It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.  It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years. Here we speak to Greg Simpson, founder of Press for Attention PR and the PR and Communications Ambassador for the IoD in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

Would you want to work in your office?

PR is somewhat misunderstood and often underutilised in business (which I don’t predict will change that much sadly) but there’s an area where it really plays a very vital role and yet is often overlooked… I’m talking about your staff. How attractive is your business to work for? Does it look like a great organisation from the outside? Are you winning awards? Are you supporting your local community or good causes? Think about how that might attract potential candidates, suppliers and of course, customers and clients. What about the internal message? Does it feel like a great place to work? Is it exciting? Vibrant? Challenging? Or is it just same old same old? If so, 2022 is going to be a challenge for you because now more than ever, talented people are going to demand MORE from their employers. We know about flexible working and work life balance by now, that is going to be the minimum expected. What we will also need to see is a bit of extra OOMPH! What helps you stand out as an employer of choice? Why, given the rise of home working, would your team want to come in? What impact might that have on company culture? How can you position your business as somewhere that people WANT to work in and partner with? How do you stop them from looking at greener grass? That will be crucial in 2022 and I predict that the organisations that do this well will not only survive but thrive.

High street businesses in Derby are being offered a helping hand to step into the 21^st century with a package of free support to implement modern forms of trading. Up to 100 retail, hospitality and leisure organisations can benefit from access to expert advice via the Derby Business Resilience Programme, which is funded by Derby City Council and delivered in partnership with East Midlands Chamber. Advisers can assist in establishing an online business strategy and, depending on requirements, the creation of a fully search engine-optimised e-commerce website with 12 months’ free web hosting provided by Derbyshire-based digital marketing agency Purpose Media. Grants to cover bespoke consultancy support are available to some eligible businesses, while aspects of the support scheme are also open to companies in the transport industry supply chain. East Midlands Chamber head of enterprise, Paul Stuart, said: “Purchasing habits have changed as a result of Covid-19, with fewer in-store visitors and a move towards online transactions. “We expect this to be a long-term shift, so it’s vital that businesses ensure they see this as an opportunity, rather than a threat. “By engaging with the Derby Business Resilience Programme, small businesses can benefit from expert support to equip themselves with the right mix of tools needed for the online world – something that will complement their existing services, attract new customers and, ultimately, future-proof their organisations.” What does the Derby Business Resilience Programme involve? Derby City Council has provided £200,000 in funding towards the programme, with East Midlands Chamber contributing £42,000. It is aimed at independent micro or small businesses based within the city council’s area that can demonstrate the adverse impact of Covid-19 on their trade. The fully-funded support includes a dedicated business resilience adviser with specific digital or business support skills, who can work alongside a company to help develop an online business plan. This involves reviewing current marketing and social media activities, setting up a Google listing or even signing up a company to its first social media account. By setting up e-commerce websites with features such as click and collect or other delivery options, businesses can increase their profile and use their virtual shop window to drive greater footfall to both their physical and online store. One year’s membership of the Chamber is also provided – giving them access to business protection services in HR, health and safety, tax and legal issues, as well as discounts on member products and services – while they will be able to attend regular events and webinars to increase their digital know-how. Councillor Steve Hassall, cabinet member for regeneration, decarbonisation, strategic planning and transport at Derby City Council, said: “The last couple of years have been incredibly tough for all business, and our local retail, hospitality and leisure businesses have been hit especially hard. “We want to do all we can to offer practical support to independent retail and leisure firms across Derby and help drive our recovery from the pandemic. I’d encourage businesses to apply quickly to take advantage of this scheme.” Going digital is giving businesses ‘a renewed optimism for the future’ Full-service marketing agency Purpose Media has been approved to deliver digital marketing advice, and to design and build websites for those businesses that are eligible. The company, based in South Normanton, has previously worked alongside the Chamber in delivering the Chesterfield Digital High Street project, which has offered similar support to more than 30 businesses – ranging from gin shops and cafés to hairdressers and butchers. Purpose Media business development manager, Grace Golden, said: “Through our work in the Chesterfield Digital High Street project, we have helped businesses learn new ways to engage with customers, attract business and increase profitability. “By implementing new activity online such as posting videos or using Facebook advertising, they have renewed optimism for their future and have confidence in their ability to market their business. “We believe the Derby Business Resilience Programme can be equally successful for independent businesses in the Derby City Council area. It intends to help businesses attract new customers, drive footfall to retail stores, establish an e-commerce website and improve visibility online.” An information session about the Derby Business Resilience Programme will be held at Derby Enterprise Centre on Thursday 20 January. Businesses have until 31 March to apply for support.

