3 simple tips to Make an Impact With Your Bid Presentations!

Being a Small Business, Contractor, or even Big Organizations, the pressure to win new business in today’s market is enormous. There are more firms chasing less work, the market now is competitive than ever. Therefore, firms have had to adapt and retune their business development models. How firms design and package their bid presentation can make the difference between winning or losing a client.


Here are 3 simple tips to make an impact through your Presentation:

3 simple tips to create an impact through your Bid Presentation

1. Be Energetic:

How you present yourself is a big influencer on how people react to you, especially if they are unfamiliar with your business. Of course, clients want to work with professionals and experts in their field. However, in today’s market they can afford to be selective and work with people who are dynamic and progressive. Creating a typical standard document gets you nowhere. Be prepared to be bold and clever in order to stand out.

2. Creativity At Its Best:

Tenders come in different shapes and sizes. Firms respond by using a variety of applications such as Word, PowerPoint and In-Design. There is no right or wrong application for replying to tenders, but In-Design or a similar design package can enhance the creativity of your response. Remember though, that accountants, lawyers and business development people are not designers. Focus on getting the content right and, where possible, use designers for the design work.

3. Perfectly Balanced:

There is a balance to be achieved in trying to design a document that satisfies the needs of different stakeholders. However, if you are not pushing how you present your key differentiating messages, brand values and personality, your competitors will be. When your client has a few tender documents in front of them, all roughly saying the same thing, they are more likely to reject yours if it’s just another run-of-the-mill document.

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Flexible Working Got More Flexible since June!

New employment rules mean the right to request flexible working extended to all employees with 26 weeks' service since June 30th.

Earlier, only employees with children under 17 (or disabled children under 18) and those with responsibilities as carers have a right to request flexible working.

New Flexible Working Rule

Under new measures, however, any employee with 26 weeks’ continuous service can ask to work flexibly for any reason, whether it’s taking up a further education course, combining work with caring for the grandchildren, or simply wanting to spend less time at work.

Eligible employees will be able to request a change to working hours, working time or work location.

The amended Children and Families Act 2014 removes the prescriptive statutory procedure for dealing with requests, replacing it with a duty on employers to deal with requests in a ‘reasonable manner’ and to notify employees of their decision within three months, unless an extension is agreed.

More employees will be able to request flexible working but it doesn’t mean they have the right to have that request granted. Similar principles are likely to apply when considering requests received and the grounds for refusing remain the same.

Employers will still be able to reject requests if there are legitimate business reasons for doing so; for example, if it would lead to additional costs for the company, affect its ability to meet customer demand or have a detrimental impact on the company’s performance.

The new flexible working rule is one of several ‘family-friendly’ changes in the pipeline over the next 12 months.

From October 1st 2014 a prospective father or a mother’s partner can take unpaid time off to attend up to two antenatal appointments, while from April 5th 2015 parents of newly born or newly adopted babies, and in some cases a mother and her partner, will be allowed to share a combined total of up to 52 weeks of parental leave and 39 weeks of statutory pay between them.

We have a specialist payroll service that can assist you in the continuing administrative requirements surrounding employment. We would be delighted to discuss these with you.

Contact us for more information at ☎☎ 020 89310165!

We are a team of Chartered Certified Accountant regulated and monitored by The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).

5 Simple Time Management Strategies To Increase Productivity & Accelerate Your Growth

One thing that constantly amazes me is how quickly each year passes. The days, weeks and months seem to roll into one, and before you know it 6 months has passed. You’re left wondering ‘where did the time go?’

Now that’s okay as long as you plan your year out. However, most people spend more time planning their holidays than planning THEIR YEAR AHEAD.

If you plan  -  you get more done, much more done. If you fail to plan and set goals it’s surprising how little you’ll accomplish.

All the high achievers and successful people in this world identify planning and goal-setting as a major contributor to their success.

Why? Because in addition to giving them a clear roadmap, it also helps them plan their daily/weekly/monthly schedules and with effective management of time it enables them to get a huge amount of work done.

For example, many people who have observed me will say ‘how does Steve get so much done?’ It’s true, I get more done in a day than most do in a week. It takes discipline, but there are some proven tricks and strategies I use to achieve very high levels of productivity and that’s what I want to talk to you about today.

Effective time management is something that isn’t often associated with growing a business, but effective management of your time is a very potent weapon (and conversely poor management of time can be a real business growth inhibitor).

