< Previous East Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk BUSINESS SERVICES more than make up for it. These are things like the experience, the culture and the kudos. In terms of business services, however, these take on much more fundamental things such as business insurance, consulting, software and health care. All of these things can be felt, but they do not exist as their own entities and cannot be touched. For instance, you can only feel the benefits of insurance if something goes wrong, and therefore hope to never have the tangible benefit of it. Consulting, similarly, might lead to increased efficiency, but the efficiency was always there and never utilised, and the consulting itself has, in theory, added nothing new to the business. Intangible services are some of the easiest to convince yourself into cutting because they don’t feel real, and don’t feel worth the investment. That said, many intangible business services are integral to the day-to-day running of a company. For instance, computer maintenance is an intangible business service that, when neglected, can cause huge pile ups and delays, costing a business tens of thousands of pounds or more. Hiring a consultant to streamline a company may feel like an unnecessary expenditure, and is seen by many as a sign of weakness – are they not confident business leaders, they ask? Do they really need an outsider to come in and tell them how to do their jobs? Times of economic uncertainty, however, are the most opportune moments to bring in outside consultants. It is these moments when a business must sink or swim, because making decisions to stay afloat is simpler when the economy is healthy and ignoring inefficiencies will become easy if the economy improves and profits return to healthy levels. Tangible business services are those that can be touched and felt, but that does not make them any less likely to be overlooked. Business cards, promotional banners, car fleets, equipment. A lot of tangible business services are left behind precisely because they are tangible, and because once a company has a set of brochures, for instance, they can convince themselves that they never need anymore, and that the few hundred remaining from eight years ago kept in the storage room will be more than good enough for their needs. The reality is that business services of tangible or intangible nature can only help a business so far as they are allowed to do so. Posters, banners and business cards will be useless if people don’t take the steps to leverage the material and investment to their best. Attendance at shows, handing out of brochures and networking meetings all offer opportunities to show these off and make the most of them, but they are all too often ignored in favour of the cold and unpersonal touch of social media. © stock.adobe.com/Farknot Architect 28-31.qxp_Layout 1 31/10/2022 10:45 Page 3www.frontiersoftware.com LEARN MORE TRUST Frontier Software with your payroll processing Accurate, secure and reliable www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link BUSINESS SERVICES Old, tried and tested methods of doing business saw more face to face meetings, more shakings of hands, exchanging of cards and business happening away from emails and phones. Some will say that business is simply moving with the times, but this isn’t really true. Business simply hasn’t picked up as it should have from the COVID lockdown and social distancing, and many are content to work from the comfort of offices or homes and eschew the challenges of the face to face appointment. Because of that, the investment that companies put into their services seem wasted – not because they are wasteful, or because they are no longer relevant, but because employees are not making full use of their potential, and because employers are not holding them to task for it. Business has not changed that much in the last few years, not as much as some would have us believe, but attitudes toward it has, and that is holding many back. © stock.adobe.com/thodonal 28-31.qxp_Layout 1 31/10/2022 10:45 Page 4 East Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk TAX If only taxes were the only barrier to growth James Pinchbeck, partner at Streets Chartered Accountants, considers the barriers to, and avenues for, business growth. T he mini-Budget or fiscal event on Friday 23 September not only sought to address, in part, the cost-of-living crisis with its energy support bill but also to unleash the country’s economic potential with the lowering of taxes. The focus being on putting an end to what has been described as economic stagnation. Having a tax regime that incentivises or motivates entrepreneurs and business leaders to start and grow enterprises needless to say is key, however it is perhaps only one element of what empowers, drives or facilitates growth. Against a backdrop of a pandemic most businesses will have probably been more in survival mode as opposed to growth. Whilst innate resilience, along with financial support from the government, has no doubt helped organisations weather the storm, many in business are still recovering. Growth therefore may not yet be back on the agenda, or part of a short term or even longer-term strategy. Few business owners therefore probably have a growth mindset. For those striving for growth there appears to be a number of key barriers, not just the current