NEW Business MATTERS Y O U R L O C A L B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L Reaching 16,000 business people in print & online Exclusivity in each business category - guaranteed!
Points of Interest in this Issue: • What do you look for in an accountant?
• Printer consolidation helps reduce costs and increase security
• How to run effective conference calls
• It takes more than a website to win clients
• Are you sitting comfortably?
• Positive in everything we do...
BUSINESS TIPS & ADVICE! Issue 38/2015
April/May
ACCOUNTANCY MATTERS
April/May
What do you look for in an accountant?
By Alistair Wallace of BKB Accountants So what do you look for in an accountant? Qualifications? Track record? Personality? Knowledge? How about all of the above and then someone you can actually talk to as well? Let me give you five real examples of how BKB have helped our clients:1. A client came to see us as they were intending to spend money and time on a new application for their website. This was something that they weren’t sure was even possible. However upon further discussions, we helped them claim nearly a third of their investment back from HMRC. 2. A n investment of £50,000 was made by a client into a partner’s business. We helped them claim half of that back from the government and in turn allowed them to extract £100,000 from their own Company tax-free.
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3. A single-parent client of ours earned £10,000 per annum as well as bringing up her own child. She also had a bonus due to her of £3,000. Our advice of putting £500 of that into her pension scheme saved her £4,300. 4. O ne man over the age of 55 had heard of the new pension rules and had been told he could access it all after 6th April. What he hadn’t been told was that he would lose 33.75% of it to the taxman if he withdrew it all in one go. 5. N umerous clients phone us to discuss their next car purchase and wiped out their tax liabilities for a year simply by talking to us and acting upon our advice. To see how we can help you, please contact us on 01202 950527 or email us at info@bkbaccountants.co.uk
To advertise in this local journal telephone 01202 233580
NEW BUSINESS MATTERS
April/May
Editor’s Note
CONTENTS
Go for growth... Spring is nature's annual reminder that growth is an important part of life. So it is also an important part of business. Whilst many of us can lend our hand to different areas of our business, sometimes it requires an expert to really make a difference. The articles in this issue of New Business Matters are written by experts in their respective fields and offer tips and advice on many aspects. Grab a coffee and read through the pages to see if one or more of our experts could help you in your business. Sometimes using an expert service in a specific area can free up your time and effort to more effectively grow or manage your own business. Take a moment out to value your own time and then see if it would not be more efficient to get someone else doing some of those jobs. If there are any topics that you feel would be of particular benefit or would like more information on, do let me know so that I can help add value to our readership. There is a slight change to our previously announced networking schedule and so the next one will be on April 29th at The Cliffeside Hotel. The guest speaker will be giving an insight into how business coaching can make a significant difference to your progress. Just give us a call or send an email to confirm your attendance - we look forward to seeing you there! Best wishes,
NBM
Stephen Corney You can be the only company of your trade or profession represented in this local business to business journal. For details on the ‘marketing packages’ available, please contact: Stephen Corney on 01202 233580 or email sales@newbusinessmatters.com New Business Matters UK Ltd 1 Moorlands Rise, West Moors, Ferndown, Dorset, BH22 0JR Tel: 01202 233580
02 WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR... 03 CONTENTS & EDITORS NOTES 04 OVERDRAFTS 05 EFFECTIVE CONFERENCE CALLS 06 SPRING FORWARD OR FALL BACK 07 INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY 08 SMALL FIRMS ON SOLID GROUND 09 ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY? 10 SMALL CHANGES, BIG DIFFERENCE 11 POOLSIDE DISCO FEVER 12 BENEFITS OF PROMOTING HERE 13 INSURANCE PACKAGE THAT FITS 14 GET VISITORS STAYING LONGER 15 REDUCE COST AND INCREASE SECURITY 16 TRANSFERRED TO WRONG PERSON? 17 WHITE GOODS & CARPETS 18 DESIGN & PRINT SERVICES 19 IT TAKES MORE THAN A WEBSITE 20 PUZZLE MATTERS 21 MARRIAGE MADE IN HEAVEN
NEW Business
22 POSITIVE ENERGY
23 CAN A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT HELP? Y O U R L O C A L B U S I N 24 HELPING JUGGLE BUSINESS COSTS The information contained within this publication is not intended to be complete. Whilst the publisher endeavours to ensure the accuracy of the information contained within this publication, its accuracy cannot be guaranteed and the publisher accepts no liability for the use of, reliance on or the accuracy of such information. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher and therefore the publisher accepts no responsibility for them. All artwork and editorial is copywrite and may not be reproduced without prior permission from the publisher.
