Sage Blog

Paul Donno

Sorry – competition now closed – We’re giving away three free tickets to the ICAEW’s Business Benefits of Social Media (in association with Sage). To win leave a comment on this blog post by Thursday 30th June and we’ll randomly chose the winners. Don’t forget to include your email address!

It revolutionised our leisure time, now social media is redefining the way we do business too. Or is it? I work in marketing and over the past 3 years social media has become a widely used communication channel; every campaign that I work on now has a ‘social media’ element.  I happily admit that I live in a ‘communication’ bubble due to my role, so was left wondering if the rest of the world is switched onto using social media for business…or is it just us?

It seems that the answer from accountants is “yes, we are interested”. So interested in fact that ICAEW approached us about partnering with them to create a social media event for accountants, as they felt there was a need for accountants to get more information on this subject and how they can use it to market their practice. Obviously we agree!

So is it useful to my business?

Like all marketing tools, getting it right takes time and energy. A well-defined social media plan will help you achieve further growth. And as accountants are finding out, the benefits of an effective strategy can be many and varied, offering cost-effective ways to market your practice and services.

Ok, sounds good, but give me an example…

This is where I hand over to Accountant, Paul Donno, who has been one of those accountants keen to embrace the trend which is now providing him great results. His Suffolk-based practice, Paul Donno & Co Ltd, serves more than 300 small to medium-sized clients and has had a formal social media strategy in place since 2010.

For us it’s about branding and marketing, about putting a human face to our business and broadcasting our messages to a wider audience.

It gives clients a snapshot of who we are and how we operate and can work well as a recruiting tool. It is straightforward to negotiate, extremely cost-effective – in most instances it will only cost you the time it takes to update your account – and it’s fast too.

We use it in a variety of ways, most notably to tell people about things like training courses. The results speak for themselves. We’ve just had bookings for two days of ACT! training as a direct consequence of our Twitter advertising.

Our followers are growing every day, so much so we’ve taken on an external agency to manage our account for us. Now we’re looking to identify further channels and ways of reaching our clients and market.”

Paul’s Tips For Social Media Success

Be consistent

If you are going to have a social media presence, you must be prepared to maintain it. There’s no point starting something you can’t finish!

We’ve issued three iPhones to staff on the condition that they use them to tweet every day, that way we know there will always be a steady flow of information.

Decide on tone and content

Think carefully about the image you want to project – and the language you need to use to do this.

In relation to content for our corporate Twitter account, my brief is actually fairly wide. At this stage, I’m as interested in the idea of creating a solid social media presence as the content. I trust my team to produce tweets and content that is appropriate – in the same way I’d trust them to attend a networking event and behave in a way that was respectful.

Think engagement

For me, social media is a great way of engaging with people – and showing them the human side of your business. With that in mind, content has to be engaging – interesting enough to keep their attention and relevant enough to keep them coming back for more.

Who will manage things moving forward?

Many practices, including ours, consider taking on an external agency to manage and implement their social media strategy. They can help monitor your output, take care of day to day maintenance and also measure your success.

Joined up thinking

It’s worth thinking about how you are going to let people know you have a social media presence and where they can find you.

Linking different platforms – websites, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages– is relatively straightforward and can help direct traffic. We have recently added a live Twitter feed to our web page to ensure clients can see what we’re saying, and what our thoughts are, across a range of platforms.

Look ahead

Technology is constantly transforming the way we communicate and we are always looking for the next ‘big thing’. YouTube is going to be massive for us. We’re looking in to using it at the moment because it’s great for putting short, sharp messages across in an accessible way.

Follow Paul Donno @pauldonno

Follow Sage UK @sageuk

To register or find out more go to ICAEW Business Benefits of Social Media in association with Sage or follow  #icaewsm on Twitter

Sheryl Thomposon, Sage Accountants’ Team and Paul Donno, Paul Donno & Co Ltd

Jon Martingale, Sage Accountants' Division

From 1 June, HMRC has been trialling a ‘single compliance process’ for enquiries across a range of taxes. Most people will not be aware of what ‘single compliance process’ is, so firstly, let me explain what this process is and what it could mean.

The single compliance process is a framework within which HMRC will undertake the majority of future enquiries. The framework uses five process stages (planning, contact, process, resolution and closing) common to most enquiries. Any enquiry will have a set level of intensity dependent on the risks identified. The level of intensity will determine how long the enquiry will last, ranging from 1.5 to 8 days.

