportunity, consumer will be replaced with virtual ones, as is the frustration, fraud, and poor protection for trend with most things nowadays. banks and other service providers.”

There was a large focus on the IoT Interaction, integration and instinctive at CES, and there is in 2016 in general: is where the future is heading – and convergence of all products to be fast. The Internet of Things (IoT) is an controlled by your phone. This is evident emerging computing concept that in appliances, which are now becoming describes a structure in which everyday mainstream, wearables and in cars. Many physical objects, each provided with consumer electronics companies have unique identifiers, are connected to products that are part of the Internet of the Internet without requiring human Things ecosystem. The next challenge interaction. This may for manufacturers is sound like something figuring out how all “There is in 2016 out of a Sci-Fi film, but this technology will in general: it’s happening now fit together, and the and something that all challenge for retailers convergence businesses will be able is figuring out how to of all products to take advantage of in translate that into the to be controlled by consumer market with the near future.

At the Consumer ease. Another big issue your phone” Electronic Show 2016 for both manufacturers (CES), Samsung and retailers is assuring highlighted several developments in tech, that the technology, once fit together, including one with Microsoft. They will use will run efficiently without security breach Microsoft’s Windows 10 software in their – otherwise we’re back to that cyber tablets and Cortana for their Smart Home security issue. voice interactions. Lowe’s, the homeHow are we implementing these improvement chain for appliances, has innovations and growing them? partnered with a firm to develop a home As part of an integrated £40 million, remodeling app, enabling customers to three-year, Government programme, design their own kitchens or bathrooms called IoTUK – which seeks to advance and see them in Virtual Reality. Finally, the UK’s global leadership in the Internet Intel’s technology will enable users to of Things and increase the adoption of place themselves in video games. Digital high quality technologies and services meeting with physical will be the key to throughout businesses and the public business growth this year, and possibly sector - the Minister of State for Culture

26 www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk

and the Digital Economy, has recently confirmed a new interdisciplinary Research Hub. Funding for the hub includes a £9.8 million grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) which will be boosted by partner contributions to approximately £23 million in total.

The hub is a consortium of nine leading universities led by UCL. Ed Vaizey, Digital Economy Minister, said: “UK universities are renowned for their creativity, and pioneering research and development.

We want the UK to be a world leader in the adoption of Internet of Things technologies, and I know that bringing these universities together with partners from the UK’s thriving tech industry will be instrumental in making this a reality.”

Professor Philip Nelson, EPSRC’s Chief Executive, said: “In the not too distant future almost all of our daily lives will be connected, in one way or another, to the digital world. Physical objects and devices will be able to interact with each other, ourselves, and the wider virtual world. But, before this can happen, there must be trust and confidence in how the Internet of Things works, its security and its resilience. By harnessing our world-leading research excellence this PETRAS research Hub will accelerate IoT technology innovation and bring benefit to society and business.”

Equally important to the UK economy, and its standing within the global economy, is the fusion of technology with the creative and digital industries.

For example, reportedly, 80% of the US’s productivity advantage over the UK is derived from better use of digital technology. The Digital Catapult Centre, now with a base in Brighton as part of Brighton University, aims to help accelerate the UK’s digital economy by providing entrepreneurs, SMEs, researchers and corporate organisations with a physical space to meet and collaborate on digital innovation and development projects. This centre in Brighton will build on the success of the University of Brighton’s Brighton Fuse and FuseBox24 projects, taking an active and leading role in innovation, providing significant growth and investment in technological research and knowledge transfer.

So, watch out for new and exciting developments in 2016; keep up with technology and your business will never be left behind.

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Retail

Clicks vs. Bricks

How we shop has changed dramatically over the past decade, and business has had to adapt with it. Was the threat of the ‘death of retail’ greatly exaggerated, and where is retail going from here if not?

The parameters of UK retail have greatly developed and shifted Retail over the past five or so years, and are set to continue to change at an ever-increasing rate for the foreseeable future. The growth of digital and mobile technology has shaped the way that we go about our everyday lives, the way we shop and the way we run business, transforming the retail landscape forever. Consumers quickly clocked onto the ease and efficiency that online retail and ecommerce brought with it, but high street retailers may have been a bit slower to adapt: not surprising given that bricks and mortar shopping was the only means of buying products before the 1990s. This created an up-and-down rollercoaster of speculation as statistic after statistic rolled in: is this the death of retail as we know it or is this a changing phase?

It was in 1994 that most would agree the first online transaction was made – successfully – and look how far we’ve come since. Just over 20 years has seen perhaps the biggest technological shift any of us has ever seen, and the transformation is still taking place at an alarming rate. Now, retailers face significant structural change as more

28 www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk

and more consumers head online over heading out to their local high street or main shopping centre. In December 2015, online sales represented 19.7% of total non-food sales, against 17.3% in December 2014, meaning almost 1 in 5 pounds was spent online. Online sales contributed 3.0 percentage points to the year-on-year growth of non-food total sales in December, which is the highest on record, while stores made a negative contribution. Why? David McCorquodale, Head of Retail at KPMG, said: “With 190% of average rainfall in December, many consumers chose to login rather than walk in over the festive period. There was marked increase in online shopping this year with that channel producing its highest contribution percentage to non-food sales growth compared to a decline in store growth.”

The weather wasn’t the only reason for this decline in traditional retail: consumer behaviour has altered greatly due to the convenience of online channels whether it’s raining or not, and fulfilment networks becoming increasingly slick and reliable means that the sunniest of days still can’t entice people out of their homes. Retailers now strive to deliver a perfectly seamless omni-channel shopping experience for their customers, and hats off to them for adapting so well. In 2015, 44.3% of global Internet users had purchased products online.

In 2016, it’s estimated to be 45.4% and businesses are gearing towards

this growth, and have been for a couple of years. According to law firm, TLT’s retail growth strategies report in 2015, whilst the majority regarded physical stores as ‘vital’ to their future, and 73% of retailers expected to have the same number or more stores by the end of the year, in 2015, more than a third of retailers planned to invest more than they did in 2014 into online developments.

Even of that majority still holding onto the traditional format, 46% believed that retailers would soon need fewer, but larger stores.

Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium gave an overview

Digital Marketing

of consumer behaviour leading up to and over Christmas: “The proportion of online spend was up across all categories we measure with household appliances, footwear and furniture leading the way.

Over the three months to December, online contributed 2.5 percentage points to UK non-food growth overall, confirming this channel as the key driver of growth.

In fact, store sales were in reverse.”

But people still care about high streets, simply because they are more often than not the centres of their community.

This is what has, and will, save bricks and mortar business from completely disappearing. In addition, the majority

of high street retailers are providing a more than efficient alternative to both: a combination of online and traditional shopping.

Click & Collect, a new and exciting phenomenon in 2010, provided consumers with a way of shopping online, but being able to collect their purchases themselves – a mix of click and brick that benefited both the customer and the retailer. The success of this system over the past 6 years perfectly demonstrates how society has adapted to a digitalphysical combined world, and the loyalty most consumers feel to traditional retail channels.

“The proportion of online spend was up across all categories we measure with household appliances, footwear and furniture leading the way” - Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium

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Retail

Wikimedia Commons - Dressformer

Helen Dickinson added: “Click & Collect has continued to be instrumental, providing convenience for consumers and equipping smaller format stores with extended product ranges during the busy Christmas period. There were also some knock-on benefits, such as encouraging greater footfall into stores, in turn inspiring impulse buys.”

Data suggests that, on average, Click & Collect generates £27 in additional spending as three quarters of shoppers tend to impulse buy, spending more money on additional goods and services whilst out collecting what they’ve already bought – this then fuels money back into bricks and mortar retail units.

TLT’s research suggests that Click & Collect not only provided a link between physical stores and internet sales, but neatly justified both; a relief at a time when a significant number of retailers admit that knowing which technologies to back is an issue (46%). Steve Heywood, UK spokesman for eBay.co.uk commented: “The reality is that some

people may start on their mobile and finish in a store, and vice versa. It’s all part of the same process and the customer doesn’t really care. Retailers need to understand that it isn’t about winner takes all, it’s about taking all to win.”

This technology-driven adaptation has only continued to be developed on, and now the options are pretty extraordinary.

Customers can browse on-line and pick up in store; browse in store and deliver to home; browse in-store and discount to item or related items on line; pay with a biometric system using individual loyalty discounts in-store; or simply shopping, in-store with geo-located details.

Many of the new found technologies and shopping solutions may not become as widely adopted as promised, or as successful as they sound, but one thing is certain: we are living in a retail renaissance. Businesses across the online and traditional sales sectors are experimenting with new ideas: 61% of retailers considering this experimentation with cutting edge technologies an

“Data suggests that, on average, Click & Collect generates £27 in additional spending as three quarters of shoppers tend to impulse buy”

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important thing to do, despite the uncertainty within the sector as a whole.

Near Field Communication, Biometrics, Voice Recognition, GPS, 3D printing, Virtual Reality, Robotics and even MRI are in use across the board – all providing an interconnected customer service that can be vastly adapted for any business’ use and need, harnessing all of it to secure insights that will enable dynamic marketing and in-store innovation.

According to the growth report by TLT, most retailers expected growth to come from online sales through mobiles and tablets in 2015, and continue to this year, planning to invest much more in these areas (69%). Further evidence that retailers are preparing for an increasingly online future comes from their plans to invest in improved IT systems (61%) and logistics (57%) as well as increasing online team staff (41%). As such, creating a better website presence is considered a key area of investment this year as retailers try to satisfy evermore demanding customers in an increasingly global marketplace.

The high streets must indeed adapt to survive the technological revolution, and councils, businesses and communities must work together to deliver that.

However, the term ‘survival’ should be used loosely when talking about high street retail: it’s not dying, just being reborn.

Is Europa League an Own Goal?

Europa League games can damage a Premier League team’s domestic performance and taking part is not financially rewarding enough, according to new research by the University of Portsmouth

New research

by Adam Cox, Sarah Gilmore Advertorial and Alan Graham, of the University of Portsmouth, has recently been published in the Soccer and Society journal, suggesting that Europa League games can damage a Premier League team’s domestic performance.

Dr Cox said: “For many clubs, qualifying for the Europa League is a cause for celebration and can mark the highest achievement for that club in its history. It can also be a high point for individual players. UEFA provides generous financial rewards for clubs taking part in what some still regard as a ‘second-best’ competition. On the other hand, taking part puts additional pressure on squads, risking their health and the financial health of the club as they are forced to buy extra players.”

The financial results rarely work out in clubs’ long-term favour, Dr Cox and colleagues found.

The researchers carried out a detailed analysis of four premiership clubs –

Aston Villa FC, Everton FC, Fulham FC and Newcastle United FC – which entered the Europa League competition over eight seasons from 2005/06, measuring the costs and benefits associated with taking part.

For all four, qualification was considered a realistic goal rather than a consolation prize.

