< PreviousBREXITEast Midlands Business Linkwww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk20BREXIT21strong teams and ensure their businesses continue to besuccessful”.Kevin Buchanan, MD of Pall-Ex group, said: “As a business,we’ve always said that Britain is stronger in Europe. We’resaddened that the majority of people didn’t share our view.“We stand firm in our belief that the UK’s supply chain will bedeeply affected by the referendum outcome, as it’s always reliedon an efficient international logistics network. Jobs, trade andinvestment are all likely to be impacted.“As a country, we now enter a crucial period of negotiationregarding the terms of our exit. The government has a tricky taskahead and we urge them to listen to the concerns of businessesacross the country.“Like every other company, we must now take stock of what’shappened and ensure that processes are in place to lessen theinevitable impact.“Our number one priority has always been, and remains, ourhaulier members and customers. Over the coming months, we’llbe doing all we can to support them and ensure that, as much aspossible, it remains business as usual”.Richard Dorf, CEO at PXtech, said: “My view is that this is notthe result that we and most people we do business with wouldhave wanted. I was speaking to our Japanese business partnerrecently who saw a likely impact on global markets from ourdecision including negative impacts for the Chinese and Japaneseeconomies. A reminder of how closely we are linked to the worldeconomy and how closely linked it is to us. Independence doesn’tseem to be the word defining our future, more a different sort ofdependency, an undefined dependency.“We will be free to negotiate our future in many ways, but that isall, free to negotiate. Negotiation is a product of the discussion ofthe needs of two or more parties, all of whom will be operatingthrough self-interest. So we must prepare hard to negotiate andthe best way to do that is to understand the needs of those we areto negotiate with as well as our own needs. When we understandtheir self-interest, then we will be well positioned to help themunderstand that trading with the UK is key to them. Assumingbecause we are a ‘big’ economy and therefore they will come tous on our terms will be a mistake. The UK has a history ofdiplomacy, this will now be put to the test.“However with all change comes opportunity as well as risk. Likeall good businesses, we will look to make the most of thoseopportunities, by making our solutions and services moreSHUTTERSTOCK.COM/NERTHUzwww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.ukEast Midlands Business Link 22 ÁBREXIT22important than ever to the success of our customers andpartners. As always the organisations that understand andreact to this will be the ones that will be successful. We atPXtech are determined to be one of those organisations”.Scott Knowles, chief executive of East Midlands Chamber,said the government must provide a withdrawal roadmap inthe wake of the result.He said: “The immediate priorities for UK business in thewake of this historic referendum result are market stability,economic security and political clarity. Business thrives oncertainty, but the nation has been mired in uncertainty sincethe date of the ballot was announced.“From a business perspective, the referendum debate was ashouting match, heavy on bombast and hyperbole but light onthe sort of cool-headedinformation and matureargument that localbusiness leadersrequired.“Companieswill expectswift, decisive,and coordinatedaction from thegovernment andthe Bank ofEngland tostabilise markets if trading conditions or the availability ofcapital change dramatically. They will also want an immediateand unambiguous statement from the Prime Minister on nextsteps, along with a clear timeline for the UK’s exit from theEuropean Union.“Not having a clear direction stifles growth. Businessesstruggle to invest or create jobs when they have no clearunderstanding of what lies ahead. Now that we have adecision, we can begin to plan for the future.“One of the biggest fears expressed during the campaignwas that we would have no international trade deals in placeonce we leave the EU. It is essential that government beginsnegotiations immediately to establish trade deals which are inthe best interests of UK plc”.Others reacted positively to the decision. Patrick Tonks, owner of Nottingham’s Great Bean Bags,said: “A UK leave vote could put the country on the worldstage again, making headlines out of curiosity if nothing else.If that means that manufacturers like me will be able to sellmore goods to the world as a result that will be a big benefit”.Nigel Baxter, managing director of RH Commercial Vehiclesand chair of Business for Britain East Midlands, said: “I amvery proud to be a citizen of Great Britain, delighted that wehave victory for democracy, that this referendum engaged theBritish people, that the legitimate concerns of decentordinary people have been expressedcomprehensively.