The good news is that it’s not that difficult to massively improve your output if you follow my simple ‘5 Key Time Management Tips For High Performers’. Like everything I will discuss with you in this newsletter, none of these things are difficult or even earth-shattering, but they do make a significant difference as long as you start using them! So here are my key Time Management Tips…

 

Proven Strategies To Help You Build A Better Business

 

Implement these Time Management strategies & create more time to get stuff done!

1. Planning: 

Plan each month and then each week and then each day based on your goals. The key here is to establish what you need to do each month to accomplish your goals. Then break these tasks down to weekly and then daily tasks. You must always prioritise these ‘goal orientated tasks’ above ‘general tasks’. You’re probably thinking—this will take a lot of thought and time to plan out. You’re right. It does. That’s why so few people do it. That’s why so few people succeed in life. Do not underestimate the power of carrying out this first step—it is the key to your success.

 

2. Work During Your High Performance Times: 

You’ll get much more done in times when your body is alert and active. For many this time is 6am-1pm and 8pm-11pm (but you’ll know when you’re at your best). The worst times are generally after eating! It’s during these high performance times you should carry out your ‘Goal Orientated Tasks’. This one step alone will improve your output significantly—so make sure you only allocate this time to the important tasks! Use the less productive times for ‘general tasks’ and meetings. Here’s why…
 

(1) Since our minds are more active and fresh we can get more done.
(2) Concentrating on the task at hand is much easier.
(3) Our creative juices are flowing when our minds are more active and alert.

 

3. Block Out Your High Performance Times: 

Next make sure you block out your high performance times and under no circumstances let other things get in the way. Again this is key to your success. Treat your high performance times as compulsory appointments (in other words, you can’t cancel them). If you have a secretary or P.A. make sure they understand these ‘appointments’ are never to be broken and replaced with anything else.

 

4. Resist All Distractions:

During your high performance times turn off your mobile, take your office phone off the hook and don’t open your e-mail programme. Even one interruption can set you back an extra 15-30 minutes not including the time of the interruption. This does take a high level of discipline. In the early days you will find the temptation of leaving your phone or email programme on hard to resist, but I promise you, this will slash your effectiveness by at least 50%. Once you force yourself to reduce your distractions to zero, you’ll find it very liberating!

 

5. Tell Staff (and family):

You must explain to staff and family that unless it’s an emergency you are not to be disturbed during your high performance times. 

By adhering to these 5 key time management tips I guarantee you’ll get so much more done. This translates to greater income and more success—worthy outcomes don’t you think?

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HMRC Task Forces Launched September 2013!

HMRC announced 4 new task forces that will investigate tax evasion in specific commercial and geographical sectors. The task forces bring together various compliance and enforcement teams for what they term “intensive bursts of targeted activity”.

The new task forces will investigate the following:

•    Construction industry in London (expecting to raise £3 million)

•    Security guards, bouncers and their employers in London and the South East (expecting to raise £10 million, with fraudulent VAT repayment claims identified as an increased risk in this sector)

•    Second-hand motor traders in the Midlands (expecting to raise £3 million)

•    Hidden wealth / “means” issues in the Midlands (also expecting to raise £3 million from comparing lifestyles to known assets)

If you know anyone involved in the above sectors who are having tax concerns, please ask them to contact us at 020 89310165 for advice!

Mortgage Market Review 2014

Significant changes have come into effect as a result of the Mortgage Market Review (MMR).  Tougher mortgage rules mean that lenders will have to carry out detailed checks on a borrower’s spending and stress-test ability to pay if interest rates go up. 

The changes came into force from 26th April 2014 and for borrowers mean that they will have to account for all outgoings.  They will face additional questions focused on imminent changes to their lives which will need to be backed up with evidence.

FCA Mortgage Market Review 2014

The regulator behind the new rules, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said they would "hardwire common sense into the mortgage market", and prevent a return to irresponsible lending that took place in the run-up to the credit crisis.

APJ Accountancy comments:

“Some lenders adopted the rules earlier this month, but the changes will mean that anyone who applied for an agreement in principle on a loan several weeks ago, or who has applied for a mortgage and wants to make a material change - perhaps borrowing more – will have to start the application process from scratch.”

For further information, please contact us at 020 89310165
 
We are a team of Chartered Certified Accountant regulated and monitored by The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).