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'Drive the news' - June 27 2022

ended 27. June 2022

This is a News Alert that we will be issuing every Monday AM from now on, but it's a News Alert with a difference — we're asking you for stories, rather than for you to respond to stories that are already breaking. It's an opportunity for you to drive the news. So have a quick scan of the two Qs below and if either gets you thinking, write away in the responses.

  • Has anything happened within your business or charity over the course of the past week that may drive a story in the media, e.g. you've hit a milestone, had an interesting customer or client story, opened a new shop or office, or branched out into something new or different?
  • Are you seeing an interesting trend in your industry or sector that hasn't been written about in the media much (or better still, at all)? Perhaps you have data to back it up? Essentially, do you know something, or are you seeing a trend, that you think journalists may be interested in?

You can write as little or as much as you like. If our news team see something that we think will fly in the media, we'll be in touch during the day.

16 responses from the Newspage community

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Edward Richardson
Chartered Financial Planner at Edward Richardson, FPFS
The True cost of Index Tracking Funds.... I recently met a new client who had placed his entire pension in an Index Tracking Fund. Like anyone else, he felt this was a very low cost way (0.23%pa) to follow the stock market. Sadly, the reality has been quite different. Instead, he has found himself 35% behind Global Equities over the last 10 years!!! "How?" and "Why?" he asked. Sadly, he finds himself in a very familiar situation to me, as he's in a fund with a very high Tracking Error, 4.83% for him. This means that his fund can typically be 4.83% away from the Index it's tracking. For him this tracking error has 'cost' him 35%. Other people will have been more severely affected. He is not alone as most Index Tracking Funds have these errors but finding them out is not always easy. This is not something the Fund Management community talks about. With the positive help of a Financial Adviser we are able to help people avoid such funds and demonstrate the value of advice.
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Scott Gallacher
Director at Rowley Turton
Just discussing the National Lottery at work and came across their 'Set for Life' game. The game offers a prize of "£10,000 EVERY MONTH FOR 30 YEARS". This raised two interesting questions in the office. Firstly, what is £10,000 a month for 30 years worth in a world with 9.1% inflation. Whilst most forecasters expect inflation to fall back IF inflation was to remain at 9.1% then £10,000 a month would fall to around £2,000 per month (UK's average wage) in just 18 years or so. Even inflation of 3% eroded it from £10,000 a month to around £4,250 a month by the end. Still a good result but does show the effects inflation can have. The second point was around the security of the income. It wasn't immediately apparent from the website how secure the income was. Is it government-backed in any way? With Camelot losing the lottery licence does this mean your income is at risk? Finally, there is the question of what happens if you win Set for Life today and die shortly afterwards? Does the income continue for the remainder of the thirty years, and if so how would any Inheritance Tax payable be calculated and how would your estate pay it. https://www.national-lottery.co.uk/games/set-for-life?icid=-:mm:-:mdg:sfl:dbg:pl:co
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Mary Maguire
Managing Director at Astute Recruitment Ltd
27th June 2022 and a new record! Our 190th 5* Google review has been received! To Google or not to Google? There is no question. Everyone does. Including job seekers and SME business owners/ hiring managers needing to recruit! Having 100% 5* rating on Google enables our team at Astute to reach the candidates and clients others (including the biggie National recruiters) cannot! Astute by name and astute by nature, our growing SME business has won new candidates and clients. Not wanting to rest on our laurels, we can't wait to hot 200 5* reviews next!
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Adam Bamford
COO at Colleague Box
Being a pandemic start-up business that focussed on the gap in the market of gifting directly to employees home addresses we saw incredible growth in the 2 years of Covid madness but knew that the easing of restrictions would see results change for us and that we would either wither away with a number of other start-ups or change up our offering to adapt to the chaining market. We are on the cusp of becoming the first UK gift company to offer the ability to have in person gifting experiences alongside our traditional home based gifting services. 'Tilly The Trailer' will be hitting the roads from late summer to bring a number of unique gifting services directly to workplaces to allow affordable, high quality marks of appreciation the norm rather than fading away now colleagues are back face to face. We've already had a number of enquiries and deposits taken for the Christmas period and are extremely excited that after a rough few months of cost of living, rate rises and supplier cost increases that we have a sustainable bright future ahead.