NEW Business Y O U R L O C A L B U S I N
© New Business Matters UK Limited January 2009 Designed by: Stephen Corney
Printed by: Remous Limited, Sherborne
Published by: New Business Matters UK Limited
To receive a FREE copy go to www.newbusinessmatters.com
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BANKING MATTERS
April/May
Overdrafts: Manage them or they will spiral out of control By Martin Lewis
Overdrafts are a debt like any other, if you don’t manage it, it will spiral out of control. While there are methods to cut the cost, they’re often far less talked about than the common techniques for cutting credit card bills – but are just as important. In a nutshell your aim should be to cut the cost and repay what you owe. Here’s my tips on how… Get paid £100 to take a free overdraft. There are two big players who offer decent deals for those with overdrafts who switch account. Though you’ll need to pass their credit score. Move to www.firstdirect.com, which is the no. 1 rated bank for customer service (92% of my web users rated it ‘great’) and you get an ongoing £250 overdraft. Crucially it also gives you £100 sign up bonus, which you should put straight towards your debt. To get it you’ll need to pay in your salary or income, which must be at least £1,000 a month. Alternatively for a potentially larger 0% overdraft there’s the www.nationwide.co.uk FlexDirect account. Yet it only gives you this overdraft for the first year, so ensure you use that time to clear the debt or afterwards it’s 50p a day. Shift your overdraft to a 31 month 0% card. While you may have heard of credit card debt shifting deals called balance transfers, a few cards also offer a ‘money transfer’ where it simply pays cash into your bank account, so you can then pay off your overdraft, meaning you then owe it instead. This is a good option if you’ve a bigger overdraft and will need more than a year to repay it. My top pick card right now is www.mbna.co.uk, which lets accepted customers do it at 0% for 31 months for a oneoff 4% fee (it’s just 2.88% for normal balance transfers). However, it’s credit score dependent, so use the www.mse.me/eligibility tool which will show you which money transfer cards you’ve the best chance of getting. If you are doing a money transfer do follow these golden rules: a) Don’t assume all cards do this, most charge a fortune.
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b) Always repay the monthly minimum or you'll lose the 0% deal. c) Plan to clear by the end of the 0% period or it jumps to the full rate - with MBNA that's 22.9% rep APR. d) If you’re unsure of what you’re doing use the step-by-step help in www.mse.me/ moneytransfers. Manage your way back into credit. Cutting the cost of your overdraft isn’t the end game, you should aim to always be in credit (or at least always within your overdraft when there’s no cost). To help do ask companies you pay to shift direct debits to near the end of your working month. If paid on the 25th, aim for the 20th. This artificially boosts your balance so you're in the red less - but don't spend the cash. Moving bill dates cuts fees, but won't tackle the overdraft. So sit down and do a budget to find out where you can cut back. Organise incoming cash and move it into bill pots at the start of the month so you're not tempted to spend unnecessarily, it’s called piggybanking. Use this technique to make payments - eg, £100 a month - to your overdraft, treating it like any other bill. Use my free automated budget planner to help at www. budgetbrain.com. Poor credit? Get 0% respite from bank charges. The options above won't help if your score's poor, but there is one card that offers 0% on spending until October even for those with a poor credit history. The www.luma.co.uk card accepts some with CCJs or defaults over a year old to get it. Now as this isn’t a debt shifting card, you have to play clever and be disciplined to take advantage of it for reducing overdrafts. The technique is you do your normal, budgeted, day-to-day spending on the card up to the credit limit, instead of from your bank account. This builds up the debt on the card, but allows your overdraft to be repaid by your income. Do ensure you can make monthly repayments to clear the card before the 0% ends though or the rate jumps to 34.9% representative APR.
To advertise in this local journal telephone 01202 233580
COMMUNICATION MATTERS
April/May
How to run effective conference calls By Mark Scott of Technovox
The conference call is a well-established tool for collaboration and relationship-building and even today it is still the go-to medium for many people because of its familiarity and ease of access.
• If it’s a large meeting, it’s quite helpful to repeat your name each time you make a contribution, as it’s not always easy to distinguish people by voice sound.
As with any meeting, conference calls can either be a great way of getting things done or a massive waste of time. Here are some tips to ensure your calls are always in the former category.
• Respect other people’s time and dial in promptly. There’s no bigger waste of time than keeping half-a-dozen other people hanging around waiting for one person to turn up.
• If you’re the chairman / moderator, dial in a few minutes early to check everything’s set up correctly and you’re ready to welcome the participants as they arrive. • Ask people to announce themselves as they arrive (sometimes the conference platform will help you with this). Always remember you don’t have the visual cues of a face-to-face meeting, so you will have to go to extra lengths to compensate.
• Discourage the use of speakerphones – they tend to pick up a lot of background noise and can sometimes cause very distracting echoes. • As with all good meetings, make sure that everyone is familiar with the agenda and purpose – if you’re not clear what you want to get out of the meeting, you won’t achieve it. Happy conferencing! For help and advice on conference calls for your business please call Mark on 01202 282426 or send an email to info@technovox.co.uk.
Simple, inexpensive Pay-as-you-Go conferencing
Tel: 01202 282426 Web: www.technovox.co.uk
Email: info@technovox.co.uk Isis Business Centre, Willis Way, Poole, BH15 3TB
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COMMUNITY MAG MATTERS
April/May
Spring forward... or fall back?