“This is not a vote against Europe, but against afailed political project heading in the wrongdirection. I hope it’s a wakeup call for Brusselsbringing prosperity in time to the damagedeconomies and people of large parts of euroland”.Greg Simpson, founder of Press for AttentionPR and Enterprise Nation Champion forNottingham, who voted to Remain, believes thepress has played a key role in influencing theBrexit decision.He said, immediately after the result wasannounced: “Just last week I was down atNumber 10 with a business delegation in myrole as Enterprise Nation Champion. The moodwas far from confident but it wasn’t what I wouldcall nervous. Neither was it complacent.“Around the table were entrepreneurs of various agesand at various stages of their business growth cycle. Theopinion was unanimous – Remain. They were, I shouldadd, small businesses. Typically 1-5 people but all fast-growing. Many of them exporters. I wonder how theyfeel today.“Politics is often criticised as being nothing morethan a personality contest. He (and it is normally ahe) who shouts loudest gets heard. He whodominates the headlines gets the ear of thepeople. Farage is a master of it. As is Boris.However, David Cameron is no PR slouchhimself.“What has interested me is the sheer powerSHUTTERSTOCK.COM/GRALEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.ukBREXITof the press. I shouldn’t be surprised, it is my job to knowthe machinations of the media but the sheer scale of themedia bias has been incredible. There was an interestingpiece in the Guardian yesterday which highlighted how theBritish press has been overwhelmingly pro Brexit.“The Telegraph, Express, Sun and Star and of course theMail have approximately 4 times the average dailyreadership of the neutrals or those advocating to Remain.However, the clear messages were coming from the Brexitgroup. It is simply an easier ‘sell’ – far easier to communicateand to pander to the fears/hopes of their readers.“The lesson from this? Messages need to be clear if youwant them to be heard both in the press and by your market.For the record, I voted ‘In’, just to be clear”.Dr Glenn Crocker, CEO of Nottingham’s BioCity, expresseddisappointment and concern at the outcome.He said: “I am deeply concerned about the impact on UKresearch and on funding for small companies, both of whichhave benefited greatly from EU support. I am also concernedabout the impact on the free movement of labour and therestriction on the skills base if the UK turns inwards.“I find it very disheartening that I live in a country wherethe majority of people are so opposed to openness andcollaboration based on some misguided view of Britain ofover 100 years ago, however we will have to make the bestof the situation and BioCity will strive to do that”. Jo Sellick, managing director of Derby’s SellickPartnership, commented on the potential impactBrexit could have on the recruitment sector.He said: “From a recruitmentperspective, I am extremely concernedthat jobs could be at risk as a result of aweaker economy and so muchuncertainty. This will affect candidates,clients and the industry as a whole.More specific to my sector is thewealth of legislation that has been setby the EU which is now called intoquestion. Will we still have to followlegislation such as Agency WorkersRegulations and the Working TimeDirective, which came about purely asan EU incentive? These questions andmany more remain unanswered andwill likely be quite low down the prioritylist when it comes to negotiating on EU law, whichgoverns so many aspects of British life.“I am equally worried about what might happento the EU workers who support so many sectorsin the UK with their loyal and effective labour.Industries like agriculture, care andconstruction are all heavily staffed by non-British workers and these sectors rely onthat manpower in order to thrive. Whilewe have been reassured that peoplewill not be ‘sent back’ to theirhome countries, we most certainlycannot expect that the same level of people from overseaswill be entering the British workforce from now on. This couldforce the closure of many organisations, from the small farmswho are staffed by EU workers and cannot hire locally for thesame rate of pay, to larger corporations and even the NHS,which would seriously struggle to find the right skills at anappealing cost without the current volume of workers fromEurope.“Despite the many concerns I have about our future, I dobelieve there is no need to panic at this stage as it will besome time before we truly know the full ramifications of thevote. We now have two years of negotiations to determinethe extent to which we remain part of the EU. In fact, it willsurely take far longer than two years to plough through theraft of legislation that willneed amending orcreating in linewith the vote toleave. Duringthis time it willbe essential forour politiciansand businessleaders to unite todecide on the bestactions for Britain’s future”.www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 23CLEAN ENERGYEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk24EVChargingSolutionsEV Charging Solutions is the country’s leadingconsultant and installer of electric carcharging stations. EMBL spoke to managingdirector and founder Chris Everitt to find outmore. Chris Everitt came to EV ChargingSolutions via an unconventional route. “I’m from the North East originally”,says Chris.