Portfolio Magazine June 2015

JUNE 2015

Home work

Wake up to new ways of working

Fast Forward

Back stage

To online business videos

With musical star Michael Ball

Kerb Appeal

Tips for selling your home

&

Cool Contemporary OUTDOOR LIVING

The region’s largest property publication

FREE

INSIDE Michael Ball, page 67

12

Property News

15

What’s Trending

18

Talk Money : Advice about advisers

20

Calendar : Out and about in June

33

Social Media : Search engine optimisation

39

Overseas : Cracking Croatia

43 48 51 57 45

Calendar, page 20

Overseas, page 39

Up my Street at the Seven Dials : Nicola Gunstone Director of the Eco Technology Show Howlett Clarke : Sharing parental leave June Collection : Our pick of the best work from home spaces Cover story : Waking up to home work Cover story : One Business Network Interview

60

Shopping : Essentials for your study

63

Interiors : Living Al Fresco

66

Gardening : the month of the quintessential English flower

67

The BIG interview : Back stage with Michael Ball ... Continued over For all advertising, editorial and general enquiries contact Managing Director Lynne Edwards: 07931 537588 lynne@portfoliopublications.co.uk

www.portfoliopublications.co.uk Cover: Image Image courtesy of Neptune Design Centre www.neptune.com/hailsham

Interiors, page 63

70 Style, page 82

Golf Guy : Could’a, Would’a, Should’a

72

City news

76

National news

80 82

Business lunch : We duck in to Drakes Style : What is smart casual?

84

Brighton University goes green

90

Motoring review : The butch Audi TT

92

Hillary Clinton, page 92

The BIG feature : Hillary Clinton - Her race to the top

Want to know more about the City’s FAVOURITE monthly glossy magazine?

• Visit the website www.portfoliopublications.co.uk • See our video • Subscribe to our newsletter Business lunch, page 80

The PORTFOLIO team Business Editor: Maarten Hoffmann Production Editor: Fiona McTernan 07966 244 046 portfoliomagazineproduction@gmail.com maarten@platinumbusinessmagazine.com For advertising and general enquiries contact Lynne Edwards: 07931 537588 lynne@portfoliopublications.co.uk Designer: Sally Wynn Interiors Editor: Tara de la Motte www.portfoliopublications.co.uk portfoliopublications@dollydesigns.co.uk tara@sussex-homes.co.uk Cover: Image courtesy of John Lewis www.johnlewis.com

Chief Sub-Editor and Feature writer: Danny Lenovo portfoliomagazineeditorial@gmail.com

Managing Director: Lynne Edwards 07931 537588 • lynne@portfoliopublications.co.uk

Published by: All rights reserved. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher. The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions relating to advertising or editorial. The publisher reserves the right to change or amend any competitions or prizes offered. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior written consent from the publisher. No responsibility is taken for unsolicited materials or the return of these materials whilst in transit.

solicitors Incorporating Johnson McCabe

local & independent

We are local, independent solicitors providing an expert legal service with a personal approach Property

Civil Litigation

• Buying and Selling Property • Re-Mortgages • Freehold Enfranchisement • Lease Extensions • Buying and Selling Investment Properties

• Employment • Debt Recovery • Property • Contentious Probate • Insurance Claims • Fraud Claims to include Defending SOCA Claims • Consumer Law • Neighbour disputes • Dispute Resolution/ Mediation of Claims

Business • Landlord and Tenant and Commercial Property • Buying and Selling Businesses and Shares • Employment Law • Licensing

Commercial Litigation

• Wills • Probate and Administration of Estates • Inheritance Tax Planning and Trusts • Lasting Powers of Attorney and Court of Protection • Elderly Client Care

• Commercial contract/ Consumer Disputes • Director/Shareholders/ Partnership Disputes • Insurance Claims • Construction and Engineering • Commercial Property Disputes • Professional Negligence Claims • Intellectual Property Disputes

Vallance Hall, Hove Street, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2DE

Life and Family

Personal Injury

info@engleharts.co.uk • 01273 204411

• Family and Matrimonial • Co Habitation Agreements/Disputes • Civil Partnerships • Pre-nuptial Agreements • Divorce

• Road Traffic Accidents • Medical Negligence • Accident at Work and on Construction Site • Fatal Accidents • Structured Settlements

Wills and Trusts

For more information please contact us at Engleharts Solicitors:

www.engleharts.co.uk

W E L O V E ...

The combination of our Chichester washstand painted in Charcoal, Buckingham mirror in Black and the Ashcroft chalked rattan baskets Neptune Hailsham, BN27 1DQ, 01323 849 483, info@neptunehailsham.com

*ÂŁ50 voucher for every ÂŁ500 spent on Bedroom & Bathroom furniture between 1st - 30th June 2015. For full details please ask in-store or visit neptune.com/offers

* R NT HE SPE U C 00 VO 5 0 Y£ £5 ER EV

R FO

Albany Villas, Hove BN3Villas, 2RW Wilbury

Hove BN3 Guide Price6SE ÂŁ499,995 - ÂŁ510,000 ÂŁ490,000 25

12

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Additional benefits include period features Vestibulum at at mi mi id id felis felis sollicitudin sollicitudin tristique tristique vel vel sed sed Vestibulum retaining character and charm, west facing magna. netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. magna. netus et malesuada fames aclaid turpis egestas. and landscaped rear garden, mainly to ve purchasers only and should notdecked be relied on asseating statements of fact. lawn with areas. facilities are in good working order. 3. All Measurements are approximate.

www.mishonwelton.com

Palmeira Square, Hove BN3Villas, 2JN Wilbury

Hove BN3 Guide Price6SE £499,995 - £475,000 £450,000 52

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Nullam property and a large reception at Nullam the Pellentesque eleifend orci rhoncus. sodales augue eu ligula semper molestie.

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A well fitted kitchen/breakfast room sodales augue eu ligula semper molestie. Sed rhoncus then leads onto the low dapibus ex. Suspendisse Suspendisse egetmaintenance, rhoncus tortor. tortor. quam. quam. dapibus ex. eget rhoncus west facing, terraced rear garden, which is Vestibulum at mi id felis sollicitudin tristique vel sed Vestibulum at mi id felis sollicitudin tristique vel sed split with a neighbour. A separate WC and magna. netus netus et et malesuada malesuada fames fames ac ac turpis turpis egestas. magna. family bathroom.

The flat also has aegestas. inner courtyard which is private and secluded.

94 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 3EB

Tel: 01273 778 877

Upper Abbey Road Brighton BN2 0AD Wilbury Villas, Hove BN3 6SE of Offers in excess £499,995 £540,000 35

2 1

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Loremparticular ipsum dolorproperty sit amet, consectetur adipiscing This boasts three double elit. Praesent Praesent semper semper sembay sapien, eget molestie molestie purus elit. sem sapien, eget purus bedrooms, beautiful fronted living room/ condimentum et.

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The superb property is conveniently located next to both Brighton College and the Royal Pellentesque eleifend orci in in dui dui Kemp feugiat rhoncus. rhoncus.

Nullam Sussex County Hospital.

Town village Pellentesque eleifend orci feugiat Nullam is a short walk away with its wonderful array sodales augue eu ligula semper molestie.

Sed rhoncus sodales augue eu ligula semper molestie. Sed rhoncus of local ex. restaurant’s, coffee shops andquam. bars. dapibus Suspendisse eget rhoncus tortor. dapibus ex. Suspendisse eget rhoncus tortor. quam.

Bus services pass nearby giving access to Vestibulum at at mi mi id id felis felis sollicitudin tristique tristique vel vel sed sed Vestibulum all parts of the City sollicitudin and Brighton seafront is magna. netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. magna. netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. just a stone’s throw away.

ve purchasers only and should not be relied on as statements of fact. facilities are in good working order. 3. All Measurements are approximate.

www.mishonwelton.com

New Church Road, Hove BN3Villas, 4EA Wilbury Hove BN3 Guide Price6SE ÂŁ499,995 - ÂŁ630,000 ÂŁ600,000 5 3

2

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et pel pel int aute aute mollit dolorernam dolorernam fugitiunt ad. ad.

The house is extremely well presented et int mollit fugitiunt throughout and provides light and spacious accommodation arranged over two floors, Lorem ipsum ipsum dolor dolor sit sit amet, amet, consectetur consectetur adipiscing adipiscing Lorem together with beautiful gardens. The elit. Praesent Praesent semper semper sem sem sapien, sapien, eget eget molestie molestie purus purus elit. large through lounge & dining room offers condimentum et.

Suspendisse at ex consequat quam plenty of living space for the andquam is condimentum et. Suspendisse at exfamily consequat tincidunt blandit. blandit. Vivamus Vivamus rutrum ante sedkitchen. venenatis complimented by therutrum goodante sized tincidunt sed venenatis Downstairs offers theex, useful under pharetra. Etiam Etiamalso faucibus sagittis ex, ut ultricies ultricies lectus pharetra. faucibus sagittis ut lectus stairs cloakroom.

Upstairs the spacious lacinia sit amet. lacinia sit amet. landing then leads to all three double bedrooms and a family bathroom.

Pellentesque eleifend eleifend orci orci in in dui dui feugiat feugiat rhoncus. rhoncus. Nullam Nullam Pellentesque

sodales augue augue eu ligula ligula semper semper molestie. Sed Sed rhoncus Outside the beautifully manicured gardens sodales eu molestie. rhoncus really are a sight to behold and the gorgeous dapibus ex.

Suspendisse eget rhoncus tortor. quam. dapibus ex. Suspendisse eget rhoncus tortor. quam. south facing lawn issollicitudin a superb space for the Vestibulum at at mi mi id id felis sollicitudin tristique vel vel sed sed Vestibulum family.

There is felis also a large tristique paved area magna. netus et malesuada malesuada fames fames ac ac turpis turpis egestas. egestas. magna. et ideal fornetus sheds or the possibility of off road parking.

94 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 3EB

Tel: 01273 778 877

PROPERTY news

PROPERTY NEWS WIN TICKETS TO THE RHS CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW 2016!

Is your garden the best in Britain? If you think so, enter your garden and you could win two tickets to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016. International estate agency Fine & Country are hosting a search for Britain’s best garden. David Lindley from Fine & Country Park Lane says, “We see so many beautiful gardens, we wanted to celebrate them. Everyone is welcome to enter, whether you have a small city courtyard, large landscaped lawns or even a standalone vegetable garden, and regardless of whether your property is on the market or not.”

To enter, send an email to gardens@fineandcountry.com by 30th June, 2015 with up to five high quality images of your garden, up to 200 words and your name, phone number, and property postcode. The winner will be judged by gardening expert and columnist for The Mail on Sunday Martyn Cox and announced on 10th August 2015.

For more information on how to enter and vote, visit www.fineandcountry.com/gardens

ONLINE-ONLY AUCTION FOR NEW-BUILD HOMES

ONTHEMARKET.COM ANNOUNCE 10 MILLION VISITS IN THREE MONTHS

Allsop specialise in commercial and residential property auctions, and they are launching the country’s first ever online-only auction for newbuild homes.

This revolutionary method of sale for new properties is being launched with the auction of Phase 2 of the West Drayton Waterside development on Thursday, 11th June. Bidding will open at 10am on Wednesday, 10th June with bids starting to close from 10.05 on Thursday, 11th June.

Pioneered by Allsop, who have over 100 years of industry experience, this selling model has been carefully engineered to achieve optimum results for both buyer and seller and aims to set the UK benchmark for the sale of new-build properties.

Providing a user-friendly platform and creating an online community for the property sector, this model offers a transparent, efficient and economically viable way to invest in and sell new homes.

To visit the auction website: www.onlineauction.allsop.co.uk

OnTheMarket.com – the property portal launched as a rival to Rightmove and Zoopla – say they have achieved 10 million visits to the site with 90 million page views in just three months.

OnTheMarket.com launched on January 26, 2015, and features hundreds of thousands of properties for sale and to rent across the UK and has a membership of more than 5,000 offices spanning more than 2,500 firms.

They say that 27 per cent of their member offices are choosing to upload their new-to-market properties exclusively to their site ahead of any other portal. Ian Springett, Chief Executive of OnTheMarket.com, said: “We are confident in becoming the number two property portal by the end of January, 2016 on our way to achieving our medium-term ​objective of becoming the market leader. www.onthemarket.com

A better

perspective 12 PORTFOLIO

With a breath-taking choice, offices countrywide and an eye for what matters to you, we make moving home more exciting.

01273 772175 | winkworth.co.uk/brighton-hove

PROPERTY news

PROPERTY PROFESSIONALS’ LUNCH The next Property Professionals’ Lunch will be on Thursday, 16th July, 2015, at Pub du Vin, Brighton.

Organised by Portfolio Magazine and Searches UK, the event is a great way of networking with others in the property industry, in an informal environment, while also enjoying a three-course lunch with wine. There will be a short presentation from a surprise guest speaker, and the whole event is in support of the Rockinghorse children’s charity.

To book your place at the event on July 16th, please email Melanie@searchesuk.co.uk as soon as possible.

LOCAL HERO

ICONIC HOTEL FOR SALE The seaside hotel where James Bond creator Ian Fleming wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is up for sale.

The Lansdowne Hotel, formerly the Dudley Hotel, has welcomed such illustrious guests as Sir Winston Churchill and Noel Coward. But in recent years the once grand Edwardian seaside hotel in Lansdowne Place, Hove has fallen into disrepair, closing in January 2013. After no buyer was found Morgan Carn Partnership Architects of Brighton was appointed to draw up plans to rescue the derelict hotel. The plans, which have been approved by Brighton and Hove City Council, are to create 45 residential apartments and five mews houses at the site.

The Lansdowne Place Hotel is on the market with Mishon Mackay Land & New Homes. www.mishonmackay.com

A Sussex farmer made the national news last month for rejecting an offer of about £275m for his land from developers seeking to build a new town. Robert Worsley, who has run his 550-acre farm in Twineham, West Sussex, for the past 15 years, said he would rather protect the countryside than personally profit.

Developer Mayfield Market Towns wants to build 10,000 new homes on land between Sayers Common and Henfield. Director Lee Newlyn said it currently had about 600 acres of land under its control, but needed nearer to 1,000. The proposed development, across the Horsham and Mid Sussex districts, would also provide community facilities including primary schools, a new academy and shops.

Mr Worsley has lived in the area all his life and said for many years he had “bemoaned the fact that we’re seeing Sussex land eroded away”. “If we increased the population density to the levels that would be implied by settlements of this size, the charm and character would be lost,” he said. He maintained that no amount of money would persuade him to sell his land. “I would be guilty of huge hypocrisy if I were to be the beneficiary of just such an action.”

Despite his attempts to avoid the spotlight Mr Worsley has been upheld as an example to the rest of the community and local residents praised him on Facebook.

But Mr Newlyn said many people had said homes were needed in the area.

He said: “There is a huge shortage of housing in this region and we believe that delivering these new homes in the form of a new town, with all the proper infrastructure and facilities in place, is a much more sustainable alternative to add-on development in and around existing towns and villages”.

Roedean £3,250,000

Hove OIEO £1,500,000

Hove £1,395,000

Steyning £1,750,000

PORTFOLIO 13

BEAUTIFUL homes

WINKWORTH’S ‘A’ LISTER

A

prestigious detached residence with superb finishing and features, this home was constructed 17 years ago by the current owners to the highest standards.

The marble-floored entrance hall is impressive - with almost the entire ceiling being glass, floods of light lead you in.

The fabulous kitchen has bi-folding patio doors leading out onto the outside decking. The dining room interlinks with the kitchen making for great hosting opportunities. The wall of glass doors gives you a perfect view out to the glorious garden with lawn, patio, heating swimming pool and its very own pool house.

An additional family room is complemented by the main reception room with its abundance of light in and two patio doors open to the rear. Up the luxurious marble staircase you will find the master bedroom with its own dressing room and en-suite plus a guest bedroom or peaceful personal office.

Leading over the mezzanine style landing with its brass banister, are three more bedrooms, one with an ensuite and the other two linked with adjoining dressing room. Finally the family bathroom decorated beautifully with green limestone. This is anyone’s dream home in an exciting yet exclusive spot.

Dyke Road, Brighton BN1 Price: £2,000,000 Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 4

Why you chose Winkworth; “Everyone has told me about Sarah and that she is the best, I have known Sarah for 15 years and was reintroduced to her about 6 months ago. I have found the service at Winkworth fantastic and I have never looked back!” (Vendor)

Sarah Turck Winkworth

14 PORTFOLIO

32 Church Road, Hove 01273 772175 www.winkworth.co.uk

NEWS

TRENDING TFI FRIDAY TO RETURN TO CHANNEL 4 After much rumouring, Channel 4 have announced that Chris Evans’ cult entertainment show TFI Friday has been commissioned as a live 90-minute special that will air on Friday, 12th June at 9pm.

The special, presented by (who else?) Chris Evans, will be a celebration of the iconic, anarchic show, first broadcast in 1996, looking back at just some of the brilliant moments in its colourful history, as well as introducing some brand-new features.

Chris Evans commented, “I can’t believe it’s been almost 20 years since the first episode of TFI, and I’m thrilled to be bringing the show to a whole new generation who have never experienced the wonders of Baby Left, Baby Right or It’s Your Letters.” The special is being produced by Chris Evans’ new production company, Zimple TFI Friday Ltd, and is a tri-partite co-production with Monkey Kingdom and Olga TV. 90 minute special that will air on Friday 12th June at 9pm.

GRAYSON PERRY’S DREAM HOME As featured in the Channel 4 documentary, ‘Grayson Perry’s Dream House,’ A House for Essex is designed by Grayson Perry and FAT Architecture.

It is both an artwork in itself and the setting for a number of works by Grayson Perry exploring the special character and unique qualities of Essex. The building has been designed to evoke a tradition of wayside and pilgrimage chapels and belongs to a history of follies, while also being contemporary.

Living Architecture was set up five years ago to revolutionise both architecture and UK holiday rentals. They offer the chance to rent holiday houses designed by some of the most talented architects at work today, set in some of the most stunning locations in Britain.

For more details of the house and letting visit www.living-architecture.co.uk.

A House For Essex photo credit: Jack Hobhouse

WE LOVE:

THE VARIDESK The Varidesk is an effective, affordable, easy-to-use, heightadjustable sit / stand deskfor both home and office.

The Varidesk allows you to work from either a standing or a sitting position and makes it easy for you to switch positions as often as you like.

An adjustable platform that sits on top of your existing desk, it is super flexible and easy to use. It’s an old and recognised sales force technique when you want to make a difficult sales call, stand up to do it.Standing up takes you out of the vulnerable seated position and puts you in a stance from which you are ready to deal with the deep, instinctual dilemma of ‘fight or flight’. In addition, there are recognised health benefits from standing, including increased calorie burning.

The Varidesk starts at £275 for the single desk.

The full range can be found at uk.varidesk.com For more office ideas see pages 60 and 61

BRING THE NATIONAL TRUST HOME The National Trust range of garden containers from Woodlodge is new for 2015 and provides gardeners with timeless, elegant planting solutions.

These beautiful garden pots have been designed for both urban and rural gardens and patios and have been stylishly created to complement and enhance the plants and colours of your garden.

The Inspire range of robust glazed and part glazed terracotta pots in charcoal, blue, green and white - decorated with the National Trust oak leaf and inscribed with the words Beauty-Inspire-Nourish-Grow - are a must have this Summer. Available in four sizes RRP from £5.99 up to £39.99 National Trust garden planters are available in garden centres and nurseries around the UK. For stockists visit www.woodlodge.co.uk

PORTFOLIO 15

BEAUTIFUL homes

maslen.co.uk

Wayland Avenue, Brighton

£725,000 FREEHOLD

Expect the unexpected!

A home for various modern lifestyles; from family life to live-work, or home and income possibilities.

Fabulous views, roof terrace, gardens and garage.

Ideally located for commuting.

Energy Rating E52.

Maslen Estate Agents 290 Ditchling Road, Brighton BN1 6JF t:01273 566777 e:fiveways@maslen.co.uk 16 PORTFOLIO

LEWES ROAD

.

WOODINGDEAN

.

HOVE

.

