Like the idea of investing, but not sure where to start? In this session, Financial Consultants Ralph and Emma from Face to Face Finance will give you all the lowdown so you can invest with confidence.
Full virtual events programme: www.norfolkchamber.co.uk/events
We are a leading provider of wealth management and employee benefits with our best-selling product being your peace of mind. We want to help you enjoy a standard of living of your choosing.
Our history
We set out to challenge the status quo over 30 years ago from a converted garage in Leicester. We now employ more than 600 people at locations across the UK and have passed some pretty impressive milestones.
At Mattioli Woods, we strive to deliver the best possible outcomes for our clients. Not only is our valued team motivated by helping you achieve your goals, but we also enjoy what we do. And that makes all the difference.
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Looking back on your experience of 2020, what did you miss the most in the pandemic — and what did it make you reassess? Have your plans changed? Has the time saved by not having to travel to work given you more leisure or has working from home seen your work/life balance deteriorate.
What about your plans for retirement? The shift to a new phase of life can be a difficult transition at the best of times let alone during a pandemic, but lockdowns have given us a unique opportunity to experience what life after work may feel like.
We’ll start with a short presentation looking at some of the emerging trends before breaking into small groups to share thoughts before returning to the main ‘room’ for feedback and wider discussion.
This event was recorded February 24th as part of Chadwicks Masterclass & Buisness Insight series.
To view all upcoming Masterclasses please click here
We are a leading provider of wealth management and employee benefits with our best-selling product being your peace of mind. We want to help you enjoy a standard of living of your choosing.
Our history
We set out to challenge the status quo over 30 years ago from a converted garage in Leicester. We now employ more than 600 people at locations across the UK and have passed some pretty impressive milestones.
At Mattioli Woods, we strive to deliver the best possible outcomes for our clients. Not only is our valued team motivated by helping you achieve your goals, but we also enjoy what we do. And that makes all the difference.
Sign up to receive alerts
If you would like to receive latest news, insights and event updated from Mattioli Woods, sign up today.
In this very special session of our AATitude festival, our CEO and Tutor Gareth John will be speaking to a former AAT apprentice of the year on how they achieved this amazing title. Along with a former chef of the royal family turned accountant!
For more information on our courses please go to:
In this session, we discuss how the look and style of workplaces will evolve to take account of social distancing guidelines. This session is led by Gareth John and we are joined by Barnaby Clark and Lizzie Duckworth from COEL, a commercial and design fit-out company.
For more information on our courses please go to:
https://www.firstintuition.co.uk/empl…
First Intuition began in 2007 with a single thought – to put the learner at the centre of everything. Since then we have won awards, opened a national network of study centres and now deliver to over 7,000 students per year.
We offer courses for the following Qualifications:
AAT
ACCA
CIMA
ICAEW
CMI
We believe that every learner is different, and one-size doesn’t always fit all. We are happy to spend time with our learners to build a programme that fits in with their busy lifestyles.
With 15 study centres across the UK and online study options we can create a blend of programmes to fit in with the most demanding of lives.
Will Richardson, founder and CEO of Green Element, witnessed first-hand the impacts of climate change when he travelled around the world. He made a life-changing decision to dedicate his work to helping build a sustainable future for generations to come.
Here, he speaks to NatWest Business Builder to share his insights and expertise. He talks about why climate change is the biggest crisis facing the world today, and how businesses of all sizes can rise to meet the challenge.
There is no one right solution on tackling the threats of climate change – start small and you could still make a difference. Read the Business Builder sustainability checklist to understand how the weather could affect your business and changes you can make straight away.
Further reading
For more insights on climate change and the race to net zero, visit the NatWest Business Hub’s spotlight on Green Business.
Be Successful – sustainability checklist
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At the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November 2021, heads of state, climate experts and businesses will come together to agree coordinated action to tackle climate change. We can all play a part.
So, is your business as green as it could be? Is there a gap between knowing and doing? How do your products, services, and behaviour align with government targets?
Watch our film to understand how the sustainability agenda will affect your business in the coming years.
There is no one right solution on tackling the threats of climate change – start small and you could still make a difference. Read the Business Builder sustainability checklist to understand how the weather could affect your business and changes you can make straight away.
Further reading
For more insights on climate change and the race to net zero, visit the NatWest Business Hub’s spotlight on Green Business.