The trial will run for 6 months in the following locations:

• Reading/Slough
• Newcastle
• Warrington
• York
• Exeter
• London Euston
• Southampton
• Cardiff
• Belfast
• Edinburgh
• Dundee

During the trial period, the business records of up to 1,200 small and medium businesses will be checked during meetings on business premises. If the trial is successful, the new process will be rolled out nationally from January 2012.

The new process and checks will help HMRC identify mistakes in paperwork and records. If any errors or high risks are detected as part of a check, this will lead to a tax investigation and a fine of up to £3000. If an investigation is undertaken, HMRC will check all areas of compliance – e.g. VAT, income tax, corporation tax and PAYE – as they will work on an assumption that if an error has been made in one area, then errors are likely to have been made in other areas.

HMRC claim that analysis has highlighted how poor record-keeping can lead to underpayment of tax. Once the process is rolled out, up to 50,000 SMEs will be checked each year and HMRC expects to collect an additional £150m a year in tax.

VAT registration

In addition, HMRC have also recently announced a summer campaign on VAT registration. Businesses with an annual turnover at, or close to, the VAT threshold of £73,000 will be checked for VAT registration. It will be important to ensure that businesses who have reached the threshold are VAT registered before any amnesty runs out.

How can Sage accountants help their clients?

It is important that all businesses maintain accurate and complete records moving forward. Sage offers a range of solutions to assist; including Sage 50 Accounts and Sage 50 Payroll, as well as our latest online accounting software – Sage One

Sage One Accounts is an online accounting service for small business owners who want greater control of their finances, but don’t have an accounting background or time for software training. Sage One can automatically calculate VAT based on the information entered by the user, and once it has worked this out will automatically submit the VAT return online in a few clicks. This will allow VAT returns to be submitted to HMRC accurately, efficiently and on time. This can be demonstrated easily to a tax investigator at any PC with an internet connection.

Sage one also offers an ‘Accountant Edition’ to make the process of accountants working with clients seamless and effortless. Accountants simply connect with their clients and access live financial information immediately. This means that the accountant can offer advice and guidance to clients to ensure that they are prepared for any HMRC checks.

Sage One Accountants Edition is available for free to all Sage Accountants Club members*, and you can sign up for a free trial or webex session by visiting www.sageone.com

Jon Martingale, Sage Product Manager

*Standard access fee for Sage One Accountant Edition is £250 per annum. Sage Accountants’ Club members who subscribe to Sage One by purchasing credits for Sage One Cashbook or Sage One Accounts get access for free.

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only magazine editor who sat there last Wednesday night, 15^th June, between 9 and 10pm, with my head in my hands, speechless and in disbelief, at what was unfurling on The Apprentice.

Steve Porter, Exchange Magazine

Hip Replacement?

The mind-meltingly patronising ‘Hip Replacement’ magazine was being pitted against the outdated, garish and gauche ‘Covered’; the former being described as something Viz would mock up, the latter boasting a section classily entitled ‘blowing your load’.

Clichés such as ‘funky’ were being thrown around in wild abandon. “Old people” were being asked what, well, “old people” like nowadays. Guys from the GQ generation were being stopped in the street and asked what they’d blow their aforementioned load on.

In both instances, the response that came back was one of incredulity or just plain dismissal! “I don’t want to tell you” was a common retort when the men were quizzed, and when the “hip” bunch were asked for their input they made it clear that 60 year olds don’t want to think that they’re 60.

So, what followed had me sat eating my arm, as the guys’ utter lack of engagement with the load-blowing section were overlooked, and Hip Replacement was rolled out containing imagery of, well, 60 year olds embracing in the most awkward, unnatural pose – looking every single one of the 60 years they weren’t supposed to be making reference to.

Even for viewers who have never been even remotely involved with magazine editing it was cringe worthy stuff. The looks on the faces of the publishers was priceless, and I never got bored of their reaction to the title ‘Hip Replacement’.

Getting your content right

But then I thought, well what about my own periodical – ‘exchange’ magazine for Sage Accountants’ Club?

Is it right that I sit here, throwing smug criticism after smug criticism at the television screen?

Is my magazine so targeted, so newsworthy, so well written that I can laugh outlandishly at two other magazines falling so far short of the standards of my own prized publication?

Obviously the answer I came to very quickly is “of course it is!”

I guess every editor likes to think that they’ve got their content absolutely nailed down; that they have the right mix of informative, interesting and topical articles.

The harsh truth, though, is that you’re never going to get it absolutely right all of the time – you try to provide the right content for as many people as possible and I suppose you have to accept that 100% of the stuff in there isn’t going to be right for 100% of the readers. But I find the best way to gauge how well you’re doing is to ask the readers, but more importantly to listen to what they’re telling you and then acting on it.