By Stephen Corney, Director at Dorset Publications Well, the clocks have just changed to herald the start of British Summer Time. As the Spring season comes into full swing it is great to see all the new growth on plants as well as the young animals being born. This got me thinking about how we should also focus on the growth of our own businesses. Whilst some are comfortable with the size of their company, others are most definitely looking to expand. But whatever the size, one thing is for certain, it is unwise to rest on your laurels... Unfortunately, nothing ever stays exactly the same. A business will, over a period of time, lose clients for any number of different reasons. It is therefore important to have a strategy to keep gaining new clients. Even the likes of Coca-Cola or McDonalds, who we might think are well known enough to not need to advertise, have budgets running into the millions to gain new clients and keep reminding
people that they are there! Whilst many businesses may not have this type of budget available, certainly more local businesses also may not need to take out the more expensive forms of advertising, such as TV, radio or national newspaper. There are more cost effective means of keeping your business in front of people, right in their own homes, that will continue to bring that flow of new or repeat clients. Whilst my title might appear a little American I do strongly feel that it is very applicable to our business strategies. Keeping your company visible and continually attracting new potential clients is vital to keep a business there, let alone to grow. For more information, give Stephen or Debbie a call at Dorset Publications on 01202 894397 or send an email to info@dorsetpublications.co.uk.
Would you like your business to reach 1000s of potential residential clients on a monthly basis? Full colour A5 glossy magazines distributed by our own team of distributors - you can rely on us! » A free article, the same size as the advert booked in one of the months, with a 3 months booking » Free advertising on our magazine Facebook pages » A free listing on our Website Directory pages » Each magazine is fully uploaded every month on the internet via our website
Call Debbie or Stephen on
01202 894397 info@dorsetpublications.co.uk
West Moors • Ferndown & West Parley • Bournemouth • Poole • Southbourne • Christchurch Page 6
To advertise in this local journal telephone 01202 233580
COMPUTER REPAIR MATTERS
April/May
Software that increases productivity
By Clifford Johnson from PCs Made Simple Like with many of the topics I have covered over the last year, productivity has been at the heart of most if not all of them. Staying productive means more time to more work which hopefully if you get it right you are making more money! Which let’s be honest is why we all are in business in the first place. So this time instead of preaching about what you should do I will be sharing some little gems of software that will aid you in staying productive. Firstly let’s dispel a few myths, that way you can concentrate on the things that help. Defragmentation; this is something every customer we see who is running slow mentions, with the increase of size and speed of hard drive defragging your hard drive does little to help it other than compressing a little space. Registry cleaning; Now this is an odd one too on its own its not amazingly useful and leaves what should be a tidy compact file covered in gaps. A Swiss cheese effect essentially and will not increase speed and may even start to cause problems. Cleaning temp files; again this on its own does not do much apart from allow you to refresh the cache of some web pages and then save some space. So the 3 items above done separately are pretty useless but done together in the right order with the right programs can be very affective! The idea is to remove unnecessary registry keys, clean up the temporary files, re-join fragmented files and then the key is to compress! The compression
is the key to the speed improvements in loading programs, web pages and general running. Below is a list of FREE! Yes FREE software than can help you achieve this. If used in the order stated above. Piriform – Ccleaner (free version not pro) – Cleans temp files and registry Piriform – Defraggler (free version) – Will reunite fragmented files on the hard drive Auslogics – Registry Defrag (Free version) – This will compress the registry to a nice tight and compact file. Like with all FREE software there is a catch so when installing these programs please read what you are installing and uncheck any boxes that want install 3rd party programs. A little warning on playing around with the registry, the registry is the heart of Windows, it’s the file that holds all settings on hardware and software and can easily become damaged if the wrong keys are removed by mistake. Always make a backup of the registry before cleaning and save the registry file to an external device such as an usb stick in case recovery is needed. As always if you want some help with this or just don’t want to do it yourself, bring your PC or Laptop down to us and we will complete a full service. This will bring the speed of your machine back to as fast as it physically can go.
We make computing easy... It's as SIMPLE as that! PC & Laptop Repairs & Sales
PCs Made Simple can usually fix any sick computer. We can also supply a new one, off the shelf or tailor made just for you.
We Come To You!
If your computer can’t come to us, PCs Made Simple can come to your computer! We cover all of Dorset and most of West Hampshire.
Tel: 01202 830121 E: info@simple-pcs.co.uk W: www.simple-pcs.co.uk
312 Ashley Road • Poole • Dorset • BH14 9DF
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FSB MATTERS
April/May
The Federation of Small Businesses The FSB is Britain's leading business organisation with over 200,000 members. It exists to protect and promote the interests of the self-employed, and all those who run small businesses. The FSB in Dorset has 4,000 small businesses as members.
Small firms on solid ground as they create new jobs and increase wages Small business confidence remains robust and firmly in positive territory, according to the first quarter results of the FSB’s Small Business Index. Lower business costs and current economic conditions are relieving pressure for firms, giving them the confidence to take on new staff, reward staff with pay increases, and successfully access finance from their banks to invest in and build their business. Businesses are increasing the number of people they are hiring for work, figures for the last three months show, twice as strong as 12 months ago. Many businesses are also finally able to reward staff with improved pay packets, which the results suggest have been supported by rising productivity growth, with the highest pay increases in the accommodation and food, and manufacturing and construction sectors. Low inflation is helping businesses’ bottom lines with the lowest-ever proportion of businesses reporting a year-on-year increase in costs, as well as putting more money in consumers’ pockets to spend in these businesses thereby boosting confidence. Against a very positive set of results, businesses continue to struggle with skill shortages, which are hampering growth. Thirty seven per cent of businesses tell us that employing someone with the right skills is a barrier for them to grow their business. This number is on the increase, a sharp rise from 25.4 per cent recorded 12 months ago.
