Find out what we've been up to in recent months at CBC.

INSIDE THIS EDITION

CAROLINE BOARDMAN CONSULTING business news and current offers.

CLIENT FOCUS: Frankie Slimane of Make-up by Frankie. Frankie answers some questions, including how her fantastic business has developed during the pandemic. 

SPRING Tax tip, FreeAgent tip and Money Saving tip.

CBC business news and current offers

Here we are in Spring 2021. We have had a very busy first couple of months of 2021, with 24 tax returns filed in January and then taking on new clients in February, alongside home-school and another isolation period (Imogen this time!). The rest of the year is surely going to be a breeze :-)

What's been happening?

• The big thing that we've been working on this quarter is ensuring all our client self-assessment tax returns are filed. They were all in by 25th January. Hooray! We were almost done (thank goodness!) by the time the government decided to extend the deadline to 28th Feb 2021. I had a feeling they were going to extend the deadline, but they only extended the filing deadline so if you left paying your bill until 28th Feb too, HMRC will add interest to the amount you owe, but no fines.

• We've also been working on and filing company accounts and corporation tax returns. If you have a Limited Company, your year-end will be different to the April to April tax year and so will the deadlines, so as a practice, we are always keeping on top of this for clients too.
• 6 sole trader clients have incorporated this month (changed from a sole trader to a Limited Company). If you are thinking about incorporating, have a read of my LinkedIn article on 5 important things you need to know when you decide to form a Limited Company. | LinkedIn
• Quite a few clients are approaching the £85,000 turnover VAT threshold too. If you think you may be soon, or if this is your goal, have a read of this one 5 Things to Consider if You’re Approaching the VAT Threshold. | LinkedIn

• Sabrina, Michelle and Emily all helped us meet the self-assessment deadline. I love that I have a team of people supporting me. As the business grows this support is invaluable to me.
• Chris (my husband) has massively helped too, he updates the website and helps me with operations as well as being much needed tech support! 
• I'm coming to the end of my 6 month programme with Enterprising You. I have found it to be a brilliant help to me and my business. My assigned coach was Rebecca Levene and the big course I took was The Entrepreneurial Operating System with Jaan Scott of Matchbox Associates Limited. Help for Self-Employed in Manchester | EnterprisingYou (enterprising-you.co.uk)
• My guest blog for Mettle was published and you can see it here:- Set a budget for your small business in 5 steps | Mettle
• I've been presenting too! I gave a talk at the local Trafford Women in business event in February which has lead to 2 more speaking gigs over the next couple of months. Side Hustle Saturday School - Starts 1st April 2021! — Just Jaz
• And finally, congratulations to everyone who won an award last week at the Trafford Business and Community Awards. What a fantastic online event that was. We were the proud winners of the Professional Services Business Award. Promoting Trafford | Facebook

Current CBC offers

• I'm still offering the annual FreeAgent accounting software licence to all clients for £150 per year for sole traders and £210 per year for Limited Companies. 2021/2022 invoices will be sent out today (1st March 2021).
• Tax investigation insurance renewal invoices will all be sent on 1st April 2021 and this is still available at £100 per year. If you would like more details of this, please let me know.

CLIENT FOCUS

This month it's make-up artist (MUA), Frankie Slimane (nee Noone).

Frankie spoke at my event last month where she told us about her experience in 2020. I asked for some questions about her business. I hope you enjoy her sharing her journey.

1. What is your business? What do you do? How long have you been in business?

I’m an MUA for all occasions:

★Occasion make-up,
★Bridal make-up,
★1-1 lessons,
★Group masterclasses.

I have a studio based in Heywood North Manchester. There’s a team of us there and we have all been working in the make-up industry each for over 10 years, glamming up the people of the North West of the UK, making each client welcome and relaxed.

I set up Make-up by Frankie after working for Mac at Selfridges for 3 years. I absolutely loved it there and got so much experience but I’d started doing some freelance make-up too and just couldn’t juggle both so I made the leap and over time, my team joined me too (all ex-Mac).

2. How many followers do you have on Instagram and how did you build that following up!?

Just over 13,000 and I honestly can’t tell you a magic formula. It’s just grown organically over time. I do spend A LOT of time on the ‘gram though 😊 All my followers are so lovely and I really enjoy chatting to them all every day. Once a week, I run short tutorials, creating a different make-up look each week. It can just be something I fancy, but mainly, it’s a request from one of you guys. Absolutely be sure to get in touch if you want to request, or need help with something in particular.

