April Networking – GDPR: What The Small Business Needs To Know

At our April meeting, Jordon Graham of Brand At Hand summarised the key areas of the GDPR that small businesses need to be aware of.

As a business, it is your responsibility to be ready before 25th May 2018.

What is the GDPR?

• It replaces the Data Protection Act.
• Affects ALL UK organisations who process or store personal information.
• Introduces greater levels of accountability & puts the individual in more control.

What does it mean for our businesses?

Data must be processed…

• Lawfully
• Transparently
• For a specific purpose

With…

• Opt-in consent
• Clear privacy notices
• The right to be forgotten

Businesses who do not comply can be fined up to 4% of their global turnover or €20 million – whichever is greater.

GDPR & Marketing

There are many ways in which the GDPR will impact how you conduct your marketing activity – particularly around consent, including:

• You need specific consent to send unsolicited direct marketing.
• Ask customers to tick opt-in boxes to confirm their preferences.
• Ask for specific consent if you want to pass details to other companies.
• Screen call lists against the TPS & CTPS.
• Only use bought-in lists for email, text or recorded calls with very specific consent.
• Keep clear records of consent, and keep a ‘do not contact’ list.

For more information on Marketing & GDPR, read Brand At Hand’s guide here.

GDPR & Your Website

Keeping your website safe and secure will protect it from threats including malware, viruses, and phishing. Below is Brand At Hand’s advice on website security:

• Install the latest updates & security patches.
• Ask for consent on your contact form & include a CAPTCHA.
• Backups help you to avoid loss of important files in the event of a disaster.
• Privacy Policy tells visitors how you will use their information.
• You’re obliged to display a Cookie Notification to visitors.
• An SSL security certificate ensures that data is kept secure.

To help get your website ready for GDPR, Brand At Hand have produced a 6 step guide. Read it here.

Next steps…

The above is a whistle-stop tour of the GDPR. More in-depth information to help your business prepare is available on the Information Commissioner’s website: ico.org.uk/for-organisations/business

Brand At Hand

www.brandathand.co.uk

Office 1613, 109 Vernon House, Friar Lane, Nottingham, NG1 6DQ.

Tel: 0115 784 6826

Email: info@brandathand.co.uk

The above information is considered to be correct at the time of writing and in no way is a substitute for legal advice. For full details of the GDPR and how to ensure your business is fully compliant please visit the Information Commissioner’s website.

March Networking – Tax Updates

At our March meeting Leighton Sharp of APC- accountants brought us up to date with all those bits of information every small business needs to know.

In regards to the main summary points (Going to try and keep it brief!)

Making Tax Digital (MTD)

For VAT Registered Businesses above the VAT Threshold of £85,000 will start from April 2019.

VAT Registered Businesses below £85,000 can opt in from April 2019, if not plan is from April 2020.

• Book-keeping must be kept on a digital accounting software, as the VAT submission will be through the software, not the government gateway.
• Transactional Data must be made into the accounting software.
• Will not be any free software for this. Software Providers are in the process of making software compliant, which will mean if businesses are on older versions, will need to upgrade.
• Software will need to be able to send/receive information and alerts with HMRC

Auto Enrolment

For some businesses, may be coming to a three year anniversary. At this point all previously opted out employees will be automatically opted in again. Another statement of compliance will be required.

Contributions are set to increase for employees from 1% to 3% and employers 1% to 2%. (Not taking tax relief into account). This is an increase cost of employment.

• Director only payrolls can be exempt. However if a new employee joins or someone resigns being a director the exemption will need to be reconsider as may be in breach of the auto enrolment rules.
• Businesses should consider obtaining independent financial advice in respect of what pension provider would suit their business.

Company Accounts

Ensure your financial accounts are appropriate to your size of business.

• Some lenders may require more information due to changes in disclosure made in accounts.

Other topical points

From April 2018 Tax Free Dividends to fall from £5k to £2k, therefore for a basic rate tax payer costing £225, higher rate tax payers (Above £45,000) would have an extra tax bill of £975.