“I came here to study businesseconomics at Nottingham TrentUniversity in 1997. After that I worked atthe NatWest lending centre on CanalStreet. My best mate was a builder, andhe asked me to work for him. As youcan imagine, it was quite a leap of faith!But I did that for a couple of years whilststudying electrical engineering at thePeople’s College. I had a mate who wasa sparky, which helped a lot, of course. “I went back to NTU to do an MA in2004 and set up K Star ElectricalServices in 2005”, he says. “I made a few contacts and itprogressed quite quickly. The learningcurve was very steep. I decided to windup the business at the end of 2014 andconcentrated on EV, which was set up inSeptember 2013”. “I didn’t take a wage out of EV for 18months, and I paid my employees for 6months without paying myself”, saysChris.“In October 2014 Donovan (Snape,director) and Sam (Cutler, officemanager) came on-board, and we gotourselves an office. It was just three ofus until March 2015, when we took onanother full-time installer and somebodyelse to work in the office. Stewart McKeealso joined as non-executive director”. How did EV Charging Solutionsoriginally come about? “I went on a 6-week Next BusinessGeneration course and met some greatpeople, including the tutors andmentors”, says Everitt. “I went on that course as atradesperson and left as abusinessman”. “I simply fell into charging solutions”,he explains. “Taking a long-term view, the marketis going to be massive. Because of thegovernment’s renewable energy targets,this industry has the potential toinfluence massive changes ininfrastructure.“We will grow as the market grows. Atthe moment it’s still a small sector –0.02% of new vehicles plug-in. There’sno point taking on more staff at themoment because there isn’t more workto be had. We’re not planning to takeover the world! We’re just trying to growat a rate that’s sustainable rather thangoing big straight away and watchingthings go down the pan”. “The CleanTech Centre where we’rebased is very flexible, which shouldstand us in good stead”, he continues. “This whole area is great, really – thecouncil courses are really helpful andwe’ve made lots of good contacts. TheCLEAN ENERGYwww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 25two universities are great in terms of thetalent they produce, although we don’treally have a budget to take anybody onat the moment, and we received someCreative Quarter funding which paid forthe computers in our office. That’s beenmassively helpful”. “I’m not really motivated by money”,adds Everitt. “It’s nice to have a team and quitehumbling to give people jobs and apurpose. You need to enjoy the goodthings in life and make a change. I’malways looking for new challenges andrelationships. One thing’s for sure – ifthis doesn’t come off, I’ve learned anawful lot about business!”HUMAN RESOURCESEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk26The article that I had planned to writewas filed in my archive as a result of lastFriday’s referendum decision. I wasgoing to write about growingbusinesses, recruiting, investing intraining and benefits. I will still do this,but for now, that seems unfit forpurpose, a tad insensitive. It feels rightto speak about the “elephant in theroom’”. Despite the outcome wepersonally desired, I think it’s importantto keep pace, keep momentum and staypositive, despite the uncertainties that lieahead. After all, we are all in thistogether!Although the result and potentialchange is of a huge scale, HRProfessionals are no strangers to a crisis,and no strangers to businessuncertainty. We support businessesthrough the highs and the lows, thepeaks and the troughs, the celebrationsand the disappointments.The UK’s pending exit from the EU hascome as a surprise to many people. Arecent poll by the CIPD (CharteredInstitute of Personnel and Development)Seeing the wood from the trees…By Rebecca Bull,Chartered Fellow CIPDand owner of My HRHub. indicated that only 5% of companieshave a post-Brexit plan in place. Almost78% of companies claimed that they lackthe information to make long termorganizational decisions. Well, I am surethat this comes as no surprise to any ofus.As the weeks and months unfold, thelandscape will become clearer. In themeantime, this emerging situation bringsan opportunity for HR to supportbusiness owners to re-examine thedesign of their companies, their workand jobs to ensure that you as smallbusinesses continue to operate aseffectively, economically andcompetitively as possible.From a practical point of view, it’simportant to recognise that youremployees will have different views. Thisbeing such an historic event, it willchange our landscape significantly. It hascreated instant uncertainty, which hasprovoked emotive responses, loadeddebate and in some cases, sadly, conflictand xenophobia. However, in time it will – it must – alsobring opportunities for those willing toembrace and accept change. HR andbusiness owners need to bring peopletogether by emphasising the importanceof respect, cultural diversity, teamworkand creative problem solving in dealingwith the rapidly evolving economiccontext that lies ahead.My advice to business owners at thisearly stage is to emphasise the need tosupport all employees – especially EUNationals – and to remain vigilant foracts of discrimination. This