We’re very excited to announce the launch of our newest and most powerful feature yet, GuardianPlus. This allows you to give your staff 24/7/365 protection through our fully accredited Safepoint Response Centre!
This means that to protect your staff every second of every day all that you need to do is download the Safepoint app and sign up, that’s it! What’s more, this process only takes around 5 minutes!
Protecting your staff has never been simpler. Check out our 14-day free trial – you don’t even need a credit card to get started!
Businesses in King’s Lynn town centre are being invited to help to shape plans for the town at a virtual Vision King’s Lynn workshop taking place from 5.30pm – 7pm on Wednesday 9th September.
The workshop, organised by the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk and Discover King’s Lynn, will see businesses asked to share their ideas on topics such as making use of empty units and enhancing the town centre offer.
The feedback in the workshop will help to inform activities and improvements in the town centre, including the Town Investment Plan. The Town Investment Plan is currently being developed and through it, King’s Lynn has the opportunity to potentially access £25M in investment from the Town’s Fund.
The workshop follows on from recent Vision King’s Lynn consultation to understand consumer and business confidence in the town centre. The findings from these surveys will be shared shortly, and there will be an opportunity for businesses to discuss some of the emerging themes at the workshop.
Graham Purkins, Chair of The Town Board which is overseeing the development of the Town Investment Plan said: “We know that businesses in the town centre, like so many others across the area, have felt the impact of Covid-19 significantly over the last few months.
“That is why it is so vital that we get their views. We want to hear their ideas for what we can do to help the town centre to bounce back from the difficulties caused by the pandemic and thrive into the future.”
“I would urge businesses in the town centre to please do join us at this important workshop and tell us what you think – your views are vital.”
*If you’re a King’s Lynn town centre business, don’t miss out on the opportunity to join the free workshop. Register your attendance today by emailing [email protected] or get in touch via the website www.visionkingslynn.co.uk or the social media channels – Twitter: @vision_lynn or Facebook: Vision King’s Lynn.
The closing date to register a place is Friday 4th September 2020.
In this week’s episode James and Mark consider what differentiates great businesses from good businesses. In their usual informal but informative style they come up with 3 valuable tips drawn from the likes of Gary Player, Sir Clive Woodward and Roy Keane, whilst Mark confesses to a mild case of Tsundoku.
Blue Sky Professional Development in partnership with Colchester Institute have spaces available on their HR Support (level 3) and HR Consultant/Partner (Level 5) apprenticeship programmes starting in February and May. These courses include a CIPD qualification and can be totally funded through your apprenticeship levy. Don’t pay the levy? 90% of the course can be funded by the government, the organisation pays just 10%. To ensure you or your colleague will have a place, or to find out more contact us now – [email protected]
Staff safety solution Safepoint has announced its new partnership with the Anglia Farmer Group (AF Group) – the UK’s leading farmer-owned buying group – to offer a tech-based safety solution to protect their members working within the farming sector.
Supported by Comm-Tech, a leading supplier of business communications, who are assisting with the sales and support, members who will now be able to sign up to Safepoint’s service directly through their AF Group account.
Michael Simnett, Communications Projects Lead for the AF Group, says:
“We have been looking for a system that gives farm owners and farm managers the ability to look out for the welfare of their staff, especially during tasks undertaken whilst working alone. Mental health and farm safety are key areas within the farming industry with owners looking out for the wellbeing of their staff. The Safepoint system is very user friendly, easy to navigate and a perfect for all types of memberships of our AF members”.
This month also sees the launch of Safepoint’s GuardianPlus service providing a dedicated 24/7 emergency response team on hand to manage any emergency situations for those businesses that have signed up to the plan. Based in East Anglia, Safepoint’s GuardianPlus Response Centre is a fully accredited state-of-the-art monitoring and alarm receiving centre (ARC), manned by a team of highly skilled and qualified experts, trained to deal with emergency situations.