We have a thriving and diverse community of thousands of entrepreneurs from multiple sectors, backgrounds and skill sets helping you to connect with the right people at the right time. No matter whether you’re looking to upskill, get feedback, engage with new people or simply observe, there’s something for everyone.
‘Want to learn more? Register for NatWest Business Builder to view all of their business development tools. Click HERE‘
NatWest Business Builder: Revenue Streams
Many businesses will be particularly worried about cash flow over the coming weeks and months. These seven steps can help to reduce the impact of fluctuating cash flow.
For businesses that are much busier at certain times of year than at others, coping with swings in the amount of money coming in can present a significant challenge.
From retailers that make the lion’s share of their sales in November and December, to leisure and tourism companies that prosper in the summer months, seasonality is a fact of life for firms in many sectors.
But while turnover and profitability might be healthy on an annual basis, such businesses can face serious – and, in some cases, fatal – cash-flow problems during off-peak periods.
We’ve talked to accountants and business-planning experts to find out what steps firms can take to deal with seasonal revenue fluctuations.
In many businesses, management’s involvement in day-to-day operations means they do not have a lot of opportunity to step back and think strategically about the future direction of the company.
For seasonal firms, this is not the case, says Dominic Shaw, director of accountant Aston Shaw.
“If you’re in an off-peak period, try to plan ahead for those peak periods,” he explains. “That might be looking at the resources you’re using and how they might best be best utilised.
“Use this time also to set your direction for the future, for example by looking at different opportunities – if you can do that, you can manage your way through the rollercoaster ride that a lot of business owners find themselves on.”
John Buchanan, performance senior manager at accountant HW Fisher, says that forecasting is especially important for firms with seasonal revenue variations.
“It is vital to forecast your financing requirements in order to ascertain your likely needs and how your business model might be tweaked in order to maximise the available cash,” he says.
“Cash budgeting is a particularly good area to look at; you should understand when you are going to need additional staff or funds to buy stock.”
Shaw adds: “If you need finance, banks will want to see forecasts of where you think you are going to be, what your commitments are and where you are going to spend your money.”
Marco Soares, a business coach at MarcoSoares.co.uk, says in some cases he advises clients to create a 12-month cash-flow forecast broken down week by week. “This way you can identify when and how big your cash gap is – which is important information.”
If you do need some form of finance to smooth out cash-flow fluctuations, the most suitable type will depend on how your business operates, Buchanan says.
“So for large businesses, you could have mix of overdrafts, term loans, and asset-based finance such as leasing vehicles or plant and machinery. If you are seeing a large build-up of stock maybe stock finance is appropriate.”
He adds: “If you need vehicles, the advantage of asset-based finance is that you don’t need to have a large outlay to purchase them: you are going to be able to spread the payment.”
Businesses can also explore matching loan repayment terms with peak and off-peak periods, Buchanan says. “If you’re a seasonal business, you can agree a variation so you pay more based on when your turnover is going to be up. If you are a retailer, for example, you want to agree to lower repayments during August, September and October as that is when you are building your stock levels.”
Buchanan says: “The assets you require when you are busy might not be needed at all times, so it is useful to look at how that might be structured; for example, could you lease them rather than buy them?
“I know a building contractor that uses temporary fencing around their sites. Once they did their sums they found it was cheaper to buy the fencing rather than rent it, and then sell it for scrap after the work had been done.”
Shaw adds: “For most businesses, trying to recognise what the variable costs are and to keep them to a minimum is very important.”
One of the most significant variable costs companies face is wages, Buchanan says, and dealing with staffing levels is one of the biggest challenges for seasonal businesses.
“You’re going to need a core of skilled staff who work for you all year round, but for the busy periods you’re likely to need temporary or fixed-term contract staff,” he explains. “It’s particularly useful to take advice from an employment lawyer when putting these contracts together.”
Soares says that businesses could consider offering short-term work to people who might find it fits with their lifestyles, such as students or retired people looking to supplement their pensions.
A long-term solution to swings in cash flow is to make your business busy all year round.
Buchanan says: “Can you reduce the seasonality of your business through diversification? This means looking at additional products and services you could offer using your existing skill set that you could sell in that down period. “So if you make lawnmowers, say, you could switch to making snowblowers in winter using the same manufacturing skills. You don’t want something that makes your business significantly more complex, and you’re looking for something that you can employ your existing staff in.”
