IQ Magazine Issue 20

Issue 20: march - may

It’s never looked so good for fleet. 

Take a closer look. 

The Mercedes-Benz new E 350e plug-in hybrid combines quality with even more technology deliver 

impressively low CO 2 emissions, which give all the added benefits to business users. 

Robinsons has a dedicated Fleet Department to cater for your specific needs. Tailor-made finance 

agreements offer our affordable prices. And with many fine features as standard, P11d values are kept low. 

To arrange a test drive, or discuss your requirements please contact us today. 

Official government fuel consumption figures in mpg (litres per 100km) for the new E-Class Estate 

range: urban 25.5(11.1)-62.8(4.5), extra urban 39.8(7.1)-72.4(3.9), combined 32.8(8.6)-67.3(4.2). CO 2 

emissions 197-109 g/km. Official EU regulated test data are provided for comparison purposes and actual performance will depend on driving style, 

road conditions and other non-technical factors. Model featured is a E 350 e sport Plug in Hybrid with optional metallic paint and automatic transmission. 

The best or nothing. 

Robinsons Mercedes-Benz 

Mercedes-Benz of Bury St Edmunds, Northern Way, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP32 6NH 

01284 778 950 corporatesales@robinsonsmercedes.co.uk 

We also have sites at Cambridge, Kings Lynn, Norwich and Peterborough.

welcome to the twentieth edition of iq business magazine, 

a quarterly publication that offers insight and inspiration 

to sme business owners in cambridgeshire and suffolk 

iQ welcome 

Keep us up-to-date with your latest 

business news and press releases. 

Please email 

barry.peters@iliffepublishing.co.uk 

WEBSITE 

www.iqmag.co.uk 

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER 

@IQBusinessMag 

FACEBOOK 

www.facebook.com/iqbusinessmag 

CONTACT US 

01284 757847 

email barry.peters@iliffepublishing.co.uk 

I have looked enviously at iQ magazine since it was started five years ago. 

After all, a quarterly business magazine featuring in-depth analysis of 

themes and trends across Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, targeted at SME 

business owners... what could be more interesting to work on? 

All that’s true - the only problem comes in editing down the amount of 

innovative and forward-thinking material I receive each month to bring 

you the magazine you really want to read. 

That’s been my initial challenge as I slipped into the editor’s chair 

following the acquisition of iQ magazine (and its sister title Velvet) by 

Cambridge’s Iliffe Media. 

And my challenge is probably very similar to some of those faced by 

business owners: Does my product fit the market? Should I diversify and 

be radical or stick with a tried and trusted formula? Is it time for 

fresh thinking? 

My background is in newspapers. I’ve worked in them for more than 

30 years. I now edit five weekly titles across Cambridgeshire, Suffolk 

and Norfolk along with their websites. If the newspaper industry had 

stood still, stuck to a tried and trusted formula and failed to be radical, 

newspapers would still be produced using hot metal and typewriters. 

Today’s newsrooms are buzzing with social media, breaking news online 

continually - yet with a very careful eye on the printed word. We have 

evolved to meet the demands of our audience and ensure we are where 

they want to read our content - in print at the petrol station, on social via 

mobile or on a website via a tablet. 

So I’ll be making use of the contacts I have and those of my colleagues, 

too, and aiming to add expert insight and robust comment to your 

quarterly magazine. I’d welcome your thoughts on ways you would like 

to see iQ develop. 

I hope you enjoy this quarter’s magazine. 

Barry Peters 

to receive your free issue of iq each quarter 

Visit www.iqmag.co.uk and sign up to the iQ database. 

issue 20 | page 5

Iliffe Media launched last year with the Cambridge 

Independent, a fantastic new weekly newspaper, website 

and app for the Cambridge region. 

Published on Wednesdays, and available in retail outlets 

throughout the region, the Cambridge Independent is a 

fresh, intelligent, entertaining and useful guide to life in the 

area. 

In addition to packed news and sport pages, it features: 

• an extensive Culture section 

• brilliant Business pages 

• a Homes section featuring the latest property news and 

homes for sale or rent 

• exclusive features including dedicated Science pages 

• witty columnists, like the award-winning writer Paul Kirkley 

and local Mumsnet editor Emilie Silverwood-Cope 

• contributions from a wide range of fascinating people 

across our region every week. 

Subscribe to the Cambridge Independent from just 

70p a week and you’ll get free access to our app, plus 

membership of the Gourmet Society, which offers: 

• Up to 50 per cent off meals at 7,000 restaurants 

nationwide 

• Up to 40 per cent off cinema tickets 

• Money off family days out and airport parking 

• 2-4-1 afternoon teas 

Visit cambridgeindependent.co.uk/subscribe for details or 

call 01223 320369. 

Iliffe Media is also now the proud owner of 13 more 

newspapers in the region, including the Newmarket Journal, 

Bury Free Press, Haverhill Echo and Suffolk Free Press. We 

acquired these in January and are busy working with the 

teams to ensure they offer the best possible coverage for 

their communities. 

We are delighted to have added Velvet and IQ magazines 

to our portfolio - and look forward to working with you, our 

readers, to provide the best service possible. 

Happy reading! 

FENLAND 

fenlandcitizen.co.uk 

WEDNESDAY,FEBRUARY 15,2017 55p wheresold 

@fenlandcit 

facebook.com/fencitizen 

Waystospeedupthebuilding 

ofWisbechRailwereyesterdayoutlinedtotheGovernmentamid“overestimated 

costsandunderestimated 

benefits”ofthescheme. 

Fenland MP Steve Barclay 

wrote afour-pageletterto the 

Secretary of State forTransport, 

Chris Grayling, in abid 

tospurfundingbodiesbehind 

theproject to finally “stepup 

and deliver”. 

By Amy Collett 

amy.collett@iliffepublishing.co.uk 

01553817322 

The North East CambridgeshireMPsaidthereis 

moneyready to spend on the 

next phase of Wisbech Rail– 

with£10.5 million already allocated 

byGovernment for 

Wisbech TransportImprovementsfromwhichseveralmillionsofpoundscanbeusedfor 

thenextroundofengineering 

studies. 

Yet for the last year he 

says there has been “little 

action from theLocal EnterprisePartnershipand 

Cambridgeshire 

County Council” 

because Network Rail has 

overestimatedthe cost of the 

schemebyatleast£50million. 

The rail infrastructure 

firm has estimatedthe total 

cost of theproject to be £150 

million, but rail consultant 

Michael Byng believes it can 

be delivered atacost of between 

£85 to £95 million. 

Mr Barclay said: “Network 

Rail’shigh costsfor the 

schemehavebeenleftunchal- 

STEAMING 

OVERLACK 

OF RAIL 

WORK 

My lettersets 

outwhatcan be 

done to speed 

up thebuilding” 

MPSteveBarclaysaysthecostsofWisbechRailhavebeen“overestimated”,whilethebenefits“underestimated”. 

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MP tells Ministerfunders 

should ‘stepupand deliver’ 

lenged other than by myself. 

“Mylettertothe Secretary 

ofStateforTransportsetsout 

what canbedonetospeed up 

thebuilding of Wisbech Rail. 

“Itsetsout howcosts can 

be reduced and benefits enhanced, 

and how this work 

canfitwithotherrailschemes 

planned in ourregion.” 

In his letter toMrGrayling, 

Mr Barclay said there 

areanumber of opportunities 

to reduce costs and enhance 

benefitsthatwerenot 

includedinNetwork Rail’sassessmentofthe 

project completedlast 

June. 

And is he asking the Department 

for Transport to 

ContinuedonPage3 

formally setout howthe Wisbech 

Rail project should best 

proceed. 

Withregards to costings, 

he told Mr Grayling that the 

Rail Regulator has suggested 

that Network Rail’s£30-£40 

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NO 16,744 BRITAIN’SOLDESTNEWSPAPER SERVING STAMFORD AND THE DEEPINGS 

PROPERTYGUIDESTARTSONPAGE41 

FIND YOUR 

NEXT HOME 

RACEFORLIFE2017 

IT’S TIME 

TO SIGN U E UP 

PAGE 

1 

Katetakes 

centrestage 

Five pagesofphotosfromroyal visit – pages36, 85,86, 87&88 

TWOKILLEDIN 

A16COLLISION 

Six-hour 

wait foran 

ambulance 

Awoman of 92 waited for 

six hours to be taken to 

hospital by ambulance after 

breakingherleginafall.The 

pensionerisnowinhospital. 

PAGE3 

Tulips’ 

boss quits 

Spalding United have a 

new boss in the shape of 

former assistant-manager 

Chris Rawlinson following 

the shock departure of 

Dave Frecklingtonoverthe 

weekend. 

BACKPAGE 

spaldingtoday.co.uk 

TUESDAY,FEBRUARY 14,2017 

facebook.com/LFPandSG 

or 68pifyousubscribeseepg16 

@LincsFreePress 

85P 

tel: 01775 764555 

email: museum@sholland.gov.uk 

www.ayscoughfee.org 

Ayscoughfee Hall 

Churchgate, Spalding, 

Lincolnshire PE11 2RA 

N N 

SEE PAGE 3 

Your localfuelsupplier 

Call: 01775 720349 

| Gas Oil | Diesel | Lubricants | AdBlue 

www.rix.co.uk 

Win adate 

night at 

GrangeSp 

e 

a 

PAGE 12 

Couldthis unlock 

medievalmystery? 

GaryFoxonworksbelowWinsoverRoad,Spalding,wheretunnelswererumouredtohavebeenusedbymonks. 

DoesSpaldinghaveamedieval 

secretlyingbelowoneofits 

busiestroads? 

Engineers repairing acollapsed 

sewer inWinsover 

Road areopen-minded about 

thethoughtthatawaterculvert 

runningfromSpaldingtoPode 

Holecouldholdcluestoalongrunning 

mystery. 

Legend has it that monks at 

an11thcenturyprioryinSpaldingwouldsecretlymovearound 

thetownthroughunderground 

tunnelslinkingMonksHouse 

and the Prior’s Oven pub in 

Sheep Market. 

Anglian Water has been 

working at theWinsoverRoad 

sitesince thesewer collapsed 

twomonthsago and sitemanager 

Dave Holmes said: “Anold 

manhole lidhad dropped down 

so ateam came and put anew 

one on. 

“Butthenewlidstartedgoing 

down even more, so we thought 

‘there’salittlebit of aproblem 

here’. Could it have been one 

of the Prior’s Oven tunnels? I 

don’t knowbut it’s certainly big 

enough. 

“Itcouldbeanythingbutyou’d 

havetotakeabrickawayandfind 

outhow old it is first.” 

However, Spalding historian 

Michael Elsden, author of the 

Aspects of Spalding series, said: 

“I wouldn’t take anynoticeofrumours 

abouttunnels as Idon’t 

thinkitwould have beenpossibletohavebuilttheminthisarea. 

“The tunnels are animaginary 

thing and there’sprobably 

nothing in these rumours at all 

because there’snothingtosubstantiate 

them.” 

By WinstonBrown 

winston.brown@iliffepublishing.co.uk 

Twitter:@LFP_Winston 

Major sewerrepairsopens up debate about secret tunnels under town 

TURN TO PAGE 8 

SG090217-106TW PHOTO:TIMWILSON 

24 pagesof 

property 

insidetoday 

If you’re looking to buyor 

rent anew home,look no 

further than theFreePress’ 

brilliantfreepropertypullout–insidetoday 

and every 

Tuesday. 

Your Letters 12&13•Your History 15 • WOW 24/7 17 • Property 25 • Business 53 • DistrictNews 54 • Sport 59 

LOOKINGONTHE 

BRIGHTERSIDE 

NEW FREE PRESSOWNER TALKSABOUT YOUR NEWS 

SEE 

PAGE 11 

suffolkfreepress.co.uk 

85p/or 64p if yousubscribe.See Pg 2. facebook.com/suffolkfreepress @SFPSudbury 

THURSDAY,FEBRUARY 16, 2017 

THANKS:MichaelDawsonwithkindheartedheroesAndrewHaggarty,CiaranRocheandAleksandrKuznecov. 

Adisabledcouplespokeof 

theirjoyandreliefaftera 

remarkableactofkindness 

bythreeSudburysilkfactory 

workersensuredtheycan 

retaintheirfreedom. 

The couple were facing heartbreakatthe 

prospect of being 

lefthouseboundaftertheirmobilityscooterbrokedownwhen 

threeengineers at thesilkfactory 

used their skills to save 

theday. 

Michael Dawson wastravelling 

home in his doubleseated 

mobilityscooterwhen 

it ground to ahalt on theroad 

near the factory in Gregory 

Street. 

While crossing from Vanners 

Silk Weavers to one of 

the firm’s garages, maintenanceman 

AndrewHaggarty 

sawtrafficbuildingupnearthe 

firestationwhereMrDawson’s 

scooterhad broken down. 

He rantohelp the71-yearold 

push the vehicle off the 

road beforecalling over fellow 

Vanners maintenance staff 

Ciaran Roche and Aleksandr 

Kuznecov to lift thescooterto 

theirgarageworkshop. 

The trio then asked company 

bosses if they could take 

alook at thevehicle. 

Thedriveshafthadsnapped 

–but theemployeesusedtheir 

skillstofashionanewshaft,using 

one of thefirm’s lathes. 

by ianparker 

ian.parker@suffolkfreepress.co.uk 

@SFPSudbury 

Silk factory 

trio come to 

therescue 

Kindhearted workerskeepdisabledcouple mobile 

“Tothinkthat strangerscan 

come along and be that kindhearted 

and thoughtful and 

look for nothing in return is 

wonderful,”saidMrDawson, 

whoisterminally ill. 

Mr Dawson cares for his 

severely disabled wife Josephine,71. 

Without thescooter 

she would be left housebound 

at theirhome in First Avenue, 

something thecouple hadsufferedpreviouslyforthreeyears. 

Mr Dawson said asthe 

scooterwas no longer manufactured, 

partswerenolonger 

available.Without thechance 

encounterand kindnessofthe 

Vannersstaff,thecouplewould 

have been left stranded. 

“It’s just agood feeling 

knowingyoucanhelpsomeone 

out,”saidMrHaggarty. 

TIPTOE 

THROUGHTHE 

SNOWDROPS 

SEE 

PAGE 6 

Farmersto 

meetwith 

policechief 

Farmers from South Holland 

will meet with Chief 

Constable Bill Skelly tomorrow, 

withharecoursing on 

theagenda. 

PAGE2 

Crashcuts 

powerto 

caravans 

Apopular Long Suttoncaravanparkwas 

leftwithout 

powerfornearlythreehours 

after acar ploughed into a 

fence and electricitycables. 

PAGE4 

‘Iwillmissthis 

fantasticclub’ 

PAGE52 

MP TAKESUPNEW 

A16 SAFETY DRIVE 

By WinstonBrown 

winston.brown@iliffepublishing.co.uk 

Twitter:@LFP_Winston 

SouthHollandandtheDeepingsMPJohnHayesistomeet 

withGovernmenttransport 

officialsnextweekfortalks 

aboutafatalcrashinCrowland. 

Awoman inher 70s and a 

man,bothfromSpalding,died 

whenasilverPeugeot206they 

were in collided withaHGV 

near aroundabout on theA16 

Lincolnshire/Cambridgeshire 

border on Mondaymorning. 

The crash brings toten the 

number of people killed on 

the 13.7 mile (22km) bypass 

linking Spalding and Eye, 

near Peterborough, since it 

wasopened in October 2011. 

Formal identification of 

the two victims has not yet 

beencompletedbut,speaking 

to theSpalding Guardian on 

Tuesday, MrHayessaid:“This 

accidentisindeed tragicand 

Imustsay howsorry Iamfor 

allthosewhohavesufferedaccordingly. 

“I’ve been pushing theissue 

of safetyonthe A16 very 

hardsince Iwentbacktothe 

Department for Transport 

(DfT) (as aMinister in July 

2016). 

“I’ve also met with the 

chairman ofLincolnshire 

HighwaysAuthoritytodiscuss 

some of thesafetyissues. 

“ButI’llhappilytakethisup 

again at theDfT next week.” 

TURN TO PAGE 3 

Hayestohavetalks 

on fatal road crash 

SAFETYTALKS:JohnHayesMP(right)meetsCounsNigelPepperandRichardDavies,alongwithDavidBarfoot,on 

theA16inCrowland. Photo(MICHAELFYSH):SG310516-09MF. 

Guardian 

SPALDING 

Shops campaign P6 Feature P20 Columns P23/23 Entertainment P29 Motors P37 Sports P50 

spaldingtoday.co.uk 

THURSDAY,FEBRUARY 16, 2017 facebook.com/LFPandSG @LincsFreePress 

85P OR 20% OFF IF YOUSUBSCRIBE 

www.stjohnscircus.co.uk 

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tel: 01775 764555 

email: museum@sholland.gov.uk 

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Churchgate, Spalding, 

Lincolnshire PE11 2RA 

PAGES 16 AND 17 

CadetsmeetDuchess 

ofCambridgeon 

Valentine’sDay WIN ticketstosee Fairport 

Convention - PAGE 15 

newmarketjournal.co.uk 

THURSDAY,FEBRUARY 16, 2017 80p (or 68p if yousubscribe) facebook.com/newmarketjournal @NKTJournal 

PAGE 13 

MATTHEWPULLS 

TOPAWARDOUT 

OFTHEHAT:PAGE5 

RICHARD’S 

GARDENING 

LEGACY 

LEST WE FORGET:Trooper Edward Thompson 29 of Sargeants Farm, Wood Ditton. Died February22, 1917 

Retiredjockeytakes on Cambridge half-marathon to help godson recoverfrombonemarrow transplant 

Aretiredjockeyisintraining 

torunahalf-marathontoraise 

moneyforhisnine-year-old 

godsonwhoisundergoing 

treatmentforleukaemia. 

DerekMcGaffin,38,whoworks 

forNewmarkettrainerCharlie 

Appleby,istaking on thechallengetohelpprovide 

special 

treatsforJacob Krutke tohelp 

keephisspiritsupandprovide 

something forhim to lookforward 

to during his lengthy recovery 

from abone marrow 

transplantlast year. 

Jacob, wholives withparents 

Lorna and Craig and 

14-year-old sister Katie in 

Lacey’sLane,Exning, wasdiagnosed 

withacute lymphoblasticleukaemiainApril,2014. 

Afterayear’sintensivechemotherapy, 

thecancer went into 

remissionbut,despitecontinuing 

treatment, in Marchlast 

alised that it’s all aboutJacob 

and what he needs. 

“Ifwecandosomethingreally 

specialfor him, and give 

himsomethingtolookforward 

towhenhestartstofeelbetter, 

hopefully it will give him areal 

boost. He says that what he 

wouldliketodomostistogoto 

London to see The Lion King.” 

“Jacob has been ill for so 

long that itiseasy for usto 

thinkhehasbeenforgottenbut 

when we see that people have 

been donating we knowthat 

he hasnot –and that’s almost 

moreimportanttousthanthe 

money. 

Meanwhile Derek, whoretired 

from race riding in 2007, 

is putting inabout 25 miles a 

week in preparation for the 

Cambridgehalf-marathon on 

March 5. 

“He’s really excited about 

it,”saidwifeHelen. “Weare 

both sopleased that we can do 

something forJacob.” 

Donate at www.justgiving. 

com/crowdfunding/derekmcgaffin. 

year Jacob sufferedarelapse. 

After totalbodyradiation 

treatment, described by his 

mother as ‘brutal’ to prepare 

him forthe transplant, Jacob 

underwentthe procedureata 

hospitalinBristol in September. 

“Basicallyhehasbeenillfor 

threeyears and he is still having 

on-going issuesconnected 

withthe transplant,”said 

Lorna. 

“It is very, very slow 

progress and he gets very 

down. We arestill having frequentvisits 

to Addenbrooke’s 

whichislikeasecond home to 

him and he still has to take so 

muchmedication–10syringes 

of medicine in themornings, 

eightintheeveningsandmore 

in-between.” 