FIVEWAYS

BEAUTIFUL homes

CAREER LADDER

This month we speak to Lucy Dawe about her role as Managing Director of Lawton and Dawe Properties, who have just opened their new office in Hove

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN THE LETTINGS BUSINESS? I have been working in property for the last 14 years and specifically in lettings for the last 12 years.

WHAT CHANGES HAVE YOU SEEN IN THE LETTINGS INDUSTRY OVER THE LAST 10 YEARS? The changes in the PRS (Private Rental Sector) have been vast, from seeing the introduction of the Housing Act 2004 to working through the most recent recession. The attitude towards lettings has also changed dramatically; letting is very fashionable due to the flexibility it offers tenants, not to mention the vast array of amazing properties there are to choose from.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB? My first-ever job was a shampooist in a hairdresser’s, where I found out very quickly I loved working with clients in a customer-facing role. I also realised that I am better at making tea and should never be allowed to cut hair.

DID YOU TAKE A TRADITIONAL ROUTE INTO YOUR CAREER? I’m not sure there is any traditional route into property. I started at a housing association, then came into an independent letting agent, eventually arriving at a London corporate. I worked through the ranks, learning how to do everything I could and becoming qualified in lettings and property management because I have to be the best at what do. Being the youngest of four, you can’t help but compete!

DO YOU HAVE ANY INDUSTRY-RECOGNISED QUALIFICATIONS, DEGREES OR POSTGRADUATE QUALIFICATIONS, ON THE JOB TRAINING, OR ONGOING PERSONAL

DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING? I have my degree in property management and lettings.

This is something I am most proud of. As lettings is an unregulated industry, I believe you must be qualified to be classed as a professional agent.

Our tenants and landlords need us to be the best we can be, and this means being qualified.

AS AN ARLA-REGULATED AGENCY, ARE THERE REQUIREMENTS TO MAINTAIN AND UPDATE YOUR QUALIFICATIONS? Yes, we have to sit the ARLA exams and be qualified to be a member of ARLA. We also have to have our client accounts checked annually. This is brilliant as it shows our landlords and tenants that their money really is safe with us.

DESCRIBE A TYPICAL DAY AT WORK… One of the reasons I love my industry is there is no such thing as a ‘typical day’. One day you can be valuing a 2.5 million pound house to let, the next you could be dealing with a broken toilet. You have to have a diverse skill set and be great under pressure. A sense of humour is also essential.

WHAT IS YOUR PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT, AND HAVE YOU BEEN NOMINATED FOR ANY AWARDS? There have been a few: I was commended by the Mayor of Worthing for the charity work Lawton & Dawe does for the Worthing Churches Homeless Project, and in particular when I summited Mount Kilimanjaro.

There is also the new office on Portland Road in Hove; this is everything I wanted my office to be, so I am very proud of the team getting us to this new chapter.

HAVE YOU ALWAYS BEEN BASED IN SHOREHAM? No, I am new to Shoreham; well,

five years new! I’m originally from Winchester in Hampshire. I moved here to put my years of property experience into my own agency and also to get a rescue dog to walk along the beach.

I have done both, although now I have Spike and Panda, our two office dogs.

IF YOU WEREN’T IN THE LETTINGS INDUSTRY WHAT DO YOU SEE YOURSELF DOING? I live and breathe property and think I am great at it, so would struggle to do anything else.

WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP? I wanted to be a lawyer. As my mum will attest for, I can argue my point of view pretty well!

WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME AS AN ANTIDOTE TO THE JOB? I work out! I have just completed my third and final marathon, I have the three peaks challenge in September and then Everest basecamp next March, so when I’m not busy at work I am busy with personal challenges.

IN THREE WORDS DESCRIBE THE QUALITIES YOU THINK ARE MOST REQUIRED IN YOUR JOB. Honesty, passion and proactivity.

WHAT IS ONE PIECE OF ADVICE YOU HAVE FOR SOMEONE WANTING TO GET INTO YOUR PROFESSION? Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself.

Lawton and Dawe Properties 1 Broad Reach, Ropetackle, Shoreham By Sea 99 Portland Road, Hove 01273 917791 www.lawtonanddawe.co.uk

PORTFOLIO 17

TALK money

FINANCIAL ADVICE A NEW PERSPECTIVE Claire Cook from Independent Financial Advisors Talk Money on reviewing your finances and getting the best from your Financial Adviser

I

f you have taken financial advice in the past, you may have used an adviser who recommended a product; you invested, then you never saw him or her again. This was typical of how some advisers worked. This is because they were paid to arrange the policy for you, not to keep an eye on it and ensure it continued to meet your needs. The result has been that many people have accumulated pensions and investments over the years and nobody is really looking after them.

In the old days, before scanning, advisers kept paper files. You can imagine that it was difficult to get information on clients quickly or to find clients invested in areas which needed to be reviewed. Unless advisers made a special diary note for their clients, many advisers’ systems did not support regular reviews. Even individual clients sometimes found it difficult to keep track of their own policies, often receiving paperwork from many different companies, trying to understand it, monitor it and file it.

Many are still in this situation.

WHAT HAS CHANGED? Firstly, advisers are no longer paid ‘commission’ on products they arrange. They may charge

18 PORTFOLIO

an agreed upfront fee (in some cases this can come from the contract if you prefer). The initial fee is sometimes lower than before, with the adviser then being paid a regular agreed amount for actually looking after your money, making reviews, and changing your investment or funds as necessary. The idea is that advisers’ income should not be dependent on selling policies; instead, it is from taking a long-term view and actually advising and managing your money on an ongoing basis.

Adviser. This is largely due to our high standards, client and portfolio management systems. Everything is scanned and we can get clear information about your finances at the touch of a button. This allows us to put a clear and ongoing plan in place for you and to manage it. You may feel out of touch with how things are going with your money; not any more. You can sign in online into your client file and get up-to-date values, updated as often as you wish.

“Sign in online into your client file and get up-to-date values, updated as often as you wish”

If you haven’t seen an adviser for a while, perhaps now is the time to do so. Bring your finances into the 21st century and deal with an award-winning IFA company. For a full review, and a free initial consultation, please call me, Claire Cook, on 01273 224667. www.talkmoney.co.uk

WINNING AWARDS! At Talk Money we pride ourselves on being part of Aspect 8. An IFA company, based in North Street, we have won many accolades, including the South East’s Adviser Firm of the Year 2014, awarded by Professional

Talk Money is a trading style of Aspect 8 Ltd, an appointed representative of Best Practice IFA Group Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The value of investments can fall as well as rise, and you may not get back the amount invested.

Beyond your expectations www.hamptons.co.uk

Orchard Road, Hove £550,000 Three bedroom new build house with garden and balcony. EPC B

The Drive, Hove £485,000 Beautifully presented three bedroom flat with stunning views. EPC N/A

Cambridge Road, Hove £650,000 Two bedroom ground floor period garden flat. EPC D

St. Leonards Road, Hove £595,000 Four bedroom house set over three floors with patio garden. EPC E

Hamptons International Estate Agents Hove Sales. 01273 796 061 | Lettings. 01273 796 063

CALENDAR of events

JUNE Our pick of June events features comedy and music legends and award-winning theatre and opera

2 June

3 June

Elvis Costello

The Beach Boys

Part of Costello’s 21-date UK tour, ‘Detour’. Costello’s recent solo shows have been some of the most adventurous of his career. The past year has seen him hit the stage of the legendary Paris venue, l‘Olympia and the Bela Bartok National Concert Hall in Budapest. In 2014, he played the re-opening concert at Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, headlined at Kew Gardens and played an intimate show at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea before touring the capital cities and small towns of Europe for five weeks in Autumn 2014. ‘The singer’s maturing voice takes his songs to even greater heights’ The Artsdesk. ‘He remains a giddy and exuberant force in live music’ The Herald Dome Concert Hall, Brighton, 8pm. www.brightondome.org

You can measure most pop music acts by how many hits they have had and how many millions of albums they’ve sold. But these conventional measurements fall short when you’re assessing the impact of The Beach Boys. This band has had a torrent of hit singles and sold albums by the tens of millions. But their greater significance lies in the fact that they changed the musical landscape so profoundly that every pop act since has been in their debt.

The Beach Boys continue to create and perform with the same bold imagination and style that marked their explosive debut over 50 years ago. For this concert the line-up will be led

by Mike Love and Bruce Johnston, who will be joined by Jeffery Foskett, Randell Kirsch, Tim Bonhomme, John Cowsill and Scott Totten.

Brighton Centre, 8pm www.brightoncentre.co.uk

11 – 20 June

4 June

East Is East

An evening with Bryan Ferry

Award-winning Pauline McLynn (Father Ted, Shameless) plays Ella Khan in the critically acclaimed East is East, which opens at Theatre Royal Brighton on June 11 before embarking on a 16week National Tour.

Pauline will be joined by some of the original cast from the West End production of East is East, including Ashley Kumar, Darren Kuppan and Sally Bankes.

Ayub Khan Din’s semi-autobiographical account of British Asian life in the 1970s and the clash of cultures between a multicultural family growing up in Salford is a play that continues to resonate and provoke discussion.

Theatre Royal, Brighton. For times and prices visit www.atgtickets.com/brighton

After an impressive set of performances around the world throughout 2014, including his lauded Glastonbury and Coachella debuts, British musical icon Bryan Ferry is currently on a 20-date UK tour in May and June 2015.

The concert will feature a set list of both Roxy Music and solo hits, and include songs from Ferry’s 2014 album ‘Avonmore’.

Ferry’s recent shows have seduced a new generation of fans and received unanimously rave reviews, with The Guardian stating ‘Byronesque Ferry glories in nostalgia of the new, re-presenting his oeuvre in a new and thrilling way’, while The Daily Telegraph say ‘Ferry cruises through 40 years – (a performance) deeply rooted in the past and yet daringly modern in its merging of genres. This was, indeed, the music of time’.

Dome Concert Hall, Brighton, 7pm. www.brightondome.org

28 June | GrandSlam Madness The Madness Summer 2015 tour takes place at some of the greatest sporting venues around the country, including racecourses, cricket grounds, rugby and football stadiums, offering concertgoers the experience of an outdoor event with a festival vibe, set within these iconic huge green spaces.

One of the most prominent bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s 2 Tone ska revival, Madness continue to perform with their most recognised line-up of seven members. Madness achieved incredible chart success in the early- to mid-1980s and have had 15 singles reach the UK top ten. www.grandslammadness.co.uk

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CALENDAR of events

18 June –25 July Educating Rita Lenny Henry makes his Chichester debut in Willy Russell’s classic, award-winning comedy about the transformative power of education, alongside Lashana Lynch in the title role of outspoken hairdresser Rita.

English lecturer Frank has never met anyone like Rita, until the Open University brings them together, changing both of their lives. Willy Russell’s touching and enduring comedy about the relationship between teacher and student has delighted audiences around the world, and celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. In recent years Lenny Henry has focused on major theatrical roles, with credits including award-winning performances in West End productions of Fences and Othello and The Comedy of Errors at the National Theatre. Like the protagonist in Educating Rita, Henry has completed an Open University degree and has spoken of this as a pivotal moment in his life.

Minerva Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, Chichester. visit cft.org.uk

25 June Suede One of the originators of Britpop with their debut single The Drowners in 1992, Suede have had a rollercoaster career, from crashing The BRITS in 1993 with an electrifyingly antagonistic performance of Animal Nitrate, then disowning Britpop with their ludicrously grand, tragic second album Dog Man Star in 1994, then retreating, galvanising and winningly unleashing the sheeny pop majesty of Coming Up in 1996 and reeling in the hits in 1997. After descending into illness and addiction in 1999, they returned in 2010 to settle unfinished business by triumphantly peacocking all across the Royal Albert Hall and taking their completely rejuvenated live show across the planet’s festivals. Suede then entombed themselves in the studio for all of 2012 and erupted from it so confidently that 2013’s Bloodsports album stockpiled directly into the top 10, and they were off again. 2015 has so far seen them crowned Godlike Geniuses at the NME Awards. De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, 7pm www.dlwp.com

COMING SOON 3 - 5 July Love Supreme Jazz Festival

28 June Lorraine Bowen

Throughout June Glyndebourne Festival

‘Sing Bacharach in Bexhill with Lorraine Bowen’. Still giddy with excitement after getting David Walliams’ Golden Buzzer on Britain’s Got Talent with The Crumble Song, Brighton-based music teacher and performer, Lorraine Bowen, is back to the day job: leading a singing workshop celebrating legendary songwriter Burt Bacharach.

De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, 10.45am. www.dlwp.com

Surrounded by the rolling hills of the South Downs, Glyndebourne’s 1,200-seat opera house is the place to be in June.

Glyndebourne Festival 2015 continues this month with Donizetti’s Poliuto (until 15th July), Bizet’s Carmen (until 11th July), and Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail (through until August). Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia is added into the programme on 5th July.

Visit the website for full details of performance dates and times. Make an occasion of visiting Glyndebourne: explore the beautiful gardens, visit the archive and the White Cube (temporary art gallery) and enjoy a picnic on the lawn during the Festival’s extended interval.

Glyndebourne Festival 2015 runs until 20th August Glyndebourne Opera House, Glynde www.glyndebourne.com

Jazz FM presents The Love Supreme Festival, which returns to Glynde Place in East Sussex this July, featuring a broad selection of international acts and outstanding emerging talent from the worlds of jazz, soul, R&B, pop and beyond.

The line-up features Chaka Khan and Neneh Cherry on the Saturday, Van Morrison and Hugh Masekela on the Sunday, plus many more acts, including Candi Staton, Submotion Orchestra, The Bad Plus Joshua Redman, GoGo Penguin and Ginger Baker.

Love Supreme is the UK’s only major greenfield jazz festival and takes place over the weekend of the 3rd, 4th and 5th July 2015.

Day tickets start at £55 and weekend tickets start at £110.

Camping, Luxury Camping, VIP, Junior & Family options available.

For full details and prices visit www.lovesupremefestival.com.

PORTFOLIO 21

52 Church Road Hove, BN3 2FN • Tel 01273 778844 113 St. Georges Road, Brighton BN2 1EA • Tel 01273 685111 10 Station Road, Portslade BN41 1GA • Tel 01273 383830

Cambridge Road, Hove - £450,000

Hove Office 01273 778844

Sawyer & Co are delighted to offer this superb maisonette occupying the top two floors of this attractive bay fronted period building. The property has undergone extensive modernisation throughout including the addition of a loft conversion creating a unique spacious property in this sought after central location. Positioned towards the top of this tree lined road, offering immediate access to the popular Western Road shops and restaurants along with Brighton & Hove seafront close by. EPC rating C

Wellington Court, Brighton Marina Village - £400,000

Brighton Office 01273 685111

A spacious, luxury, two double bed apartment overlooking the tranquil inner harbour of sought-after Brighton Marina. This outstandingly bright property is situated on the top floor of an attractive low rise building, made elegant by its paved, crescent-shaped driveway, arched windows and eye-catching green iron work balustrades. Presented with a neutral contemporary palette, high spec fixtures, private parking bay and lagoon views from all main rooms, this attractively laid out apartment would make the perfect home or investment opportunity. There are excellent public transport links to the city centre and amazing coastal and country walks on the doorstep. With the beach front and the bohemian colour of popular Kemptown minutes away, this home offers true variety of lifestyle. EPC rating C

22 PORTFOLIO

www.sawyerandco.co.uk

Mill Lane, Portslade - £319,950

Portslade Office 01273 383830

A lovely three bedroom family home high on the hill in the Foredown area of Portslade. On the west side of Mill Lane as it winds up towards Foredown, this stylish semi-detached home comes with a fresh neutral colour scheme. Its spacious kitchen/diner extends along the property’s full width and is a well-planned space. It’s a great area for families with schools for all ages nearby yet within easy reach of town by the regular number 6 bus or via the Hangleton Link road just minutes away. EPC rating D

Your Local Multi-Award Winning Estate Agent Bronze Sawyer & Co South East Agency of the Year

BEST

BEST

LETTING AGENT in Brighton And Hove

ESTATE AGENT in Brighton And Hove

2014

2014

Winner 2015 GOLD WINNER SOUTH REGION

for

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

sawyerandco.co.uk

for

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

www.sawyerandco.co.uk

SAWYER & CO

BEAUTIFUL homes

ELEGANT MANSION

S

et in the idyllic, leafy conservation enclave of Portslade Village, next to the Parish Hall, Whychcote is a magnificent, elegant mansion home relaxing behind an attractive flint wall and occupying a prime location opposite the village green. Built in 1888, this historic Victorian seven-bedroom family home is a timeless treasure offering the privilege of a wealth of history, both in its fabric and its past ownership. The rich heritage of the building has been beautifully preserved as it has passed down to each successive owner, all of whom have felt a respectful debt to the past and a responsibility to the future in maintaining and creatively developing the home further. Whychcote was originally built as a house for successful local businessman and brewery owner Herbert Mews, whose brother and business partner owned Loxdale House, another of the village’s substantial properties. In 1928, well-known theatrical impresario, Andrew Melville, proprietor of the Grand Theatre in Brighton, famous for his villainous roles, bought the property along with the village green, which was essentially his front garden until the road across it was developed. The green is now under a covenant stating that it can never be built upon.

Whychcote Portslade Old Village BN41 2LE Guide Price: £1,300,000 to £1,400,000 Bedrooms: 7 Bathrooms: 3 Extras: Self contained cottage and outbuildings, 90 ft garden Best Bits: Prime location in village green setting; wealth of history Fine & Country, 46 Church Road Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FN Tel: 01273 739911 www.fineandcountry.com/uk/ Brighton-and-Hove

24 PORTFOLIO

in association with Sawyer & Co

Fine & Country 52 Church Road, Hove BN3 2FN

Kings Road, Brighton

EPC: C

With a superb location on Brighton’s iconic seafront, this south-facing apartment entices with its appeal of seaside living. Sunny and bright, its fresh and simple decor of white painted walls and neutral carpets reflect a relaxed coastal vibe. Dazzling views of wide skies reaching straight out to sea provide an ever changing outlook and a great sense of space. Directly outside the promenade stretches for miles in each direction buzzing with a quintessentially local brio. With three bedrooms, an allocated parking space and a lift too this home has got plenty to be confident about.

Tel: 01273 739911

Roedean Road, Brighton

OIRO £550,000

EPC: D

Quietly unassuming from the front, this home readily reveals much more once inside. Designed so that the majority of rooms are south-facing, the house naturally fills with light and makes the various spaces even more welcoming. There’s an inside-out quality to the ground floor when its huge bi-fold doors opening out to the raised rear terrace, which seamlessly adjoins the open plan dining area. Designed by a Chelsea medal-winning gardener, the beautiful garden sweeps away from the terrace with an overall impression of seclusion and privacy to the rear. This is an unostentatious yet beautiful home with an easy sense of flow and a remarkable outlook.

Tel: 01273 739911

£1,400,000

Tel: +44 (0)1273 739911

Now Open in Hove…

99 Portland Road Hove BN3 5QT Lawton & Dawe Properties is pleased to not only offer professional residential lettings but from their new office in Portland Road, Hove this dynamic team will also be offering residential sales to their clients.

Lawton & Dawe Properties – Managing Homes, Not Houses…

1 Broad Reach, Ropetackle, Shoreham, West Sussex BN43 5EY

Tel: 01273 917791 www.lawtonanddawe.co.uk

BEAUTIFUL homes

IMPECCABLE STYLE

A

n awe-inspiring 9,200 sq. ft., 6-bedroom property, constructed in 2002, this highly individual family home is a unique combination of tranquillity and impeccable style. Externally fabricated with brick and tile hung elevations, the building has been created to optimise the abundance of natural light resulting from its favoured position and the panoramic views, presenting a home that is both extensive in space yet relaxing in ambience. Use of the finest traditional materials and elements throughout, such as oak and marble, imparts a cool elegance, whilst high spec technology and fixtures serve to add a versatility to the luxury lifestyle this spectacular home offers. Denon surround sound is enjoyed in all rooms, as is creative lighting, thermostatically controlled, zoned air conditioning and under-floor heating. Effective double glazing ensures high energy efficiency. Architecturally designed over three floors defining functionality and free-flow living, and with a timeless, comfortable aesthetic, the interior enhances the dramatic exterior seascape which forms the backdrop to this stunning residence.