Increasing exports against tough trading conditions in Europe is also proving to be difficult for businesses. Despite these headwinds, they nonetheless remain optimistic about prospects to increase exports in the coming months. Neil Eames, Development Manager, Federation of Small Businesses, said: “Our latest results once again paint a positive picture for small businesses with confidence amongst members remaining high, and nearly all the major indicators heading in a positive direction. The Small Business Index shows that lower business costs are enabling employers to hire new staff, showing the substantial impact small firms are having on growing the UK’s economy. It is also incredibly encouraging to see the banks approving more credit for small firms, suggesting we may have finally turned a corner on this front. One of the few areas of concern within the positive picture remains skills. It’s crucial that new and existing small firms have appropriately skilled staff and targeted support at a local level to grow their businesses. Better skilled workers are critical for the UK to close the productivity gap and achieve long-term economic growth; as well as compete with other countries in the G7, such as France and Germany. That is why we must put in place a quality, employer-led apprenticeship system to widen our skills base. We want to see the next Government build on current momentum and create conditions which promote further growth and rebalance the economy.”
FSB Local Contacts: FSB Regional Office, Christchurch - Tel: 01425 280080 - Email: wessex@fsb.org.uk Neil Eames, Development Manager, Wessex Tel: 07920 846684 - Email: neil.eames@fsb.org.uk FSB website: www.fsb.org.uk/wessex - Twitter: @FSBWessex Page 8
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FITNESS MATTERS
April/May
Are you sitting comfortably? By Angela Barton at Body Fitness Is the way you sit making you sick? Unfortunately your posture can cause all sorts of problems if you are not sitting correctly. We all know how we should sit but as the day goes on all our good intentions disappear. That stressful telephone call, a deadline that needs to be met or a boss losing his temper can all affect our posture causing muscular imbalances. This can cause chronically tight, overworked muscles in one area of your body and weak underworked muscles in another, leading to discomfort and pain. You spend most of your day sat at a computer screen, concentrating, getting lots of work done, which is great but then you find yourself suffering with a headache or low back pain. This will eventually get you down so you end up taking time off work. This is due to something called upper crossed syndrome or “the slouch”.
Picture yourself sat at your desk, shoulders hunched, neck craned forward, eyes glued to your computer... Here are a few suggestions that might ease your pain: • For headaches – Legs up wall pose Lie on your back, lift legs to 90 degrees, flush to the wall for 5-10 mins helping release tight neck muscles. • For muscular aches and pains try sniffing rosemary oil, it is known to help ease muscle soreness. This is because it calms the stress hormones that cause you to tense up. Try burning some essential oil or brew rosemary tea – inhale before each sip. • Aloe vera juice can help reduce joint pain and inflammation, also good for digestion. If you would like to find out more why not give me a call on 07813 805541 or send me an email at angela@bodytherapy.fitness
• Personal training • Holistic massage • Deep tissue massage “Angela is a tremendous force of nature. For me, she does the impossible, by making exercise fun. I always have a fantastic work out and a massive laugh. She is more of a friend than a trainer, I cannot recommend her highly enough!” Claudia Tuohy
Contact Angela now:
T: 07813 805541 E: angela@bodytherapy.fitness
www.bodytherapy.fitness
To receive a FREE copy go to www.newbusinessmatters.com
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GROWTH MATTERS
April/May
Five reasons why small changes can make a big difference By Yvette Lamidey
When business is going well we can be in danger of sitting back and just keep doing the same thing, after all if it’s working why change it… but the thing with that is we don’t then try something that might give even better results because we become more risk adverse. Or if we do something that doesn’t work we use that as a reason why we shouldn’t make changes because it could happen again even though that’s the principle of Lean Startups – learn from the mistakes and keep going. And all of that got me thinking where something is working and the same system or process is being used time and again then where are the edges of the system? How far could it really take you and the business? What would be sustainable for the business to continue or even to start to thrive? And that doesn’t necessarily mean massive investment to support additional capacity. So why should you go do things differently? Unless you start to test and push the system you won’t know if it can support greater capacity now or in the future? And potentially there’s untapped growth – after all every business owner wants to grow their business whether it’s more customers and or existing customers buying more products and services so there has to Page 10
be some spare capacity for any growth. People are rarely continuously using their skills to their greatest potential and like any muscle if it’s not used it loses its strength, ability, flexibility and capability… it’s the ability to use the knowledge and the frequency the knowledge is used that makes a difference Testing and measuring at every point in the system is really a business imperative, especially when going to market and for the sales process, it gives the opportunity to see what works very well, well and doesn’t work at all. With safeguards in place if something doesn’t work it can be changed back or changed again. And knowing the numbers for every single way you go to market so that the conversion rates and costs are fully understood gives visibility that helps drive decisions and form strategy. Just a subtle change in mind set/ thinking makes a difference…. A change of 1° in perception gives a different outlook and leads to different results. Others in your market will be testing constantly… don’t get left behind. Including understanding what others in your sector are doing and studying their campaigns. Go on… what have you got to lose? www.yvettelamidey.com
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HOSPITALITY MATTERS
To receive a FREE copy go to www.newbusinessmatters.com
April/May
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HERE IS WHAT MATTERS