Callum Coombes, CEO, says:
“Our goal at Safepoint is to make protecting your staff so easy and accessible that there’s no reason not to do it. Up until this point, businesses were responding to emergency alerts internally when using Safepoint, so we wanted to take this responsibility off their hands. This makes 24/7/365 real-time staff protection as easy as just downloading an app to your phone, there’s really nothing else that you have to do”.
Since 2019, Safepoint has successfully raised nearly £300,000 of investment with new funding secured this round through SFC Capital, University of East Anglia and New Anglia Capital. Officially launching a year ago. Safepoint’s innovative technology has helped hundreds of workers stay safe across a number of sectors including agriculture, health & social care, property and offshore / shipping.
Charlie Walker has opened a new walk-in small business tax and accountancy shop on 129 High Street in Huntingdon, to operate alongside his existing one in Bedford.
Charlie Walker, like all TaxAssist Accountants, has been incredibly busy over the last six months, helping his over 200 clients to navigate their way through the coronavirus pandemic. However, keen to continue with his planned expansion, he has now opened his second shop in Huntingdon. “It really was the perfect shop in the perfect location and will provide the ideal environment for me to meet with potential and existing clients,” explains Charlie.
“Both of my shops are open for clients to walk-in and we provide hand sanitiser, wear masks and have installed protective screens for face-to-face client meetings, although we also offer telephone and online meetings for those clients that would prefer this method at this time. Our aim is to be as flexible and helpful as possible. Do get in contact if you’d like a free initial consultation.” Charlie is looking positively on the future for his and his clients’ businesses. “Clearly the pandemic has caused a huge global shock, but with my services very much in demand, I believe now is the right time to expand, so that more businesses can benefit from our expertise.”
Knowing that there is a desperate need for guidance and support right now, Charlie recently jumped at the chance when he was offered his own monthly, one-hour radio show on Huntingdon Community Radio after a number of appearances as a business contributor on BBC Three Counties Radio last year. He hopes to have a local business section, as well as a national business update and special guests each month. The show is due to begin in the Autumn. “I’m passionate about helping the businesses in my area and I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to offer the benefits of my business and accountancy experience, face-to-face, online and now via the air waves!”
BDH Tullford is delighted to announce that its new range of fun face shields is now available to order.
Made at the company’s facilities in the heart of Norwich, they’re designed to make PPE feel less alien to children as lockdown conditions continue to lift. Available in a range of designs, BDH Tullford can deliver visors to addresses across the UK.
Since the beginning of lockdown, BDH Tullford’s teams have focused on helping clients across the UK adapt to new ways of working while keeping their teams and customers safe.
The company very quickly started supplying masks to the NHS and the introduction of themed visors are a natural next step. From dentists and opticians to shops and restaurants, the themed visor is a simple way to soften the appearance of PPE by adding some fun graphics.
Made from a single sheet of clear plastic attached to a head band, the themed face visors are:
Says Director James Fox: “We’re delighted to introduce themed face visors to our range. Many of us at BDH Tullford have children who dislike the appearance of PPE, so we wanted to find a solution to the problem. These new visors are a fun, simple and inexpensive way to make children feel welcome and safe in a range of environments.”
Call BDH Tullford on 01603 620780 to place your order.
Freebridge unveil new homes across West Norfolk This month sees the latest in a number of new homes in West Norfolk being unveiled by Freebridge Community Housing.
The latest development, on the former site of an old police house in St Edmundsbury Road in King’s Lynn, will see work completed on three two-bed houses, two four-bed houses and one shared house, which will be leased and operated by the YMCA. Tenants are due to move in at the beginning of next month. This follows keys being handed over to the tenants of seven brand new homes on Priory Road, North Wootton earlier in the year.
Tony Hall, Chief Executive of Freebridge said: “Our mission is to develop homes and create opportunities for people in West Norfolk and the developments at St Edmundsbury Road in North Lynn and Priory Road in North Wootton are great examples of this.