Finale House Kingston Gorse BN16 1SG Price: OIEO £ £2,500,000 Bedrooms: 6 Bathrooms: 3 Extras: Indoor pool room; Balconies; Underfloor heating Best Bits: Architecturally designed; Dramatic exterior seascape; Free-flow living Fine & Country, 46 Church Road Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FN Tel: 01273 739911 www.fineandcountry.com/uk/ Brighton-and-Hove PORTFOLIO 27

H ME of the MONTH www.onthemarket.com

...as selected by PORTFOLIO magazine

3 bedroom terraced house for sale Princes Street Brighton East Sussex BN2

Price: £695,000

Key features: • • • • • • • •

Modern Mews Style House Three Double Bedrooms Two Bathrooms And Cloakroom East Facing Balcony West Facing Courtyard Great Entertaining Space Conservatory Central Location

CONTACT AGENT Mishon Mackay - Kemp Town 8 Bristol Road, Brighton, BN2 1AP

Tel: 01273 670067 FREE VALUATION

Making Moving a Pleasure If you are buying or selling your property, Healys offers an unrivalled legal service.

In order that your matter proceeds smoothly we offer the following as standard to our clients: • • •

Direct dial to your Solicitor No hidden charges Competitive fees

We would be delighted to provide you with a free personal quotation. Please contact one of our team on: 01273 669139 or email: property@healys.com or visit www.healys.com and complete our online quotation form.

8/9 Old Steine Brighton BN1 1EJ

BEAUTIFUL homes

SOLD 2014

SOLD 2014

SOLD 2014

SOLD 2014

H I G H VA L U E S A L E S We are delighted to report that in 2014 we sold more superb, high value homes (£1m - £4m) than any other estate agent in the Hove Park area*.

Our reputation of achieving excellent prices for our clients is demonstrated by our success over the last 28 years and in 2014 included the highest price to have been achieved on a house sale in Brighton & Hove to date.

In the first instance if you would like some bespoke advice please contact: Steve Neocleous, Branch Director, on: 01273 829 301 *18 homes sold in this price bracket across the period 09.04.14 - 09.04.15, according to Rightmove’s figures.

PORTFOLIO 29

M I S H O N M A C K AY. C O M

PROPERTY feature

SELL YOUR HOME! Thinking of moving home? Here are ten tips that will help get you moving

F

or most people, moving up the property ladder to your next dream home means selling the house you’re living in at the moment – and it’s surprising how much difference even small changes can make when it comes to getting the price your home deserves.

Whether you’ve been waiting to move for a while or you’re just considering putting your house on the market, every one of these ten suggestions can help make a difference when it comes to impressing potential buyers. Many of them involve very little investment on your part, but all of them can make a difference when it comes to getting things moving:

1.

BOOST YOUR KERB APPEAL

First impressions count, whether you’re meeting someone for the first time or eyeing up a new home.

And that means time or money spent sprucing up your home’s ‘kerb appeal’ is rarely wasted. Top tips include tidying up and repainting the front door, putting potted plants or hanging baskets on either side, fixing outside lights and clearing pathways. And don’t let that first impression slip on opening the front door. Clear up hallways and substitute untidy coats and shoes with a homely bench or flowers.

2.

CLEAR OUT YOUR CLOSETS

Buyer have few qualms about snooping in cupboards to check out your home’s storage capacity. To increase the impression of space, have a good clear-out and transfer half the stuff from your closets and built-in wardrobes into storage. Then neatly fold and arrange what’s left.

3.

DO UP THE GARDEN

A good garden makeover can add between 5 and 10 percent to a house’s value. Make low-maintenance your mantra, since most buyers don’t want to imagine a weekend spent keeping up appearances outdoors.

Don’t overstock flowerbeds with exotic flowers; instead, go for good-looking indigenous plants that require less care. Put in some herb beds: beautiful, practical and great-smelling. And remember that a good lawn is always a winner, especially if prospective buyers are likely to have a young family.

4.

GO NEUTRAL As you update fixings and fittings, remember to always err on the neutral side. Buyers want a blank canvas, not a Jackson Pollock.

That means plenty of creams, magnolias, white gloss and biscuit carpets. Repaint any bright, brash colours and strip garish wallpaper.

It’s important to be as plain as possible so you’re not relying on second-guessing someone else’s taste.

30 PORTFOLIO

5.

LET THERE BE LIGHT

After a good location, natural light usually comes near the top of most buyers’ priority lists – and it often only requires a few small changes to increase the supply of it. Taking down heavy curtains and cleaning windows will help your home feel naturally bright and cheery, as will cutting back any bushes or trees that block sunshine from your windows. Subtle use of artificial light can help too: try increasing the wattage of your light bulbs and changing any heavy lampshades.

6.

LOOK AFTER ANY REPAIRS YOU CAN

According to the Homeowners Alliance (www.hoa.org.uk), buyers tend to overestimate the costs of putting in new carpets, wallpaper and curtains, so adding new ones makes people more willing to pay closer attention to your asking price. Try a fresh coat of paint on the walls, replace curtains, get new door handles and fix leaky taps, broken tiles and dirty grout as well.

7.

123-125 Dyke Road, Hove, BN3 1TJ

01273 232 232 property@austingray.co.uk www.austingray.co.uk

SEND PETS FOR A SHORT HOLIDAY

You may love your cats and dogs, but there’s no guarantee that potential buyers will. Bowls of food, smelly litter boxes and pet hairs give the impression that your home is unclean, however unjust that might seem. A viewing is a good time for somebody to take the dog for a walk. If you have several viewings in a week, you might want to consider sending your pets to stay with a friend.

8.

TAKE THE HOME OUT OF THE HOUSE

If your house is crammed with personal items, potential buyers struggle to imagine themselves living there. Try to put a third of your stuff in storage, including family photos, posters, memorabilia, ornaments and any personal keepsakes strewn over surfaces.

9.

“For advice with the sale of YOUR property contact Graham Farthing”

TEMPT BUYERS’ SENSE OF SMELL

Property experts have long known that aromas of baking bread and freshly brewed coffee make a space feel more homely. Stick a loaf in the oven or brew up a cafetiere before viewers arrive. If there’s a chill outside, consider lighting any stoves or open fires and burning pinecones for their warming scent. A recent study by the luxury house builder Millgate Homes, found that the scent of white tea and fig boosted sales of its properties dramatically!

10. READY TO SPEND? DO IT ON THE KITCHEN With the amount of attention that buyers pay to it, you could argue that you’re not actually selling your house – you’re selling your kitchen. So if you’re going to spend on anything, make it this room. The priority should be a smart, new design and an efficient work area, including new countertops and easy access to the three points of the kitchen triangle: the sink, fridge and cooker. Property expert Phil Spencer reckons that, if you get the kitchen right, you could add 4.6 per cent to your house’s value..

Thanks to Nationwide Building Society www.nationwide.co.uk

Wilbury Gardens, Hove £1,350,000

138 Old London Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 8YA 01273 508955 www.mansellmctaggart.co.uk

Superb five bedroom detached house in sought-after location Price: £799,950 Freehold

Green Ridge, Brighton BN1 5LL

An outstanding individual five bedroom detached house, newly modernised and extended to a high standard, making this a stunning, well designed contemporary family home.

The ground floor offers a flexible family layout featuring a stylish kitchen/dining room with high gloss units, bespoke quartz worktops, quality Bosch appliances, Samsung American style fridge freezer and there are folding doors opening onto the landscaped garden.

There is a peaceful lounge with wood burning stove, a home office/bedroom which would also make a great childrens den/tv room and lastly, the bonus of a cloakroom and separate utility room.

Upstairs features four double bedrooms with an en-suite to the spacious master bedroom and a fabulous family bathroom with a roll top bath and separate shower enclosure.

The outside features off-road parking and a 14’5 x 8’4 garage to the front and a landscaped garden approx. 69’ in length with a generous 29’8 x 13’8 paved terrace at the rear.

www.mansellmctaggart.co.uk

nTheMarket.com

SOCIAL media

CREATIVE CONTENT Craig Vile from Angels Media on the importance of having a coherent and thorough content strategy

I

n the past few years you may have heard that content is king, queen or whatever else. Well, this is certainly true, and ever since Google made significant changes in September 2013, relevant and well-written content has never been more valuable for the digital marketing of your business.

The aforementioned algorithm changes made by the search engine giant, named Hummingbird, meant that any existing search engine optimisation (SEO) programme became worthless overnight.

The days of ‘black hat’ methods and link farms were instantly over, and since then it is the creation of educational, informative content – placing you as an expert in your field – that will help your agency to rank better in Google searches.

This new strategy means that everything you do online is transparent and always there; you are effectively building a sustained digital marketing campaign from the bottom up.

So, how do you go about harnessing the power of content to benefit your agency? Well, firstly, you need to agree what keywords and search terms you want to target, be it estate agents in Brighton, instant online valuation or something completely different. Once you have

identified these terms, they must run through everything you do from blogs and news articles to website copy and Google AdWords campaigns.

Blogs and articles you create need to be on your website as well as being shared through all of your social media channels, blog directories and trade publications/websites like Estate Agent Today and Letting Agent Today. Doing this not only allows you to drive traffic back to your own website and expand

“A content campaign needs to be sustained and frequent” your reach, but it allows you to create one-way inbound links to original content on your blog – something that is invaluable for your agency’s search engine optimisation.

To have a beneficial effect on your business, a content campaign like this needs to be sustained and frequent. This means you need to be writing, uploading and sharing at least

one relevant blog/article a month. What’s more, as well as naturally including keywords in the text wherever possible, a relevant call to action gives your content purpose and the ability to capture data. For example, a link to an instant online valuation (as discussed in previous columns) is the perfect call to action for a blog targeting vendors.

Another way of getting regular content on your site is via an RSS or XML newsfeed.

These help to create interest and drive traffic to your site. However, it must be noted that this content is not unique and won’t benefit your SEO, despite retaining audience and reducing your bounce rate.

The battle to get your website up the search engines while generating and converting leads at the same time is not an easy one. Having a coherent and thorough content strategy, however, is one of the keys to making sure your agency comes out on top.

That’s it for this month. Many of these services are available through Angels Media. For further advice on your agency’s digital marketing strategy, please get in touch on: 0208 663 4963 or craig.vile@angelsmedia.co.uk.

BEAUTIFUL homes

34 PORTFOLIO

BEAUTIFUL homes

PORTFOLIO 35

9 Offices Covering Brighton & Hove 27 Offices in Sussex 37 Offices in London

OSBORNE VILLAS, HOVE Stunning Maisonette just off Church Road. The property benefits from having its own entrance, lounge through diner, separate kitchen, three bedrooms, bathroom and separate WC. This property is being sold with no onward chain and owns a share of freehold. EPC tbc

PRICE £500,000

Drew Bailey, Hove Office 01273 820280

GORHAM AVENUE, ROTTINGDEAN This extensively refurbished 4 bedroom detached house situated in the highly desirable area of Gorham Avenue in Rottingdean.

The property benefits from a recently extended kitchen/breakfast room with an exemplary quality finish, 4 double bedrooms, 2 en-suites, solid oak flooring throughout and a log burning fire.

Sympathetically refurbished throughout, this property must be seen. EPC tbc

PRICE: £895,000

Nick Pashby, Rottingdean Office 01273 309968

CHESHAM STREET, KEMPTOWN, BRIGHTON This beautiful house in the middle of the colourful Chesham Street has four double bedrooms and a lovely private garden. The house is beautifully decorated with original period features such as detailed cornicing and refurbished sash windows.

Accessed through the kitchen there is also a cellar. EPC tbc

PRICE: £860,000

Edward Middle, Kemptown Office 01273 688148

www.rightmove.co.uk www.primelocation.co.uk www.fox-and-sons.co.uk

TIVOLI COPSE, CLOSE PRESTON PARK STATION, BRIGHTON Fox and sons are delighted to offer this delightful five bedroom detached house. Situated in this unique woodland setting having been built by the current owner appoximately 10 years ago. The house which has wealth of oak floors and wood fittings including, staircase architraves and skirting boards, three receptions rooms, five bedrooms, two bathrooms including an ensuite to master bedroom, kitchen, dining room, double garage with potential to create granny flat subject to usual consent with garden crying out for landscaping. Situated in a private residential close off Woodland Avenue with easy reach of Preston Park station, local schools, shops in Preston village, Preston Park and bus services to the city and centre and sea front. EPC tbc

PRICE: ÂŁ1,000,000 Robert Harding, Preston Park office 01273 508761

OVERSEAS

CROATIAN RIVIERA

British Developers Pin & Pin lead the luxury residential market in Croatia with the announcement of two new projects

B

ritish developers Pin & Pin are pleased to announce the release of two new residential projects as they continue to set the benchmark for developing the highestcalibre properties on the Dalmatian Riviera.

Established in 2004 by brothers Alex and Adam Pinion, Pin & Pin set out with a clear objective: to create the most exceptional homes in Croatia. Identifying a gap at the top end of the market for new-build luxury properties, the pair considers the Riviera to be the ideal spot to invest, thanks to an attractive climate, rich cultural history, largely untouched coastline and over 1,000 stunning islands. Most importantly, it remains noticeably underdeveloped compared to many of its European counterparts.

Pin & Pin recently launched The Hills, Dubrovnik a small and private collection of fourand five-bedroom villas with panoramic views to the Elaphiti islands in the desirable Orasac region. Just a short drive from Dubrovnik Old Town, the architecture draws inspiration from the rich traditions of the region, using stone facades and authentic natural materials within a surrounding landscape comprising olive groves, Cypress trees and vineyards. Each villa will have its own private pool and vast terraces to enhance the Mediterranean lifestyle and can

be delivered either fully furnished or designed to individual buyer specifications.

A guaranteed yield of 4% net for 3 years is available, offering owners unlimited use of their property from the end of October until

“Pin & Pin mastermind award-winning projects from conception through to completion and specialise in newbuild, ocean-fronting, premium villas on the Dalmatian Riviera” the end of April, one week during the months of July and August and 2 weeks during May, June, September and October. All Pin & Pin properties which have the offer of a guaranteed rental yield come fully furnished, with a choice of furniture packages.

Also just launched is Villa Ivy, a majestic property bordering a serene bay on the south side of Brac Island. The 500sqm fourbedroom property is spread over three floors and features a gymnasium, wine cellar, home office, private moorings, floating dock and a spectacular infinity edged swimming pool with majestic views. The design combines modern lines with traditional materials to complement the villa’s surroundings and offers open plan living enhanced with floor-to-ceiling retractable windows.

Setting the Pin & Pin portfolio apart are the villas’ prime locations and a focus on the very best quality of build and design, executed by a team of carefully assembled professionals, including architects, engineers and interior designers. This has allowed Pin & Pin to mastermind award-winning projects from conception through to completion and establish themselves as one of the only companies to specialise in new-build, ocean-fronting, premium villas on the Dalmatian Riviera.

Pricing: The Hills, Dubrovnik 4-bed villas from €900,000. Villa Ivy €2.8million For more information contact: 00 3 8521 553 299 or visit www.pinandpin.com

PORTFOLIO 39

Residential Estate & Letting Agents • Land & New Homes Brighton & Hove City Office Residential Sales & Lettings 3-6 North Road, Brighton East Sussex BN1 1YA Sales 01273 688881 Lettings 01273 688884 E brighton@oakleyproperty.com

North Laine £650,000

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2

2

A four storey property forming part of a gated cobbled mews with a rear patio and southerly roof terrace. Ideal home/income or home office opportunity.

Central Hove £375,000

2

1

2

A first floor converted flat with a south facing terrace and oblique sea views.

oakleyproperty.com

Lewes Town & Country Residential Sales & Lettings 14a High Street Lewes East Sussex BN7 2LN T 01273 487444 E lewes@oakleyproperty.com

London Office 40 St James’s Place London SW1A 1NS T 020 78390888 E enquiries@tlo.co.uk

2

Central Brighton £525,000

1

2

A sixth floor penthouse style apartment with two good sized sun terraces offering superb views across Brighton and to the sea.

Central Brighton £499,950

2

1

2

A third floor aparment with lift access presented in a modern contemporary style with a secure underground parking space.

BEAUTIFUL homes

MANOR HOUSE T

his unique seven-bedroom country home, with beautiful landscaped gardens and set in the Sussex countryside, offers versatile accommodation over 7000 square feet. The property is presented to the highest standards.

On the ground floor there is a beautiful 32-ft dual aspect living space with vaulted ceilings. The contemporary fitted kitchen/dining room opens through to an impressive glass-roofed orangery overlooking the beautiful gardens, and the fully-heated outside kitchen. There is a fullyfitted home cinema, games room and office space. The seven bedrooms all have en-suite showers and bathrooms fitted to the highest standard and featuring the latest technology. In addition there is a two-bedroom annexe which could be used as a revenue stream through rentals or holiday lets.

Outside, there are large landscaped gardens along with ample undercover parking. The property is situated within 4.5m of Uckfield Railway Station with direct routes to London Bridge.

The Manor House, Framfield, TN22 5RE Guide Price: £1,790,000 Bedrooms: 7 Bathrooms: 7 Extras: Fully-fitted cinema room; Parking for numerous vehicles; Fullyheated outside kitchen Best Bits: Substantial residence spanning 7000sq ft; Finished to an exacting standard; Scope for home office/workshop Oakley Residential Brighton & Hove City Office 3 North Place, Brighton BN1 1YA 01273 688881 www.oakleyproperty.com PORTFOLIO 41

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UP MY STREET... ...WE SPEAK TO NICOLA GUNSTONE ABOUT WHERE SHE LIVES AND WHY SHE LOVES IT

NICOLA GUNSTONE IS COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR OF THE ECO TECHNOLOGY SHOW WHERE DO YOU LIVE? I live in the Seven Dials. I first bought my property there in 2001, and, after having been away from it for nine years, moved back and was pleasantly surprised to find the area had grown up with me, from one of students to an area of young professionals and families. There is a real community spirit and a great variety of shops, restaurants and pubs, all within a two-minute walk.

It’s in the middle of everything, just a short walk to Brighton station, North Laines, centre of town and Hove.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU LIVED IN BRIGHTON & HOVE? I have lived here on and off for many years, with stints in Australia, Asia, London and Bristol in between. My mother’s side of the family are original Brightonians, my Grandmother was a Gunn, and although I have lived all over the world, I always end up back here.

WHERE DO YOU SHOP IN YOUR LOCALE? There are so many amazing places in Brighton, but I definitely have my favorites. I’m a regular for breakfast at Silo, who do the most amazing slowbaked eggs. The Cow is our local and is always full, no matter what day of the week; do the best roast by a long way in town, and Small Batch still wins on the coffee front - always full of such nice people, too.

ARE YOU A MEMBER OF ANY LEISURE OR FITNESS CLUBS AND IS THERE ANY SPORT OR LEISURE ACTIVITY THAT YOU PURSUE LOCALLY? We are so lucky living so close to the beach. There is nothing quite like going for a long run or walk out to Hove lagoon or Rottingdean along the undercliff.

I’m also a member at Fitness First and do a couple of grueling spin classes a week. Hot yoga at Yoga Haven in the winter months keeps me out of trouble.

ARE THERE ANY OTHER AREAS OF THE CITY YOU WOULD LIKE TO LIVE IN? Brighton is such a diverse place, with so many little communities within the city. I could live Preston

Park way – around the Golden Triangle – but it would be difficult to get me away from where I am now; there is just too much on offer.

WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE IF YOU WERE IN CHARGE OF THE COUNCIL? Even though I run the Eco Technology Show I also own two businesses; therefore, the parking costs would need to be lowered straight away. We had to move the Show out of town as our visitors and exhibitors said that the cost of parking and congestion due to the 20-mile-per-hour zones were prohibitive to them coming. This says it all for me! I lived in Bristol for three years, which has far more cyclists. However, instead of punishing drivers, they rewarded cyclists, and this seems to work.

WHERE DO YOU GO FOR A GIRLS’ LUNCH? My favorite restaurant in town right now is the Salt Room. I went there with my three best girlfriends not long ago and we had an amazing time.

WHERE DO YOU ALWAYS TAKE VISITORS? There are so many wonderful places to visit in and around Brighton. The undercliff walk to Rottingdean is always a winner. Or a trip to Arundel, Alfriston or the Bluebell Railway. Both the North Laine and South Lanes for a bit of shopping… The summer is amazing in Brighton with so many festivals, theatre shows and parades going on, so we are never short of things to do!