When Derek and hiswife 

Helen, wholiveatStudlands 

Park,came up withthe idea 

of thehalf-marathon and the 

fundraising,Lornaadmitstoa 

fewdoubts. 

“It’shardtoaccept that you 

mightneedhelp.ButIsoonreby 

tinamurray 

tina.murray@iliffepublishing.co.uk 

01638564103 

On therun to give 

Jacobaboost 

DerekMcGaffinisrunningahalf-marathontoraisemoneytohelpliftthespirtsofgodsonJacobKrutke 

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01638 674 490 www.manchetts-isuzu.co.uk 

1Victoria Way, Newmarket, Suffolk. CB8 7SH 

Edward Thompson, 29, of Sargeants F 

Charitytohelp jobless is safe fornext12months 

Acharitywhich helps people whoare 

unemployedfind work has nowhas 

thefunding to ensureitcan continue 

to operatefor thenext12months. 

Money 

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Toolbar 

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SEE PAGE 3 

Storehosts familyfun 

daywithPeppaPig 

TheTescostoreinBournewelcomedaspecialguestovertheweekendaschildren’s 

favouritePeppaPigpoppedintomeetcustomers.Otherpopularactivitiesduringthe 

eventincludedfacepaintingasyoucanseeabove. 

Page11 

Youraward-winningnewspaper 

YOUR PAPER – YOUR NEWS 

The powerofthe 

press–inyour 

hands 

bournelocal.co.uk 

FRIDAY,FEBRUARY 17,2016 

R PAP 

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PAGE 15 

PAGE 15 

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REX NEEDLE INVESTIGATES PAGE 12 

Reportpublished followinginspection 

Ofstedinspectorssay improvements 

arerequiredbeforeservicesprovided 

to looked after children, thosein 

needofhelpand protection, and care 

leavers canbeconsidered‘good’ 

Council is 

urgedto 

improve 

children’s 

services 

FULL STORYPAGE5 

www.rutland-times.co.uk 

YOUR COUNTY 

YOUR NEWSPAPER 

facebook.com/rutlandtimes 

@therutlandtimes 

Tel:01780758951 

THURSDAY 

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C 

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Car valeting and detailing companyWax OnWax Offis“extremely 

proudand privileged” to be able to supportRoyce 

Rangers Under 7s. Boss Rob Carson, right, used to play forthe 

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TOWNMOURNSRUGBY 

LEGENDGERRY 

SEE PAGE 5 

Doreen worked 

‘tirelessly for 

good of Bury’ 

SEE 

PAGE 8 

Does landfill 

site hold key 

to finding 

Corrie? 

Policearetosearchalandfill 

siteaspartoftheirinvestigationintothedisappearanceof 

airmanCorrieMcKeague. 

Thesearchofanareaofthesite 

in Milton, Cambridgeshire, 

could take six to 10 weeks to 

complete and is likely to start 

around Wednesday, February 

22. 

Suffolk Police say the site 

has been a consideration 

throughout the investigation 

as they have worked through 

the possible options of what 

may have happened to Corrie, 

who vanished following a 

night out with friends in Bury 

StEdmundsonSeptember24. 

It was known, and CCTV 

shows, that a waste lorry 

made a collection in an area 

of the town, known as the 

horseshoe, a short time after 

thelastconfirmedsightingof 

Corrie. 

Theareaofthelandfillsite 

where waste collected from 

Burythatmorningwasdepositedhasnothadfurtheritems 

put on to it since police alertedthesite,earlyintheinvestigation, 

to the possibility that 

this may need to be searched. 

The size of the area is the 

equivalent of 2.9 Olympic 

swimming pools. 

Detective Superintendent 

Katie Elliott said: “This 

is the next logical step in the 

investigation.” 

ByPaulDerrick 

paul.derrick@buryfreepress.co.uk 

@Bfppaul 

FULL STORY - PAGE 3 

Police plantosearchwaste area as part of investigation into disappearance of airman 

ThelandfillsiteinMilton, 

Cambridgeshire,and, 

above,missingairman 

CorrieMcKeague 

cambridgeindependent.co.uk/property HOMES 1 

Lettings: 

Sarah Bush, 

of Cheffins, 

on the 

buy-to-let 

market 

page 105 

For sale: 

New-build for 

nature lovers 

pages 70-71 

New homes: 

Striking new 

builds in 

city centre 

pages 68-69 

Commercial 

cambridgeindependent.co.uk/busine s 

Property 

£7mi lion 

Radio House 

refurbishment 

under way 

The future 

workplace 

PLUS 

For sale: 

Delightful 

Victorian 

semi 

pages 4-5 

Interiors: 

Open up your 

house with 

beautiful 

doors 

pages 22-23 

New homes: 

High quality 

five-bedroom 

properties 

pages 31-32 

A family home 

with B&B 

Homes 

FREE 

cambridgeindependent.co.uk/property 

Independent 

Cambridge 

Brought to you by the 

Your 

Commercial 

Property section 

is inside 

February 16–22, 

2017 

Cambridge 

granthamjournal.co.uk 

£1.05 facebook.com/GranthamJournal @GranthamJournal 


YOUR PAPER, YOUR VOICE 

Or 84p to ourloyal 

readers –see page31 

Letters Wow24/7 Obituaries Property Jobs Motors Sport 

29 57 24 37 33 69 83 

01476 566866 

www.oceansonline.co.uk 

oceans 

health &fitness 

JOINING 

NOFEE 

There’s nobetter 

time to start! 

FIRSTCLASS 

Moreadorablefacesfeatureas 

ourreceptionclassseriescontinues 

STARTS PAGE 36 

It’saKnockout! 

I 

SEE PAGE 2 

Time to enter 

your team into 

June event 

FUNERALSERVICE 

Flowers afitting 

tributetovibrant 

Ronnie 

Asmall crowd, manyincolourful attire, 

gathered to bid afond farewell to aman who 

‘brimmed withsmiles’. FULLSTORY: PAGE 12 

MAN, 25, FOUND GUILTYOFATTEMPTED RAPE 

Jailed for 

sexattack 

on frail 

woman, 94 

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 

AGranthammanwhobroke 

intoahouseinthetownandattemptedtorapeafrailelderly 

womanwasjailedfor14years 

atLincolnCrownCourt. 

GregoryWilliswasdiscovered 

in the94-year-old’sbedroom 

whenmembersofherfamily 

went to check on her after 

discoveringtheirfrontdoor 

wasopen. 

Jonathan Straw, prosecuting, 

told ajury that the 

victim wasbeing cared for 

by members of her family 

after she movedout of acare 

home to live withthem 

in Grantham. 

Mr Straw saidthe incident 

happened at aget together of 

family members, including 

thevictim’sgranddaughterand 

great-grandchildren. 

The prosecutor told the 

jury that theelderly 

lady was 

asleep in her 

room while 

relatives 

chattedin 

abackroom. 

“Therecame apoint when 

theynoticedthatthefrontdoor 

tothehousewasopen.Immediatelytheywereconcerned,”said 

Mr Straw. 

“Theywentintothe living 

room and theretheysaw this 

defendant inthe room. His 

trouserswereremoved.Hehad 

his boxershorts on and his penis 

exposed. 

“Thevictim wasinbed.The 

covers had been pulled back 

and her pyjama bottoms had 

beenpulledoff. 

Gregory 

Willis 

Family notices 10 • Bar Man 28 • Viewpoint 29-31 • Swaffham news 32-33•Downham news 34-35 • Sport 88 

lynnnews.co.uk 

FRIDAY,FEBRUARY 17,2017 facebook.com/lynnnews @TheLynnNews 

£1.10 Email: newsdesk@lynnnews.co.uk VIPsjoin in 

thefun as 

Martopens 

up again 

n s s n 

SEE PAGES15/42-55 

Heritage 

Action Zone 

cash hope for 

theLynn area 

SEE PAGE 7 

ANTI-SOCIALBEHAVIOUR 

FEARSOVERBUSSTATION 

SEE PAGE 5 

There are other ways to sell your home, 

but there isn’t abetter way. 

Discover the Brittons difference for yourself. 

27 -28Tuesday Market Pl, 

King’s Lynn PE30 1JJ 

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www.brittons.net 

Thehearsebearsa 

tributetoJuggling 

Jimwhile(insetleft) 

SallyBeadleleads 

theprocession. 

Mournersturnedoutintheir 

hundredsonWednesday 

forthefuneralofAnthony 

Bowen,betterknownas 

JugglingJim,whodiedlast 

month. 

ThepewsofKing’sLynnMinsterwerepackedwithpeople 

wearingSantahatsintribute 

to thestreetperformer,who 

passedawayaged62onJanuary 

23 after aheart attack. 

CanonChristopherIvory, 

rectoroftheMinster,saidMr 

Bowen was “first and foremost 

an entertainer” whose 

life should becelebrated, 

but who also 

should be rememberedforthehuman 

being underneath all 

of that. 

Before the funeral, 

aprocession 

led by fellow 

entertainer Sally 

Beadle made its 

wayalongtheHigh 

Street tothe Minster,passingthe 

spot 

whereMrBowenregularly 

stood. 

Ms Beadle said: “It was 

amazingtosee so manypeople 

come to to the funeral 

who knew him. Adistant 

relative and some former 

neighbours were heretoday 

to remember him.” 

nFull storypage6 

By RebekahChilvers 

rebekah.chilvers@iliffepublishing.co.uk 

Twitter:@TheLynnNews 

Town bids last 

farewell to Jim 

Mantook 

his ownlife 

in burning 

car in Eye 

AnEyemantookhisownlife 

in aflamingcar because he 

couldnotfacegoingonwithouthis 

late wife, an inquest 

heardthis week. 

TURNTOPAGE4 

Topofthe 

tableclash 

‘likeany 

other’ 

Diss RFChead coachDave 

Smithinsists he is treating 

this weekend’s table-toppingclashwithSouthWoodham 

Ferrers likeany other 

game. 

TURNTO PAGE48 

Cardused dayafterwoman 

went missing, court hears 

SylviaandPeterStuart,picturedin2013. 

Acreditcardbelongingto a 

womanwhoSuffolkpolicesay 

wasmurderedwasusedto 

withdraw cashthedayafter 

shewaslastseenalive, ajury 

hasheard. 

Althoughthe body of Sylvia 

Stuart, 69, from Weybread, 

hasnever been found,aman 

–who claims he is avictim of 

mistaken identity–is on trial 

at Ipswich Crown Court for 

her murder. 

AliQazimaj,fromsouthEssex, 

is also accused of killing 

Mrs Stuart’shusband Peter, 

75,whose bodywas found by 

police in astreamatthe rear 

oftheirhomeinMaylastyear. 

Qazimaj, aformer asylum 

seeker,haspleadednotguilty 

to both offences and is claiming 

that he is notwho police 

thinkheisandhadneverbeen 

to theUKuntil he wasarrested 

at ahostel in Luxembourg 

and extradited at therequest 

of theBritishauthorities. 

Thisweek,thecourtheard 

that Mrs Stuart’sBarclaycard 

wasusedat acashmachinein 

ThurrockonMay30lastyear, 

thedayaftershewaslastseen, 

to withdraw £200. 

The jury heard that one 

minute later afurther £100 

was withdrawn using the 

same machine and ashort 

By CourtReporter 

editorial@dissexpress.co.uk 

Twitter:@Diss_Express 

Masscull of 

birds after 

avian flu 

outbreak 

About 23,000 birds have 

beenculledfromaRedgrave 

farmthisweek,aftera10km 

control zone wasinstituted 

duetoanavianfluoutbreak. 

TURNTOPAGE5 

Feature 6•Opinion 9•Business 11 • Your News 13 • WOW24/7 25 • Spot the Duck 29 • Property 31 • Sport 43 

dissexpress.co.uk 


www.dissexpress.co.uk 

facebook.com/dissexpress 

@Diss_Express 

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Don’t forget we also deliver to your door! 

timelateranunsuccessfulattemptwas 

made at Chafford 

Hundred to obtain £500. 

Prosecuting, Andrew 

Jackson told the court that 

another minute later afurther 

attempttoget £100 was 

made and earlythe next day 

an attemptwas made to use 

thecardtoobtain £300 from 

amachineinGrays. 

AliQazimajisontrial. 

Twomoreattempts were 

made using cashmachinesin 

Graysthe same daybut withoutsuccess, 

thecourt heard. 

Despitedenying being Ali 

Qazimaj, thedefendanthas 

beenlinkedusingDNAtesting 

to blood found on acar abandonedinastreetinDoverand 

throughfingerprints, mobile 

phone records and police 

roadside cameras, theprosecution 

claim. 

It is allegedthatQazimaj 

knew ofMrand Mrs Stuart 

through aconnection with 

theirson-in-lawwhile working 

as acarer forhis father. 

Qazimaj is allegedtohave 

been afrequentgambler and 

amassed debts and to have 

committedthemurdersafter 

gaining theimpression that 

Mr and Mrs Stuartweremillionaires. 

Mr Jackson told the jury 

that bank records showed 

that between2013andMarch 

last year, Qazimaj had paid 

from his bank accountmore 

than £15,000 to online gambling 

sites. 

The jury wastold that details 

gathered by automatic 

number plate recognition 

camerashadshownthat Qazimaj’s 

Citroen car had been 

trackedonanumberofoccasions 

heading from his home 

in EssextoWeybread,sometimes 

in thedeadofnight,in 

themonthsbeforethealleged 

murders. 

The trial continues. 

! 

Awardsforstarsof 

thecommunity 

Money waswithdrawnfromSylvia Stuart’sbank account in Thurrock 

▼ 

£1 

70p for 

subscribers 

pages 22-23 

Est 1819 

Cambridge 

▼ 

Independent 

£1 

70p for 

subscribers 

and free app 

page 21 

Est 1819 

February 15-February 21, 2017 | cambridgeindependent.co.uk 

Join our new appeal 

to help East Anglia’s 

Children’s Hospices 

Today the Cambridge Independent launches the Each Help at 

Home Appeal, to provide a vital lifeline to parents of children like 

Euan, 9, who has a life-limiting illness. Help us raise £87,500 to 

set up the service and find volunteers to offer practical help | pages 8-9 

Would you eat 

3D printed food? 

Visions of city’s 

new market square 

7 ways to cure ills 

in the NHS 

e-Luminate festival 

creates city of light 

PLUS Our brilliant 

Culture, Business, Homes 

and Motors sections 

page 3 

page 6 

pages 18-19 

picture special 

pages 14-15 

Culture cambridgeindependent.co.uk/lifestyle 

INSECT MENU WINE 

Strictly 

thrilling 

theatre 

SHAKIN’ STEVENS NATURE 

Busine s 

cambridgeindependent.co.uk/business 

page 48 

Speechmatics’ 

breakthrough 

revealed 

In brief 

Hair stylists, make-up artists, 

beauticians and nail 

technicians ar encouraged to 

enter the Create the Look 

contest run by SMEi. 

Last year, two Cambridge 

firms made the top 10. Visit 

smeinsurance.com/hair-andbeauty-insurance/create-the-look 

to submit images or videos. 

Hair and beauty 

contest launched 

Watermi l A counting wi l host 

a fr e workshop for 

entrepreneurs on Wednesday, 

February 2, from 

9.45am-11.45am a the Future 

Busine s Centre in Cambridge. 

A tend es wi learn about six 

co mon a counting and 

finance mistakes that start-ups 

make, including i sues with 

cash flow, VAT refunds, R&D tax 

credits and a suming a sole 

trader has le s liability than a 

limited company. 

Visit watermi la counting. 

co.uk/events to b ok. 

Avoid these six 

finance blunders 

A fr e seminar with wealth 

management experts Ma tioli 

W ods wi l help those heading 

towards retirement. 

Th event a the Mo ler 

Centre on March 15 wi l explore 

the use of pension schemes in 

conjunction with other 

tax-e ficient vehicle such as 

ISAs, venture capital trusts and 

bonds to provide tax-e ficient 

income through retirement. 

Ca l Jordan Storey-Kno t on 

0 16 240 87 0 to b ok a place. 

Fr e help to plan 

you retirement 

Reminder to Government: 

We’re No 1 for life sciences 

A fresh drive to promote Cambridge 

Biomedical Campus (CBC) as the 

capital of UK life science has begun. 

Cambridge University Health 

Partners (CUHP) has agr ed to 

co laborate with the campus 

developers to promote and manage it, 

marketing the fast-growing site 

nationally and internationa ly. 

It comes after the Government 

a nounced its industrial strategy last 

month, pledging su port for science 

and i novation, with a £4.7bn funding 

pot fo research an development. 

Oxford has already lai down a 

marker by a tracting Danish 

pharmaceuticals firm Novo Nordisk, 

which dismi sed lingering doubts 

over Brexit by a nouncing that it was 

to invest £ 15mi lion over the next 

decade in a new research centre that 

wi l employ 1 0 scientists, who wi l 

focus on finding novel treatments for 

type two diabetes. 

Now Cambridge – where the 

development of AstraZeneca’s global 

R&D HQ alone represents an 

investment of £ 30mi lion – is k en to 

reinforce its role to the Government 

as the leading light in the sector, able 

to a tract new busine s, jobs 

and investment. 

Joint developers Liberty Property 

Trust and Countryside have now 

a nounced that CUHP – which brings 

together the university and thr e 

health trusts – wi l take on an interim 

role of managing inquiries from those 

joining th expanding campus 

Malcolm Lowe-Lauri, executive 

director at CUHP, said: “We believe 

Cambridge is the capital of the UK’s 

life science and is one of the key cities 

ready to lead the country’s future 

economic su ce s. The list of 

companies and organisations based in 

and around the city shows this is no 

idle boast. 

“On the campus alone we are home 

to the University of Cambridge, the 

new global researc headquarters for 

AstraZeneca, the world famous 

A d e nbr oke’s H o spital, 

GlaxoSmithKline and the MRC 

Laboratory of Molecular Biology. 

“By working with Liberty Property 

Trust and Countryside an developing 

our strong links to the wider 

bioscience and technology clusters in 

Cambridge, we wi l ensure the 

campus continues to deliver new jobs, 

investment and o portunities to 

Cambridge and the East of England.” 

Jeane te Walker, who previously 

marketed the campus for the 

developers, has moved to a role on the 

Science Park. 

Andrew Blevins, managing director 

of Liberty Property Trust, said: “It’s 

important for people to know that we 

are open for busine s to companies 

wishing to benefit from locating at 

CBC. CUHP are we l placed to talk to 

potential o cupiers about 

the co laboration and networking 

o portunities that already exist 

at CBC.” 

Andrew Ca rington, managing 

director of Countryside, a ded: “As 

w enter the next phase of the 

campus’s expansion we remain 

focused on raising awarene s of the 

o portunities available to work 

alongside world cla s healthcare 

companies in what is rapidly 

becoming a global centre of 

exce lence. We have agr ed an initial 

short-term co laborative a proach 

with CUHP to continue the promotion 

of the campus and kick-star the 

expansion, a lowing time for a more 

comprehensive promotional strategy 

to be developed and implemented.” 

The campus has pla ning 

permi sion for an a ditional 75, 0 

square metres, th equivalent of 14 

Wembley pitches, of new clinical and 

science-related busine s during phase 

tw of its development. Phase thr e 

wi l expand the campus further. 

Bidwe ls, Savi ls and Creative 

Places are acting for the developers 

over property inquiries. 

Paul Brackley 

paul.brackley@ili femedia.co.uk 

How the Cambridge 

Biomedical Campus wi l 

l ok after phase one 

cambridgeindependent.co.uk/property 

Homes 

Lettings: 

Sarah Bush, 

of Cheffins, 

on the 

buy-to-let 

market 

page 105 

For sale: 

New-build for 

nature lovers 

pages 70-71 

New homes: 

Striking new 

builds in 

city centre 

pages 68-69 

For sale: 

Delightful 

Victorian 

semi 

pages 60-61 

Interiors: 

Open up your 

house with 

beautiful 

d ors 

pages 78-79 

New homes: 

High quality 

five-bedr om 

properties 

pages 85-86 

A family 

home 

with B&B 

Expert views on what 

housing White Paper 

means for us 

pages 58-59 

Motors 

cambridgeindependent.co.uk/motors-cycling | 01 2 320320 | motors@iliffemedia.co.uk 

Ge ting a grip 

 

 

 

 

Appealafter 

mensuffer 

stabwounds 

Pupilswin 

accumulator 

challenge 

Newowners 

sharevision 

Police areappealing forinformation 

after two men 

were admitted tohospital 

withstabwounds. 