tax regime. Certainly, one of the biggest barriers, not just for growth but for just maintaining business, is the lack of available labour and skills to fulfill key vacancies. New approaches to recruitment and ways of working have in part helped to ease the situation, however much more needs to be done as part of a longer-term approach. For those fortunate to be operating in a growing market, increasing revenue is somewhat easier than for those operating in a mature sector. For the latter, growth is more dependent on looking at innovation in terms of service and product and gaining a competitive advantage to take market share. For some growth may come about through increasing their geographical coverage. When it comes to growing a business, it invariably requires investment, whether it’s in new products, business processes and systems, people or sales and marketing. Access to either own funds and external finance make such investment therefore key. Having the wherewithal is one thing, having the confidence to make such an investment is another. In uncertain times, and with the rising cost of finance, many will perhaps defer such a commitment. Business growth fundamentally requires business leaders to have confidence in the market they operate and economic certainty, along with their organisations’ capabilities, competence and capacity to deliver growth. Whilst growth may be close to the heart of many an entrepreneur or business owner, unless the conditions are right for it perhaps greater focus in the current climate should be around consolidation and improving profitability. A drive for growth can often be at the cost of increasing the value of what you already have. Perhaps a more balanced approach is what should be strived for. 32-33.qxp_Layout 1 31/10/2022 10:46 Page 132-33.qxp_Layout 1 31/10/2022 10:46 Page 2 East Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk TRAINING AND EDUCATION Always coming short 34-36.qxp_Layout 1 31/10/2022 10:47 Page 1www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link TRAINING AND EDUCATION Skills shortages are not new in certain industries, but the list of sectors struggling to recruit has been growing in recent years thanks to Brexit, COVID and now changing attitudes toward work. R ecruitment has never been harder, and companies are being increasingly forced to achieve more with less. ‘The Great Resignation’ is an ongoing economic trend where employees have voluntarily left their jobs en masse, starting in early 2021, with most citing reasons for resigning being wage stagnation amid rising living costs, hostile, uncomfortable working environments, limited opportunities for career advancement, poor benefits, inflexible remote- work policies and overall job dissatisfaction. The Governments’ Lincolnshire Employment and Skills Strategy Report 2021-2023 states that, of 1,200 regional businesses approached, 35% were having difficulty filling vacancies and that this was mainly due to skills shortage, especially as Lincolnshire, in relation to the UK, has a huge employment requirement in food & drink manufacturing, wholesale & retail and agriculture, but also struggles in the 36 Á © stock.adobe.com/Studio Romantic 34-36.qxp_Layout 1 31/10/2022 10:47 Page 2 East Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk TRAINING AND EDUCATION smaller markets of professional services, finance & insurance and information technology. British Chambers of Commerce Head of People Policy, Jane Gratton, stated via the Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce that,?“it’s now harder than ever for businesses to fill job vacancies and there are no signs of improvement. In an increasingly tight labour market, competition for skills is ramping up wage costs, leaving many firms unable to recruit the people they need…. with the escalating price of energy, shipping, raw materials and other costs, it is a precarious situation for businesses. Inevitably, it is the smaller firms, with little in the way of cash reserves after two years of the pandemic, who are most exposed to the risk all this presents.” Although all recent issues with the job market is forcing wages higher and causing smaller companies to find it hard to compete with multinationals, there are actions that any size organisation can take to help relieve this difficult and growing situation. When it comes to finding and hiring great people to fill the ever increasing vacancies at a company being persistent and consider these strategies which can help discover qualified, enthusiastic workers or raw talent to join your team. Training/Upskilling Many businesses could be more open to training current employees than previously. Upskilling their current employees and recognising and investing in appropriate courses in-house, online or outsourced to a specialist training organisation can be a great investment. On average a quarter of establishments in the Lincolnshire area have sought external advice and information since 2021 for this. Online training saw a massive boom during the lockdown period for the obvious reasons of its convenience and viability in a working-from-home landscape, and it continues to be used today. While this was a great way to upskill staff during a time when productivity and work hours were low, every business owner understands what it can achieve. By accepting the necessity of training staff to fill a given