DO YOU EVER HANKER TO LIVE SOMEWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD? I was lucky enough to grow up as an ex-pat in Sydney, Australia until my early teens, and went back for five years in my late twenties after a year living in Kuala Lumpur. Travelling and living abroad isn’t scary to me, although I’m pretty settled at the moment, which is odd as I usually get itchy feet after four years, and I have been back in Brighton for five now. I definitely feel an affinity for Vancouver, in Canada. I’m not a big fan of big cities like New York and London; they are great for a weekend away, but I soon feel suffocated.

The Eco Technology Show 2015 takes place at the Amex Stadium, Brighton from 11th to 12th June, 2015 | www.ecotechnologyshow.co.uk

PORTFOLIO 43

Bognor Brighton Chichester Crawley Crawley Down Eastbourne Felpham Goring

01243 624726 01273 287210 01243 624725 01293 762326 01342 349709 01323 458167 01243 624727 01903 641736

Horsham Country Homes Hove Kemp Town Lancing Littlehampton Midhurst North Bersted

01403 342210 01403 342211 01273 287211 01273 287212 01903 649091 01903 649093 01730 402032 01243 624728

Preston Park Rottingdean Steyning Storrington Worthing Western Road Newhaven Newhaven Lettings

01273 287213 01273 287214 01903 641734 01903 641735 01903 649092 01273 649092 01273 803207 01273 803254

Saltdean 01273 803221 Saltdean Lettings 01273 803275 Peacehaven 01273 803236 Peacehaven Lettings 01273 803307

EPC D

EPC D

EPC D

Hove

Brighton

Hove

£875,000 - £900,000 | 01273 287211

£600,000 - £625,000 | 01273 287213

£575,000 - £600,000 | 01273 287211

This stunning six bedroom link detached family property includes three reception rooms, kitchen/breakfast room with electric Aga and a conservatory.

Four Bedroom Victorian home featuring an extended kitchen/breakfast room situated within walking distance of Preston Park train station.

A superb four bedroom family property located in Goldstone Valley only moments from Hove Park including a large south west facing rear garden.

ST IN

W IO NE RUCT

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STUNNING 4/5 BEDROOM PERIOD FARMHOUSE WITH GOOD SIZE GARDEN N

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This four/five bedroom semi-detached former farmhouse is situated in Ovingdean Road, in Ovingdean, a sought-after picturesque village, on the outskirts of Brighton. The spacious property oozes character, with the benefits of modern day fittings.

The ground floor offers several reception rooms. The entrance hall with wood flooring leads to the living room with open fire and wooden panelled walls. There is another sitting room with open fire and a separate study room. The stunning fitted kitchen area with polished granite worktops and tiled flooring opens on to the dining area with wooden flooring and gas-fired log burning stove. This then leads through into a conservatory, which gives access out onto the rear garden.

An open plan breakfast area also opens off from the kitchen, with high ceiling and skylight, and leads to a separate utility room and out onto the courtyard area.

The first floor is home to the four good size double bedrooms, with the master bedroom having wall to wall fitted wardrobes and a luxury en-suite shower room EPC Cbathroom suite with separate shower. There are picturesque EPC D C with under-floor heating. Plus the luxury family views from most rooms to the front and rear EPC of the property, looking out onto paddock fields.

Saltdean Brighton Telscombe Cliffs The rear garden is accessed breakfast room areas, with a paved patio area (suitableAfor table andspacious chairs, barbecue and entertaining) A well proportioned three from the conservatory andThis well presented home delightfully bedroom detached bungalow in the centre of a popular bungalow occupying an and pathway to the side, with flowers and shrub borders. This leads onto a mainly laid-to-lawn rear garden, on level ground, with Magnolia tree, fruit trees, situated in an enviable, eclectic community is light, enviable corner position leading to the rear end of the garden where there is a vegetable growing area, with large wooden shed/workshop to the side.

The flint walled surround, over elevated position with bright and colourful, with with a sunny wrap around stunning views out to sea. over the paddock fields of thespaces can be adapted and which picturesque views Southwhich Downs National Park are seen, has a gate givinglandscaped rear accessgarden to the garage. for flexible living. ample off road parking.

A front garden area is enclosed by a low flint wall, with a crazy paved pathway to the front door, bordered by lawn and flower beds on both sides. To the side £425,000 - £440,000 | 01273 306661 £350,000 | 01273 287210 £325,000 - £325,000 | of the house is the garage.

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GUIDE PRICE: £700,000-£750,000

Awaiting EPC

EPC C

Rottingdean

Brighton

A two bedroom ground floor apartment situated in a private gated development with a communal swimming pool, tennis court, driving range, gym and sauna.

Very spacious two bedroom second floor apartment in the very sought after Marina Village just a short distance from Brighton’s seafront and beautiful marina.

Newhaven

Modern detached family home comprising lounge, through kitchen/dining room, three bedrooms, en-suite shower room and attached garage.

A PICTURESQUE SETTING WITH VIEWS OVER PADDOCK FIELDS

£300,000 - £330,000 | 01273 287214

£250,000- £275,000 | 01273 287212

£250,000 - £260,000 |

We We sell sell more more homes homes to to London London Buyers

•

Sales

kingandchasemore.co.uk

•

Lettings

•

Land & New Homes

•

LEGAL matters

SHARED PARENTAL LEAVE New legislation about parental leave came into force in April. Howlett Clarke on how the new legislation affects employers and employees

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ew rights came into force in April allowing parents to share leave following the arrival of a new son or daughter. For mums and dads-to-be this is a welcome change in legislation which represents a step in the right direction for parents and is reflective of modern lifestyles.

Subsequently, employers across the country have been working to implement a new set of procedures which accommodate this groundbreaking change in legislation. It is now fundamental for any employer or parent to make themselves aware of these changes and how they could be affected.

How does it work?

Shared parental leave applies to all parents who are currently in work. This includes cohabitating couples, same-sex couples and couples bringing up a child together (regardless of whether the baby is from a previous relationship or not). Previously, only

the mother has been able to take the majority of paid time out of work. However, changes now mean parents can share leave together in a flexible fashion.

The legislation came into force on April 5th of this year and staff will only be eligible for leave if their baby was due by or matched/ placed for adoption by this date. And, any leave must be taken between the child’s date of birth and first birthday.

Taking into account the above criteria, eligible parents are entitled to share up to 50 weeks of leave (37 of which are paid). This starts after an initial two-week leave period, which is compulsory for any mother to take following the birth or arrival of a new-born.

Statutory shared parental pay is set at £139.58 per week or 90% of your average weekly earnings for the first 6 weeks of leave and the lower amount thereafter.

One of the fundamental benefits of utilising shared parental leave is the level of flexibility

it can offer both parents. If required, both parents can take leave simultaneously in one block for the full 25 weeks each. Alternatively, they may decide to divide leave into smaller blocks incorporating periods of work in between. It really depends on how they wish to use their leave, although they should give their respective employer 8 weeks’ notice before any leave date.

Alex Jones is a Solicitor based at QualitySolicitors Howlett Clarke 8-9 Ship Street, Brighton BN1 1AZ. 01273 327 272. www.qualitysolicitors.com/howlettclarke See more from Howlett Clarke at www.portfoliopublications.co.uk

PORTFOLIO 45

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Rand &C o Lettings & Acquisitions

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h me OnTheMarket.com is the new, simple way to search hundreds of thousands of properties.

More and more estate and letting agents are moving all their properties from other sites to OnTheMarket.com and are advertising them exclusively with us first.

So, for a head start in the hunt for properties you won’t find anywhere else, search OnTheMarket.com.

Agents’ Mutual Limited – A company limited by guarantee. Company No: 8381458. Registered in England & Wales. OnTheMarket.com and the associated logos are registered trademarks of Agents’ Mutual Limited.

Registered Office: 3rd Floor Connaught House, 1-3 Mount Street, London W1K 3NB, England.

THE collection

THE JUNE COLLECTION Whether you work from home or need a peaceful study, we have found some of the nicest homes on the market with proper office space… Some of them even have a lovely view…

Cabin fever Carol Close, Patcham, Brighton Discreetly tucked away on a large plot with panoramic views and mature trees, this unusual and extended detached home has four bedrooms, three bathrooms and three reception rooms. The bright lounge flows into a beautiful conservatory and gives access to the large wrap-around garden. Two bedrooms are linked to a dressing room and separate wet room, ideal for children. There is a separate family bathroom and en-suite shower room to the master bedroom.

Outside, there is a large cabin/office, ideal for a home worker, as well as a block paved driveway and garage with parking for several vehicles.

Price: £649,950 Spencer & Leigh 01273 565566 www.spencerandleigh.co.uk

48 PORTFOLIO

THE collection

Study space Ovingdean Road, Ovingdean, Brighton Four-bedroom, semi-detached farmhouse cottage situated in this sought-after, picturesque village. Nestled behind flint walls and electric gates for privacy, the property oozes character.

The ground floor living room leads though to the dining room, with wooden block flooring, and an open fire, and on to the kitchen. Off the dining room is a 12’ sun room/conservatory with access out onto the rear garden area and further leading to the separate office space with its mezzanine area to the side for added storage.

There are extensive gardens to the front and back and a detached garage.

Guide Price: £700,000 to £725,000 King & Chasemore 01273 301066 www.kingandchasemore.co.uk

Garden office Benett Drive, Hove This detached bungalow is deceptively spacious and is actually arranged over three floors. Not only is there a self-contained office at the back of the house within the garden with power, internet and telephone, but beneath the house there is potential for an annexe, and plans have been drawn up for a selfcontained one-bedroom flat, with the infrastructure ready for the new owner to arrange the accommodation to suit their purposes.

There is polished wood flooring throughout the free-flowing downstairs, and four bedrooms, a sun terrace and the lovely garden add to this property’s appeal.

Price: £875,000 Mishon Mackay 01273 821800 www.mishonmackay.com

Central style Gloucester Yard, North Laine, Brighton This four-storey property is part of a modern, cobbled, gated mews situated in the heart of the North Laine conservation area of central Brighton and ideal for a central office and home. The accommodation consists of a modern ground-floor office/work space and a stylish two-bedroom maisonette with a fabulous southfacing roof terrace. With engineered wood flooring throughout and a rear patio garden, the property is ideally suited for home/income, home office or investment.

Price: £650,000 Oakley Residential 01273 688881 www.oakleyproperty.com

PORTFOLIO 49

EVER WISHED YOU COULD HAVE YOUR VERY OWN SMALL MAGAZINE FOR YOUR COMPANY? Maybe we can help.

For an informal chat or to arrange a meeting to discuss how, call Lynne today.

07931 537588 www.portfoliopublications.co.uk

WORK FROM HOME The number of UK home workers has grown by 45% in the last 15 years and this trend is set to continue. We investigate…

A

ccording to Characteristics of Home Workers, a survey conducted by the Office of National Statistics, of the 30.2 million people in work in January to March 2014, 4.2 million were home workers. The number of UK home workers has grown by a massive 1.3 million (45%) since 1998.

As technology continues to advance, a business expert has predicted that the way we work will fundamentally change in just 20 years, with flexible and shared office space replacing fixed office space in many cases.

With the growth of cloud-based services and mobile devices, people may no longer need a permanent desk and will increasingly also work from home or utilise pay-as-youuse alternatives, says unified communications expert Tim Meredith from Daisy Group.

He explained: “The business world has become extremely fast-paced and organisations need to be able to react quickly to survive. Office space, on the other hand, requires long-term financial commitment and maximum occupancy, otherwise it becomes a huge financial drain.

As technology continues to advance, a business expert has predicted that the UK’s office property sector, worth £2bn per annum to the economy, will fundamentally change in just 20 years, reflecting the changing requirements of working space.

The nine-to-five shift is becoming less common as more businesses allow their employees to work flexibly, which means workers no longer need to be desk-bound and there is less need for fixed office space.

“The number of UK home workers has increased by 45% since the start of the millennium, and I anticipate this trend will continue. By 2035, businesses will be following the lead of freelancers and start-ups by renting fully-equipped office space or portable workstations as and when they need them. Both options are increasingly attractive because they cut real estate costs, office overheads and travel expenses.

“The mass availability of affordable tools like video conferencing software, internal social networks and intranets are enabling businesses to create virtual teams around the country that can collaborate, and I can only see flexible working and the trend of pay-as-you-use desk space and meeting room provision growing.”

The rollout of superfast broadband and 4G connectivity across the UK is also helping facilitate the move away from the office. Increasingly, workers are able to access software and applications that were traditionally only available at the office from their homes via VPNs and the cloud.

Alongside the number of UK people working from home reaching more than 4 million, technical ‘mobile device management’ solutions have been developed to enable organisations to monitor their remote workers’ activity.

Removing permanent offices means businesses have to create processes and implement tools, such as cloud-based productivity apps, to monitor worker performance. A large proportion of employees will actually enjoy the freedom afforded to them and this will lead to improved morale and output.

Although the office may disappear, communication and physical interaction with colleagues in close proximity will still be necessary.

Organisations must ensure that staff attend regular meetings with their

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52 PORTFOLIO

peers and always have the opportunity to use office facilities if needed – which is where rented or shared office spaces become viable options.

Many new start ups encourage employees to collaborate by sharing files via Dropbox, communicate via instant messaging service (Slack, for instance), and use Skype when they require face-to-face interaction. In order to build team spirt businesses can arrange meetings a few times a year year at an agreed hired venue.

“Organisations must ensure that staff attend regular meetings with their peers and always have the opportunity to use office facilities if needed – which is where rented or shared office spaces become viable options” Michael Siliwinski, Founder of Nozbe, one such company, explained the business rationale: “Offices are incredibly distracting places to work at, but at Nozbe we are able to start early and take breaks when we want, ensuring maximum productivity. However, it is important that we have the right communication channels in place so that everyone is aligned and has a common understanding of team activities and needs. Despite the fact we all work from home, we actually feel more connected than most workforces that operate using traditional offices.”

Phil Jones, Managing Director of Brother UK Ltd, said recently that the workplace will become the ‘workspace,’ with less defined areas, more ‘turn up and work’ environments. “The age of work/life balance is over; it’s now about blend.”

Jesus Luna Garcia, Senior Researcher, Cloud Security Alliance, points out that we are moving beyond the home office: mobility, he says, is far beyond the 80s concept of home office, because nowadays it means that even while traveling you can access your IT resources anytime/anywhere.

Tim Meredith advised that the savings associated with removing fixed property costs is a ‘no brainer’ for businesses as they look to improve performance.

He added: “Eliminating fixed office space means businesses can become more agile and, most importantly, save thousands of pounds which can be reinvested for their staff and customers. The next generation of workers are digital natives and at ease using the technologies available, so it really is a no-brainer to let them work remotely.”

Andrew Frost, Daisy Group. www.daisygroup.com

FEATURE

10 GOLDEN RULES FOR WORKING FROM HOME: 1. BE REALISTIC There’s no point working from home if you’re not going to get the job done.

If you work primarily in an office, make sure your at-home days don’t cut you out of the loop in terms of internal meetings or liaison with suppliers or clients. Gauge whether a video and/or telephone conference call will be sufficient. Keep on top of projects and hit your targets.

If you’re self-employed, decide whether you can operate from home or whether you really need separate business premises.

2. CREATE BOUNDARIES Consider converting a spare room or the loft into a dedicated work space somewhere that allows you to function at your best and will be respected as a business area by the rest of the household.

Don’t just lug the laptop into the living room. The presence of the TV and other distracting devices might mean you don’t give work your full attention.

3. GET KITTED OUT Once you’ve sorted a suitable workspace, consider what you’ll need in terms of a desktop or laptop computer (if you don’t bring them home from the office). Will you need a printer, a filing cabinet, a shredder, an extra phone line?

4. GET THE BROADBAND SPEED YOU NEED Even if you already have home broadband, there’s a chance it might not be up to speed when it comes to dealing with the extra demands of a business user.

So take another look at the current broadband deals on offer, remembering that bundled packages aren’t always the most cost effective, and upgrade to a business plan if need be.

5. BE ALERT TO ENERGY USAGE Cutting out the commute will save you money in travel costs, but extra time spent at home will lead to an increase in your energy bills, so it’s important to be savvy with your usage.

During the winter, if practical, only heat the room you’re working in. When the weather warms up, cool the house by opening doors and windows instead of using a fan.

Other energy saving tips include not leaving devices on standby, unplugging chargers when not in use, and switching to a cheaper energy tariff.

You may also be entitled to tax relief on your energy bills, speaking of which...

6. CLAIM YOUR TAX BREAKS If you use your home as the base for your business, you could be entitled to tax relief on some of your expenses, such as the extra cost of gas and electricity and business phone calls.

You may also be able to claim tax relief if you have a ‘homeworking arrangement’ with your employer and only work from home some of the time.

You don’t have to work from home every day, but there must be a regular pattern, such as two days at home and three in the office each week.

You might also be able to set the costs of running a car against your tax bill if you are self-employed - your accountant will know.

If you’re self-employed or running a company, depending on your turnover, you might have to register for VAT and other business taxes. For more information, visit the HMRC website.

7. SORT YOUR INSURANCE Working from home has insurance implications, so standard buildings and contents cover might not cut it. If you’re self-employed, run a business and/or hold stock or other items at your property, you’ll probably need a dedicated business policy.

If staff, clients or the public will be visiting your home in a work capacity, you’ll need to consider employer’s liability (which is mandatory for employers) and public liability insurance.

8. DATA SECURITY CAN BE AN ISSUE If you’re taking devices away from the office to use at home, it’s vital they have the latest security software installed and are password protected and encrypted to stop unauthorised eyes from seeing the data if the device is stolen, misplaced or hacked.

If you’re accessing your work network remotely, make sure all access is secured using a virtual private network (VPN). Your employer will have strict rules on what you can and cannot do.

If you’re self-employed, make sure you protect all your own data in case of theft, and back-up files so you don’t lose work or business records.

9. STAY MOTIVATED Lack of motivation is the scourge of the home worker. Once enthusiasm levels drop, even the most mundane of household chores can become a welcome distraction. Then there is the lure of social media, online shopping and TV. If you struggle in the self-discipline department while online, there are apps and browser add-ons that set limits on the time you can spend on certain sites, such as StayFocused (Chrome), LeechBlock (Firefox) or MindfulBrowsing (Apple’s Safari).

10. GET THE JOB DONE It can be all-too-easy to spend the day in your pyjamas, dipping into work in between doing household chores and running errands. But work should be your priority.

So treat working from home as you would working in the office. Get dressed for business and set a realistic but demanding schedule. Start at a set time and stick to scheduled breaks. And make sure everyone else in the house understands the boundaries and respects your schedule.

Thanks to Money Supermarket, www.moneysupermarket.com

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AP Solutions design, make and install bespoke home storage solutions which are tailored to your needs. All of GAP Solution’s stylish sliding wardrobes and room dividers are bespoke and made to measure to perfectly blend with your needs and lifestyle.

Their mantra is design and ease of use. With sleek modern designs and quality craftsmanship, their team of designers and carpenters can create office and bedroom storage solutions to fit any space, without ever compromising on quality and design.

Greg and the team at GAP Solutions have spent years building up their stylish storage and wardrobe options for customers throughout Sussex. They also offer beautiful storage solutions throughout the rest of the home, especially office spaces.

With an innovative option to design any space using different products from different ranges, customers really can create a contemporary and personal look.

The systems are flexible to fit all types of minimal or larger office spaces and are perfect for home office and teenagers or students’ working spaces.

Many homes now operate with multi-functional rooms, and a simple sliding room divider can shut off a section of the room when necessary. Families often prefer the family computer to be in a common area, such as the lounge or kitchen, where parents can keep an eye on safety. The option of closing this all off for a dinner party or work meeting provides a solution which is both stylish and seamless. Others may simply want the option of hiding away shelves of paperwork and office equipment from the outside world.

As well as their sliding doors, GAP Solutions also have a range of robust shelving units that can be used concurrently as storage and as a room divider. Glass doors can be added to match any chosen interiors, offering a contemporary alternative to plain wall shelving.

All of GAP Solution’s doors are available with a softclose system, making them virtually soundless, and all carry a 10-year manufacturing warranty.