All four made profits out of their Europa League seasons – from £2m for Aston Villa to £15m for Fulham – but the amounts were small compared to the upwards of 50m Euros seen in the Champions League.

Dr Cox said: “Of the four clubs, only Fulham FC made significant money from qualifying. In addition, all except Everton FC saw their performance in the Premier League suffer, with Newcastle United’s league position dropping by 11 places in the 2012/13 season. On average, taking part in Europa League games costs clubs 0.41 league points per game.

“It is often said that the extra demands imposed on clubs by qualifying for the Europa League, such as increased risk of injuries to already stretched squads, has an adverse effect on a squad’s premier

league performance. Richer clubs can avoid such problems by, for example, having more players, using lower ranked competitions to ‘blood’ new talent, reserving their best players for the most important games. But that is not often an option for cash-strapped clubs.”

The researchers say clubs without deep pockets could still make money from qualifying for the Europa League but only if they heavily restrict spending on talent.

For information about Portsmouth Business School, its courses and regular events, please visit www.port.ac.uk/pbsevents

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HR Practitioner

Whether you are responsible for projects, HR, marketing, corporate governance or have ambitions for a top-level executive role, we offer flexible and professionally recognised postgraduate business courses for busy working people.

You’ve nothing to lose and everything to gain, so come along to our next open evening – for details please visit www.showyoumeanbusiness.com.

Sales Manager

Strategist

2 www.sussexbusinesstimes.co.uk

We’ve got our credentials – have you got yours?

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Made In Sussex

Apprenticeship Week From 14th to 18th March, businesses across Sussex and the rest of the country will be celebrating and supporting apprenticeship schemes. What is this week about and how can your business get involved?

Young people bore the brunt of the financial crisis – when it was at Education its peak, young people were at their lowest, in terms of employment, opportunities, care and overall happiness. Between August and October 2015, 625,000 young people aged 16-24 were unemployed.

This number is down 98,000 from the previous quarter and down 129,000 from the previous year.

The unemployment rate (the proportion of the economically active population who are unemployed) for 16-24 year olds was down to 13.6% by the end of 2015, from 16.6% a year ago. There’s not been a lower rate since September 2005, so what are we doing right?

One argument is that the emergence of the Apprenticeship Scheme has aided these rate falls.

In 1994, the government introduced the concept of apprenticeships as we know it now and this has since been built upon, now offering young people between the ages of 16-24 a real opportunity to learn a trade hands-on (ironically, in a way that resembles the more traditional means of

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organisation, improved staff morale and job acquirement, in the 60s and 70s). better staff retention.”

From 2009, the National Apprenticeship Prime Minister, David Cameron said: Service has coordinated apprenticeships “The greatest asset any employer has and traineeships in England, offering is their workforce. And by investing free support and advice for both young in them, they are investing in the people and the employers looking to success and future of their business. recruit them.

As a one nation government, we are More recently, in 2015, the committed to supporting 3 million quality government pledged to support 3 million apprenticeships over the apprenticeships by 2020: next 5 years – to help a promise that makes all “The aim of this strengthen our economy, the sense in the world week is simple: deliver the skills that when you see the statistic to celebrate employers need and that apprenticeships were apprenticeships give millions more estimated to contribute hardworking people £34 billion to the UK and the positive financial security and a economy in 2014 impact they have brighter future.”

Paul Lucken, Deputy on individuals, The Prime Minister’s Director Employer and businesses and the promises and bold vision Delivery Services for wider economy” for the future reflects the South West, Skills how businesses are Funding Agency, says: now thinking. The benefits are becoming “Apprenticeships are at the heart of increasingly obvious to a broad range of the government’s drive to equip people business sizes and sectors. Now, over with the skills employers need to grow 250,000 workplaces in England offer and compete. Nearly every employer apprenticeships, with a hugely successful that takes on an apprentice reports outcome: benefits to their business from improved • 88% of apprentice employers believe productivity, products or services, they lead to a more motivated and the introduction of new ideas to the

Apprenticeship

satisfied workforce, leading also to greater employer loyalty and quality.

• 75% of apprentice employers say that their promgramme has helped cut recruitment costs.

• 80% believe that apprenticeships reduce staff turnover.

• And 81% believe that apprenticeships make their businesses more productive: on average increasing productivity by £214 per week.

From 14th to 18th March 2016, National Apprenticeship Week will be underway. The aim of this week is simple: to celebrate apprenticeships and the positive impact they have on individuals, businesses and the wider economy. Although each year more and more businesses are taking on apprentices, National Apprenticeship Week is focussed on getting more to take apprentices on board, in particular more small businesses. You may yourself be a small business owner and think: ‘I don’t have the resources to take on an apprentice’. Well, that’s where you’re wrong.

What do I, as the employer, have to do?

As the employer you must give your apprentice an induction into their role and provide on-the job training. You are responsible for paying your apprentice’s wages and issuing their contract of employment. As an employee, the apprentice receives the same benefits as other employees.

1. Provide a contract of employment that pays at least the Apprenticeship National

Minimum Wage. Apprentices who are under 19, or who are over 19 and in the first year of their intermediate level or advanced level apprenticeship, must be paid a per hour. Many businesses pay more than the minimum wage.

2. Hours of employment for an apprentice should be at least 30 hours per week.

By exception, where the individual’s circumstances or the particular nature of employment in a given sector makes this impossible, then an absolute minimum of 16 hours must be met. In such cases the duration of the apprenticeship should be extended.

3. There must be an Apprenticeship Agreement between the employer and the apprentice.

What funding is available to an employer towards training costs?

The size of the contribution varies depending on your sector and the age of the apprentice at the start of the training: • 100 per cent of the cost of apprenticeship training if the apprentice is aged 16–18 years old.

• A contribution towards the cost of training if the apprentice is aged 19 and over.

• The Government has announced an additional £60m to fund higher apprenticeships which would cover the cost of the higher apprenticeship training element.

The contribution is paid directly to the organisation that provides and supports the apprenticeship training, in most cases this will be a training organisation.

Large employers with a direct contract with the National Apprenticeship Service may receive the funding themselves and deliver aspects of the apprenticeship training.

The AGE (Apprentice Grant for Employers) grant You will be eligible for an AGE grant if: • You’re a small (fewer than 50 staff) employer.

• Your apprentice is aged 16 – 24.

• You have not employed an apprentice within the last 12 months.

As an employer, you can receive up to five grants in total.

National Apprenticeship Week 2016 will be from 14 to 18 March. Get involved!

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Bexhill College:

Getting the Grade

Education is what separates achievement from potential; good education is what makes an outstanding student. Bexhill College’s Principal, Karen Hucker tells SBT about the exceptional post 16 education the college offers and how it helps any student to be the best they can be

“We currently have 25 international students from all over the world including Vietnam, Russia, South Korea, Bermuda and Norway” - Karen Hucker, Bexhill College Principal

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With approximately 94 sixth form colleges Education in England currently, there’s a wide array of choice for young people, parents and adults for the continuation of their own or their child’s education. As specialist colleges, the wide range of courses and services at sixth form colleges are aimed specifically at those aged between 16 and 19, and Bexhill College offers a high quality environment for learning and achievement.

Bexhill College has 1940 full time students and around 400 part time students who come from all over: Bexhill, Hastings and Rye, Battle, Robertsbridge and Hurst Green to the north and Hailsham and Eastbourne to the west. As well as offering a bridge between school life and full time work or higher education post 16,

the college also offers opportunities for adults to study in order to further their career or enhance job prospects. With a A Level pass rate of 98%, a 100% pass rate in over 30 subjects, with 93% of students accepted into their first or second choice of university in 2015, the figures speak for themselves. Sussex Business Times speaks to Principal of Bexhill College, Karen Hucker about the services and courses that the college offers its students, and how the ethos of the college encourages students to reach these high achievement levels, become work-ready, successful and happy in whatever they do.

So, Karen, could you give readers an overview of what Bexhill College offers: what courses or levels of course you offer etcetera?

Of course! Bexhill College offers a wide

Education: Bexhill College

range of courses for all abilities. We are an open access College and therefore offer courses for the most able students as well as those who need a second chance. We offer both academic and vocational courses, including: 43 different A Levels, the International Baccalaureate, BTEC Extended Diplomas (equivalent to 3 A Levels), BTEC Subsidiary Diplomas (equivalent to 1 A Level) and BTEC First Diplomas (equivalent to 4 GCSEs). Students can combine A Levels with Subsidiary Diplomas therefore making a bespoke package of study to suit their needs. We also offer a GCSE re-sit package and level 1 courses.

One of the college’s strengths is the breadth of provision and a timetable which offers students the opportunity to study almost any combination of subjects. Students can also extend their learning by studying for the extended project alongside their A Levels.

There is also an extensive enrichment provision. Our sports academies are unique in that they offer students the opportunity to have additional coaching in their chosen area as well as studying any subjects they want to at college. The academy students represent the college regionally and nationally and have been very successful. Current academies are in football, rugby (men’s and women’s), basketball, tennis, table tennis, swimming, golf, athletics, badminton and cricket. A netball and women’s football academy are the latest programmes to start.

Do you have many international students?

International work is a new area for us and we have been actively recruiting for two years. We currently have 25 international students from all over the world including Vietnam, Russia, South Korea, Bermuda, Norway and EU countries such as Spain and Italy.

Do you offer apprenticeships?

We do - we offer apprenticeships and advanced apprenticeships in key areas including health and social care, early years, hospitality, business administration, customer service, hairdressing and barbering.

We also deliver LLDD work in the community and have a number of partnerships with community providers in this area.

What are you doing for National Apprenticeship Week?

We usually run a number of different activities during National Apprenticeship Week, including awareness raising activities, advice, guidance and workshops with both young people and local employers.

Do you think there are benefits to doing IB over A Levels or vice versa for a young person’s future success?

Both options are different and therefore it really depends on the student’s interests.

For the IB, students have to continue with English, Maths, a language and a science post 16 as well as two other subjects and not all students want to do this. For some, they want the range of options A Levels can offer them.

The IB has other elements built into the programme such as Theory of Knowledge and Creativity, Action and Service. Students also have to undertake an extended essay. With A Levels, students would also be able to achieve

this, in addition to their studies by taking on the extended project.

Both courses require significant commitment and hard work if a student wants to do well. Both lead to extensive opportunities in leading universities and neither, by any means, is an easy option. I believe the student should choose what’s best for them and what suits their ability.

What courses do you have for adults who perhaps want to further their career or develop their skills whilst working? Are these particularly popular?

Adults can join any of our full time courses. In addition, we offer a number of NVQs in the evening which are popular with adults who are working full time but require a qualification. We also offer GCSE English and Maths in the evening, both of which are popular as so many jobs require a C or above in these subjects, so it gives adults a chance to further their career or apply for a job they may not previously have been able to.

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Education: Bexhill College

Do you work collaborative at all with local businesses throughout the term?

Employers are involved in the work of the college through a number of avenues.