We’ve previously sent out feedback forms with exchange magazine, breaking down all the sections and asking people to rank then. We’ve asked what they want to see more/less of, and all the time we try our best to take this on board. So that customers can see the results in future editions.

My first task as editor of exchange was to completely relaunch it; to give it a complete makeover and to make sure it contained what accountants wanted to see. But even when we relaunched it, in November 2009, we knew we wouldn’t get it 100% right first time. So we used 2-way dialogue with our accountant readers to get their thoughts.

We found out quite early that readers didn’t like the very wide page format, so we changed it and slimmed it down. They wanted to see more technical information and tips on our software, so we doubled the no. of pages dedicated to it.

I’m not saying that exchange is now 100% right for everyone, far from it. But I like to think that it’s constantly moving in the right direction. And we’ll only edge further to that impossible 100% through continuously listening to the folk that read it.

So maybe I won’t be as hard on those Lord Sugar wannabes next week, as I know they didn’t have the luxury of time in order to get their magazine right. And maybe I need to up my game, as it takes me 3 months to produce an edition of exchange, whereas they did it in 9 hours!

And I certainly won’t be shouting at the tele again – because I know they won’t be listening!!

Steve Porter, Exchange Editor

It seems that small businesses are still up against the banks when it comes to lending. With the recent news that Vince Cable is threatening banks with tax increases if they don’t improve lending to SME’s, will the situation really improve and how can you prepare yourself for the battle?

For the last couple of years, we’ve been speaking to SMEs to get an overview of the challenges they face when setting up in business and the pain points they face once they’re off the ground. We used the feedback to develop Sage One, an easy online accounting service for small businesses. We achieved this by travelling the length and breadth of the country to visit small business owners in their place of work as well as attending as many networking events as possible to speak to even more small businesses and their accountants.  We set out from a product development point of view to establish how they manage their business accounts and their business in general, whether they have staff and how they pay them, how they manage the sales and purchase invoice process etc. It was great speaking to so many businesses and really getting a feel for what they wanted from their business software.

A common theme that transpired from our discussions with owner managers was that there was a perceived general lack of support from the banks. In fact, we found that small businesses are reluctant to use banks for lending and will often seek alternative sources of funding. This is worrying with the current economic climate and so many easy access, high interest, high risk lending companies appearing. The banks should be helping small businesses, not working against them.

Through the process of attending events, we also met a number of people employed by banks. They informed us that the process of lending money was changing from a local decision making process to a national one. Where has the relationship with your bank gone? At Sage we take pride in establishing a relationship with our customers and offer some of the best customer care because we recognise that at times like these going the extra mile will set you apart from your competitors. That’s why Sage One comes with free 24/7 telephone support to all our customers.

So what steps can you take to protect your business?

• Keep track of your cash flow; it’s really important to know how your business is performing, especially if you need to apply for a loan.
• Become familiar with the reports that future investors will want to see. A Profit and Loss report and a Balance sheet report will indicate how your business is performing and show the current value of your business. Using a service like Sage One Accounts will allow you to produce these reports without having an understanding of accounting or having to manually calculate the figures.
• Talk to your customers and find out what they want from your products and services. Can you augment your product line or add value by offering a bespoke service?
• Get paid on time! It seems obvious but chasing outstanding payments keeps your bank account healthy and your bank manager happy. Similarly, you don’t want to get on the wrong side of your suppliers so stick to any payment terms and keep your credit rating up.

We can’t predict how the banks will react to Vince Cable’s announcement but we can help you prepare for the battle!

Find out more about Sage One Accounts and register for a free 30 day trial.

Abby Goode, Sage One team

You might not know that as well as providing business software we also run Sage training courses throughout the country to make sure our customers get the most out of their software. So we know only too well how increasing employees’ skills levels through training will not only benefit their own professional development, but also your business’s future.

How important do you consider training to be in your company?

Crucial for developing your employees’ skills, or something to shave from the budgets as you focus on developing your core business?

If you relate more to the latter, you’re not alone. A recent survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) indicated that smaller businesses valued learning and development less highly than larger ones.

It’s understandable that you may be more reticent about spending money on what you perceive to be a luxury, rather than a necessity, especially in these current unstable economic times.
But research by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills shows that, in the last recession, companies that invested in developing their people were two and a half times more likely to survive than those who did not.

Business survival
Whether it’s to help someone carry out their existing tasks to a higher standard, or to prepare them for taking on a different role with increased responsibilities, training is a crucial part of building a business.
Research shows that it can bring about an increase in productivity, profits, motivation, loyalty and higher customer satisfaction.

