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2 We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 3We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

� Katcha Bilek with tyres that she transforms; inset below, one of the manbags that will begiven to music stars at the Brit Awards Main pic: Jon Kent

ABRISTOL fashion designer will seesome of her work paraded by musicstars from around the UK at the BritAwards tonight. Katcha Bilek, whoruns her own fashion design company

KB, has won a contract to supply men’s goodiebags at the 2014 edition of the major awardsceremony for the British music industry.

Male performers, presenters andwinners will each receive one ofthe 42 custom-made manbags atthe prestigious event whichtakes place at London’s O2Arena tonight.

It will mean acts like theArctic Monkeys, Disclos-ure and Rudimental will besporting the larger ver-sions of Katcha’s popularA3 manbag at the event.

KB is based at HamiltonHouse, part of the Stokes Croftar tists’ quarter in Bristol.Founded in 1999, the company spe-cialises in ethical, sustainable fash-ion items, made from 100 per centreclaimed materials.

The bespoke pieces, designed to be a ruggedall-purpose holdall for the man about town, aremade from a single lorry inner tube.

The KB team constructs the bags, belts andaccessories from ex-industrial inner tubes,bike tyres, and seatbelts.

All KB’s materials are locally sourced andare also 100 per cent vegan, as well as beinghand-crafted in Bristol.

The company is a zero-waste organisation,and uses very little electricity in making itsp ro d u c t s.

Katcha, who is 41 and manages to runsa successful business while also parentingtwo children, including a six-month-olddaughter, Plum, said she was proud to win andfulfil the prestigious Brit Awards contractduring what is proving to be a busy time forher company.

She said: “We are thrilled to be a Brits2014 Official Goodie Bag Partner,

and to be spreading the sustain-able fashion message to an

even greater audience. Wec a n’t wait to see some of theUK’s top musicians wear-ing our bags out andab o u t . ”

Katcha is no stranger toindustry prizes andawards, although tonight

will mark a significant stepup in those she is used to

receiving herself.In 2013, KB was made a fel-

low of the Ethical Fashion forumfor pioneering work in promoting

sustainability and ethical values in thefashion industry.

The company won highly commended in theInnovation: Accessories and Footwear cat-egory of the 2013 Ethical Fashion ForumSOURCE Awards and also won a silver awardfor Specialist Media in the 2013 Craft & DesignSelected Awards.

S e c to rRet a i l

Tw i tte r Dragon Theo gives thumbsup to travel accessories firm

AFLEDGLING Bristolcompany is all in a twitterover an endorsement from afirey celebrity business in-ve s t o r.

Urbane Traveller makes fashion-able travel accessories for the dis-cerning jet-setter, from money beltsto cable tidies, backpacks tomulti-use little black dresses.

It was founded by Clare andRichard Barrell who, both with suc-cessful careers in professional ser-vices behind them, decided to go theirown way.

The pair of business consultantsloved travelling so much that theydecided to fly off on a 12-month hon-eymoon, during which time theyspotted a gap in the market.

Now the Westbury Park business iscelebrating winning the blessing ofthe chairman of Ryman Stationery,Boux lingerie and ironmonger storeRobert Dyas.

But you’ll know him better as“dra gon” Theo Paphitis, one of thewise but firey investors on BBC’sDra gons’ Den TV show.

One of Theo’s off-screen initiativesis the Small Business Sunday Award.Each week he selects a small businessupon which to confer his blessing.Rather like a retail Pope.

Entrepreneurs tweet him describ-ing their business and he rewards hischosen one with a re-tweet to hisfo l l owe r s.

Their business is also profiled onPap h i t i s ’ website w w w. t h e o p a p h i -t i s s b s. c o m .

So what, you might say. But hisunder 140-character endorsementpromotes the winning business to awhole new, and really rather large,a u d i e n c e.

Theo currently has 409,135 Twitterfollowers, all of whom will see theendorsement for the lucky businesshe selects.

For a new or growing business, it’swelcome exposure.

Clare, 33, said: “T heo’s backing is a

great boost to a small local businesslike ours. We look forward to buildingon this success and achieving ourbusiness goals in 2014.”

Husband Richard, 41, added: “Star t-ing a new business and targeting anew niche in the current economycan be a daunting task.

“T heo’s backing reminds us wewere not completely mad to give upour careers and follow our dream.”

All that excitement over a singletweet. But then, for one thing,without it you wouldn’t be readingthis article.

An article which, by the way, willundoubtedly be promoted on Twitter.RT @TheoPaphitis?

A nyo n e ?

Micro businesses arefeeling good for 2014� MICRO businesses - those withfewer than 10 employees - arefeeling confident, according to arecent survey.

A nationwide survey of 1,500micro businesses show the SouthWest area had the highest level ofconfidence in England at 88 percent. Business optimism for 2014was also high, particularly in Bristol,with many sole traders andpart-time businesses looking toexpand.

Geoff Mesher, of Bristol firmTempest Forensic Accounting, saidhe had felt the increase in businessconfidence first hand.

He said: “Confidence seems to bereturning to businesses. They’retaking action and making decisionson moving forward.”

The study was conducted byPrinting.com.

Engineering firm buysup its Somerset rival� A BRISTOL engineering firm hasbought a Somerset-based rival as itlooks to expand its reach.

Mawdsleys BER Ltd, based in StPhilip’s, acquired Chard-basedSomerset Pumps.

Mawdsleys’ managing directorPete Woodward said: “I am pleasedto announce the acquisition as ourlasting commitment to expand andimprove services to our customers.

“This will help us increase ourservice area of the UK,predominantly within our pumpservice division.

“We as a company are committedto reinvestment, thus ensuring thesustainability of our services.”

The firm specialises in repair,refurbishment and supply of electricmotors, generators and pumps.

Eco n o my

P u m psBristol Uni working withIntel on computer project

Advisors win bid for 3-yearInvestors in People contract

� THE University of Bristol has been chosenby Intel to work with it on ways to makemodern computers more efficient.

The firm is creating Intel ParallelComputing Centres with leading highperformance computing research groups towork on the problem. It has chosen theuniversity in recognition of its world-leadingresearch into the efficient use of many-coreparallel computer designs.

Simon McIntosh-Smith, senior lecturer inhigh performance computing andarchitectures, said “We look forward toworking closely with Intel to help design thenext generation of highly parallel highperforming computing applications, and intraining the next generation of parallelprogramming experts.”

� BUSINESS advisers Grant ThorntonFollowing have won a bid to act as thelicensed deliverer of Investors In People inthe South West. The firm, based in HartwellHouse, Victoria Street, will hold the licencefrom April 1 for three years.

