In a month’s time, on Monday 14 November 2022, the free to attend East Midlands Expo will return! Taking place at the East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham, the established event of over 20 years has everything you require for a great day of business generation, with the chance to meet more potential clients in one amazing cost effective day, than it would take months out on the road. A well targeted exhibition and networking opportunity, aimed at the construction, property, business, investment, finance, professional services and related B2B markets, register to attend the event for free here. The day, for which Business Link is a proud partner, will begin with exhibitor breakfast networking, with the exhibition opening to attendees at 9am. A seminar will take place between 10:45am and noon with BSP Consulting’s directors Mark Rayers and Tony Goddard lined up to present ‘Sustainability and how engineering plays its part’. Not to be missed, a special networking lunch (for which tickets can be purchased here) will then take place between 12:15pm and 2:15pm, and the exhibition will close at 3:30pm.

For more information on exhibiting at the event click here.

To register to attend the event for free click here.

To secure tickets for the networking lunch click here.

From property agents to developers, architects, contractors, investors, PR firms, and more, see the list of current exhibitors here.

Multi-sector HR firm, Breedon Consulting, has announced the launch of its franchise packages in the UK, as it reaches year on year growth.

With two franchises currently operating in Northamptonshire and North Buckinghamshire, interest and uptake in Breedon Consulting’s franchise model has since gathered pace, motivating the launch of the firm’s new franchise packages, targeting HR professionals and individuals looking to set up on their own.

Research suggests that 64% of the UK’s workforce want to start a business with the primary reasons of being their own boss and to improve their earnings, according to SME Loans. Becoming a franchisee gives individuals the benefit of being their own boss without the risk of starting their own independent business from scratch.

Located in the heart of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, Breedon Consulting has seen a record success of retaining long term clients alongside welcoming new clients via referrals, with a 30% increase during the first year of the pandemic.

The franchise package will include a five-year renewable franchise agreement, a comprehensive operational manual and intranet, a geographic territory of over 11,000 SME limited company businesses alongside smaller sole trader businesses and academic institutions.

Other incentives involve full business administration and set up support, integrated CRM, finance and business planning systems, full ongoing IT support, holiday cover, coaching and drop-in sessions to work with franchisees on an ongoing basis.

On the business’s franchise launch, Managing Director of Breedon Consulting, Nicki Robson, said: “We are thrilled to announce the launch of our franchise packages and look forward to seeing the fantastic reputation we have built locally mirrored nationwide.

“Expanding the franchise network gives Breedon Consulting the ability to grow geographically, allowing a nationwide team of HR specialists to confidently build their own business with a fantastic brand, providing exceptional professional support to SMEs.”

Wendy Slater, Northants Branch franchisee, said: “I was originally a client of Breedon Consulting and they provided much needed support for our business, which was tailored to our specific needs. It was such a refreshingly commercial form of HR support that when they said they wanted to open more branches nationwide I jumped at the chance to join them!

“As well as providing excellent training, you get access to all their systems which are intuitive and integrate with each other. There is a full bank of templates and collateral which means there is little you have to create yourself, just tailor for your client. The most important element is the breadth of offer from Breedon which covers all of the HR support a client could need. We also have access to the Head Office team, if you need any help or support.”

The consultancy looks to set up a franchise per quarter over the next three years.

