Our History

Is your business IR35 ready?

Like any other business risk, IR35 can be managed or eliminated and needs to be balanced against other risks such as losing the services of some of the best people in the industry. Hudson Freelance eliminates the risk for the construction industry.

My Role as Chairman

Into the second year under OEI compliance and were able to consolidate our revised processes with analysis, segmentation and a huge quantity of evidence. Due diligence is a discipline we never fail to apply fully. With Ian as Managing Director, Lesley Jackson as Commercial Director, David Bradley as Operations Director and John-Lee Thompson as General Manager, the decision to take the Chairman role was a progressive decision. My responsibilities are now as the company strategist and sounding board. I retain control of the finances with weekly KPI reports and 'interfere' occasionally with policies. My main focus is our brand and how I want Hudson Contract to be seen. Comments always welcome, good or bad, just email me.

Action this Day

I vividly remember one key meeting of our sales team at a London hotel. We invited our specialist tax barrister Jolyon Maugham QC to brief the sales team about his ongoing role as one of our key advisors. During the meeting, Jolyon expressed a view on forthcoming change being considered by the Government in the detail of the Finance Act. It was an insightful comment and one we acted upon at once, with the appointment of additional new advisors and an audit of our contract procedures. Good advice has to be recognised and acted upon. We never sit and watch the world go by at Hudson Contract . . . Churchill’s words, ‘”Action this day” have become our unofficial motto.

Having realised a steadying of business turnover and our client-base, we elected to invest in growth by appointing more sales staff to the Hudson Contract team. We also concentrated our marketing campaigns with a new website and wider communications. We may have increased our spending and staff costs but we had a new message to send to potential clients and the positive strategy began to pay with growth once more.

Construction flows in seven year cycles

That was something my Uncle Brian said to me around 1990 and in the previous recession. He was then a site manager for Barratt and had seen many cycles of growth and drop-off. If he meant seven years up and seven down, it doesn’t seem to be too far wrong.

Cranfield School of Management

I enrolled on a program specifically for business owner-managers which began by asking the question “Where am I now? How did I get here? Where am I going? How will I get there?” The program team boasted I’d get the £9,500 fee back in some way before the end of the program. They were right, many times over. It proved to be one of the best investments I’d ever made. I came out with a strategy for growth and lean operational procedures. A “manual” we developed over the ensuing months to “grow the pie and squeeze the lemons.”

A bold move perhaps

But I remember thinking at the time how such a move, engineered by Jolyon, Stan and I, would put the Hudson business model beyond comparison with all other so-called “competitors.” . But as events evolved a strategy developed. I also felt the time was right to ask step-son Ian Anfield to join the family firm. Another decision which has stood the test of time since he’s now a better M.D. in many ways, than I was!

"Lawful, proper and ethical"

Special Tax Commissioner Dr Avery-Jones described our business service as “Lawful, proper and ethical.” With an approval as clear and succinct as that, we increased our marketing activity and decided to market nationally. I can tell you the mileage I drove that year was considerable, but then all business owner-managers have the “above and beyond” years when push comes to shove and opportunity beckons.

Under cross-examination

During the two-day hearing, I had to go onto the witness stand and be cross-examined under oath, by the barrister appointed by the Revenue. He accused me of being in serious breach of our statutory obligations by failing to submit year-end tax returns. “You’re wrong with that accusation and I can prove it” I responded confidently. My father, who was 78 at the time, submitted our year-end documents personally at the Bridlington Tax office. Never trusting of the Revenue since their 1997/8 “serious mistakes” he ensured he obtained a written receipt for the documents. When the court received the receipt during the lunch recess, it prompted a second apology by the Revenue and their barrister.

Our first new enquiry in five years

After opting for direct mail to let potential clients know of our service, my first potential sale came from a Manchester contractor. They requested a 9.00 am meet and to make sure I wasn’t late, I was found their offices at around 7.15 before sitting nervously for an hour and a half going over the facts of my presentation. Happily, they signed-up.

A nerve-wracking wait

I remember sitting with Jolyon for a bar meal at the end of the second day. “What are our chances of success?” I asked. To which he responded by writing on a slip of paper that he sealed in an envelope and asked me not to open until we knew the outcome. It turned out he’d predicted a 70% chance of success.

I remember well sitting at the Lloyd Dowson offices with three Revenue officers and the most senior of them beginning by formally acknowledging they (Ms Cass) got the process of inspection completely wrong. After two and a half years of research, counter-claims and frustration, the words “we took the wrong approach for which we apologise” came as quite a surprise. Two and a half years was quite a short game in Revenue terms, they can play a much longer game than that, as I have come to realise.

What was I doing during this time?

My house building company continued with 6 lads working on 2 or 3 projects in a year. I’d also started a house costing service for the self-build market. And I was researching Inland Revenue procedural manuals, looking for clues. At the same time, my wife bought another property and converted it into her second 40-place nursery school.

Sleepless Nights?

Inevitably. When the business lost 230 of the 272 operatives on its books it caused my wife and I (the two of us own Hudson Contract 49% & 51% respectively) many hours of lost sleep. Isn’t that what happens to all who start their own business and take the many risks that go with the venture?