Karl Eddy, head of business growthservices at Grant Thornton, said: “As aleading adviser to dynamic businesses,public sector and third sector organisations,we know that good people make greatbusiness and so believe that investing intalent is vital to economic growth.

“This is why we’re very excited to havebeen selected to deliver Investors in People,a programme which aligns closely to ourown values and adds tangible benefit toambitious businesses.”

Ac a d e m i a S e r v i ces

B r i ts Stars holdingKa tc h a ’s man bags

Assistant Editor (Business)Gavin Thompson

Call 0117 934 3336Email gavin.thompson

@b-nm.co.ukTwitter @gavin_thompson1

Get in touch

Writer Rupert JanischEmail business@b-nm.co.uk

Advertising RobertRodgerson

Call07828 941469Email ro b e r t . ro d g e r s o n

@b-nm.co.uk

Advertising JaneChapmanCall 01179 343025Email jane.chapman@b-nm.co.uk

Advertising SimonCoy, Media Sales

Executive - BusinessCall 07736 900 705.

Email simon.coy@b-nm.co.uk

Best deals - How the numbers stack up

Business currentaccounts

Petrol prices

1.01%£10,000 deposit

0.05%£1 deposit

0.25%£1 deposit

State Bankof India

0.05%£500 deposit

Co-operativeBank

0.12%£1 deposit

Unity TrustBank

0.10%£25,000 deposit

Corporation tax

Employer NI rates

23 %

20 %Main rate

Small profitsrate – below

£300,000

13 . 8%Standard rate on

earnings above£148 per week

10 .4%Employees ins a l a r y - re l a t e d

pension schemeearning up £770 p/w

129 .51pUnleaded

136 .96 pDiesel

138 .27pSuperunleaded

73 .32pLPG

Source: PetrolPrices.com

Business savingsaccounts

1.49%£10,000 deposit

1.80%£10,000 deposit

State Bankof India

1.50%£5,000 deposit

1.55%£500 deposit

HanleyEconomicsBS

1.53%£1,000 deposit

Inflation (CPI)

2.0 %Weekly earnings

1.1 %Base interest rate

0.5 %Ave mortgage rate

3.99 %Source: BusinessMoneyfacts -moneyfacts.co.uk

Allied IrishBank (GB)

Cambridge &CountiesBank

United TrustBank

S h a w b ro o kBank

Advertising ShamaAbokor, RegionalBusiness AccountExecutiveCall 0117 934 3426Emailshama.abokor@b-nm.co.uk

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

Rupert JanischBusiness@b-nm.co.uk

� URBANE Traveller wasfounded in 2012 by businessconsultants Clare and RichardBarrell. Lovers of travelling, whenthey got married they went on around-the-world honeymoon.

The idea for Urbane Travellerwas borne out of a certainfrustration because they couldnot find what they considered tobe stylish travel clothing andaccessories for their trip.

They found all too often thetechnical travel clothing was notas stylish as they hoped andtravel accessories did not workas well as they were supposed

to. As a result, Urbane Travellerwas established in 2013 fromtheir desire for style,performance and comfort whilsttravelling. They believe thatdesign and function are notmutually exclusive and are ofequal importance to themodern-day traveller.

The Urbane Traveller mission isto source beautifully made andstylish travel accessories andfashionable travel clothing fromlike-minded brands who sharethe same ethos, bringing theseproducts together in a premiumand stylish online emporium.

� Richard and Clare Barrell, founders of Urbane Traveller, a posh travel accessories business. Their year-longhoneymoon, including Machu Picchu, inspired the business, based in Westbur y - o n - Tr y m

United TrustBank

1.50%£500 deposit

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2 We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 3We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

� Katcha Bilek with tyres that she transforms; inset below, one of the manbags that will begiven to music stars at the Brit Awards Main pic: Jon Kent

ABRISTOL fashion designer will seesome of her work paraded by musicstars from around the UK at the BritAwards tonight. Katcha Bilek, whoruns her own fashion design company

KB, has won a contract to supply men’s goodiebags at the 2014 edition of the major awardsceremony for the British music industry.

Male performers, presenters andwinners will each receive one ofthe 42 custom-made manbags atthe prestigious event whichtakes place at London’s O2Arena tonight.

It will mean acts like theArctic Monkeys, Disclos-ure and Rudimental will besporting the larger ver-sions of Katcha’s popularA3 manbag at the event.

KB is based at HamiltonHouse, part of the Stokes Croftar tists’ quarter in Bristol.Founded in 1999, the company spe-cialises in ethical, sustainable fash-ion items, made from 100 per centreclaimed materials.

The bespoke pieces, designed to be a ruggedall-purpose holdall for the man about town, aremade from a single lorry inner tube.

The KB team constructs the bags, belts andaccessories from ex-industrial inner tubes,bike tyres, and seatbelts.

All KB’s materials are locally sourced andare also 100 per cent vegan, as well as beinghand-crafted in Bristol.

The company is a zero-waste organisation,and uses very little electricity in making itsp ro d u c t s.

Katcha, who is 41 and manages to runsa successful business while also parentingtwo children, including a six-month-olddaughter, Plum, said she was proud to win andfulfil the prestigious Brit Awards contractduring what is proving to be a busy time forher company.

She said: “We are thrilled to be a Brits2014 Official Goodie Bag Partner,

and to be spreading the sustain-able fashion message to an

even greater audience. Wec a n’t wait to see some of theUK’s top musicians wear-ing our bags out andab o u t . ”

Katcha is no stranger toindustry prizes andawards, although tonight

will mark a significant stepup in those she is used to

receiving herself.In 2013, KB was made a fel-

low of the Ethical Fashion forumfor pioneering work in promoting

sustainability and ethical values in thefashion industry.

The company won highly commended in theInnovation: Accessories and Footwear cat-egory of the 2013 Ethical Fashion ForumSOURCE Awards and also won a silver awardfor Specialist Media in the 2013 Craft & DesignSelected Awards.

S e c to rRet a i l

Tw i tte r Dragon Theo gives thumbsup to travel accessories firm

AFLEDGLING Bristolcompany is all in a twitterover an endorsement from afirey celebrity business in-ve s t o r.

Urbane Traveller makes fashion-able travel accessories for the dis-cerning jet-setter, from money beltsto cable tidies, backpacks tomulti-use little black dresses.

It was founded by Clare andRichard Barrell who, both with suc-cessful careers in professional ser-vices behind them, decided to go theirown way.

The pair of business consultantsloved travelling so much that theydecided to fly off on a 12-month hon-eymoon, during which time theyspotted a gap in the market.

Now the Westbury Park business iscelebrating winning the blessing ofthe chairman of Ryman Stationery,Boux lingerie and ironmonger storeRobert Dyas.

