The impact of poor physical health in the workplace is plain for all to see – but the effect of poor mental health can be just as, if not more damaging.  A recent letter signed by industry leaders from across business and education highlighted that one in every six workers will experience mental ill health – which includes depression, anxiety, or stress-related issues.

This represents about 5 million people in the UK, so the costs are significant.  Mental health issues are estimated to cost the UK economy nearly £35 billion each year, with 15.4 million working days lost to mental ill health.

What can be done?

There is still a lot of stigma around the issue of mental health, which often makes it difficult for someone experiencing problems to come forward and ask for help.  One of the challenges, then is to make the issue of poor mental health as important as poor physical health.

Mental Health First Aid

Awareness is so important here, and a training programme called Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) aims to tackle these issues.  The aim of MHFA is to try and change attitudes in society around mental health, by developing skills to look after our own and others’ wellbeing.  The outcomes of the training are an increased knowledge of the range of mental health problems, including substance misuse, and an increase in the supportive behaviours towards individuals with mental health problems.

The courses teach people to spot the symptoms of poor mental health, and then offer initial help and guide a person towards appropriate support.  What it is not about is training people to be therapists themselves – but rather, to help people develop listening and responding skills.

To find out more about MHFA, the skills involved and courses available, go to their website here.  There are a range of courses available, including some which focus specifically on young people, and people who are or have been in the armed forces.

This week’s Budget 2018 has brought a few changes in to effect individuals and businesses. We will summarise a few of these now and will revisit some of these topics in our future pieces to give more detail.

• The personal allowance will rise to £12,500 in April 2019, a year earlier than expected. However, national insurance, for those that pay it, still begins at the lower threshold. The basic rate band is extended to £37,500. In total, this allows earnings of £50,000 before paying higher rate tax.
• The National Living Wage will increase to £8.21 per hour from next April. The Minimum Wage will increase for age 21-24 to £7.70 per hour, age 18-20 £6.15, under 18 £4.35 and apprentice rate will increase to £3.90 per hour.
• Selling property you have lived in for the whole period of ownership usually is exempt from Capital Gains Tax if the property is your Principle Private residence (PPR). However, if you sell a property that you haven’t lived in the whole time can bring a charge to capital gains tax on the profit. There are reliefs which can lower this if you have lived in it for part of the period of ownership, one of these reliefs allows you to reduce the profit based on time you have lived in the property and, in addition, the last 18 months could count towards this even if you have moved out by that stage. It has been announced that this 18 month rule is being reduced to 9 months from April 2020. There is also another relief which allows you to reduce the capital gains tax if you have let the property out during ownership. This letting relief which was worth up to £40,000, will also be lost in most cases from April 2020.
• Capital Gains Tax on residential properties will also be payable within 30 days of completion of sale from April 2020, this brings the tax payable forward by up to 19 months in the most extreme case.
• Annual investment allowance is going to increase from 1^st January 2019 for 2 years. Currently annual investment allowance allows a business to claim 100% tax relief on expenditure on certain plant and machinery used within the business. The current allowance gives 100% tax relief on £200,000 spent on capital expenditure in each financial year. The new allowance will give 100% relief on £1 million expenditure for a 2 year period from 1 January 2019.
• There is a new capital allowance for qualifying expenditure on structures and buildings. From 29^th October 2018 new non-residential buildings will qualify for 2% capital allowances, similar to the old industrial buildings allowance. This will give 2% allowance on the cost of the building as tax relief for 50 years. The unused allowance will transfer with the transfer of ownership.

If you believe you may be affected by any of the above changes and wish to know more please contact Nickie and her team nickie@barwellaccountants.co.uk

We’re all looking for ways to get our websites higher up the Google rankings, but here is a way that helps for definite – use Google My Business (GMB).

Basically, GMB is a free business listing tool, provided by Google.  It helps you control the content which is displayed on Google search result pages, plus other Google products.  If you want customers to find out where you are, for example, then GMB helps ensure that the information on Google Maps is correct.

There is much more to it though.  You can post information on your GMB page which will also show up when people search for you, such as reviews and testimonials from your customers, and pictures of what you do.  Google says that if you include pics on your GMB listing, you’ll receive 42% more requests for driving instructions to your premises, and 35% more click through to your website, than businesses which don’t.

You’ll need to ensure that all of the information included in your listing is as complete as possible, and is correct.  As anyone can ‘suggest an edit’, getting it right first time is important.  It will also be useful if you remember to periodically log in to your GMB account and check everything looks right.