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Leila
Jeweller - Owner - Designer at Lilac Tree
INTRODUCING LILAC TREE’S NEW JEWELLERY COLLECTION FEATURING BRITISH GEMSTONES Lilac Tree’s brand new collection, WOODLANDS, showcasing British gemstones, went live on the Summer Solstice and longest day. Inspired by British folk tales, each one-of-a-kind piece in Lilac Tree’s WOODLANDS collection features gemstones found all over our green and pleasant land, which significantly reduces Lilac Tree’s carbon footprint. Some foraged, others traditionally mined on a small scale, this collection reinforces Lilac Tree’s commitment to sustainability and our environment, and founder Leila’s passionate connection to nature. The full collection and high res photos can be found at https://www.lilactreemakes.co.uk/shop?category=Woodlands Lilac Tree creates ethical and sustainable everyday luxury jewellery, inspired by founder Leila’s passionate connection to nature and its ever-changing forms. She explains: “My designs always start with the stone - each one is selected with delicate precision and is thoughtfully incorporated into precious metal to create contemporary heirlooms that I hope people will be proud to wear”. In 2021, Lilac Tree was shortlisted for the UK Jewellery Awards’ “Ethical Jeweller of the Year” Award. And in 2022, Leila, Lilac Tree’s founder, completed the inaugural Small Business Sustainability Basics Programme run by Small Business Britain and Oxford Brookes.
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Lucy Scott
Director at Lil's Parlour CIC
Lil’s Parlour presents THE HAPPINESS PROJECT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Lil’s Parlour becomes a CIC (Community Interest Company) and has great plans to help not just the Birmingham Community but communities up and down the UK. Lucy Scott, founder and director of Lil’s Parlour, a boutique In-House Bakery and Soft Serve Parlour which has its Head Office in Northfield, Birmingham has seen how times are hard for so many, not just in her local area but across the UK and wants to help in any way possible. Transferring her company from a profitable private business to a Community Interest Company, means when Lucy earns money, it will go straight back into the Community and that is where The Happiness Project has developed from. So, what is The Happiness Project? A not-for-profit touring bakery (in an eye-catching, safe and reliable campervan) with a pay-as-you-can ethos. Lucy believes everyone deserves the same opportunities and experiences, regardless of income and will be driving her campervan around the UK sharing her delicious cakes and bakes that she is so famous for. The Happiness Project will aim to provide training and opportunities for people living with a mental illness. Providing opportunities for skill building in the bakery, confidence building, job searching and form filling. Helping to overcome barriers for those who may need the support. All at no cost at all to an individual. Head Office will continue to be located in Northfield with bi-monthly pay-as-you-feel days to support those locally. Lucy was the brains behind last years ‘Club Tropicana’ which helped hundreds of children on free-school-meals across the local area enjoy an ice cream for free. At the time, this mostly came from Lucy’s own pockets with a few kind donations from the public too. Now Lucy is a CIC, Lucy is ready to help communities on a bigger scale. With her huge heart and love for supporting people, we are sure to see Lucy go from strength to strength making impacts on a much larger scale. A crowdfunder has been set up which has already had a great number of people pledge monetary support to get The Happiness Project up and running. https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/happinessproject
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Jane Green
Chair at SEDSconnective
We've just had our 4th birthday! Started 26th June 2018 as a local village voluntary group as I knew the need was there for people with chronic illness, disability and neurodivergent (Ehlers-Danlos syndromes Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders) to not only be believed but lead this ourselves. We are one of largest group of characteristics that is routinely disbelieved and neglected as too complex. This creates further trauma limiting health, education, care needs, employment prospects/ finance and even travelling. Since then we changed to a social enterprise, we were re in need nearly 18 hours a day 7 days a week during Covid and won awards for our services and our resources were put on the DHSC website guidance. We help save lives, give meaning back to our lives and hopefully a spark of joy back. So we are celebrating now as moving to charity status growing much bigger than the initial village. already presenting in Australia, USA, and recently two abstracts in autism health and autism education in Europe as a leading symptomatic hypermobility group making a difference. We recently won the support group and people's award as autism heroes and the HM The Queen's Platinum Jubilee award for volutnary work. We know we are leading this as groundbreaking work in this field and more importantly we are doing for ourselves and the only hypermobility/neurodivergent group to do this. We very much need and welcome funds to continue.