Soares says that “making hay while the sun shines” is another way of ensuring your business can survive through quiet periods. “Make sure you really maximise the good periods and have clear goals around how much is required to balance out the troughs,” he advises. “What is needed here is a combination of good sales and marketing activity, and maximising margins.”
Shaw adds: “During the peak periods, you need to put money away and plan for those off-peak periods. And leaving money in the business will also benefit its long-term health.”
Further Reading
We have a thriving and diverse community of thousands of entrepreneurs from multiple sectors, backgrounds and skill sets helping you to connect with the right people at the right time. No matter whether you’re looking to upskill, get feedback, engage with new people or simply observe, there’s something for everyone.
‘Want to learn more? Register for NatWest Business Builder to view all of their business development tools. Click HERE‘
Is there anything practical individuals can do to protect themselves?
A new concept to emerge from the Covid-19 lockdown has been ‘shielding’ – those who have been at very high risk of severe illness from coronavirus who have had to minimise all interaction with others and stay at home as much as possible.
This has led to unforeseen daily difficulties for individuals who have previously been able to lead completely normal lives. For example, what happens if you cannot leave your home, but you need to visit your bank to complete an urgent transaction?
Is there anything practical individuals can do to protect themselves?
In these instances, Lasting Powers of Attorney (‘LPAs’) provide a useful tool to help facilitate an individual’s needs should anything arise in future leading to similar lockdown requirements.
What is a Lasting Power of Attorney?
An LPA is a legal document which allows an individual to appoint one or more ‘Attorneys’ to help them make decisions or act on their behalf. You must be over 18 and have full mental capacity to make a legally valid LPA. Your Attorney(s) should be someone you trust to make decisions in your best interests – this could be a friend or relative or a professional person if you have no one close to you who you would like to assist you. A ’property and finance’ LPA will allow the Attorney(s) to sign documents on your behalf, discuss your accounts and investments and to transfer funds. If you do not want your Attorney(s) to have too much control, you can tailor the document to restrict what your Attorney(s) are allowed to be involved with.
Practical protection
Often, relatives and friends of elderly people take the step to draw up an LPA when their loved one becomes physically or mentally incapacitated. As we have seen during lockdown, an LPA can actually provide practical protection to a much wider group of people who are still very much in control of their own physical and mental capacity at the present time.
As long as your LPA does not contain a restriction that it will only come into effect if you loose mental incapacity, your Attorney(s) can use the document to act at your direction to do the things that you are unable to do – so with your consent your Attorneys would be able to move money around, do your shopping, pay bills for you, and manage your finances both due to shielding, or in hospital for any length of time or simply if you are due to go away on holiday.
It can be very sensible to get an LPA in place as a matter of course – perhaps if you are considering getting your will updated, you should arrange an LPA with your spouse, partner or trusted friend at the same time. You should also consider making a ‘Health and Welfare’ LPA which would allow your attorneys to make decisions about your day to day living, choice of medical treatment and where you should live – but only if you are unable to make these decisions yourself.
NatWest Business Builder
A good accountant can give small business owners a clear understanding of their company finances, putting them in a position to grow profits and revenues.
© Getty Images
A recent Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) study has found that SMEs are losing £15,000 a year because of poor financial management.
Instead of using accountants, four in five SMEs trust unqualified staff with calculations, compliance and tax returns, according to the research.
SMEs can begin to improve their financial management and growth prospects with a few simple steps, such as setting up a reserve bank account for a ‘rainy day’ fund, ring-fencing a percentage of regular income to pay for tax and VAT, and marking key tax dates on a calendar to plan ahead.
AAT also recommends finding the ‘hidden accountant’ in the business and providing them with additional training.
“People think all an accountant does is compliance and annual tax returns,” says Mark Russell, client manager at accountancy firm Aston Shaw. But SMEs shouldn’t ignore the power of professional accounting expertise. Accountants can carry out the ‘bread and butter’ of accounting, prevent financial leaks and help companies develop a business growth strategy.
“We have a spectrum of knowledge across a range of sectors and can use templates from other clients to explain to SMEs how their strategy going forward can succeed,” says Russell.
Nick Levine, head of enterprise at accountancy body ICAEW, agrees that accountants can play a fundamental part in business growth. “The role of an accountant is increasingly becoming more advisory led,” he says. “Historically it centred around compliance, bookkeeping, VAT returns and annual accounts, but now it’s also about value-added services.