But you’ll know him better as“dra gon” Theo Paphitis, one of thewise but firey investors on BBC’sDra gons’ Den TV show.

One of Theo’s off-screen initiativesis the Small Business Sunday Award.Each week he selects a small businessupon which to confer his blessing.Rather like a retail Pope.

Entrepreneurs tweet him describ-ing their business and he rewards hischosen one with a re-tweet to hisfo l l owe r s.

Their business is also profiled onPap h i t i s ’ website w w w. t h e o p a p h i -t i s s b s. c o m .

So what, you might say. But hisunder 140-character endorsementpromotes the winning business to awhole new, and really rather large,a u d i e n c e.

Theo currently has 409,135 Twitterfollowers, all of whom will see theendorsement for the lucky businesshe selects.

For a new or growing business, it’swelcome exposure.

Clare, 33, said: “T heo’s backing is a

great boost to a small local businesslike ours. We look forward to buildingon this success and achieving ourbusiness goals in 2014.”

Husband Richard, 41, added: “Star t-ing a new business and targeting anew niche in the current economycan be a daunting task.

“T heo’s backing reminds us wewere not completely mad to give upour careers and follow our dream.”

All that excitement over a singletweet. But then, for one thing,without it you wouldn’t be readingthis article.

An article which, by the way, willundoubtedly be promoted on Twitter.RT @TheoPaphitis?

A nyo n e ?

Micro businesses arefeeling good for 2014� MICRO businesses - those withfewer than 10 employees - arefeeling confident, according to arecent survey.

A nationwide survey of 1,500micro businesses show the SouthWest area had the highest level ofconfidence in England at 88 percent. Business optimism for 2014was also high, particularly in Bristol,with many sole traders andpart-time businesses looking toexpand.

Geoff Mesher, of Bristol firmTempest Forensic Accounting, saidhe had felt the increase in businessconfidence first hand.

He said: “Confidence seems to bereturning to businesses. They’retaking action and making decisionson moving forward.”

The study was conducted byPrinting.com.

Engineering firm buysup its Somerset rival� A BRISTOL engineering firm hasbought a Somerset-based rival as itlooks to expand its reach.

Mawdsleys BER Ltd, based in StPhilip’s, acquired Chard-basedSomerset Pumps.

Mawdsleys’ managing directorPete Woodward said: “I am pleasedto announce the acquisition as ourlasting commitment to expand andimprove services to our customers.

“This will help us increase ourservice area of the UK,predominantly within our pumpservice division.

“We as a company are committedto reinvestment, thus ensuring thesustainability of our services.”

The firm specialises in repair,refurbishment and supply of electricmotors, generators and pumps.

Eco n o my

P u m psBristol Uni working withIntel on computer project

Advisors win bid for 3-yearInvestors in People contract

� THE University of Bristol has been chosenby Intel to work with it on ways to makemodern computers more efficient.

The firm is creating Intel ParallelComputing Centres with leading highperformance computing research groups towork on the problem. It has chosen theuniversity in recognition of its world-leadingresearch into the efficient use of many-coreparallel computer designs.

Simon McIntosh-Smith, senior lecturer inhigh performance computing andarchitectures, said “We look forward toworking closely with Intel to help design thenext generation of highly parallel highperforming computing applications, and intraining the next generation of parallelprogramming experts.”

� BUSINESS advisers Grant ThorntonFollowing have won a bid to act as thelicensed deliverer of Investors In People inthe South West. The firm, based in HartwellHouse, Victoria Street, will hold the licencefrom April 1 for three years.

Karl Eddy, head of business growthservices at Grant Thornton, said: “As aleading adviser to dynamic businesses,public sector and third sector organisations,we know that good people make greatbusiness and so believe that investing intalent is vital to economic growth.

“This is why we’re very excited to havebeen selected to deliver Investors in People,a programme which aligns closely to ourown values and adds tangible benefit toambitious businesses.”

Ac a d e m i a S e r v i ces

B r i ts Stars holdingKa tc h a ’s man bags

Assistant Editor (Business)Gavin Thompson

Call 0117 934 3336Email gavin.thompson

@b-nm.co.ukTwitter @gavin_thompson1

Get in touch

Writer Rupert JanischEmail business@b-nm.co.uk

Advertising RobertRodgerson

Call07828 941469Email ro b e r t . ro d g e r s o n

@b-nm.co.uk

Advertising JaneChapmanCall 01179 343025Email jane.chapman@b-nm.co.uk

Advertising SimonCoy, Media Sales

Executive - BusinessCall 07736 900 705.

Email simon.coy@b-nm.co.uk

Best deals - How the numbers stack up

Business currentaccounts

Petrol prices

1.01%£10,000 deposit

0.05%£1 deposit

0.25%£1 deposit

State Bankof India

0.05%£500 deposit

Co-operativeBank

0.12%£1 deposit

Unity TrustBank

0.10%£25,000 deposit

Corporation tax

Employer NI rates

23 %

20 %Main rate

Small profitsrate – below

£300,000

13 . 8%Standard rate on

earnings above£148 per week

10 .4%Employees ins a l a r y - re l a t e d

pension schemeearning up £770 p/w

129 .51pUnleaded

136 .96 pDiesel

138 .27pSuperunleaded

73 .32pLPG

Source: PetrolPrices.com

Business savingsaccounts

1.49%£10,000 deposit

1.80%£10,000 deposit

State Bankof India

1.50%£5,000 deposit

1.55%£500 deposit

HanleyEconomicsBS

1.53%£1,000 deposit

Inflation (CPI)

2.0 %Weekly earnings

1.1 %Base interest rate

0.5 %Ave mortgage rate

3.99 %Source: BusinessMoneyfacts -moneyfacts.co.uk

Allied IrishBank (GB)

Cambridge &CountiesBank

United TrustBank

S h a w b ro o kBank

Advertising ShamaAbokor, RegionalBusiness AccountExecutiveCall 0117 934 3426Emailshama.abokor@b-nm.co.uk

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

Rupert JanischBusiness@b-nm.co.uk

� URBANE Traveller wasfounded in 2012 by businessconsultants Clare and RichardBarrell. Lovers of travelling, whenthey got married they went on around-the-world honeymoon.

The idea for Urbane Travellerwas borne out of a certainfrustration because they couldnot find what they considered tobe stylish travel clothing andaccessories for their trip.

They found all too often thetechnical travel clothing was notas stylish as they hoped andtravel accessories did not workas well as they were supposed

to. As a result, Urbane Travellerwas established in 2013 fromtheir desire for style,performance and comfort whilsttravelling. They believe thatdesign and function are notmutually exclusive and are ofequal importance to themodern-day traveller.

