It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.  It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years. Here we speak to Anton Roe, CEO of MHR. Sustainability has long been a buzzword but now it’s becoming a critical part of strategic planning for organisations, especially as ESG (environmental, social, and governance) issues take a priority position for stakeholders and employees alike. There are many opportunities for organisations to forge the way as leaders in their sector and create real change if action is taken now. In times of financial challenge, it can be easy to reduce the time and investment spent on ESG, however, having sustainability-based objectives and reporting key results is one way to maintain focus and track progress. Furthermore, this can result in vital business benefits such as improved employee engagement, a stronger employer value proposition, higher talent retention and attraction rates, brand recognition, energy cost savings, alongside a sense of community and long-term stability across the people in your teams. One specific opportunity is engaging younger workers around issues of sustainability. Gen Z and millennials strongly value protecting the environment and ensuring our way of life is sustainable. This not only drives career choices but can also be leveraged for younger workers to influence senior decision-making around sustainability, with reverse mentoring being a great tool to inform the C-Suite on just how important this issue is. Whether it be environmental changes, community work, internal progression or training programmes, sustainability is about doing the right thing by people and the planet we share. Organisations need to find ways to push forward in the fight for people and planet.

With video now being the most popular digital marketing tool, your company’s video content needs to be as professional as you want to appear – not only to impress customers and create sales, but also to keep up with your competitors. There is a direct correlation between the quality of your video marketing and how well customers perceive your business. Video marketing is only becoming more and more essential, so it’s important to do it well in 2023. Here are some big reasons why you should consider hiring a professional video production company to promote your company effectively.   Staying relevant Over the last few years, there has been a 63% increase in the number of businesses that use video as their primary form of promotion.[1] If you aren’t keeping up with your competitors and staying relevant by posting slick, well-produced videos, your company is at a serious disadvantage. Video is not only a great means to inform people about why they should buy your products or services, but you now actually need to be posting great videos to even get noticed amongst the competition. Don’t get left behind. To achieve high quality, you should really consider a production company. Cost benefit It’s easy to assume that it isn’t worth the money to hire a professional video company, when you consider that filming on a phone doesn’t cost you anything. But it actually costs a lot more than you think. Your homemade looking videos are damaging your company’s image and reputation, ultimately affecting your bottom line when potential customers look elsewhere and buy from a competitor who seem more professional in their videos. Investing in high quality video marketing could be the trigger for big growth in your company this year. Great return on investment Your ROI for this form of marketing will be determined by the quality of your videos and how effectively your message is conveyed. In a survey, 86% of marketing professionals reported that they used video as a marketing tool – 78% of which considered videos to be responsible for a direct increase in sales.[2] Those people invested in making high quality videos with a production company, rather than those who tried to cut corners by filming on a phone. Let’s look at an example to illustrate the ROI you might achieve. If your average sale is £30 and the promotional video is seen by 20,000 potential customers, just a 3% conversion rate would create sales of £18,000. Considering that a professionally produced marketing video might cost around £1,000 to create and another £1,000 to promote – that’s an irresistible return on investment. This is why so many marketers are hiring professional video production companies. Of course, you may be promoting a more expensive item, or your conversion rate could be higher or lower, so results vary – but you can usually generate a lot of extra revenue with a professionally-made promo video. Boost your sales Seeing your product in action, or a video about how your service works, makes potential customers much more likely to buy. Video is naturally much more enticing and engaging for a viewer, as compared with still images. Unsurprisingly, around 8 in every 10 professional marketing videos have a positive impact on conversion rates and sales figures.[3] In fact, your website visitors are 85% more likely to buy after watching a high-quality sales video.