I am the founder and director (Tutor / Coach)

What does Lean 6 Services do?

L6S delivers business improvement training and consultancy to funded partners as well as commercial businesses.

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

That I am making a difference in people’s lives both employed and unemployed. Give people the skills to work smarter and not harder or advance in their existing career. Also to help and give appropriate knowledge to help people get back into work.

What makes Lean 6 Services different?

Due to in excess of 30yrs experience in the industry and working with all levels I am able to communicate effectively and use simple terms and techniques to improve staff and their processes. Using existing staff and their on-the-job knowledge and experience to rectify problems and implement sustainable improvements

What are the business’s greatest strengths?

Business Improvement Techniques using simple Lean methodologies.
Access to a wide range and network of experts to aid in problem-solving.

What are your primary markets/sectors?

Manufacturing Sector

Do you have growth plans for the future?

To establish the business locally and in the North East and Tees Valley.

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However, there are options that may enable you to achieve your retirement dreams. Here, we look at some considerations, and how a
wealth adviser can help you make plans to confidently step away from your business.

Clarify what you need
If you are an entrepreneur approaching retirement, you might have already estimated how much you need from the sale of your business. Chances are, this is a significant sum, but calculating the actual amount to produce the income you desire can be difficult.

A wealth adviser can help by producing a personal cashflow forecast to clarify your thinking ahead of a sale. This gives an indication of whether the potential proceeds from a sale are likely to be sufficient to fund your desired lifestyle. It will factor in various scenarios, alongside your existing investments, pensions and savings. The amount you need is often far smaller than you think it needs to be.

Reduce your retirement spending
The use of financial forecasting can also determine your other options. These may include, for example, the impact of working for a few more years, or cutting your retirement spending by, say, 10%, to meet any shortfall from your business sale. Bear in mind that spending typically falls in retirement. There will be bills you will no longer need to pay when you stop working, with mortgages and loans typically paid off, and
other unnecessary costs that could be cut. You may also stop paying into your pension, and ploughing money into the business. So trimming your spending could be a relatively simple process.

Delay your sale
If you simply cannot sell your business in the current climate,you will need to carry on working until you can, or find another way to unwind the company. However, it may be your choice to delay the sale until the
crisis has passed. This could give your business time to recover its value. Bear in mind that this is a unique healthcare crisis, but far from the first crisis that markets have weathered.
The current environment may not impact on your future plans, if they can be postponed.

Continue to adapt
No-one can know with any certainty what lies ahead, as the outbreak of Covid-19 underlined. You may be fearful of the future, and whether there could be other crises to endure. However, adapting to change is part of being a successful business owner. With the right advice, your plan can be continually updated, and you may be able to safeguard your business against future shocks.

Consider your other assets
You have probably got other investments and pensions alongside your business which may be used to fund retirement. For example, these could include ISAs, individual shares, savings, and other assets, and you will also be entitled to the state pension at retirement. With careful management and advice, you can maximise your various tax allowances in retirement, and receive a higher income than you may have thought.
Your tax-free allowances include the £12,500 personal allowance, £2,000 dividend allowance, and £1,000 personal savings allowance (PSA) for basic-rate taxpayers (reducing to £500 for higher-rate taxpayers).
You may have a holiday home you could rent out, say, or the ability to downsize from your current home to another property to release a chunk of equity. This is a popular option for those keen to retire but unable to find sufficient funds at the right time from their business and investments.

Ask the experts
Your self-reliance, determination and resilience are likely what led you to build your own company. These characteristics will also help if you are facing financial difficulties from the impact of Covid-19. With so much at stake, our wealth advisers can assist you through every stage of a business exit, from the initial research and investigations right through to advising on investing the proceeds post-sale. And if we can’t help directly,
we can provide contact details of professionals who can. With our help, good financial planning can help you move forward with confidence. And the earlier you start planning the better.

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Steelcraft Ltd, which operates from the Drum Industrial Estate in Chester-le-Street, specialises in manufacturing architectural metalwork and sells ready-made products on a delivery or click and collect basis through its ecommerce arm, Forjj.