With the apprenticeship programme, the college works regularly with employers delivering these programmes. Employers also provide work experience placements for students on some of our full time courses such as early years, health and social care, travel and tourism, computing & ICT and personal training. These placements are essential to help develop work ready skills of our students.

Employers are also involved in the college through the ‘Careers Academy’, which is a national programme that develops young people’s work readiness skills. The programme offers master classes and guru talks from key business people as well as providing young people with internships during their summer vacation between year 1 and year 2. We are the only college in this area offering this programme, and it’s a huge asset for young people’s career prospects.

We also work with local companies on specialist projects. For example, the College is currently working with General Dynamics on a STEM project.

Students work with the company to develop a new idea – a few years ago students developed a covert listening device for armoured vehicles through a similar project.

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also highlighted that the college had How do you hone students’ life continued to further improve since its last skills, to ready them in terms of inspection. employability?

Local colleges work together through We offer students a lot of support with FE Sussex and the post 16 Education employability and life skills. We offer Improvement Partnership. Both of these comprehensive careers advice to all groups focus on supporting quality students within the college which improvement and sharing of good includes UCAS and employment advice. practice across institutions. It is essential We develop life skills through tutorial as that colleges work together well as developing the across an area to ensure independent learning, “We are all very the needs of all students are which enables students different colleges met. We are all very different to develop key life skills with different colleges with different such as managing their curriculum and curriculum and ethos. own time and meeting ethos. Different Different environments deadlines. environments will will suit different students Education rates have suit different students and having that choice is and having that extremely important. been highlighted as choice is extremely Like all colleges we have high priority for the important” a strategic plan for the next Hastings and Bexhill 3-5 years, which focuses on regeneration plans ensuring we continue to offer high quality – how can the government, local education to students in Rother, Hastings authority and colleges like yourself and Eastbourne whilst addressing the band together to improve overall Government educational priorities. education for the next generation?

High quality education begins with Do you think education should ensuring your own organisation is involve perhaps more of an providing the best education it can to the entrepreneurial feel in order to community you serve. Bexhill College promote startups and benefit the was inspected by Ofsted in October business climate in Sussex?

2015 which resulted in an excellent I think all education has the ability to outcome. The inspection confirmed the develop entrepreneurial skills in students College remained a ‘good’ college but

Education: Bexhill College

which they can then use when they start work. The key is developing transferable skills which students will be able to draw on throughout their working life. It is often noted that the young people of today are likely to have a number of careers during their working life and in addition to a level of academic or vocational education, it is the job of education to give them the personal and social skills to be able to cope with that challenge. That’s the ethos we employ.

Moving onto the campus itself – what facilities do you have? Any plans for expansion or renewal?

We have a fantastic campus, which includes general classrooms as well as a wide range of specialist facilities such as science laboratories, art studios, photography studios and a film studio.

Since being on this site, we have added a professional standard theatre, the Izzard Theatre, along with a hair training salon, a professional training kitchen, drama studio, music rooms and a recording studio.

We also opened our new gym in September. This allows us to offer personal training courses as well as supporting the work of the sports students and sports academy. It is open to all students across the college for fitness training and is extremely popular.

The Sports Centre, which lies adjacent to the college incorporates a large sports hall suitable for badminton, basketball, indoor football, cricket and netball. There is an integral climbing wall, mirrored dance studios and a spinning room.

Outside there is a floodlit Astro Turf pitch open weedkday evenings and Saturdays for hockey and five-a-side football. This is being upgraded to a 3G pitch in the summer.

A number of these modern facilities are available to hire and are ideal for professional use, events and activities.

This includes a Refectory with mezzanine

area, a multi-purpose conference room, classrooms and a TV studio. The 200 seat Izzard Theatre is equipped with adjustable seating in order to cater for audience numbers, projector facilities, state of the art sound and lighting systems, male and female dressing rooms and refreshments can be served on the upper level.

For more images and details, such as hiring times and fees, please visit www.schoolhire.co.uk and www.bexhillcollege.ac.uk.

Please contact 01424 214545 to make an enquiry.

www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk 37

The Benefits

of Crowdfunding

The ‘how to’ guides for businesses start-ups often don’t give much in the way of alternatives when it comes to funding. SBT turns to Nicole Carman to give an overview of how start-up businesses can benefit from crowdfunding to get their ideas off the ground As access to bank credit continues Start-Ups to prove difficult, increasing numbers of start-ups and small businesses are turning to crowdfunding, which has now overtaken the venture capital and angel investment sectors.

Using a crowdfunding platform can be an attractive alternative to traditional methods of raising capital, but with an average of 80% of campaigns failing to hit their target, is this new kid on the financing block a viable option?

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Crowdfunding can provide start-ups with the financial boost they need, usually at low-risk. It can be a great way to test a product before it’s fully developed, provide proof of concept and receive valuable feedback whilst growing an audience and market; but with increasing competition in this funding space, how can you maximise your chances of success?

Businesses can raise crowd finance by offering equity, rewards or by seeking donations. With over 700 alternative finance platforms to choose from it’s essential to find the right one for your

business. It may seem logical to spread your bets and sign up to as many websites as you can, but to achieve success, a great deal of preparation must go into each individual campaign, so think wisely before doing this.

As founders of a new start-up app that deals with device dependency, Glued, we recently used an equity crowdfunding platform, Seedrs where we successfully raised just under £60K. Other similar sites are: Crowdcube, Fundable, SeedInvest and Seedups, who all specialise in startup investment. Seedrs stood out for us because it was the first UK platform to

Crowdfunding

gain FCA approval and at its most simple, focuses on seed-stage businesses with investors able to pledge as little as £10, thereby reaching a much wider audience. They take care of all the legal requirements including share distribution and they will also register your company for SEIS. This government tax relief scheme offers up to 50% tax rebate to your investors, which is an incredibly attractive proposition well worth sharing with your network.

Many equity crowdfunding sites have a strict qualification policy and only accept a small percentage of the applications they receive. Ensure that you research every aspect of your business, the competition and the market before you begin the application process. You’ll need to decide early on how much to value your business, taking into account possible monetisation strategies and potential to grow. Take your time over this; look at valuations made by other similar businesses and work out exactly how much equity you need to raise. If you’re accepted, you’ll need to

supply evidence to back up every statement in your pitch.

For those who are reluctant to give away shares then the alternatives are to offer a product or service or to ask for donations. Regardless of which crowdfunding platform you choose, you will need to build up anticipation and importantly, some funds before the campaign goes live.

Momentum is king in crowdfunding and often it’s an all or nothing deal, where if you fail to reach your target within a set period of time, the crowd gets its money back in full and you get nothing.

Your chances of success can be as high as 70% however, if you raise just 10% of your target in advance of going public.

Before we launched Glued we reached out to friends and family to ensure we already had that 10% of funds committed. This definitely helped our campaign.

Offering pre-sale products and exclusive rewards is also a wellrecognized route to getting a crowdfund project off to a great start.

Use your database and social media and get your audience ready to pledge making it clear exactly how they can do this by sharing the link as far and wide as possible. Setting up a unique hashtag on Twitter is also a good idea so that you can see who is following your campaign.

Finally, think carefully about how much investment to seek. It’s worth noting that on Seedrs and other platforms, it is possible for your campaign to overfund. If you ask for a lower amount from investors, you will likely reach your target more quickly and more easily.

It’s tempting to go for a higher amount at the beginning, to give yourself a longer runway time, but remember that as soon as you reach your target, you automatically become a stronger proposition and others will want to jump onboard. With Glued we set our target lower than what we really needed but as soon as we hit that target, we started to experience a dramatic acceleration in investors and closed our campaign at 233% funded. In terms of the basic psychology of this phenomenon it would appear that no-one want to be the first to the party!

Crowdfunding may appear to be an easy option where you just sit back and watch the money roll in. It isn’t. However, if your core business is good, you work hard and plan carefully prior to launching your campaign then success can certainly follow.

“With over 700 alternative finance platforms to choose from it’s essential to find the right one for your business”

Nicole Carman is Co-Founder of www. glued.to helping families to reduce their screen time.

Email: Nicole@glued.to

www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk 39

Interview

The Psychology of Success in Business Being a Manager or Director in business isn’t easy – it comes with responsibility and an ability to lead and motivate a team. We look at how you can think your way to becoming more successful in business and speak to one of the UK’s leading corporate performance coaches and motivational business speakers, Pete Cohen, for advice Your business isn’t all about the product.

It’s about the people: Focus your clients and your employees. An engaged workforce means better client communication, better employee understanding of the company’s product or service, happier employees (and therefore happier clients) and also more return investment. So how do you engage your team? Pete Cohen has more than 20 years’ experience in addressing and inspiring business leaders, executives and employees for just this purpose. He has given SBT readers an opportunity to learn how to best maximise potential and unlock talent in any individual and any team by answering some of our questions.

What traits or skills make a good leader in business?

A leader, as opposed to just a “boss”, is a go-giver, not a go-getter. They help other people, they know what makes them tick, and they understand their employees and treat them with empathy rather than with an iron fist. These traits enable a leader to get the best out of their workforce.

What advice would you give a manager for improving their presenting skills – how can managers present ideas to other employees or clients in a way that’s engaging and interesting?

When it comes to business presentations of any kind, people will be asking themselves, “what’s in it for me?” So you need to tell them a story and paint

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a picture so that you allow them to see themselves within it and relate to it, so the likelihood that they take something away from it is much higher than if you just have a presentation where you “brag” about how good you are or how good your product is.

What aspects in business result in achieving a happy workforce?

People need to feel valued in their job, both in terms of how the company sees them and how they see the company.

An employee needs to feel that the work they’re doing day in and day out is making a difference, and at the same time the company needs to give them recognition for what they do. We spend a huge part of our lives at work, so it’s important that work gives us a sense of purpose.

How can executive coaching enhance your performance in business?

Every person in the history of mankind who has gone on to achieve success in

Interview

their field has done so because they were taught, coached, mentored or otherwise supported by someone else. There are many sayings: “behind every man is a great woman”, “behind every great person is a great teacher”, “behind every great pitcher is a great catcher” and so on.

Everybody needs coaching in one way or another, and it’s no different in business. Executive coaching will allow you to vocalise your concerns and strategise your ideas, and by establishing a two-way exchange of information with an impartial third party, it will develop your skills, knowledge and experience, which can only be a good thing.

How important is a work-life balance in terms of success and happiness?

The current approach to business seems to be a mix of “work, work and work some more” combined with “sleep when you’re dead”. People push themselves to their limits and beyond for the sake of climbing up the career ladder, or to get their business off the ground. But if you work all the time, you will never be able to recharge your batteries, and bit by bit it will wear you down.

You must switch off from time to time during your work day and during your time away from the workplace – and not

feel guilty about it. Take time out and remember to eat, sleep and move – these are fundamental needs, and yet so many neglect them in their pursuit of their workrelated goals.

You want to come back fresh the next day so that you can give it your all instead of going through the motions – studies have determined that people can only fully concentrate for 90 minutes, so breaks and time-outs are important.