week theCIPD conducted an online poll statingthat HR professionals mostly fear theimpact on employee morale as well asthe challenge in dealing with a lack ofinformation to make future businessdecisions.Engagement of your workforce iscritical at any stage of your business.However, in times of uncertainty likethis, it plays an even more prominentrole.Employee engagement is based ontrust, integrity, two-way commitmentand communication between yourcompany and your employees. It is anapproach that increases the chances ofbusiness success, contributing toorganisational and individualperformance, productivity and well-being. It can be measured. It varies frompoor to great. It can be nurtured anddramatically increased; it can be lost andthrown away. It is at times of challengelike this that business owners need to bein tune with their employees, to listen, tounderstand and to be supportive. Did you know that engagedemployees increase their individualperformance by 40%, increase customersatisfaction rates by 18% and canSeeing the wood from the trees…HUMAN RESOURCESwww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 27Seeing the wood from the trees…multiply your financialsuccess by x 4 ½? Factswe cannot ignoreregardless of the businesscontext. At My HR Hub we arespecialists at deliveringEmployee EngagementProjects. We also offer awide range of servicesand products to help yourbusiness such as cloudbased HR softwaresystems, directrecruitment and generalHR consultancy, helpingyou navigate through thelikely changes that lieahead in employment law. As part of our recentlaunch, we are offering 2-hour complimentarymeetings for new clientsuntil October 2016. Pleasevisit our website,www.myhrhub.co.uk orcontact us directly onrebecca@myhrhub.co.ukto see how we can helpyou through the weeks,months and years ahead. My HR Hub – HRbusiness partnering forsmall businesses.Seeing the wood from the trees…IT ACCOUNTING SOLUTIONSEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk28IT AccountingSolutionsEvery business needs to keep on top of its accounts. Today,many businesses employ IT accounting solutions to ensurethat their finances are managed efficiently – but what are themain benefits?strikes and the office IT system goesdown. This model is known in the trade as“Software as a Service” (SaaS), becausethat’s precisely what it is – a flexibleservice designed to meet the particulardemands of your business. Flexibility isthe watchword of accounting softwarepackages today. Whatever the size ofyour business, there will most likely be asolution that can be tailored to yourindividual needs. With technical supporton hand to smooth over any issues,leaving paper-based accounting methodsbehind could be one of the soundestWeb-based accounting solutions arebecoming increasingly popular, for avariety of reasons. For one thing, theyare much cheaper than traditional in-house methods. Businesses can cut theircosts significantly by subscribing to anonline accounting application becausethe initial outlay is a lot smaller. Havingyour accounts managed by an external,online provider also means that moretime, energy and resources can be putinto other areas of the business. It’s a win-win situation, and becauseonline accounting solutions providersstore and back up your accounts usingsecure data centres, you can restassured that your precious information issafe. Moreover, Cloud-based accountingsolutions allow you to view your dataanywhere and at any time, provided youcan access the internet – an obvious pluswhen time is at a premium, or if disasterSHUTTERSTOCK.COM/RAWPIXEL.COMIT ACCOUNTING SOLUTIONSwww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 29decisions your business makes. But what kinds of features andservices are available? Most IT accounting solutions will allowyou to send customisable invoices toyour customers, freeing up valuable timeand cutting down admin costs. If therelevant information has been enteredcorrectly, your clients will receive yourinvoices bang on-date, plus regular,automated non-payment reminders –meaning less stress and hassle for yourbusiness. Payroll services can also beconfigured to work in a similar way, soyou can keep your employees happy bypaying them on time!The latest software can also be used tomanage your business’ tax affairs. Whatwas once a major headache can now bemanaged quickly and efficiently, withmany packages allowing you to submittax returns automatically to HMRC.Everyone hates doing their tax return,but the laborious task can now beactioned by clicking a few buttons. Many IT accounting solutions allowyou to view your cash-flow in real-time,too. This may be relativelyinconsequential to some, but whenmargins are tight it can be absolutelycrucial, especially for small businessesand new start-ups. The ability to seeexactly how much cash is coming in andout of the business can mean thedifference between sinking andswimming for some. SaaS could be a vital cog for many asuccessful business in the future. Inthese IT-savvy times, and withcompanies demanding ever-greaterflexibility from their accounting solutions,the cost and time-saving benefits ofusing the latest software are abundantlyclear. SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/MOREIMAGESNext >