“We are passionate about providing people with good quality homes to live in and are delighted that we’re able to continue to support the needs of the community by providing much needed housing in places where people want to live.”
In addition to these two developments work has also just begun on transforming the long closed Rampant Horse pub in Gayton into two one-bed and two two-bed houses and the site of the old Blockbusters Video site in King’s Lynn into eight flats and two commercial units.
Anglian Water are delighted to invite you to one of our regional stakeholder engagement events on Thursday 15th October 10:00-11:30.
We will be facilitating a discussion with senior stakeholders from a range of organisations and government on how we collectively deliver the post-Covid levelling up agenda, sustainable investment and support for our vulnerable customers in the East of England.
As a supplier of a vital public service, Anglian Water are guided by our Purpose to bring environmental and social prosperity to the region we serve through our commitment to Love Every Drop. Our priorities throughout the coronavirus crisis have been to keep water flowing to our customers, to protect and support our employees and to offer help and advice, as we have always done, to customers in financial difficulties. However, as we look ahead as the nation starts to build back in recovery from COVID-19, it is important to discuss our collective priorities for the region and look forward to hearing your views.
The events are 90 minutes and will be hosted on Zoom to enable round table discussions and dialogue. We will share our investment plans for your area and are keen to hear on how you would like to be involved going forward as we embark on developing our next business plan.
If you are unable to attend the event most relevant to your area, or have any further questions then please get in touch at [email protected] and we can arrange for you to attend on an alternative date.
The Franchise Marketing Awards announcement follows TaxAssist being shortlisted for the Franchisor of the Year accolade.
The Franchise Marketing Awards shortlist, which celebrates exemplary marketing support within the franchise industry, has recognised the proven and comprehensive marketing package which TaxAssist Accountants provides to its franchisees.
This includes initial sales and marketing training, TV and digital advertising, a national lead generation service, national and local social media activity, local marketing advice and planning, a centralised email service and guides for pricing and profitability among many other initiatives.
As the coronavirus pandemic took hold, the TaxAssist Support Centre team were quick to provide additional support and an enhanced service, working tirelessly to ensure every franchisee had the resources they needed to effectively communicate with and assist their clients through the crisis.
This has included a COVID-19 Business Support Hub on the website to share news, articles, Q&As, videos and webinars, timely and increased social media posts and client guides covering key Government announcements and more than one million emails in total sent to clients from the centralised mailing system.
James Mattam, Group Business Development Director, said: “We’re delighted that our marketing initiatives and COVID-19 support measures have been recognised by the Franchise Marketing Awards and testament to the hard work put in by our team at the Support Centre, who work so effectively to assist our network of franchisees and, in turn, their clients.
“The coronavirus pandemic has been completely unprecedented, and the Board of Directors made a bold decision in April to pause the national marketing payments required from the franchisee network for three months. As a franchisor, we have contributed more than £200,000 directly into the national marketing budget to protect the network from any potential downturn and keep the advertising momentum going.
“The extra work that was put in during the lockdown has already started to generate a huge amount of brand loyalty from our client base. This has developed new advocates for our brand who are recommending our services by sharing their experience of how we’ve helped them through these challenging times.
“All of this activity has generated over 5,100 qualified inbound leads this year and we were able to sign up more than 500 new clients during the height of the ‘lockdown’ period from March to May. On top of this, our entire network sales for June have resulted in a year-to-date increase of 4% over 2019, demonstrating the resilience of the TaxAssist franchise model and our strong culture to support our network no matter what happens.”
TaxAssist Accountants will be competing with 11 other well-known franchise brands in the category before a judging panel of industry experts, with the winner announced at The National Franchise Virtual Exhibition on Friday 2nd October 2020.
If you are interested in finding out more about TaxAssist Accountants, monthly Virtual Discovery Days are being held, where you can spend a day with the team to find out more about the business opportunity and support on offer. Click here for more information