Office News

Directors Dean Burgin & James Green have always been keen to support local causes and in particular are passionate about encouraging entrepreneurship and working with young people to help them carve a better future for themselves….. Just like they did!

So it wasn’t a surprise that they jumped at the chance to attend a careers event at a local secondary school.
They spent the morning being interviewed by students about career choices and Dean said “It made a nice change to be in the firing line during an interview instead of asking the questions!”

James also described the morning….. “It was great to talk about how we have got to where we are today and ‘hopefully’ inspire others to follow a similar path. We have definitely met some young entrepreneurs in the making!”.

They were so impressed with one of the interviewees, that they even offered a work experience placement based on their conversation that morning.

We are all looking forward to welcoming this student, plus another young man we had previously offered a placement to, for their work experience later in the year.

A campaign to promote awareness and use of small businesses has launched for 2014 after the success of the inaugural event last year.

Small Business Saturday UK exists to highlight the success of small companies and encourage consumers to ‘shop local’ and support the independent shops and traders in their area.

Non-political and non-commercial, the grassroots movement publicises the first Saturday in December each year as Small Business Saturday this year is the 6th but it aims to have a lasting impact throughout the year as it builds awareness and shares successes.

The first event, in 2013, was a runaway success, with polling in the 24 hours afterwards by American Express, which is behind the movement starting in the US and also backs the UK version, showing that over £460 million was spent in small businesses on the day, with 48 per cent of UK consumers being aware of what was happening and 57 per cent shopping at a local, independently owned business.

Forty per cent of all local authorities supported the campaign, and on Small Business Saturday itself there were over 1.5 million
Facebook views of campaign material, and the hashtag #SmallBizSatUK was in the top three UK trends on Twitter all day.

Matthew Hancock, Minister for Skills and Enterprise, said: “Last year’s Small Business Saturday showed the warmth of feeling people have toward the small companies and shops in their community. It’s my hope that this year will be even more successful as people take the opportunity to support these vital elements of our economy.”

As part of the campaign’s ultimate goal of raising awareness of small businesses and what they bring to the community, it will once again be featuring one small business a day across its social medial channels for the 100 days leading up to December 6th.

The nominees last year attended a Downing Street event hosted by George Osborne, the Chancellor, as well as being featured by the campaign and in local press.

In their role as championing small businesses, Small Business Saturday stresses that it supports all whether they are a family business, local shop, online business, wholesaler or small manufacturer.

Isabel Oswell, head of business and research audiences at the British Library where this year’s launch was held, told atchpro.com: “We’re delighted to be supporting Small Business Saturday in the UK. SMEs are the lifeblood of the economy and it’s important to encourage people to support their local independent businesses.”

At the Centre we’re passionate about helping people to launch and grow their business, with free access to essential information, as well as practical workshops and advice. We’ll be encouraging all of our users to make the most of this year’s Small Business Saturday.

The Small Business Saturday UK initiative has attracted the support of key leading business organisations including the Federation of Small Businesses, Association of City and Town Management, Association of Convenience Stores, Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association and Ingenious Britain.

A Small Business Bill was included in the Queen’s Speech for the first time this year, and contains a raft of measures aimed at helping smaller enterprises compete on a level playing field with bigger firms.

It is hoped the bill, when introduced into law, will help build a stronger economy by supporting small businesses to grow and ensure they are not disadvantaged by those who do not asher to the rules.

Many of the proposals are aimed at cutting red tape and making it easier for smaller operations to access finance.

A key part of the new bill aims to increase the availability and sources of finance for small companies, as well as giving smaller firms better access to the £230 billion of Public Procurement Contracts awarded each year.

It also aims to improve and make payment practices between businesses and their customers more transparent, meaning larger companies will be under greater pressure to pay smaller ones more promptly for work they do for them.

There is also a pledge to regularly review legislation affecting small businesses to ensure it remains relevant and effective, and to cut any that does not meet this standard.

Additionally, the Government has pledged to tackle minimum wage and zero hours contracts abuses. This will include measures to prevent firms stopping people on zero hours contracts working for other companies.

The bill will also close the custom of public sector staff being able to keep big redundancy pay-offs when they are re-employed by the same sector within a short space of time.

Childcare regulations are also to be made more flexible to meet the needs of working families, and pub landlords who are tied to a pub-owning company given a fairer deal, while it will also be easier for small businesses who want to expand overseas.

Giving his reaction to Business Matter magazine, John Longworth, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said: “Businesses across Britain will be relieved to see that the government has opted for a streamlined legislative programme, meaning ministers can devote more time to delivering the best possible environment for economic growth and enterprise. Businesses hold governments accountable not for how many bills they pass, but for what they actually deliver.”

If the legislation announced in the Queen’s Speech means better infrastructure, a better environment for growing companies, and improved access to finance, then businesses will give ministers the credit they deserve. Action, not words and bills, is what matters for business. The bill is expected to be passed into law before the General Election next year, although this is not guaranteed.

A recent post on inc.com, the small business resource, has highlighted the importance of keeping in touch with business basics.

The post, inspired by a Wall Street Journal post by Eze Vidra, head of Google for Entrepreneurs Europe, says his tips for entrepreneurs inadvertently raises this key issue, which can easily be overlooked.

In the same way that a sports star will always have to practice the key skills that made him or her successful, no matter how talented they are, and lawyers and doctors have to also keep refreshing the basics and learning no matter how far up the career tree they travel, so some points will always need going over and over and can never be ticked off a list.

In a nutshell, in the constant race to innovate and come out on top, we are all capable of failing to give existing services and clients the care and attention they deserve.

So here are the top three things that should always be at the forefront of your business mind, no matter what else is happening:

– Knowing your markets and your clients. While knowing your market is key to success and expansion, knowing the people who already buy your products and services remains critical. Whether you are in the consumer or B2B space, the more you know about your customers and what their needs, desires and wishlists are, the less likely you are to come out with flawed products that don’t set the world alight. Never stop listening or talking to your customers.

– Keeping it simple. Listening to your customers means you know what they actually want, rather than what the markets and various markets tell you they want. This gives you the chance to build things that actually solve problems the Holy Grail of any product. Vidra cited the example of Google, who started out as a simple mapping service, before moving on to specialised directions between two places by driving, walking, or cycling. They are still solving the same problem how to get from A to B but in ever more advanced ways.

– Hiring the right people. Always a tricky one, particularly if you start a company with friends or co-workers, but one that is critical to get right if your company is to grow to its full potential. It needs the right staff at the right time and that won’t always necessarily involve you if it grows beyond your talents and abilities. In the meantime, hire on talent not relationships, and develop respect and loyalty so that if you do need to part ways it can hopefully be in as civilised a way as possible.

There are of course many other aspects to running a business that require your constant attention, but keep on top of the ones above and you won’t go far wrong.