The Urbane Traveller mission isto source beautifully made andstylish travel accessories andfashionable travel clothing fromlike-minded brands who sharethe same ethos, bringing theseproducts together in a premiumand stylish online emporium.

� Richard and Clare Barrell, founders of Urbane Traveller, a posh travel accessories business. Their year-longhoneymoon, including Machu Picchu, inspired the business, based in Westbur y - o n - Tr y m

United TrustBank

1.50%£500 deposit

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S3

4 We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 5We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

Le i s u re

TWO school friends fromSomerset who set up a firmrunning West Country-themed stag and hen week-ends have expanded their

business into Wales.Simon Sucksmith and Jamie

Weber, who are both aged 37 and areoriginally from Cheddar, have re-cently enjoyed their most successfulyear to date with their company WestCountry Games.

Based at Gatcombe Farm in FlaxBourton, the company is now set toopen up its first site in Wales in April,at Cwmbran, just 25 minutes outsideCardif f.

Mr Sucksmith, who lives in West-bury-on-Trym, and Mr Weber, fromBedminster, have lived in Bristolsince 2002 and set up West CountryGames in 2011.

Mr Weber is now working full timeon the business and Simon expects to

be doing the same later this year. WestCountry Games specialises in out-door activities for stag and hengroups, birthday parties, corporateevents and other social occasions.

The concept offers nine uniqueWest Country or Welsh-themed activ-ities for people to enjoy in the openair with friends, family or col-lea gues.

The business has proved hugelypopular and attracted more than 6,000customers in 2013.

Mr Weber said: “We were lookingfor a suitable venue to host oursecond site, and with so many con-nections to Wales via friends andfamily, we realised that the next lo-gical step was to create Welsh Gamesto tap into a whole new audience.

“We are looking forward to wel-coming our first visitors in April, andhave already started taking book-i n g s.

“In both Bristol and in and aroundCwmbran, we have been workinghard to attract visitors both locallyand from further afield to the site,and are committed to supporting the

local economy by teaming up withsuitable accommodation providers,pubs, restaurants, night clubs andother entertainment – all tailored tothe requirements of each group.”

Welsh Games, as the new venturewill be known, will be seeking

Pair look west to Wales toexpand events company

� Simon Sucksmith and Jamie Weber, both directors of West Country Games, at Gatcombe Farm, Flax Bourton –the pair have now launched Welsh Games in Cwmbran Pic: Barbara Evripidou BRBE20140206B-2

Awa rd s

Women in Business ’Proud of myrole in male-dominated industry’

ENTRANTS for the inauguralBristol and Bath Women inBusiness Awards only haveuntil the end of this week toget their submissions in.

We ’ve already had more than 30entries but women keen to celebratetheir successes need to act quickly ifthey are not to miss out.

One Bristol businesswomanalready in the running is 41-year-oldTracey Sprason.

Tracey is the director of GBBS Ltd,which runs the Dyno Plumbing fran-chise in Bristol and Bath, as well asGloucester and Swindon.

She said: “I started GBBS 10 yearsago from a bedroom in my home. Theday after the birth of my son Marcus,my husband Philip and I began trad-ing with just two vans in Bristol.

“In 2008 Philip handed the reinsover to me. Within eight months wehad expanded our patch and beganservicing Bath and eventuallyGloucester. By 2012 we had acquiredthe Swindon patch.”

The business now has 15 vans, 15engineers and three office staff.

Tracey added: “Plumbing is not thefirst trade you would associate awoman with.

“As a teenager I attended cateringcollege with aspirations to work inhospitality. But little did I knowI would end up as one of the fewsenior women in a male-dominatedi n d u s t r y.

“I am the only female Dyno Plumb-

BUSINESSES from across the city arebeing encouraged to enter theRunBristol annual Bristol 10k andraise funds for the race’s three officialch a r i t i e s.

The Bristol 10k Business Chal-lenge, sponsored by law firm ClarkeWillmott LLP for the sixth year,attracts more than 100 teams a year.

It aims to promote the benefits ofhealth and fitness in the workplacethrough competition between em-ployees and businesses.

Prizes will be awarded to the fastestteam, man and woman and fastestmale and female veterans taking partin the Business Challenge.

Stephen Rosser, chief executive,Clarke Willmott, said: “The BusinessChallenge is a terrific opportunity topromote healthy competitionbetween employees and rival com-panies for great causes.”

The 2014 Bristol 10k will take placeon Sunday, May 11. Wallace & Gro-mit’s Grand Appeal will once againfeature as the race’s official localcharity, alongside national children’scancer charity CLIC Sargent and in-ternational children’s charity COCO.

For further information, and toregister for the 2014 Bristol 10k orBusiness Challenge, visit w w w. ru nbristol.com.

Bristol 10k Business Challenge

Sponsor calls on firms to step up

� 2013 Business Challenge Winners: Back row: Georgette van Hoof, RunBristol race director; Team Nvidia, fastest team; Stephen Rosser, chiefexecutive at Clarke Willmott. Front row: Owian Jones; Claire Hann, fastestwoman; Sandy King, fastest female veteran

� Bristol businesswoman Tracey Sprason is the director of GBBS Ltd and is the only female franchise licence holderfor Dyno Plumbing Photo: Dave Betts BRDB20140213B-004

Optimism at highestlevel in 22 years� BUSINESS optimism reached itshighest level for 22 years in January,indicating that the economy willkeep growing quickly over thecoming six months, according to thelatest Business Trends report byBristol-based accountants andbusiness advisers BDO.

The BDO Optimism Index, whichpredicts business performance twoquarters ahead, reached 103.8 inJanuary, up from 103.4 inD e c e m b e r.

This is the highest reading everrecorded since readings began 22years ago and sits well above the100.0 mark, meaning the economyis expected to outperform itslong-term historical growth trend.

In the manufacturing sector, theOptimism sub-index rose to a newall-time high of 117.1 in January, upfrom 115.5 in December. And forservices, which accounts for roughlythree quarters of the economy,confidence rose to 101.2 in January,up from 100.7 in December.

In tandem with improvedconfidence, businesses’ hiringexpectations increased markedlyover January as the BDOEmployment Index rose to 101.3, upfrom 99.4 the previous month. Theindex now stands at its highest levelsince August 2008 and above thecrucial 100.0 mark for the first timesince March 2011, signalling thatjob creation is likely toexceed trendgrowth overthe comingmonths.

In linewith theoverallpositiveoutlook,low ornegativebusiness costinflation is helpingcompanies – especiallymanufacturers – control costs. TheBDO Inflation Index read 97.9 inJanuary, its lowest level sinceNovember 2009 and down from98.7 at the end of last year. Fallinginput prices helped manufacturerscontrol costs over the past year andin the services sector, annual wagegrowth of only 0.9 per cent helddown the cost of inflation forlabour-intensive firms.