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Gaynor Lockwood Edwards
Small business owner at Quirky Cactus
Weirdly I have been selling more of my most expensive items this month. I usually get most of my income from selling my smaller items, the crochet cactus they retail between £6 - £18 but at the moment I’m getting a lot of commission requests for my crochet hats with a fair few people wanting different animals such as wolves, bears, goatsand even a St Bernard dog. I have also have had a boost in sales of my Lion hats because Henry Cavill shared a video of himself wearing one.
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Tahina Akther
Barrister and Co-Founder at Wildcat Law
The forgotten victims of lock down. Divorce is on the rise. Whilst we saw a national decrease of 4.5% in 2020 over 2019 this was down to many Courts closing due to Covid. We are now seeing these coming though and the impacts of couples being forced to spend time together during lock downs. This is no surprise, indeed many people have spoken about it. However what is not being talked about is the mythical "Common Law Marriage" and the impact separation is having on thousands of women up and down the country. Lets start with the fact that there is no such thing as a "Common Law Marriage" it is an urban legend that has sprung up over the years, perpetuated by internet forums and Facebook groups. The English and Welsh legal system does not recognise it. To simplify matters, when married couples split the courts typically aim for equality. They will however assess needs and other factors. When non-married couples split there straightforward single process. The snappily titled Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 deals with jointly owned property. In many cases the lower wage earning "Common Law" partner is female due to child care responsibilities. There is a glaring gap when it comes to maintenance of the former partner. This simply does not exist for "Common Law" partners. Likewise many former "Common Law" partners are left in retirement poverty as there is no way they can obtain a pension share upon separation as they would do in divorce. As the average female pension pot is less than half that of men this is a major issue for Women. Many argue that the law in this area needs revision but whilst others debate that, women on a daily basis are left short changed.
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Natalie Ormond
Owner at Smallkind
Much slower sales this year led me to try in person events for the first time since the pandemic began. I didn't have high expectations as the cost of living crisis seems to be having a huge impact on retail but I'm deterimed to keep my business afloat so decided to try something new. I had a stall at a local park on Saturday which was also Shop Independent Day and I took more money in 2.5 hours at the market than I had all week online. It was so good to chat to customers and see people out supporting small businesses. It's been a fantastic boost for Smallkind both financially and emotionally and I enjoyed it so much I signed up to another market this weekend!
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Kerry Mackay
Owner at ScrubbiesUK
After a monumental slog from foodbank poverty to triple award-winning business, the recent energy price increases have forced me to admit defeat, return to university and transform my business into a CiC with the sole purpose of empowering people at a disadvantage without the impossible task of paying my meagre salary too. The energy price increases saw my sales drop spectacularly overnight and i was having to discount my prices rather than raise them because nobody has any money for sustainable living. As i've often stated, the link between poverty and global-warming is very clear and the rapid increase in the cost of living will have far-reaching implications environmentally. For now, I'm going to limp off the business battlefield and be thankful that I can forge a new path while the business i fought to build will now be used to impact others. That'll do Scrubbies, that'll do.
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Sashe Christopher
Founder/CEO at Pop My Way
I started my truly sustainable baby clothing business to make a difference and change mindsets within the fashion industry. With businesses jumping on the sustainability bandwagon, consumers are unable to tell the difference between greenwashing and brands that are actually doing the right thing. How do we move forward and tackle climate change with the fashion industry as one of the main culprits doing the most damage if people are being misled? I would love to discuss why this is such an important topic and help to educate readers about this.