It followedreports of apossible 

altercation in the 

Marlborough Court and 

Wellington Terraceareaof 

Haverhill.SEEPAGE3 

An accumulatorchallengestyle 

competition run in 

memoryofapopular Haverhill 

businessmanhas been 

wonbyateamfromCastle 

Manor Academy. 

Theyhad to makeasmuch 

moneyaspossiblefroma£50 

stake. SEEPAGE4 

EdwardIliffeisthenewowner 

of theHaverhill Echo and 

he talks to reporterBarbara 

Eeles aboutwhy local communities 

areimportant in 

an erawhen ‘fake’ news is 

often hittingthe headlines. 

SEEPAGES8&9 

CHARITYCYCLIST 

BRINGSIN£30K 

SEE 

PAGE 5 

16-page 

leisure 

guide 

STARTS PAGE 13 

haverhillecho.co.uk 

THURSDAY,FEBRUARY 16, 2017 

@haverhill 

facebook.com/haverhillecho 

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you demand... 

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20-22, Hollands Road, Haverhill. Telephone 01440 714903 

By LauraSmith 

news@haverhillecho.co.uk 

@haverhill 

TheCangleFoyerinWithersfieldRoad,Haverhill 

HOUSING RELIEF 

FORVULNERABLE 

Vulnerableyoungpeoplehave 

finallygottheanswerthey 

wantedafterweeksspent 

plaguedbyanxietyandfear. 

WhenresidentsofHaverhill’s 

Cangle Foyerfound outthat 

Riverside–theserviceprovider 

of 17 years –was being decommissioned, 

they became 

concerned fortheir future. 

Some worried they would 

beleftwithoutaroofovertheir 

headswhileothersfearedthey 

wouldbeforcedtomovetounsuitable 

accommodation. 

Almost700 people signed 

apetition opposing funding 

cuts whichwereputting the 

Cangle’s 32 residentsatrisk. 

On Monday those residents, 

whoare allagedunder 

25,werefinallyabletobreathe 

asigh of relief after learning 

theywouldallbeabletostayat 

theWithersfieldRoadfacility. 

Cllr Beccy Hopfensperger, 

Suffolk’scabinetmember for 

adult care, revealed thenew 

contract for young people’s 

servicesinWestSuffolk–takpeople 

in St Edmundsbury 

and Forest Heath. 

“This will allow us to build 

on our 17years of inspiring 

work with young people at 

theCangle FoyerinHaverhill, 

andsupportournewpartners, 

YMCA,NewmarketOpenDoor 

andActionForChildren,continuetodothesameacrossthe 

whole area.” 

He added: “It’sbeen overwhelmingtohearthesupport 

from thelocal communityin 

recent weeks. 

“It shows the hard work 

and caring attitudeofthe Riverside 

teamhas reallymadea 

difference in Haverhill–and 

I’mproud to be part of it.” 

Underthenewcontractthe 

agecriteriawillchangefrom 

16-25to16-21butathirdofthe 

Canglewillremainsuitablefor 

young people older than 21. 

ResidentVikkiHayes,22, 

said: “We’ve all been really 

stressed outbut nowwe’re all 

really happy–none of us are 

going to be made homeless.” 

ing effect from April 1–had 

been awardedtoaRiversideled 

partnership. 

She said: “Thiswillmean 

therewillbestability in serviceprovisionforyoungpeople 

in West Suffolk. 

“The council will continue 

to work very closely withall 

housing relatedsupportproviders 

to ensure thesmooth 

handoverofcontractsandare 

taking aflexible approachto 

this transition focused on the 

bestinterestsofcustomers.” 

SimonAllcock,Riverside’s 

regional operationsmanager, 

said: “We are absolutely 

delightedtohearthatRiverside 

have been awardedthe 

contracttodeliveraccommodation 

and supporttoyoung 

C 

1 l 

lynnnews.co.uk 

TUESDAY,FEBRUARY 14,2017 80P Email: newsdesk@lynnnews.co.uk facebook.com/lynnnews @TheLynnNews 

Purfleet 12 • Viewpoint 14-15 • History of Lynn in 100Objects 16 • FirstDays 26 • Districtnews 30-31 • Sport 46 

Linnets hitby 

horror injury 

SEE BACK PAGE 

THEMARTISBACK 

FORANOTHERYEAROF 

FAIRGROUNDTHRILLS 

SEE PAGE 3 

Valentines in 

theheartof 

town centre 

SEE PAGE 24 

SomeofWestNorfolk’smost 

promisingstudentshavebeen 

settheirownUniversityChallengeinaschemeeducation 

chiefshopewillhelptoraise 

localaspirations. 

Around 100 teenagers, representingmost 

of thearea’s 

secondary schools took part 

in the inaugural University 

Challengeconference held at 

Lynn’s University Centreon 

Friday. 

The programme included 

motivational speeches and a 

series of team challengesdesignedtostretchthestudents 

and encourage them to work 

together. 

Teachers from the participating 

schools also metto 

sharegoodpractice,aspartof 

awider project that officials 

hope willhelp to improve attainmentstandardsacrossthe 

borough. 

FULLSTORY:PAGE5 

Topofthe form 

Students setaUniversityChallenge at college conference 

By AllisterWebb 

Email:allister.webb@jpress.co.uk 

Twitter:@TheLynnNews 

MLNF17PT02009 

AteamofstudentsworkstocrackoneofthechallengessetduringaUniversityChallengeconferenceheldatLynn’s UniversityCentre. 

Velvet and IQ magazines are now proudly 

owned and published by Iliffe Media, a family-run 

independent publisher with the community 

at its heart. 

The top free 

monthly from the 

award-winning 

publishers 

Cubiqdesign 

Wedding 

Exclusive 

- 17 Trends for 2017 

- Wedding Insider 

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Take Me I’m Free 

feb 2017 

issue 19 | page 1 

Issue 19: December - february 

iliffemedia.co.uk

iQ contents 

In THIS 

ISSUE 

Barry Peters Editor 

Samantha Nice Assistant Editor 

Adam Blythe and Rachael Savory 

from Cubiqdesign Design & Layout 

Becca Plaxton and 

Emily Lloyd-Ruck Publication Sales 

Steve Elsom, Adrian Curtis, 

Jacqui Burke, Jacqui Kemp, 

Glyn Mon Hughes, Alan Cowie, 

James Pinchbeck, Jason Skelton, 

Professor Sucheta Nadkarni, 

Laura Welham-Halstead, 

Darren Bear, Miles Vartan, 

Rachel Cracknell, Elyssa Fagan, 

Pete Townshend, Lewis Robinson, 

Sam Thorogood, Kim Morrison 

Contributors 

Iliffe Media 

Winship Road 

Milton, Cambridge 

01284 757847 

www.iqmag.co.uk 

08 

11 

14 

22 

24 

27 

32 

36 

38 

40 

42 

44 

46 

49 

52 

54 

61 

62 

Business Overview 

The Impact of Brexit on Business 

Grant Thornton’s 5 Things to Watch 

Recharge and Refocus 

Funding: Is there really such thing 

as free money? 

Does it matter what staff wear? 

The Mighty Independent Retailer 

80 Years of Wallis & Son 

Carefully Does It... Looking After 

a Post-Brexit Britain 

Social Media Marketing Mistakes 

Do You Know Your Audience? 

The Power of Influence 

What Makes a Great Ad? 

PR, Trumped! 

Knowing The Value of Events 

Business Diary 

Book review: Get Funded! 

Book review: Reinvent Yourself 


iQ overview 

Business Overview 

Word clouds are clever things. What, for instance, would be the business-oriented words which 

would stand out from 2016? Brexit, almost certainly. Trump, too. Uncertainty, worry, fear – they 

might all be in there somewhere. 

Fear is probably the word that should loom large in that word cloud, mainly because the 

comments come thick and fast, yet nobody really knows what the next two years will bring, 

let along the next decade. 

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the manufacturing 

sector grew 2.1% in December, with the whole quarter from October 

showing a 1.2% increase. Further ONS figures showed that the 

UK’s trade deficit narrowed in December. It was another figure 

which confounded critics of the British public’s decision to leave the 

European Union. 

According the Ian Cass, chief executive of the Forum of 

Private Business, Britain is well placed for an 

upturn in business post Brexit following 

publication of the production, manufacturing 

and trade balance figures. 

“The data is excellent news as we approach 

the Brexit negotiation period,” he said. 

“Businesses still need clarity on what the conditions are likely to 

be once we are no longer part of the single market, but we now 

have clear evidence that Britain is ready to get trading whatever 

they may be.” 

The fall in the value of the pound since the Brexit vote has, of course, 

had an impact, after it slid more than 15% against the US dollar. 

But that still appears to have had not too much of an impact. “While 

both exports and important grew over 2016, there remains little evidence that 

the weaker pound has had an effect on the trade balance,” said Kate Davies, 

senior statistician at the ONS. Notable, too, was a significant increase in exports of good to non-EU 

countries as well as considerable increase in the construction sector. 

So things are looking rosy, with the UK economy firing on a number of cylinders without becoming 

overly reliant on services and consumer spending. 

Or are they? Cue a recent report in The Independent which suggested that black clouds are looming. 

They even suggested that the cost to the British economy of exiting the EU is likely to be four times 


iQ overview 

the estimate given by economists. They also reported that German bankers are saying that London cannot be the 

major gateway to European and that the French have their eyes on the jobs which might be forced out of London. 

Then there is the uncertainty created by President Trump’s possible changes to the world economic order. A trade 

war with China? An overly-cosy relationship with Russia? Could these moves alone risk a global recession? Does his 

promise to the Prime Minister that he’s keen to sign a trade deal with the UK 

bode well for Britain post-Brexit? 

While business commentators spend time crystal-ball gazing, for business leaders 

it’s no time to resort to navel gazing. 

When the referendum was taking place, the East Anglian region of the Federation 

of Small Businesses surveyed more than 4,000 

business owners. They were quite categorical 

about they wanted to see from both sides in the 

debate. 

Concern was expressed over decision-making 

in the EU as well as the free movement of 

people. Indeed, in many areas of the region 

where unemployment is less of a problem compared to other 

parts of the country, filling vacant posts could become something 

of a challenge and skills shortages could soon be an area of 

considerable concern for local businesses. However, the new 

apprenticeship levy, due to begin in April means that the cost 

of hiring and training new employees should fall, 

thus helping not only youngsters to get into the jobs 

market, but also allowing firms not to be crippled by 

the cost of that training. 

Other concerns included coping with regulation, trade 

and access to the Single Market. Perhaps surprisingly, competition was 

not seen as a big issue. 

Now is the time, therefore, to prepare for what is inevitably going to be an uncertain future. 

But, bearing in mind the region’s resilience through the Great Recession, that future may 

well be better than many might imagine. The region’s universities, Cambridge especially, are 

well used to working with researchers and developers worldwide, and not solely in Europe. 

There’s a diverse industrial base for whom new markets worldwide should be an enticing prospect. 

Britain’s biggest port can be found in the region and, with a number of new routes lined up for 

Stansted Airport, doing business worldwide is getting easier. 

Back to that idea about word clouds. Come this time in 2018, what words will we all be thinking about? Probably 

that it’s not far off halfway through the post Article 50 negotiation period. Will uncertainty be a thing of past? Almost 

definitely not. And only time will tell. 

article by 

Glyn Mon Hughes 


iQ industry insight 

Jacqui Kemp of Namasté Culture 

THE IMPACT OF 

BREXIT ON BUSINESS 

During the week of the EU referendum someone 

told me that ‘May you live in interesting times.’ is 

an ancient Chinese curse, and we most definitely are 

living in interesting times! 

Most businesses will be impacted by the Brexit vote 

in one way or another, right now most of us are 

waiting to find out what that impact will be, but one 

thing is for sure, to exclude candidates from the EEA 

during recruitment would constitute discrimination 

and is illegal. 

EU Migrant Workers Already Affected 

If your business currently employs EU nationals you 

may find Brexit is having an impact already. 

While the signs are that current migrant workers from 

the EU will be given indefinite leave to remain, many 

lower-paid workers are already looking to move to 

mainland Europe, as the falling pound makes the UK 

less attractive to workers who were sending money 

home. Since the EU referendum the Recruitment & 

Employment Confederation (REC) have found that 

the availability of skilled staff is at its lowest level 

since 2013. 

Taking a Strategic Approach to Brexit 

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 

surveyed 1,000 HR professionals in November and 

found that 42% expect Brexit to damage their UK 

operations, while only 15% have begun to prepare for 

future restrictions on labour. (CIPD Labour Market 

Outlook). 

Now is the time to start getting creative, how will you 

solve the skills gap in your business? Do you need to 

think about where and how you recruit your unskilled 

workers? Or do you need to consider how to retain 

and attract skilled workers? Taking a strategic approach 

to managing the impact of Brexit will help to put your 

business ahead of the curve, burying your head in the 

sand will not! 

Growing Your Own Talent 

One thing is certain, the government are committed 

to reducing net migration to the “tens of thousands” 

annually from more than 300,000 currently. 

Businesses must find ways to build their own talent, 

focusing on attracting and retaining both skilled and 

unskilled workers. 

Namasté Culture provides guidance and 

support for organisations in taking a 

strategic view of the HR challenges, working 

in partnership to support your future plans. 

We’d love to talk about the challenges you 

are facing, so call us today on 01954 267640 

or visit www.namasteculture.co.uk 



Chances are, that if you predicted 

the outcome of the EU referendum, 

the result of the US Presidential 

campaign, and you tipped Leicester 

City to win the English Premier 

League, you won’t be reading this 

as you’ll be on your super yacht 

somewhere in the Caribbean! 

Let’s have a closer look at the 

impact of the first two outcomes 

above and what they might mean 

to business. I’ll leave the impact of 

Leicester City’s triumph for another 

day! 

When we arose from our slumber 

on the morning of June 24th last 

year, it maybe felt like some kind of 

parallel universe to the one we had 

said ‘good night’ to the previous 

evening.....global stock markets 

in free fall, currency markets in 

turmoil, politicians from across the 

spectrum in denial and the media 

circus in overdrive. Opinion polls 

had suggested it would be close, but 

rather like the referendum north 

of the border, when it came to the 

day, the electorate would opt for the 

‘devil they knew’. 

Well, it didn’t happen... the 

electorate said ‘we want to change’ 

and in the following weeks and 

months we faced into a never 

ending series of projections, 

assertions and claims - but spare 

a thought for our thousands of 

business owners. Who was talking to 

them, and what messages did they 

receive? 

I have used the VUCA acronym 

many times since last June. 

Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and 

Ambiguous I believe, describes 

the world in which we now live 

and is, I believe, responsible for 

the slowdown in trade flows, the 

slow down in investments and the 

evident plateauing of business 

activity. The word ‘uncertain’ is 

measured on its use in the media 

and since 24th June last year it has 

been ‘off the scale’. This uncertain 

landscape creates uncertainty in 

itself, so businesses can’t be blamed 

for ‘sticking with their knitting’. If 

order books are ticking over, debtors 

are paying on time, activity remains 

good and I can continue to enjoy a 

decent ‘lifestyle’ from my business, 

why should I take any risks in this 

uncertain world? 

I ask my Relationship Managers to 

try to bring some ‘certainty’ to this 

uncertain world, by spending time 

with their customers, helping to 

understand and share the challenges 

and the opportunities, and signpost 

the way to the future. For many 

businesses this is ‘controlling the 

controllable’. Don’t get distracted 

and keep focused on what you are 

good at. 

One of the biggest topics of 

discussion is ‘What will happen 

to interest rates and will currency 

rates stabilise?’ and ‘will countries 

impose tariffs on trade flows’? No 

one can answer these questions 

with certainty and that fuels 

‘uncertainty’. Let’s take interest 

rates. The Bank of England are 

seemingly content to ‘ride the wave’, 

but the arguments for retaining 

rates so low are wearing thin. The 

super yachts, spaghetti junction 

and crystal balls... 

how to survive the ‘uncertainty’ era 



economy continues to hold up 

remarkably well and the spectre of 

deflation has faded. In addition, 

the FTSE-250 has climbed to a 

new high, consumer credit growth 

remains in double digits and the 

UK unemployment rate is holding 

at an 11 year low. At the very least, 

the case for sustaining last August’s 

emergency rate cut has weakened 

substantially. What does their crystal 

ball tell them? 

The Bank of England has revised its 

prediction for GDP growth this year 

to 2% and inflation is likely to reach 

close to 3% by early 2018, so it’s 

difficult to justify why interest rates 

are so low. 

So why is the Bank of England 

not at least thinking about raising 

interest rates? There are three 

main reasons. First it expects Brexit 

uncertainty and a squeeze in real 

incomes from rising prices to slow 

consumer and business spending 

over the next three years. It remains 

to be seen, however, to what extent 

this occurs, especially if rising 

inflation is matched by rising wages. 

Second, the Bank has rather 

conveniently revised down its 

assumption of how far the UK 

unemployment rate can fall before 

wage growth starts to bite. This 

is now put at 4.5% compared 

with 5.1% previously. With the 

unemployment rate currently at 

4.8%, this downward revision gives 

UK policymakers a little more 

wiggle room to argue that wage 

growth is likely to remain subdued. 

Third, it assumes that the fall 

in the pound will not lead to a 

more generalised rise in inflation 

expectations. As a result, it expects 

the currency’s inflationary impact to 

dissipate over time and ultimately 

bring UK inflation back to the 2% 

target. 

With the downside risks from 

Brexit uncertainty looming large, 

it is understandable that UK ratesetters 

continue to err on the side 

of caution. But as each new month 

brings further evidence of the UK’s 

economic resilience, the Bank’s 

tolerance for above-target inflation 

will be solely tested. On balance, 

the market still believes that interest 

rates will remain on hold this year, 

but it may not take much for this to 

change. 

Trends in pay and consumer 

spending growth should now be 

watched particularly closely. If 

these prove stronger than expected, 

stirrings of dissent on the Monetary 

Policy Committee are likely to build. 

If so, a rise in interest rates before 

the end of the year could on the 

cards. 

Are we any clearer now? Still more 

than a tinge of ‘uncertainty’ out 

there? So much to take into account, 

and so many differing views...a 

spaghetti junction of “if buts and 

maybe’s” it seems. 

Chances are, if you’ve absorbed 

the content of this article, you can 

see the road ahead is littered with 

obstacles... but by driving carefully 

and keeping your eyes on the road, 

you’ll arrive at your journey’s end in 

one piece. 

Article by Steve Elsom, Regional Director, SME Banking, East England, Lloyds Banking Group 

steve.elsom@lloydsbanking.com 

@steveelsom1 


iQ insight 

Grant Thornton’s 

5 Things To Watch 

For our Businesses in 2017 

2016 was a year that defied predictions and as 2017 begins to unfold, it looks 

as if once again, change will be the only constant for local business, says 

the Cambridge office of financial and business advisers, Grant Thornton. 

Brexit/Trump 

The Brexit vote followed by Trump’s election as US president has 

undoubtedly caused confidence to falter throughout the business 

community. 

Theresa May has provided some clarity on what Brexit will look like 

and as the year unfolds, Brexit plans progress and Trump settles into 

his new position in the White House, the landscape should begin to 

stabilise as we gain a better understanding of what is happening – 

whether that’s positive or negative. 

Encouragingly, latest economic reports show the UK economy 

has so far avoided the post referendum collapse many predicted. 

However, some degree of stability is certainly needed to help 

businesses – and the economy – move forward. 

2 

Exchange Rates 

Whilst a weaker pound is clearly good news for companies selling 

their products and services overseas, those importing raw materials or 

goods for resale in the UK have seen costs rise. 