Businesses are set to get free help to go green after Government funding worth £1million was awarded to support companies in Leicester in the race to net zero. The East Midlands Accelerator programme, led by East Midlands Chamber, will be delivered by De Montfort University Leicester (DMU), Loughborough University and the University of Leicester, alongside local authorities and business support organisations in the city. It will mean companies who have between 10 and 250 employees based in Leicester can get free help to discover their carbon footprint and put together practical steps to reduce emissions. Interested companies have until the end of January to sign up. The free support package on offer includes: •    Carbon Literacy Training – free one-day training to learn the basics of calculating your company’s carbon footprint and actions you can take •    Audits – Trained teams of students will visit you to complete a sustainability audit for your organisation •    Planning – helping you draw up a step-by-step plan to set and achieve your company’s decarbonisation plans •    Placements – Get a student or recent graduate to work within your company for free, focusing on a sustainability project •    Grants – Get support towards equipment or feasibility studies for larger-scale programmes. The zero carbon project is just one of five programmes that will be funded through the £1million pot, which comes from the Government’s UK Community Renewal Fund (CRF). Others focus on start-ups, mentoring, finance and digital transformation. Dr Andrew Reeves, Associate Professor in Energy and Sustainable Development at DMU, will be working with companies on the accelerator programme. He said: “We know from recent work we have done alongside the University of Leicester that while many companies want to do more to cut their carbon emission, they are not sure about what steps they can take to become more sustainable. “We hope that by combining all of our expertise, we can support them to take practical steps and have a plan in place which is achievable and could help to ‘green’ the whole of the city’s business eco-system. “It also gives students from the county’s three universities the chance to work with companies to help them reach these goals and play their part in climate change action.” Dr Sandra Lee, Social Impact Lead at the University of Leicester, said: “This programme brings students, businesses and academics together to share expertise and resources to tackle the climate crisis. It is an exciting development to our award-winning Innovation for Good Programme as well as building on our hugely successful environmental sustainability collaboration with De Montfort University and other partners.” The Leicester Accelerator partners are the Food and Drink Forum, Nottingham Business Venture, Start-up Leicester Co-Working and Leicester City Council. If you are an SME and would like to take part, get in touch with Leicester Innovation Hub which is co-ordinating all the expressions of interest: leicinnovation@le.ac.uk

It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.  It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years. Here we speak to pensions expert, Martin Tilley, a Director of WestBridge SSAS. As a long-standing advocate of the Small Self-Administered Scheme, my predictions for the industry in 2022 refer to the latest transfer regulations and their impact on this small area of the pensions market. Pension scams continue to make both industry and national press headlines, so it was no surprise that HM Government felt the need to consult upon and then publish new measures to prevent the transfer of an individual’s pension assets into vehicles that the ceding scheme considered to be, or at least potentially scams. I therefore predict painful times ahead for individuals wishing to transfer their pensions to new arrangements. Particularly as ceding schemes are now able to determine or interpret their own criteria for flagging a transfer as ‘amber’ and therefore triggering a referral to the Government’s MoneyHelper Service. Potential triggers of amber or even red flags can be “High risk investments,” defined simply as “high end of the normal range of risk in the current financial market” for example, consequently I predict that this service could soon be overrun with referral requests. I very much doubt that any ceding scheme will want to expend the time necessary to make an in dept analysis of such transfer to be able to come to an informed and common-sense decision. With the emphasis likely to be to err of the side of caution, raising a flag will become the default to the likely detriment of many legitimate transfers to SSASs, and the entrepreneurs of small businesses will be curtailed from being entrepreneurial because this red tape will prevent it. Perhaps the important point to raise here is that if you want to use a SSAS at some point in the future, it’s best to set up sooner rather than later as the potential delays to registration and transfers could mean that from day one the SSAS is not actually operable for maybe 6 months.

Fiona Duncan-Steer, founder of RSViP Business Networking Agency, discusses goal setting. As we enter into the shiny brand-new year of 2022, we firstly ask ourselves collectively: “Where on earth have the past two years gone?” Secondly, we start to think if we haven’t already about the year that lies ahead, pondering what is in store for us and for indeed mankind (if we want to get that deep about the pandemic). As a rule, new years promote new beginnings, the chance to start again in whichever form that takes for you. It may be the motivation you need to start that business you’ve been deliberating over for the past few years, change careers, start a family or a million other things that relate to YOU personally. ‘The new year, new me’ phrase has become a global phenomenon across social media in recent years, with people from all walks of life announcing their goals into the cloud in a bid to keep themselves accountable; you’ve said it out loud, so you must do it now – right? There is something to be said for sharing your goals with others, not least because it does indeed keep you accountable, but also hearing yourself say what you want to achieve out loud is quite a powerful thing – a commitment to yourself and those around you. What I would say given the past two years of upheaval and change however is to be kind to yourself when it comes to goal setting. I am not saying abolish any goals you have for fear of not meeting them, but be aware of the fact that right now it is just as acceptable to be still in operation if you are a business, to be moving forward in the right direction through taking small steps each day as both a business person and as a human being and if some days you don’t take any steps at all, that is still okay. By all means set those incredible goals by identifying what it is you actually want, after all that is basically what the end goal is – it is a result and with that comes a sense of achievement and a whole host of other positive stuff, but make that goal within reach, a challenge yes, attainable yes, but without impacting your mental health by adding unnecessary pressure to an already potentially stressful umbrella of negativity raining down from all directions in the form of this ever ongoing pandemic, change of government rulings and restrictions. The trick here is to ‘be self-aware’. Self-awareness is the key to happiness in a lot of ways and the queue jumper to becoming a better person overall, which in turn will present greater possibilities and opportunities through growth. The growth that will ultimately help you smash your goals without even realising you have!   Fiona Duncan-Steer, RSViP www.rsvipnetwork.co.uk