The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire Edition 46: Dec/Jan 2019 | Page 17

BUSINESS REVIEW OF THE YEAR Legal Simon Hore, Corporate Partner, Thrings Highlights from 2019 We’ve been involved in some great deals, among them: the acquisition of specialist packaging manufacturer Honeywood by top 20 South West growth company, Wasdell Group and securing finance for Stonewood Builders to develop 38 new homes in Wiltshire. Thrings places a lot of value on career progression, so we were excited to announce our largest ever round of promotions this autumn, adding three partners, a legal director, six associates and eight senior associates (a new role for the firm). What’s going to impact the legal profession next year? Blockchain! It’s not just about bitcoin and cryptoassets, the technology is going to shake up every sector, including our own. That’s why we’re swotting up as a firm to help our clients seize the opportunities it presents (and mitigate the risks). For more info: www.thrings.com What are you looking forward to in 2020? We’ll be continuing our great work with the tech sector and are, of course, looking forward to helping celebrate digital innovation in the region through the Techies 2020! Likewise, it will be great to see TechSwindon, Switch on to Swindon’s new initiative, come to life with our own head of Commercial (and Tech), Kate Westbrook, doing her bit on the steering committee. [email protected] 01793 412611 Legal Simon Smith, Partner, Bower Bailey Highlights from 2019 There have been four particular highlights of 2019: • Sponsoring and supporting various local initiatives, including the Swindon Youth Festival of Literature, Swindon Lunchtime Recital Series & Swindon Town Centre Mural. The mural on Regent Close near to Wyvern theatre, entitled ‘My Town, My World’, was a collaboration between Swindon-born street artist Martin Travers, who runs educational programmes in Amsterdam and Kathmandu, working alongside Peter Crowdy. • The firm went through a rebrand to Bower Bailey. • Our Swindon office has grown as we have taken on new recruits to meet the growing demand. • My personal highlight was turning 60! What are you looking forward to in 2020? We are looking forward to 2020 with cautious optimism. It’s an exciting time for Bower Bailey as 2020 will see the Swindon office celebrate 35 years. I am extremely proud of this achievement as I set up this office back in 1985 not long after qualifying. We are all keen to celebrate this success. Whilst there have been dramatic changes in Swindon and the property market over that time we have been very fortunate to have loyal clients. [email protected] 01793 610466 For more info: www.bowerandbailey.co.uk Finance Angela Ashworth, Co -Founder, Purple Lime Highlights from 2019 We have grown our team and our client base, moved to bigger office space at Hartham Park in Corsham to accommodate our growth and we’ve launched our Xero training programme to help clients – and other business owners – make the most of the modern, dynamic accounting platform. We have also done multiple things for charity throughout the year with one team member, Edd Stone, even breaking a Guinness World Record for travelling from Land’s End to John O’Groats on an electric unicycle! What are you looking forward to in 2020? For us it’s all about innovative technology to support our own business and that of our clients. Things to look out for include: • NatWest Aptimise - no more logging into your bank to pay your supplier - just process, get approval and send via Xero. One snag is you have to have a NatWest account! • Credec - a competitor to the above - however for all SMEs, their bookkeepers, staff and accounting partners this could be a game changer - more automation, less room for error, client in control. • Tradelock - new on the block for business finance this is where you can insure your sales invoices against non payment. What’s going to impact the finance sector next year? Technology will continue to disrupt the sector and we welcome it! Those companies which turn their back on technology and still focus on paper will continue to lose ground. Apps and services which were once the domain of big companies are increasingly available to SMEs. Business finance and the ability to insure against non-payment, a huge problem for small business, are just two areas of rapid innovation. GET SOME ZEST FOR XERO WITH PURPLE LIME’S INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS 01225 904898 [email protected] www.purplelimetraining.co.uk THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2019 17