Unless importers have been savvy enough to lock in exchange rate 

deals, they will either have to absorb the additional cost themselves or 

most likely, pass it on to the consumer – which could impact sales. 

More positively, the weaker pound against the dollar could see an increase in 

M&A activity as US buyers look to acquire quality UK businesses at a cheaper 

price. So local businesses looking to sell or grow through acquisition could benefit 

from the current landscape. 


Amidst the uncertainty, Darren Bear, practice leader 

at Grant Thornton, Cambridge, identifies five key areas 

for local businesses to look out for in 2017 to help them 

keep ahead of the game. 

iQ insight 

3 

Apprenticeship Levy 

This April will see the introduction of the much talked about Apprenticeship Levy, requiring all employers with a 

payroll of £3 million or more to pay an annual 0.5% levy on their total wage bill into individual accounts. 

Businesses can spend the money accrued on approved apprenticeship training and assessment for employees, boosted 

by a 10% government top up. Smaller employers will also benefit, having to pay only 10% of any approved 

apprenticeship training costs, with government footing the rest of the bill. 

Implementing the new system will undoubtedly pose some challenges for local firms but it could 

give businesses a much needed chance to create valuable, industry-led training opportunities 

to help plug the county’s skills gap. 

4 

5 

Skills Shortage 

The Brexit vote could see the nationwide skills shortage become more acute, 

particularly for those sectors which traditionally rely on overseas workers 

such as logistics, agriculture and food. 

Local haulage companies are already citing a shortage of skilled drivers 

as a key issue, on top of having to contend with rising fuel costs 

following a sustained period of low prices. 

Businesses need to look at how they can best incentivise staff to 

encourage recruitment and retention – and this doesn’t have to be 

through pay. Flexible working, pension arrangements, enhanced 

working conditions and training and career opportunities can all 

help companies attract the skilled employees they need. 

Introducing IFRS 15 

The final countdown has begun for businesses employing 

International Financial Reporting Standards when preparing their 

accounts, to apply the new IFRS 15 (Revenue from Contracts with 

Customers) standard for reporting periods beginning on or after 1 

January 2018. 

IFRS 15 will replace IAS 18 Revenue and IAS 11 Construction Contracts 

and establish a comprehensive framework for determining when and how 

much revenue to recognise. 

The new standard will affect almost all companies as it covers revenue from 

all contracts with customers, except that from leases, financial instruments 

and insurance contracts. Business should begin preparing now or they could face 

challenges come the transition date. 

More information 

www.grantthornton.co.uk 


Ch, ch, ch-changes - 

Turn to face the strain 

iQ advice 

Change - it’s the one constant in today’s fast-moving 

world. From Trump to Brexit and beyond, it seems as 

though the degree of change and the rate at which it is 

happening is increasing. So how do you stop yourself 

being overwhelmed and being left behind? asks Jason 

Skelton from AQR Coaching. 

Change: 

Verb - ‘to make or become different’. 

Noun - ‘an act or process through 

which something becomes different.’ 

These are the common definitions of change but 

we all know it means a great deal more than this, 

particularly in the world of work where so much is 

often at stake. Just think of all the change that has 

occurred in the past 10 years – the financial crisis, the 

rise of social media, the ubiquity of smartphones, the 

decline of Yahoo, the huge growth of online shopping 

(Amazon anyone?) – things that didn’t exist 20 years 

ago are now firmly established and other household 

names are gone. And much 

of this 

change happened quickly and without much warning. 

It is near impossible to predict what the next big 

change will be, where it will take us or more personally, 

what its effect will be on us. So how do we learn to 

cope better with it? 

Well you can start by becoming more resilient, and 

learning how to be less thrown off course by sudden or 

dramatic change; this scenario suggests someone who 

can stoically soldier on despite the slings and arrows 

of outrageous fortune. One step at a time, keep on 

keeping on is the mantra here. 

But is there a better way? 

Most emphatically yes! 

The answer is mental toughness. Improve your mental 

toughness and you will be more successful, particularly 

in turbulent times. You no longer just cope with 

pressure (change), you actively thrive on it and this sets 

you apart. It’s no coincidence that top sportspeople are 

amongst the most mentally tough. As change - in all its 

forms - is here to stay, don’t you owe it to your future 

success to get in touch with us and find out how 

we can help you make change work for you? 

At AQR Coaching & Mentoring, we 

apply the latest scientific research 

around mental toughness to devise 

programmes that make people, 

teams and businesses more 

adaptable, more effective 

and more productive. 

Contact us by calling 

0844 357 7350 or email us at 

enquiries@aqrcoaching.co.uk 

- we’d love to hear from you. 

www.aqrcoaching.co.uk 


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Why 5G will change the world 

- and generate $12.3trillion 

The arrival of 5G will change the world for everyone in the same way that 

electricity and the combustion engine once did. Adrian Curtis reports. 

iQ HR 

That’s the verdict of a new survey which predicts that 

5th generation mobile networks and wireless systems - 

the next telecoms standards beyond the current 4G - will 

create 22 million jobs and produce up to $12.3trillion 

worth of goods and services by 2035. 

Rather than faster connection speeds, 5G aims at higher 

capacity than 4G, allowing more mobile broadband 

users in an area and consumption of higher or unlimited 

data quantities in gigabyte per month and user. This 

would make it feasible for a large portion of the 

population to stream high-definition media many hours 

a day with their mobile devices, when out of reach of 

wi-fi hotspots. 

The study, by Qualcomm, which has a base on 

Cambridge Business Park, included an economic impact 

statement that demonstrates 5G will be a world game 

changer for everyone by 2035. 

Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf said: “These 

respected researchers confirmed our strong belief that 

5G will be a fundamental game changer. 

“We’ve been hard at work helping create some of the 

key technologies and applications that will make 5G 

a reality, pushing the boundaries of LTE (Long Term 

Evolution), collaborating with industry leaders and 

spearheading the critical research behind the nextgeneration 

global wireless standard.” 

According to the study, in 2035, when 5G’s full 

economic benefit should be realised across the globe, 

a broad range of industries - from retail to education, 

transportation to entertainment - could produce up to 

$12.3 trillion worth of goods and services enabled by 

5G. The 5G value chain itself is seen as generating up to 

$3.5 trillion in revenue in 2035, supporting as many as 

22 million jobs. 

Over time, 5G will boost real global GDP growth by $3 

trillion dollars cumulatively from 2020 to 2035, roughly 

the equivalent of adding an economy the size of India to 

the world in today’s dollars. 

Complementing the study, polling by PSB Research 

confirms that business decision-makers and opinion 

leaders around the globe expect 5G to bring widespread 

benefits for society overall, enabling new products 

and services, increasing productivity and letting new 

industries to emerge. 

David Teece, Tusher professor of global business at 

the Haas School of Business, University of California 

in Berkeley, said: “I’ve spent many years studying the 

impact of general purposes technologies, and it’s clear 

that 5G will propel mobile into that category, assuring 

the technology’s long-term impact on society and 

continued growth for decades.” 

Notably, the study indicates that 5G will catapult mobile 

into the exclusive realm of technologies like electricity 

and the automobile that provide the foundation or 

massive innovation, give rise to new industries and 

benefit entire economies. This is predicted to happen as 

5G advances mobile from connecting people to people 

and information to a unified fabric connecting people to 

everything. 

Qualcomm’s technologies powered the smartphone 

revolution. The company pioneered 3G and 4G, and 

is leading the way to 5G and a new era of intelligent, 

connected devices. Its products are revolutionising 

industries, including automotive, computing, IT and 

healthcare, and are allowing millions of devices to 

connect with each other in ways never before imagined. 

More Information 

Senior Business Reporter at Cambridge Independent 

Email: adrian.curtis@iliffemedia.co.uk 


iQ advice 

Why wouldn’t you 

want to look after 

your employees? 

Hear from Miles Vartan about 

the importance of looking after 

your employees and being looked 

after by your employer. 

Human nature is that we look after those who are close 

to us. You often spend more time with people at work 

than you do with family at home, so it seems odd that 

some people do not look after their employees in the 

way that they would look after their own family. 

As we continually work to develop our businesses, 

constantly reviewing our strategic plans and wonder if 

we should change things like ‘our Mission Statement’, 

how many business owners consciously think about the 

people and suppliers who work for them and is this the 

morning when somebody is going to have a serious 

injury or even die at work? 

The web, social media and health and safety publications 

are full of cautionary tales where companies find 

themselves in court and are found to be in breach of 

the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974. 

New sentencing guidelines came into force in 

February 2016; these instructions to judges and 

magistrates enable drastically increased fines 

being levied and potentially custodial sentences 

to be handed down when compared to before the 

guidelines being introduced. 

In Ipswich, a worker got seriously scolded by hot 

oil whilst working in a commercial kitchen. KFG 

Quickserve pleaded guilty when the case went to 

court and were fined £13,300 for offences relating to 

the burns incident under the old sentencing guidelines 

and a further £153,360 under the new 2016 sentencing 

guideline, totalling £166,660. Ipswich Borough Council 

prosecuted for breaches of Section 2(1) of the 1974 Act. 

Nigel Burrows, principle EHO for Ipswich Borough 

Council, said, “We prosecuted because of the serious 

nature of the incident; Mr Firth’s injuries were serious 

but could have been much worse. This incident was 

entirely preventable if the employer had carried out a 

specific risk assessment and followed sensible procedures 

that would have cost virtually nothing to implement.” 

When hospitality industry workers report to work, they 

often end up working long hours; these workers are 

often the reason why customers return repeatedly to 

their respective venues. By getting employers to think 

about their workers’ health & safety, they not 

only reduce the chance of 

an accident happening but 

will instantly improve the 

issue 20 | page 20

iQ advice 

wellbeing of their staff, sadly without realising this is the 

positive effect of what they are doing. 

Miles Vartan Consultancy works with the haulage 

industry to protect drivers, contractors and the general 

public – with a shortage of LGV drivers in the UK. 

The Road Haulage Association says it is short of 60,000 

drivers, with an ageing workforce shedding another 

40,000 by next year. A large proportion of the shortfall 

is filled by drivers from within the EU and beyond, 

but it is not uncommon now to find drivers regularly 

driving up to 15 minutes of their maximum duty time, 

60 hours on a regular basis. 

In a BBC News Report by Francesca Williams on the 

17th 2015, The Freight Transport Association (FTA) 

were quoted as estimating that 45,000 new recruits were 

needed to keep the industry from grinding, literally, 

to a halt, with 13,000 working truckers already being 

aged over 65. The challenge of keeping medically fit 

whilst working long hours, often having to start work 

early every day, not eating well sometimes leads to 

either developing or accentuating medical conditions or 

substance dependency. How can an employer cope with 

these issues without talking to a driver about leaving the 

industry or even worse having to cope with the driver 

being involved in an accident? 

Miles Vartan Consultancy, by working with driver’s 

representatives, occupational health specialists, 

customers, driver agency companies and the industry 

in general has identified the need to develop wellbeing 

programmes that will help drivers address issues such as 

tiredness, obesity, dependency and physiological issues. 

By employers introducing these programmes and 

aligning them with driver consultative arrangements, 

their companies are likely to benefit from reductions 

in absence, recruitment costs and possible employment 

claims along with increases in productivity gained from 

improved staff engagement, staff retention and job 

satisfaction. Spend some time talking and cherishing 

your staff. Without them your businesses will be in 

trouble – look after them and they will look after you! 

Spend some time 

talking and 

cherishing your staff. 

Without them your 

businesses will be 

in trouble - look after 

them and they will look 

after you! 


www.milesvartan.co.uk 


iQ insight 

Recharge and Refocus 

What is it that makes someone the best at what they do? 

I have always been curious about excellence. To keep it 

simple, I could divide this interest into two areas: 

a. What do the best do specifically that I can imitate, or 

use as inspiration, to be as good as them? 

b. Can I combine being the best at what I do, my work, 

with being the best parent, partner, friend etc? Or are 

they mutually exclusive? 

Let’s begin with a. and focus on knowledge workers - 

people who mostly use their brain for work; leaders, 

scientists, programmers, health care workers, office 

support workers etc. 

What do they best have in common? Do they have 

anything in common? Behavioural studies consistently 

demonstrate that ‘the best’ combine all of these following 

attributes: 

1. A high level of skill in a specific area 

2. Communicate their work, ideas and thoughts effectively 

3. They have an effective recharge habit (strong resilience 

4. They have a very clear sense of purpose. 

The most common element that most high-performing 

knowledge workers have is 1. Abilities in the remaining 

three vary considerably. 

Which one do you think will help you improve your 

ability at work and as a parent? In truth, probably all 

offer some crossover benefits. But the most important one 

in my experience is the recharge habit. 

Why? You almost certainly have most of the knowledge 

and understanding you will ever need to solve most of 

your work challenges (relationships, culture, strategy etc) 

and most of your parental challenges (support children to 

feel loved, safe and confident etc). 

But how often do you not use this knowledge? How often 

do you mishandle a meeting? How often do you not get 

your point across in a way that people really understand? 

How often do you not give your children the attention 

they crave? How often do you not just have the energy to 

be the parent you know you could be? 

In his 2009 book The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get 

Things Right, surgeon-turned-author Atul Gawande 

summed up that most of our failures in the modern world 

are failures in using the knowledge that we already have. 

For thousands of years we didn’t have the solutions. 

But now that we do, often we don’t use them. 

The other core reason that our recharge and refocus 

habit is so important is that we have complete 

control over it. 

Lots of stuff that happens at work and home 

is out of our hands. Now that the situation 

has happened, it’s the quality of our response 

that matters. We can control our response. When 

we are tired it’s harder; when we feel fully charged it’s 

easier. Which leads us onto the work that I do: Attention 

management - helping people to train and protect their 

attention using elements of neuroscience, behavioural 

science and mindfulness. In a nutshell: helping people 

create effective recharge and refocus habits. 

I’ve worked with doctors, nurses, scientists, programmers, 

chief executives, professors, teachers, students, children 

and parents. Nearly all of these people could identify 

a solution for themselves. It was the help in making 

it a regular part of their day which made the biggest 

difference. 

More than 600 scientific studies support the techniques 

and training I deliver. I can’t tell you what the benefits 

would be for you - that’s up to you to test - but I can tell 

you that the solution is simpler than you think: highquality 

mini rests to recharge and refocus. 

You are an important person - you deserve these 

moments. 

issue 20 | page 22 


www.tinypause.co.uk

iQ insight 

Sam Thorogood, of Tiny Pause, is in the business of 

helping us improve at work and at home. Here, Sam explains 

more about helping people to create simple yet effective ways to 

recharge and refocus. 

Four simple techniques: 

1. Drink more water 

Take four slow, deep, conscious breaths (four-breath 

pause) and drink a glass of water. Be aware of how 

you breathe, how your chest rises and falls. This one 

action helps you reduce stress hormones and improve 

concentration. Studies show a decrease of one to 

three per cent in hydration has a noticeable impact on 

concentration and mood. Solution: drink more water. 

2. Put down your phone 

Turn off your phone for one-hour blocks and put it in 

a drawer. Studies show that phones are as addictive as 

gambling (because the reward is uncertain - will I get a 

mundane update or a feel-good message? I don’t know, 

so I keep checking). This erodes your ability to focus and 

reach the flow state - identified by neuroscience as our 

most productive state of mind. 

3. Listen... really listen 

Your partner or child starts talking to you. Make 

the effort to listen to everything they are saying - 

really watch their body language. Demonstrate 

your love for them by giving them all of your 

attention. Focus on them. See what you can 

hear. Don’t try to solve their problems, just let them 

know that you have understood. Most of us know the 

solutions to our own problems. When we speak them out 

loud we often find perspective we didn’t see first time 

round. This is what we offer to each person we deeply 

listen to. 

4. Get some fresh air 

Go for a walk outside without your phone. Take four 

slow, deep, conscious breaths (four-breath pause) and 

really tune into what’s around you. When you step 

outside, the reptilian part of your brain (fight or flight) 

naturally calms down because of biofeedback. Your brain 

is busy adjusting to all the new stimuli: the temperature, 

air, light, movement etc. 


iQ advice 

Is there really such 

a thing as free money? 

Alan Cowie from New Anglia Growth 

Hub debunks some myths surrounding 

business grants 

With Brexit looming, some previously delayed funding 

rounds are now available and now is your best 

opportunity to snap it up! If the money is not spent, it’s 

given back to Brussels and nobody wants that! 

In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, a grant is sum 

of money awarded to an organisation which is not paid 

back. In most cases, a grant will only pay a portion 

of a project* and the business must source the rest 

of the funding with company funds, loans or private 

contributions. The reason grants exist is to stimulate 

businesses to invest, potentially creating jobs or enable 

something to happen which would be unachievable 

without the grant. 

What’s in it for you? There is an obvious financial 

motivation as grants are designed to ‘help you over the 

line’ and reduce the strain on cash flow, making 

your plans affordable or allowing you to 

reinvest elsewhere. Moreover, by 

engaging with a Business 

Growth Adviser and having your grant application 

assessed, it’s likely to instill more confidence in your 

plans. 

*Project is one of those jargon words widely used in this 

game. Unfortunately, there isn’t a better one to describe 

it. Projects must have a start, middle and an end because 

grants cannot be used to support ongoing activities. For 

example, the simple act of buying a new fork-lift truck 

to increase efficiency is considered an eligible ‘project’ 

so it’s important to contextualise your business spending 

in order to access grant funding. 

There are some myths surrounding grants so 

let’s set the record straight. 

Myth 1 - “You need to wear a lab coat to get a grant.” 

You don’t need to be a scientist or a techie to apply for 

grant funding to help your business. Depending on your 

industry, there are grants available for manufacturers, 

wholesalers and service-based businesses. In many cases, 

sole traders can apply but normally you need to show at 

least six months trading history. 


iQ advice 

Myth 2 - “Our business won’t be eligible because…” 

The worst thing you can do is assume you won’t be 

eligible. Let us be the judge of that. This is public 

money and whilst it does come with a set of rules 

regarding eligibility, don’t waste your own time trying 

to make an assessment. A quick call to us and within 

and few minutes we will have a fairly good idea whether 

your project/plan can be grant supported. 

Myth 3 - “Too difficult.” 

There must be a fair application process to ensure that 

public funding is being spent correctly but you’re not 

on your own when it comes to the forms. We help 

you complete it and give you full support throughout 

the process. Having a real person there to talk through 

the proposal and give objective feedback can be highly 

valuable, especially if you don’t have anyone else in the 

business to help you. 

So what’s on offer from the European Regional 

Development Fund? 

• Micro Grants between £1-10k. This is a 20% 

cashback on your investment plans. You need to be 

buying things to improve your business and this scheme 

is designed to expedite your plans or make them more 

affordable. If you’re ramping up production, cutting 

costs, launching new products or creating jobs, best to 

ask for an application form. 

• The Department for International Trade have just 

rolled out their new EU offer. It’s called Get Exporting 

2. On top of the free support you receive, you also 

get access to grant funding up to £3,000 at a 50% 

contribution rate to help get your goods and services 

into overseas markets. 

• Help for manufacturers is back! The Government 

scrapped it in 2015 to save money, but it has returned, 

albeit with a different name and a different funder. This 

time it’s EU funding and it’s called the Manufacturing 

Growth Programme. An average project value of 

£4,000 would attract a 35% grant contribution. 

• Keeping overheads as low as possible can help 

increase profit, which is why Business Energy Efficiency 

Anglia (BEE Anglia) provide free on-site energy audits, 

grant funding of up to £20,000 for energy saving 

measures and accreditation to the Carbon Charter. 

What does the future hold? The Chancellor has said 

that schemes currently funded by the EU will be 

replaced by the Treasury so hopefully more details will 

emerge over the coming months. In the meantime, EU 

funding is still here and needs to be spent. It is after all, 

your money raised through taxes. 