[4] Professional videography If you want your company to appear professional and win more sales through video marketing, there is absolutely no reason why you should be filming on a phone. Attempting to film on a phone leads to a ‘homemade’ and amateur look, especially if the person filming has little to no knowledge of professional videography. This in turn presents your company as amateur, small or unprofessional. If you have the equipment that a video production company uses and you know how to use it, you can get the best quality videos. Even the greatest phone camera will struggle to compete with professional filming equipment. Unsteady shots, fake depth of field, wrong frame rates, noise, uncontrolled focus shifting, bad quality audio. These are just some of the issues that top gear and knowledge can overcome – meaning your videos will be more effective and more pleasing for customers to watch. Lighting is a hugely underestimated part of creating a professional image and is almost never utilised correctly by an amateur. You can’t expect to get good lighting with just the room lights turned on. In professional videography, multiple specialist lights are placed at precise angles and strengths to create a flattering, filmic and controlled image. Such lights often cost upwards of £1000 each. Hiring a video production company means you don’t have to buy any lights or learn any lighting techniques. You want your company to appear professional in your video marketing, so quality lighting equipment and knowledge is an absolute must. Similarly, sound quality is really important if you want your company to appear professional and appealing to customers. It’s been said so many times that audio can make or break a video. Even if you have an excellent looking image, if it’s accompanied by poor sound, viewers will rarely stick around. Microphone positioning, gain, compression and mixing – these are just some of the factors that contribute to high quality audio. A video production company has the equipment and knowledge to ensure your video not only looks fantastic, but sounds great too – taking away the stress of having to study audio production and buy your own equipment. Another often underestimated factor in producing professional videos is the amount of time and expertise required for editing. Post production often takes a lot longer than the filming itself and requires years of practice to become highly skilled at. The video is ultimately a presentation of your company, so the editing needs to be superb. You can see, therefore, how hiring a company with professional videography skills is a must if you want your video marketing to be effective.   Effective time management We’ve only covered a few aspects in this article but you can already get the sense that a lot of time goes into producing great video marketing content. We haven’t even discussed all that must be done pre-production (before the camera starts rolling). With time at such a premium in our fast moving business world, just the fact you can save so much of it is a fundamental reason why you should hire a video production company. You can free yourself to focus on other aspects of your business, while professionals deal with your video marketing. Which video production company should I choose? There are many to choose from, but it’s wise to hire a local video production company that specialises in video marketing and corporate videography, such as Glowfrog. This way, you know they have the skills necessary to do an effective job for your business. Glowfrog are a multiple award-winning production company based in the East Midlands. You can get a free, no obligation consultation just by filling in the short form at www.glowfrogvideo.com. Sources: 1. WyzOwl.com 2. TheSocialShepherd.com 3. G2.com 4. Wix.com

A feud between Topps Tiles and one of its major shareholders is continuing, with the tile specialist issuing an update ahead of its annual general meeting to be held on 18 January. The Topps board of directors says it has become aware that MS Galleon GmbH (MSG) has been contacting certain Topps shareholders individually, with information that contradicts previous statements made directly to Topps around the link between sourcing and MSG’s equity interest in the company. MSG owns Cersanit, a major European producer of tiles, in addition to having a range of home improvement and tile retailing interests, primarily in the Polish market. Topps says that information provided to shareholders by MSG included a statement that it had recently discussed increasing its share of Topps’ product purchases to 5 per cent. However, this statement is, according to Topps, not an accurate representation of the entirety of those discussions and directly contradicts statements made by MSG to Topps. The company added that MSG has, on a number of occasions, directly linked the level of its equity holding in the company with the level of supply that it wishes Topps to source from Cersanit. To this end it was requested as recently as November 2022 that Topps should source 29.9% of its tile purchases from Cersanit in line with MSG’s shareholding in Topps. Moreover, Topps says Cersanit, as a supplier, is uncompetitive when compared with other manufacturers of similar products, while Topps’ sourcing policy does not allow for more than 10% of tile purchases to come from any one supplier in order to avoid concentration risk. In addition to a potential conflict of interest around sourcing, the Board believes MSG