Graham Randall, above, partnerand head of BDO LLP in Bristol,said: “Companies are raisingheadcounts in response to risingclient demand and the datasuggests that the unemploymentrate is likely to fall below the Bank ofEngland’s 7.0 per cent threshold forconsidering raising interest rates inthe very near future.”

Eco n o myMinister checks oncentre’s expansion� FINANCE secretary to theTreasury, Sajid Javid, visited theNational Composite Centre inEmersons Green to see howGovernment money was beinginvested.

He joined Kingswood MP ChrisSkidmore on the visit to thegroundbreaking centre, whichrecently received £28 million fundingto help expand its operation.

Mr Skidmore said: “It was great tohave Sajid Javid, the FinanceSecretary to the Treasury, visit tosee how the NCC is expandingthanks to investment from thisGovernment, with companies suchas Airbus and Rolls-Roycebenefiting from the NCC’s ability tobe the leading producer inhigh-performance composites.”

NCC operations director, RobLudford, said: “The additional spacewill enable enhanced opportunitiesfor a full range of compositesmanufacturing technologies.

“We already provide cost-effectiveopportunities to optimise newproducts and to work with worldclass composites manufacturingand testing equipment on apay-per-use basis.

“The phase two extension willoffer increased capacity andflexibility as well as a shift in focusfor how we engage with bigbusiness and small and mediumenterprises.

“It will provide smaller-scalecapability to meet the needs ofSMEs and provide both researchand industry scale prototyping.”

C o m p os i tes

Golden opportunity asMidas makes shortlists� ONE of the UK’s largestindependent constructioncompanies is celebrating a brace ofnominations in the national BuildingAwards 2014.

Bristol-based Midas Group hasbeen selected as one of fourfinalists in the Contractor of the Year2014 (up to £300 million) category.

Midas also saw one of its mostrecent developments for long-termcustomer Waitrose nominated forSustainable Project of the Year.

Midas chief executive, Alan Hope,said: “We are delighted to benominated for such an importanta w a rd .

“We see this as a reflection ofMidas’s continued focus on staffdevelopment, achievingindustry-leading customer service,and maintaining the higheststandards in all our work.

C o n st r u c t i o n

Leading the way toa diverse workforce� HSBC is a company thatrealises the strategic advantageof having a diverse workforce.Fifty years ago, the number ofwomen employed by HSBC wasvery, very low. Today, nearly halfof its retail branches in Londonare female-led, and womenoccupy four of the 17 seats onHSBC Holdings’ board ofd i re c t o r s .

But the firm has taken itscommitment one step further, bythrowing its institutional weightbehind placing diversity on theagenda of key influencers andopinion leaders. For example,they hold events to educatebusiness owners – including asymposium in the House ofCommons that brought togethermembers of Parliament, smalland medium-sized enterprises,and external lobbying groups.

Sponsor profile

ing franchise licence holder, anaccomplishment I am very proud ofand my business is now celebrating10 successful years.”

She manages the business full timearound her two children, three catsand two ponies.

On top of all that, Tracey has beenchair of the Ladies Circle, thewo m e n’s arm of the Round Table, fortwo years and got involved in thecampaign to save Portishead’sopen-air pool back in 2008, by sendingplumbers to help with the refurbish-ment.

She said: “I’m proud to be a busyworking mum who runs a thrivingcompany. I can’t wait to see what thenext 10 years has in store for us – wh oknows; maybe my daughter will takeover the reins one day!”

HMRC to delay startof new penalty system� HMRC is to stagger the start of apenalty system for late payment andfiling penalties in relation to PAYEreal time information to giveemployers more time to adapt.

Paul Tucker, employment taxpartner at the Bristol office ofaccountancy and investmentmanagement group Smith &Williamson, said thousands hadbeen affected by problems.

“Some had HMRC debt collectorsarriving on their doorsteps, evenwhen all their PAYE had been paid,”he said. “To load penalties onto asystem which has not yet beddeddown would have increased theirmisery and distress.”

Ta xa t i o n

An event to celebrate and inspireInternational Women’s Day

Rupert JanischBusiness@b-nm.co.uk

THE CATEGORIES� Woman of the Year,sponsored by PPC� Young Entrepreneur of theYe a r� Mentor of the Year, sponsoredby Lloyds Banking Group� Contribution to theCommunity Award, for womenwho have made a difference toBristol or Bath� Women in the WorkplaceAw a rd , sponsored by CrestNicholson, for companies thatshow flexibility and adaptability tothe employment of women� New Business of the Year,

sponsored by HSBC CommercialBanking� Business of the Year,sponsored by City of BristolCollege� Award for Innovation� Marketing Campaign of theYe a r� Female ApprenticeDevelopment Award, sponsoredby the West of England LocalEnterprise Partnership� Outstanding Contribution toBusiness in Bristol or Bath,sponsored by UWE Bristol� Overall sponsors UWE Bristol

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

HSBC is celebrating InternationalWo m e n’s Day with a celebration inBristol.

The event, which aims to celebrateand inspire businesswomen, isorganised by the bank’s regionaldiversity champion Victoria Bern-a rd - H ay k l a n .

The 29-year-old staged the event forthe first time last year and was keento repeat it.

“We had 60 places last year and itfilled up quickly, so I was desperate todo it again,” said Victoria. “This yearwe doubled the places and they haveall gone already.”

The event is packed with inspir-

ational speakers, including Olympicsilver medalist and high performanceconsultant Miriam Lake, part of thequad sculls rowing team in Sydney.

The other speakers are:� Julie Ashmore, regional directorHSBC Invoice Finance, who inaddition to her senior banking rolehas climbed Kilimanjaro and skied tothe South Pole� Ros Taylor, a clinical psychologist,writer and TV and radio presenter� Nicola Cook, entrepreneur andchief executive of Company Short-cuts, a business dedicated to improv-ing other businesses.

The event takes place at the Future

Inn Hotel, Bond Street, on Friday,March 7.

Victoria, herself a business rolemodel having grown up in Bristol andworking in the family firm LocalPages before moving into the bankingsector, said the speakers had beencarefully chosen.

She said: “We chose them to demon-strate different strengths and cap-abilities. The event is not just aroundtalking about women who have madeit to a very high level position butabout empowering women at alllevels to achieve what they want to.

“It’s very much about celebratingwhat woman have achieved.”

HSBC also works with thewell-known British entrepreneurand women’s empowermentadvocate Lynne Franks, whocreated and hosted the bank’sfirst Women’s Knowledge andWisdom Forum in 2010.