If you would like some free, confidential and purely 

impartial business support, not just looking at grants, 

you can call the New Anglia Growth Hub, managed 

by Suffolk Chamber on 0300 333 6536 or email 

growthhub@newanglia.co.uk 


www.newangliagrowthhub.co.uk 


The Northgate Business Centre hosted by The Bury St Edmunds Farmers 

Club, is the business hub within the heart of Bury St Edmunds. Bespoke 

meeting rooms offer an abundance of character, history and charm. 

From small board meetings to large theatre style seminars. 

We can offer a dedicated dining experience, anything from a 

conference platter to individually priced and prepared menus. 

Our Chefs can provide a range of choices to suit all requirements and 

tastes. Various business memberships are available. 

Contact us for an informal look around our club 

01284 750969 | frontofhouse@bsefc.co.uk | www.bsefc.co.uk

iQ HR 

Does it 

matter what 

staff wear? 

Jacqui Burke, of Flourishing 

People, discusses dress codes in 

the workplace, and gives some 

tips to ensure fairness 

This question can cause employers to get 

tangled up in all sorts of issues about what’s 

appropriate, being fair and not discriminating, 

so here are some tips: 

• As an HR consultant, when I get calls from 

clients about concerns over what someone is 

wearing, my first reaction is to ask them what 

their dress code says about this. Except in 

situations where there are health and safety 

requirements for wearing protective clothing, 

employers often haven’t thought to put such 

a policy in place. So this would be my first 

recommendation. 

• When writing a dress code think about how 

it will help your business. This might typically 

include ensuring safe working, promoting a 

consistent brand image for your business, and 

setting clear expectations for staff and managers 

to refer to. 

• Consider what’s appropriate. This should be 

based on something other than your personal 

preferences e.g. you may prefer men to be 

clean-shaven but is this really a requirement for 

your business. A recent case that hit the news 

related to a receptionist in a city firm who was 

suspended because she wasn’t wearing high 

heels. She felt that this rule was inappropriate 

and discriminatory as she was wearing smart 

flat shoes and felt that wearing high heels had 

no impact on her ability to do her job. So what is 

appropriate will depend on the nature of the 

work that people do within your business, not 

on personal taste. 

• Avoiding discrimination is of course 

vital. Discrimination on the grounds of 

gender and religious beliefs is a particular 

risk when writing a dress code. Would the 

firm have asked a man to wear high heels? 

Is wearing a beard a matter of religious 

observance? 

• Your customers’ views may be an 

important consideration. It’s interesting 

how society’s views about what’s 

appropriate have changed, but some 

people still find tattoos and piercings 

alarming and off-putting, whereas many 

younger people consider them acceptable. 

So think about your customers and maybe 

ask their opinion. 

• Younger staff coming into the workplace 

for the first time may be unaware of 

what is considered appropriate so don’t 

shy away from communicating your 

expectations clearly and discussing with 

them immediately anything that isn’t 

quite right. 

This recent blog post might be useful to 

share with staff if you work in an office 

environment www.flourishingpeople. 

co.uk/navigating-office-dress-codes 

You’ll find more detailed information at www.acas.org.uk to help you get your dress code right. 


Flourishing People 

Tel: 07770 477 688 

www.flourishingpeople.co.uk 


iQ advice 

Salaries under the 

SPOTLIGHT 

Cooper Lomaz’s 12th annual salary survey for the Eastern region has 

thrown up some interesting findings, as Adrian Curtis reports. 

The gender pay gap in the East of England is widening, 

the number of people in the region willing to move for 

a new job has dropped dramatically and some senior 

IT programmers in Cambridgeshire can earn £75,000 

a year – twice the average county professional’s pay 

of £37,405. 

These are the key findings of recruitment 

agency Cooper Lomaz’s 12th annual 

salary survey for the Eastern region, 

based on data gathered from 18,000 

people in seven specialist sectors. 

Information technology remains 

Cambridgeshire’s boom sector and 

Cooper Lomaz has five specialist IT 

recruiters working exclusively to meet 

the county’s demand. Those with 

multiple language programming skills 

are ‘gold dust’, able to pick and 

choose job offers. 

Another key finding of the survey 

is that employers face an increasing 

battle to attract and keep top talent. 

“Employers realise they must work 

harder than ever to attract and keep 

the cream of Eastern counties 

workers. Salary alone is no longer the 

be-all and end-all when it comes to 

remuneration,” said Mark Fletcher, 

operations director of Bury St Edmunds-based Cooper 

Lomaz. “Recruitment remains a candidate-driven 

marketplace. Benefits such as a generous pension 

scheme, private health and dental care, life insurance, 

child care vouchers and gym memberships are all 

factors that help retain and motivate staff.” 

There has been a sharp fall in the 

number of people willing to move to 

find a new job – from 54 per cent 

to 35.2 per cent in the past year. As 

a result, premium candidates are so 

hard to find in IT that more and 

more employers have had to change 

their stance and use contract hire to 

bridge the gaps. 

The EU Referendum has played 

its part in the decrease in the 

number of people willing to move 

location to find a new job. Mr 

Fletcher said: “Although employers’ 

appetites for hiring new staff hasn’t 

diminished, candidates appear to 

be more cautious about switching 

jobs because of uncertainty over 

how Brexit will impact the sector 

they work in.” However, 45 per cent 

expect their role to change over the 

coming year. 


iQ advice 

Salary alone is no 

longer the be-all and 

end-all when it comes 

to remuneration 

One surprising finding in Cooper Lomaz’s Recruitment 

Trends and Salary Survey is that the region’s gender 

pay gap appears to have widened, from £8,000 to 

£10,000. The average salary for a man is now £41k 

while for a woman it is £31k. “It shows more work 

needs to be done to achieve pay equality. It also suggests 

that there needs to be more encouragement and support 

for women to pursue careers in areas like information 

technology and engineering,” said Mr Fletcher. 

The survey revealed that six out of 10 workers had 

enjoyed salary increases. More than half of respondents 

said they were satisfied in their work; less than a quarter 

were not. 

The survey has some ‘could do better’ advice for 

employers wanting to recruit and keep the best talent. 

Seven in 10 employees are convinced their work would 

improve if they were offered training and development 

in their current role – only three in 10 said they had 

been given the option. 

A major shift in working patterns in 2016 saw a 40 per 

cent surge in the number of people spending at least 

part of their week working away from their office desk 

or work station. Over half of those questioned said 

they now worked from multiple locations; they may be 

working from more than one company office, at client 

premises, during their commute and, increasingly, from 

home. “More and more employers recognise working 

from home as an attractive option in recruiting and 

retaining quality staff,” said Mr Fletcher. 

The opportunity to work from home is largely due to 

technological advances such as cloud service systems. 

“The use of tools like Skype and Google Docs means 

that office colleagues can actively collaborate on a work 

project. Several people can edit a document online at 

the same time,” said Mr Fletcher. “It’s a big factor for a 

growing number of people who can now live and work 

in the Eastern Counties and enjoy the quality of life it 

offers, without having to commute to London. It brings 

a dramatic enhancement in work-life balance.” 

The café culture is also a growing factor, with one in 

10 saying that digital advances mean they prefer to do 

some of their work over a cup of coffee. Simon Brown, 

Cooper Lomaz’s commercial director, said: “More and 

more people are looking for a break away from the 

office desk, and with cafés and coffee shops offering free 

wifi, they can take a laptop and paperwork with them 

and enjoy a change of environment. 

“It’s a trend particularly evident among younger 

people, especially those who are working in the creative 

industries. It’s also a useful option for someone who is 

visiting a client’s premises some distance from the office 

and wouldn’t otherwise be getting back until late.” 

Some employers are finding that productivity increases 

when they operate a shorter working day. It keeps 

younger staff task-focused and away from the competing 

distractions of social media and news websites. 


www.cooperlomaz.co.uk 


iQ advice 

5 lessons high-flying women 

learned en route to the top 

Is it the glass ceiling or the glass cliff that 

prevents women from being appointed to the 

top jobs in business? Maybe it’s the burden 

of childcare responsibilities? Or perhaps it’s 

social and cultural restraints? The issues and 

the debate have become all too familiar to those 

engaged in the challenge of finding a gender 

balance on boards. 

Professor Sucheta Nadkarni, who leads the Women’s 

Leadership Initiative at Cambridge Judge Business 

School, wanted to understand the routes to success for 

senior women. 

Her endeavour led her to the boardrooms of the 

financial sector, where she interviewed 47 of the most 

successful women in the sector from 12 countries. In 

her conversations with these senior leaders, she posed 

the question: ‘How did you prepare for and overcome 

the challenges of reaching corporate positions?’ These 

discussions led to some fascinating insights into the 

experience of women working in top positions in one 

of the most competitive, male-dominated industries. 

Here, she shares the top five lessons these women learnt 

on their journey to the top. 

1. Be authentic. Be unique 

When you read about women in leadership roles, you’ll 

often hear that they are encouraged to be ‘more’... 

whether it’s more confident, more aggressive or more 

assertive. 

There’s a stereotype of leadership which women are 

often perceived to fall short of, but the women that took 

part in this research have a different view. 

They have achieved their positions by being authentic 

and true to their own values. 

They have succeeded by being themselves and by 

knowing their own strengths rather than trying to fulfil 

an outdated stereotype. 

This approach has been backed up by research which 

shows that authentic leaders are trusted more and gain 

deeper commitment from their teams. 

2. Invest in yourself 

In this climate of innovation and change, it is vital for 

all of us to invest in our own progression. The women 

who took part in these interviews continuously invested 

in themselves, but, crucially, they did this off their own 

backs. There are a number of common ‘investments’ 

that were cited as particularly advantageous: signing 

up and participating actively with networking 

organisations, enrolling in strength-building 

programmes and getting a personal coach, 

especially to help guide you in situations of 

high stress. The key lesson here is not just 

to rely on what your company offers 

you, but to get out there and make it 

happen for yourself. 


iQ advice 

Why do women ‘fail’ to reach the top of the ladder in business? 

Prof Sucheta Nadkarni, of Cambridge Judge Business 

School, says it’s time to reframe the question by asking 

‘What can women do to succeed?’ 

3. Seek out mentors 

Managed properly, a mentor can be a 

powerful asset to your career progression. 

The experience of these women 

centred around the proactive 

‘adoption’ of a group of mentors, 

building a network of people around 

you that you can trust to give you 

candid advice and feedback. By 

seeking out and building a support 

network both inside and outside of 

their organisations, these women found 

themselves with an effective source of 

experience and wisdom to draw on. 

So the lesson here is to identify 

areas where you feel you need help and proactively seek 

out mentors from both your personal and professional 

life. 

4. Proactively take on challenging tasks 

Many of the women cited this as a key lesson that 

helped them progress. 

Taking on challenging, high-profile tasks will help 

position you as a leader and someone who can 

make effective decisions. In particular, there is great 

importance placed on taking up profit and loss (P&L) 

roles to ensure that you directly link your efforts with 

the health of the business. This does not mean that 

you have to limit yourself to purely sales roles, but it 

does mean that you have to link your role to the overall 

financial stability of the business. 

On a personal level, one of the women assessed every 

project she worked on and produced a P&L sheet to 

translate her achievements into value for the business 

and shared this at her annual review. 

5. Be persistent, but learn to say no 

Finally, there can be a tendency to take on too much 

when you’ve got your eye set on that promotion, 

but this can backfire and ultimately undermine 

your perceived ability to perform and progress. 

Many of the women interviewed placed great 

importance on their ability to be persistent 

and resilient, but said that it is equally 

important to learn to say no to things 

that don’t matter or that don’t align 

with your wider goals. 


University of Cambridge 

Judge Business School 

www.jbs.cam.ac.uk 


iQ advice 

The Mighty 

Independent Retailer 

James Pinchbeck of Streets Chartered Accountants 

talks about the strength and advantage that independent 

retailers have to offer 

It is often easy to get along with the pre-conception 

that major retailers are taking over the high street 

and shaping our buying decisions and behaviours. 

Their mighty buying power and unrivalled distribution 

channels seem to be relentlessly changing the face of 

our high streets forever. Perhaps though it is time to 

look at it from a different perspective and consider 

the mighty strength and even advantage that the 

independent retailers have to offer. 

For me, one of the first key marketing 

advantages of any independent business is their 

physical location and presence. The mere fact that 

they are independent often means that they have a 

single outlet, which evokes a sense of uniqueness, 

unlike the homogenised, off-the-shelf outlet of yet 

another ubiquitous plc retailer chain. Independent 

outlets in and around Cambridge or Bury often benefit 

from fellow independents nearby, which coupled with 

historical buildings or other aspects of interest, helps 

create further dimensions to the retail experience. 

The second often overlooked and sometimes forgotten 

advantage is the independents’ unique ability to 

build a direct and meaningful 


iQ advice 

relationship with their customers. 

This is in stark contrast to the 

faceless retail chains that rely on 

the use of technology and data 

capture to ‘know’ their customers. 

The independent has no need 

for supposed loyalty schemes and 

incentives or costly marketing to 

really know and understand their 

customers buying behaviours, 

trends and needs. They live and 

experience it everyday. 

This neatly leads me onto the third 

advantage; flexibility and the ability 

to respond to market conditions 

and needs of the customer. The 

phrases ‘computer says no’ or ‘I’ll 

have to ask my manager or head 

office’ must be scarcely heard by 

the independent customer. With 

decision making often limited to 

one or two people, the independent 

outlet is undoubtedly able to be 

more responsive to both individual 

customer’s needs and market 

changes – much in contrast to the 

larger corporate players. 

Having highlighted some of the 

advantages, I can perhaps be 

forgiven for raising areas, especially 

in the current climate, that are 

probably not given much attention, 

not least for the success and 

sustainability of our independent 

shops. Whilst I have never run a 

retail outlet, I have supplied some 

over the years and even worked 

on the development of a couple, 

mainly in clothing and jewellery 

retail. In my opinion, the biggest 

challenge for any retailer is simply 

getting the footfall and people 

through the door. As such I am 

still amazed at how many still rely 

on just having a window display 

and their name above the door to 

attract custom. Equally alarming 

is the level of on-going marketing 

given to those customers that do 

venture in and purchase. 

Furthermore, it amazes me, even 

more so with the development of 

the World Wide Web, how few 

retailers actually seek to build 

on–going relationships with their 

customers. There must be many a 

sale missed and profit lost from not 

capturing customer contact details 

and then keeping these customers 

informed of products or events of 

interest to them. 

It has also been increasingly easy to 

use a website as a relatively low cost 

retail extension with the benefits of 

being able to reach not only existing 

customers but also those further 

afield. Much of this can be done at 

the quieter times in the week or on 

those days when bad weather deters 

even the most determined customer. 

Finishing on a lighter note, perhaps 

watching an episode of Open All 

Hours might serve to illustrate some 

good old fashioned retail techniques 

perhaps we see less of or have 

forgotten today - who knows? 


James Pinchbeck, is Marketing Partner 

with Streets Chartered Accountants a 

top 40 UK accountancy firm. 

Email info@streetsweb.co.uk or visit 

www.streetsweb.co.uk 



Hear why 

Kloeber value 

the importance 

of exhibitions 

in driving 

their business 

forwards 

Local success story Kloeber UK Ltd are a market 

leader in timber and aluminium bifold doors and 

complementary bespoke doors and windows in timber, 

aluminium and composite with their head office and 

extensive showroom based in Huntingdon. 

Attending key home improvement exhibitions has 

always been part of their strong, customer-focused 

marketing strategy so much so that the launch of their 

business in October 2006 was at Grand Designs held at 

Birmingham NEC. 

In the decade since their small beginnings at the Grand 

Designs Show, where they launched their Kustomfold 

timber bifold door, their stand presence has grown 

considerably. Kloeber now annually attend eight 

nationwide direct consumer exhibitions with a stand 

size of up to 50sq metres to display their wide product 

range of bifold doors, sliding doors, French and single 

doors, windows, fixed glazing, roof lights, traditional 

front doors and their award-winning contemporary 

FunkyFront entrance door systems. 

We spoke to Matt Higgs, Sales Director and co-owner 

of Kloeber to hear more about Kloeber’s exhibitions. 

“Anyone undertaking a self-build or home improvement 

project is investing a lot of time, money and effort in 

to building their dream. There is no substitute for 

seeing Kloeber’s doors and windows first hand, after all 

glazing will form a big part of both the build and the 

budget. You cannot possibly commit financially without 

first viewing and testing the products and meeting the 

people you are considering buying from,” Matt said. 

“Kloeber understand that confidence is a major part 

of the decision making process and bearing this in 

mind, we try to make it easy for potential clients to 

meet us either at one of our three showrooms in 

Cambridgeshire, London or Buckinghamshire or at 

one of the many exhibitions we attend. This year 

we have invested in stands at Grand Designs London 

and Birmingham, The Homebuilding and Renovating 

Shows in Birmingham, London and Surrey, the Build 

It Shows in Kent and Buckinghamshire and the first 

Self Build and Design Show held in Peterborough,” he 

continued. 

Meeting someone at an exhibition means that they 

are already engaged in progressing their project and 

can compare all the glazing products from different 

companies under one roof asking all the relevant 

questions they may have. This gives them a chance 

to directly compare the quality of the doors and 

windows on offer. “Purchasing from Kloeber is not just 

about the products, as we are a company that offers a 

complete package: technical consultation, fitting service 

and a full warranty. Understanding which of these 

services are required is much easier when talking to face 

to face,” added Matt. “We work together with all the 

exhibitions we attend to ensure that we help increase 

the footfall at the events by letting our potential clients 

know we will be exhibiting and what products they can 

view there. We also advertise in all of the associated 

magazines for each exhibition to support our presence 

throughout the year.” 



“Whilst attending the exhibitions is a huge investment and a large chunk of our marketing budget, we continually 

monitor our return on investment and analyse our enquiry source to see where our sales originate. The shows are 

unique in the way that we can meet so many people, many of them whom are at the start of their self-build journey. 

To be involved at an early stage of a project’s development makes it so much more satisfying when we see the 

finished project with our product as a key feature,” Matt concludes. 

Kloeber are exhibiting at The National Home Improvement Show (23rd - 26th March) at the NEC Birmingham 

and have a free ticket link on the exhibition page of their website. Visit www.kloeber.co.uk to download your tickets. 

Alternatively, visit Kloeber’s showroom at their head office in Huntingdon, directions and opening hours are also on 

their website. 

kloeber UK Ltd 

St Margaret’s Way, Huntingdon, 

Cambridgeshire, PE29 6EU 

01487 740044 

info@kloeber.co.uk 

www.kloeber.co.uk 



80 Years of Wallis & Son 

Tell us a little more about Wallis 

& Son. 

Wallis and Son was started back in 

1937 by my Grandfather, Geoffrey 

Valentine Wallis and his Dad, my 

Great Grandad, Percy Valentine 

Wallis. They started selling cars and 

bikes in and around the Cambridge 

area and opened a garage called 

Cresswells in the 1930’s. They soon 

moved on to open other garages 

and businesses in Cambridge and 

Newmarket. We had many dealerships 

over the years including Rolls Royce, 

Jaguar, Lancia, Rover and Land Rover 

to name a few. In the 1970’s my Dad, 

Nigel Wallis joined the business after 

my Grandparents lost their other son, 

Robert. 

Nigel Wallis was training to do Law 

in Guildford and was told by Geoffrey 

Wallis that he was now needed to run 

the business after the loss of Robert 

and had to come back to Cambridge 

to run the Newmarket dealership 

after a period of running our large 

Cambridge site at Chesterton Road. 

Nigel Wallis ran the Newmarket 

Rover dealership on his own from 

the age of 24 until he was 30, when 

we moved to the current site in 1984. 

This move was at a point when 

Geoffrey Wallis was looking to retire 

and take up his hobbies of flying 

and sailing. He left Nigel to run the 

business in Barton. They therefore 

decided to build a purpose built site 

here for the dealership to grow. 

The current site we are in was built 

in 1984 by Nigel and Geoffrey and is 

still the same building and design as 

it was then. It has grown a great deal 

over the past 30 years. I joined Dad 

in 1999 after a period at University 

doing a marketing and business degree 

at Oxford Brookes and 18 months 

with the Marshall Motor Group. 

