Ian Cartwright, Caramel photography has worked nationwide gaining a wealth of experience photographing a wide range of people, objects, and circumstances in a wide range of different locations.

Recently he found himself being asked to complete projects in both Manchester and London.

Project 1

Under the direction of Graeme Armitage, who was working on her rebrand and website design, I was commissioned to photograph Susan Jones, Director of Susan Jones Consultancy, in both Manchester and London, where she has offices.

The brief was that the setting for the shoots were to be in recognisable and relevant locations. Her job involves gaining town planning permission, typically for large advertising displays.

There can be challenges working in locations where the permission guidelines are unclear. By working quickly and efficiently a good selection of images were gathered without issue.

You can see my photography and learn more about what Susan does on her website www.susanjonesconsultancy.co.uk

Or you can view a slideshow of the shoot here

Project 2

PH Media is a leader in on hold marketing, with over 400 international employees, it too has offices both in Manchester and London. My job was to photograph members of staff individually, and as they worked, the work teams, the MD, and the buildings.

Both offices were bright, which meant I could work quickly without much interruption. With the camera on a tripod, I used a long lens at almost the widest aperture, enabling a sharp separation between the people and the background.

I learned something I hadn't heard of before, that is, apparently, businesses are charged if their premises have a view of St Paul's Cathedral.

Here’s what Andrea Cameron from the agency said: “Not an easy subject to photograph, and a gym not the most ideal location. Ian came up trumps with very creative photos that have numerous uses - large framed wall prints, to accompany press releases for the media, website, marketing material etc. I was delighted with the shots and will most certainly be using him again.”

To view some of Ian`s images and learn what PH Media offers please visit PH Media

Or you can view slideshows of the shoots herePH Media Manchester PH Media London

Caramel Photography

Cheadle Cheshire SK8 6NL England, UK

Contact: Ian Cartwright

• +44161 485 2318
• +447712 863864
• www.caramelphoto.com
• [email protected]
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...caramel is sweet

Charlotte Beeley is a solicitor working in the Employment Department at MLP Law Limited, she regularly sees examples of how important good morale is in the workplace. She shared some suggestions on how to keep levels high within your workplace with the members of the Bowdon Business Club:

Feeling sociable – top tips for a friendlier workplace

Keeping morale high amongst your employees is key to maintaining high productivity in the workplace. It is also crucial to instilling loyalty in your best employees and retaining them within your business for the long term. We’ve therefore set out below some useful suggestions for how you can boost morale within your business by making it a more sociable and friendly place to work:

1. Regular after work events:

These are a great opportunity for colleagues to interact in an informal setting. The key is to maximise the number of attendees by making the events inclusive to all. This means varying the types of events so they’re not just the same old nights in the pub each time, which may not be suitable or attractive to all employees. Cinema trips, meals out and ten pin bowling are some fairly easy examples, but get creative – the more interesting and unique the event the better!

2. Formal events:

The annual Christmas party or summer barbeque is a great time to allow colleagues to socialise together, as well as to reward them for their hard work throughout the year. Depending on the nature of the event, allowing employees’ families to join the fun may also be appreciated by your employees.

3. Away days and team building exercises:

This is a perfect way to boost teamwork within specific departments or across the business as a whole. Not only can they be a lot of fun, they can also help improve communication amongst employees and are a great way for colleagues to get to know each other better. If nothing else, a day out of the office is always likely to boost morale! Possible activities include assault courses, escape rooms or orienteering.

4. Welcome and birthday lunches:

Employees who are made to feel welcome when they join or who know that their colleagues care about their personal celebrations are more likely to feel that they are a valued member of the team. Lunches out on special occasions or when new colleagues join the team are therefore an easy opportunity to demonstrate just how great a place to work your business is.