3. Tell us about the NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator course and what you learnt from that.

Back in November 2019, I attended one of Caroline’s FreeAgent training event at the NatWest Accelerator hub in Manchester. I walked in late (sorry!), a bit hungover and embarrassingly the lady doing the talk about the Accelerator talk recognised me from Instagram! Once I got over that, I listened to the talk and was really interested so I applied.

The NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator is a six-month programme for entrepreneurs with high growth businesses who are looking to scale up.

If you’ve already got traction, and are selling to customers and you’re growing your team, may be aiming to expand your reach into new markets, seeking further significant investment or scaling your turnover and profitability.

The interview process was pretty gruelling, having to pitch myself to a panel but in March 2020, I got the news that I had been successful and could start the 6-month programme.

4. The beauty industry has been hit hard in 2020, how did you feel in March last year when you had all the bridal make-up cancellations and what did you do about it?

It was awful, all these brides who were cancelling or postponing their weddings. Some of my team are newly self-employed too so there was to be no government support for them either.

I threw myself into the accelerator course, I was learning so much about business and it was really making my focus on areas I hadn’t looked at much before. I started to think of ways that I could pivot the business. I’d been thinking for a while about selling products, so started with brush cleaning kits. I couldn’t believe it when they sold out on the first evening I put them on sale! Then I started to have the idea of creating my own branded brushes… and FrankieBrush was born.

5. Tell us about FrankieBrush!!! How did you do it all? – From manufacturing to ensuring the quality, creating a website, launching and finally managing the influx of orders!?

In November 2020 I launched my own branded range of make-up brushes!! 28 brushes. Vegan. Cruelty-free. The BEST quality synthetic! And affordable. FRANKIEBRUSH★.

I researched quite a few manufacturers in China and got some samples shipped over. The quality on the first few batches wasn’t up to scratch so I ended up sending some brushes over to them to let them really know the kind of quality I wanted and I didn’t settle until I had it perfect!

I had a website already but it was a WordPress one that I’d paid someone to build years ago, I tried to update it but it was all so confusing and I couldn’t get hold of the web designer who did mine so decided to start from scratch and used Squarespace which I found so much more user friendly and I built it myself.

The launch was amazing! I loved it. Apart from, on the date I was planning to start talking about the launch, back in October 2020, I got coronavirus! And so, did my husband, we were completely wiped out for a week. It was awful. But once I was out of bed, I started talking about the launch on Instagram and building up to the date. I launched in mid-November and got 500 orders in the first week! I had to get all the family on board packaging, labelling and posting. It was a proper production line with me getting all the family involved 😊. The orders have been steady since then, I got married and went on honeymoon to Dubai in December and the orders didn't stop whilst on honeymoon, I employed my sister to run the show for me whilst we were away! She turned into me for a month! And now she's working with me still too. Orders are coming in fast still and it’s all going really well. As well as the brushes I also sell top quality adult and kid’s hoodies, make-up bags, still sell the brush cleaning kits and you can buy lashes on my website too.

CBC's SPRING TIPS

TAX TIP

This one is taken from an article I wrote recently on LinkedIn.

HIGH INCOME CHILD BENEFIT TAX CHARGE

You may have to pay a tax charge, known as the ‘High Income Child Benefit Charge’, if you have an individual income over £50,000 and you or your partner get Child Benefit, someone else gets Child Benefit for a child living with you and they contribute at least an equal amount towards the child’s upkeep. It does not matter if the child living with you is not your own child.

To work out if your income is over the threshold, you’ll need to work out your ‘adjusted net income’. Your adjusted net income is your total taxable income before any personal allowances and less things like Gift Aid. Use the Child Benefit tax calculator https://www.gov.uk/child-benef... to get an estimate of your adjusted net income.

See my full family friendly tax tips article here:- My 5 family friendly tax tips | LinkedIn

MONEY SAVING TIP

With the Bank of England's base rate at an all-time low, savings rates have been hit hard. Yet if you're on a pitiful 0.01% – as many are – you can still smash that rate. So whether you've £1 or £1 million, take action now to ensure you're getting every possible penny of interest on your savings. Below we take you through the maze of accounts to find the most profitable home for your cash – and keep it safe.

Here's your Top Savings accounts: 0.5% easy access or up to 1.25% fixed (moneysavingexpert.com) courtesy of Martin Lewis.

FREEAGENT TIP