And the bank makes sure tokeep its pipeline filled withtalented young women by earlyoutreach to students completingtheir secondary education, givingthem the opportunity to learnabout HSBC, the roles availablewithin the company, and thebanking industry in general. Theprogramme includes trainingsessions on personal brand andconfidence building andencourages participants to applyfor internships. The Women InBusiness is an important initiativeand one we would encourageother businesses, large andsmall, to embrace.

Debbie Hosking, regional headof business banking representsHSBC commitments, havingstarted her career in AshtonGate, where she undertook herwork experience. Debbie isproud to be supporting thesea w a rd s .

� Victoria Bernard-Hayklan who isorganising the InternationalWo m e n ’s Day celebration

Jamie Weber

The next logical stepwas to create WelshGames to tap into awhole new audience

“

part-time employees, creating up to20 jobs at peak times in the seasonfrom March to October each year.

Over the next two seasons the pairof entrepreneurs hope to increase theamount of business on the two sitesand offer further enhancements withaccommodation and entertainmentpackages, although this will be rolledout in Bristol in 2014 first.

� Ros Taylor, a clinical psychologistand TV presenter, will be among thespeakers at the event

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4 We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 5We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

Le i s u re

TWO school friends fromSomerset who set up a firmrunning West Country-themed stag and hen week-ends have expanded their

business into Wales.Simon Sucksmith and Jamie

Weber, who are both aged 37 and areoriginally from Cheddar, have re-cently enjoyed their most successfulyear to date with their company WestCountry Games.

Based at Gatcombe Farm in FlaxBourton, the company is now set toopen up its first site in Wales in April,at Cwmbran, just 25 minutes outsideCardif f.

Mr Sucksmith, who lives in West-bury-on-Trym, and Mr Weber, fromBedminster, have lived in Bristolsince 2002 and set up West CountryGames in 2011.

Mr Weber is now working full timeon the business and Simon expects to

be doing the same later this year. WestCountry Games specialises in out-door activities for stag and hengroups, birthday parties, corporateevents and other social occasions.

The concept offers nine uniqueWest Country or Welsh-themed activ-ities for people to enjoy in the openair with friends, family or col-lea gues.

The business has proved hugelypopular and attracted more than 6,000customers in 2013.

Mr Weber said: “We were lookingfor a suitable venue to host oursecond site, and with so many con-nections to Wales via friends andfamily, we realised that the next lo-gical step was to create Welsh Gamesto tap into a whole new audience.

“We are looking forward to wel-coming our first visitors in April, andhave already started taking book-i n g s.

“In both Bristol and in and aroundCwmbran, we have been workinghard to attract visitors both locallyand from further afield to the site,and are committed to supporting the

local economy by teaming up withsuitable accommodation providers,pubs, restaurants, night clubs andother entertainment – all tailored tothe requirements of each group.”

Welsh Games, as the new venturewill be known, will be seeking

Pair look west to Wales toexpand events company

� Simon Sucksmith and Jamie Weber, both directors of West Country Games, at Gatcombe Farm, Flax Bourton –the pair have now launched Welsh Games in Cwmbran Pic: Barbara Evripidou BRBE20140206B-2

Awa rd s

Women in Business ’Proud of myrole in male-dominated industry’

ENTRANTS for the inauguralBristol and Bath Women inBusiness Awards only haveuntil the end of this week toget their submissions in.

We ’ve already had more than 30entries but women keen to celebratetheir successes need to act quickly ifthey are not to miss out.

One Bristol businesswomanalready in the running is 41-year-oldTracey Sprason.

Tracey is the director of GBBS Ltd,which runs the Dyno Plumbing fran-chise in Bristol and Bath, as well asGloucester and Swindon.

She said: “I started GBBS 10 yearsago from a bedroom in my home. Theday after the birth of my son Marcus,my husband Philip and I began trad-ing with just two vans in Bristol.

“In 2008 Philip handed the reinsover to me. Within eight months wehad expanded our patch and beganservicing Bath and eventuallyGloucester. By 2012 we had acquiredthe Swindon patch.”

The business now has 15 vans, 15engineers and three office staff.

Tracey added: “Plumbing is not thefirst trade you would associate awoman with.

“As a teenager I attended cateringcollege with aspirations to work inhospitality. But little did I knowI would end up as one of the fewsenior women in a male-dominatedi n d u s t r y.

“I am the only female Dyno Plumb-

BUSINESSES from across the city arebeing encouraged to enter theRunBristol annual Bristol 10k andraise funds for the race’s three officialch a r i t i e s.

The Bristol 10k Business Chal-lenge, sponsored by law firm ClarkeWillmott LLP for the sixth year,attracts more than 100 teams a year.

It aims to promote the benefits ofhealth and fitness in the workplacethrough competition between em-ployees and businesses.

Prizes will be awarded to the fastestteam, man and woman and fastestmale and female veterans taking partin the Business Challenge.

Stephen Rosser, chief executive,Clarke Willmott, said: “The BusinessChallenge is a terrific opportunity topromote healthy competitionbetween employees and rival com-panies for great causes.”

The 2014 Bristol 10k will take placeon Sunday, May 11. Wallace & Gro-mit’s Grand Appeal will once againfeature as the race’s official localcharity, alongside national children’scancer charity CLIC Sargent and in-ternational children’s charity COCO.

For further information, and toregister for the 2014 Bristol 10k orBusiness Challenge, visit w w w. ru nbristol.com.

Bristol 10k Business Challenge

Sponsor calls on firms to step up

� 2013 Business Challenge Winners: Back row: Georgette van Hoof, RunBristol race director; Team Nvidia, fastest team; Stephen Rosser, chiefexecutive at Clarke Willmott. Front row: Owian Jones; Claire Hann, fastestwoman; Sandy King, fastest female veteran

� Bristol businesswoman Tracey Sprason is the director of GBBS Ltd and is the only female franchise licence holderfor Dyno Plumbing Photo: Dave Betts BRDB20140213B-004

Optimism at highestlevel in 22 years� BUSINESS optimism reached itshighest level for 22 years in January,indicating that the economy willkeep growing quickly over thecoming six months, according to thelatest Business Trends report byBristol-based accountants andbusiness advisers BDO.

The BDO Optimism Index, whichpredicts business performance twoquarters ahead, reached 103.8 inJanuary, up from 103.4 inD e c e m b e r.

This is the highest reading everrecorded since readings began 22years ago and sits well above the100.0 mark, meaning the economyis expected to outperform itslong-term historical growth trend.

In the manufacturing sector, theOptimism sub-index rose to a newall-time high of 117.1 in January, upfrom 115.5 in December. And forservices, which accounts for roughlythree quarters of the economy,confidence rose to 101.2 in January,up from 100.7 in December.