View lots of options at the extensive showroom at Unit 5B, Enterprise Business Park, Crowhurst Road, Brighton BN1 8AF. For more information on GAP Solutions, call 01273 550050 or visit www.gapsolutions .co.uk

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SOCIAL event

Andy Keir

Harry Bridges, Simon Stern, Tommy Kelly, Lisa Mariner, Andy Keir

HOVE FALLS IN LOVE WITH THE BETTER HALF Liam O’Byrne, Lizanne Harris, Gareth Jones

Danny Lenovo, Lynne Edwards

On the evening of 21st May, The Better Half pub at 1 Hove Place, Hove, held its official grand opening night. PORTFOLIO magazine mingled with locals and friends to help launch this new food and drink establishment.

The new pub – which somehow, amazingly, feels like it has always been here – was bustling and lively with drinkers, diners and well-wishers.

Great food was served, and local ales such as Bison Beer and Harvey’s ale, flowed by the pint. There were also delicious, varied wines from Europe and the New World on offer, plus premium spirits and ciders.

The pub itself struts comfortable, vintage décor with a splash of the contemporary, courtesy of Brighton graphic designers “We Like Today.”

Laterin the evening colourful Brighton band The New York Dollies took to the stage and performed their cheeky punk covers in a 1950s style, enthralling the audience and heightening the atmosphere.

The Better Half 1 Hove Place, Hove BN3 2RG

PORTFOLIO 56

Paula Seager, Norman Miller, Rachel Simm

Kate Howard, Claudia Knight, Hilary Knight, Patrick McGuigan

FAST FORWARD The happy marriage of 21st century video and imaging technology and the internet is transforming the way businesses market their products and brands. Portfolio’s Danny Lenovo picks the brain of local digital marketing guru, Jai Michael, Co-Founder and Project Director of One Business Network (OBN), Brighton & Hove

A

nyone with even a pinkie finger on the pulse of brand marketing will know that multimedia marketing tools are transforming the way companies increase their brand awareness. Whether you are looking at Facebook, using Twitter or a variety of other social media, the impact and ubiquity of video and still imagery are truly in your face.

(Sorry.) The use of videos and images with high quality content has become so prevalent that Marketing Week recently said “...as the use of images and videos becomes increasingly pervasive on social networks,

failing to maintain the same standards as other users is likely to lead to lower conversion rates.� In plain terms, then, if your business is not keeping up with the standard of visual presentation of your competitors, you are missing a trick and probably missing business opportunities. In an effort to gain insight into the role of digital marketing at local level, I had a cuppa with the Co-Founder and Project Director of OBN (One Business Network), Jai Michael.

“Looking at websites as a whole, you should have a site that grabs visitors’ attention immediately, nails them to their chairs and makes them want to see more”

Consultants. Our mission is to provide powerful online tools to help clients optimise their online image, products and services.

One of the many services you offer is online promotional videos. How do you see video marketing fitting in with more traditional online promotion, such as websites?

I set out to have a quick look at your website last night and ended up having a right old romp. It’s a brilliant site. You describe OBN as ‘a group of innovative professionals’ who are dedicated to producing ‘powerful online marketing tools’. Would it be fair to describe OBN as a ‘media company’?

Well, we certainly do use a wide variety of media to provide solutions to the marketing needs of our clients. We are Online Marketing

58 PORTFOLIO

Looking at websites as a whole, you should have a site that grabs visitors’ attention immediately, nails them to their chairs and makes them want to see more. Considering what some companies spend on advertising and promotion, many websites are colossally boring. The textual bits are often too long and read like a telephone book, the visual images are of dubious quality and sometimes lack relevance to central messages of the site.

Furthermore, recent research has shown that most visitors to websites prefer to see video presentations rather than read long textual segments. OBN can provide websites that make your business stand out from the crowd, and embedding a riveting, impactful video presentation into the site will differentiate you from your competitors. And that’s what it’s

all about in a competitive market: grabbing attention and standing out from the crowd.

Portfolio Magazine readers include estate agents and their customers, lawyers and conveyancers, in short, a range of professionals who deal with property sales and advertising. How could these professional groups benefit from OBN services?

First of all, they should all have a top quality, mobile-friendly website that presents their brand and services in a powerful, interesting way. Everyone has a website these days, but few of them utilise the inherent power of the online visual marketing experience. Most sites are “text heavy,” offer more information than anyone can assimilate and ignore the undeniable fact that most of us prefer to see a video rather than read a long, boring written piece. All of the professional groups you mentioned would benefit from having a first-class website with stunning videos and stills. Estate agents and hotels might find our drone images very useful in showing potential clients what their company has to offer. But even lawyers, conveyancers, financial services

BUSINESS feature

companies and accountants could make a much stronger impression by including a high quality video presentation of their services within their websites. These videos could be quite simple and inexpensive, providing maximum impact and great value for money.

Sorry, I thought you said something about drones...?

Yes, that’s something new for 2015 in our range of services. We have drones with 4K cameras, the ultimate in video image definition.

4K is ultra high-definition video. Estate agents marketing more exclusive properties would be able to show breathtaking views of these special properties, showcasing their unique features and characteristics in a way that would set them apart from the competition and give them a significant marketing advantage.

All right, let’s assume I have a successful estate agency company and have seen the value of having a powerful online presence.

Will I have to take out a second mortgage to finance my hot new video marketing tool?

Absolutely not. So many things have changed since 2005, when I was involved in one of the UK’s very first online TV channels, Absolute Brighton TV. The technological advances have been mind-blowing, video streaming costs have plummeted, we now have Facebook, You Tube, Twitter, smart phones and tablets and the technology to interconnect all these media. Crucially, we can do this inexpensively.

A video presentation on your website, for instance, could cost as little as £1,250. Given the long lifetime of this form of promotion and the potential for making a huge impact, this is great value for money.

You must have noticed that OBN also have competitors. What makes you stand out from the crowd?

One Business Network offer a full range of services, from website development to promotional videos, business imagery, voice overs, marketing copy and much more.

Recently we have added print and print design products to our otherwise broad range of online marketing tools. Have a look

at our website for full details. Our greatest asset, however, is the depth and breadth of experience and knowledge our consultants bring to the feast. Our technical professionals (based in the UK) work on commercial projects with the likes of BBC and ITV, our copy writers are top professionals in their fields. Once a client has approached OBN, a project director will be assigned to see the project through to completion. We are all dedicated to providing a product that our customers will benefit from for years to come.

“Our mission is to provide powerful online tools to help clients optimise their online image, products and services” For further information on how to boost your company’s profile, call One Business Network’s regional office on 01273 840587.

By all means log on to their website at: www.onebusinessnetwork.com and have a browse.

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SHOPPING

THE HOME OFFICE www.marksandspencer.com

Your home office needs to be smart, stylish and an inspiring place to work. Make your office space work for you with these top buys…

SLEEK SOUND The ultra-portable Beoplay A2 Bluetooth speaker weighs just 1.1kg, and has stylish, interchangeable carry straps.

Ideal for use anywhere, from the office to the beach. The Beoplay A2 Portable Bluetooth Speaker is available at: Bang & Olufsen, Church Road, Hove. £299.00. www.bo-sussex.co.uk

STICK IT ON! These cityscape wall stickers will transform your office space into something aspirational and are a fantastic way to re-design a space. New York Chrysler wall sticker, £115.00 from Idyll Home. www.idyllhome.co.uk

LIGHT UP

CONSOLE DESK The compact Cato red desk is perfect for smaller spaces, with elegant, slimline legs and a useful storage shelf for paperwork.

Habitat Cato console desk, £125.00. www.habitat.co.uk

60 PORTFOLIO

Flexible and portable lighting is a must in any office space, especially when working on a computer. Habitat offer a great range of affordable and stylish lighting.

Pictured: Sian white metal LED desk lamp, £75.00.

Dex white metal LED desk lamp, £25.00. Bertie white metal LED desk lamp, £40.00. www.habitat.co.uk

FILE IT! Practical A4 storage that looks good too. Keep important documents neat, tidy and close to hand with these Bills and To Do File boxes, £13.00, from The Contemporary Home. www.tch.net

CHALK IT UP Keep on top of your list with this great update to a blackboard. ‘To do’ Wall Sticker, £35.00 from Cloudberry Living. www.cloudberryliving.co.uk

CASETTE TAPE Who said that office accessories had to be boring? This is one to make you smile. J-Me Rewind Tape and Desk Tidy, £18.00, from John Lewis. www.johnlewis.com

EXTEND IN STYLE BESPOKE WALLS Rebel Walls’ murals offer a choice of dramatic wall images, sized specifically to your room’s dimensions.

Choose from their gallery or create your own photo wallpaper of your own designs online.

Available at Mister Smith Interiors, New Road, Brighton www.mistersmith.co.uk

The Tonelli Server glass, home office extending desk is a fantastic use of space with no compromise on design. The extending section is on castors; when pushed back, it hides the roomy interior storage area. Available at Go Modern Furniture, £2,400.00. www.gomodern.co.uk

TOP DRAWER Cute Helmer drawer unit on castors is from IKEA, comes in silver, white or green and is super-compact as well as super-affordable.

Helmer drawer unit, £25.00. www.ikea.com

DESIGN CLASSIC Iconic, quintessentially British brand Anglepoise produces an incomparable series of practical, energy-efficient task lamps. See a great range of Anglepoise desk and standing lamps at Heals. Pictured: Anglepoise Type 1228 Desk Lamp in pink, £130.00. www.heals.co.uk www.ikea.com

www.neptune.com/hailsham

INTERIORS

AL FRESCO LIVING A garden can be a place to work, rest and play – and eat and entertain. Portfolio Interiors Editor, Tara de la Motte, on how to make sure your garden is a stylish outdoor living space

W

hen the sun comes out, there’s nothing more enjoyable than sitting in your own garden. Whether entertaining friends or just lounging with a glass of wine and a good book, in creating a garden in which to enjoy such delights, it is nice to set the mood with stylish, comfortable furniture and accessories.

Good garden furniture is an investment, so it is important to make sure it is comfortable, hard wearing and easy to maintain. The furniture you choose should be in sympathy with the exterior of your home, too. The cost of your garden furnishings will depend on the design and level of craftsmanship; basically, you will get what you pay for.

Where you place your garden furniture is as important as its style and construction. Create an enticing corner within your garden that will serve as an extra room where you can have enjoyable gatherings with friends and family. Complete this room with comfortable seating, a table to gather at for a meal and a barbecue for the cooking. Surround this corner with scented plants and herbs to complete your seating area.

www.neptune.com/hailsham

PORTFOLIO 63

GARDEN FURNITURE Natural Wood Garden furniture made from premium timber is sturdy, comfortable and will last for years.

This type of furniture will age beautifully, is very practical and blends sympathetically into natural settings. As it is solid timber the weight makes it a stable choice in windy conditions.

Furniture made from oak is the most expensive. Oak can be easily bent using steam, giving the furniture strength and beautiful curves. Much of the oak furniture remains bespoke as it is not mass produced and is usually handmade. Timber furniture is hard wearing and does not need preservatives as it has a natural protective layer.

For a less expensive option, teak wood furniture is not only hard wearing but will weather naturally to a mellow tone of silver grey, which can be both beautiful and charming and will look good in any garden setting.

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Classical Stone Stone or concrete furniture can of course be left outside in all weathers and will look even better with age. This type of furniture is handsome and durable and will make a great visual impact. Stone furniture is extremely grand and available in various classic or architectural designs but will be an expensive choice.

Lightweight Aluminium Very durable and affordable and is almost maintenance-free.

Aluminium furniture comes in an enormous range of designs and can easily be moved around the garden. This metal is rust-proof, rot-proof and frost-proof, but will still retain heat in the sun, so use lots of cushions and a parasol. For great durability, choose powder coated aluminium.

Stylish Wicker Today, natural wicker furniture is slowly being replaced by man-made wicker pieces.

Woven around aluminium frames and made

from vinyl and resin, it offers a very realistic alternative to natural wicker and comes in a number of different weaves. This furniture is very light, resistant to corrosion and highly durable. These pieces are also UV-protected.

Modular patio or garden furniture is definitely the fashion, with easily stackable patio sets that save space and are aesthetically pleasing.

Contemporary lounging has become more laid-back and stylish. Our gardens and patios now seem to feature more beanbags, day beds, large cushions and low-seated sofas and chairs that rotate, tilt and are even suspended, adding the fun factor into outdoor living.

Eating Alfresco – Barbecues There is no better way to enjoy the great outdoors than with a barbecue. On a warm summer evening make a social occasion of outdoor dining with a barbecue. With such a great variety of barbecues on the market, you can choose one that grills, roasts, fries or even boils.

INTERIORS

Whether you prefer the smoked taste of food cooked over charcoals, or prefer the idea of a gas barbecue with lots of space and extra features such as a griddle, pizza stone or even a meat roaster, there are barbecues that provide all these facilities and more.

There are small portable barbecues to fully-assembled gas and even electric barbecues that will suit every need. With a gas or electric barbecue you can cook all year round and enjoy great, succulent food.

Lighting Finally, treat your garden like an outdoor room by carefully considering the lighting, warmth and accessories.This will create a great outdoor space that you can really enjoy.

Use candles, lanterns and solar-powered fairy lights to create a visual wonderland and to set the mood for evening parties with friends.

To extend the entertaining late into the night, invest in a garden heater or a fire pit. A fire pit not only provides warmth, but is great for toasting marshmallows, too.

“Where you place your garden furniture is as important as its style and construction”

See more interiors ideas at www.portfoliopublications.co.uk

PORTFOLIO 65

INTERIORS

INTO THE GARDEN With the arrival of glorious June, spring slips away and summer makes its appearance. This is the month of the quintessential English flower – the rose. Portfolio Interiors Editor, Tara de la Motte, shares her tips for the month

Things to do in the garden this month

T

he rose is surely the traditional floral emblem of England. The rose is enjoyed for its great beauty, fragrance and flavour like no other flower. It is the queen of the garden.

The rose is not only admired for its beauty and fragrance, it is one of the oldest plants known to mankind and England happens to be its home. The rose also symbolises love and romance. Even William Shakespeare mentioned the rose in ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

Older rose varieties such as Gallica, Damask, Alba and Centifolia were highly perfumed and beautiful but were limited in variety and would only flower just the once. However, today, hybridisation has given us thousands of new rose varieties which have inherited the very best characteristics from the parent plants and will flower repeatedly while being resistant to disease. We now have many modern rose cultivars in various colours and forms. Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ is a heavily scented, modern shrub rose suitable for the cutting garden, with lots of fragrant blooms. Rosa ‘Harlow Carr’ has a real old- fashioned scent and Rosa ‘Evelyn’ has an apricot aroma. For a hint of tea and bananas, try ‘Summer Song’.

66 PORTFOLIO

Climbing and rambling roses bring charm and grace to the garden. An ordinary structure can be transformed by a climbing rose. An outdoor dining space can be made special by training a scented climbing rose over a pergola or a gazebo near the seating area. Thornless Rosa ‘Zephirine Drouhin’ has flushes of large, deep-pink and scented double flowers – ideal for training over any structure or wall. Rosa ‘Madame Alfred Carriere’ produces endless clouds of blushing white flowers and is a real luxury in the garden.

Caring for roses ensures wonderful summer blooms. The time to prune roses is over Christmas up until the end of February. To prune roses, simply remove any old or weak stems to encourage new growth and reduce the height of the plant by about half. Feed the roses well with some bone meal in spring and summer to help promote better blooms.

Finally, take time out to visit a few traditional rose gardens and you will be truly amazed by the variety of scents.

See more garden ideas at: www.portfoliopublications.co.uk

n Regularly dead-head to prolong flowering period n Add colour to terrace, patio or balcony with miniature or patio roses in pots n Cut the lawn more frequently and edge grass n Check roses for pests and diseases, spray if necessary n Stake tall-growing perennials like delphiniums n Water only when necessary, but plants in pots must receive regular watering and should never be allowed to dry out

“Climbing and rambling roses bring charm and grace to the garden”

BEAUTIFUL homes

CENTRE STAGE Michael Ball returns to the Sussex stage at the Chichester Festival Theatre in July. After four decades in the business, it’s refreshing to hear the charismatic performer admit his passion for performance is as great as ever, as PORTFOLIO discovers

M

ichael Ball has a curious charm. It’s one you might not conceivably notice at all, until, that is, you consider the breadth of warmth, respect and affection that follows around the actor, singer, performer, presenter and radio DJ.

PORTFOLIO 67

“I love the adrenalin of the stage – it’s really what actors and singers do it for”

CELEBRITY interview

In today’s rather pigeon-holed world of entertainment, where everything has a place, a channel and a slot, Michael Ball is irrepressibly free of tie; he emits a ubiquitous force of elegant energy that slips across different projects and envelops an audience, offering perhaps the widest of demographics.

Oh, and if you hadn’t already noticed, he’s resplendent in his modesty, too. “Listen, I’m just one of those lucky people who is thrilled to have a job he loves,” he begins, with a thrust of energy and eye-widening enthusiasm. “I’ve never taken myself too seriously - I can safely say that. It’s the entertainment business, and when you’re doing your best to be funny and charming and all of that, it’s difficult to carry around too much attitude.”

Ball, who turns 53 at the end of June, has been a feature on our televisions and radios since the late 1980s. It was then he sauntered into our collective consciousness with the hit Love Changes Everything and the catchy Eurovision perfect pop contender, One Step Out Of Time (which took the UK to second place). He was already a hit on the West End stage with appearances in Les Misérables and Aspects of Love, though theatre has had to battle with recording work in the years that have followed, with Michael having released 19 solo albums as well as having appeared regularly on almost the same number of entertainment

shows, from The National Lottery to Children In Need, This Morning to The Michael Ball Show, The One Show to his popular Radio 2 slot (Sunday Night with Michael Ball) to cameos in Coronation Street and Toast of London. “I’m not sure why they keep calling me back!” he laughs. “But every time it’s a pleasure, and it’s all about keeping yourself busy when you get to my age!”

Michael’s current project sees him go fullcircle as he returns to the Chichester Festival Theatre, starring as Mack Sennett in Mack & Mabel, a light-hearted music-infused love story that offers a nod of approval to the era of the silent movie. It’s his first time back at the 1,200-capacity venue following his celebrated

us. The south of England in general is just fantastic for the arts, no matter what you’re into.”

Indeed, as well as protecting his own interests, Michael is renowned for his encouragement of others when it comes to exploring the cultural offerings all around us. “I don’t think it really matters what you’re into,” he says, “just make sure you’re into something. Personally, I like to supplement theatre with the opera, a concert with a bit of trash TV – and you know, so what?

It’s all about immersing yourself in what makes you happy.

“Yes there are a few arts and culture snobs out there, but I say let them get on with that. We’re lucky to be living in a time when there is so

performance in 2011’s Sweeney Todd, and he’s looking forward to renewing a few old acquaintances.

“I always said I’d be coming back, and four years feels about right. Mack & Mabel is a true story of romance that is now 40 years old, having been performed very successfully on Broadway and the West End. We’re opening in July, so the preparations are building now; it’s a really exciting period in the lead-up, and you soon get to the point where you just want the waiting to end and the show to start.”

He admits that, in Mack & Mabel, his new project may not be the most familiar to the theatre-going public, but invites them to step into what is a magical and romantic tale. “You know, sometimes I think not knowing too much about a story is a real advantage. We can all go to watch Les Mis and know precisely what’s going to happen and when... and that’s great; we’re waiting for it. But sometimes I just feel it’s really good for the soul to step outside of the comfort zone and explore something really new, be that a place, an item on the menu or a theatre production.”

The performer hails from Worcestershire but now lives in West Sussex. Is the proximity to Chichester a telling factor in his current project? “No, although venturing home afterwards is significantly easier compared to being in the West End!” he laughs. “It’s great living in Sussex, and we’re very lucky with the number of amazing theatres we have around

much creativity spread all around us, so why not consume what makes us happy without pressure?”

“Personally, I like to supplement theatre with the opera, a concert with a bit of trash TV – and you know, so what? It’s all about immersing yourself in what makes you happy” Speaking of pressure, it’s strange to think that such a seasoned campaigner can still feel the heat, despite 40 years on stage, when the curtain lifts. “I love the adrenalin of the stage – it’s really what actors and singers do it for. Yes, there’s the adulation, but it’s the challenge; it’s craving that feeling of ultimate satisfaction when you get back to your dressing room. For as long as I continue to crave that, I’ll search out new projects.”