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Taania Wood
Owner at Taania Wood Micropigmentation
CHANGING LIVES, ONE NIPPLE AT A TIME! June saw the opening of the brand new VMM® Training Academy in Margate, Kent. Eight budding new areola tattoo artists, including students from as far afield as the U.S.A, Denmark and Belgium, spent their weekend learning how to create hyper-realistic 3D areolas for post-mastectomy breast cancer survivors. Vicky Martin, founder and owner of the Vicky Martin Method, chose Margate as the location of her new training academy and private treatment room due to the lack of specialised medical tattooists in the immediate area. Vicky was supported over the launch training event by her friend and fellow medical areola tattoo artist Taania Wood. "I feel so incredible proud to have been chosen by Vicky to help her deliver her first medical tattooing weekend at her amazing new venue. We had THE best weekend." said Taania. " Not only did we help eight beautiful models feel complete again, there are now 8 more skilled artists qualified able to offer these life-changing treatments"
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Jessica Ross
Founder & CEO at Smashtag Social
The toxic views across social media recently are abhorrent. I'm seeing more and more individuals being penalised for simply having a personal brand. A huge part of my job is advising Founders and CEOs on how to grow their personal brand across LinkedIn, however, the backlash from some posts shared by women right now is horrific. Women being told that they shouldn't wear tops that show cleavage as then it's our own fault if men message us saying we're beautiful — like they can't control themselves. Or telling female influencers that they only share selfies to gain attention from men. No woman would ever look at a picture of a man in a suit and then message him saying "phwoar... what a bulge!".
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Amelia Brooke
Career Coach & Certified CV Writer at Amelia Brooke Career Vision
This week I'm celebrating! Why? you may ask. Well, eight years ago, I decided to turn a side-hustle into what has grown to be a successful CV writing business. Having a multi-sector background that included technical recruitment, I shared with my candidates their disappointment at every “rejection” and my passion to empower candidates with the best advice to succeed was born. Since then, I have seen hundreds of clients advance their careers, earn promotions and take on challenging and satisfying positions they love. ---- ABCV Solutions was started by me, back in 2014 while employed at BP. I only offered CV, LinkedIn and Cover Letter writing services back then. Having juggled full-time employment with a burgeoning business, I decided to leave corporate life behind. I also decided to team up with experts to expand my career service solutions to encompass Social Media Management and bespoke Interview Presentations. Since then, I’ve carved a niche in the engineering and technical careers business and authored over 600 CVs for clients around the world. Despite technical and engineering CVs being my forte, as word of mouth spread, I’ve assisted bankers, baggage handlers and almost every profession in between. I can spot a template and poorly worded CV in an instant and love transforming these into carefully curated CVs that allow the person behind the CV to really shine through. Over the years, I have continued my professional development, gaining qualifications and membership with industry organisations such as Career Thought Leaders and the Professional Association of Resume Writers. I enjoy keeping up to date on topics affecting job seekers and the latest trends in recruitment and career coaching. Not only has my writing style improved immensely, but I have honed my expertise in knowing what to ask to get the information I need and then shaping that information into an effective tool to boost my client’s chances of success. When it comes to measuring success, I am humbled and incredibly grateful for all the public recommendations, the cards, flowers and even a painting that hangs proudly in my lounge room. I was also thrilled to be a finalist at the Scottish Borders Business Excellence Awards in 2019. As I reflect on the past eight years at ABCV Solutions, I am equally as excited by new endeavours that are in the pipeline and will soon be announced. So please stay tuned! Client Quotes: "Having employed professionals to write/Re-write my previous 5 CV’s, I can state unequivocally that ABCV is by far the best for professional Engineering disciplines." "People may think CV writers are expensive but my god the amount of value she has added for me when I felt unsure of how to add this to my CV is second to none. Please give her a try, she is fantastic and I couldn’t be more thrilled with my new and improved CV." "Amelia did a fabulous job in transforming my old and boring CV and optimising (read, creating new!) LinkedIn profile. She spent time and effort understanding my work experience & competencies and learning about me as a person and translated the information into a modern and professional-looking CV & LinkedIn profile."