April/May
ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS HERE? SHOWCASE YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE! New Business Matters, your local business to business journal gives some unique benefits to help promote your company to local business people: • Exclusive rights allow you to be the only company promoting in your trade or profession • Great coverage with over 16,000 local business people getting your article, in print and online • Opportunities to be the keynote speaker at one of our Networking Parties, enabling you to present to other clients and guests - recently a client picked up a significant amount of new business after his presentation • An advert on our website, with a direct link to your website, of 50 words and your logo For details on our advertising and marketing packages available please contact: Stephen on 01202 233580 or send an email to sales@newbusinessmatters.com Page 12
To advertise in this local journal telephone 01202 233580
INSURANCE MATTERS
April/May
No matter the size of your business or the risks, there is an insurance package that fits By John Palmer of Coversure Insurance
In the modern world insurance is a necessity, and if you own a business, it should be a priority to protect against the possibility of losing everything you have worked so hard to achieve. If you want your business insurance to be as efficient as possible, it’s important to know that you have exactly the right policy for your business. Some insurance is mandatory and some is just recommended – but don’t worry, we can help you decide on what you actually need. If a business risk exists, you can usually get insurance for it. For example, there are “key man” policies that can be taken out to reimburse the business in the event that a top employee becomes sick or dies. Or, if you are you a café that puts tables on the pavement on nice summer evenings, your local authority may have rules that require you to have £10 million of liability cover. You can buy an “excess layer” to cover this. Everybody has different needs when it comes to insurance, but more often than not, a policy can be tailored to meet your specific needs. Small business can get “package” insurance – or a “commercial combined” policy and this will typically provide cover for buildings, stock, money, liability to employees and visitors, goods in transit, and perhaps business interruption.
The bigger the business though, the more complex it becomes to get the right policy, so it is likely an assessment will need to be carried out. It is essential to factor in valuations of the property and its contents, as well as fire hazards, and health and safety considerations. All of this is worth it, though, if you want the right policy. One final word of warning. Banks will often lead you to believe that you must purchase business insurances from them if you have set up your business account with them. This is not true, and you will get better value and better advice from your broker than from a bank. If you have any questions regarding your insurance, whether you have the right cover or could get a better deal, give John a call on 0800 223 0060 or email poole@coversure.co.uk.
!
Tel: 0800 223 0060 01202 929 141 Email: poole@coversure.co.uk www.coversure.co.uk/office/poole
To receive a FREE copy go to www.newbusinessmatters.com
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INTERNET MATTERS
April/May
How to get website visitors to stay on your site longer By Gino Cirelli from Website Internet Marketing
There are many factors to consider when making sure that your website visitors spend time on your website. The main ones I want to focus on in this article are content and freshness. So how do we get ideas for content for our site? It needs to be relevant and written in such a way as to be engaging to our visitor. So starting with our visitor we should work out what they are looking for, if they are a prospective new client what do they want to know? We can build an ideal client image in our mind and imagine what they would want to know, and then answer this in a way that they would understand. This could be related to a product or service that we provide or it could be industry relevant news or even hints and tips related to business or productivity. If we have time we could organise a survey for our existing clients to ask
them what information they would find useful. It is worth thinking about what makes us unique in business and include this in our write up. Regarding freshness, old content can put visitors off and it certainly will not encourage them to return to our site. So we should work out a realistic schedule to have new content created. Aim to spend some time on the content on a regular basis, once a week would be great though even once a month is better than no updates. This could take the format of a blog or a news article section on the website. As well as engaging our visitors this will also help the website to rank better as the search engines look at how long our visitors spend on a site as well as how often the content is updated. For a free website review call Gino on 01425 200 678 or email gino@webiml.co.uk and quote NBM.
01425 200 678 Page 14
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IT MATTERS
April/May
Printer Consolidation Reduces Costs and Increases Security By Phil Ford from Copyrite Business Solutions
The Bourne Academy needed to improve productivity, accountability and reduce the running costs of their print fleet. They had been using a variety of 40 different printers, most of which were desktop models. New cartridges were needed on a daily basis which was therefore excessively costly and difficult to maintain. The Academy wanted to generate brochures, prospectuses and exam papers in-house, to give them more control on amendments as well as reducing their costs. In addition, the Academy couldn’t rely solely on government funding and had a limited budget to operate as a business, so a pro-active and enterprising approach was needed to contribute to operating costs. Solutions: All printers have been consolidated to achieve ease of use, efficiency and reduced costs. PaperCut is a print management solution which has been implemented with the purpose of: • Reducing the volumes of paper used and minimising wasted prints • Understanding how much was spent on print • Analysing existing print behaviour Rules have been established to force ‘black and white’ printing, and redirect large print jobs. PaperCut keeps detailed print logs for all printing activity, and reports can be generated to show printing by; user, printer, group, department, office or shared account.