Since joining, we have now grown 

in to what you see today. We have a 

sales department for prestige cars as 

we have done since 1984 when we left 

the manufacturers and started selling 

BMW and Mercedes in Cambridge. 

This remains but we have many more 

brands and cars as well as a service 

department which caters for the local 

cars in the village all the way to our 

customers who have some of the top 

brands. 

We also now have a vehicle hire 

department from vans and cars to 

Bentleys, Astons and prestige 4x4s, 

like Land Rovers, not forgetting our 

wedding cars company Cambridge 

Wedding cars. We also have the petrol 

station and shop that’s been with us 

since 1988 when my mum Richelle 

Wallis joined the company to run our 

unique shop specialising in American 

stock. 

Today we are still a true family 

business with my wife Hannah Wallis 

undertaking all of our HR and HSE. 

Wallis and Son is now run by the 

fourth generation and we have plans 

to carry on for many more years with 

my daughter Jessica Wallis already 

showing interest in cars at the age 

of 5. 

How have the dynamics of the 

business changed since 1937? 

We have reduced in size over the years 

mainly due to choices that Geoffrey 

made in selling certain sites back in 

the 1970’s. This was the selling of our 

prime site in Cambridge, Chesterton 

Road, however Nigel Wallis then 

decided to look at opening a fuel site 

in Barton with a large shop. We still 

have this shop today and it is a large 

part of what we do. I joined Dad in 

2000 where we grew the workshop 


Wallis & Son 

Cavendish House, Cambridge Road 

Barton, CB23 7AW 

Tel: 01223 263911 

www.wallisandson.co.uk 


We talk to Elliot Wallis, Director at Wallis & Son about their history as a 

successful family-run business and their upcoming 80th anniversary. 

from 2 technicians to 12. We now 

have the sales business which went 

from 20/30 cars to over 100 cars. We 

also started the rental and wedding 

business in 2011 which are still 

growing year on year. 

Have there been any big 

milestones or changing factors 

along the way? 

A big milestone for us was when 

we sold the Newmarket site. At the 

time, we had the Rover dealership 

with British Leyland and following 

their trouble, we could no longer 

support the franchise. They went 

in to administration leaving us with 

a site that was no longer viable to 

trade from in a small town outside 

Cambridge. This is when Nigel Wallis 

decided he needed to look at taking 

the business to a new location where 

he could open up a petrol site and 

have a car sales business and repairs 

workshop. 

What do you think has been your 

biggest success? 

Our biggest success would have to be 

staying in business in the motoring 

industry for over 80 years. We’ve seen 

a number of recessions as well as the 

oil crisis in the 1970’s and 80’s. This 

meant people could not afford to run 

their cars as fuel prices were so high. 

It also meant they couldn’t afford to 

pay for repairs let alone think about 

buying new cars. 2008 also saw some 

large changes in the way the industry 

is run and we’ve not looked back since. 

Some of these changes include the 

introduction of the internet and our 

customers being able to buy online. 

What advice would you give to 

other businesses? 

My best advice would be to always 

push forward with new ideas 

and don’t stand still. Seize new 

opportunities and don’t let these pass 

you by. Take every opportunity as 

a way of growing your knowledge 

and experience. I would also suggest 

marketing your business online and 

on social media as this is a growing 

market. 

How are you celebrating your 

80th anniversary? 

We are having a party at Quy Mill 

Hotel on the 16th of September for 

all of our staff both old and new. We 

have also invited a selection of our 

customers and key suppliers. It will 

give us a chance to remember the old 

days and also look to the future. It 

will be good to tell people we’ve been 

trading for so long and remind others 

we are still here! Alongside this, we are 

also branding the site, our cars and 

uniform with our 80 years logo. This 

will help spread the word and we can 

look forward to another 20 years and 

100 years of trading. 

What is to come over the next 

10/20 years for Wallis & Son? 

Our plan is to carry on growing the 

business. With the retirement of Nigel 

and Richelle Wallis and the revamp 

and the changes I have planned for 

the forecourt shop and petrol station, 

I would like to eventually have a 

modern site with all of the facilities 

available on show. This would include 

a bakery and a car wash to name 

just a few! One new site that I like is 

the one on Newmarket Road with 

the Marks & Spencer store and BP 

fuel. This is something I would like to 

open one day as I think it would really 

complement what we do, both in the 

workshop and for sales. 


iQ opinion 

Carefully does it... 

Looking after a post-Brexit Britain 

Negotiating Britain’s exit 

from the EU will be a delicate 

process, and this couldn’t 

be more true for our care 

industry. Following his recent 

appearance before the Work 

& Pensions Committee to 

highlight the the care crisis and 

the potential effects of Brexit, 

we speak to Matt Sumner, 

Managing Director at Midas 

Care Ltd to find out more. 

Describe the challenges facing 

the UK’s care industry. 

The key issue which adult social 

care faces is the ability to recruit 

and retain the required number of 

care workers to meet the increasing 

demand of the ageing UK 

population. One-third of people 

receiving long-term social care are 

aged 85 or above with the latest 

figures nationally showing over 

873,500 receiving support from the 

regulated homecare sector. Lack of 

investment into adult social care 

is widely reported and accepted, 

however increased investment alone 

will not solve the issue. 

The role of care workers is 

considered unskilled and is very 

much undervalued by society 

which results in limited numbers 

considering this as a career option. 

This negative perception needs to 

change in order to increase numbers 

into the sector. 

How have these challenges 

filtered down to affect our local 

region? 

The 85+ age group within 

Cambridgeshire is growing 

particularly rapidly, forecasted to 

double from a figure of 10,303 in 

2001 to around 21,000 in 2021, and 

more than doubling again by 2036 

to a figure of 43,000. 

Currently the average number of 

older people waiting for a social 

care package in Cambridgeshire 

alone is 161 which would require 

the equivalent of a further 80 

full-time care workers to meet this 

immediate demand. 

This waiting list is reducing slowly 

as proactive independent providers 

such as Midas Care work closely 

with the local authority to recruit 

and retain more workers, including 

workers from outside the UK. 

How will Brexit affect the 

situation? 

The main concern within adult 

social care is for the 90,000 people 

already employed across the 

UK who are from the European 

Economic Area (EEA). 

With the sector already in a state of 

crisis due to being unable to recruit 

and retain staff locally, any further 

pressures including the placing of 

restrictions on the ability to recruit 

from the EU will be nothing less 

than devastating for our most 

vulnerable in society. 

Any points-based system must 

consider essential workers and 

enable care workers without 

professional qualifications to enter 

UK employment and be trained to 

our standards. 

The application process for these 

workers needs to be reviewed to 

ensure it is not detrimental to the 

objective, i.e. the time it takes to 

apply and be accepted must be 

reduced drastically compared to the 

current working visa application 

system otherwise we will continue 

to lose talent to our European 

neighbours. 

On a more positive note, however, 

Brexit will provide us with 

opportunity to ensure tighter 

controls on those employed 

from overseas and this should be 

welcomed. It will allow us to ensure 

that staff who are recruited from 

outside the UK remain within 

the sector for which they were 

employed and with the company 

that sponsored them. 

What does the industry need to 

do to overcome these issues? 

There has to be more effort 

to increase the respect and 

appreciation for people who work 

in our industry, investment needs to 

be committed and a process put in 

place to ensure further investment 

reaches the front-line workers. Clear 

career pathways for those who start 

in social care to progress to nursing 

should also be introduced. 

Additional consideration also 

needs to be given to how care is 

commissioned. Midas Care pays its 


iQ opinion 

workers considerably 

above the living wage 

and offers benefits 

that stand shoulder 

to shoulder with other 

sectors, but this alone is not 

attracting enough workers into 

our industry. Further assistance 

is required and it must now come 

from central government. 

Local councils must receive the 

necessary financial backing from 

central government to help ensure 

support for those who need it 

can be found and that carers are 

properly compensated. 

What does the Government 

need to do to overcome these 

issues? 

With over 80% of frontline 

care workers being female, pay, 

conditions and benefits must 

improve to retain more women, 

however, we also need to encourage 

more men to enter adult social care. 

More steps should also be taken to 

show appreciation for care workers, 

examples might be: priority social 

housing, zero-rated car tax, top 

up of mileage allowance to the 

recommended 45p per mile, an 

increased pension allowance, free 

childcare available from 6:30am 

to enable parents to start work at 

7:00am (the typical start time for 

those working in community care), 

and priority places at local schools. 

What is Midas Care specifically 

doing to tackle the current 

problems? 

As highlighted previously, one of 

the main challenges in our industry 

is attracting enough care workers to 

meet the demand for our services. 

At Midas Care we now employ over 

220 staff and provide support to 

around 350 service users at any one 

time across Cambridgeshire. We 

have managed to more than double 

the size of our business in the last 

two years and this is primarily 

due to us investing heavily in the 

people we employ and the strategic 

position we have taken locally. 

All care workers who work for 

Midas Care have seen their pay 

increase considerably each year 

for the last three years. This in 

part has been possible due to us 

making savings across our business 

and passing these back to those 

we employ. New benefits were 

introduced last year with staff 

receiving additional annual leave, 

assistance with car expenses and 

their birthdays off paid, to mention 

a few. Midas Care has an ongoing 

recruitment programme with 

planned marketing throughout the 

year using various platforms. Our 

investment in this area continues 

to increase with support from a 

full-service media agency and a 

dedicated recruitment team. This 

winning combination ensures we 

target our advertising carefully and 

our selection process is thorough 

with the single objective to attract 

and select the very best applicants 

in a very competitive sector. 

On top of all this, we recognise 

our care workers as the genuine, 

compassionate and hardworking 

individuals that they are, and treat 

them as professionals who have 

trained hard to provide an amazing 

essential service. 

MORE INFORMATION 

Midas Care Ltd 

Pegasus House, Pembroke Avenue 

Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire CB25 9PY 

Tel: 01223 815220 

Web: www.midas-care.co.uk 


iQ advice 

Social Media 

Marketing Mistakes 

Kim Morrison, who runs www.morrisonsocialmedia.co.uk, looks at 

content marketing and how it must be tailored to suit your audience 

A study a couple of years ago by Microsoft revealed that 

the human attention span had supposedly dropped from 

12 seconds in 2002 to only eight seconds in 2013. This 

is a second shorter than that of a goldfish! On the good 

news side, the study found that our ability to multitask had 

improved. Also that those who use social media heavily 

had more “intermittent bursts of high attention” and that 

they were “better at identifying what they want/don’t want 

to engage with”. 

The problem with short attention spans and content 

marketing is that usually it takes more than eight seconds 

for the user to click through to the content and start 

reading. But, there are ways to fight back and conquer 

marketing to people with short attention spans – which is 

nearly everyone. 

If you only have eight seconds or less, that means you 

have to greatly shorten whatever it is that you are doing to 

market to your audience, or you need to do something new 

every eight seconds to grab their attention again. That’s 

why some public speakers can speak for over an hour and 

keep the audience’s attention while others put everyone to 

sleep after the first eight seconds. Which type of marketer 

are you? 

Boil It All Down 

• What are your objectives? - What is the overarching 

thing that your business needs to accomplish? You can 

include an objective from each sector of your business. 

• What are your goals? - Describe in concrete terms 

what the above means in terms of measurable results. 

• What are your strategies? - Describe for each of the 

goals, in one or two points, what will be done to meet the 

objectives. 

• How will you measure results? - Describe, using the 

goals, how you’ll measure those results. What tools will be 

used, and when will it be done? 

Try to answer each question in only one or two sentences. 

The idea is to keep it short, succinct and to the point. If 

you can’t keep it to the point now, it will be hard for you to 

do so when you’re creating your marketing campaign. 

Things to Remember 

• You can focus on one objective at a time. 

• You can focus on one goal at a time. 

• You can choose one strategy at a time. 

You can make a list of each and create a series of 

advertisements that all fit together to answer the first list 

of objectives and goals that you created, all in seven- or 

eight-second increments. But, start with just one. Get one 

completed, launched, and measured before moving on to 

the next. In this way you can ensure that you are on the 

right track and gauge how you’re keeping the attention of 

your audience by the metrics you are choosing to measure, 

which are based on your clear and specific goals. 

Once you have everything spelled out, it will be a lot easier 

to follow and succeed in marketing to people with short 

attention spans. You’re going to find that using this method 

will help market to all sorts of people, whether they have 

short attention spans or not. It’s probably better to assume 

that 99.9 percent of your audience has a short attention 

span and work from there! 

Of course, if you do have a short attention span you 

probably won’t have read to the end of this article! 



For more information call 01284 799505 

www.morrisonsocialmedia.co.uk

Breaking News 

iQ advice 

Facebook 

• Facebook Adds Weather Tool to Desktop and Mobile 

Apps: Facebook introduced “a useful new feature that puts 

a full weather forecast inside its mobile app and desktop 

site.” 

• Facebook Rolls Out Community Help: Facebook 

expanded Safety Check to include Community Help, 

a new tool that allows users to “find and give help and 

message others directly to connect after a crisis.” 

• Facebook Shares Q4 and Full-year 2016 Earnings 

and Community Updates: Facebook shared its Q4 and 

full-year 2016 revenues and provided an update on its 

“progress in building a global community.” Facebook 

announced that its community now boasts almost 1.9 

billion people, including 1.2 billion people active every day. 

• Facebook Updates News Feed Algorithm to Show 

More Authentic and Timely Stories: Facebook rolled out 

two new updates to the algorithm that prioritize “more 

authentic and timely” content in the news feed. 

Twitter 

• Twitter Plans Update to Collapse Abusive and Lowquality 

Tweets: Twitter will roll out three new ways to help 

users manage abusive, low-quality tweets and accounts. 

These updates to Twitter Safety include the ability to stop 

the creation of new abusive accounts and offers “safer 

search results” that omit sensitive content and tweets from 

blocked or muted accounts. 

• Twitter Tests Video Views Counter: Mashable reports 

that “some people are now seeing video view counts in 

their feed next to the usual timer” on Twitter videos. 

Twitter confirms that it’s testing the video views counter 

as a way to “provide helpful context on the popularity of 

a video and… to help surface the best content” on the 

platform. 

LinkedIn 

• LinkedIn Adds Option to Disable Comments on Longform 

Articles: LinkedIn now allows publishers to directly 

manage comments on individual published articles on 

LinkedIn “at any time.” 

• LinkedIn Notification Settings on the Desktop Coming 

Soon: LinkedIn published a quick guide on how to 

navigate the new Notification tab rolling out with the 

desktop redesign and announced that user settings for this 

new feature are “coming soon.” 

Instagram 

• Instagram Tests Multiple Image and Video Posts: The 

Verge reports that Instagram appears to be testing the 

ability to showcase multiple photos and videos in a single 

post among regular users. While this capability is currently 

only available to advertisers as carousel ads, the latest beta 

release for Instagram for Android suggests that “this same 

feature is making its way to the app’s 600 million users.” 

Snapchat 

• Snapchat Rolls Out QR Snapcode for Websites: As 

part of a recent iOS update, Snapchat added the ability to 

convert web links into snapcodes that can be used to open 

web pages within the platform’s in-app browser. 

• Snapchat Experiments With New Lenses for 

Landscapes: TechCrunch reports that “Snap, Inc. is 

working on an updated version of its in-app Snapchat 

lenses that would be able to recognize landscapes as well 

as faces… and intelligently overlay augmented reality 

animations and objects overtop of scenes captured through 

your camera.” 

YouTube 

• YouTube Expands Mobile Live Streaming and 

Launches Super Chat: YouTube rolled out mobile live 

streaming to “every creator with more than 10,000 

subscribers” and announced that other creators will have 

it “soon.” 

Pinterest 

• Pinterest Adds New Visual Discovery Tools: Pinterest 

introduced three new visual discovery tools “that turn any 

image into an entry point to finding more ideas” and make 

it “easier than ever to find ideas across Pinterest and from 

the world around you.” Pinterest also rolled out two new 

buttons, Shop the Look and Instant Ideas. The Shop the 

Look button is found on home and fashion pins and offers 

users “a new way to shop and buy products you see inside 

Pins.” 

• Pinterest Introduces Search Ads: Pinterest rolled out 

search ads with “a full suite of features, including Keyword 

and Shopping Campaigns that are shown in search 

results… [and] powerful new targeting and reporting 

options.” 


iQ advice 

Do you know your 

audience? 

‘Do you know your audience?’ is a question 

that most people, business and organisations 

think they know the answer to. But dig a little 

deeper and, more often than not, you will 

find that knowing your audience is slightly 

more complex than it sounds. 

It’s more than just understanding 

the gender, age or location of 

your customers. Do you know the 

key touch points for your target 

audience? What’s your persona’s 

technical background - are they 

comfortable online? What do they 

do at the weekend? Where 

are they on the adoption 

cycle? 

Whether you have 

a broad appeal or a 

smaller target market, 

to effectively market your 

services, it’s important 

to segment and prioritise 

clients that you’re looking to 

reach. You need to go through 

a strategy process to identify 

and add colour to your target 

customers for your business. 

What is your audience? 

This part of persona profiling 

often gets overlooked. Are 

you going to be talking to 

consumers? Businesses? Trade? 

The media? Your messaging 

needs to be tailored to the type 

of audience you’re going to be 

talking to. These audiences are 

going to be your advocates, your 

ambassadors and your promoters 

so making sure you’re 

reaching them through the 

right channels, with the 

correct messaging, is key. 

Who is your 

audience? 

The first step of persona 

profiling is discovering who 

your audience is. You need to 

know everything there is to know 

about their specific demography; 

gender, age, income, job, religion, 

hobbies and behaviours. These 

details need to be as specific as 

possible. 

As an example, this description 

is less specific… 

Luke is 35. He earns between £45,000 

and £50,000 as an accountant in Bury 

St Edmunds. He plays cricket at the 

weekend and has children. 

…this description is more specific… 

Luke is 35, turning 36 on the 1st 

July 2017. He works at a regional 

accountancy firm in the heart of Bury St 

Edmunds, earning around £50,000 a 

year. He has two young girls under the age 

of five and at the weekend he plays cricket 

for his local team - he is a fielder. 

Understanding ‘who your audience 

is’ should include desk research into 

your sales data, workshops with staff 

members and clients, focus groups 

with current customers, surveys and 

analysis into current business data. 

Where is your audience? 

It’s not just about the country, 

county or city of your audience. It’s 

about the location of where your 

persona is most likely to interact 

with your product or service. Is it 

via mobile, desktop, tablet or on 

the TV? Will it be on your website, 

social media, or via a retargeting 

advert whilst they surf the net for 

a Mother’s Day gift? Will they 

see your brand in the Sunday 

newspapers? 


Article by Rachel Cracknell 

iQ advice 

Due to the nature of Luke’s job, he spends 

most of his working week on his Microsoft 

desktop, but occasionally when visiting 

clients on Thursdays and Fridays he’s on 

his iPhone. He has to be up around 5am 

for his two young girls so he likes an early 

night, and is ideally in bed by 9:30pm. 

He loves chilled Saturday mornings 

reading the newspaper or taking the girls 

to the local cinema in the winter, or to the 

local park in the summer. 

In order to find this information 

you need to study your current 

marketing data. Use tools such as 

Google Analytics and Facebook 

Insights. Are users reaching your 

website through referral traffic, 

social media or paid search? What 

operating systems are they working 

from? This information will help 

to determine where your customers 

are coming from, their technical 

background and the channels 

they’re likely to use to find you. 

When to target your audience? 

One of the most important aspects 

of marketing today is time. Your 

customers no longer want to talk to 

you when it’s convenient for you. 

It’s all about them. 

Luke doesn’t want to be emailed after 

9:30pm and he doesn’t like to be disturbed 

when he’s spending quality time with his 

family at the weekend, especially when 

with his two young girls. It’s best to reach 

him on his work email at the start of 

the week and he’s most likely to save his 

favourite websites in his Google Chrome 

bookmarks. 

When customers do reach out 

to you, you need to know your 

customers’ motivations for this, and 

you need to research in order to 

know the best time to ensure your 

communications will be appreciated, 

not deleted. 