We get the feeling that could be for a while yet...

PORTFOLIO 69

GOLFGUY...

COULD’A, WOULD’A, SHOULD’A Continuing our page of golf tips… This month: Don’t get short-changed by your short game

GolfGuy writes: You are leaving the putting green with a playing partner who just ‘saved’ a bogie after a duffed chip shot and, trying to cheer her up, say something like “Well done, that was a good result on a tough hole.” The look on her face tells you that silence would’a been golden.

Brow furrowing in consternation and lower lip a-quiver, she says, “Aw-w-w-w-, it could’a been a birdie, especially after that gorgeous drive and magnificent fairway metal to within 65 yards of the centre of the green. If only that pitch shot hadn’t gone so far off the back of the green...”

You commiserate, adding that it would’a been at least a par if she hadn’t then slightly fatted the next chip shot, leaving herself a long par putt. Two putts later, what should’a been at least a par became a bogie. Sound familiar?

We have all been there: a beautiful drive on a par 5, right out of the hot spot, followed by a quality fairway shot that comes to rest well within the 100-yard zone, leaving, for most of us, an approach with one or another wedge or lofted club. Most of the time we strike the ball reasonably well only to come up woefully short of the pin, or stand there gawping as the

ball bounces near the pin and then races off the back of the green, often requiring another wedge shot, which we then sometimes fat or thin, perhaps because we are still seething from the last shot. What started out as the tasty prospect of a par or birdie has left us feeling like mugs. All because we struggle to control the distance and, sometimes, the quality of our short iron shots.

Could’a, would’a, should’a...How do we break this costly pattern?

GolfGuy

GOLF

The Golf Pro replies: Follow-through is key! If the shot is not a full shot, it is crucial to understand the length of swing you are trying to make. To work out your distances you must understand that the length of swing determines the length of stroke and although you can ‘speed up’ or ‘slow down,’ you cannot accurately control ‘milesper-hour’.

Please see the chart below to help you understand your distances.

This will enable you to feel your distances by length of the swing you make.

Stand in an open field and make 10 swings with the same club and the same swing length. For example, use your pitching wedge and a swing that feels to you like 9 o’clock to 3 o’clock.

After making these shots you should see that the ball is landing around the same area. Put the distance into your grid and you now have a distance to work with.

Once the grid has been filled out you will have plenty of distances to work with.

On the golf course the key is to envisage the end position of the clock face on the follow through

READER OFFER

In summary: • Correct club selection • Ball position in the middle of your stance with not too much shaft lean • Concentrate on getting to the finish position of your intended swing for execution

From now until the end of June I am happy to offer the following to help your short game.

If you have any questions please feel free to email me at: lee@ midsussexgolfclub.co.uk

•

Bring this article with you to Mid Sussex Golf Club, and when you pay for a round, another player can go free.

• •

A one hour consultation on your swing, technically and points to address A one hour lesson on working on controlling your distances and expectations A one hour lesson on bunker play and putting

Cost for this package is £147. Quote June Portfolio Publication and get the same offer for £100

With thanks to our golfing expert, Lee Andrews, PGA Golf Professional, Mid Sussex Golf Club www.midsussexgolfclub.co.uk

PORTFOLIO 71

CITY news

CITY NEWS Please note these are the personal views of our City Editor, Maarten Hoffmann

ROCKINGHORSE ARE DOMESTIC & GENERAL CHARITY OF THE YEAR For the first time, Domestic & General offices from across the UK have been able to select a local charity to support for the whole year. Offices in Brighton, Nottingham, Wimbledon and Bedworth will host employee events and initiatives to raise much-needed funds.

The Brighton office elected Rockinghorse as its local charity of the year following the inaugural vote across the 900-strong contact centre team.

Many employees have a personal affiliation with Rockinghorse, knowing individuals and families who’ve been supported through the charity’s work.

Rockinghorse is the official fundraising arm of the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital and also supports the Trevor Mann Baby Unit. The charity raises money for life-saving and cutting-edge medical equipment. It has been supporting children in Brighton for nearly 50 years.

For more information visit www.rockinghorse.org.uk.

HANDBAGS AT DAWN There seems to be a row brewing over the future of two of the Sussex coast’s attractions. The i360 on Brighton seafront, due for completion in 2016, has taken the Wheel to task over their application to extend their site for another five years, having agreed to be gone by April 2016. The trouble is, they have no lease and the i360 would like to be the only major ‘air attraction’ in the City. Now Worthing Borough Council have stepped in and requested they move the Wheel to their seafront.

A spokesman for the Wheel said: “It is not something we would entertain at the moment. We are firmly committed to Brighton. There has been an approach; there have been many approaches, in fact. But it is the Brighton Wheel, it always has been.”

“Our commitment is first and foremost to ensure the jobs we have here, investment and in terms of Brighton and Hove City Council, the rent. We are totally dedicated to Brighton.”

However, he reiterated that for the time being the Wheel is going nowhere, despite an agreement with the council to leave the site next year.

He said: “We are committed to Brighton, we have just spent £500,000 investing in the base and we have no intention of moving.” A high-rise battle in the making.

72 PORTFOLIO

CITY news

“Do not underestimate your abilities. That is your boss’s job”

THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE This month Brighton and Hove Energy Saving Co-operative (BHESCO) will launch a bid to raise £1M to fund up to 10 community renewable energy projects. When people put money into the co-operative, they become members and buy shares, giving each investor a 5% return on their investment.

The initiative uses the same ‘Community Shares’ method used by the Bevy pub and Exeter St Hall in Brighton, but on a far greater scale. If successful, it will be the largest community investment in the city’s history.

Kayla Ente, Founder and Director of BHESCO said: “This is a really exciting opportunity for Brighton; not only will city residents be able to make money while doing good, they’ll be part of a community that acts to lower energy prices and lower their carbon footprint. In order to have the biggest impact, we need mass uptake from individuals and businesses across the city. The great thing is anyone can get involved. For a minimum investment of £250, investors will have the opportunity to support an innovative business model that forms a blueprint for energy groups across the country.”

As well as benefitting from the government’s Feed-In-Tariff and renewable heat incentive, which guarantees a fixed price for community generated renewable energy for 20 years, the projects will also make significant savings on energy bills. These factors combined offer strong financial returns, giving investors a 5% annual return on their investment while enabling BHESCO to reinvest any profits in more community owned energy projects.

BHESCO is also working with the local council to install solar panels on schools.

HMRC has provided advance assurance for EIS tax relief for investors, bringing the annual return to over 7% for qualifying individuals.

BE THE CHANGE In April, 100 local school students were given the opportunity to meet IT First and 50 other business organisations at ‘Be the Change’, a ground-breaking careers event at the American Express Community Stadium (AMEX).

‘Be the Change’ aims to inspire Year 10 students to consider their future career options.

The event was organised by LoveLocalJobs.com, a local recruitment and careers specialist, and was facilitated by social enterprise, Humanutopia. This was the first event of its kind in Sussex.

Students had the chance to meet Paul Goldsmith, CEO and Simon Gregg, Operations Director at IT First, along with other local employers and business volunteers, all of whom offered face-to-face advice and guidance about getting started in the workplace.

Simon Gregg, a Founding Partner of LoveLocalJobs.com, commented, ‘When I was offered the opportunity to be part of Be the Change I said yes without hesitation. I believe that it is crucial for the students to have the chance to engage with businesses and gain a better understanding of work life whilst preparing themselves for the world they are going to be entering when they leave full-time education.’

‘Be the Change’ was the brain child of Gary Peters, Founder of LoveLocalJobs.com. He said, ‘It was a very powerful day, bringing together young people with business volunteers from across Brighton & Hove to raise their career aspirations and demonstrate the skills and mindsets required to be the best you can be, in whatever career you choose or find yourself in.’

‘I’d particularly like to thank Simon Gregg from IT First for taking part in this amazing event and making it so memorable for everybody involved. Thanks to Be the Change over 100 local young school students are now much better equipped for the world of work and inspired to be the best they can possibly be, regardless of what challenges they have faced or may face along the way.’

To apply visit www.ethex.org.uk.

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CITY news

“Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best”

CHURCHILL SQUARE WELCOMES NEW CENTRE DIRECTOR Churchill Square has appointed Mark Buchanan Smith to the role of Centre Director.

Prior to joining Churchill Square, Mark was Retail Delivery and Technical Services Manager at Hammerson. His appointment marks a return to Churchill Square, where he previously held the position of Assistant Centre Director.

Mark said: “It’s a fantastic time to be re-joining Churchill Square. The centre is undergoing an exciting transformation with the Western Road frontage improvements, incorporating the new Topshop. There will be also be new names joining the list of leading retailers, such as Holland & Barrett, Kiko and Schuh Kids.

“These are exciting times for the centre and I look forward to getting to grips with my new role and contributing to the continued success of Churchill Square.”

PORTFOLIO DOES BUSINESS! Portfolio staff had a great day networking and meeting businesses at the Brighton Let’s Do Business event on Thursday, 14th May at Brighton Racecourse. 120 exhibition stands spread throughout the Grandstand and Premier Halls, seminars and networking, plus lots of visitors, meant the day was busy and interesting. For details of future events, visit www.letsdobusiness.org (Photo: Craig Walden)

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BRIGHTON I360 RESTORES WEST PIER TOLL BOOTHS A much-loved piece of Brighton’s historic West Pier, a pair of toll booths designed by Eugenius Birch in Italianate style, which originally stood at the entrance to the pier, are being restored by the Brighton i360 team in readiness for a return to the seafront.

Rachel Clark, the West Pier Trust’s Chief Executive, was among those pleased at the restoration and looking forward to the booths’ return to Brighton beach.

She said: “The West Pier Trust is delighted that a key element of the i360 scheme will be the reinstatement of the pier’s toll booths in their original positions.

“These iconic buildings adorned the entrance of the pier when it opened in 1866 and, expertly restored and replicated, will similarly greet the public when visiting the i360. “We’re thrilled that, for the first time in 30 years, both of Eugenius Birch’s splendid buildings will be back where they belong and mark the entrance to Brighton’s newest and most exciting attraction.” www.brightoni360.co.uk

ECO TECHNOLOGY SHOW 2015 The Eco Technology Show is a one-stop shop for energy efficiency and low carbon improvements at home and at work, with a chance to meet the experts and see the latest innovations. Keynote speakers include leaders from such organisations as the Energy Savings Trust, who will share the platform with the experts, and forward thinkers who are shaping our green future. Actor and technology enthusiast Robert Llewellyn (Red Dwarf) will speak about electric vehicles.

Seminars and facilitated networking sessions will look at topics such as retrofitting for energy efficiency and energy management, and The University of Brighton’s Green Growth Platform is hosting a conference at the show.

Tickets are available via the Eco Technology Show website. 11th-12th June, 2015, American Express Stadium, Brighton. For more information visit www. ecotechnologyshow.co.uk.

CITY news

“The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one”

TEVILLE GATE IN WORTHING TO BE DEVELOPED A derelict site, which has suffered a series of setbacks, could finally be developed. Council chiefs are now hoping that the sale of Teville Gate in Worthing will complete the regeneration jigsaw for Worthing. It is hoped Teville Gate will be turned into a mixed-use development, including a cinema, flats, cafes, restaurants, retail , leisure and conference centre, if planning permission is granted at the end of this year.

Worthing Borough Council said it would name the new owner once the finer details of the contract have been negotiated. “The sale should be completed in a few weeks, and we’ve been talking to the new owners, who are pledging to make an announcement as soon as possible.

INVESTMENT BOUTIQUE A TRIO of former colleagues has launched a new investment boutique, based in Brighton.

Former

Brewin

Dolphin

employees

and

directors, David Pegler, Ewen Emmerson and Francis Jarman, have been joined by former Barclays Wealth Head of Strategy and Proposition Tim O’Connor to create Brighton Capital Management, based at the Sussex Innovation Centre (SINC) in Falmer and is aimed at private clients, families and institutions.

The team will invest in direct equities, fixed income, investment trusts, funds, exchangetraded produces and structured notes.

Support

for

entrepreneurs

and

crisis

management is part of the “one-stop shop” on offer. Mr Pegler said the service would have a combination of a “boutique feel with financial muscle,” with the founders drawing on their wealth of financial experience. “We’re small enough to care; people believe in the personal approach.”

JAPANESE RESTAURANT MOSHIMO EXPAND SKYWARD FOR SEA VIEWS Plans which could see Japanese restaurant Moshimo restaurant extended skyward have been unveiled. Co-owners Nicholas Röhl and Karl Jones are planning to build a lightweight “lantern in the sky” above the existing restaurant in Bartholomew Square, Brighton. The new 130-seat space would be 85 feet high and have views out to sea, over the city and towards the South Downs. The design has been created with Michael Spooner, the architect behind the original restaurant in 2000. Mr Röhl said: “Acting like a beacon, Skylight will help continue the regeneration of Bartholomew Square. Nothing quite like this has been done before. Skylight will make a significant contribution to residents, businesses and visitors alike, strengthening Brighton’s position as a world-class place to live, work and visit.”

The challenge here will be how to achieve a view of the sea, without blocking out all the natural light of the Thistle Hotel bedrooms.

The restaurant is a pioneer in ethical dining and sustainable fishing, with its internationally acclaimed, celebrity-backed Fishlove campaign. www.moshimo.co.uk

MORTGAGE ENQUIRIES JUMP MORE THAN 50 PER CENT There has been a noticeable surge in serious home loan enquiries since the election, reports deVere Mortgages, part of deVere United Kingdom, which offers advice to British expats and to foreign nationals looking to buy property in the UK. Head of deVere’s UK Financial Planning, Kevin White, affirms: “Since the election outcome was announced our mortgage consultants have reported a noticeable surge in serious home loan enquiries. Demand for mortgages has been strong all year, but the volume of enquiries has increased by more than 50 per cent over the last seven days compared to the previous week.”

“The majority of these enquiries were from overseas buyers and British expats who want to purchase a UK property but who had been, for various reasons, waiting to see the outcome of the election before pursuing. The likelihood of continuing very low interest rates, supported by the recent Bank of England inflation report, will also fuel demand.” www.devere-group.com

PORTFOLIO 75

NATIONAL news

NATIONAL NEWS Please note these are the personal views of our City Editor, Maarten Hoffmann

TRADEMARK WARNING The EU Court has made a ruling on a trademark dispute, the result of which is a bitter blow to the high end manufacturer. Sharon Daboul, trademark attorney, said: “This trademark loss is a double blow to Louis Vuitton, who has been fighting to protect these marks since 2009. It can no longer claim to have a monopoly on the chequerboard pattern as applied to leather goods and bags, even if it was the first to come up with it. This loss might make it harder for the company to protect its bags against competitors or counterfeiters in the EU as it will no longer be able to rely on its trademark registrations.

“It also serves as a warning to brand owners that trademark registrations are not safe from challenge.

An essential function of a trademark is to serve as a badge of trade origin. Trademarks must have distinctive character and a trademark loses its ability to be distinctive if it becomes commonplace in the trade; this can be as a result of the acts, or inactivity of the brand owner. If a trademark is allowed to become commonplace such that it can no longer distinguish a product from competitors, its value is lost and a pro-active third party can apply to cancel it.”

DRAGON BUY BACK Worcester-based Magic Whiteboard are the latest winners of BBC Dragon’s Den to buy back the Dragon’s share of their business.

Neil and Laura Westwood, Magic Whiteboard’s owners, successfully secured a £100,000 investment from Theo Paphitis and Deborah Meaden in 2008. In return, the Dragon’s took 40% share of the business, which has proved to be Theo’s and Deborah’s most successful investment to date. For an initial £50,000 investment, each has received £400,000 in 6 years.

Having increased sales from £45,000 to £1.2 million

WINDOWS R.I.P

a year, and consistently delivering healthy profits,

Jerry Nixon, a Microsoft development executive, said in a conference speech this week that Windows 10 would be the “last version” of the dominant desktop software. His comments were echoed by Microsoft, which said it would update Windows in future in an “ongoing manner”.

Instead of new stand-alone versions, Windows 10 would be improved in regular instalments, the firm

would sell back their shares. After negotiations,

said.

Mr Nixon made his comments during Microsoft’s Ignite conference, held in Chicago this week. In a statement, Microsoft said Mr Nixon’s comments reflected a change in the way that it made its software.

“Windows will be delivered as a service, bringing new innovations and updates in an ongoing manner,” it said, adding that it expected there to be a “long future” for Windows, but there will be no Windows 11.

76 PORTFOLIO

Neil and Laura decided to ask the Dragons if they Theo and Deborah agreed to sell. Having worked solidly for 6 years, Neil and Laura used all the profits they had made to buy back the 40%. Deborah Meaden said “Neil and Laura deserve every inch of their success with Magic Whiteboard; they have worked hard and smart; they are dream investees”.

The deal was done in 2 weeks and the money has exchanged hands.

Neil Westwood said: “I will always remember sending over the £300,000 (having checked sort code 10 times to make sure it was correct) to both Theo and Deborah from the Lloyds Bank desk in Worcester, just like I was paying a gas bill.

Share certificates were posted back to us and that was that. I was surprised how easy it was. Ryman continue to stock our full range of Magic Whiteboard products.

We now get to keep 100% of the profits, which is a great incentive to work hard.

Magic Whiteboard is targeting new markets in France, Spain and Germany. The product has also been taken up by 142 Tesco stores and continues to sell strongly online with Amazon.

NATIONAL news

“Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings, they did it by killing all those who opposed them”

PASSIONPRENEUR Multi-award winning Interior Designer, Kelly Hoppen MBE is joining forces with direct selling business Amway UK Ltd to find Britain’s most inspiring business ‘Passionpreneur’.

The search for Britain’s Top Real Role Model is an annual competition that aims to support and celebrate entrepreneurship. The winner will be crowned Britain’s Top Real Role Model 2015 and receive a £5,000 cash investment for their business.

The competition is open to businessmen and women who have launched a commercial venture inspired by a hobby, passion or interes. From photography to upholstery, skydiving to painting, if a passion has become a viable commercial enterprise, trading and registered in the UK, Amway and Kelly want to hear more!

The closing date for all nominations is 7th August, 2015. The judging panel, spearheaded by Hoppen, will draw up a shortlist with the eventual winner being announced on 7th September, 2015.

Contact www.btrrm2015.co.uk.

A NEW LOOK

POUNDWORLD X 150

A South African billionaire has become one of the biggest players on the British high street by taking control of New Look in a deal valuing the fashion retailer at £1.9bn.

Brait, the private equity vehicle of Christo Wiese, said it had reached an agreement with New Look’s shareholders. Brait said it was buying a 90% stake for £780m, marking New Look’s first change of ownership in more than a decade. The deal meant Apax and Permira, which bought the chain in 2004, abandoning exploratory plans for a flotation of the business.

Mr Wiese has been linked with a string of UK retail takeovers in recent years, including a bid for BHS, formerly owned by Sir Philip Green. He is in the process of launching Pep & Co, a new chain, with Andy Bond, the previous boss of Asda.

His takeover of New Look follows a deal for Brait to buy Virgin Active, the health and fitness chain, in a deal valued at around £700m.

It will underline the continuing attractiveness of the British high street to foreign investors, even as consumers increasingly shift their spending online.

Poundworld, the discount retailer, has been sold to US private equity firm TPG for £150m.

The UK’s second-largest pound shop chain began as a Wakefield market stall set up by Christopher Edwards in 1974.

The family firm now has more than 280 outlets, as well as 50 Bargain Buys shops selling items at various prices. The US acquisition will enable Poundworld - a rival to Poundland - to open new stores and invest in new distribution facilities.

Mr Edwards, 64, along with family members and other senior executives, will retain a minority stake in the retailer. They stand to make millions from the sale. Mr Edwards said: “I began this business as a market trader and we now have millions of customers from all corners of the nation and all walks of life. Still, there is so much more for us to achieve.”

He had “very ambitious goals”, he said.