Greg Simpson, founder of Press for Attention PR, shares his advice following a PR crisis. There is something uniquely British about queuing. We pride ourselves on it and recent events have of course taken our queuing skills, patience and monitoring to new heights. There was even a Twitter feed and hashtag for #thequeue. However, things were taken up a notch (as I wrote this immediately post funeral) when it appeared that Phil and Holly, the darlings of morning television for so many years, “jumped” the queue to see the Queen lying in state last week. I say “appeared” advisedly because as we speak, I understand that Holly may have called in legal advice and honestly, I can see why. Although, it might have been an idea for ITV’s PR team to have jumped into action rather more swiftly. It seems that Holly and Phil “begged” ITV bosses to clarify the situation sooner, namely that they were there as journalists/broadcasters as the pair were hauled over the coals in some sections of the press – there are now some 35,000 signatures for a petition for them to quit their jobs. I’m not quite sure how that works in terms of actually changing anything as the pair are still very popular and safe pairs of hands in the broadcasting world but it shows the sentiment or at least SOME sentiment. Granted, many people will have ignored the whole fiasco of the “jump” and focused on the national history unfolding before their eyes. Whatever you might think about them “jumping vs working,” could it have been avoided whilst they STILL did their jobs? Yep. It all comes down to how CLEAR you think things are. According to MailOnline an ITV source said: “We absolutely made it clear at the time that it was part of a broadcast due to air on Tuesday. This was communicated from the outset, and we gave this information immediately.” The problem is, it doesn’t seem to be “absolutely” clear. Indeed, MailOnline also reports that the pair “personally insisted that fiasco be addressed at the start of the show and believe ITV should not have waited so long to speak out on the matter.” I disagree. It should have been addressed BEFORE the show, I’m talking DAYS before, with a clear message about what they would and would not be doing and why they were doing things in a certain way – in their eyes, to “tell the story” for those who couldn’t be there. I’m not saying people would have agreed with the decision, in fact, it might well have stopped the broadcast before it happened. Maybe that would have been better because remember, perception is 9/10ths of the law when it comes to the public! Also, a brief note on her Majesty and PR if I may? Say what you like about the monarchy (and plenty will) but there is one thing that is very clear, the Queen was a pioneer and an inspiration to millions. The Queen was also an unrivalled communicator. Listening to the reports that have dominated the world’s media agenda for weeks now, I was struck by how often the phrase “made people feel comfortable” came up. There was criticism when, back in the late ’60’s, the Queen allowed cameras into the lives of the royals for “letting daylight in on the royal magic” – possibly some of the most misguided criticism I have ever heard. Because, you see, the magic was in letting people in, everyone. A former business journalist, Greg Simpson is the author of The Small Business Guide to PR and has been recognised as one of the UK’s top 5 PR consultants, having set up Press for Attention PR in 2008. He has worked for FTSE 100 firms, charities and start-ups and conducted press conferences with Sir Richard Branson and James Caan. His background ensures a deep understanding of every facet of a successful PR campaign – from a journalist’s, client’s, and consultant’s perspective. See this column in the October edition of East Midlands Business Link Magazine here.

Law firm Browne Jacobson and the University of Nottingham are launching a ground-breaking two and a half year Knowledge Transfer Partnership which aims to develop and embed long-lasting equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) principles and learnings into the firm’s practices and processes, amongst its key client-bases and the national legal sector. It is the first Knowledge Transfer Partnership Browne Jacobson has entered into with a leading UK university and is part funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency. Browne Jacobson will work with the University of Nottingham’s leading business unit, Linguistic Profiling for Professionals, in the Centre for Research in Applied Linguistics (CRAL), along with a graduate associate to analyse, review and change the way it uses written, spoken and digital language to ensure it is more diverse and inclusive as an employer. The project will be overseen by Louise Mullany, professor in Sociolinguistics at the University of Nottingham. Browne Jacobson is currently ranked as the UK’s leading employer in the Social Mobility Employer Index, the leading authority on social mobility workplace best practice in the UK. Declan Vaughan, people director, said: “We believe this collaboration is truly ground-breaking. It provides us with a unique opportunity to address the language of exclusion in the workplace. It will help us to better understand and shape how we, our clients and the wider legal profession can improve the way we all communicate to create a more inclusive and diverse working environment.” Claire Stripp, head of talent & knowledge at Browne Jacobson, added: “Research shows using language in the workplace that is outdated can have a detrimental effect on an organisation’s ability to attract and retain top talent, drive commercial success and innovate. “We are passionately inclusive, and we believe that understanding how language can be unintentionally but significantly exclusive, and learning how to communicate truly inclusively, is ground-breaking and will help us to attract and retain the best talent and enable everyone to thrive with us.” Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) is Europe’s leading programme helping businesses to improve their competitiveness by enabling companies to work with higher education or research and technology organisations to obtain knowledge, technology or skills which they consider to be of strategic competitive importance. The UK-wide programme is overseen by Innovate UK and supported by 16 other public sector funding organisations. Projects typically last between 12 months and 3 years. Professor Louise Mullany, lead academic and knowledge base supervisor at the University of Nottingham, said: “We are delighted that the KTP application has been successful. It will enable us to engage in critically important diversity and inclusion work over a sustained period of time, bringing long-lasting value to the firm and its clients. “We are looking forward to applying our inclusive communication solutions package with the business and know that the knowledge we gain in return will deeply inform our research and practices in this area for many years to come.”

