How to Deliver an Interesting and Engaging Presentation?

The problem with an uninteresting presentation generally isn’t the content - it is the delivery. Any content can be made to be exciting, dynamic, and memorable. Rather than presenting facts and figures in a standard presentation format, think about how you turn your subject matter into an experience that relates to the audience.

Tell a story

Storytelling has the potential to help make a presentation come alive and therefore more memorable. Rather than PowerPoint slides, write out your presentation in essay format, then use just a few slides to emphasise key points. Become the narrator and take your audience on a journey with you.

A picture paints a thousand words

Sometimes a slide containing nothing more than a picture is all you need to convey your point. Strong images help to grab the audience’s attention. Video clips are also great tools to make points come alive, provoke a reaction or change the mood.

Share a joke 

Humour is a great tool to help you to grab people’s attention. Adding a few laughs into your presentation can break the ice, change the atmosphere and create a lasting memory. Even more so if the joke also helps to illustrate your key point.

Stimulate interaction 

Encourage your audience to get involved. They are far more likely to remember what you’ve been talking about if they can also describe it or interact with it. Ask your audience a question (and not just at the Q and A at the end). Maybe encourage the audience to consider a point in groups and to share their views with the room.

Keep it simple

Avoid jargon and cut out over complex facts and theories. Convey the key points in a simple manner. Present only what the audience really needs to know.

3 Tips to Develop an Effective Content Marketing Strategy!

Most businesses will at some point, consider creating a content marketing strategy in order to engage with customers. When you develop a content marketing strategy, you should start by thinking about your target audience rather than just looking internally towards your business. Here are a few tips to help you to develop an effective content marketing strategy.

Educational Content 

When it comes to your firm’s content marketing strategy, you should focus on creating well written content that is of educational value to your readers. If you are selling HR advisory services, for example, then you might consider producing content that provides your readers with useful tips on how to create certain HR policies or manage staff absences, etc. Your readers will then consider that you and your firm understand these areas and may potentially decide to use your services as a result.

Leverage your content

After you publish your content, you will need to promote it. Perhaps you could create a social media strategy whereby you publish your content to your company website, then post links to Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media pages so that people can share your content with their network. You may also want to share your content via an email newsletter or client update. The key is to find as many ways as possible of sharing your content and re-purpose it in order to maximise the potential readership.

The WIIFM concept

WIIFM stands for What's In It For Me? What that means is that regardless of what you are selling (product, service, etc), all that matters to your customers is that you have the ability to solve a particular problem that they are experiencing at that particular moment. The way that you phrase your marketing content has a tremendous impact on how that target audience reacts to what they are reading.

In today’s increasingly connected business world, content is becoming more important. Some clients are more likely to visit your website or social media page than your office premises. As such, creating the right content strategy for your business is key.

Monthly UK Tax Updates - May/June 2016

Changes Next Year for Public Sector Workers “Off Payroll”

It was announced in the March Budget that Finance Bill 2017 will include measures to change the rules for those workers supplying their services to public sector bodies via their own company. The current rules require the intermediary to consider whether or not the IR35 rules apply to the engagement, and if so apply PAYE and National Insurance (NIC) to the income paid via the intermediary company.

If the proposed changes go ahead the public sector body will be required to assess whether the IR35 rules apply and operate PAYE and NIC.

For these purposes public sector includes central Government departments, Local Authorities, the NHS, schools and other bodies such as the BBC.

Tax Relief for Travel Expenses For IR35 Workers

Another measure affecting such workers, and those in the private sector, concerns tax relief for travel and subsistence expenses. New legislation in the current Finance Bill 2016 seeks to deny relief for travel and subsistence expenses incurred by workers caught by the IR35 rules. The restriction will also apply to agency workers where there is supervision, direction and control (SDC) over the worker by the end user client.

According to updated HMRC guidance the SDC test will be the only test used to determine whether the new rules will apply and ignores the other employment status factors. The HMRC examples suggest that if there is no expertise within the end user organisation then there is likely to be limited SDC and the worker will continue to be entitled to relief for travelling to the client’s premises.

Possible New “Look Through” Entity Will Change Small Company Taxation

The Chancellor announced in his Budget Speech that the Government is considering further major changes to small company taxation following a review by the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS).

As in many small companies the directors are also shareholders the OTS believe that it would simplify matters if the shareholders of such companies were to be taxed on their share of profits made by the company in proportion to their shareholdings. In other words the shareholders would be subject to income tax in a similar way to members of a partnership or LLP and there would be no corporation tax paid by the company. This would clearly level the playing field between limited companies and unincorporated businesses. However it is likely to result in more tax payable than under the current rules!

We will monitor further discussions on this possible future change and keep you updated.

Changes to Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) Reporting

Following the abolition of monthly paper CIS returns from 6 April 2016 HMRC have indicated that some leniency will be allowed for late returns for the first three months of the new tax year. Contractors and other businesses required to operate CIS now have to submit their returns online.

