Meet the Team - Jennifer Napier

In our most recent Meet the Team blog, I chatted with Jennifer Napier, one of our Client Liaison Managers here at Momentum Group to discuss FOMO as a teenager, cold water dipping in March, and the importance of making your own opportunities.

How did you end up working for Momentum?

My last job was working as a business development executive for a large insurance broker in Belfast, one day they had a company from England come in to carry out a presentation on Capital Allowances and R&D tax credits and I remember thinking to myself ohh this sounds interesting, this is a business that actually helps companies get money back as opposed to taking if from them and I made a mental note that I would like to be a part of that industry. Fast forward a few months I saw a job advertised with Momentum as a business development/client manager and I decided to apply for it. I was already familiar with Momentum as some of my previous colleagues in the insurance brokers had mutual connections, so I knew they were a reputable company. The rest is history.

What is the most fulfilling part of your role?

There is no better feeling for me than when a client has a successful R&D claim. I am employed as a business development/client manager and much of my role is networking & reaching out to companies who I feel may benefit from R&D Tax Credits. To be honest, most people I speak to know nothing about R&D Tax Credits or are convinced they don’t do R&D but in reality, most of them just don’t realise it, they tend to be quite dubious, possibly even suspicious so its hugely satisfying for me to hear a client admit they were sceptical to now being absolutely delighted with the service the team at Momentum have provided, firstly in helping them understand what R&D Tax Credits are and secondly helping them to receive their qualifying R&D expenditure back into their businesses bottom line.

Why would you recommend R&D Tax Credits someone?

Why would you not? it’s a no brainer really. What does a client have to lose by having a conversation with the team here at Momentum who are always happy to carry out a free R&D technical survey to discuss the work the client does and to help establish if that work qualifies as R&D. The whole point of R&D Tax Credits is to incentivise limited companies to be innovative, the reality is there are so many really interesting companies in the Uk and Ireland doing ground-breaking stuff but because it seems like the norm to them they have no idea that work may qualify as R&D and therefore are potentially sitting on some untapped financial gain back into their business.

What is the most important piece of business advise you’ve been given?

Create your own opportunities! Years ago in one of my first sales job when I thought I was invincible yet wasn’t getting enough sales and I remember the sales director said to me "Jennifer, opportunities very rarely come knocking on your door, you’ve got to get off your backside and go out and create them" and he was so right. Keep chipping away and you’ll succeed.

What do you do when you’re not at work?

At the minute I can usually be found lying on the sofa in my onesie watching Netflix, no only joking, I don’t actually own a onesie. Actually I do lots of stuff when I’m not at work, I love my holidays and can’t wait until we are able to travel again, I love nothing more than being at the beach although preferably somewhere warm and sunny but at the minute usually somewhere along the Co Down coast, recently we’ve been going to White Rock just outside Killinchy for a little paddle on the kayak or occasionally and I mean very occasionally and if I’m feeling brave we go for a cold water swim which as you can imagine is absolutely baltic in the middle of March in your swimming suit. I also took guitar lessons a few ago so I do pick that up from time to time.

If you were able to tell your 18-year-old self one thing, what would you say?

Appreciate the simple things in life. When you’re young and always looking for the next best thing you don’t realise nor appreciate what you’ve got around you, you’re always looking for something bigger and better and then when you get older you realise that none of that is important, what you think you’re looking for is never as good as what you thought. I think I used to have a bit of that FOMO syndrome, but then what 18 year-olds don’t.