• Research and Development claims – For every £1 spent, gain tax relief as if spent £2.30 for small businesses

Given the detail that these areas can go into and keeping it brief can be difficult Leighton is more than happy to discuss them with people. Contact details

ApC, Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers

7 St. John Street, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, NG18 1QH

www.apc-accountants.co.uk

Tel: 01623-657111  Fax: 01623-654885

March Newsletter

March Morning Networking- Thursday 8th March  7.30 am Stop avoiding a difficult but essential subject – Tax.  Leighton Sharp of Apc accountants will take us through the latest Essential Tax updates.Free event with tea and coffee provided. All welcome at this friendly event . Next month 12 April 2018 –  GDPR You will know by now of the major changes to what you can do with personal information on others that are coming in May 2018. Large fines can be imposed so come and listen to what you need to do to keep safe and secure. GDPR and your Privacy Policy Much has been made of the changes GDPR will bring to the rules on collecting personal data and using it for marketing purposes. Another aspect is that every business will need a Privacy Policy covering how they deal with data. This is more than the statement many now have on their website which only refers to data collected on that website. For help and more details contact Barkley Business Services http://www.barkleybusinessservices.co.uk The Ingenuity Centre at University of Nottingham run morning networking and some very good free training courses. http://www.ingenuitygateway.com/ Digital Growth Programme Excellent Free Training Creating Video Content for the Web 14 March 2018 at Newstead Centre Newstead NG15 0BS  Using Digital PR to Grow Your Business  22 March 2018 at Edwinstowe House Centre NG21 9PR Small Business Sunday Have you heard about this. Put a tweet using #SBS every Sunday between 5pm and 7.30pm about your business. Run by Theo Paphitis of Dragons Den. Tweet about your business. Theo then chooses the best six tweets and retweets them to his 500,000 followers.

Networking February 2018 – Keep Healthy

Jurga Proudlove from JP Health and Fitness spoke about the importance of keeping healthy and being ‘the Champion of your own health’ . This did not involve lots of running or eating just lettuce but being aware of what you do and eat and making sensible choices. Walking where possible is good. Running can badly affect your joints. Good food and regular sleep are essential to keep your brain in good order. This has been reinforced by recent press articles about how bad processed foods are for you and are believed to increase your chance of cancer.  At least if you prepare food from scratch you know what you are eating. The way forward is to avoid becoming ill in the first place as far as you can.

https://jpdynamicfitness.com/

Photograph by Andrea Palmer                                          https://jpdynamicfitness.com/

New Networking Event in Arnold 25th January 2018

January Networking with D2N2

January Networking with D2N2 Growth Hub

Paul Humphreys an adviser with D2N2 Growth Hub cam along and spoke to us about the help that the Growth Hub can offer the small business, He spoke about the grants and loans that are available and mentioned that more loans are available to the start up and small business than people are generally aware f. The Growth Hub is offering meetings with small business owners to discuss their plans and see how they can provide help . These meetings are taking place in Arnold and various other venues throughout Nottinghamshire.

Copies of the slides are available please just contact us.

For more information http://www.d2n2growthhub.co.uk   

Or contact  paul.humphreys@d2n2growthhub.co.uk

Linkedin with Beryl Petit of Ridgeway Marketing

Beryl explained the usefulness of LinkedIn to the small business especially ones trading B2B. she ran through a range of hints and tips bringing us up to date with current developments.

Gedling Borough Council attend Morning Networking 12th October 2017

We were visited by John Clarke the Leader of Gedling Borough Council and John Robinson the Chief Executive and are grateful for their time.

A quick tour through what the Council has planned for the next few years followed. Some 7500 new homes are to be built in the Borough although the proportion of Affordable Housing varies according to the developer involved. Gedling Country Park is proving very popular especially now it has toilets and a newly opened Cafe. A Heritage Centre is planned to follow.

Improvements are planned for the Colwick area and they are very conscious of the need to improve traffic links to the area both into Nottingham City and across the Borough. We were assured of the commitment of the Council to assist and develop small businesses in the area.

Morning Networking September 2017- Legal Essentials for Business

We had  a taste of the legal issues that all small businesses need to consider . The wisdom of looking at these from the outset rather than waiting for something to go wrong and the try to fix it. Anne Phillips from Barkley Business Services www.barkleybusinessservices.co.uk took us through Terms and Conditions. Contracts and the potential pitfalls of commercial Leases.

Morning Networking July 2017 Apprenticeships

The rules have changed from April with the aim of widening those who can take advantage of the scheme and giving the Employer control over the training provider they wish to use. Anne Phillips from Barkley Business Services www.barkleybusinessservices.co.uk outlined the basic changes in the procedure.

Rebecca Ogden from Enable a training provider then explained the service they can provide to the Employer www.enable.uk.net.

Julie Beresford from the Economic Development Department at Gedling Borough Council provided details on the Council’s Erasmus programme designed to help employers in the Gedling area at every stage of the apprenticeship procedure so they are not deterred from proceeding with an apprentice by the level of paperwork and administration involved . For more details please contact Julie on julie.beresford@gedling.gov.uk