Study data from email marketing 

platforms such as MailChimp, 

which will determine the best time 

to issue emails. Study social media 

results, finding out what time of 

day your audience is engaging with 

you. Study your Google Analytics, 

what time of day are visitors 

accessing your website? Is it at the 

start of the week between 10am 

and 12pm? Or Saturday at 5pm? 

If you don’t have access to this 

data, test your marketing channels 

over a period of six months. Test 

emails at various times of the 

week to find the right time that 

audiences engage. Run Pay Per 

Click campaigns at weekends and in 

the week to test engagement. The 

more testing you do, the better you 

will be at targeting your customers, 

the more receptive they will be to 

your messaging and ultimately, over 

time, you will achieve your sales 

objectives. 

How to reach your audience? 

We've given you a quick overview 

of how to reach your audience, 

but now you need to decide the 

key touch points, key channels 

and key messaging to use to reach 

them. You need to reach customers 

through the channels they want 

to be communicated on, using the 

correct phraseology and content 

that will get them thinking. You also 

need to consider the goals of your 

target audience. How important is 

price for a persona? Do they want 

a long-term relationship with your 

business or brand? How important 

is quality, service and sustainability? 

Luke will purchase the majority of his 

cricket kit based on what’s recommended 

by his social circle - Luke will often ask 

his mates on Facebook about the best new 

cricket gloves and pads to buy. When it 

comes to work, he likes to work with likeminded 

businesses and organisations that 

connect on both a rational and emotional 

level. When it comes to going on holiday 

with the family, Luke likes reading and 

watching content that inspires him and gets 

his young daughters excited. 

Knowing your target audience is 

crucial. Ongoing marketing activity 

and setting realistic objectives for 

marketing should ALWAYS be 

based on informed decisions and 

educated insights that reflect what 

your customers want from you as 

a business, and when they’re likely 

to engage with you. Your business, 

service or product shouldn’t be for 

everyone. Everything you do is best 

invested in a targeted audience. 

Learn more about 

persona profiling 

for your business... 

Cubiqdesign 

Goodwin Business Park, Willie Snaith 

Road, Newmarket, CB8 7SQ 

Tel: 01638 666432 

www.cubiqdesign.co.uk 

rachel@cubiqesign.co.uk 


iQ advice 

The Power of Influence 

Over the past few years there’s been a relatively new word 

floating around in the marketing and PR world, the ‘influencer’ 

but what could an influencer bring to your brand? 

Firstly we need to look at what an influencer actually 

is – and if an influencer is the same as a celebrity 

ambassador. 

Celebrity brand ambassadors are something we might be 

more familiar with in our everyday lives. From the types 

of food we eat, the clothes we buy, right through to the 

way we live our lives, brand ambassadors have long been 

a weapon of choice for various companies looking to 

engage with their potential clients. 

I imagine you’ll have seen celebrities adorning billboards 

or in glossy magazine advertisements, in television adverts 

and, in more recent years, utilised across social media. 

George Clooney with his Nespresso and Martini 

ambassadorial role, Beyoncé and her Pepsi campaign, 

Natalie Portman, Jennifer Lawrence, Bella Hadid and 

Charlize Theron as the faces of Dior beauty and Kate 

Hudson as the face, and body, of her own fitness brand, 

Fabletics. 

You’ll probably be able to remember any one of these 

brands by the face of the celebrity it is endorsed by, and 

this is precisely the point. Marketers have long known 

the power and influence that comes from a celebrity 

endorsement or ambassadorial role for their brand. 

Marketers work very carefully to choose ambassadors for 

their brands, and to ensure that these personalities align 

with the brand values, perceptions and key messaging 

that they’ve worked to create. 

Influencers are similar, but whilst traditional celebrities 

have strong online reach, influencers were born in the 

online world. They have achieved notoriety and following 

by creating content specifically for online consumption. 

With the advent of new social channels such as Vine, 

SnapChat, Instagram, and then, of course, old favourites 

like YouTube and Facebook, people from the noncelebrity 

world have created followers of their own 

through specific content, that is of interest and is highly 

engaged with by consumers. 

This new brand of internet influencer has been bred 

from a generation which consumes media, information 

and bases buying decisions on online recommendations. 

The difference between a celebrity ambassador and 

an influencer, to a brand, is that you no longer need to 

choose a celebrity that might vaguely fit your brand, but 

you could look to work with an online ‘expert’ in their 

specific field. These experts are trusted ambassadors 

and seen as highly credible by their followers, now their 

audiences are so large that brands and marketers should 

be taking notice of their power to reach and influence 

their specific target audience, and most are. 

More than 60% of brands implemented influencer 

marketing in 2016, and this number is set to rise by 

15% by the end of 2017, which means that brands are 

not only understanding the value of influencers, but 

influencers are also understanding their own value. 

Influencers charge for their services, to give brands access 

to their loyal following, and in most cases, tend to be 


Article by Elyssa Fagan, PR & Marketing Manager at Cubiqdesign 

iQ advice 

more affordable than appointing a celebrity ambassador. 

Influencers have been created from the online world, 

and so they instinctively know how to create quality 

content that can be used on their own platforms, as well 

as a brand’s own channels. Technology is only growing, 

augmented reality, virtual reality and AI technology is 

ever-evolving, meaning that those accustomed to a techfocused 

world, will be utilised and can adapt. 

This doesn’t negate the power of traditional celebrities, 

brands are still utilising personalities for their brands, 

however they have changed the way that celebrity 

endorsements are activated. Celebrities are being utilised 

more for their specific skills with their endorsements, and 

I don’t think we’ll see celebrities ever being phased out of 

endorsements. 

Ambassadors have been chosen because of the way the 

public relate, look up to, or connect with their personality, 

looks, career, associations, or even their relationship. They 

are paid to represent their brands and showcase their 

brand values, at all times. That’s why when a celebrity 

has a crisis, this can reflect badly on the brand, and they 

will often sever all ties, partnerships and endorsements. 

Think Gillette (amongst many others) pulling their 

association with Tiger Woods after his infidelity scandal, 

and Chanel and Burberry severing ties with Kate Moss 

after she was pictured taking drugs on the front page of 

The Mirror. 

Similarly, influencers can also create waves in the media, 

most recently Disney ended their relationship with the 

‘King of the Internet’ PewDiePie after it was purported 

that his videos contained references to Nazi culture, and 

that he was anti-Semitic. Popular vlogger, Zoella, lost 

numerous followers when many noticed her book was 

ghost written, when she’d claimed to have written it. With 

any ambassador, you need to remember that these are 

actual people, and you need to ensure you choose wisely 

when choosing the best representative for your brand. 

All in all, influencers and celebrities are valuable assets to 

a brand, but need to be utilised effectively and carefully 

to increase brand engagement. When approaching 

a potential brand ambassador, whether that be an 

influencer or celebrity, you need to be aware of what 

you’re trying to achieve, who you’re specifically trying 

to reach, what is the best channel in which to reach and 

engage with them, and who they value as a peer, or as a 

credible source. Only then will you know who might be 

best to represent your brand. 


Need help in finding the perfect influencer or 

celebrity to represent your brand in the best and 

most engaging way possible, contact Cubiqdesign 

on www.cubiqdesign.co.uk or 01638 666432. 


iQ advice 

What makes a 

GREAT AD? 

“Creating a great 

advert for your 

business is not an 

easy thing to do but 

if done properly 

should generate brand 

awareness as well as 

get a response” says 

Lewis Robinson, 

Director at Limewash 

Flicking through newspapers and magazines I’m 

often struck by the poor quality of the advertising, 

particularly in the B2B space. In a lot of boardrooms, I 

think the wool is being pulled over people’s eyes when 

effectiveness is challenged with the phrase “…well it’s 

about building brand awareness and not necessarily 

generating a direct response.” This is a standard answer 

that seems to have become an acceptable answer, but 

one that is also leading to millions and millions of 

pounds being wasted. 

Creating a great advert for your business is not an easy 

thing to do but if done properly should do both things – 

generate brand awareness as well as get a response! 

Start with customer insight 

Start by understanding the audience you are trying 

to reach and be specific about who they are and what 

considerations they have. It may be that you have to 

choose a specific segment of your audience for a specific 

publication rather than try to be all things to all people. 

However, it’s not enough just to know who they are, it’s 

about asking the question – what matters to them? The 

answer to this question will unlock compelling customer 

insight, which is the main ingredient that’s missing in 

most adverts. 


iQ advice 

Less is more 

A great ad has a great visual concept behind it. Let’s 

face it, you have split seconds to engage people as they 

flick through a publication, within which time superb 

visuals and importantly, the right balance of imagery to 

text will attract attention. So many companies we see 

try and cram as much information as they can into an 

ad - feeling the need to get their whole offering onto the 

page in the hope that something will resonate - rather 

than letting a few well chosen words and powerful 

imagery encourage someone to find out more. The 

reaction you are looking for is “…this relates to me 

and I immediately know I need some of this.” A great 

concept is clever, simple and obvious. This isn’t easy 

to do, but if you’ve nailed the customer insight piece 

you are giving yourself a good chance of creating an 

effective advert. 

Is it you? 

An advert is only ever one part of the journey that 

someone takes to becoming a customer. It’s vital that 

your advertising has a strong connection to your overall 

brand, so that the people looking at it and the other 

things you do immediately recognise it. Try this test 

- remove your logo from your latest advert and see if 

people still recognise the advert as coming from your 

company without it… 

Measure it 

Not measuring the return on investment for an ad is 

just an excuse. You need to work hard up front to think 

about how you’ll measure it and put in place the right 

tools and practices. For example, consider a separate 

website landing page for each ad, a separate phone 

number that you only assign to ads or simply build a 

question into your receptionist’s script asking how the 

caller heard about you and what prompted them to 

call. It’s not easy but it is doable! 


Lewis Robinson is a Director at Limewash, 

a brand and communications agency that 

helps clients understand their customers, 

propositions and processes better, before 

working with them to develop inspiring, 

intelligent, informed cross-media creative 

work to deliver maximum value from 

marketing spend. www.limewash.co.uk 


PR, Trumped 

iQ insight 

Whatever your thoughts are of the man, the newest US president 

has previously shown that he knows how to work the media to his 

advantage. PR & Marketing Manager at Cubiqdesign, Elyssa 

Fagan looks at the tactics of the man dubbed ‘Cheeto Jesus’ and 

identify how his PR strategy helped him attain the highest seat in 

the free world. 

On January 20th 2017, Donald ‘The Don’ Trump 

took to the makeshift Presidential platform in front 

of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC for his 

inauguration. People across the world and, according to 

Twitter, most of America, held its collective breath…or, 

again, citing Twitter, started drinking to forget. 

The business mogul-turned-reality TV star- turned- 

45th President of the United States of America is set 

to be in office for the next four years and 

reports have stated that he’s even 

started his re-election campaign 

for 2020. Since he won the 

presidency in late 2016, the 

President Elect has remained 

bold, unapologetically brash and 

continues to create waves of 

controversy that 

ripple across the globe. 

Everyone will have his or her views on America’s new 

leader. Vanity Fair editor, Grayon Carter famously 

called him a ‘short-fingered vulgarian,’ his supporters 

hail him as America’s saviour and personally, I find 

some of his policies truly frightening, however, love 

him or loathe him, we’ve all got to admit that Donald 

Trump is a phenomenon. 

He rose from his gold-encrusted tower in the Big 

Apple, and took on the biggest politicos in 

Washington DC. As a man with no political 

or military background, he’s become the 

only president who hasn’t had working 

knowledge of governmental policy. Donald 

Trump is also the oldest and wealthiest 

person to ever assume the presidency. 

He truly is an exception in the political 

world. 

But how did he so successfully mould 

the American public, and media titles 

to his agenda throughout his political 

campaign trail as he hurtled 

towards the white 

house? 


iQ insight 

Trump’s PR strategy 

throughout his election 

was made up of: 

• Consistent messaging 

What was Hilary Clinton’s 

campaign message again? The one 

slogan I remember was coincidently 

this re-active statement, “We 

believe that cooperation is better 

than conflict, unity is better than 

division, empowerment is better 

than resentment, and bridges are 

better than walls.” I totally agree 

with her, but the takeaway quote 

“Build bridges, not walls”, wouldn’t 

have become a main slogan for her 

candidacy if not for Trump’s ‘we 

will build a wall’ speech. 

If I asked you what Trump’s 

slogan was, you’d know, and not 

just because he’s president now. 

He rammed that message of 

‘Making America Great Again’ 

down everyone’s throats, he ensured 

the press wouldn’t forget it, and 

when we all created memes and 

gifs making fun of his slogan, he 

continued to splash it everywhere 

(hats, T-shirts, flags, pins) into the 

masses, not just in America, but 

across the globe. 

• Relentless media coverage 

and capitalising on his 

celebrity status 

Trump took every opportunity to 

talk to the media, either by phoning 

in to networks to comment and 

share his thoughts on broadcast 

media or face-to-face interviews 

with the press in person. In doing 

so, he could ensure that the media 

was always discussing him, through 

the comments he would make. 

Being a celebrity, rather than 

a politician, he was able to 

utilise broadcast media, and be 

comfortable in the spotlight, to his 

benefit. Spouting, mainly hot air, 

garnered him even more media 

coverage. We all love to talk, to troll 

and to moan, and this only fuelled 

the fire. Reuters reported that 

Trump earned himself around $5 

billion worth of media attention, for 

free, by ensuring he was front and 

centre in the media arena. Clinton 

didn’t achieve even half of this. 

• Man of the people 

Despite his huge wealth, Trump 

was able to become a ‘man of the 

people’ throughout his election 

campaign. Knowing that the 

American populace, on the whole, 

had become disenfranchised with 

the government, untrusting of both 

those sworn to protect them, after 

police brutality cases, as well as the 

politicians deciding policy. 

It had also been reported that 

mass media was biased and skewed 

their reporting towards that which 

would make them more money. 

Feeling as if the media is biased 

towards the elite policy makers, the 

public are more likely to side with 

a man of the people. Trump 

used simple language that was 

understandable to all and 

he ran his campaign with 

a clear, human-focused 

message: standing 

for those who felt 

less and less 

represented over 

the years. 

He skewed 

his messages 

away from those of the elitist 

‘establishment’ which the people 

had been used to, and positioned 

Clinton as a voice of this elite 

establishment. When she pitted 

herself as an expert, he called her 

a liar, pushing her further towards 

the supposed elite, untrustworthy 

establishment, and positioning 

himself as the leader of those who 

had gone unrepresented in the past. 

This approach appealed to workingclass 

supporters who felt that their 

voice was lost in the Obama years, 

even though Obama implemented 

various campaigns to try to help 

them, such as ObamaCare. Trump 

was a voice of no negotiation. 

America would be first again, 

regardless of the impact this might 

have on the rest of the world. 

This tactic was wholly new to the 

American populace, used to seeing 

the establishment, and various 

politicians, 


iQ insight 

negotiate or compromise. 

With a number of global terror 

attacks taking place in 2016, 

and immigration becoming out 

of control in the States, Trump 

focused his messaging on protecting 

America, and building a wall 

to stop the problem. Simple, 

understandable language that 

showed the people that he would 

control and stop problems, not 

skirt around them, as he implied 

the establishment had done, and 

Clinton would continue to do. 

When the media, 

celebrity culture 

and mass 

social 

media 

supported 

Clinton, he 

utilised his 

own social 

media to 

show that 

the populace 

was correct, 

and that the 

media were biased. This again, 

contributed to further media 

coverage for Trump, and as the 

people distrust the media, they were 

pushed full-speed towards backing 

Trump, as in their minds, if the 

media didn’t like him, he must be a 

better option. 

• Focused target audiences 

Clinton focused her presidential 

campaign towards a number of 

groups of voters, looking for mass 

support. Trump never swayed from 

his main constituency, white males 

who felt that their country was no 

longer their own. You have seen 

support from all social groups in 

society, as well as from affluent 

female students, but Trump’s main 

target demographic was always at 

the forefront of his campaign. He 

never actively tried to seek votes 

from other sectors or other groups, 

which showed his message as strong 

and unwavering. 

• Proactive, never defensive 

Trump had a lot of mud thrown 

at him, deservedly, throughout his 

campaign for the presidency, but he 

wasn’t defensive, he was always 

pushing his message. In being 

constantly proactive and on the 

offensive, he is able to control 

the messaging and the agenda of 

conversation. 

• Being Trump 

Trump is Trump, never one to shy 

away from critics; he doesn’t take 

the high road and will always react. 

If he feels wronged by a company, 

media title or personality, they will 

know it… his twitter feed holds no 

punches. The majority of the time, 

the media will mock his inability to 

hold his tongue, but it seems to be 

working. He throws the rulebook 

out of the window and somehow he 

seems to get away with it. 

Trump may not be popular, he 

may not even last in office and he 

may be in constant attack mode, 

but he sure knows his audience. 

He was able to get to the highest 

seat in America by sticking to his 

strategy. He knew who he was 

talking to, knew whose votes he 

needed to gain and knew exactly 

how to attract and keep them. His 

PR efforts throughout the entire 

campaign show that the media, and 

therefore the general public are led 

by controversy, mixed with telling it 

straight. 

It’s a different step for PR 

professionals; we’ve always looked to 

maintain the contextual correctness, 

but sometimes, the rules we’ve 

always taken as creed might just 

need to be altered. 

If you’re looking for help with your marketing, 

PR and advertising or media buying, please get 

in touch with Cubiqdesign: 

www.cubiqdesign.co.uk or call 01638 666432. 


iQ advice 

Knowing the Value of Events 

We look at the importance of 

internal conferencing and events 

in the overall health of your 

business. 

From the largest corporation, to the tiniest SME, there 

is one thing that is essential for a smooth-running, 

efficient and successful business. That one thing is 

communication. Ensuring that your staff communicate 

effectively across all levels and departments is of 

paramount importance. 

It is quite clear that the digital revolution has 

improved communication no end and has changed 

the world of business dramatically. Conversations 

have been replaced with on-screen messaging threads 

while meetings in person have been replaced with 

video conferencing - and for good reason. Email 

conversations are now tracked with that all-important 

paper trail, workers can enjoy the convenience of 

speaking to their colleagues on the other side of the 

world without leaving their desks, and indeed, the 

savings on time and money are immeasurable. 

When compared to even just 10 years ago, the relative 

speed, quality and ease of communication around the 

globe is phenomenal. However, in a world where it is 

so easy to make connections, are we losing those allimportant 

relationships? 

For example, how often do you send an email to a 

colleague on the other side of the office instead of 

walking over to discuss the matter in person? As much 

as we’d hate to admit it, most of us have done it. 

To put it into figures, a 2015 survey found that 95% of 

workers plan to use business communication tools over 

in-person meetings, however, a study performed by 

Oxford Economics found that in-person meetings were 

85% more successful. A startling comparison. 

The reason for this success is obvious: face-to-face 

contact creates familiarity, familiarity builds rapport, 

and rapport leads to the foundation of any good 

relationship: trust. 

There are many ways to go about tackling this issue, 

and it is by no means a one-off quick-fix, but arguably 

one of the most effective is to hold regular internal 

conferences and events. 

The benefits of conferences and events are boundless, 

building relationships, friendships and overall morale, 

which in turn makes your workforce more productive, 

relieves stress and increases overall retention. On the 

next page, we have explored a few of the key benefits 

in a little more detail. 


iQ advice 

Get Everyone Together 

When it comes to businesses with 

a number of offices spread across 

various locations, the benefits of 

getting everyone in the same room 

together are obvious. Colleagues 

can catch up, share updates, discuss 

situations and exchange advice, or 

simply just put a face to a name. 

However, that does not mean a 

business with one office and a 

relatively small workforce cannot 

benefit. Even if employees sit next 

to each other every day, it can be 

hugely effective to bring them to a 

location that is completely detached 

from work, away from computers 

and telephones, where they can 

communicate frankly and without 

distraction. 