Don’t work hard – work smart.

What’s the key to cooperative and prosperous teamwork?

Everyone needs to be singing from the same hymn sheet, sharing the same vision and values, and working together towards a common goal. By making your employees feel like they are a crucial cog in the machine and keeping it simple – the statement should be, “THIS is what we’re working towards” – you can get them to buy into that mantra, and the outcome is a galvanised, efficient and effective workforce.

Many businesses are based on sales – what can any member of a sales team do, or learn, in order to pitch clients confidently and build relationships as easily as possible?

The fundamental error that many

salespeople make is to put all their efforts into selling their product without really interacting with the prospective buyer.

They seek to be understood, but they should seek to understand. They need to get to know their clients, find out what makes them tick, and build a positive rapport with them instead of channelling all their efforts into how best to sell their product. People do business with people they know, like, and most important of all, trust. So forget about the product and make a conscious, legitimate effort to get to know the person at the other end of the table.

For further information on Motivational Speaker Pete Cohen, to learn more about how he can improve the performance of your organisation’s teams and individuals, or to enquire about availability and rates, call Sandy Drummond on 08453 313031 or email sdrummond@championsukplc.com.

Pete’s website, http://www. petecohen.com, is full of examples of his presentations and will give you a taste of his inimitable delivery and communication skill.

www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk 41

Health

Business with Precision

Arron Hopkinson, this month speaks about his own business ventures and how his belief in the benefits of sport massage and therapy paid off After my last article in SBT’s January edition, I am hoping you’re all Health reading this with your New Year’s resolutions still in tact. If not then you may need to read it again! Within this issue, I am going to be speaking just a little bit about my business, called Precision Massage.

So, firstly, what is Precision Massage?

Founded by myself upon graduation from Cardiff Metropolitan University, Precision Massage is a sports massage and injury rehabilitation specialist based between City Gym, Eastbourne and Southdown’s physiotherapy clinic in Seaford, East Sussex. We also offer home visits upon request to suit clients if they would prefer massage or injury rehabilitation in the comfort of their own home and also if they are unable to leave the house due to their injury!

Why did I start up the business?

Upon graduating I wanted to go straight into sport therapy and massage work.

However I found that there weren’t a lot of jobs around. I applied for a few jobs and was unsuccessful – which in hindsight is fortunate - but I was struggling to see what I could do next.

I was passionate about the benefits of sport therapy, and this inspired me to build something of my own. Thankfully, for myself and my clients, I believe it was a great decision that has paid off.

What are the benefits of sports massage and injury rehabilitation?

As I have mentioned previously, sports massage can be defined as ‘the manipulation of soft tissue to release tension, reduce pain, restore range of movement and promote good condition’.

It’s a form of physical therapy used to help recover from and prevent injury.

Massage can reduce postural problems, muscular tension, aches, pains, and

42 www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk

cramp within the body. It also clears the muscle cells of waste products from exercise, increases recovery and improves performance. This is why it can be so beneficial for a large quantity of individuals ranging from the elderly, to individuals with desk-based roles, sport professionals and many more!

Our aim at Precision Massage is to: • Improve circulation • Assist in the removal of metabolic waste • Help prevent Injury • Increase range of movement • Improve relaxation and stress relief • Relieve general aches & pains • Remodel scar tissue when required • Assist in mental preparation and recovery after sporting participation As you can see, there are various psychological and physical benefits from this type of treatment. People sometimes say to me: “I thought sport massage was just for sporty people?” This couldn’t be more untrue; in fact, most people I see don’t participate in a sport at all. If

you feel you would benefit from sport massage or you have a re-occurring injury which you no longer want then we could be of help to you!

Thank you for reading SBT magazine and my article. I hope I am able to provide some helpful information you can take away with you to help you have a happy, healthy and successful 2016.

If you would like to contact me personally regarding any information you have read in this edition of SBT magazine or would like to give Sport massage a try then please contact me via email at arron.hopkinson@ yahoo.com or via http://www. precisionmassage.co.uk/contact-us

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Coffin Mew

Laws of Success

Coffin Mew, one of the largest regional law firms on the south coast, had a milestone of a year in 2015 and now holds a bold vision for the near future in terms of client service, online presence and community support Coffin Mew’s reputation, Advertorial underpinned by integrity, has been built over its 125 year heritage, continuing to deliver an exceptional client service within a range of legal specialisms; from corporate and commercial, commercial real estate, residential property, planning, wills, trusts and probate, family and tax, employment and dispute resolution. Here are just a few things that make Coffin Mew the dynamic, client-centred and supportive firm that it is known to be: Growth The past year saw a large amount of growth for the firm. In May, Coffin Mew, at the time with four offices based in Portsmouth, Southampton, London and Gosport, opened a new, fifth office in Brighton. This opening was a catalyst

for more growth, recruiting eight new members of staff, adding to the 14 Partners and 140 plus personnel, and taking on numerous new clients. The firm grew by 18 per cent over 2014/2015 and completed some 850 separate commercial property transactions – a trend which will be continued in the years to come.

Like many of their clients, the firm has an undeniable focus on success, as well as the much needed, always present focus on client needs and service excellence. This is reflected in its bold vision to double its turnover over in the next 18 months, yet still continue to offer its focused, personal and reliable service to its clients. This entrepreneurial spirit matches perfectly with its new location in Brighton, as a vibrant business start up focus and highly innovative city.

Nick Leavey, Partner and Head of Coffin Mew’s Brighton office and the firm’s Commercial Property team commented:

Naomi House & Jacksplace name Coffin Mew as Outstanding Corporate Supporter 2015

44 www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk

Coffin Mew Solicitors launch party.

From left Nick Gross from Coffin Mew and Bryan Elkins from Spofforth

“Coffin Mew is an entrepreneurial firm with an entrepreneurial client base. Since its launch, the Brighton team has gone from strength to strength, shaking up the local legal market. Our efforts have been recognised by external commentators with the influential Chambers and Partners Guide to the Legal Profession naming Coffin Mew as one of the highest ranked Brighton firms. 2016 will see continued growth, new clients, larger premises and we will continue to engage with and support the local community.”

This growth is being achieved across the board for Coffin Mew, including within their online presence. A new website has recently launched, kicking off 2016 with a bang, together with a new communications platform delivered by Passle.

The new website includes an interactive online chat facility, allowing visitors to quickly ask a question or seek advice.

Alongside this, a new residential conveyancing calculator and sleek online payment facility combine to streamline visitors’ experience.

Through Passle, the Coffin Mew team can easily provide local insights and opinions on the latest legislative changes and developments that will help drive and inform your business and personal decisions.

Supporting the local community As in all other locations, since May, Coffin Mew has become an integral part of the Brighton community and business network. The team reaches out to the local community and shares best practice in a variety of ways: they are active members of the Brighton Chamber of

aking Waves Coffin Mew

w makes waves with Brighton launch

brated in style the righton office on 15 than 275 guests from businessCommerce community and partners with Brighton & Hove Arts Council among other s and staff at Sea Life things. Most recently, Coffin Mew ran a survey called Brighton Business Pulse, beach party. measuring the ‘pulse’ of the Brighton

Coffin Mew launch party.

From left Nick Leavey , Elizabeth Gibbons , Mirren McGinley , Amy Richardson and Mark O’Halloran from the new Brighton office of CoffinMew

Coffin Mew launch party.

From left Maribel Coles from Coles VA ,Chris Langley from RBS and Wilfred Gomez from Search Acumen

community, allowing them to understand and highlight the issues within the local business community.

Complementing the entrepreneurial community across the south coast, particularly in Brighton, the firm has introduced a new service hoping to support new business startups and innovative ideas – Modus: First Call. This is a subscription service that provides clients with access to real-time telephone and email advice at a fixed price for the Coffin Mew’s Mirren McGinley, year. The team specialise in start-ups Nick Leavey and Elizabeth Gibbons and scale-ups for whom this service also provides a sounding-board to help tomorrow’s leaders achieve their charity. South East hospice charity, objectives.

Naomi House & Jacksplace, which Mark O’Halloran, Partner at Coffin Mew provides expert care to more than 280 explains: “What many of our clients and life-limited and life-threatened children, small businesses tell us is that they want young people and their extended families, access to expert legal advice, but worry recently named Coffin Mew as its about the cost. Another Outstanding Corporate concern is that cash flow Supporter for 2015 at its “2016 will see can vary considerably annual charity awards. continued growth, month to month and the Coffin Mew’s staff new clients, larger voted Naomi House arrival of unexpected bills premises and we can cause real problems.” & Jacksplace as their will continue to By getting the right charity of the year and set advice at the right time, the CSR team to create engage with and Coffin Mew believe that a range of engaging and support the local many issues can be fun events for everyone to community” dealt with quickly and enjoy and contribute to. at a lower cost, in turn Sue Bowler, Partner helping not only many clients but many and Head of Coffin Mew’s Services to entrepreneurs with an innovative idea to Vulnerable People team said: “We are in implement. a somewhat unique position as some of Coffin Mew is also involved with local Naomi House’s clients are our clients; we

Brighton office, the firm’s fifth, ge of services to fast growing es and to individuals and families vibrant and diverse cities on the

d Head of Coffin Mew’s Brighton h Coast Commercial Property an entrepreneurial firm with base. We have had strong n for a number of years and the e centre of town is part of our , our clients and to the future

have a significant team that specialises in supporting vulnerable and disabled clients, so we have been able to share our knowledge with Naomi House by doing things such as delivering legal training to the senior care team and organising a fundraising gig in partnership with our award-winning band.”

Coffin Mew’s Mirren McGinley, A client-centred approach Nick Leavey and Elizabeth Gi The bb key on to overcoming challenging s situations, which law firms like Coffin Mew often deal with, is a strong relationship with the client in question, including trust, understanding and longevity. The team at Coffin Mew always aims to see challenges and opportunities from the client’s perspective and will always make recommendations based on the specific situation in hand.

Visit www.coffinmew.co.uk to see the new website in action.

www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk 45

A Flying Success:

Business Travel

The modern world is a web of interconnectivity, with technology allowing us to make social and business ties from one side of the globe to the other. The UK, especially Sussex businesses must jump on board to let the economy fly

Travelling for business is a brilliant way to Business create new leads and follow future Travel prospects, meet clients, suppliers and colleagues in other parts of the world, build relationships and grow your company.

With the airport expansion debate this year a hot topic on the minds of businesses in Sussex, and the South East as a whole, 2015 has seen opinions quite literally flying through the air. The Airports Commission’s suggestion that Heathrow would be a better choice for expansion than Gatwick raised many a

46 www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk

discussion and even argument within the Sussex and Manor Royal business community – now the final decision is being delayed once again. For many, this suggestion was seen as a poor one, with the prospect of a second runway a new hope for international business travel in the South East.