Your cover photo is one of the most important things, as it shows up front and centre on your listing, and appears in the search results.  Make sure, then, that it is of a high quality, and accurately portrays what you do.  You can also add videos, but you’ll need to ensure they meet the strict criteria:  30 seconds long maximum, 100Mb or smaller, and 720p resolution or higher.

Don’t get confused between GMB and Google+.  Google+ was a social network with high aspirations – it claimed “to organise the world’s information” – and set itself up as a Facebook competitor, but had precious few users.  As a result, it failed to meet its objective and achieved very low engagement levels, so Google pulled the plug on this.

Find out more about GMB in this very useful article.  If you’re in any doubt, this is their conclusion: “ We can’t stress enough what a terrific service Google My Business is for SMBs and particularly local businesses.  And when you’ve got your listing up, let us know and we’ll happily tweet about it to help you get your message across.

We often write about small businesses because that’s what our clients are, what we are, and what our local economy is dominated by.  We’ve just come across a Small Business Community Impact study which is so interesting, we have to share more of it with you!

5 themes come from the research:

• Small businesses act as an agent to change communities and create significant social value
• They create opportunities, not just for profitable gain but helping to stimulate further benefits to society
• There is a lack of recognition of the work and contribution small businesses make
• Because the business is small it is personal, leading to strong positive community outcomes driven by personal relationships
• It only takes a small number of key individuals in a community to drive business connections and community outcomes

Some of the other interesting points the study makes include:

Staffing:  30% don’t recruit staff either online or through recruitment agencies, choosing local contacts in preference.  And 36% have kept a member of staff on when commercially they didn’t need them – because of a sense of responsibility.

Training:  78% create training opportunities for their staff – and 28% create training opportunities for the wider community as well!

Business Support:  external business support is not reaching small business.  74% turn to friends and family for help, 72% turn to other small businesses, and less than 2% – yes, that’s TWO per cent – turn to Government for support.

Connections:  in small towns, like around here, 76% of small businesses are part of a business group.  Just 14% work with local government, and 9% work with the Local Enterprise Partnership (possibly an overstatement for this area!)

The report identifies many opportunities for small business, central and local government.  Of course, whether these are taken up by central and local government is debateable and we shouldn’t be holding our breath.  But for us, as small business, we do have the power to take up these opportunities:

• To engage more with local and national institutions to get better recognition for current social impact initiatives
• To work with others to explore ways to deliver more social impact in the future
• To share and promote where the business is creating opportunities in the media and with local institutions
• Leverage the advantage of being small in attracting staff and customers
• Get greater recognition for the good works done by business in local communities
• Work with local organisations to develop better ways of gaining formal recognition
• Leverage local relationships to drive customers and staff loyalty to the business, as against big business
• To become a ‘local spark’, to help motivate, connect and inspire the local business community
• Tap into ‘local sparks’ to engage in more community wide activity

Does any of this resonate with you?  We’d love to hear from you, do let us know what you think – find us on social media to share your thoughts…  Facebook here, and Twitter here.

What is a CRM

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management system.  It helps manage data about your customers, supporting your sales and marketing efforts as well as potentially integrating with your other office systems.

Why you need one

Are all of your customer contact details up to date?  Can all of your staff who have contact with customers access details about your customers quickly, easily, accurately and reliably?  Are you able to keep track of every contact your business has with each customer so you know who said what to them and when?  Do you collect information about your customers in one place so you can make the customer feel valued when they contact you?

A CRM essentially takes customer data and turns it into useful management information to help you run your business more effectively and efficiently.

What a CRM does

A CRM can track every interaction you have with your customers.  Every phone call, email, meeting can be recorded.  You can add notes, schedule follow-up actions and organise any next steps you need to take.  By building up the profile of activity and information about your customers, you can ensure that every interaction with them is personal, relevant and up-to-date.

Basic Functionality

• Contact management: recording every contact made with your customers
• Lead management: track all your sales activities from first point of contact to conversion
• Sales forecasting: how are sales going against your forecasts?  Where does additional resource need to be allocated in order to achieve your targets?
• Email tracking: synchronising email and CRM helps manage activities and schedules

Types of systems

There are basically 3 types of CRM, dependent on the number of users you have and the amount of access the users will require:

• Single computer systems for one user
• Client/server systems, with central database, stored on a server
• Cloud-based systems enabling remote access from any member of staff connecting via their device

Some key points

• If you currently hold all your customer information in paper format or on spreadsheets, a CRM is worth exploring
• The more customers you have, the more valuable a CRM can be to your business
• It is worth investing time in setting the system up properly in the first place
• Choose a system that can scale up as your business grows
• Make sure your GDPR policies include any new systems you introduce