may also be preparing to launch its Nexterio tile retail brand in the UK, potentially establishing a direct competitor to Topps, which would create a further material conflict of interest. In December MSG pushed for the firm to remove a director of the company from office, as well as eject him from the position of non-executive chairman. It was proposed that Darren Shapland be replaced, while Lidia Wolfinger and Michael Bartusiak (both employees of companies owned by MSG) be appointed as non-executive directors of the company. The Board however does not consider the proposals to be in the best interests of the Leicester-based company and its shareholders, intending to recommend that shareholders vote against the Requisitioned Resolutions at the business’s AGM. The Board believes that the proposed appointment of MSG’s non-executive directors has the primary objective of aligning Topps’ business and strategy to MSG’s commercial objectives as owner of Cersanit, a manufacturer of tiles, and is therefore not in the best interests of the company and Topps’ shareholders as a whole. The Board believes it is incompatible for the proposed non-executive directors to have the target of increasing tile purchases from Cersanit to 29.9 per cent., whilst at the same time acting in the best interests of all shareholders of Topps. Meanwhile Topps has now secured further support from key shareholders for the Board’s position. Over 41% of Topps’ shareholders have now confirmed intentions to vote against the Requisitioned Resolutions. Darren Shapland, non-executive chairman of Topps, said: “The Board continues to believe that these proposals would expose shareholders to a number of serious conflicts of interest and are not therefore in the interests of all shareholders of the company. The Board welcomes the strong support received from other large shareholders who support the Board’s position in voting against the Requisitioned Resolutions at the AGM.” Keith Down, senior independent director of Topps, said: “The Board has unanimously rejected these resolutions which it does not believe are in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders as a whole. MSG is attempting to remove the chairman, who has been leading communications with MSG on behalf of the Board, to allow it to increase its control over the business.”

Streets Chartered Accountants have kicked off January with a wealth of helpful articles diving into tax, employee matters, and more to provide readers with an informed start to the new year. Income Tax: Using the HMRC app to make Self-Assessment tax payments A new press release from HMRC has revealed that more than 50,000 taxpayers have used the HMRC app to make Self-Assessment tax payments since February 2022… Income Tax: Collecting tax from wealthy taxpayers An updated briefing which looks at how HMRC deals with wealthy individuals has been published… Income Tax: Are you ready for 31 January 2023? The deadline date to file your 2021-22 Self-Assessment tax return is fast approaching… Income Tax: Digitisation of tax postponed A statement was made by the Financial Secretary to the Treasury on 19 December 2022. It confirmed that the roll-out of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, due to commence April 2024, is being delayed… Capital allowances: Super-deductions finish March 2023 Time is running out to claim the super-deduction offering 130% first-year tax relief. The deduction is available to companies until March 2023… Value Added Tax: Claiming back pre-trading VAT costs There are special rules that determine the recoverability of pre-trading VAT costs. Pre-trading VAT costs describe VAT that was incurred before a business registered for VAT and is known as pre-registration input VAT… Value Added Tax: New VAT penalty regime from 2023 A new VAT penalty regime will affect all VAT registered businesses from 1 January 2023… Employee Benefits: Vehicle benefit charges from April 2023 The vehicle benefit charges for 2023-24 have been announced… Corporate Governance & Regulation: Filing abridged company accounts Companies that are dormant or qualify as a small company or ‘micro-entity’ can choose to send a simpler set of accounts known as abridged accounts to Companies House and do not need to be audited… Employment & Payroll: Don’t forget those trivial benefits Don’t forget to take advantage of tax-free trivial benefits… General: Low-cost broadband and phone tariffs The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has published a new press release to confirm that they have been working together with internet service providers to deliver low-cost broadband and phone packages called social tariffs… General: Mortgage payment support The Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, recently hosted a meeting at 11 Downing Street to discuss what help may be available to support homeowners who encounter problems paying their mortgage… General: Budget date 2023 announced The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt has confirmed, in a written statement, that the next UK Budget will take place on Wednesday, 15 March 2023… View Streets’ Tax Diary for January/February 2023

Businesses are being asked to have their say on the Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan to help shape future planning for the area.