Of the 30 million plus travellers through Gatwick airport, 1 in 5 are business travellers, and the airport now serves 46 of the top 50 business destinations in Europe. The top 10 international business travel destinations include: London, Toronto, Mexico City, Cancun, Shanghai, Paris, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Montreal and Amsterdam.

Gatwick has been competing vigorously since new ownership in December 2009, winning new routes to the UK’s key trading partners and providing direct connections between London and high growth economies including Indonesia, Turkey, and Russia, making it now a key portal to international business negotiations.

Nationally, the UK is highly dependent on international business, with 7.9 million business trips to the UK in 2013. Not only does this fuel our plan for growth as a country, but more specifically it fuels our economy, with 3.2 million visits to London by overseas people in just 2013, spending on average £116 per day on

business trips, equating to an overall £4.6 billion over the year according to the Office for National Statistics.

The benefit of modern technology – and the always ‘on’ world – is that workers are no longer chained to their desks, and can easily travel to meet contacts in person and connect with colleagues from around the world. A recent survey by Virgin Atlantic found that 1 in 5 business travellers end up doing business with someone they met on the flight itself. This is hugely beneficial to businesses across the country, and luckily, businesses across the South East, in particular Sussex have a good link to the outside world, and therefore growing investments in Gatwick Airport.

We spoke to Lewis Scott, Regional Director of UK Trade & Investment in the South East about the importance of international trade and business links for our region and in particular Sussex businesses.

How important is it for South East, in particular Sussex based businesses to have easy access to international business routes and resources?

The ability to meet overseas partners and customers face-to-face is critical to maintain and grow successful relationships and markets. Diversifying markets and profit sources, or extending product lifecycles, by entering emerging or new markets can be critical to companies. However, without access to such markets lots of companies can fall by the wayside or not fulfil their potential.

“With Gatwick practically on the doorstep and the relative ease of accessing Europe through the high speed train routes from Ashford, the ease of international travel is a key ingredient in the global success of Sussex businesses.

How does international business strengthen the local economy within Sussex?

“International trade can be a boon for businesses and for those in Sussex, this is no different. As well as the potential increase of profits and jobs, which filter down into the local community and economy, there are wider benefits for individual businesses. For example it can: • Widen the size of the market and revenue streams open to a business; • Support risk management by reducing dependence on one particular market; • Enable sales outside of the UK season; • Promote product development and

innovation to meet specific market needs, which can often be reflected back into other markets; • Upskill the local workforce, bringing wider experience and challenges.

Where is there most scope for international business growth for the UK? Which countries have most promising assets at this point in time?

The US continues to be the number one export market for UK companies. But, beyond the US and other developed markets such as Germany or the Netherlands, the depth of international opportunities for Sussex businesses is remarkable. The diversity of the highest growth markets over the last four years underlines this. In Europe, South East exports over the last four years to Iceland and Lithuania grew by 52% and 82% respectively; in Africa, exports to Botswana and Ivory Coast grew 206% and 111%; whilst in North America, product and service exports to Costa

“The ability to meet overseas partners and customers faceto-face is critical to maintain and grow successful relationships and markets”

Rica and the Dominican Republic grew by 100% and 114%.

Whilst some of this growth can be put down to a country’s developing middle class, there are a range of other factors to research and consider. Analysing a market for competitors, customers, business partners, culture or its regulatory framework is key to considering entering a market. UKTI can and will help with

www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk 47

Business Travel

market selection and our International Trade Advisers (ITA) are experts in their fields.

What technicalities do SMEs need to bear in mind when expanding/ starting exporting?

One of the biggest issues to consider when selling overseas is to understand the difference between selling in the EU, selling to countries with whom we have free trade agreements and those where there may be sanctions and/or export controls. Every country outside of the EU will have their own import regulations with most having their own currency.

Whilst there is a lot to consider this should not put businesses off their export journey. The UKTI International Trade Adviser network offers free, professional expertise and advice, and is there to be utilised at every step. The Sussex Chamber of Commerce can also offer useful advice on the necessary export documentation. We know from local

48 www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk

over £300m to Sussex businesses. This includes established markets, like the European Union (EU) and US, as well as high-growth emerging markets such as Brazil, India, China and others.

Exporting is How is the GREAT (EIG) Government “We know from will provide helping to advice and improve local Sussex based expertise international businesses that we have to support business growth for the UK? already worked with that businesses at every step of Exporting is exporting can lead to the way, from GREAT (EIG) is initial interest to the Government’s greater opportunities market. Every most ambitious for new sales and day in every export campaign country around ever. It aims to business growth” the world, there inspire and support is someone 100,000 new UK somewhere who wants or needs a UK exporters to sell their goods and services product or service. The demand is out overseas by 2020. there and EIG and UKTI South East are Right now, there are hundreds of ensuring that more Sussex businesses export opportunities sourced by the government’s international network, worth are too.

Sussex based businesses that we have already worked with that exporting can lead to greater opportunities for new sales and business growth.

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Hotel Review: Sofitel London Gatwick If you want to start your holiday early, or have the stress of business travel taken away, the Sofitel at Gatwick airport is ideal. SBT reviews the pre-travel accommodation experience

Sofitel London Gatwick Crawley

Address: North Terminal, Gatwick Airport, Horley, Crawley, West Sussex RH6 0PH Telephone: 01293 567070 Web: www.sofitel.com/Gatwick

50 www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk

Having driven from the Sussex coast, I arrived at the Gatwick Review Sofitel at North Terminal, parked in the car park and made my way into (and up to) the reception area. From the moment I stepped inside, having been greeted at the doorway, I felt like a valued guest and immediately at ease. The check in was speedy and efficient, and the foyer thoroughly impressive, with a modern fountain and almost town-like feel as you look up and around to see rows of small windows all looking over you from all floors.

My room was located on the newly refurbished 8th floor, which the Duty Manager informed me was being redeveloped five rooms at a time, with guests’ comfort in mind. I stepped into my Executive Suite offering a much-anticipated Sofitel ‘My Bed’ concept: – an extremely luxurious bed with Egyptian cotton and feather

pillows. Elsewhere in the room was a desk, armchair, television, towelling robes, slippers, Espa toiletries and a complimentary mini bar complete with wine, beer and soft drinks. This really did feel like a room that looked after its guest, in particular before or after a long journey, which, whether for business or pleasure can be stressful.

One of the main benefits of the Executive package is use of the lounge: Club Millesime. This is an exclusive lounge that allows guests to sit, drink and watch the planes go by. The room itself is surrounded by uninterrupted views of Gatwick airport’s runways: a view that may not sound luxurious, but it’s a fascinating experience!

Complimentary drinks and canapés were offered in abundance, settling any traveller in for a decadent evening.

Whilst filling up with ‘nibbles’ and enjoying a refreshing gin and tonic, I spoke to a couple staying in the hotel, glasses of wine in hand. They told me how they were flying to Tenerife the next

Tried and Tested in Sussex

morning on a short break; how they wouldn’t stay anywhere else before a flight now that they’d found the Sofitel.

This was a nice insight into the benefits of pre and post-travel accommodation.

Mike, who I was speaking to for a guest’s opinion, said: “It’s just so easy!

We get here and our holiday begins.

We check in, we come here for a drink and to watch the planes fly out, we have our dinner in the fantastic Chinese restaurant downstairs and we’re in bed by 10 o’clock ready for our early morning start, all in the height of comfort.”

I could certainly see why they were so enthusiastic about the hotel facilities, and how easy it made their travel too, with the hotel the only premium hotel linked directly to the North Terminal, needing only a 3 minute, covered walk to reach the check in desks. In addition, if you needed to get to the South Terminal, it’s entirely simple: step out of the hotel and you’re immediately at the monorail stop, ready for a 2 minute journey to your destination.

The atmosphere of the whole hotel was one of tranquility. I should think this is the ideal atmosphere for a busy businessperson, and the Executive Lounge would act as a huge plus for those wanting to mix their professional life with luxury. The running of the hotel all felt very well interlinked, smooth and stress-free, with every member of staff completing their own duties simultaneously without fuss.

Even the layout of the restaurants, the fountain and reception desk seemed logical and suited to business travel transience.

My partner and I headed down to dinner: our table was booked for 8pm at La Brasserie, a fine dining restaurant which had been recommended by all the staff. La Brasserie holds two AA rosettes and mixes a modern British menu with a French ‘joie de vivre’.

We were first served an amuse bouche of venison and vegetable broth and offered a variety of bread options.

I chose a starter of Soufflé Omelette, which sounded too intriguing not to try. My partner had a plate of Devon

crab, king prawns and lobster, which was beautifully presented. I had to take the trophy though as my soufflé, with smoked haddock in a lobster bisque sauce, was absolutely divine.

For the main event, I had peppered venison, with cabbage, pear and potato cake, whilst my partner had pork belly with mash potato, a long and impressive strip of crackling and carrots. Both meals were extremely tasty and very well presented. The venison was juicy, tender and perfectly cooked (medium, like I asked) and melted in my mouth – it was particularly well complemented by each sip of my New Zealand Shiraz. Dessert, for me, was a lemon and lime tart with raspberry sorbet, and for my partner, a crème fraiche cheesecake – which was utterly creamy and indulgent. Both were ideally sized, leaving us feeling full but not bursting at the seams.

We had the pleasure of meeting the Head Chef, David Woods after our meal was finished, who enquired as to how our meal was, and commented on how he is committed to sourcing as many of their products and ingredients locally and ethically. He explained how my venison was from Petworth, and that

“Both meals were extremely tasty and very well presented.

The venison was juicy, tender and perfectly cooked”

all the fish was fresh and sustainably caught at Newhaven. I was unsurprised to learn that the Sofitel had recently been awarded a silver medal by the Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) for its commitment to green policy and CSR. Last October also saw the 10th anniversary for the hotel under the luxury international Sofitel brand. With 518 spacious guest rooms, an array of restaurants and bars from the relaxed to the fine dining, conference centre with 11 versatile meeting rooms and the impressive 8th floor, it’s not difficult to see why this hotel has made its mark within the airport accommodation sector.

I would highly recommend a stay at this hotel, before or after international travel – or even just to experience a luxurious night in a 4-star hotel near London.

www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk 51

Chamber News

The Alliance of Chambers in East Sussex ACES represents 4,000 members across the County and you are automatically a member of ACES if you are a member of one of the Chambers listed overleaf. This entitles you to share your news stories in these SBT Business pages without charge

A LEAP Year for New Businesses According to Natwest Bank, 87% of businesses fail in their first year of trading. But with the right support from Lewes District Council and local enterprise agency Edeal this figure has been turned on its head “It is really encouraging at this time of swingeing cuts that Lewes District Council continues to invest money in supporting the entrepreneurs of East Sussex” said Christina Ewbank of Edeal: “having worked with new business people across the County we know that when new businesses attend a start-up workshop with follow-up mentoring we see 88% succeed after that critical first 18 months.”

In the leap year of 2016 valuable funding has been made available by Lewes District Council to provide business support and mentoring to fledgling business people under the LEAP programme.