position, it opens up the recruitment market to entry-level candidates. School and university leavers or someone with transferable skills can be ideal, and then invest in training that recruit who has shown aptitude and the ability to study and adapt in a work role, for example recruiting a receptionist who would train up to be a data entry administrator or move into HR. Offering apprenticeships Be open to offering an apprenticeship programme. An apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a profession or trade by on-the-job, in-house training and often offer some relevant study (classroom study and associated reading). Apprenticeships can assist apprentices to gain a licence in a regulated occupation such as plumbing or computer science. Most training is done while an employee works for an employer and in exchange for their training agree to continued labour for an agreed period after they have achieved measurable competencies. © stock.adobe.com/adragan 34-36.qxp_Layout 1 31/10/2022 10:47 Page 3www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link MEN’S HEALTH Men’s health is in people’s mouths, or above it, this November. Are you taking part? M en have been traditionally cagey when it comes to their health, leading to many of the statistics showing longer average lifespans among women. This may have been founded from outdated ideals of masculinity and not showing weakness, or stigma caused by online communities and perceptions of illnesses – especially mental health. Either way, we live in a world where thoughts are finally changing, and where men are being encouraged to take better care of their physical and mental health. This has also Go Movember this November 38 Á © stock.adobe.com/nito 37-39.qxp_Layout 1 31/10/2022 10:49 Page 1 East Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk passed on to businesses, who are spearheading many initiatives among staff, and working to raise money for numerous charities. One such charitable event is that of Movember, which seems men growing a beard or moustache (the purists prefer the latter, but no one minds the former in the name of charity) to raise money for prostate and testicular cancers, as well as to raise awareness about men’s health. Today, the Movember Foundation is allied with Prostate Cancer UK, and is a recognised charitable body, but it may surprise people to know that Movember began in a pub in Australia in 2003 where good friends, Travis Garone and Luke Slattery, joked about bringing back the moustache as a fashion trend, and gathered thirty men to try and grow a moustache with them. However, the mother of one of their friends was raising money for Breast Cancer at the time, and the two friends thought it would be a 37-39.qxp_Layout 1 31/10/2022 10:49 Page 2www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link MEN’S HEALTH good idea to also support a cause, opting to support the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA). In 2004, news of the movement spread and saw over 450 people take part to raise over $54,000 Australian dollars for the PCFA, which was the largest check the charity had ever seen. As one might expect, this made the headlines and news spread, and the simple manner in which these people raised awareness and money caught the imagination. More men began to take part, experimenting with moustaches for the first time and even having fun with it online, leading to many weird and wacky styles and fashions to excite, amuse and raise attention. Nowadays, Movember is recognised by almost everyone, and many businesses make allowances for staff to take part, even if untrimmed facial hair might in some circumstances seem unprofessional. This year, Movember is raising money again for cancer, but also splitting its focus with mental health, which remains a pervasive and often subdued message among men. This is startling, as male suicide rates due to mental illness are abnormally high. In the UK alone, 3 out of 4 suicides are by men, which is a ridiculous contrast when you think of it as over 75% of suicides being male. A great number of these deaths have a chance of being prevented, if the people around those living with mental illness make a welcome space for them to talk it through. For this reason, Movember encourages people to share in mental health stories, not only in relation to cancer, but as their own talking point. When men are taking their own lives, sometimes because they feel they can’t talk about difficult emotions, it’s crucial to set a positive example. If you worry for a friend or family member, take time over a friendly visit to talk about what matters to them, and where this might be causing anxiety, stress or sadness. Businesses are also encouraged to do what they can to support Movember, be that by encouraging and allowing people to take up the challenge, or by donating to worthy causes. To take part or find out more, the site www.go.movember.com is filled with information on how individuals, groups and corporations can get involved. Remember, also, to make a talking point of how you are taking part. There is an unfortunate few who will say it is virtue signalling or corporate greed, but Movember is all about raising awareness, and that happens every time a tweet, post or newsletter goes out, and every time the cause is mentioned. © stock.adobe.com/pressmaster 37-39.qxp_Layout 1 31/10/2022 10:49 Page 3Next >