photocopying, as they required a local, costeffective and responsive partner. Copyrite has introduced 7 multi-functional devices (MPC3002) to enable scan, copy and print, plus some small printers (SPC430). The print solution is embedded and the IT team at the Academy is working with Copyrite to further increase productivity and reduce the costs of their interval processes by driving down print volumes.” Originally the Bourne Academy office was using a colour printer (MPC6500A), which has now been replaced with a production printer (PRO651). Setting up an in-house print shop has been a major development for the Academy as a revenue generator. Due to the high quality output, the production printers’ services have been under great demand in the local community; documents have already been produced for another local school and a local football club. Results: Rob Edwards, ICT Co-Ordinator at the Bourne Academy explained, “The printer consolidation has been a success for the Academy’s internal processes; we have reduced costs, limited our risks and improved productivity. Auto-ordering of toner is excellent; anyone can easily change the toner when it is low. We anticipate increased demand for our print shop services to the local community which will enable the Academy to become more self-sufficient. Copyrite has provided excellent service despite being cheaper than competitive solutions.”
The next step of the PaperCut implementation will be to control copying and printing at the device. “Find Me” is a feature of PaperCut which solves the problem of finding the closest printer. The implementation of “Find Me” printing will ensure greater security of confidential information and reduced waste created by uncollected jobs. One of Copyrite’s Directors, Phil Ford, commented, “The Bourne Academy selected Copyrite as a supplier for their print and
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Page 15
LEGAL MATTERS
April/May
Your rights when transferring money to the wrong recipients By Dean Dunham from Consumer UK
I was sent an email this week about a dispute that someone has with his bank.
• If possible, details of where the money was actually sent (i.e. the account number)
On 3 February he went on to his online banking and keyed in the details of a payment that he wanted to make to a third party. This involved him typing the sort code and account number of the recipient of the funds and the amount. He confirmed the transaction and the money was sent from his account. However, on 5 February the intended recipient started to chase him for the money as it had not arrived in their account. John then telephoned his bank to see where the money was and after some investigation it transpired that John had typed in one wrong digit in relation to the account number meaning that the money had been sent to the wrong account. As at 10 February John had not received his money back and the bank has told him that he may never get it back. Sound familiar? To many it will, as this seems to be a common problem where the outcome is far from satisfactory on many occasions.
Once you have collated this information you should send it all to the bank’s customer services department immediately with a covering note explaining the situation. A few days after sending your email or letter, telephone their customer services department and make sure that they have received it and ask them for an acknowledgment.
If this happens to you here’s what you need to know: Time is of the essence The quicker you are at informing your bank about the problem the greater your chances are of getting the money back. With this being the case find out how long the money will take to transfer out of your account, before you make the transfer, so that you can check that the recipient has received the funds at the applicable time. If you don’t you can contact the bank immediately. How to complain If you believe that money has been transferred to the wrong recipient you will need to provide her the following information: • Date and time that you made the transfer • How you made the transfer (e.g: telephone or internet banking or within the branch • The exact amount you transferred • Details of where the monies should have been sent
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Don’t take no for an answer If your bank says that they cannot help and therefore that you have lost your money, you can make a formal complaint to their head office. Tell them that you notified them immediately and that they have a duty to do all they can to get your money back. It is also worth saying that you will take your story to the media if you’re left out of pocket. It is a fact that those that i) know their rights and ii) shout the loudest get the best results when complaining. Financial Ombudsman If you get nowhere with the bank you can take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service – www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk. The Financial Ombudsman is a free and easy service to use and can be very effective. If you do not have internet access they can deal with your complaint via the post. If you prefer this method telephone 0300 123 9 123 and ask them to send you a complaint form. The legal position If all else fails you could resort to legal proceedings. The law here is very complicated but the basic position is that where someone receives money by mistake it is called “unjust enrichment”. In these circumstances it is possible to force the unintended recipient to refund the monies. If you decide to take this route you would be best advised to contact a local solicitor. For more information visit Dean’s website: www.consumeruk.co.uk @deandunham
To advertise in this local journal telephone 01202 233580
LETTINGS MATTERS
April/May
White Goods and carpets – no longer tax deductible! By Sharon Canning from Move on Rentals
The tax year for 14/15 will end on the 5th April 2015. Firstly if you are a new landlord and you are receiving rental income, you should tell HMRC about it – contact them as soon as possible, but at the latest by 5 October following the end of the tax year in which you start to let the property. That is, if you started getting rental income in the year to 5 April 2015, tell HMRC by 5 October 2015. A bit of bad news….. As of tax year 2014, HMRC have announced that the cost of white goods is no longer a tax deductible expense for unfurnished properties. This little known fact surprised a lot of people and the HMRC released a press announcement in May 2014 confirming the ‘renewals allowance’ is now no longer. So, what are the options? 1. Provide furnished properties and claim 10% wear and tear. However, properties in Bournemouth and Poole are predominantly unfurnished and this would narrow your market audience when looking for tenants. Also, be aware that furnished means furnished and the taxman will ask for a copy of the inventory! 2. Don’t provide white goods I have definitely seen a u turn over the last 2 years where landlords are now ‘gifting’ white goods to tenants with the proviso the landlord is not responsible for repairs
or replacement. 3. Install built in white goods. If you are planning on renewing the kitchen this is an option. 4. Rent white goods. Rental of white goods would be revenue expenditure – not capital expenditure – and so the costs would be allowable. If you have a large portfolio, you could consider setting up a property company to buy the white goods and rent them to the personally held portfolio at a commercial rate. Of course, a genuine repair to keep an item in working or usable condition will still be tax deductible. If you are letting out a furnished property, then there is no change and you still can claim the 10% wear and tear allowance. Carpets will also affected by the HMRC ruling, as they do not accept that carpets are fixtures and these should be treated, instead, as free-standing appliances covered by the wear and tear allowance applicable to only furnished property. If you would like a friendly, no obligation chat regarding any property matter, then please email sharon@moveonrentals.com or telephone 01202 711169. For the weekly property show on Wednesdays 12-2pm presented by Sharon, tune into HopeFM 90.1 or visit the website and press the listen live button.