Make Friends and Unwind 

Considering how much of our 

lives we spend together as work 

colleagues, it is often amazing 

just how little we actually know 

about each other. In busy working 

environments, there is rarely even a 

spare minute to ask how someone’s 

weekend was, let alone discuss 

their life story. Holding an event, 

especially a social event, allows staff 

to relax in each other’s company 

and talk about something other 

than work. This will help them to 

build relationships and eventually 

cross over from being colleagues to 

being friends. 

It’s a Two-Way Street 

Your staff are not the only ones 

that stand to benefit. An internal 

event is also an excellent way for 

you to learn about your employees. 

Hosting an informal get together 

away from the office not only gives 

them the opportunity to voice their 

best ideas on areas of the business, 

but it also breaks down barriers 

between them and management. 

This leads to more approachable 

bosses, which in turn makes for a 

much more honest and comfortable 

working environment. 

Make it Happen 

There are so many benefits to 

regular internal conferences and 

events and every single one, in some 

way or another, leads to better 

productivity as a business. 

With this in mind, can you really 

afford not to? 

It is easier, and cheaper than you’d 

think to hold an internal event, 

with a range of venue options 

available in the local area. By far 

the most effective of venues are 

those that are a little bit different. 

Your conference or event will then 

become a real experience for your 

staff - a date that they will truly look 

forward to. 

A prime example is Newmarket 

Racecourses, who are currently 

offering a variety of excellent deals 

including half-price room hire and 

discounted hospitality on selected 

summer dates. Speak to a member 

of the dedicated Conference & 

Events team today to find out more 

about these fantastic offers. 


Newmarket Racecourses 

Tel: 01638 675300 

www.newmarketracecourses.co.uk 


iQ diary 

Two Counties 

Business Exhibition 

It’s time to book your 

company’s exhibition stand 

at Newmarket’s premier 

B2B networking event - a 

free to attend, one-day 

event that showcases 

over 70 companies from 

Newmarket’s vibrant 

business community and 

brings over 200 visitors to 

the town to take advantage 

of free speed networking 

sessions and free seminars. 

Date: 15th March 

Time: 11:00 - 15:00 

Venue: Millennium Grandstand, 

Rowley Mile Racecourse, 

Newmarket, CB8 0TF 

Business in 60 in West Suffolk 

- Innovation by Design 

We live in a changing world where 

customers want better choices, 

richer experiences, and seamless 

connections with technology as 

well as fantastic customer service 

with a human touch. This creates 

lot of opportunities for innovation, 

but it also gives businesses a 

headache answering the question: 

“Where do we start?” 


Time: 08:30 - 10:00 

Venues: Green Duck, Technology 

House, Western Way, Bury St Edmunds, 

IP33 3SP 

Business Over 

Breakfast (BoB) 

This successful business networking 

club in Bury St Edmunds meets 

every two weeks on a Thursday. 

For those of you who may have 

tried networking before, try BoB 

Networking as they concentrate 

on quality referrals rather than 

quantity at their meetings. 

Dates: 16th & 30th March, 13th & 

27th April, 11th & 25th May 

Time: 07:30 

Venue: The Bushel, 28-29 St John’s 

St, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 1SN 

Informal Networking Evening 

An opportunity to get connected 

with business people across 

Cambridgeshire... for free! 

Dates: 16th March, 20th April & 

18th May 

Time: 17:00 - 19:00 

Venue: Holiday Inn, Bridge Road, 

Impington, Cambridge, CB24 9PH 

Suffolk Chamber in 

Newmarket & District 

Informal Coffee Morning 

Head along for a FREE Informal 

coffee morning and for a chance to 

network with local businesses. 

Date: 21st March 

Time: 10:30 - 11:30 

Venue: Best Western, Heath Court 

Hotel, Newmarket, CB8 8DY 

BCMS Event 

Secure your place at this 

acclaimed, half-day event, designed 

exclusively for business owners. At 

this event you’ll discover: 

• Why a range of potential 

acquirers is crucial. 

• What really creates the value in 

your business. 

• The most common errors made 

when selling a business – and 

how to avoid them. 

• Tips, techniques and cases 

studies drawn from hundreds of 

successful sales. 

Date: 22nd March 

Time: 09:00 - 13:00 

Venue: The Cambridge Belfry, 

Cambridge, CB23 6BW 

Cambridge Alternative 

Networking - Together 

We CAN 

The Cambridge Alternative 

Networking (CAN) breakfast 

groups meet once a fortnight 

to find out about the other 

members’ businesses with 

a view to sourcing quality 

referrals for each other. The 

referrals are not forced. 

If you take time to learn 

about someone’s business 

the referrals will flow 

automatically. 

Date: 23rd March 

Time: 06:45 – 08:30 

Venue: Quy Mill Hotel and 

Spa, Stow-cum-Quy, CB25 9AF 


iQ diary 

Suffolk Chamber March 

Networking Lunch 

Join High Sheriff of Suffolk, 

organic farmer and wildly 

successful entrepreneur William 

Kendall DL for this networking 

lunch. 

Date: 23rd March 

Time: 11:30 - 14:00 

Venue: Thorpeness Country Club, 

The Benthills, Thorpeness, IP16 4NU 

Free Cyber Crime 

Security Breakfast with 

Lloyds Bank 

A free breakfast seminar held 

in partnership with Lloyds 

Bank where fraud expert 

Chris Fawcett will be guiding 

SME’s through best practice 

to help safeguard their 

business against the growing 

threat of Cyber Crime. 


Time: 07:30 - 9:30 

Venue: Bedford Lodge Hotel, 

Newmarket, CB8 7BX 

Business in 60 in Ipswich - 

Innovation by Design 

In this session, Alex Menhams 

of Kaleida shows how codesign 

- seeing the world through 

customers’ eyes and designing 

solutions with them - is a great 

place to start. 


Time: 08:30 - 10:00 

Venue: Suffolk Chamber of Commerce, 

Felaw Maltings, South Kiln, 42 Felaw 

Street, Ipswich, IP2 8SQ 

Suffolk Business Women 

Elevenses in Greater Ipswich 

No speakers, no stand up & sell, no 

sill games – just coffee, cake and 

conversation. 


Time: 10:30 – 12:00 

Venue: Milsoms Kesgrave Hall, Hall 

Road, Kesgrave, Ipswich IP5 2PU 

Suffolk Chamber in Haverhill 

& District Free Business 

Networking 

Join us for this free business 

networking event for a chance to 

network with local businesses. 


Time: 17:30 – 19:30 

Venue: Baythorne Hall, Baythorne 

End, Halstead, CO9 4AH 

Understanding Social Media 

for Businesses 

Not using social media to extend 

your brand means you’re missing 

out on a marketing opportunity to 

extend your business. Grow your 

customer base and secure more 

sales through “word of mouse” 

social technologies. On this course 

you’ll learn how using digital 

technologies for social engagement 

is effective as an online presence 

which is vital to secure your place 

in the digital arena and reach the 

right customers. 

Date: 31st March 

Time: 09:00 – 13:00 

Venue: MENTA, 5 Eastern Way, 

Bury St Edmunds, IP32 7AB 


SME Cambridgeshire 

Business Awards 

The SME Cambridgeshire 

Business Awards are open 

to all sole traders and 

businesses in the region with 

less than 250 employees, 

who commenced business 

before January 2015, or for 

new businesses who started 

after January 2015. This is a 

credible opportunity to raise 

the profile of industrious, 

hardworking and 

enterprising SME’s in the 

county of Cambridgeshire. 

Date: 5th April 

Time: 19:00 

Venue: The Huntingdon 

Marriot Hotel, Kingfisher Way, 

Hinchingbrooke Business Park, 

Kingfisher Way, Huntingdon 

PE29 6FL 

Suffolk Chamber in Bury 

St Edmunds April Business 

Networking Breakfast 

Join local representative, Jo 

Churchill MP, to hear her view on 

an eventful year in Parliament and 

how she will continue to ensure 

businesses needs are met by a 

Government looking to invest in 

growth and infrastructure in Suffolk. 


Time: 07:30 – 09:30 

Venue: Edmunds Room, 

St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Bury 

St Edmunds, IP33 1LS

iQ diary 

Informal Networking 

Evening 

A free informal networking 

evening attracting businesses 

of all sizes from a wide 

range of industry sectors. 

Dates: 13th March, 10th 

April & 

8th May 

Time: 17:00 – 19:30 

Venue: The Lamb Hotel, Lynn 

Road, Ely, CB7 4EJ 

Coffee Means Business - 

MENTA Business Networking 

Coffee Means Business are relaxed, 

informal business networking 

events for all local businesses. No 

membership, no pressure, just great 

networking over coffee. 

Dates: 13th April & 11th May (Bury 

St Edmunds), 28th March & 25th 

April (Woodbridge), 30th March & 

27th April (Haverhill) 

Time: 09:30 – 11:30 

Venues: Bury Town FC Clubhouse, 

Bury St Edmunds, IP33 1XT | 

Seckford Hall Hotel, Woodbridge, IP13 

6NU | Frankie & Benny’s, Haverhill, 

CB9 0BB 

Beginners LinkedIn 

for Business 

This hands-on course is for 

beginners who have not set up 

a Linkedin profile, and for those 

who have set up, added some 

connections, but do not know what 

they are supposed to do next. 

The workshop will help you get to 

grips with the benefits of Linkedin 

and to use it to find new leads. 

Date: 20th April 

Time: 09:00 – 13:00 



Suffolk Chamber in 

Newmarket & District 

April Business Networking 

Breakfast 

Join us at this networking event 

to find out what inspired Sandy 

to start her business Scarlett 

& Mustard and hear of the 

challenges she faced along the way. 

Date: 21st April 

Time: 07:30 – 09:00 

Venue: Bedford Lodge, Bury Road, 

Newmarket, CB8 7BX 

Pinterest & Instagram for 

Creative Business Bury St 

Edmunds 

Understand these two creative 

social media platforms and how 

they can impact your business. 

Date: 21st April 

Time: 09:00 – 13:00 



Go Networking Duxford 

A networking event from Mantle 

Business Centres giving you the 

chance to gain exposure and build 

connections. 


Time: 08:00 – 10:00 

Venue: The Officers’ Mess, Royston 

Road, Duxford, CB22 4QH 

The Huntingdonshire 

Business Fair 2017 

Over 600 business people 

will come together to build 

new connections, promote 

products and services and be 

inspired by our programme 

of guest speakers. 


Time: 10:00 – 16:00 

Venue: Wood Green Animal 

Shelter, King’s Bush Farm, 

London Road, Godmanchester, 

PE29 2NH 

Understanding Accounts Bury 

St Edmunds 

This course has been designed to 

send you back to the office fully 

armed with the skills and tools 

you need to make better financial 

decisions and drive your business 

forwards. 


Time: 09:00 – 13:00 




iQ diary 

Link4Coffee - Ely 

Link4Coffee events are informal 

and relaxed drop-in sessions, 

organised to provide a regular 

opportunity to connect with 

others in your local community. 

At a Link4Growth community 

networking event, you will find 

yourself in a friendly environment 

where you are able to tap into the 

connections and experience of 

others. 


Time: 10:00 – 11:30 

Venue: The Cutter Inn, 42 Annesdale, 

Ely, CB7 4BN 

Twitter for Beginners 

Bury St Edmunds 

Understand the hype and 

learn how to make your 

account more engaging. 


Time: 09:00 - 13:00 

Venue: MENTA, 5 Eastern 

Way, Bury St Edmunds, 

IP32 7AB 

Suffolk Chamber in Haverhill 

& District April Networking 

Breakfast 

Join Matt Hancock MP for this 

networking breakfast where he 

will be updating businesses on an 

eventful year in Parliament and 

telling delegates what this means 

for local businesses. 


Time: 07:30 - 09:00 

Venue: Samuel Ward Academy, 

Chalkstone Way, Haverhill, CB9 0LD 

On The Edge - B2B Marketing 

Conference Cambridge 2017 

This full-day conference is strictly 

reserved for client-side senior level 

marketers within the B2B sector 

and will showcase some of the best 

industry speakers with fantastic 

insights and implementable 

marketing strategies. 

Date: 10th May 

Time: 10:00 - 16:00 

Venue: Robinson College, Grange 

Road, Cambridge, CB3 9AN 

Anglia Business Exhibition 

This year’s Anglia Business 

Exhibition will be held at a new 

venue this year – Ipswich Hotel. It 

is the largest event of its kind with 

over 150 exhibitors and they are 

also introducing the new Zone and 

Sponsors Business Lounge. The 

day will start with a networking 

event and sit- down breakfast in 

the main hotel restaurant. 


Time: 10:00 – 17:00 

Venue: Ipswich Hotel, Old London 

Road, Copdock, IP8 3JD 

Proactive People 

Management 

This is a one-day workshop 

for first line managers, 

business owners and 

developing managers, with 

limited people management 

experience. It aims to 

instil confidence to get the 

best from your team and 

approach performance 

and misconduct issues for 

the best outcomes. You’ll 

learn tools and techniques 

to enable you to manage 

proactively. 


Time: 10:00 - 16:00 

Venue: Future Business Centre, 

King’s Hedges Road, Cambridge, 

CB4 2HY 

The Business Event 

The inaugural Cambridge 

Independent Business Event will 

take place in a marquee and the 

hospitality suite at Cambridge 

United and stands will be 

£350+vat. There will be around 

50 stands and many seminars 

taking place in 3 different seminar 

rooms throughout the day. This 

event is free to attend. 


Time: 10:00 – 15:00 

Venue: Cambridge United, Newmarket 

Road, Cambridge, CB5 8LN 

more information 

If you have a business or networking event 

coming up after May 2017, please contact 

barry.peters@iliffepublishing.co.uk 

with the full details. 


ANIMAL HEALTH TRUST 

CHARITY RACE DAY 

10 JUNE 2017 NEWMARKET 

FOR A 15% 

DISCOUNT 

BUY YOUR TICKETS 

BEFORE 31 MARCH 

Join us in our 75th anniversary 

celebrations for an exhilarating 

afternoon watching the races; 

a perfect day outing for family, 

friends, or even business clients. 

CHAMPAGNE RECEPTION 

THREE-COURSE LUNCH 

COMPLIMENTARY WINE 

COMPLIMENTARY GIN BAR 

To book a ticket or a table email events@aht.org.uk or call 0207 025 0035 

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT AHT.ORG.UK 

ANIMAL HEALTH TRUST, LANWADES PARK, KENTFORD, NEWMARKET, SUFFOLK CB8 7UU 

REGISTERED CHARITY NO: 209642

SUCCESSFUL INNOVATION EVENT 

CONFIRMS IT WILL RETURN IN 2017 

iQ HR 

When you have a new idea or innovation that you 

want to bring to life, where do you start? The 

process of developing a new concept, finding the 

right investment and funding, and then bringing 

the product or service to market can be a long 

and challenging one. 

To help innovators and entrepreneurs on their journey, an 

event focused specifically on bringing ideas to life will be 

returning this year. Following the success of Venturefest 

East 2016, which brought together innovators, 

entrepreneurs and investors to make things happen, the 

team will be holding the event again in September. 

Last year, over 650 delegates attended the inaugural 

Venturefest East event held in May 2016, and since then 

the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough LEP have 

been working with partners to secure the future of this 

new innovation event. 

Laura Welham-Halstead, Venturefest East Champion 

and Head of Communications & Connectivity at the 

Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough LEP, explains: 

“Venturefest East surpassed our expectations last year. 

With such overwhelmingly positive feedback from those 

who attended, we knew then that we had to run the event 

again. We are therefore delighted to announce that we 

will be back on 21st September 2017 at Newmarket 

Racecourse with an even bigger and better event. We 

have a dedicated member of the team – Robin Childs – 

working on Venturefest East five days a week to make sure 

it is an event not to be missed!” 

Venturefest East brings together innovators, investors and 

entrepreneurs to make things happen, with a packed one 

day programme that brings together inspiring speakers, 

engaging track sessions, and some of the best new 

innovations in its exhibition space. 

There is also a fast and furious pitching competition 

that gives local innovators and businesses the chance to 

showcase their ideas in front of a panel of experts (and 

a wide range of other visitors to Venturefest East) to 

battle to be crowned the Venturefest East Pitchfest East 

Champion. 

The Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough LEP is 

working with New Anglia LEP, Innovate UK, KTN and 

other key partners, to deliver a world class event in the 

East of England. 

Laura added: “Whilst tickets aren’t yet on sale, we would 

encourage people to save the date and follow us on 

Twitter (@VenturefestEast) to find out more about our 

plans for this year.” 

• Over 650 delegates 

• 96% of delegates said they’d attend again 

• The only event of its kind in the East 


Further information about the event can be found at 

www.venturefesteast.co.uk or via Twitter @VenturefestEast 


Get Funded: 

A definitive guide to 

seeking the right funding at 

the right time and from the 

right source 

Author: Naeem Zafar 

Available at www.amazon.com 

iQ review 

Each year there are thousands of individuals looking 

for start-up funding but knowing where to look or how 

to go about this is often a daunting challenge. Zafar has 

compiled this comprehensive guide which successfully 

details where you should look for the right funding. It 

also equips readers with the knowledge they need to 

attract potential investors. For those who are serious 

about seeking investment for their start-up, this guide 

gets straight to the point. 

A brief overview: 

Section 1 - Outlines the likely sources of funding and 

how they operate. It’s helpful in educating you into 

the different options available and showing them their 

options. 

Section 2 - Next, Zafar looks at how is best to approach 

investors and what you need to consider at this stage. 

This section is centered upon tightening your business 

plan. 

Section 3 - Finally, this section details the 12-step 

process of getting funded and provides insights from the 

perspectives of both the entrepreneur and the investor. 

About the author: 

Naeem Zafar is the president and CEO of Bitzer Mobile, a 

company that simplifies enterprise mobility. 

A member of the faculty of the Haas business school at 

the University of California Berkeley, Naeem teaches 

Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the MBA programme. 

Naeem is also the founder of Startup-Advisor.com which 

focuses on educating and advising entrepreneurs on all 

aspects of starting and running a company. 

Whether you’re just starting out or are already well 

on your way, this book is an interesting read for any 

entrepreneur. It’s focused upon seeking the right funding 

for the right time and from the right source. Many have 

not only read this book cover to cover, but they find 

themselves returning to it as a reference tool. 

article by 

Samantha Nice 


iQ review 

Reinvent Yourself 

“I’ve reinvented my career, my interests, 

my life, many times over the past twenty 

years. This is the book I wish I had at the 

beginning of that long and often volatile 

journey,” says James Altucher, author 

of this compelling read. 

Author: James Altucher 

Published: January 2017 

Available at www.amazon.com 

Altucher has started over 20 businesses but failed at 17 

of them. This book details the adventures and obstacles 

he’s faced along the way. Alongside this, Altucher has 

invested in countless businesses and written 18 books 

including the bestselling book, ‘Choose Yourself ’. 

Throughout his time, Altucher has encountered endless 

successful leaders who taught him the art of reinvention, 

hence the title, ‘Reinvent Yourself ’. 

If you’re looking for similar advice, this book is a mustread. 

It depicts his challenges and highlights the ways he 

has overcome them. Altucher describes the techniques 

he used and uses, whilst also sharing various stories and 

advice. It’s a fantastic guide for those seeking guidance 

and those looking to master the skills of reinvention. 

In a nutshell, Altucher states how change is the only 

constant. “Companies decay, technologies disappear, 

governments change, relationships change and 

opportunity is a shifting landscape. Reading the stories 

and learning the critical skills taught in Reinvent 

Yourself is how I found my own way through the chaos 

of change and onto the path of new opportunity and 

success. Again, this is the book I wish I had in my hands 

twenty years ago although I am glad that I am writing it 

now,” he explains. 

It’s a brave and insightful look into a genuine case 

of personal development. It proves the nature of 

vulnerability and how this teaches us to grow. Altucher 

has gained significant recognition and praise for this 

book an it’s certainly one which can be related to on 

numerous levels. 


article by 

Samantha Nice

80 years of Wallis & Son 

1937 

2017 

www.wallisandson.co.uk 

sales@wallisandson.co.uk | 01223 263911.

IQ Magazine Issue 20

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