“Some SME owners are unaware of how tech-savvy we are and that we offer such a wide range of advisory services. There needs to be more education around the role of the 21st-century accountant,” says Levine.
Cloud-based accounting software and support applications, such as Sage One, Worldpay or QuickBooks, can help business owners manage their invoices, electric point of sale and payroll processes. Choosing the right package for your business can be stress-free with the help of an accountant.
“This software means an accountant gets access to close to real-time financial data to analyse and understand where clients can make efficiency gains. It can also help to produce more accurate forward forecasts and advise on strategy,” Levine says.
“We have a clearer picture on profitability and how different revenue lines are impacting cash flow. We can tweak strategy to help maintain and grow profits and set out and meet KPIs. We can also use the data to set out different scenarios about the impact a new product or service could have.”
Accountants can guide you on the best approach to raising finance, too.
“There are so many financing products on the market and we can inform owners on the pros and cons of each one,” says Levine. “That could be invoice factoring or discounting or asset finance.”
“Some SME owners are unaware of how tech-savvy we accountants are and that we offer such a wide range of advisory services”
Nick Levine, head of enterprise, ICAEW
Russell says: “We get a feel for what owners want to achieve when it comes to financing and growth. Sometimes a lot of that is reaffirming what they already believe, or we can also tell them whether something is going to be a terrible idea.
“I took a call recently from an owner who was thinking about buying a business. Two years ago he would have made the acquisition without talking to me; now I can advise on how to do it the most tax-efficient way.”
Not all accountants are the same, as Katrina Cliffe, MD of marketing firm KC Communications, has found. “When I set up the business in 2014, I continued using the accountant who had previously looked after my self-assessments,” she says. “I didn’t appreciate the difference that a good accountant can make to your business. I thought it would be a case of adding up the numbers and seeing how much tax I owed; I didn’t realise the business insights and analysis they could bring.”
She says the first accountant she used failed to provide advice on areas such as the VAT flat-rate scheme, which led to the firm “wasting too much money” in its early years. “We’re a company growing at 47% turnover year on year, but we didn’t have a clear picture of our cash flow, how the next 12 months might look, or how much we owed in advance on VAT bills or tax returns.
“We switched accountants and they’ve been invaluable in getting both historic and current accounts to give me a clear picture of my business. They found that I had underpaid a VAT bill by almost £2,000.”
With her accounts now in order, Cliffe sees the benefits throughout her business. “It helps me make better decisions on cost savings, what I can pay for day rates, employment, staff training, development and perks,” she says. “Our accountant also provides quarterly peer-development training sessions where its clients come together and we discuss with other business owners issues such as planning for the future and personal development. It’s really useful.”
KC Communications has also been steered towards local grants, which have helped it recruit staff and develop a new website. “Another thing they [our accountants] helped with is implementing a new staff health-insurance scheme. They showed us how big employees’ tax contributions would be,” Cliffe says. “We then communicated that to staff.”
Metric Accountants, which specialises in accounts for tech and high-growth companies, advises on the Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) scheme, which allows employees to obtain shares in a business without incurring income tax or National Insurance when EMI options are granted. It also advises clients of funding opportunities such as R&D tax credits and video-games tax relief.
“Growing companies don’t want to look behind them; they want cash-flow projections and future financial forecasts,” says director James Richardson. “We can analyse their data to see if we need to raise money, spend on headcount or machinery, or cut back costs over the next 12 to 36 months.
“They may have IP [intellectual property], tend to be cash hungry and suffer the growing pains of having lots of staff. We find that many are unaware of transformative grants or specialist tax schemes. They need strategic financial advice.
“We can also help firms whose VC [venture capital] investors want the accounts report done in a certain way,” he says. “Accountants who just do bookkeeping won’t survive. We need to be more face-to-face and strategically minded.”
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NatWest Business Builder: Building a growth mindset
© Getty Images
Failure, according to billionaire inventor Sir James Dyson, is far more interesting than success.
It’s an important process in succeeding. If you get it right first time, every time, you learn nothing and gain nothing. Mistakes in business, although often a temporary setback, almost always create a memorable lesson that you can take with you as a valuable contribution to the future of your business.
When the Dyson dual-cyclone vacuum cleaner burst into shops throughout the UK in 1993, its creator was hailed a genius – an original-thinking leading light of Britain’s technological revolution.