“We’ve seen unprecedented sales through Forjj, which we launched in November 2018,” Matthew Rodgers, Managing Director at Steelcraft, said, “turnover reached £10,000 in its first year of trading but in the second year we reached the £100,000 point, equating to a 900 percent boost to our top line.”

The strong performance for Steelcraft’s online sales is a result of a carefully set digital strategy and expansion in its product line that saw the introduction of gates and railings alongside the traditional offering of Juliet balconies.

Matthew said: “The last year has been exceptionally difficult for many industries, so we are pleased to have seen a sustained and growing demand for buying crafted metalwork products during this time. People have been investing in their homes, a trend that we anticipate will continue and, as a result of this along with the phenomenal sales we have experienced, we have been able to secure our workforce’s jobs while setting in place further plans for growth.”

Steelcraft employs a 24-strong team at its headquarters based on the Drum Industrial Estate and clients include local authorities, Taylor Wimpey, Keepmoat Homes, The Esh Group, Vistry, and Engie.

Liam Armstrong, Operations Manager, said: “Steelcraft originally started life as a security grille company over 30 years ago before phasing into more up-market architectural goods, and we have worked hard to ensure we retain that ethos as we grow the product range.”

The range of online products are designed with style in mind and customers can order online for delivery direct to their door from the workshop, with instructions and advice for self-installation or to be passed to the tradesperson or contractor.

“Having the right infrastructure in place has been key to achieving our aims and our ecommerce growth strategy has been at the heart of this,” concluded Matthew, “so finding a way to sell further afield without needing to establish a physical office in another region has meant that we have been able to secure jobs and provide supplier opportunities in a time where many others are closing their doors and reducing staff numbers.”

Steelcraft is based at 2 to 6 Second Avenue, Drum Industrial Estate, Chester-le-Street, DH2 1AG. The Forjj website can be accessed at: https://www.forjj.co.uk/

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I am one of the Directors at Smart Manufacture

What does Smart Manufacture do?

Smart Manufacture specialises in working with the Manufacturing SME sector to help businesses get overall visibility of their end-to-end operations and to drive improved efficiency. We take a holistic approach by starting with understanding the current processes from the initial sales quote through purchasing, inventory management, production scheduling and right through to invoicing. We then see how we can help the business to streamline and automate their processes through the adoption of cloud-based software in the areas of CRM, ERP and Compliance Management. The latter is associated with the other side of our business, Smart Quality, which is a specialist ISO consultancy which helps companies attain and maintain ISO certifications and with managing their wider QHSE compliance activities.

What gets you out of bed in a morning?

I am a very driven individual which has come from my upbringing having 2 parents who both worked their way up in their respective careers. I followed suit, starting my career in the corporate market as a secretary and then getting into marketing and progressing to sales management positions looking after multinational companies including Oil and Gas majors like BP. Having spent many years in the corporate market, I have seen the value of having robust systems and processes in place and cloud-based communication and productivity tools. I now enjoy being able to share my experiences with the SME sector, and to focus on how I can help make a difference to a business in terms of enabling them to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and to scale up to address new markets/customers.

What makes Smart Manufacture different?

Whilst meeting with manufacturing businesses, other consultancies and with manufacturing associations up and down the UK, I frequently get told “oh you are very different – haven’t come across anyone quite like Smart Manufacture – we either know manufacturing consultants or software companies”. I believe our approach is different in that we start every engagement with a focus on learning about the business, its challenges and its goals and then to explore if and how we can help it move forward through streamlining and automating processes through a range of what we consider to be best of breed software, which has been designed to address the SME market from both a usability and cost perspective. All our software implementation projects start with an initial process mapping exercise so that we can ensure that the software will deliver the maximum return to the business based around delivery of key KPIs.

What are the businesses greatest strength?

I would say the passion of our people for helping educate manufacturing SMEs on the value that digital technologies can bring to their business and to work side by side with their management and operational teams to support them through a successful roll-out which delivers tangible business outcomes.