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Remous Limited, Wyvern Buildings, North Street, Milborne Port, Sherborne, Dorset, DT9 5EP
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To advertise in this local journal telephone 01202 233580
PRINTING MATTERS
April/May
It takes more than a website to win more clients! By Alan Bunter, MD of Remous Limited
Many people are still flogging the same old sales funnel, it used to be sales reps knocking on doors, then everyone got a website and businesses left it at that thinking their smart new website would generate lots of sales. But wait, that didn't happen in a lot of cases because no one knew it was there! Recently we have seen a resurgence in printed marketing thanks to the way the industry has updated, adapted and created more possibilities to catch the prospects' attention. And dynamic print suppliers who see the bigger picture are singing the praises of complementary marketing activities - combining the best of them to create a holistic campaign that includes electronic marketing, tangible marketing and 'FaceTime' with the client or prospect. A website alone can't deliver all you need, it can work for you, as can a sales rep, but to be 'that' company people talk about and want to work with, you will need to have far more than just one marketing activity. By using complementary marketing activity you can create a cumulative effect which increases your success rate. So Mr or Mrs Buyer, how do we grab your attention?! Let's look at two ways: old and new. Old: Cold calling, knock on the door, call on the phone, which ever you prefer, you have the name of the marketing manager representing your dream client. You call and ask to speak to this person, if your luck is in, you may get through (unlikely at first attempt) and proceed to explain why this person should buy your product or service. 'Because we offer great service and prices' Sound inspired? No, didn't think so. Perseverance is key, so you promise to send a brochure in the post and arrange to call in a couple of weeks. Strangely you can't get through on the second call..... New: Research this person and company before you start (why do you think Google was invented?), follow their Twitter feed, "Like" and comment on their Facebook page and look them up - maybe connect - on LinkedIn. Something to be aware of is they may not accept an out of the blue invite to connect - it could be better to ask a shared connection to "introduce" you. And Bingo! You have already put your name in the
ring without even calling. People and businesses are much more social media savvy. From this you can now begin a more direct approach, you can create a personalised brochure, describing how you may be able to help this person in their job. The brochure can have their name throughout, together with their company logo on the front next to yours! Follow this up with an invite to a meeting, but introduce the fact you are also going to call on the phone; include a link to your website via QR code. But wait, how do we send this invite? An A4 desktop pop up banner of course - bespoke to this person. Who could fail to be impressed? You then call and whilst on the phone send the link to your website, maybe a bespoke page for this client if you are using CMS. This is a more rounded and effective way to approach the prospect you want to work with and this gives you the absolute optimum opportunity to meet this person and, even better, by utilising the holistic marketing approach you have already displayed how motivated you are to work with them and your organised and professional approach - all that before you even walk in their office. If you would like to consult with us on how we can help this happen for you, call us, email us, Tweet us or find me on LinkedIn.
To receive a FREE copy go to www.newbusinessmatters.com
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PUZZLE MATTERS
April/May
Put your feet up over coffee or lunch and have a go at these!
Pop the kettle on... 6
8
9
2 5
8 9
6
6
2
3 5 4
1 4
7
3
2 3
5 7 9
2
1
6
Across
Crossword
1 Satiny (6) 4 Agricultural (8) 10 Discharge (9) 11 Rounded subdivisions of an organ (5) 12 River deposits (5) 13 Permissible (9) 14 Put in place (7) 16 Anglo-Saxon slave (4) 19 Partly open (4) 21 South African mongoose-like animal (7) 24 Astonished (9) 25 Disrobe (5) 26 Follow up on (2 words) (5) 27 Truce (9) 28 Genetic endowment (8) 29 Lines up (6)
Down
1 Skid (8) 2 Showing no enthusiasm (8) 3 Poems of heroism (5) 5 A region in northern Israel (7) 6 A weekly gift of money to your children (9) 7 Drink (6)
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8 Imbedded (6) 9 Attack (6) 15 Ended a meeting (9) 17 Making a shrill sound (as in bagpipes) (8) 18 Machines used to fasten papers together (8) 20 Glowing (7)
21 Women of reďŹ nement (6) 22 A tomb or shrine (6) 23 Stationary part of a motor (6) 25 A plant used to make rope (5)
To advertise in this local journal telephone 01202 233580
SOCIAL MEDIA MATTERS
April/May
Social Media & Email Marketing: A Marriage Made in Heaven By Mike Sharp from Mike's Online Academy
A top email marketer once said: "An email address is like a customer's ‘digital fingerprint’" With the rise of Facebook, Twitter and social media marketing, email marketing has seemingly been eclipsed by the new social media kids on the block. But before writing off email marketing consider this: 66% of consumers have made a purchase as a result of an email campaign and over 70% of mobile purchasing decisions are influenced by promotion emails. Social media can reach many more people than any other medium hands down but as you can see email marketing has a very high sales conversion rate. Social Media And Email Marketing would be a marriage made in heaven surely so how do you combine the two? Do you have a Facebook page? You can add email sign up forms to your Facebook page from email clients such as mailchimp and aweber and convert your Facebook likes into email addresses. You can collect email addresses this way by offering a free gift or inviting your Facebook fans to enter a competition.
