Tag Archives: business owners

Accountancy & Accounts, Finance and Banking, News, Tax

HURST expands with new private client tax service

Independent accounting and business advisory firm HURST has launched a private client tax service to enhance its offering to business owners, entrepreneurs and high net worth individuals.

Karen Chadwick, who has 30 years’ experience in the field, has joined HURST as a partner to lead the new offering.

She has moved from Azets, where she was a tax partner. She previously worked at firms including Deloitte, KPMG and CLB Coopers.

During her career, Karen has gained a wealth of personal and trust tax compliance and advisory experience and technical knowledge, particularly in the areas of trusts and inheritance tax.

She said: “HURST is on an impressive and ambitious growth trajectory, as a strong, independent north west accountancy firm whose team delivers a first-class service to a varied client base as well as contacts and intermediaries, backed by a strong, cohesive and close-knit management team.

“The partners have recognised there is a need and demand within the firm’s tax service line for a dedicated private client tax offering, and I am thrilled to take up the opportunity to lead it.

“I’m excited to be part of the firm’s journey and to complement the existing partner group and HURST’s skilled and ambitious team to assist with the future development and growth of the practice.

“I look forward to applying my experience and technical knowledge to help clients achieve their personal and family wealth objectives now and in the future.”

HURST’s managing partner Tim Potter said: ““As the firm cements its position as the number one independent north west firm working with owner-managed businesses in the £5m-£100m turnover space, we have taken the decision to enhance our offering with a new service to support our high net worth clients with inheritance tax, trusts and complex personal tax matters.

“This is an exciting development for HURST and we are delighted to welcome Karen to the fold. We expect her vast experience and knowledge to be in high demand from our enviable client base of high net worth individuals.”

HURST focuses on advising entrepreneurial owner-managed businesses across all sectors. Clients include Kinaxia Logistics, M&I Materials, Beechfield Brands, Duerr’s, Oliver Valves, Lancashire County Cricket Club, Krones UK, Creamline Dairies, Scapa Group and Hyde Group.

The firm recently moved its head office to a new flagship development in Stockport to accommodate its growing team, taking 11,000sq ft at 3 Stockport Exchange, the latest phase of a £145m project by Muse Developments and Stockport Council.

HURST had been based since 1996 in Tiviot Dale in Stockport town centre, but outgrew the premises. The firm aims to grow from 120 staff to around 170 over the next three years.

Appointments, News, North of England, Recruitment News

Trio strengthen Rowan’s ranks as it forecasts record year

Three new arrivals have bolstered Rowan Executive Search’s ranks as the company builds on a record year.

Rowan has appointed Tammy Hopla as an associate director, Jack Bottomley as a senior consultant and Emma Milton as an executive researcher.

Their arrival follows a strong period of growth for Rowan, which achieved record revenues of £3.2m in 2021 and started 2022 with its best-ever quarter, putting the company on track for another year of stellar progress with revenues forecast to reach £4.5m.

Rowan, which has offices in Manchester and Chorley, works with business owners to secure top talent to drive their growth. It specialises in strengthening the boards and leadership teams of privately and family-owned SMEs, as well as those backed by private equity.

Tammy is a qualified accountant and has joined Rowan from Beautiful Drinks, where she was finance director for its restaurant group. She previously held senior finance roles at companies including Kiddicare, Mothercare and TUI.

At Rowan she is working with private equity houses seeking to appoint senior finance staff to their portfolio companies, as well as matching board-level finance professionals to SME owners and founders to fuel growth.

Jack has joined Rowan’s HR and operations practice, which is part of Rowan’s private capital team that is led by Louise Ellis.

He joined Wincanton as a graduate trainee in an operations role and progressed to managerial positions before moving to THG in a management capacity.

His role at Rowan sees him working with SME clients to match and appoint senior executives to drive business growth from an operational perspective.

Emma has a master’s degree in forensic psychology from Manchester Metropolitan University and has joined Rowan’s private capital team in a research role.

Paul Waite, founder and managing director of Rowan, said: “These new roles have been created to meet growing demand for our services and demonstrate our commitment to our values-based internal recruitment policy.

“We are thrilled to welcome Tammy, Jack and Emma to our expanding team and, having had our best-ever quarter at the start of this year, we continue to look to strengthen the business at all levels.

“Tammy has a wealth of commercial experience and finance industry knowledge as well as an extensive network of contacts, and her expertise should prove invaluable to our clients.