What are your primary markets / sectors?

Our primary market is the UK manufacturing SME sector; working with manufacturing companies across all sub-sectors including aerospace and defence, automotive, chemical, composites, electronics and high tech, fabrication, lighting, medical, precision-engineering,  plastics and wholesale and distribution. By way of examples, we recently completed an ERP project on the MRPeasy ERP platform with a fencing manufacturer and we are currently working on another MRPeasy project with a cosmetics manufacturer.

Do you have growth plans for the future?

Fortunately, COVID has actually been an accelerator for our business as we have found manufacturing SMEs have recognised that they need to do things differently if they are going to survive in the increasingly competitive markets in which they operate. Running a business from paper-based manual systems or disparate excel spreadsheets in the factory is holding companies back; Cloud-based software which is accessible to all employees whether they are working in the office, the factory, at home or from any location, enables collaboration across functions and provides an invaluable 360-degree real-time view of what’s going on end to end across the business. But many manufacturing SMEs are still intimidated by IT and digital systems and are therefore looking for hands-on practical cost-effective support from people who importantly have knowledge and experience of working in the sector, as well as understand how to present and deliver the relevant technologies for their business. Over the last few months, we have been busy delivering projects as well as receiving new enquiries, many coming from referrals from other manufacturing companies and associations. Going forward we only see this trend continuing and as a result will be looking to extend our experienced consultant network so that we can continue to meet the growing requirements from the sector for the services we offer.

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North East based tech firm Excelpoint has reported a significant increase in manufacturing-based businesses embracing its no-code technology to digitalise business-critical systems.

It has reported that the sector is embracing digital transformation to replace inefficient systems and processes with automated solutions to drive business improvements, create efficiencies, and improve insight through better recording and reporting of data.

Excelpoint is certainly seeing the pace of adoption by manufacturers go up a gear. So far in 2021, 70% of all new business has been from this sector and the company has worked on projects including the configuration of tailored CRM and sales management solutions through to estimating, production control, quality control, scheduling, order management and service desk. Many of the projects deployed using Excepoint’s no-code technology have been for business-critical core systems and have required seamless connectivity to existing legacy systems.

Feedback from the sector is showing that they are opting for a no-code solution as they are realising the many benefits of no-code from time to value, rapid configuration and deployment, agile development and the ability to span enterprise-wide. No longer are off-the-shelf solutions or potentially expensive and slow to deploy bespoke development the way forward. As no-code and low-code technology gain momentum, organisations are embracing and using its capabilities to empower business and professional developers to configure and deploy solutions to meet business challenges.

According to Deloitte, the sector’s investment in digital technologies has realised on average a 10% increase in production output, 11% increase in factory capacity and a 12% increase in labour productivity.

Manufacturers are not only starting to enjoy more efficient and streamlined operations as a result of digitalised workflows and business processes, but they also add value to the customer and employee experience.

Ian Brown, Managing Director at Excelpoint said: “The trend for “smart” factories using digital technologies is now encompassing a focus on business processes and workflows with the digitalisation of manufacturing facilities requiring a solution that is multi-functional, integrated and embraces data analysis to drive strategy, and our “smart software” is ideally positioned for this challenge.”

Business-critical core systems are being prioritised for digital transformation to improve organisational performance and importantly realise an enhanced customer and employee experience.

We have seen a significant increase in the number of UK manufacturers embracing digital technologies as a way of gaining competitive advantage.

Our message to other manufacturers currently thinking about digitalisation is to identify and prioritise existing processes to undertake a digital transformation. Invest in areas where you will make the most difference and that are business-critical, and be realistic, you can’t leverage all technologies at once.”

Ian continued: “It is important not to forget the people aspect, it is essential to create a culture with change in mind and one that is open to a shift towards an ever-evolving digital world, and to establish a project team from the main areas across your organisation to drive and manage the transformation and ensure you remain focused on and achieve a faster time to value.”