5. Workplace awards and competitions:

If your employees are competitive by nature, why not use this as an opportunity to boost morale in the workplace? Regular or annual employee awards can be used to motivate staff throughout the year and the friendly competition will help employees to engage each other in good natured challenges. Silly award categories in particular can also encourage employees have a laugh together – but keep the categories good natured to avoid any possible tears!

Karaoke competitions at office parties, workplace bake off competitions and fun runs are some other examples of how friendly competition in the workplace can be used as a positive way to build employment relationships.

6. Corporate social responsibility (CSR):

Many businesses also formalise their charitable activities by naming one or more official charities to support through fund raising activities. Allowing employees to choose or vote on their preferred charity can also make employees feel more engaged in the process and therefore more motivated to raise money. Dress down days, cake sales and sponsored runs and walks are all classic examples of fund raising activities in the workplace, but the options are endless. Taking part in national events such as Comic Relief of Children in Need is also a good option.

Businesses can also implement formal CSR policies to set out the aims of their CSR activities and allowing employees to participate in formulating the policy is a good way of allowing employees to feel part of something important beyond their normal day to day jobs. Combining CSR activities with other things on this list, such as away days and team building activities, is also another good possibility, with options such as helping out at local volunteer centres being popular amongst many businesses.

As you can see the opportunities for boosting workplace morale are wide and varied. One thing which is clear, however, is that businesses that neglect the social side of the workplace are missing a perfect opportunity to keep their employees motivated and productive.

MLP Law Limited

7 Market St,
Altrincham
WA14 1QE

Contact: Charlotte Beeley

• 0161 926 9969
• www.mlplaw.co.uk
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Successful outcomes for you and your business

Member Marcia Lister provides, through mediation, a valuable service to those going through unsettling, life changing times.

By potentially providing at least a glimmer of a smile on the faces of each participant at the close of the day, is what makes her work so rewarding for all involved. Marcia’s mediations are a platform to build successful outcomes for everyone concerned.

Here she tells us how mediation can be so beneficial

How mediation can help you 'profit' from divorce

A newly published book by a Gloucestershire businessman who was almost bankrupted by his own divorce lawyers looks at the more profitable alternatives, including mediation, as more positive options when aiming for an amicable separation.

How to profit from your divorce by P.A. Ross is not, as the title might suggest, about getting as much as possible of your household's finances and assets in the settlement - in fact if anything, it takes the opposite approach.

Instead, it is about resolving the separation amicably and, crucially, affordably, while then looking ahead to your long-term future as a newly separated individual with personal finances to manage.

Paul's Story

The author, Paul Ross, describes 2006 as his 'nemesis year', as he both lost his mother and endured the breakdown of a 25-year marriage within the space of the same 12 months.

When his relationship came to an end, he and his former spouse were keen to separate amicably; however, they rushed into the process with full legal representation, and soon found their respective legal teams engaged in battle over the family finances and assets.

Ultimately this led the household to near-bankruptcy, and Mr Ross and his then-wife took a step back, fired the legal teams, and instead arranged their own separation agreement with the approval of the courts.

In the end, Paul says he wishes they had taken a break from their relationship to let their emotions cool before starting divorce proceedings, and that they had explored mediation rather than immediately appointing lawyers.

The meaning of 'profit'

In his book, Mr Ross is not concerned with short-term financial gain through divorce, which is where many negotiations become acrimonious, time-consuming, and costly.

Instead, he looks to the long-term, starting with a cost-efficient divorce strategy that puts both parties and their family first.

Beyond this, his ten-point plan works towards a quality financial settlement and then starts to look for a positive return on investment from the divorce.

The ultimate aim is to establish a ten-year plan, at the end of which both parties will not only be back on a firm financial footing, but should be in profit not only in terms of money, but also in terms of emotional and psychological enrichment.

How mediation can help

Mediation is all about representing the interests of both parties - and any dependants, as well - rather than pitting spouses against one another during divorce.

It's a faster, more cost-effective, and typically lower-stress option than letting a legal team represent each spouse in negotiations.