PORTFOLIO 77

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OUT NOW PLATINUM

ISSUE 12 . 2015

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CHAMBER of commerce

RIDING THE WAVE TO BETTER BUSINESS

By Alice Cuninghame of Cuninghame Copywriting

R

ide the Wave offers local businesses the chance to get specialist training, build networks and find support. The programme was created four years ago by Brighton and Hove City Council and Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce, working in partnership. The council provides leadership and funding. The Chamber uses its expert knowledge of local business to design and deliver a programme that meets business needs. All the events are either free or offered for a minimal charge, making them accessible to all, even the smallest and newest.

This year’s Ride the Wave ran from November to March, with 334 businesses taking part. Many of them were Chamber members, but the majority, 272 of the 334, were not. Some events were cross-sector, aimed at new and pre-start businesses, those wanting to become more environmentally friendly, and those wanting to start tendering for public sector contracts. Other targeted specific sectors: social enterprises and charities, creative businesses, and food and drink businesses.

The Chamber was able to use its on-theground understanding of local business needs to develop a programme which offered real value. Businesses were able to gain knowledge

and make connections they’ll be able to use for years to come. Ride the Wave is about solving problems and giving businesses the skills and confidence they need to grow and innovate.

Brighton and Hove’s business community is as diverse as its people, and Ride the Wave reflected that. In one workshop, social enterprises learned how to improve their brand identity. In another, creative businesses learned how to charge what they’re worth – with a case study on chocolate! And in another, people with a business idea learned how to make that idea into a successful business.

Businesses came away from Ride the Wave sessions inspired and ready to take action.

The programme had a 100% satisfaction rate among attendees, with the majority saying they came away in a better position to grow their businesses than before. Much of that success can be credited to the workshop leaders. They were chosen for their real-world expertise; they had made their business growth journey and were able to pass on the lessons they had learned.

Lauren Pysk, of Lauren Pysk Photography, said, “It was so valuable to get support from the other five businesses in my group and we’re going to keep in touch.”

Jess Willow of Frameworks for Change said, “The presenter was very knowledgeable on the subject, humorous and engaging. She got me thinking about pricing in a way that I hadn’t previously.”

Workshop leader Rowan Wallis, of Sustainable Business Partnership said, “Working with the Chamber is good fun, and their Ride the Wave programme is always professionally delivered”.

If you missed out this year, look out for next year’s Ride the Wave programme. Until then, Brighton Chamber of Commerce runs training and networking events throughout the year. www.businessinbrighton.org.uk

Comments made by attendees demonstrate how much value the programme was able to give to businesses.

PORTFOLIO 79

“ Beautifully arranged on the plate and prepared with such dexterity and technical skill, you have to wonder how on earth Kylie is the size she is as I really could have eaten this all day�

DRAKES HOTEL

Maarten Hoffmann samples the delights of the Restaurant at Drakes and finds it has star quality

BUSINESS lunch

D

rakes Hotel on Brighton seafront is as close to a celebrity hotel as one can find on the south coast, with guests such as Kylie Minogue, Woody Allen, Will Young and Sophie Dahl recently gracing this perfectly formed Georgian townhouse. Drakes offer 20 rooms, and although compact, they have been superbly designed and, apparently, Kylie’s favourite room is 301, with a huge free standing bathtub, located in the window overlooking the Pier. Although a very obvious target for the paparazzi trying to get a shot of her in the buff, it has been developed on the third floor to ensure that only seagulls get the pleasure of that particular view. And I do not mean the football team!

“Good food in any restaurant is really only half the battle. Good ambience and great service is the other half and in this regard, Drakes do not fail” In the basement is the Restaurant at Drakes, which is the crown of this boutique establishment, attracting many food lovers from all over Sussex to its understated elegance. Chef Andrew MacKenzie has created a menu of simplicity, combining the highest quality seasonal ingredients, complimented by robust flavours, and the term simplicity is most certainly a compliment. Far too many chefs these days go for the hugely complicated

menu with a smidgeon of shock and awe that overextends the talent of the kitchen. Not at Drakes.

My dining partner was Amanda Menahem, Director of the region’s largest employer, Hastings Direct Insurance. She is not exactly the easiest diner to please, so this should be interesting.

The basement dining room is well laid out and quite cosy, with an expanse of exposed brick wall and beautifully prepared tables. It’s quite a small dining room, but good things are known to come in small packages.

I ordered the pork and truffle terrine with a date chutney, and I do love a good chutney but am not usually that keen on dates. My concern was unjustified as it was splendid, and the chutney had a slightly tangy taste that complimented the terrine perfectly, and truffle will always be in the top ten of any list.

I would put it on my cornflakes in the morning if I could. Amanda plumped for the maple glazed quail breast with Farro risotto. The quail was perfectly cooked, and although I wouldn’t have chosen that for a starter, she was spoton with her call. The Farro risotto (misspelt on the menu) is an ancient Italian wheat grain that works so much better than pearl barley.

We followed this with tenderloin of pork with creamed potatoes, Stornoway black pudding and buttered kale and cider for me and fillet of line-caught sea bass with parsnip purée, roast leeks, baby parsnips and hazelnut pesto for Amanda. Thinking I might have slightly overdone it with the pork, I soldiered on and did not regret it at all; the kale and cider were a perfect combination. The black pudding from the Scottish isle of Lewis has very subtle flavours held together with fresh blood and is a perfect partner to the pork. The locally

caught sea bass was a picture on the plate, perfectly cooked, and the hazelnut pesto was a revelation.

Good food in any restaurant is really only half the battle. Good ambience and great service is the other half, and in this regard, Drakes do not fail. The staff is very attentive, but not so much so that you feel you are being watched. The barman sure knows how to mix a Margarita, which I consumed quite a few of as I was on a wine ban for a month. I am not sure that when the doctor said ‘knock off the vino for a month’ he would have approved of me replacing it with tequila, but hey, he wasn’t there now, was he?

Whether I was up for pudding or not, the minute I read the description of mango cannelloni with passion fruit sauce, I knew I had to have it as it sounded so enticing, and I just had to know what on earth it was. It was brilliant. Cannelloni style tubes made from, and I am guessing here, icing sugar and mango purée: long, crispy cylinders filled with the most stunning mango sauce I have ever tasted. To compliment this was smoked pepper and vanilla ice cream that was just right to accompany the mango, beautifully arranged on the plate and prepared with such dexterity and technical skill, you have to wonder how on earth Kylie is the size she is as I really could have eaten this all day.

One is also left wondering what on earth the Michelin star system is good for when Drakes has still not been awarded one. It would appear that the Michelin folk do not have a high regard for restaurants in hotels, but this falls over when we look at South Lodge – hotel and Michelin star restaurant.

The best way I can summarise our meal at Drakes is to say that the Michelin star people have lost their minds. Oh, and Amanda was very happy, which must be worth another star at least!

The Restaurant at Drakes 44 Marine Parade Brighton BN2 1PE www.drakesofbrighton.com 01273 696934 PORTFOLIO 81

STYLE

WHAT IS SMART CASUAL? An invitation lands on the mat. You rip open the envelope and scan the details. Your eyes drift to the bottom to check the all-important dress code and your heart sinks as you see the dreaded phrase ‘smart casual’…

What exactly is ‘smart casual’? It’s a question many of us have been asking for years, particularly men (women find it much easier to interpret). Many men spend their working week in suits and find it difficult to pull together a more casual look. These days, even occasions that were traditionally formal (such as going to the theatre, opera and even some christenings and weddings) now strike a much more informal tone.

‘Smart casual’ is an extremely ambiguous term, subject to wide and varied interpretation.

In this article I’ll be exploring those various interpretations and giving you some guidance on how to make smart casual work for you, whatever the occasion.

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BLAME THE AMERICANS I’m sure it won’t come as a surprise that the phrase ‘smart casual’ originates in the United States. Evidently, it was first used in 1924, in the Iowan newspaper The Davenport Democrat and Leader. The paper defined it thus: ‘The sleeveless dress with three-quarter overblouses, in smock appearance completing it for street wear, is accorded various interpretations. It is at once practiced and gives a smart casual appearance.’

The term ‘business casual’ emerged in the 1950s and referred to the office equivalent.

As we know, by that time the suit had become the accepted daily wear of office workers in Britain. In reality, ‘business casual’ meant wearing an alternative to the traditional business suit, perhaps in a lighter cloth or colour. Work environments and casual wear have both moved on considerably since the ‘50s, of course, so what do ‘smart’ and ‘business’ casual mean for us today?

Let’s start with Debretts, who provide the following guidance: A dress code of smart casual requires that you look smart but not overly formal. That in itself is not very illuminating. Unfortunately, they then add to the confusion, citing a division between ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ smart casual.

FORMAL’ SMART CASUAL According to Debretts, ‘formal’ smart casual ‘requires a jacket or blazer, flannels, needlecord trousers or chinos, a shirt with a collar and smart shoes, not necessarily laceups (but not trainers or sandals).’ You can wear a shirt and tie but an open collar is also acceptable. Now I would argue that a tie is not necessarily required, but it really does depend on the occasion and your host.

‘INFORMAL’ SMART CASUAL Debretts permit jeans in their definition of ‘informal’ smart casual, but specify that they must be ‘smart, clean and dark in colour’. They add that ‘other than in high summer or on the beach, trousers are better than shorts and polo shirts better than collarless t-shirts.’ I believe dark jeans are a godsend for many an informal event – think parties, barbecues, etcetera – so it’s wise to invest in more than one pair.

IN THE OFFICE I worked for a prominent financial services firm for several years, which introduced the concept of ‘dress down Friday’ with disastrous results, particularly in the summer. Men (and some women) would come into work in shorts, flip flops, sandals and trainers, and all sense of decorum went out the window. I am of the view that these four items are never acceptable in a professional environment (unless you work in a creative industry – but that’s another article entirely).

STYLE

“A dress code of smart casual requires that you look smart but not overly formal. That in itself is not very illuminating”

For more casual days in the office, the key is to find the right balance between the two extremes. I would advise sticking to shirts or polo shirts with chinos or very dark jeans. And always, always with closed toe shoes (think suede brogues, chukka boots or, even better, release your ‘inner Italian’ and go for suede loafers in a vibrant tone).

A FEW GOLDEN RULES: • Dark denim and chinos: these two are your ‘go-to’ options for smart casual trousers. They work for a wide variety of occasions and can be dressed up (or down) with a shirt and smart blazer (or polo shirt or even a good quality, well-fitting t-shirt). They are also a great basis for ‘business casual’ • Avoid ‘sportswear’: tracksuit bottoms, baggy sweatshirts and trainers (unless they are leather or dark trainers) are a definite ‘no-no’. Wearing these evokes laziness, slovenliness – surely not attributes you want applied to you. I find they are usually worn by men who are not acquainted with the rugby ball, golf club or tennis racquet • I would part company with Debretts and say that there is no need to wear a tie, even with ‘formal’ smart casual. An open collar shirt and blazer can be a great look for a casual party, lunch or meeting • Also avoid plaid flannel shirts, especially ill-fitting ones, unless you want to look like Jeremy Clarkson or a lumberjack • Most importantly, pay attention to the fit of whatever you choose to wear. I’ve said this before: so many men let themselves down with ill-fitting, baggy shirts, jeans and trousers. If you are on the heavier side, don’t wear things that are two sizes too big – it only makes you look bigger. If you are of slight build, slim fitting shirts and jeans will create a neat, streamlined silhouette.

Keep it simple. If you are in doubt about the dress code at a particular event, ask your host. And remember, ‘casual’ does not mean sloppy. Keep your standards as high as if you were dressing for business or for formal occasions and take pride in your appearance. After all, you never know who you might run into… www.styleandgrace.eu | @alwayschicUK

EDUCATION

GREEN GROWTH Ian Trevett meets Robb Cunningham from the University of Brighton’s Green Growth Platform to find out about the current state of the county’s eco-technology industry

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EDUCATION an appetite for it. We have really exciting environmental businesses all wanting to grow down here.

“Core to our mission statement is placing Sussex at the forefront of the green economy.

You can see how Wired Sussex has really championed Brighton as the hub of digital outside of London, and they’ve done it really well. That’s where I’d love to see Sussex environmental sectors.

“There are lots of exciting technologies out there that people aren’t aware of, it’s much more than just solar panels. The University of Brighton has a unit on the Falmer campus called combined heat and power (CHP). It’s a generator that runs on gas and produces electricity as a generator would, but in producing electricity it creates heat, and it takes that heat and uses it to heat the building, so there is very little wasted energy. It’s like getting two for one. A lot of people may never have heard of combined heat and power, but it has lots of potential.”

R

obb’s eco-credentials are impressive.

He has spent the last few years living in a house that’s totally off-grid, with solar panels and wind turbines, and is clearly passionate about environmental issues. Working as a project manager at the university, he was the obvious candidate when the Green Growth Platform was launched, and he believes that Brighton and Sussex are well placed to become an eco-hub.

“I think, nationally, the environmental sectors are growing enormously. We commissioned a report at the beginning of the year on the state of the Low Carbon Environmental Business Services sectors (LCEGS). They’re seeing five per cent annual growth, and that’s likely to continue.

“Brighton and Sussex are probably best positioned to grow because we’ve got a strong green focus, including the only Green MP, Caroline Lucas. We’re not aligned to the Green Party, but it demonstrates that there’s

From a personal point of view, are there any companies you have been particularly impressed with?

“A big game changer will come when we get to a point where we can have sufficiently powerful batteries to store renewable energy on a domestic level. Ideally, you could have a battery bank in your garage that has enough juice to run a home overnight, and then get stocked up during the day with a wind turbine and/or solar panels. The batteries need to be smaller and more efficient.

“We’ve got some companies that are exploring battery technology. We also have companies doing exciting things with how you manage your resources within the home, including innovative rainwater harvesting systems and home energy management software.

“We’re working with a very broad range of environmental businesses, One company, Nafici Environmental Research (NER), based in West Sussex, is developing a process to turn waste straw into paper. They use waste straw from the agricultural industry and are developing a process that will enable them to turn it into paper pulp, and their aim is to make a pulp that can be used to make standard paper. They’ve been working with the Green Growth Platform to secure funding to purchase new equipment that will enable them to create commercially standard paper pulp. The ambition is to replace the use of hardwood in paper production because at the moment we cut down hardwood forests just to create basic paper.

“A big game changer will come when we get to a point where we can have sufficiently powerful batteries to store renewable energy on a domestic level” “In terms of the support the Green Growth Platform has provided, we’ve helped NER win funding that has allowed them to purchase upgraded equipment, we’ve helped them with business coaching to market their products and to improve their website and we’ve also helped on their business strategy.

“We’ve also worked with a Brighton-based business called Recharge Cargo, a bicycle courier company. They use electric bikes, which means they can carry quite substantial amounts of cargo, so they have big bikes. And the idea is that they become a hub where delivery vans can come to, drop off the cargo and they then deliver out to Brighton by bike.

Their aim is to reduce pollution and congestion on Brighton’s streets but also offer a really quick, efficient delivery service. The company has had some business coaching from us, and we’ve supported them in preparing a bid for funding that will enable them to develop a more sophisticated stock control system.

“One final example of a business we’re supporting - a company called Waterblade.

They are developing a nozzle that fits on the end of a bathroom tap and uses much less water than a standard aerating eco nozzle.

They’ve worked with the university’s design department in honing a prototype, right down to fractions of angles and tenths of millimetres, to get it working as efficiently as possible.

We’ve helped get funding to allow them to do this work and have been able to make use of the 3-D printing facilities at the university to produce the prototypes and test them. We’ve also provided some business coaching to look at where the product could be sold and how to market it. We’ve also given the business the opportunity to speak at an international water efficiency conference that was running at the university.”

How would you describe the Green Growth Platform?

“We’re funded by the Higher Education Funding Council, or HEFCE. Our raison d’être

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is to help environmental sector businesses in Sussex to grow, to give them support that they might need to take their business to the next level and to place Sussex at the forefront of the green economy. We have at the moment 390 member businesses on the network and the demand for our services has been very high.

“We offer a range of support services for our member businesses, which fall under four headings: One-to-One Business Support Service, where companies get a set number of hours with a business coach, helping with needs such as branding, marketing, grant funding applications and business planning.

“A business may have great tech expertise and an amazing product, but they haven’t got the experience in finding a route to market, developing a sales pipeline or funding it.

“We have a Networking and Events programme, sub-contracted out to the Sustainable Business Partnership. They run business networking breakfasts across East and West Sussex for us that attract 30 or SMEs each, as well as meet-the-buyer events and masterclasses on topics such as raising investment, marketing and tendering.

“Our Innovation and R&D offering is very important. We really exploit our link to the university here, and we match-make where we can bring together academics who have the really strong technical expertise and businesses who know their market really well but may not have the tech expertise to develop a product or service. We can join them up and get funding to make it happen. This is a very popular service and we’ve have worked on some exciting projects where we’re seeing new products and services being developed that wouldn’t otherwise have happened.

“The final strand to our business support is Skills & Training, and that’s all about up-skilling and addressing skills gaps in the environmental sectors. Where we identify a skills gap, we look to work with the university or FE colleges to

create a training course or a programme that might address that skills gap. We also have an internship and placement programme where we offer part-funded internships to the businesses.

We can support with the development of the job specification and advertising as well as provide a grant to contribute to the salary costs. This is a very popular service with our businesses as it allows them to address a skills need they may have without having to commit as much money.

“The Green Growth Platform is free to join for businesses and all of these services are either no cost or low cost. Any environmental business or business wishing to reduce their environmental impact can join at www. greengrowthplatform.co.uk.

Do you actually help straightforward companies that need a bit of help making their offices greener?

“Yes, we do. We help companies that want to adopt a more environmentally aware approach to growth, those that want to go on a journey whereby they become an environmental company.

Many of the grants for developing eco-tech firms come from the European Union. Would the predicted Euro referendum put these ventures at risk?

“The UK gets a lot of funding from the EU. Much has been written about how much we send them but we get a fair amount back.

Universities get millions a year through EU funding, and we’ve recently put in a bid for one of our businesses for one hundred thousand pounds. If successful, this money will go to a small client-based SME that is likely to create jobs as a result. Another of our businesses won an EU grant of sixty thousand pounds, that will enable them to commercialise their product here in Sussex, again creating jobs and putting money back into the local economy”.

The University of Brighton’s Green Growth Platform is hosting a conference called Next Level Thinking at the Eco-Technology Show on 12th June at the Amex Community Stadium.

Robb Cunningham: “We want to give businesses the opportunity to step back from the daily rollercoaster of running a business and take some time out to feel inspired, give a bit of attention to business inspirations, where they might like to go and what it might take to get to their business to the next level, hence Next Level Thinking.

“Our keynote speaker is Michael Ware from BDO (International Consultancy and Accountants) who leads on the low carbon arm of that business. He’s going to talk about the opportunities in the green sector and where it’s going.

“Andy Wood from Adnams Brewery is speaking as Adnams have revamped their business through huge sustainability policy.

“Also we have Syed Ahmed from Savortex, who have developed innovative smart eco-hand dryers. His is a story of taking an innovation and developing it and commercialising it to global success.

“And then we’ve got a local case study, Ollie Pendered of Community Energy South, who are pushing the community energy scene down in Sussex.

“We’ve got four workshops, and businesses can choose two of the four. They are: Developing a Sales Pipeline; Marketing the EcoCredibility of Your Product; Getting into a Big Business’ Supply Chain; and the Internet of Things and Business Opportunities. These will be followed by a networking lunch.”

The event runs from 9am - 2pm, including lunch. The standard rate is £45 – book via the events page at: www.greengrowthplatform.co.uk PORTFOLIO 87

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Sophia Lee-Spencer, CEO, Callisto Associates The platinum club has proved an excellent forum to network “ with good calibre business contacts. It’s always an enjoyable and high quality event which is down to the rigour with which it is managed, run and hosted. It’s one of the highlights of my business calendar Amanda Menahem - Hastings Direct

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THE TEUTONIC ORDER Business Editor, Maarten Hoffmann, investigates the bigger, butcher and faster beauty of the Audi TT

TECHNICAL STUFF: Model Tested: TT Coupe 2.0 TFSI Engine: 2.0 litre petrol Performance: 0-62mph 6 seconds Top Speed: 155mph Economy: 47.9mpg combined Price from: £29,810 As tested: £41,895

MOTORING review

“They have placed it right in front of you as the entire dial cluster has become the sat nav in a ‘virtual cockpit’: it’s quite ingenious”

T

he Audi TT has been with us since 1999 and was catastrophically labelled a ‘hairdressers’ car’. Simple little throwaway remarks like that by slick and slippery motoring journalists searching for a canny comment can do great damage to the image of a car, and it certainly put many men off buying the TT, and therefore you tend to see more women than men driving them. This is totally unfair, but the label stuck.