“Jack is another great example of our values-based recruitment policy. He is new to the world of executive search but has all the right qualities, enthusiasm and aptitude for the job and an impressive level of knowledge and experience of operational business functions.

“Having Emma on board with her qualification in forensic psychology is also very exciting as we look to utilise our digital analytics product Leadership Dynamics, which has been developed by our partner businesses within the LCap Group.

“Emma will be able to use her specialist knowledge and data analysis experience to deliver insights to clients using the behavioural profiling tool.”

Rowan focuses on recruiting leadership talent for SME owner-founders looking to build out their senior teams to deliver their growth ambitions.

Typical roles include chief executives, chairmen and other board level directors alongside senior executives for finance, sales and marketing, operations, HR and tech positions across sectors ranging from e-commerce, technology and life sciences to logistics and distribution, infrastructure and manufacturing.

Clients include SRL Traffic Systems, Online4Baby, Lakelovers, eCommonSense, Clubhouse Golf, SpaMedica, Music Magpie, Social Chain, MPM Products and Made Tech.

Rowan also works closely with private equity clients, including BGF, LDC, NorthEdge Capital, Pitalia Capital, Maven Capital Partners, Mercia, WestBridge and Apiary Capital.

Finance and Banking, News, North of England

Clarion Group achieves record year

An influx of new clients as business owners reassess their financial goals as a result of the pandemic has helped wealth planning and investment management firm Clarion Group achieve a record annual performance.

Group turnover in the year to April 30 rose from £3.4m to £3.7m.

Clarion, founded in 1985 by Ron Walker, added five staff during the year in line with its expansion.

The recruits, including chartered financial planner Ella Davies and compliance director Robin Townsend, took staff numbers to 20. Further recruitment is under way to cater for rising demand for Clarion’s services.

Clarion is based in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, and provides lifelong financial planning to business owners and families across the north west and beyond.

The group comprises Clarion Wealth Planning and Clarion Investment Management, which provides discretionary investment management services to clients.

Ron said Clarion had welcomed a record number of new clients during the year to April.

He said: “This growth has been partly driven by referrals from existing clients, which is testament to the excellent service our team provides. We have also worked in collaboration with other professionals such as accountants and solicitors to add further value to clients and achieve the best possible outcomes.

“In addition, the pandemic has undoubtedly led people to reassess their financial position, resulting in more people requiring high-calibre advice in respect of their lifetime goals.

“We have seen more clients looking to exit their businesses, more looking to retire, and some just feeling they require a more in-depth financial planning service.”

Ron said Clarion’s business model ensures a robust process for clients. Each adviser has a dedicated paraplanner and administrator, giving them more time to focus on their clients’ bespoke requirements.

“We get to know our clients intimately, with many having been with us for decades,” he said.

“We aim to include the whole family in our lifelong financial planning process, focusing on the long term with cashflow forecasts running through to the client’s 100th birthday.

“This approach gives them clarity, confidence and certainty that they can enjoy life to the full now as well as long into the future, and that they will have sufficient wealth to ride out bumps in the road and achieve their objectives.”

He added: “We are extremely pleased with our strong group performance but also, and perhaps more importantly, to have achieved excellent outcomes for our clients despite the wider economic picture.

“We have ambitious and significant growth plans for the business and the latest financial year has seen us make good progress in this regard.”

Finance and Banking, News

How will digital payments affect freelancers in 2022?

Written by Paul Mikhaylenko, CEO and Co-founder of Bloom.io

Why Digital Payments Are Trending in 2022

There are four main ways of how freelancers get paid. 50% of freelancers still require checks or cash, outdated methods that no clients appreciate. Many others use Venmo and CashApp, tools that are casual and unprofessional. Merchant tools, such as Stripe or Square are intended for developers or retail shops. Finally, others use financial tracking tools like Quickbooks or Freshbooks, offering an experience that is dated and complicated. There are many invoicing tools, but none of them are built for creatives. In fact, many payment processing platforms keep at least 1.3% to 3.5%, plus the payment processor’s cut. For freelancers, this can add up quickly and leave them with minimized earnings. Digital payments are on the rise as freelancers that use electronic payment systems are getting paid faster. Keeping track of invoices, tax information, and transactions is vital to any business, especially freelancers. The old school payment methods that once prolonged the payment process, and complicated tools are becoming a burden of the past.