For more information or advice on how your organisation can take advantage of digitalisation, please visit www.excelpoint.co.uk, contact 01325 375930, or email hello@excelpoint.co.uk.

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Business Development Executive for the North East.

2. What does Access2Funding do?

As the UK’s fastest growing tax relief specialist, Access2Funding is committed to helping businesses identify research and development (R&D) within their projects. From engineering and manufacturing firms to printing and automotive, innovation can take place in any sector, and if a business is seeking an advancement within their industry or changing the way they do things they may well be eligible for R&D tax relief. R&D tax credits were introduced in 2000 by HMRC to incentivise innovation, and result in a reduction in corporation tax or a cash payment for companies.

3. What gets you out of bed in a morning?

Besides a strong coffee, what gets me out of bed in the morning is the thought of helping businesses in the North East to realise the innovation they may well be undertaking in their everyday projects. It is so rewarding to hear positive feedback from clients who didn’t even know they were eligible for R&D tax credits and have now been able to reinvest into their business using the money they receive from HMRC. Even more so during the difficult times we have all experienced due to Covid-19.

4. What makes Access2Funding different?

Having successfully claimed back £32m for businesses in 2020, Access2Funding’s highly qualified team possess an expert eye when it comes to uncovering R&D within a business and conducting reports for HMRC. What’s more, our 100% success rate is testament to this – enabling clients to secure funds they are entitled to that will help their business prosper.

With a professional team of chartered tax advisers, knowledgeable sector specialists and R&D experts, businesses can rest assured that their claims are maximised, thorough and risk-free.

5. What are the businesses greatest strengths?

Innovation is key to our business and workplace culture. As R&D tax specialists, we encourage and promote innovation within all industries that our clients or prospects work in. In addition, we work closely with a number of partners and ‘introducers’ who bring some

fantastic opportunities our way in the form of innovative businesses that may not currently be taking advantage of the HMRC’s research and development (R&D) tax credits scheme. These fresh opportunities can enable us as a company to delve into exciting new sectors, work alongside clients to assist them with identifying R&D within their business, and ultimately, grow and diversify our business.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, not only did we submit over 650 claims, returning more than £22m back to UK businesses, we adapted an agile and hybrid approach to the way we operated quadrupling our internal workforce, building out the core team to now include national Tax Specialists, Chartered Accountants, sector & industry level experts and an in-house marketing team. This allows for a stricter and more robust way of working to ensure quality checks and claim submissions are maximised to the highest potential.

Not only do we have great client relationships, but we also take pride in our employees and invest a great deal into staff development and well-being through our innovation-friendly culture and we believe that this is a testament to the level of service that we are able to offer our clients.

6. What are your primary markets / sectors?

Headquartered in the North West, but with offices all over the UK, every region has sectors that are more prevalent, however, the sectors we work in, but are not limited to, include: construction, manufacturing and engineering, food production, architectural design, print and signage, software, hospitality, commercial plumbing and joinery, electrical engineering and breweries.

7. Do you have growth plans for the future?

Now eight years in business, the company has gone through some significant infrastructural changes in more recent years and continues to grow. Access2Funding has grown from a team of 16 to 86 in the last year, with a recruitment plan to reach 120 employees by April 2022. We are now trading nationwide and have expanded the team into Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Recruitment has included a number of experts to strengthen the workforce, including regional tax specialists and an in-house marketing team. We turned over £1.9 million in 2020 with a 163% increase into 2021 and a projected increase of 794% in 2022.

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Last year, the project received an extension enabling it to continue providing much-needed grant support and technical expertise to the region’s SMEs, and – to coincide with this – the team are keen to ensure they continue reaching those that require their support most.

To achieve this, the team are conducting research into how regional business owners consume and engage with content, to help them reach out to as many SMEs as possible.

Below is a link to 10 easy-to-answer questions that will help them achieve their goal and drive the North East manufacturing sector forward as we plan for life post-pandemic.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/2Y2Y9HL

Thank you for your support and for taking the time to engage with us. It’s greatly appreciated.

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