Set up by Lewes District Council in 2013, LEAP (Local Enterprise & Apprenticeship Platform) is dedicated to championing new enterprise within the Lewes District and has so far supported 45 local people through an intensive training programme to help them with their plans to start new businesses.

Councillor Andy Smith, Leader of Lewes District Council said: “Following a competitive tender process, we are pleased that LEAP will be working with Edeal during 2016 to create new

52 www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk

Start-Up Workshop

opportunities for local entrepreneurs. This is an exciting opportunity to benefit from expert training and mentoring to make your business dreams a reality.”

Edeal has been helping businesses start-up and thrive in East Sussex for 30 years and the team is delighted to have joined forces with Lewes District Council delivering LEAP to the entrepreneurs of the Lewes District.

Would £2500 help get your business off the ground?

Through the LEAP Entrepreneur Award 2016 up to 15 candidates will be chosen

to attend a series of workshops and one to ones with expert mentoring that will help them gain the skills they need to make their businesses a success.

Additionally, one candidate will win £2500 cash and a second candidate will win £500 cash. All the other candidates will benefit from support and prizes up to a value of £350.

Support packages Main prize £2,500 Second prize £500 15 x £350 support packages £5,250

Chamber News

LEAP Workshop Schedule Lewes venue Pelham House Hotel Newhaven venue Sussex House, Peacehaven

Who is a LEAP entrepreneur?

Wednesday 6th April

10am to 4.30pm

Start-up Workshop in Lewes

Thursday 14th April

10am to 4.30pm

Start-up Workshop in Newhaven

Thursday 28th April

10am to 12pm

Finance Workshop in Lewes

Thursday 28th April

6pm to 8pm

Finance Workshop in Lewes

W/C 2nd May

To be confirmed

Law in Lewes

Thursday 12th May

10am to 12pm

Marketing Workshop in Lewes

Thursday 12th May

6pm to 8pm

Marketing Workshop in Lewes

Tuesday 17th May

10am to 12pm

Social Media Workshop in Lewes

Wednesday 18th May

6pm to 8pm

Social Media Workshop in Lewes

…..is this you?

LEAP is a partnership seeking to grow the local economy through the creation of new jobs and businesses. Workshops will include everything you need to know about starting your new business including: Finance for the Financial Novice, Law in Layman’s Language, Marketing with Meaning and It’s all about being social – social media coaching.

These small group workshops will be followed up by one-to-one mentoring to help you put what you learn into practice.

When you start a new business you don’t know what you don’t know! You can be tripped up by misunderstanding tax or vat or something as simple as lack

• You have a business idea you want to develop • You are in the early stages of developing your business or business plan • You need help, support and guidance to get started • You live in or will start your business in the Lewes District

of insurance. Now you can avoid these pitfalls by joining LEAP. Many people have a new business idea while still working for someone else. This makes sense, so that you still have an income while building your own business. For this reason LEAP workshops start with a one day workshop followed by shorter, flexible workshops outside working hours so if you are still in employment the training and mentoring is easier to access.

Applications for the LEAP Entrepreneur Award 2016 are open now (closing date March 18th) so please contact the LEAP team at info@edeal.og.uk or visit www.yourleap.co.uk/leap-into-thenew-year-in-2016/ to find out more.

Lewes District includes the towns of Lewes, Newhaven, Peacehaven, Seaford, Telscombe/East Saltdean and rural villages including Barcombe, Plumpton and Newick.

If you live in Lewes District or want to start your business in any of these towns then check www.yourleap.co.uk and sign up now.

opened by the Queen’s Representative, The Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex, Peter Field, on 12th January.

Free workshops and courses offer local people the opportunity to build their confidence, make friends, develop skills

and gain qualifications. Workshop topics may include IT, gardening, cooking, painting and jewellery making. The course topics cover basic Maths and English, understanding depression, preparing for an interview and more.

The Now! Charity Group name has recently been launched as part of a rebrand of the well-established Furniture Now! charity. The new Now! Charity includes both Furniture Now! and Training Now! Petrina Mayson, CEO of this multi-award winning charity, describes the charity’s purpose as: “Making positive changes to people’s lives in East Sussex via supportive free training and apprenticeships and access

Now It’s Now!

Hailsham’s unemployed residents and those claiming Employment Support Allowance (ESA) now have a big new training centre at Training Now! on the Station Road Industrial Estate – part of the Now! Charity Group. The Centre was

www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk 53

Advert Nov_Layout 1 14/10/2014 12:38 Page 2

Chamber News

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ACES

TR Fastenings - Best Profits for 10 Years

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www.battlechamber.org.uk

F

ounded in a small rented office at the top of Uckfield High Street in 1973, Mike Timms and Mike Roberts established their business after becoming disenchanted working for a large industrial group in Birmingham that restricted their creativity and individualism.

However, the DotCom crash in 2001 devastated sales and profits in just a few short months, and the two Midlands factories had to be closed as the focus was intensified into Asia.

A change of senior management in 2007 and the 2008 recession resulted in the near collapse of the Company, with 2008 revenues down to £84m with substantial losses, and in March 2009 the two previous retired CEOs (Malcolm Diamond and Jim Barker) were invited back by the shareholders to rescue the business.

They focused on sourcing and selling industrial fastenings to light assembly industries in the South East at a time when ex stock deliveries could take as long as three weeks from the larger industry market leaders. Their core values were “look By 2010 profitability started to recover, as did professional, be professional, provide the share price. outstanding service, sell on value rather than In 2011 a major automotive bolt the cheapest price, maintain dynamic cash manufacturer was acquired in Malaysia, and management and motivate and take care thatin 5000 children in domestic Eastbourne alone May 2014 a leading appliance affordable furniture of your staff”. and household

to go to bed hungry each night. goods.”

The Hailsham Training Centre The charity has had a training centre in project was made possible due to Eastbourne since 2013 and is delighted the introduction to the Catherine to offer Hailsham residents this bespoke Cookson Trust by Claire Baker from facility. This is the charity’s response to a the Chalvington Group (who have Now! report in December 2015 identifying that Charity as their charity of the year for two wards in the town now fall into the the second year in 2016). The Trust most deprived 20% in England. awarded £25k towards the capital Petrina described one recent success build costs and East Sussex County story for Training Now!: “We run a project Council and Santander also provided helping local residents on sickness some funds. benefit - which blew all the Department The rebrand project and the new of Work and Pensions (DWP) targets out Hailsham Centre could only happen of the water! We assessed 196 people, due to the support of a huge number provided 303 workshops and awarded of Chamber Members. “We are 936 courseMalcolm certificates.

It is brilliant Diamond MBE and Jim Barker enormously grateful for the incredible news that 20 participants have gone into of donated and products volunteering positions, 10 into education In 1978, manufacturing of specialist fasteners amount into screw business in Italy time was brought started in Uckfield, with subsequent the Group.prices that local businesses at reduced and 5 intowas employment.”

The DWP factories established in Northampton and have us. Our sectors very own DIY SOS TR’sgiven major customer include recently asked Now! Charity to run the the 80’s.

Telford in Automotive, Domestic created this centre inAppliances, just 4 weeks. same programme in 2016.

In the late 80’s, IBM selected TR as their most Electronics and Distributors – all of which are is thanks to growth. a small army of One volunteer at Training Now!, Jason, eligible component supplier to be trained in This enjoying organic zeroon defect/on time deliveries to abuilt new volunteers including our own staff, commented how his self-esteem In June 2014, TR announced the best sales, assembly facility that relied on “Just In Time” friends, and for people like now Glen, up again as a result of the project. The profits relatives and share price a decade, deliveries straight to their production line. with 1,150 staff spread across 17 countries. a local Hailsham resident, who helped support ofSuccessful the ‘friendly, close-knit compliance led to TRfamily being a Trifast Plc is based in Uckfield and along with source supplier the centre while he looks for feel’ of thesingle organisation haswith ledIBM, towhich him then decorate TR’s sales, distribution and manufacturing attracted other major telecoms work”, Petrina added. volunteering and even getting part-time facilities employs over 150 staff on site. As the manufacturers to TR. The massive 1990’s surge largest local employer, the Company You can help the charity with sector carried it to a full LSE theaelectronics paid workinas gardener. maintains close links with both the Uckfield listing as a PLC in 1994 named Trifast. donations of time, home or office Ex-volunteer Steven Stacey worked Chamber of Commerce a founder member 2000, saleshaving turnoverbeen peaked at £120m furniture, household goods, financial of the Alliance of Chambers in East Sussex with Now!Bylast year and by 2001 three component (ACES) and and the local Community College. support organising your own or homelesssales, for four years: “I really enjoyed factories had been established in Singapore, The College is the main annual provider of ‘A’ attending their various fundraising volunteering for Now! It gave me Malaysia and Taiwan, with sales and Level candidates for TR’s 2 year NVQ Business distribution facilities Southernme Ireland, StudiesTheir Apprenticeship events.

Furniturescheme.

Now! stores in confidence and focus andin made Norway, Sweden, USA, Holland, Hungary and Eastbourne, Lewes and Hailsham are realise I had something to offer.”

Steven Despite global uncertainty there is clearly China, plus eight around the UK. management a feeling amongst TRThey open to everyone. provideand low now works full time as a window cleaner The Company had become global by staff that there are grounds for cautious cost, new, refurbished and second for Optimum Reflection houses UK based multinational following its formercleaning optimism for the future continuing growth hand home andasoffice furniture, key customers to lower cost economies of their business sales for year ended and businesses across Eastbourne.

March 2015 are forecast reach overseas – mainly Asia and Central/ washing machines andtolots more Petrina Eastern and her committed team £150 million.

Europe. household goods. A real Aladdin’s cave are helping over 35,000 people like to explore.

Jason and Steven in East Sussex each Find out more at year. There are some shocking poverty www.nowcharity.org.uk statistics in our area, including the fact

www.acesalliance.org

54 www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk

Bexhill Chamber of Commerce 01424 842892 www.bexhillchamber.co.uk Crowborough Chamber of Commerce www.crowboroughchamber.co.uk Eastbourne UnLtd Chamber of Commerce 01323 641144 www.eastbournechamber.co.uk East Sussex County Council 01273 481570 www.eastsussex.gov.uk Federation of Small Businesses 01424 754686 and Regional Office 01323 482018 www.fsb.org.uk/eastsussex Hailsham Chamber of Commerce 01323 310531 www.hailshamchamberofcommerce.co.uk

Hastings Chamber of Commerce 01424 205500 www.hastingschamber.co.uk Heathfield Chamber of Commerce 01435 865858 www.heathfieldchamber.co.uk The Institute of Directors 020 7766 8866 www.iod.com Lewes Chamber of Commerce 07917 382316 www.leweschamber.org.uk Locate East Sussex 0844 4159255 www.locateeastsussex.org.uk Newhaven Chamber of Commerce 0800 107 0709 www.newhavenchamber.co.uk Peacehaven Chamber of Commerce 01273 586222 www.peacehavenchamber.co.uk Seaford Chamber of Commerce 0800 881 5331 www.seafordchamber.co.uk South East Local Enterprise Partnership 01245 431469 www.southeastlep.com Uckfield Chamber of Commerce 01825 722607 www.uckfieldchamber.co.uk Wealden District Council 01323 443322 www.wealden.gov.uk

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Motoring

Test Drive Jaguar XE Portfolio 2.0 i4 180PS - Automatic

The Jaguar XE production line around every 75 arrived on UK seconds or so! The state-of-theshores in May art facility is part of a £1.5 billion Luxury 2015, neatly filling investment by Jaguar Land Rover in the the gap in the UK and significant of their dedication Jaguar/Land Rover to British manufacturing and heritage, range, occupied by that remains an important factor for the rivals such as the BMW 3 Series, the company. Especially when it comes to Mercedes C Class and the export market. the Audi A4.