In tandem with improvedconfidence, businesses’ hiringexpectations increased markedlyover January as the BDOEmployment Index rose to 101.3, upfrom 99.4 the previous month. Theindex now stands at its highest levelsince August 2008 and above thecrucial 100.0 mark for the first timesince March 2011, signalling thatjob creation is likely toexceed trendgrowth overthe comingmonths.

In linewith theoverallpositiveoutlook,low ornegativebusiness costinflation is helpingcompanies – especiallymanufacturers – control costs. TheBDO Inflation Index read 97.9 inJanuary, its lowest level sinceNovember 2009 and down from98.7 at the end of last year. Fallinginput prices helped manufacturerscontrol costs over the past year andin the services sector, annual wagegrowth of only 0.9 per cent helddown the cost of inflation forlabour-intensive firms.

Graham Randall, above, partnerand head of BDO LLP in Bristol,said: “Companies are raisingheadcounts in response to risingclient demand and the datasuggests that the unemploymentrate is likely to fall below the Bank ofEngland’s 7.0 per cent threshold forconsidering raising interest rates inthe very near future.”

Eco n o myMinister checks oncentre’s expansion� FINANCE secretary to theTreasury, Sajid Javid, visited theNational Composite Centre inEmersons Green to see howGovernment money was beinginvested.

He joined Kingswood MP ChrisSkidmore on the visit to thegroundbreaking centre, whichrecently received £28 million fundingto help expand its operation.

Mr Skidmore said: “It was great tohave Sajid Javid, the FinanceSecretary to the Treasury, visit tosee how the NCC is expandingthanks to investment from thisGovernment, with companies suchas Airbus and Rolls-Roycebenefiting from the NCC’s ability tobe the leading producer inhigh-performance composites.”

NCC operations director, RobLudford, said: “The additional spacewill enable enhanced opportunitiesfor a full range of compositesmanufacturing technologies.

“We already provide cost-effectiveopportunities to optimise newproducts and to work with worldclass composites manufacturingand testing equipment on apay-per-use basis.

“The phase two extension willoffer increased capacity andflexibility as well as a shift in focusfor how we engage with bigbusiness and small and mediumenterprises.

“It will provide smaller-scalecapability to meet the needs ofSMEs and provide both researchand industry scale prototyping.”

C o m p os i tes

Golden opportunity asMidas makes shortlists� ONE of the UK’s largestindependent constructioncompanies is celebrating a brace ofnominations in the national BuildingAwards 2014.

Bristol-based Midas Group hasbeen selected as one of fourfinalists in the Contractor of the Year2014 (up to £300 million) category.

Midas also saw one of its mostrecent developments for long-termcustomer Waitrose nominated forSustainable Project of the Year.

Midas chief executive, Alan Hope,said: “We are delighted to benominated for such an importanta w a rd .

“We see this as a reflection ofMidas’s continued focus on staffdevelopment, achievingindustry-leading customer service,and maintaining the higheststandards in all our work.

C o n st r u c t i o n

Leading the way toa diverse workforce� HSBC is a company thatrealises the strategic advantageof having a diverse workforce.Fifty years ago, the number ofwomen employed by HSBC wasvery, very low. Today, nearly halfof its retail branches in Londonare female-led, and womenoccupy four of the 17 seats onHSBC Holdings’ board ofd i re c t o r s .

But the firm has taken itscommitment one step further, bythrowing its institutional weightbehind placing diversity on theagenda of key influencers andopinion leaders. For example,they hold events to educatebusiness owners – including asymposium in the House ofCommons that brought togethermembers of Parliament, smalland medium-sized enterprises,and external lobbying groups.

Sponsor profile

ing franchise licence holder, anaccomplishment I am very proud ofand my business is now celebrating10 successful years.”

She manages the business full timearound her two children, three catsand two ponies.

On top of all that, Tracey has beenchair of the Ladies Circle, thewo m e n’s arm of the Round Table, fortwo years and got involved in thecampaign to save Portishead’sopen-air pool back in 2008, by sendingplumbers to help with the refurbish-ment.

She said: “I’m proud to be a busyworking mum who runs a thrivingcompany. I can’t wait to see what thenext 10 years has in store for us – wh oknows; maybe my daughter will takeover the reins one day!”

HMRC to delay startof new penalty system� HMRC is to stagger the start of apenalty system for late payment andfiling penalties in relation to PAYEreal time information to giveemployers more time to adapt.

Paul Tucker, employment taxpartner at the Bristol office ofaccountancy and investmentmanagement group Smith &Williamson, said thousands hadbeen affected by problems.

“Some had HMRC debt collectorsarriving on their doorsteps, evenwhen all their PAYE had been paid,”he said. “To load penalties onto asystem which has not yet beddeddown would have increased theirmisery and distress.”

Ta xa t i o n

An event to celebrate and inspireInternational Women’s Day

Rupert JanischBusiness@b-nm.co.uk

THE CATEGORIES� Woman of the Year,sponsored by PPC� Young Entrepreneur of theYe a r� Mentor of the Year, sponsoredby Lloyds Banking Group� Contribution to theCommunity Award, for womenwho have made a difference toBristol or Bath� Women in the WorkplaceAw a rd , sponsored by CrestNicholson, for companies thatshow flexibility and adaptability tothe employment of women� New Business of the Year,

sponsored by HSBC CommercialBanking� Business of the Year,sponsored by City of BristolCollege� Award for Innovation� Marketing Campaign of theYe a r� Female ApprenticeDevelopment Award, sponsoredby the West of England LocalEnterprise Partnership� Outstanding Contribution toBusiness in Bristol or Bath,sponsored by UWE Bristol� Overall sponsors UWE Bristol

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

HSBC is celebrating InternationalWo m e n’s Day with a celebration inBristol.

The event, which aims to celebrateand inspire businesswomen, isorganised by the bank’s regionaldiversity champion Victoria Bern-a rd - H ay k l a n .

The 29-year-old staged the event forthe first time last year and was keento repeat it.

“We had 60 places last year and itfilled up quickly, so I was desperate todo it again,” said Victoria. “This yearwe doubled the places and they haveall gone already.”

The event is packed with inspir-

ational speakers, including Olympicsilver medalist and high performanceconsultant Miriam Lake, part of thequad sculls rowing team in Sydney.

The other speakers are:� Julie Ashmore, regional directorHSBC Invoice Finance, who inaddition to her senior banking rolehas climbed Kilimanjaro and skied tothe South Pole� Ros Taylor, a clinical psychologist,writer and TV and radio presenter� Nicola Cook, entrepreneur andchief executive of Company Short-cuts, a business dedicated to improv-ing other businesses.