In another proud announcement from Sills & Betteridge LLP, it has revealed news of its latest results in the world’s leading legal directory The Legal 500. The prestigious 30 year old directory which ranks law firms based on in-depth feedback from clients and peers has reaffirmed Sills & Betteridge LLP’s position as one of the region’s top legal services providers, by again recognising it as a ‘Leading Law Firm’. With acknowledgement for being ‘exceptionally experienced and well regarded’, their family law team achieved Tier 1 status for the first time and all other service areas submitted held their positions in the tier rankings. 15 lawyers across 7 practice areas were given special individual mention for their standout contributions in their field, including corporate lawyer James Conduit who retained his position as a Leading Individual, and family lawyer Chrystal Theofanous who was newly recognised in the same category for her specialist work in the fields of international child abduction, forced marriage prevention, complex care proceedings, domestic abuse and public law children matters. Siobhan Thompson, also a family lawyer, received the accolade of Next Generation Partner following testimonials about her work from leading barristers and clients including praise for being among the most devoted and committed solicitors they had ever worked with. Tax partner David Wood and commercial property partner Melissa Kirk who joined the firm earlier this year were also listed. Karen Bower-Brown, senior partner, said: “Independent assessment means so very much to us so we are all thrilled that a publication as credible as the Legal 500 have acknowledged the outstanding talent of our people and the quality of service we try so hard to deliver.” To view the firm’s results including highlighted testimonials about some of their lawyers, please visit Sills & Betteridge LLP > Lincoln > England | The Legal 500 law firm profiles

Fiona Duncan-Steer, founder of RSViP Business Networking Agency, offers tips on how to organise your time more efficiently to create a more productive and enjoyable day. We are all spinning plates, trying to manage a multitude of tasks on a daily basis and most of the time end up giving ourselves a hard time when we fall short, whether it’s arriving late, missing an appointment or generally chasing our tail when it comes to being organised, leaving us with feelings of dissatisfaction, frustration and even guilt. Having been self-employed, running a business single handily for the past fifteen years, I have had my fair share of experiences with the above feelings and have since learnt a thing or two about how to navigate myself in order to avoid a repeat of them going forward. Granted some days don’t go as planned and that’s just life, but what’s important is that I have also learnt how to manage mindfully those ‘not so great’ days when they occur – and they do and will occur. Here, through my own personal experiences, I share my top six tips on how to organise your time more efficiently in order to create a more productive and enjoyable day:

1. Build a routine – We as humans are habitual creatures and as such love a routine, so create a realistic one for yourself which incorporates your personal needs, the needs of anyone you are responsible for in your life and of course your work/business. If you are thinking “well, this is nothing new, I’m already in a routine,” why not write down your current routine and then write down a second version that you wish it was more like (e.g. ‘the dream routine’), and by cross checking the two, identify any tweaks you can make to your current routine to edge it nearer to the dream one.
2. Write it down – To make a start on creating your routine, write it down in list or timeline format – starting with the non-negotiables. Maybe for you that’s the school run, breakfast, gym, work, and cooking dinner, maybe it’s something different. This works great for leaders to structure a work based plan for your teams too, but remember this is YOUR routine so make it work for YOU (or the individual in question by working together to meet all needs). Once you have covered all of the non-negotiables, move onto filling the gaps with any other key responsibilities you have during the day/week/month.
3. Make time for you – I say this to all of my coaching clients – make time for YOU. Even if your schedule doesn’t seem to allow it, edit it so that it does. One hour per day, every day at least should be allocated to something that nourishes you, makes you happy, inspires and motivates you or simply gives you the space and time you need to refocus and re-energise, whether that is a form of exercise class/gym/sport, a walk to get your steps in each day, cycling to work, taking time for your hobby, or if work-related some business development or idea generation time in order to encourage creative thinking and growth.
4. Create task lists – On top of your daily routine, you will have ad hoc tasks to complete perhaps both personally and in business, so make a list – seeing the words in black and white will help you to remember and keep accountable to the tasks that lie ahead. You can then incorporate these task lists into your routine, segmenting them against a timeline, again whether it be daily or weekly. I for example make to do lists for the week in order of priority. I tick each task off as I complete them, which gives an enormous sense of satisfaction and I don’t give myself a hard time if I don’t complete them all in the same day – they can simply roll over to the next day.
5. Set reminders – There are useful software platforms and tools out there that can assist in your daily task busting endeavours, however simply adding reminders to your calendar will suffice, usually these can be accessed on your desktop/laptop/phone as everything of course links up nowadays. I am however old school and still rely on my trusty Filofax, as nothing beats handwriting down my to do lists and tasks, which in turn helps me to remember what I need to do.
6. Delegate – Ask yourself, “are there certain jobs I can give to other people to do for me?” Can you subcontract some work out – for example can you hire a bookkeeper/accountant/virtual PA/assistant etc? Since delegating work from my business out to others over the years, I have been able to focus on business development and working on the things that I enjoy, rather than spending all my time on, for example, bookkeeping and admin which are super time consuming and don’t necessarily make my soul leap!

However you decide to manage your time and navigate your day, remember to try to prioritize YOU – after all if you don’t who will?   Fiona Duncan-Steer, RSViP www.fionaduncansteer.com  www.rsvipnetwork.co.uk   See this column in the October edition of East Midlands Business Link Magazine here.