Ultimately, this is a form of 'damage limitation' for divorcing couples, not only bringing your relationship to a satisfactory legal conclusion faster, but preserving as much of the family finances as possible so you can both fund your lifestyles as you move forward as individuals.

For more information regarding Marcia Mediation please see here

Marcia Mediation

CHESHIRE OFFICE Marcia Mediation Ltd
2a Dobb Hedge
Altrincham
Cheshire
WA150AT

MANCHESTER OFFICE Marcia Mediation Ltd
Bruntwood, Centurion House,
129 Deansgate
Manchester
M33WR

Contact: Marcia Lister

• 0161 425 3940
• www.marciamediation.co.uk
• [email protected]
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Family Mediation Resolution "a bright light shining down what had seemed a long dark tunnel"

Fire safety checks for employers & building owners

Michelle Hay has been a member of Bowdon Business Club for over four years, her wealth of experience within the Health and Safety, Food Safety sector has proved invaluable for many members and their contacts.

“Michelle Hay Training will help you to create and maintain a safe and happy workplace for you and your employees. All training courses are delivered in a fun, interactive, friendly and inclusive way using 30 years people management experience. Essential training courses delivered on site that work for all industries, ensuring legal compliance. For consultancy, training, help, support and advice – Call 0161 298 1040 “

Michelle shares some of her knowledge here;

The law is clear on what fire safety checks that employers and building owners must carry out. It’s set out in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The main point is that all businesses must carry out a fire risk assessment and put in place a fire safety plan. Ignoring fire safety can have devastating consequences as we have seen recently, and in the past. It’s good business sense to attend to fire safety matters, and more importantly, it’s going to save lives.

As more and more high-rise buildings are failing fire safety checks in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, employers should take a fresh look at their actions and/or omissions with regard to fire safety. The Fire and Rescue Service are there to put fires out. It’s the employer’s responsibility to make sure that everyone is out of the building.

Here’s my top 10 things you can do now to improve fire safety awareness in your business….

1. Can people evacuate quickly and effectively? – Practice an evacuation and record what went well, not so well and, make changes to improve. Tell everyone about the changes and keep practicing until it’s the best it can be.
2. Training works – Giving people the right information about fire safety is a legal requirement. It works. Once people understand the potential effects of a fire, they change their behaviour for the better, for good.
3. Give people responsibilities for their own safety – Employee engagement is the best method of continual compliance in any workplace.
4. What’s behind the door? – Final exit doors must be checked every day to make sure that they are unlocked and that there is nothing behind them to hinder an evacuation.
5. Poorly maintained equipment causes fires! – Have all your electrical equipment checked regularly and have a reporting procedure in place for employees to use.
6. Keep fire doors shut – Fire doors are in place to stop the spread of fire, make sure they’re not wedged open.
7. Arson is the cause of 45% of fires – Check your areas outside the building and remove or enclose anything that might be tempting to an arsonist.
8. Is your fire alarm system working? – Where are your ‘call points’, lights and smoke detectors? Your alarm should be tested weekly.
9. What are your fire emergency procedures? – Everyone must know what to do if they discover a fire or hear the fire alarm.
10. Keep a record of all fire safety actions and review them at least annually.

You also must prove that you’re checking your premises and equipment regularly too. If you need help with the above, get in touch. Please don’t wait until it’s too late.

Original Article by Michelle Hay

Michelle Hay Training

Contact: Michelle Hay ACIEH Tech IOSH

• 0161 298 1040
• 07968 749257
• www.michellehay.com
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Michelle Hay Training Works every day.

A Decorator with an environmental conscience

The Decorating Company are one of only two decorating companies in the local area to be registered with the Environment Agency through the Dulux Decorator Centre in Altrincham.

The Dulux Decorator Centre in Altrincham (next to Dulux Head Office) operates a Dulux can recycling service for empty paint cans and tins, encouraging a work greener ethos.