But Sir James’ invention was built on a catalogue of mistakes. It had taken almost 16 years to bring his first vacuum cleaner to market. Each one of those years was peppered with errors, 5,126 of them to be exact. That one rethink – a reinvention of everything Hoover had swept before them – was version number 5,127.
Today, the Dyson company has annual earnings of £800m, while Sir James himself commands a personal fortune in excess of £4bn. Not bad for a 15-year cycle of continual failures.
It’s a legacy that resonates across many and varied business minds throughout the world.
Steve King, CEO and founder of Black Swan, one of the UK’s fastest-growing tech start-ups, set out at the age of 25 to open a music studio in Devon. “I borrowed £50,000 from my parents to get the business started but had no real business plan and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it went bust,” he says.
“Not only had I failed, but I’d also put a big dent in my parents’ retirement fund, which was not a great feeling. I had to sit down with my dad and have a very difficult conversation where I told him the bad news, but the only thing he said was, ‘never give up’.”
It was a lesson that has never left him and a mantra that echoes around his current business. “Don’t fear failure or making a mistake, as long as you can learn from it and move forward,” King says. “Also, and in case you’re wondering, I have since paid my parents back.”
Your biggest mistake being your first serious error of judgement in business is a learning curve that Phil Riley, former chief executive of Chrysalis Radio, is familiar with.
“I’d set up a company to make short, pre-recorded music features for radio stations – I had demos made, got them cleared for transmission, but outsourced the sponsorship sales to a third-party sales house,” he says.
“Don’t fear failure or making a mistake, as long as you can learn from it and move forward”
Steve King, CEO, Black Swan
“I was a tiny part of their business so they simply didn’t focus on getting any sales. I had to close the business down in the end and I’ve tried very hard never to let third-party sales houses have a dominant say in my businesses since then without putting in place really stringent service terms, normally including some form of revenue guarantee or performance clause with penalties for failure to deliver.
“If you’re going to pay people a substantial portion of your revenue for representing you, try to make sure it’s on your terms – not theirs, and the time to set that up is before you sign the deal.”
Mistakes aren’t restricted to the early planning stages – sometimes inaction over a lack of judgement can have consequences throughout your enterprise.
Sarat Pediredla, CEO of App designer Hedgehog Lab, says: “I think one of the biggest mistakes I made was to put faith and backing into a team member, despite everyone else telling me how disruptive they were and the impact it was having on the company and wider team morale,” he says.
“It baffled a lot of my other team members that I couldn’t see the obvious but I felt like it was my responsibility and, if I tried hard enough, I could fix the problem. But the whole episode ended very badly with this team member leaving – with extreme animosity on both sides.
“The reason I’m glad it happened was it has really helped me realign my expectations around questioning everything I hear as a leader and ensure I follow my gut.”
Pediredla adds that the episode has caused him to be more decisive and take action swiftly when he recognises a problem. “In the past, I was too slow to respond to issues, either burying my head in the sand hoping they would go away or trying in futility to resolve them,” he says.
“Now, I take a much harder but fair approach to resolving problems quickly before they fester.”
Dave Matthews, owner of the Magic Alley attraction in Stratford-upon-Avon, first set his business up as Creaky Cauldron in London in the late 1980s, which, upon reflection, began with a branding error.
“The premises that I took on was the basement of a building just off the Greenwich High Road,” he says. “You went through a big iron gate, into a small door in the side of the building and down a few stairs to where the basement suddenly opened up in front of you – appearing to stretch on forever.”
Visitors would constantly refer to Matthews’ fledgling business as “Magic Alley” because of the interesting location, completely ignoring its correct name. It was at that point Dave realised his first mistake was a big one – he’d given his business the wrong name.
“It was quite infuriating at the time because that’s not who we were,” he says. “But it became established and that’s who we became and we’ve never looked back.”
For digital entrepreneur Michael Tobin OBE, the fear of making mistakes often became a mistake in itself. Tobin led the FTSE 250 company Telecity for a decade, but around that appointment his hopping from boardroom to boardroom as a serial non-executive director always triggered doubts about his own ability.
“Every time I quit a job and moved on to the next thing I was faced with the fear of the unknown, and sometimes it felt like I was making a serious mistake,” he says.
“But the mistake I was actually making was giving in to the fear of failure because, certainly on reflection, it was always the right move to move on as I didn’t always have the right people around me.
“The lesson I took from those experiences was to always surround yourself with the best people you can find and afford ¬– they will make you a success.”
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