That label can now be ripped up as the new TT arrives on our shores, and a thing of beauty it is, too. It is bigger, butcher, faster and far better equipped than its predecessor. The TTs are all turbocharged, and the choice is either the 2.0 litre petrol or diesel or the explosively fast TTS. As l write it has been announced that the TT has won the Diesel Sportscar of the Year Award 2015.

The engine delivers the power with a smooth, constant flow, with no sudden surges, and there is power on tap whenever you want it, at any speed, in any gear. Marry this to beautiful handling, zero body roll and a constant intuitive feel through your hands informing you of what the wheels are doing and you have one of the best coupes on the market. It is just so easy to drive and hit that corner a tad too fast, and it will tell you before you hit the limit, thus giving you time to back off. The grip is stupendous and the suspension firm but fair; and plump for the optional sport suspension set up, and there will never be anything to complain about. Take the S line variant, and the sport suspension is included, and although the four-wheel drive is optional, I would choose it every time. Like most Audis, you don’t really know it’s there until the rain, sleet, hail or snow descends and you find yourself the only driver still on the road. The front wheel drive does occasionally struggle to put the power down efficiently without triggering the traction control, so for me it would be the Quattro every time.

The interior is where you find most of the changes, and it really is a lovely place to be.

The build quality oozes out of every inch of the interior with superb quality materials and panels that fit to within an inch of their lives.

You do have to wonder with German cars quite

how they do this time and time again. Every time a new German model is launched, it seems to defy physics as the build quality gets better every time and creates one harmonious automotive union.

The latest creation in the TT is the repositioning of the sat nav. Many designers have played with this de rigueur item of the 21st century but no one has quite worked out how to make it disappear so that we don’t have a screen sticking out of the dash and a range of mind-boggling switches to operate, but I believe Audi have finally cracked it. They have placed it right in front of you as the entire dial cluster has become the sat nav in a ‘virtual cockpit’: it’s quite ingenious. The speed and rev counter are digitally laid over the map, and with the press of a button you can make the dials smaller and therefore the map larger. If you are not using the sat nav, then reverse the exercise and the dials are larger, with the map lying in the background. It is really very clever and easy on the eyes Importantly, it is also safer as you are not glancing across the cabin to check out where you are but merely dipping your eyes slightly to the cluster.

The result they were looking for has also been achieved; they have freed the space up on the dash and kept it minimalistic and functional so that a three-year-old could work all the switch gear.

The front seats are well designed and grip well on cornering, while the back seats are all but useless for adults and even a bit of a squeeze for kids. They do offer increased load capacity, though, as folded flat they extend the boot so that even a bag of golf bats would fit.

For such a low-slung coupe there is a great unobstructed view from the cockpit, but you still have the bend, twist, drop technique of getting into the blasted thing. Perhaps that is just because I am an old fart, but once in you are effectively semi-reclining, with your legs straight in front of you in the classic old sports car position, and it feels great.

This is a driver’s car with great looks, great engine, tremendous handling and a great interior that you really don’t want to get out of.

What’s not to love?

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HILLARY CLINTON N

orth America has recently got into the habit of dynastic reigns. The Bush family had a good crack at it, and if Jeb Bush, the incumbent Republican senator from Florida, has his way, he will upset the apple cart and grab the keys to the White House, which would see three members of the Bush family occupy the office of President of the United States.

But Jeb has one very dominant and forceful mountain of a problem to overcome before his dream, and that of his father, the 41st President, George H.W. Bush, comes to fruition, and that is one Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton.

The Clintons are yet another fledgling dynastic force as one could say that she is only in the running because she was married to the 42nd President, one William Jefferson Clinton. Quite when being married to a powerful man gave one the right to take over that power is a mystery that only we Brits truly understand.

We have a hereditary Royal Family where the reins are passed from one generation to another, regardless of ability, experience or the will of the people. But the huge difference here is that the Royal Family has no real power.

The President of the United States is still the most powerful office on the planet and the de facto leader of the free world.

Hillary Clinton was born just after the end of the second world war, on October 26th, 1947 and has served in posts such as Secretary of State, State Senator for New York, a quite brilliant lawyer and, of course, the First Lady.

Looking at her biography, it would not be churlish to agree with many detractors of Bill, that rather than her getting the top job because she was married to him, it was in fact he that got the top job because she was the power behind the throne. Looking at Bill Clinton’s record, this is not a view with which I disagree.

Rumours abound of their kitchen cabinet meetings in Arkansas prior to Bill running for office, where they decided that although she would be far better for the job, it was the personable and affable Bill who had the better shot, and therefore she would bide her time and run after him. One Monica Lewinsky put

Maarten Hoffmann profiles the politician who could be the first female leader of the free world

BUSINESS interview

paid to that cosy arrangement when Bill broke their dynastic pact and started jumping on any female with a pulse who crossed his path.

It so infuriated Hillary that he could let his libido get in the way of their plans for a generation of ultimate power that the relationship never really recovered. The word is that he only avoided being whacked with a solid silver candelabra, followed by a humiliating divorce, by agreeing to keep it zipped henceforth and then throw his entire weight behind Hillary’s future campaign. That future is now, as on April 12th she declared her intention to run as the Democratic candidate for the office of President.

Now the race begins to raise the king’s ransom required to run for office. The initial fund-raising goal of $27,000, a pittance in a campaign expected to raise more than $1 billion, is intentionally set low by today’s big-money standards to try and build a broader nationwide network of donors.

An afternoon donor summit on May 14th in New York, which includes an optional tour of campaign headquarters in Brooklyn, features Clinton and her senior team of advisers.

It’s the most robust gathering of donors since Clinton formally entered the race.

Without a highly competitive Democratic primary race, the campaign has struggled to capture the early attention of some donors. Clinton’s presence at the summit

underscores the point that donors will be remembered for getting in on the ground floor.

“On behalf of Hillary and the entire campaign,” the invitation says, “we thank you for your early support and leadership and we hope to see you in New York on May 14!”

“It so infuriated Hillary that he could let his libido get in the way of their plans for a generation of ultimate power that the relationship never really recovered” Clinton has already devoted more days to raising money than meeting Democrats in early-voting states. She held three fund-raising events in Los Angeles alone, part of a threeday visit to California. She’s already done early

fund-raising stops in New York and Washington.

“There’s a lot of enthusiasm,” Andy Spahn, a long-time Democratic fundraiser in Los Angeles, told CNN. “There is a tremendous desire to be a part of it.”

Spahn, a political adviser to entertainment mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg and others who ultimately sided with Barack Obama in the 2008 campaign, said Democratic donors were largely unified behind Clinton.

Cash is always the first problem of a US campaign, and the Clintons left office in 2001 in considerable debt after fighting countless legal battles over his dalliances and the battle against impeachment. But Bill kept to his side of the bargain and hit the lecture circuit hard, and they are now reported to have wealth exceeding $100 million. In addition, Bill has brought home over $30 million from book sales, with Hilary’s books adding another $20 million. Even daughter Chelsea has done her bit, earning a salary of over $600,000 a year as a reporter for NBC news.

But they are both dogged by rumours of inappropriate fund-raising and questionable deals with despotic regimes.

Even in the hyper-partisan world of American political publishing, the storm generated by the latest book about the Clintons has been impressive. Clinton Cash by Peter Schweizer went on sale this month, yet already the fuss it has kicked up has hung in the air for days.

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As suggested by its subtitle, The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich, the book is an unrestrained attack on the former President and First Lady.

Across its slender 245 pages, it seeks to show that since they left the White House in 2001 the Clintons have engaged in a succession of seedy dealings with shady characters around the world, amassing more than $130m for themselves in exchange for favours.

From Russia to Colombia, Haiti to India and the Congo, the couple has repeatedly blurred the lines between private endeavour, public service, philanthropy and friendship, exposing themselves to blatant conflicts of interest, the book alleges. While Hillary Clinton was working as Barack Obama’s Secretary Of State, America’s top diplomat, Bill was commanding exorbitant speaker fees as high as $750,000 and attracting multimillion-dollar donations to the family charity (now known as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation), often concurrently and in the same corrupt countries.

“Who else in American politics would be so audacious as to have one spouse accept money from foreign governments and businesses while the other charted American foreign policy?” Schweizer asks.

The accusation is powerful. But the push back from the Clinton camp has also been formidable. Well ahead of publication day, the legendary Clinton rebuttal machine cranked into gear, bombarding news outlets with talking points, mobilizing liberal media watchdogs and denouncing the book as a “smear project”.

Compared with previous nemeses such as Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel who stalked Bill Clinton during his White House years, the man at the centre of the current

furore makes for a relatively easy opponent.

For a start, Schweizer is unashamedly partisan. His previous books, known for their brief, catchy titles, How Big Government Liberals Wrecked the Global Economy, Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy, Reagan’s War: The Epic Story of His Forty-Year Struggle and Final Triumph over Communism, speak for themselves, as does the fact that he used to work as a speech writer for George W Bush and as foreign affairs tutor to the then Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

“Is she going to be in touch with the needs and dreams of poor America when her spouse and daughter are working with the world’s global elite?”

If his aim were to show that Hillary Clinton was swayed in her decision-making while US Secretary of State by money flowing to the Clintons from foreign governments and elites, then he has failed – by his own admission – to have found the key evidence that proves it.

“We cannot ultimately know what goes on in their minds and ultimately prove the links between the money they took in and the benefits that subsequently accrued to themselves, their friends, and their associates”

Schweizer writes in the book’s conclusion.

In an interview with the sympathetic Fox News (owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Harper, the publisher of Clinton Cash) it was put to Schweizer that he hadn’t “nailed” his thesis. “It’s hard for any author to nail it – one of the strategies of the Clinton camp is to set a bar for me as an author that is impossible to meet,” he replied.

David Bennett, Professor of Modern American History at Syracuse University and author of a 2014 biography of Bill Clinton, said he was wholly unsurprised by what had happened, both in terms of the Schweizer attack and the Clintons’ response to it.

“There’s a new Clinton coming forward for the presidency, and all this is to be expected given what happened to Bill in the 1990s.

He was accused of corruption of money and corruption of power, but nothing was ever found. Filegate, Travelgate, Whitewater: everybody was digging deeply, but as one Clinton aide put it, ‘there was no there there’.”

Certainly, pundits were warning about the problem of the large sums of money flowing into the Clinton Foundation’s coffers, even before Hillary Clinton took up her position as Obama’s global emissary-in-chief. A month before she became Secretary of State, the Washington Post warned in an editorial that her husband’s fund-raising activities were problematic. “Even if Ms Clinton is not influenced by gifts to her husband’s charity, the appearance of conflict is unavoidable.”

Since the foundation was formed in 2001, some $2bn has been donated, mainly in big lump sums. Fully a third of the donors giving more than $1m and more than a half of those handing over more than $5m have been foreign governments, corporations or tycoons.

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BUSINESS interview (The foundation stresses that such largesse has been put to very good use: fighting obesity around the globe, combating climate change, helping millions of people with HIV/Aids obtain anti-retro viral drugs at affordable prices.)

It is also true that large donations to the foundation from the Chairman of Uranium One, Ian Telfer, at around the time of the Russian purchase of the company and while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, were never disclosed to the public. The multimilliondollar sums were channelled through a subsidiary of the Clinton Foundation, CGSCI, which did not reveal its individual donors.

Such awkward collisions between Bill’s fund-raising activities and Hillary’s public service have raised concerns, not just among those who might be dismissed as part of a vast right-wing conspiracy.

Take Zephyr Teachout, a Law Professor at Fordham University, who has written extensively on political corruption in the US. Teachout points out that you don’t have to be able to prove quid pro quo for alarm bells to ring. “Our whole system of rules is built upon the concept that you must prevent

conflicts of interests if you are to resist corruption in its many forms. Conflicts like that can infect us in ways we don’t even see.”

Teachout said that the Clintons presented the US political world with a totally new challenge. “We have never had somebody running for president whose spouse – himself a former president – is running around the world raising money in these vast sums.”

“She is canny, astute, wealthy, well connected and hard as nails” The threat of conflict of interest is all the greater today, she said, as Hillary Clinton begins to put flesh on the bones of her policy pledges in her presidential bid. “Her policy is being formed as we speak, and how are we to know that the generosity of donors to the Clinton Foundation will not depend on a particular policy outcome?”

Though Bill Clinton insisted this month that his charity has done nothing “knowingly inappropriate”, that is unlikely to satisfy the sceptics from left or right. They say that a family in which one member is vying for the most powerful office on earth must avoid straying into even the unintentionally inappropriate.

But with Bill refusing doggedly to give up his speaker engagements – “I gotta pay our bills” – and with foreign corporations and super-rich individuals still able to donate to the family charity, it looks like this controversy may run and run. Politically, too, Hillary Clinton is confronted with a potential credibility gap between her appeal to ordinary Americans on the presidential campaign trail and the millions that continue to flow to the foundation.

“Is she going to be in touch with the needs and dreams of poor America when her spouse and daughter are working with the world’s global elite?” said Dave Levinthal of the anticorruption investigative organization, the Centre for Public Integrity. “That’s a question she will have to answer, every step of the way.”

But this is a question that many a leader has to deal with. We have just witnessed

BUSINESS interview

the return to power of David Cameron, an old Etonian and very wealthy man. Does this mean that to empathise with the poor and disadvantaged members of society that one has to be poor or disadvantaged?

Of course not. One just has to be human, with the drive and determination to alleviate suffering and poverty.

But who is Hillary Clinton?

As a young woman, Hillary was active in young Republican groups and campaigned for Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater in 1964. She was inspired to work in some form of public service after hearing a speech in Chicago by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., and became a Democrat in 1968.

Hillary attended Wellesley College, where she was active in student politics and was elected senior class president before graduating in 1969. She then attended Yale Law School, where she met Bill Clinton. After graduating with honours in 1973, she went on to enrol at the Yale Child Study Centre, where she took courses on children and medicine and completed one year of post-graduate study.

During her summers as a college student, she worked at a variety of jobs. In 1971, she first came to Washington, D.C. to work on U.S. Senator Walter Mondale’s subcommittee on migrant workers. In the summer of 1972, she worked in the western states for the campaign of Democratic

presidential nominee George McGovern.

In the spring of 1974, she became a member of the presidential impeachment inquiry staff, which one might reflect came in rather handy when she and Bill were fighting

“During Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary emerged as a dynamic and valued partner, and during his subsequent presidency, she took on far more than the traditional role of the first lady” his own impeachment, advising the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives during the Watergate scandal. After President Richard M. Nixon resigned in August, she became a faculty member of the University of Arkansas School Of Law, where her Yale

classmate and boyfriend Bill Clinton was teaching as well. Hillary Rodham married Bill Clinton on October 11, 1975, at their home in Fayetteville. Before their engagement, Clinton secretly purchased a small house that Hillary had once remarked that she liked. When he proposed marriage to her and she accepted, he revealed that they owned the house. Their daughter, Chelsea Victoria, was born on February 27, 1980.

In 1976, Hillary worked on Jimmy Carter’s successful campaign for president while husband Bill was elected attorney general of Arkansas. Bill Clinton was elected governor of Arkansas in 1978 at age 32, lost reelection in 1980, but came back to win in 1982, 1984, 1986 (when the term of office was expanded from two to four years) and 1990.

During Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary emerged as a dynamic and valued partner, and during his subsequent presidency, she took on far more than the traditional role of the first lady. In 1993 Bill selected her to head the Task Force on National Health Care Reform. The controversial commission produced a complicated plan that never came to the floor of either house.

It was abandoned in September 1994.

Despite this failure, Hillary’s involvement deepened her interest in health care, and combining her new-found experience with her past work involving child and family PORTFOLIO 97

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advocacy groups she championed a number of related causes. In 1997 she was influential in the creation of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provided state funding for children whose parents could not afford to pay for their health care, and she was also instrumental in the passing of the Adoption and Safe Families Act, a series of reforms aimed at American adoption and foster-care systems.

Hillary also used her influence as first lady to support various women’s causes. Working with then attorney general Janet Reno, in 1995 she helped create the Violence Against Women office in the Department of Justice, and working with then secretary of state Madeline Albright she travelled extensively to nations around the world to promote equal rights for women.

But Hillary’s tenure as first lady was not without its controversies. In 1993, she and her husband were implicated in a Department of Justice investigation relating to the Whitewater real estate project in Arkansas.

The failure of the project’s bank, Morgan Guaranty Savings and Loan, cost the federal government $73 million. Whitewater later became the subject of congressional hearings and an independent counsel investigation, and in January 1996 Hillary was compelled to appear before a federal grand jury.

No charges were ever filed against her.

Trouble arose again in 1998, when the White House became engulfed in the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Articles of impeachment were brought against Bill Clinton later that year, but in February 1999 the U.S. Senate failed to convict him and he remained 98 PORTFOLIO

in office for the remainder of his term.

Shortly after winning the U.S. presidential election, Barack Obama nominated Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. She accepted the nomination and was officially approved by the Senate as the 67th U.S. Secretary of State on January 21st, 2009.

“It cannot be denied that Hillary Clinton is a whip-smart woman who has dealt efficiently with hundreds of complex personal and business issues” Some have remarked that Obama made this offer to keep the Clintons on-side, and an understanding was reached that if she kept her head down for the duration, she would have a free run at the presidency.

All politics, but American politics most especially, are based on barter. ‘You give me that and I will give you this’. The age-old Del Boy trade-off. The trouble with US politics is that the stakes are so colossal that the level and legality of some of these trade-offs is to be questioned.

She might yet be undone by her e-mail account. In early March 2015, Clinton faced

controversy and criticism when it was revealed that she had used her personal email address to handle official government business during her time as Secretary of State. In a news conference held at the United Nations, speaking initially of gender equality and the political situation in Iran, Clinton stated that she had utilized her personal email for convenience as allowed by State Department protocol. She later turned over all governmental correspondence to the Obama administration while deleting 30,000 messages that could be construed as personal. It is what she deleted that her detractors are most interested in, and if they get their way Microsoft will be forced to recover those deletions and her world could come crashing down.

It cannot be denied that Hillary Clinton is a whip-smart woman who has dealt efficiently with hundreds of complex personal and business issues that, if we mere mortals were to suffer one in a lifetime, might well floor us for good. She is canny, astute, wealthy, well connected and hard as nails.

Her work on women’s and children’s rights is to be applauded and her success in this current battle would ensure her place in history.

Margaret Thatcher changed the UK’s political game in proving that a woman could run a country as well, if not a bloody sight better, than a man. This is but chicken feed in the wider world as it does not matter how grand is our delusion that the UK actually matters on the world stage; a woman being voted into the most powerful office on the planet would change the world forever, and I for one, would love to see it.

smart of Ashford Monument Way, Orbital Park, Ashford, Kent TN24 0HB 0844 659 6072 smart of Brighton Victoria Road, Portslade, Brighton, East Sussex BN41 1DY 0844 659 6072 smart of Eastbourne Eastbourne Road, Westham, Eastbourne, East Sussex BN24 5NH 0844 659 6072 smart of Gatwick 78 Gatwick Road, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 9AW 0844 659 6072 smart of Maidstone Bircholt Road, Parkwood, Maidstone, Kent ME15 9YN 0844 659 6072 smart of Tonbridge Vale Rise, Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1TB 0844 659 6072 www.lookers.co.uk/smart Official government fuel consumption figures in mpg (litres per 100km) for the new smart range: urban: 55.4(5.1)-58.9(4.8), extra-urban: 72.4(3.9)-76.4(3.7), combined: 65.7(4.3)-68.9(4.1). CO2 emissions: 99-93g/km. Official EUregulated test data are provided for camparison purposes and actual performance will depend on driving style, road conditions and other non-technical factors. Model featured the new smart forfour passion at £149 per month on contract hire. Business users only. Mercedes-Benz UK Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 2248457 and has its registered address at Tongwell, Milton Keynes, MK15 8BA. 58127

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