“Developing employees makes them feel more valued and more likely to engage with their work,” says Sage HR advisor Ann Haydock. “This means they’re more likely to stay with your company, avoiding costly and time consuming recruitment.”

Mark Ross, managing director of Ross Insurance Group, says: “As a small business, when I look at training, I always ask myself how it will affect my bottom line.” He argues that the professional level of service, the intricate knowledge of regulation and procedures required in the insurance industry, and softer skills such as understanding clients’ needs, mean that “training is not optional, but a requirement”.

And this is true for management down to more junior staff. “We’ve developed a formal introductory training programme for new joiners, and everyone has a professional development plan.”

Legislation and evaluating success
There are no legal requirements to train, but certain regulations are in place to encourage companies to foster a training environment. John McGurk, CIPD advisor for learning and talent, says: “The regulations on allowing time off for training are like the flexible working regulations; a light-touch ‘nudge’ aimed at helping people to increase their training and development. We see it as a sensible step in encouraging individual employees to play their part in developing their own skills and talents within the competitive workplace.”
Before an employee embarks on their training course, it’s a good idea to set up a simple training evaluation plan. Ann Haydock recommends following the CIRO approach to evaluation, which covers the following areas:

• Context:  Evaluate your reasons for the training. How were the needs and objectives identified? Were they correctly identified, and do you think you selected the best solutions?
• Inputs: Evaluate the planning and design of the training. Consider the selection of trainers, programmes, employees and materials.
• Reactions: Consider the learners’ reactions to the training. Look at its content and presentation to evaluate its quality. Assess the relevance of the training course to the learners’ roles.
• Outcomes: Measure the effect of the learning back in the workplace. If performance is expected to improve as a result of training, consider engaging in some before-and-after testing.

Don’t forget to get feedback from the trainee and to ask them to reflect on their understanding and enthusiasm throughout the course. Keeping the lines of communication open with them should help you to monitor the effectiveness of the training, measure your objectives and hopefully see real results.

Jack Ford, Small Business Team

We recently exhibited at the Business Start Up Show at Excel, in London.  It was a great show.  It always is.  We had an unusually large stand this year – one with a drinks and food bar at its centre.

This bar has always been a bone of contention with me; yes, it brings customers to the stand, but are they really interested in ‘us’?  And why can’t they clean up after themselves?  It’s not like there’s not a bin provided!

I was pondering this as I collected the umpteenth empty cup from a computer pod, and whilst heading across the stand to the bin, grumbling about untidiness, I was stopped by a lady who was sat nearby who was ‘people watching’.

She said “It’s a great stand you’ve got here, you know?”

To which I replied “thank you”, and took a seat next to her, asking her name and what she liked about the stand.

Her answer was so unusual it prompted me to write this blog post.

What Laura said was “Your stand is so open and welcoming.  It’s almost a ‘destination’ stand… and you know” looking at the rubbish in my hand, “a Mother’s love is unconditional.”

Looking slightly confused I asked her what she meant.

“Well… your stand and your team are doing such a good job of being open, friendly and helpful, that despite the fact some people leave litter, people are flocking to your demos and you’re creating a hugely positive impression of caring for your audience.

So – a mother’s love is unconditional – you’re giving your ‘love’ unconditionally to your customers, and you’re being rewarded for it.  Despite a bit of mess, you’ll be better thought of by everyone using your stand – whether they’re buying today or not.”

Now isn’t that an interesting way to look at marketing?  And, with a bit of lateral thought, I’d like to bet that applies to Social Media too.

So, here are five of my observations and learnings that you might want to consider when doing anything ’social’, and that includes networking, events, and online:

1.      When you’re talking to your customers, you must always ‘give’.  You will get some people who take advantage, but the vast majority will respect you for it.

2.      You will always have detractors.  You will always have evangelists.  Your job is to make sure that the evangelists outnumber the detractors at any one time.

3.      Always do what you say you will do, even if it costs you time or money.  The fact that you do ‘it’ despite it costing you, builds trust and integrity in your customer’s mind.

4.      Give the customer an ‘experience’.  Make sure they will take away a positive view of you.  Even if they don’t buy there and then, they will become your advocates.

5.      If you find you cannot fulfil your end of the bargain, apologise, and tell them the real reason why you cannot do what you said you would do.

What would you add to this list?

Jason Sullock, Small Business Team

Jason and his team are busy organising Sage World, a free business event.  Register for your Sage World ticket today.