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Racheal Straughan
Founder at Mayfli
I have just launched Mayfli Marketplace over this weekend. I am a small business owner myself with almost 20 years of experience selling on the larger marketplaces. We have seen a huge shift on how the corporate marketplaces treat small businesses with their ever-increasing Fees and Control, with no regards to the businesses only to how much profit the shareholders will receive. I feel it is time that more money should go back into the UK Economy and the UK Small Businesses especially with the increase of cost of living and increase on Fuel. Businesses are really struggling trying to pay wages, increased fuel prices and high selling fees on the likes of Amazon, Etsy. Not on the High Street and Ebay. My name is Racheal Straughan I’m aged 48 years old, and I am the founder of Mayfli, Mark Straughan aged 54 years old is my husband and business partner for over 30 years. He is supporting me in the build of Mayfli. We are both from the North East of England and currently live in Northumberland. I wanted to bring a Kinder Marketplace to the UK Truly supporting the UK Small Business Community, having sold on 3rd Party Marketplaces for over the past 15 years both in the UK and USA I realised that over the past 5/10 years they have become more controlling, and their fees forever growing. I feel Small Businesses work harder today than ever before gaining less profit. Small Businesses have become heavily reliant on Marketplaces with some businesses receiving 95% of their business from the likes of Amazon, Ebay, Etsy and Not on the High Street. Unfortunately, their fees are anywhere from 13% up towards 38% on the gross profit and this can include the shipping fees. I have heard of some many horror stories of businesses being closed overnight; shops suspended as they have been too busy. I have businesses coming onto Mayfli as they live in fear that one of the other Marketplaces may close them down without warning or conversation. Mayfli is set to Launch on the 25th of June, and we already have over 60 Businesses on Board mainly from the Northeast now but other businesses from as for as Devon up to Inverness, the businesses range from sole traders just starting out to small businesses with large turnovers, premises and staff. I have sold on Etsy and Ebay for nearly 20 years very successfully having businesses in both the UK and USA. Most of my business came from Etsy, I had been with Etsy for over 10 years having 6 shops with them all receiving 5-star reviews and no previous issues with Etsy. In November of 2020 a problem came up with one of my shops in the USA, to which I rectified but Etsy refused to re-open my shop after the issue was rectified and continued to shut all my shops both in the UK and USA without being able to speak to one person over the phone. I was then told if I emailed them again, they would ignore my emails. The Mayfli name came about as we wanted the Business to be simple to remember and only one word, we spent months researching names and trying to buy the domains for them. Mayfli was a name we liked and was able to purchase. Since then, we have started talking to other businesses and discussing the name, other people have come up with their own version of why Mayfli, Mayfli as you “May - Fly with Mayfli” in fact our sellers have called themselves the “Mayfliers” and another person suggested due to the Mayflower, travelling to new lands. Mayfli can be found online, there is a Mobile App ready and coming out later this year. I have always wanted to do something like this, since I have seen the increase in fees and control from the bigger marketplaces and after my personal experience, I decided to start Mayfli. It has taken nearly two years to get to the Launch date. Supporting small businesses is so important to me as I am a small business owner myself, most businesses just want to be able to support their family and grow their businesses, some are happy to keep it a family business and others want to grow their business and employ staff. We have both small businesses and buyers on board that truly want to support local, to help with this we have a shop local map on the site to try and support our Local High Streets. I hear so many consumers say they bought items from Etsy/Amazon etc when in fact they bought it from a small business that happens to be on Etsy or Amazon. With Mayfli they have their own shops and when the consumer clicks in their shop on Mayfli they have the feeling they are on the business’s own website. Helping build the connection between the Business and Buyer, building back the community. I would like Mayfli to be the Number UK Marketplace for both Buyers and sellers, supporting the Businesses on Mayfli with Transparent fees, Great Customer Services, and a shop Local Map so buyers can not only find them online but also down their local high street. Mayfli is self-funded by Mark and I from our personal savings, we have invested roughly a Five-Figure sum into Mayfli already. We could look at funding or the V route, but this would only take Mayfli onto a path to which we are fighting against. We launched online on the 25th June 2022 we are in the process of arranging our Online Launch event showcasing all the businesses on Mayfli over the 25th and 26th June. Please let me know if you would be interested in hearing more about Mayfli, here is a link from an article in the Northern Insight Magazine about Mayfli https://northern-insight.co.uk/leisure/the-future-is-kind-2/ Thanks for reading this email, we look forward to hearing from you as I would appreciate any support you can give Mayfli and the 60 Businesses we have on board already. Racheal