It is proposed that from April 2017 contractors will also be required to verify subcontractors online.

Remember that it is not just mainstream contractors that are required to operate CIS. The system extends to property developers who pay plumbers, electricians, and others in the building trade. However CIS does not apply to home owners and property investors who renovate a property prior to renting out to tenants.

Thinking of Building Your Own House? You Can Reclaim The VAT

You can apply to HMRC for a VAT refund on building materials and services if you are building a new home, or converting a property into a home. In order to qualify the home must be separate and self-contained, be for you or your family to live or holiday in, and not be for business purposes (although you can use one room as a work from home office). Builders working on new buildings should zero rate their work anyway and you won’t pay any VAT on their services.

Where there is an existing dwelling on the site you will normally need to demolish the existing building, however it will count as a new build where a single façade is retained if that is a condition of the planning consent. You may also claim a refund for builders’ work on a conversion of non-residential building into a home, or a residential building that hasn’t been lived in for at least 10 years.

When you make your claim you must supply a copy of the planning permission, a full set of building plans, the invoices - including tenders or estimations if the invoice isn’t itemised, and proof the building work is finished. Please contact us if you need advice or assistance on this or any other VAT matters.

Scottish Taxes

In these newsletters we tend to focus on tax matters that apply generally throughout the UK. However, under powers devolved to the Scottish Government there is now a different system of tax for the transfer of property in Scotland instead of SDLT.

Please contact us if you are considering buying a property in Scotland. We will also keep you up to date with other Scottish tax developments from time to time. 

Elements of Effective staff Induction Programmes!

The quicker a new staff member is made aware of the procedures and policies of their new workplace, the sooner they are able to comply with company expectations.

Your staff induction program should be delivered in a simple format that explains your firm’s policies and procedures, your expectations of them and their specific responsibilities.

In addition to helping new staff, an induction can be useful for helping employees who are returning from extended leave or are taking on a new role in the business.

Mix formal and informal components

Effective staff induction programmes tend to have a mix of formal and informal elements. A relaxed format will help to put your new employee(s) at ease. After all, the first few days in their new jobs will be stressful so anything the company can do to alleviate this will create a good first impression.

You want your new employees to feel welcomed and the format of the induction programme should convey this message. It is important, of course, to ensure that the formal aspects of the induction are covered too. So, presentations and training sessions on things like health and safety, legal requirements and systems should be scheduled into the new joiner’s first few days.

A staff induction booklet that compliments the training is a useful reference tool for new staff members. There is often a lot of information to take in on the first day of work. Your staff will appreciate the fact that they have a document to refer to later on (rather than having to bother their manager every few minutes). Don’t forget to cover the basics such as core hours of work, pay and leave entitlements. The induction should also cover things like fire escapes, break areas, toilet locations, etc.

A positive experience

The importance of making a good first impression should not be forgotten.

Employers who welcome new employees with a commitment to open communication, formalised policies and procedures and a positive work environment are rewarded by enthusiastic staff.

Employees appreciate when an effort has been made to welcome them. Good relationships are the foundations of good businesses. So think of your induction training as your way to make a great first impression on new joiners to the business.

Business Strategy: How High Should You Aim & How To Accomplish Objectives?

Every business owner or manager knows that in order to succeed and grow the business, some big thinking is often required. But how high should you aim?

The process of setting strategic business objectives is harder than it looks. It takes a lot more than setting stretched goals to actually see any real achievement, and there are often hidden challenges, particularly when it comes down to the execution.

Aiming high helps

If you aim high in business, even if you don't quite make it, you will inevitably end up doing much better than you would have otherwise done. When setting your strategic objectives, thinking differently about goal setting can be a real game changer.

For example, setting a goal to double the size of the business versus one to increase in size by 10%, will push your business much harder. The 10% goal drives thinking about how to stretch the current business, using the existing tools and assumptions. It is merely building on an existing solution that many people have already spent a lot of time thinking about. In contrast, doubling the size of the firm requires a different mindset; one that moves away from the tendency to think in an incremental and linear manner. This opens up new possibilities that would never have been considered otherwise as the business must focus on creativity and innovation - the kind that, literally and metaphorically, can push the business to the next level.

Making strategic goals manageable

Stretched goals or targets are by definition very big. They are risky and can take several years to achieve. The details of how to accomplish these objectives will not be known when they are set.

Odds of success can be improved with a disciplined strategy execution, and a 'small wins' framework can often help. The objective is to break a larger goal down into smaller, manageable but interlinked parts. For each sub-goal, the team must define the various streams of work required, explicit outcomes, key deliverables, due dates, and a single owner for each component. As such, it will allow for visible and measured progress towards the completion of the larger goal while generating consistent action. Regular updates and team meetings will encourage people to be accountable for their part of the project. This will help drive consistent execution of tasks.

What separates great businesses from those that are merely good are not just the stretched target and strategic goals they set themselves to achieve but also the way they think differently about setting those objectives, and the discipline with which they implement them.