Simply upload your email list to Facebook and your email subscribers will be automatically found and shown your Facebook ad. The beauty of this is if your customer misses your email then they will see your ad! I have mentioned Facebook so far but other social media channels can be integrated with email marketing. Twitter has a feature that allows you to "pin" a tweet so when someone checks out your profile it is the first tweet they will see. Make sure this "pinned" tweet contains a link to your email sign-up form. Be sure to add links to your email sign up forms in your social media profiles. You can also drive traffic to your social media pages by emailing your list about your latest posts or offers on Facebook,Twitter,Linkedin or YouTube video again gaining maximum exposure and leveraging your time. You will find email marketing and social media marketing are powerful allies. If you need help with integrating email marketing with social media then get in touch.
Another method of building your email list by using social media is by sending Facebook users to your sign up form by using Facebook ads If you have an email list already and you want to reach them on Facebook too you can create a custom audience through the Facebook ads manager.
T: 07478 668138 E: mike@mikesonlineacademy.com W: www.MikesOnlineAcademy.com
To receive a FREE copy go to www.newbusinessmatters.com
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UTILITY MATTERS
April/May
in everything we do... TELEPHONE, UTILITIES & ENERGY MANAGEMENT SERVICES This is your opportunity to connect with a company that can provide you with the best in contract terms and savings. No longer worry about what’s right for your business, we take on the search for you and provide you with proposals that will safeguard your future costs.
POSITIVE telecom offer competitive calls tariffs with per second billing with no inflated minimum call charges. Your POSITIVE telecom call plan will have an agreed contract term and will confirm tariffs for local, national, international and fixed line to mobile and NGN calling. Within the plan will be confirmed line rentals charges for analogue, digital and IP broadband services. At POSITIVE telecom we understand the value of communication and we also understand that looking after a fleet of mobile phones can be a time consuming though an essential task. POSITIVE telecom has a highly trained team who will talk and work with you to find out what you are trying to achieve with your mobile communications and look to improve on your savings and maybe performance as well. The POSITIVE energy team are your experts in finding you the best contracts in the utility markets and primarily manage electricity, natural gas and water/sewerage accounts. The POSITIVE team handle all aspects of market research and the transfer of your services. The team manage metered accounts and other heat systems like LPG and trade effluent. At POSITIVE we believe that harnessing renewable energy sources like solar, solar thermal and biomass is central to our energy security and, as such, have teamed up with some of the world’s best manufacturers to bring you choice of solution and peace of mind. Our experts provide a proposal of design, installation and maintenance to meet your business needs and will also advise you on government subsidies and incentives.
Contact the
team for your free no obligation meeting on
Basingstoke 01256 574471 s Southampton 02381 530471 Bournemouth 01202 916471 s or info@positive-telecom.co.uk
www.positive-telecom.co.uk Page 22
To advertise in this local journal telephone 01202 233580
VA MATTERS
April/May
Can a Virtual Assistant help you?
By Barbara Marsh of Barbara's Office Services Admin, appointment making, audio typing Book keeping, blogging, Barbara’s Office Services Copy Typing, Customer Services Databases, diary management
Excel Filing General office duties Hoping all the paperwork will go away Invoicing Jack of all trades Keeping your business up to date Letter writing Manuscripts, minute taking No time to spend building your business Organisational skills, office management
Power point slides, proof reading Quality time Retainer packages for 5 / 10 / 20 hours a month Spreadsheets, social media Typing, transcribing Under pressure Virtual Assistant Word documents Xcellent service Y not give me a ring on 01425 839550 Zap up my April special offer of extra hours included
FREE with retainer packages If you are struggling with any administrative tasks, please contact me on 01425 839550 or email barbara@barbarasofficeservices.co.uk A small business helping other small businesses
BARBARA'S OFFICE SERVICES Would you like 30+ years of experience to help run your business more efficiently & save you time and money? If you are looking or thinking about help and you want someone to work flexible hours at a cost you can afford, then call Barbara for an initial free chat or email over your business needs.
T: 07813 318466 E: barbara@barbarasofficeservices.co.uk www.barbarasofficeservices.co.uk To receive a FREE copy go to www.newbusinessmatters.com
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