Back to the “They’ve hit the This is a car from competition. With mark with this car the manufacturer that the XE being the and whilst it may be new diver’s car in the we at SBT towers had been looking forward a generation or two range, its intention to for some time. is to take the mantle away from being We’ve heard promises from the BMW 3 perfect, it’s a great Series. To achieve of a new ‘driver’s’ car car to drive” from Jaguar, and whilst the ideal 50:50 we were not expecting weight distribution, the performance of engineers at Jaguar/ an F-Type, an improvement (in the Land Rover’s R&D facility decided excitement stakes), from the now-wellto use heavier steel doors instead of established XF, would be a win. aluminium versions. Without them, the The XE is built at Jaguar Land weight distribution would have been Rover’s Solihull factory, and we’ve 47:53. heard that one will come off the So far as preference is concerned, I’ve driven the 3-Series (perhaps its closest rival) in various guises and it is really rather good. The XE has a few flaws, which can’t be ignored, while the BMW doesn’t really have any to speak of. That said, every time I drive a BMW I’m left cold. I know I’m about to drive something brilliant (technically), but the excitement is always lacking and there’s no getting away from the perception of the (BMW) driver. Sitting in a Jag feels special. It feels like it was made by motoring enthusiasts, not mathematians and physicists.

With this in mind, it has to be said, that I would, if pressed to part with my hard-earned cash, opt for the Jaguar.

They’ve hit the mark with this car and

56 www.sussexbusinesstimes.co.uk

whilst it may be a generation or two away from being perfect, it’s a great car to drive, its bare body shell weighs less than any of its rivals at just 251kg, and will definitely make you consider the longer, bendier route home.

The other, more established brands in this space are just that – more established. Safer. Perhaps more predictable; and what’s better than being a great drive? Well, being a great drive, and being different.

Base Price: £35,425.00 Price As Tested (Inc. Optional Extras): £45,543.00

www.sussexbusinesstimes.co.uk 57

Land Rover Discovery Sport It’s a fine looking machine this, the new Land Rover Sporty Discovery Sport. It’s a car that has all of the good looks of its big brothers, (the Range Rover and Discovery) but brings the brand firmly into the mid-SUV market with a serious contender, whilst ditching the problematic and ultimately, ill-fated Freelander.

Our version of this new car is the manual, HSE ‘e-Capability’ in Firenze Red. Complete with Ebony Windsor Leather Interior, Cirrus Headlining and 18” Alloy Aero wheels.

First impressions are that, as with many of the mid-sized SUVs out there, the interior doesn’t really feel much larger than a regular estate car; higher from the road, but essentially (and importantly for the target market), impressive looking, with a stature that’s noticeable and suitably slick. The Discovery Sport though, offers a good amount of space in the rear seats and boot, like its bigger relatives, whilst the front cabin feels more compact and in

58 www.sussexbusinesstimes.co.uk

of tune; 148bhp and 178bhp. It’s an line with a saloon. Not unlike the XE, engine that matches the previous in fact.

2.2-litre engine for pace but crucially More than 50,000 Discovery Sports the 2.0-litre is miles ahead in terms of have been sold worldwide over the last average fuel economy and year and it’s no secret that its emission rating.

Land Rover have spent the “Entirely This new Discovery last few years becoming a banishes the Sport, is a car that delivers major force in the motoring demons that on many levels. It’s great world, showing other lurked in the in looking, carries a good manufacturers how to produce a range of boxthe shadow of deal of prestige, entirely the demons that ticking products that not the Freelander” banishes lurked in the in the shadow only serve most customers, of the Freelander, and but do it whilst offering whilst not an overly exciting drive, it’s quality and style to boot. The Discovery very comfortable and a real contender Sport is based largely on the Range for every day business use; offering Rover Evoque; borrowing its chassis around 53mpg. and a great deal of its switchgear, also The demand for this car shows adding space to the package to offer a no sign of slowing down as it enters mid-sized SUV that is better value for its second year and there are solid money. reasons for that. If you’re in the market, When the new model launched we’re lucky enough to have a handful in 2015, the engine onboard was a of dealers across Sussex, so get a test 2.2-litre turbo-diesel. However, that’s drive in for yourself. now been replaced by Jaguar Land Rover’s new 2.0-litre Ingenium version.

Base Price: £35,395.00 The newer 2.0-litre engine is lighter, Price As Tested (Inc. Optional quieter, more efficient and more refined Extras): £43,551.00 than the 2.2. It’s available in two states

SBTMotoring News Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse World Record Edition For those readers of SBT, who may like an opportunity to buy into a piece of motoring history, H.R. Owen has a unique opportunity to buy the world’s fastest roadster, the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse World Record Edition. Now that production of the Bugatti Veyron has ended, this is a unique opportunity to acquire one of the most desirable cars ever made.

It’s a low mileage example and is going on sale at the flagship showroom in London and is currently available for viewing at the dealership in Berkeley Square, which is the only official UK dealer for Bugatti sales and servicing.

The black and orange colour scheme was conceived for the car’s record-breaking speed attempt, which took place in April 2013 when it reached a speed of 254.04mph (408.84km/h). This run made the 1200PS (1184bhp) car officially the world’s fastest open top car.

This car is the ultimate incarnation of the Veyron. Of the 450 Veyrons made, there were only 150 roadsters produced and of those, only eight were world record editions, making this a truly rare car.

This particular version is a UK car, and was originally registered in October 2013. It has only had the one owner since then, and has covered just 1130 miles in its lifetime.

Caterham Spread their Wings West Sussex-based sportscar manufacturer, Caterham Cars, has strengthened its presence in Belgium with the launch of the House of Speed showroom in Liege.

Caterham’s new premises is located closer to the centre of Liege and sees pre-existing Belgian dealer, Villers Auto, join forces with Redwater Classic Cars at the considerably larger 500-square metre site.

The dealership will showcase the full European Caterham range, including the Seven 165, the Seven 275, the Seven 355 and the top of the range Seven 485. In addition to catering for new customers, House of Speed also offers Belgian customers a full after sales service, run by a dedicated team of expert Caterham technicians.

The showroom launch was celebrated over the weekend of January 9/10 for specially invited Caterham customers and members of the Belgium Seven Club, with over 200 attendees.

David Ridley, Caterham Chief Commercial Officer, said: “We’re delighted to announce the opening of the new House of Speed showroom in Belgium. Last June, we began our partnership with Villers Auto in Liege and the partnership went from strength to strength. “With the introduction of this new facility and the revised Seven 355, we’re better equipped than ever to cater for sportscar enthusiasts in Belgium. I am looking forward to working with the team at House of Speed and taking our success even further in 2016.”

Caterham Cars House of Speed is located on Avenue Deponthière, 60 4431 Loncin.

With the Veyron only ever being made in limited numbers, values of this car are set to be strong in the future.

This Grand Sport Vitesse is offered for sale at £1,795,000.

The Veyron remains the most exclusive Bugatti ever made, until the release of the Chiron later this year.

When the Chiron goes on sale, it will only be available in the UK at H.R. Owen’s London showroom.

Škoda has Manufactured Its 18 Millionth Vehicle Since The Company First Started Building Cars In 1905 As their 18 millionth car, a ŠKODA Superb Estate in Candy-White, rolled off the production line at the firm’s Kvasiny plant in the Czech Republic.

SBT select a number of milestones in ŠKODA AUTO’s manufacturing history: • 19 January 2016: 18 million ŠKODA cars produced since 1905 • 24 November 2015: 12 million ŠKODA cars produced at the Mladá Boleslav plant • 10 December 2014: ŠKODA manufactures the 1 millionth vehicle in 2014, the first time the company had produced one million vehicles in a single year • 26 August 2013: 4 million ŠKODA Octavias produced • 5 February 2013: 15 million ŠKODA vehicles since 1905 • 30 January 2012: 14 million ŠKODA vehicles since 1905 • 12 October 2011: 10 million ŠKODA vehicles at the Mladá.

www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk 59

Berforts

Berforts Broadens its Horizons Hastings general commercial printer, Berforts has recently taken on a Horizon perfect binder, increasing its binding production capacity, and offering its customers even more

Berforts completes litho work on Komori, Sakurai and Advertorial Heidelberg presses and digital jobs on Konica Minolta presses. Completing a range of jobs for a variety of customers, the Hastings branch must only employ the best and most efficient equipment.

Intelligent Finishing Systems (IFS) is the exclusive distributor of Horizon on-demand finishing solutions in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Having begun life in Japan more than 60 years ago as a specialist scientific equipment manufacturer, joint Managing Directors of IFS, Tony Hards and Bryan Godwyn have held the UK Horizon agency since the early 1980s.

Now that Berforts, Hastings has taken on the Horizon BQ470 from IFS, the team expect a 30% increase in perfect binding production capacity, expanding and improving its customer service greatly. The flexible, easy to use, smallfootprinted 1,350 books per hour PUR BQ-470 four-clamp perfect binder replaces an older existing binder, allowing the branch to be able to complete books with wider spines. It is ideally suited to mid-range soft back book production with higher production speeds, binding

up to 65 mm (2.55”) thickness and offering fully automated set-up through an intuitive icon based LCD touchscreen.

It will handle litho output from Komori, Sakurai and Heidelberg presses and digital jobs from Konica Minolta presses.

Richard Woolmer, Production Director at Berforts, Hastings explains: “It is going to be more reliable and quicker and that will enable us to get more jobs finished per shift.

“The fact that it can bind a thicker spine than the old system means we can take better care of our present customers. It helps us to look after our existing customers better and

“It helps us to look after our existing customers better and will allow us to win new work too. We expect it to increase production capacity by as much as 30%.”

60 www.sussexbusinesstimes.co.uk

www.berforts.co.uk

will allow us to win new work too. We expect it to increase production capacity by as much as 30%.”

Other solutions were reviewed before the operation decided on the Horizon BQ47: “We chose the Horizon because we knew and trusted the Horizon name.

We have operated Horizon systems and know the value of their build and their ability to produce high quality result,” says Richard.

He continues: “As our employees understood how to operate the binder it was a nice easy install, just newer. They can confidently move around the bindery processes which eliminates bottlenecks.