All our empty plastic and metal cans and tins for both water and solvent based products are returned to Dulux for recycling. Whether they are Dulux or another supplied brand. If we bought them from DDC Altrincham, the empties go back to DDC Altrincham.

The Decorating Company are highly skilled professionals whose abilities and skill – from the initial preparatory work to final coat – are second to none. See more here.

The Decorating Company

Decorating your home beautifully

Contact: Mark Haywood

• 07968 156 211
• www.thedecoratingcompany.com
• [email protected]
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The Decorating Company are highly skilled professionals whose abilities and skill – from the initial preparatory work to final coat – are second to none.

Sale-headquartered Stylea&Wood Group has overseen a £150k refurbishment of the restaurant area at Trafford General Hospital as part of its ‘Big Challenge’ charity initiative.

Each year the company offers support to local communities as part of its CSR strategy, giving employees, suppliers and subcontractors the opportunity to get involved by donating their time, materials or other resources to the project. For 2017 the company pledged an incredible £150k to completely transform the dated dining area at Trafford General Hospital into a new look ‘coffee lounge’ for staff, patients and their families to enjoy.

Work commenced on the refurbishment project in April 2017 with Styles & Wood taking a lead on the aesthetics and design of the restaurant, transforming the space into a modern, bright and welcoming area for patients, relatives and staff to have some time away from the more clinical ward environment. The project involved stripping out the existing kitchen, re-designing the layout with new partitions, replacing the flooring and installing new kitchen equipment.

The refurbishment was completed on 28th June with the Mayor of Trafford, Jonathan Coupe joining representatives from Styles & Wood and hospital staff to unveil the newly transformed kitchen space.

Andy Shaw, operations director at Styles&Wood, said:

“The Big Challenge was set up to deliver high quality pro-bono refurbishments around our headquarters in the North West. The project at Trafford General Hospital is a perfect example of what the initiative is designed to do. This redevelopment will provide calm environment and excellent new facilities for patients, visitors and staff.

“The works themselves were delivered by a 16-strong team while the hospital remained fully open. We wish everyone at Trafford General Hospital the best with the new space.”

Mary Burney, Divisional Director for Trafford Hospitals added:

“We’re absolutely delighted with the outcome of this project and are incredibly grateful that Styles&Wood opted to refurbish the restaurant at Trafford General Hospital. The new dining area is stunning and will make a huge difference to the patients and staff at the hospital, offering them an inviting area for them to relax away from the ward environment. Projects like this simply could not go ahead without the generous support from local businesses so we’d like to offer our sincerest thanks to Styles&Wood and the many sub-contractors who got involved for their generosity and dedication to this project.”

For further information on Trafford Hospitals Charity please visit www.cmftcharity.org.uk

Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity

Contact: Joel Oxeberry
Corporate Fundraising Manager

Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Charity,
Citylabs, Maurice Watkins Building, Nelson Street, Manchester M13 9NQ

• 0161 276 4601
• 0777 230 0436
• www.rmchcharity.org.uk
• [email protected]
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Supporting: Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital | University Dental Hospital of Manchester | Manchester Royal Eye Hospital | Manchester Royal Infirmary | Saint Mary’s Hospital | Trafford Hospitals

Registered charity number 1049274

Bowdon Business club has a strong online presence providing its members with 24 hour exposure

Designed with the latest flat and colourful design styles, the Bowdon Business Club website takes advantage of the latest in CSS3 animations and effects and has a responsive design which automatically adapts to the best layouts for mobile viewing including the latest in retina devices.

The site is built with Joomla! an award-winning content management system (CMS), enabling the creation of web sites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made Joomla! the most popular web site software available. Best of all, Joomla! is an open source solution that is freely available to everyone.

