Cyberscape Media

Dr Neil Williams happened to make a life-changing career shift, all thanks to a crashed satellite. As part of the team working on the polar orbiting environmental satellite CyroSat, Neil was hit hard by its failed launch in 2005. He then took time out, focusing on a side hobby in affiliate marketing to keep himself occupied and to earn some additional income.

Within a few months of focusing on this side hobby, it began to turn into a highly successful business and within a year he was earning far more than he was working for ESA in Darmstadt, Germany. Neil realised this was his ticket to a better life and so quit his job and returned to England to focus on building his affiliate business, Cyberscape Media.

Together with his now wife, Dr. Ciara Muldoon, the pair grew the business, raising the profile of national and international online services through a mix of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing and the creation of affiliate websites.

Cyberscape Media’s success has been such that the couple have been able to focus on other interests too, such as the creation of charitable search engine called SearchScene.com which is powered by a feed from Microsoft Bing. Search Scene gives 95% of its profits back to charities around the world.

Helping Neil and Ciara on their journey has been Simpkins Edwards. Living in Exeter the couple wanted a local accountant with the skills and knowledge to help them run their business successfully. Key among their requirements was an advisor that could provide an analysis of their accounts as well as proactive guidance to assist with their tax affairs and the extraction of money from business tax-efficiently.

“We wanted an accountant that could drop in and see us, go through the books and assist us with ongoing advice” says Dr Williams. “We then met Jon Williams and we knew that there was a good fit. We signed up to Simkins Edwards quarterly service, whereby they maintain our books and handle our management accounts, and we haven’t looked back.”

Jon and his team handle the VAT submissions and assist with the annual preparation of the accounts and corporation tax returns. Jon also helps the couple personally with their income tax, guiding them on the most tax efficient way to extract profit from the business, including advice on remuneration and company cars.

Dr Williams adds “with Simpkins Edwards’ assistance, CSV bank statements are imported into Xero. These are then reviewed by Jon and his team against expenditure and tracked against quarterly income, providing us with in-depth commentary and analysis reports which are vital to forecasting and performance reviews.” He finishes off to say “Simpkins Edwards gives us the certainty that were not only tax efficient but that we pay our taxes responsibly. That’s a huge relief for us and now allows us to focus on helping the public kick the Google Habit. Now, users are just one click away from making the world a better place, simply by switching to Search Scene”