Freelance Revolution Predicted to Skyrocket

The pandemic birthed the new freelance revolution that is predicted to grow immensely in 2023. According to CEO of Bloom.io, Paul Mikhaylenko, highly skilled professionals will choose freelance work over traditional employment because technology has matured to give back to creatives. While freelancing has had a negative reputation in the past, often referred to those who couldn’t find full-time work, that stigma is far from true today. In fact, the workforce is now made up of 59 million freelancers in the US alone. With the online working revolution, the need for digital payments is undeniable. 


Freelancers Measure Effectiveness of Digital Payments

Owners of a successful wedding photography studio in New York, Ryan and Heidi, once used old school payments methods. Wedding photography wasn’t always the plan for founders of Forged in the North, a successful collective studio based in NY. What started as architects with cameras turned into professional wedding photographers with a million dollar studio. Today, they are recognized as some of the best wedding photographers in the world by Brides Magazine. Creativity is only a fraction of what makes a wedding photography biz work. Every wedding photographer should have a seamless workflow, especially when it comes to payments. Today, the couple has increased their bookings to 150+ a year with a team of ten photographers. Payments are a significant part of their business success. They use a free invoice generator to send and receive payments. Ryan says “Bloom is a modern, easy to use studio management system. I can send a custom link with an easy ACH payment option for all my clients. It’s the best solution I’ve found for creatives looking to amp up their professionalism and make the best impression on clients.” As of January 2022, the couple has seen incredible growth in their studio. They have a message for all freelancers: leverage modern digital payments and streamline your business professionally because it makes all the difference. Their story wouldn’t be complete without ongoing vision. The true reward for the founders is lifelong client relationships, creating with like-minded artists, and inspiring creatives to succeed. Last but not least, they attribute a portion of their profitable business to robust invoicing and digital technology.

 

About the author

Paul Mikhaylenko, CEO and Co-founder of Bloom.io, the suite of business tools that’s designed to help creative business owners get back to their art and earn more money. Paul started as a musician, photographer, and a singer, earning money on side projects for many years before diving into building tech.

Finance and Banking, News

NatWest launches tax calculator for businesses following Budget

NatWest has today launched a new online tax calculator, which will allow UK businesses to identify and calculate additional tax incentives that may be available via super-deduction or annual investment allowances, to assist them with business investment planning.

The launch follows the announcement of “super-deduction” in the Spring budget which allows companies to claim up to 130% deduction against profits for any new and unused plant and equipment purchased between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2023, to help stimulate business investment and promote economic growth and recovery from the pandemic.

Yesterday’s Autumn Budget confirmed the retention of the £1 million annual investment allowance until 31 March 2023. This was due to drop back to £200,000 at the end of this year meaning the extension provides further help to businesses across the UK to invest and grow.

Powered by Swoop, the bank’s new tax calculator complements the grant finder tool which was launched in February 2021 to help UK businesses search for grants to help them manage the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tool has had more than 15,000 hits, and NatWest continues to provide this service free of charge to support businesses to achieve their growth and sustainability ambitions.

Both tools are available free of charge to any business online through the NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank NI and Lombard websites. Upon completion of some simple questions, applicants can either review grants matched to their business, or understand potential tax savings applicable as a result of investment in plant and machinery.

Ian Isaac, Managing Director, Lombard Asset Finance, NatWest Group said:

“The government’s decision to increase tax incentives both by way of extending the £1m Annual Investment Allowance until March 2023 in the recent Budget, and introducing the super-deduction scheme, will help businesses to stimulate business investment and increase productivity. With businesses now looking to build back better, grow, diversify and become more sustainable, it’s essential we continue to provide them with the practical support to help achieve these ambitions.

“We’ve worked with Swoop on the tax calculator tool which offers business leaders access to the information they need to understand the tax benefits they may be entitled to when investing in qualifying assets. This development follows the success of the grant finder tool which has now been made more widely available to help more businesses benefit.”

Andrea Reynolds, CEO of Swoop said:

“Swoop was built to help SMEs learn about and access the support they need more easily. Working with NatWest Group is an opportunity to reach a huge number of businesses which will benefit from the ‘super-deduction’, ensuring that the help offered by the government actually reaches those who need it most. I can see how this approach will create win-win situations across the value chain and boost the UK’s economy as we go into 2022.”

NatWest’s grant finder service and tax calculator is now live at www.business.natwest.com