As a business club, where it`s purpose is to promote the businesses of its members, it makes sense in this modern digital age to utilise the mediums available online - maximising the exposure of the business club and its members. Providing an ideal platform for individual members to promote themselves and their businesses both on the web and via social media seems to be a perfect symbiotic relationship.

Bowdon Business Club is a not-for-profit organisation owned by its members and run by its members, therefore the design, maintenance and development of the site is able to be kept in-house. Members like Graeme Armitage, creative marketing and branding, Ian Cartwright Caramel photography and Jo Forrest, who co-ordinates the copy makes it very much a team effort - obviously, the site would not work if we could not count on our members to supply a constant stream of material.

Graeme has been a creative designer for many years and started his career long before the advent of the internet and has seen many changes through the introduction and adoption of technology, there have been very few times where the medium was the message, (probably in the late 1980's when just having a website was cool enough) but that was very short lived. Design/marketing/ branding has always been about developing a clear narrative understanding who you are targeting.

Sadly many people in their rush to have a presence sacrifice the narrative and can ultimately undermine their brand

Graeme Armitage Limited

Creative marketing and branding

Contact: Graeme Armitage

• 07595 690450
• www.graemearmitage.co.uk
• [email protected]
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•   Instagram
•   Behance
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For small business owners the start of 2018 is going to be even more dismal than normal.

Not only are they worrying about trading activity, they will have to concern themselves with unwelcome tax bills

Take the example of a small business operating as a limited company with profits of £40,000.

Typically, a salary of £8,000 will have been paid to the owner leaving a corporation tax liability of £6,400 and £25,600 to be paid out in dividends.

In the past, as the dividends fall within the basic rate band, there was no more tax to pay.

For the tax year 2016/2017 this has all changed. Using the above scenario, the dividends will now be subject to tax.

The first £5,000 is tax-free and there is a balance of allowances of £3,000 but the balance of £17,600 is charged at 7.5% leaving a tax bill of £1,320 due for payment on 31 January 2018. On the same day a payment of £660 will be required in respect of the 1st instalment of the 2017/2018 tax liability, resulting in a total of £1,980 being paid out!

A further payment of £660 will be required on 31 July 2018.

Therefore, without your income changing, you are going to be £1,320 worse off each year. Make sure you save the cash to pay the tax!

If you would like to discuss your tax affairs, please contact Chris Wrighton at [email protected]

Flow Online Accounting Limited

Holland House, 1-5 Oakfield Sale, Cheshire M33 6TT

Contact: Chris Wrighton

• 0330 123 5577
• www.flowonlineaccounting.co.uk
• [email protected]
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Deal with real accountants who understand your time is precious

Some members may remember when Steve Allen, Steve Allen Insurance, brought his son Ben to the breakfast club approximately 8 or 9 years ago. He loved the breakfast, he thought Mark

Haywood was very funny (well he was only young what did he know!!) and he eloquently delivered Steve"s 60 second presentation.

Well now that little 12 year old is now 21

Ben went on to get terrific grades at Manchester Grammar School and has spent the last 3 years at Nottingham University (Not the old Poly he always points out!). People ask what he is studying...Steves reply is always the same - Sleep, partying, alcohol, girls and when he can fit it in, a bit of Geography - when he remembers he is on a degree course.

He has 2 exams to go and will definitely obtain a 2:1 and if he pulls his finger out over the next few weeks will be in with a good chance of a 1st.

He says hello to all at the breakfast club and would ask that you continue to give Steve lots of referrals so he can continue to fund his lifestyle without actually having to get a job!!

Steve Allen Insurance

225 Bury New Road Whitefield Manchester M45 8GW

Contact: Steve Allen

• 0161 766 1927
• www.stevealleninsurance.co.uk
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I endeavour to offer all my clients a first class service. A service that they have probably never experienced before.

The aim is to ensure that all clients are insured correctly and if the worst ever happens, disaster strikes, whether to property or health I will be there to provide all the necessary help and support required. Something that is sadly lacking in our industry.