It has added value from day one.”

Berforts 17 Burgess Rd, Hastings TN35 4NR 01424 722733.

Berforts Ltd if you’re buying print, please make sure you talk to us

Lithographic printing Sheet-fed digital printing

Please mention the Sussex Business Times magazine when contacting us

B&W digital web printing Print on demand Variable data printing Print finishing Mailing and fulfilment Worldwide distribution

berforts a world of print

ltd

17 Burgess Road, Hastings, East Sussex TN35 4NR. Tel: 01424 722733.

Fax: 01424 721777 www.sussexbusinesstimes.co.uk 61 Email: sales@berfort.co.uk · www.berforts.co.uk

SBT

ASK THE

SBT Ask the Experts is sponsored by

EXPERTS

WE ASK THE EXPERTS TO GIVE YOU THE ANSWERS YOU NEED

EXPERT

What’s on the tax agenda for Sussex businesses in the next Budget in March?

A new Targeted Anti-Avoidance Rule (TAAR) set to be introduced on 16 March is predicted ‘to prevent opportunities for income to be converted into capital in order to gain a tax advantage’. In future, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) wants increased powers to treat capital distributions from the winding-up of a company as dividend payments.

So why is HMRC acting?

For many years there has been a large disparity between the income tax

EXPERT

Mike Chapman, Senior Manager Corporate Tax at Knill James Chartered Accountants rates attributable to company dividend receipts compared to capital gains rates chargeable on company capital distributions. The latter are normally seen on liquidation distributions when a company is being dissolved. With the introduction of the new dividend taxation regime from 6 April the top rate of income tax payable on dividends could be as high as 38.1% while CGT rates on liquidation distributions, if CGT Entrepreneurs Relief applies, could be as low as 10%. HMRC is suspicious of the ability of owners of private companies to structure their tax affairs to take advantage of this rate disparity.

What scenarios will the changes focus on?

1. Where monies are being built up within companies with a view to these being extracted as a capital gain through voluntary liquidations, especially with the increase to the tax liabilities payable on dividend income in 2016-17.

2. Phoenix companies where a company

What is the employment system in place in the UK? The ONS employment figures in the UK demonstrate that it is vital that businesses begin to embrace a more dynamic workforce. So many businesses across the country resort to hiring contractors for a short

info@checkaprofessional.com 62 www.sussexbusinesstimes.co.uk

What will the effect be for businesses in the short term?

Private company owners were already planning to extract additional dividends before the new dividend regime bites on 6 April but we may now see a rash of company liquidations, aimed at washing income into capital, before the TAAR takes effect.

Did the proposals surprise you?

Not really. The level of ‘lifetime gains’ to which CGT Entrepreneurs Relief applies has increased from £1m in 2010 to £10m now and inevitably the reward of extracting profits as capital has been seen as too good to ignore.

It was almost inevitable that the ability to exploit this relief would be restricted eventually. Businesses in Sussex affected should seek tax advice as soon as possible.

Farida Gibbs, CEO of Gibbs S3 period of time, often with very short notice periods, and due to the inefficient nature of the system, many highly skilled individuals can be out of work. Rather than becoming over reliant on recruitment agencies and associated fees, these companies should consider outsourcing.

The End of Hiring and Firing

is liquidated and a new company is set up to replace the old one to carry on similar activities.

How can business embrace a more dynamic workforce in an efficient way?

Outsourcing entire projects is a highly cost effective method for businesses.

This allows for outsourcing project consultancies to hire more skilled professionals, giving them greater job security whether they are on permanent or contract employment, yet still retain the project type work that they enjoy. This

would reduce the number of individuals that fall into short-term unemployment due to redundancies or lack of contract renewal due to projects coming to an end.

How should employing culture change within business?

The fire and hire culture has been going on for too long. Hiring managers sometimes take weeks or months to find the right person, yet due to budget constraints in the future, could be forced to let this person go. Rather than having to constantly hire at the start of a project and fire at end, competent professionals, who are completely used to working in a variety of companies, can come in and hit the ground running.

0808 901 9042

SBT

ASK THE

SBT Ask the Experts is sponsored by

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WE ASK THE EXPERTS TO GIVE YOU THE ANSWERS YOU NEED

EXPERT

Lisa Beale, Checkaprofessional.com

Public Perception of Claims Management Companies, means now is the time to provide the trust required!

We appear to have followed our American friends and have become a nation open to claiming. However, it now seems in some cases, consumers have shared experiences and heard what is going on behind the scenes, such as how some companies are mistreating prospective clients, by bombarding them with

EXPERT What are the benefits of using social media for business?

Adding a personal touch Social media allows you to connect quickly and easily with your customers on a personal level. By showing what goes on behind the scenes, the personality, ethos and brand becomes more approachable to potential customers.

Attracting new customers Social media gives you the potential

info@checkaprofessional.com

unsuspecting texts and phone calls. In business you have to be forward thinking and go out and ask for the business, but receiving texts about an accident which has not happened, is a bit like placing divorce lawyer services, at a wedding outfitters. Making claims and the use of misleading marketing by some CMC’s has spoilt and tarnished what is, for some consumers a much needed lifeline to making a claim, without any initial expenses. Those pro-active, forward thinking CMC’s are aware that business can still be done, but how it is done, will look at what prospective clients have been made aware of and address the way they do business.

What are the issues?

Cost is obviously an issue, but if a client needs access to making a claim, needs advice and has no money, it is still an avenue they will travel down.

Trust is also an issue, as consumers are becoming increasingly aware of how dressing a shop window can be inviting to lure in prospective clients, but the question most are demanding answers to is, what my experience will be with this firm and how do they treat their customers, especially having heard all the bad press.

How do we manage these issues?

Over the coming years, it will become common practice for prospective clients to be looking for third party, completely independent reviews.

Forward thinking companies, who provide their prospective clients with the tools they need to make a choice, provide transparency and are open for their previous clients to share their customer service experience, will benefit hugely from placing their heads above the parapet.

Matt Turner, Managing Director, Creative Pod to easily access a large, growing and active audience, coupled with the ability to target them through advertising, this is a much easier way to expand your audience than traditional marketing methods.

can help to improve your visibility in search engines. The more engaged your audience is and the more social media shares you receive, coupled with an ongoing social media strategy, you will see increased visibility in the SERPs.

Research Social media is a great research tool.

You can use it to improve your market intelligence by finding out what your competitors are doing. Social media platforms can also be used to evaluate the success of the launch of a product.

Customers can provide instant feedback, so by knowing what your target market wants, you can make the necessary amendments to secure a great return.

Recruitment Social media can be a cost effective and engaging way to advertise any vacancies you have within your company.

These platforms hold a vast amount of information about users; therefore you can target an audience who would be a valuable asset to your company.

SEO If you want to maximise your online presence, a strong social media following

Revenue Social media can drive more traffic to your website and boost brand awareness which in turn can increase the possibility of sales and securing more business.

0808 901 9042 www.sussexbusinesstimes.co.uk 63

Social

SBT

Society Review Introducing the Brighton Academy of Performing Arts

The Brighton Academy opened its doors to its first class of Full-Time Performing Arts students in September 2011.

With four successful West End performers at its head, a new level of Performing Arts training is now available in southern England - completely professional and completely affordable.

The Brighton Academy Principals say: “We have decided to make our tuition fees affordable for every student that wants to train with us. In fact, we believe that it is entirely possible for a student with no financial support to be able to train during the day at The Academy and still make enough money of an evening to put themselves through college. Such is the extent of the difference we charge in our fees compared to other institutions.”

In association with acclaimed directors and choreographers: Stephen Mear, Matthew Bourne, Bill Deamer and Carole Todd alongside star of stage, screen and music: David Essex and current West End leading man: Killian Donnelly, The Brighton Academy offer you the very best start towards a successful Performing Arts career.

Photography by Graham Franks ©

Student singer Carl Lovejoy

Dance students Lauren Smith, Ellie Wilkinson and Phoebe Standing

64 www.sussexbusinessgroup.co.uk

Students give a dance demonstration to guests

Cutting the ribbon to the studio dedicated to himself Director and choreographer Bill Deamer

Hannah and Louise Oliver with Jessica Ridge and Mark, Alexis and Sara Wilkinson

Time out for dance student Olivia Aldridge

Students Carl Lovejoy, David Smith, Tatenda Madamombe, Jason Exley and James Darby

Student Molly Scott sings to guests

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Contemporary Garden Rooms

Harrison James meets the increasing demand for real useable space, providing garden rooms and outdoor office space for the homeworking businessperson

Harrison James are experts when Brand it comes to garden buildings. Between Focus them, founders, Mark Emberson and James Willmott have over 10 years experience in the garden buildings industry. From its beginnings in August 2012 to the current day, SBT learns more about the garden room industry and the Harrison James name.

Is there a larger demand for home – or specifically garden – offices now than ever before?

Yes, definitely. More and more people are now working for themselves and being able to separate working life from home life is a key factor to success when working from home. Many people want to reduce their office rental costs, so owning a garden room makes real sense.

Another demographic we regularly see is employees of larger companies who work from home. It makes financial sense for the company as it reduces the need for large office units and can ultimately make employees far more productive.

Is there a particular demand for what you do in Sussex?

Sussex is our home. It is where we are based and where we started our business and as a result is the county we receive the largest amount of enquiries from. There are certainly a lot of people here that have that need for more space, many of whom do not want to move.

Whether that is because they are near a good school or close to family and friends, or indeed because they simply love where they live; Sussex certainly is a popular place for garden rooms.

What are the benefits of a Harrison James garden office?

We will create a workspace that is separate from your home allowing each

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individual to be as productive and professional as possible when working from home. Each building is bespoke so you can be guaranteed to have the best space to suit your individual needs.

Our expert team of designers work with each client to ensure every detail is carefully planned. The finished article is a beautiful, practical building that is comfortable year round and will add value to your home.

What makes your business different from others of the same kind?

A Harrison James Garden Room is the best on the market. The bespoke nature of what we do is an extremely valuable aspect as many gardens are irregular shapes that would simply not suit an off the shelf product. Everyone who works for Harrison James has hands on construction experience of our garden rooms which means our knowledge and attention to detail is second to none.

We have a large display area at Old Barn Nurseries on the A24 just south of Horsham where people can leisurely

walk between seven display buildings of various sizes and finishes which is a perfect way to get an idea of how you would like your building to look and feel.

Do you use environmentally friendly materials?

We source all materials locally and purchase in a way that minimises waste.

We buy timber only from sustainable sources and some products are made from recycled materials. We are extremely conscious of our impact on the environment and are constantly looking at ways we can reduce our impact.

Where can we see a commercial space built by you in Sussex?

We have many commercial buildings in Sussex. Three examples would be Meadows Nursery School in Eastbourne.

Cornerways Dental Practice in Angmering and Lagoon Watersports in Hove. Each very different buildings used for different purposes. www.contemporarygardenrooms.com

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