The event takes place at the Future

Inn Hotel, Bond Street, on Friday,March 7.

Victoria, herself a business rolemodel having grown up in Bristol andworking in the family firm LocalPages before moving into the bankingsector, said the speakers had beencarefully chosen.

She said: “We chose them to demon-strate different strengths and cap-abilities. The event is not just aroundtalking about women who have madeit to a very high level position butabout empowering women at alllevels to achieve what they want to.

“It’s very much about celebratingwhat woman have achieved.”

HSBC also works with thewell-known British entrepreneurand women’s empowermentadvocate Lynne Franks, whocreated and hosted the bank’sfirst Women’s Knowledge andWisdom Forum in 2010.

And the bank makes sure tokeep its pipeline filled withtalented young women by earlyoutreach to students completingtheir secondary education, givingthem the opportunity to learnabout HSBC, the roles availablewithin the company, and thebanking industry in general. Theprogramme includes trainingsessions on personal brand andconfidence building andencourages participants to applyfor internships. The Women InBusiness is an important initiativeand one we would encourageother businesses, large andsmall, to embrace.

Debbie Hosking, regional headof business banking representsHSBC commitments, havingstarted her career in AshtonGate, where she undertook herwork experience. Debbie isproud to be supporting thesea w a rd s .

� Victoria Bernard-Hayklan who isorganising the InternationalWo m e n ’s Day celebration

Jamie Weber

The next logical stepwas to create WelshGames to tap into awhole new audience

“

part-time employees, creating up to20 jobs at peak times in the seasonfrom March to October each year.

Over the next two seasons the pairof entrepreneurs hope to increase theamount of business on the two sitesand offer further enhancements withaccommodation and entertainmentpackages, although this will be rolledout in Bristol in 2014 first.

� Ros Taylor, a clinical psychologistand TV presenter, will be among thespeakers at the event

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6 We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 7We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

WALK down any suburb-an street and look at thegardens. Some of themwill be blooming riotsof colour, others will

manicured, ordered and planned,some a mess, filled with weeds, and afew simply covered over with pav-ing.

It’s easy to spot the influence of theowner. Vibrant but chaotic, metic-ulous, too busy, or simply not wantingthe hassle.

Now think about your business inthe same way. If asked, most ownersand managers would say they wantedtheir business to grow, but to achievegrowth, and growth in the rightareas, you have to know what youwant your business to look like first.

Damien Webb, restructuring and

recovery director at Baker Tilly inBristol, said: “You need to ask your-self what’s the purpose of your busi-ness. Why are you doing it? Is it justwhat I have always done? Is it to sellthe business in five years’ time? Is itto fund a lifestyle? What are youtrying to achieve?

“When you go into a good businessyou often feel as soon as you get therethat they know what they are for.”

But he said in others, oftenlong-running family businesses, itseemed the people were there just tokeep the business going, not to getanything out of it.

While all firms start with a busi-ness plan – at least any firm thatneeds capital or investment does –many lose their way a few years in.

Mr Webb said: “You should alwayshave a business plan in place and astrategy to appraise that on a regularbasis. It means you can highlightquestions that need to be answeredabout the business.

“You can look at your management

AFTER a long period ofstagnation, the eco-nomy is finally showingsigns of recovery. Thelatest results from our

Business Barometer, a quarterlysurvey of more than 700 UKSMEs across a variety of in-dustry sectors, reveals that athird of businesses have expan-sion plans for 2014.

For many this will be naturalgrowth but for others seeking tooutperform the wider economy,or to achieve their growth am-bitions more quickly, it maymean considering mergers andacquisitions, refinancing or per-haps a management buyout(MBO).

One of the most importantquestions is how to finance it.Many companies have the am-bition to expand but lack themeans or professional advice todo so.

For example, if a business islooking to grow relativelyquickly, a strategic acquisitioncan be a transformative momentin their evolution, but it requiressignificant investment.

Asset based lending (ABL) isone possibility to consider.

It is an invoice finance-led ar-rangement and works by releas-ing cash from a sales ledger butcrucially it also enables man-agement teams to leverage as-sets – be they inventory, plantand machinery or real estate –from their business to unlockgreater funding and provide thenecessary capital to supportbusiness growth.

Both invoice finance and ABLwork harmoniously alongsideeach other to ensure a businessis best positioned to take ad-vantage of any growth oppor-tunities that come along.

The asset based finance in-dustry, and ABL in particular,has never been in better shape –it is currently one of the fewforms of lending that is growing– good news for business.

At Close Brothers Invoice Fin-ance we are collaborating withan increasing number of localorganisations, as well as theirfinancial advisers, to put togeth-er tailored funding arrange-ments which will aid businessesin taking full advantage of theopportunities that 2014 is set tobring.

Fulfilling yourgrowth aims

Know how

Most businesses don’t growon their own, at least not inthe way you’d want. You –the manager or owner –need to make it happen.Gavin Thompson looks athow you achieve it

� A LANGUAGE teaching businessis growing by tapping into thegrowing global demand forpersonalised English tuition.

Living Learning English arrangesfor people who want to learn thelanguage to stay with a tutor intheir home, immersing them inEnglish and giving them a tailor-made programme. The service isused by business people, studentsand even politicians.

Kate Hargreaves set up thebusiness 19 years ago and nowbrings around 2,000 students ayear to the UK.

Kate is joining a UKTI trademission to Brazil, one of the fastest

growing markets in the world.She said: “A lot of our clients are

business people who would notfind it easy in a language school sothey feel more comfortable learningon a one-to-one basis insomeone’s home.

LLE uses agents overseas tobring students in and has seen bigdemand from Russia, Ukraine andalso France and Spain, where theeffects of the recession has meantmany business people needEnglish to apply for new jobs onthe international market.

The company has a turnover of£2.5 million and employs 10 staff atits offices in Portland Square butmajor growth in recent monthsmeans it is looking to expand.

When she wanted to look forbusiness in new markets overseas,Kate turned to UKTI for support.

She said: “The help we havereceived from UKTI has beeninvaluable. All our work isdependent on overseas marketsand when we started-up we gothelp under the Passport to Exportprogramme which helped fund ourvisits abroad and with translationwork. They have also helped payfor important industry networking.”

‘UKTI has been invaluable in helping us to grow’Case study

� UWE graduate Joanna Allsop hasgone into business straight fromuniversity, designing scarves thenselling them online.

Originally from ruralWorcestershire, 23-year-old Joanna,her partner Ross Gibson andchihuahua Moses moved toClapton-in-Gordano last year.

“All my work is inspired by natureso it’s nice here,” she said. “It’salready inspired my next collectionfor autumn and winter.”

Joanna has ambitions to grow herfledgling business and is alreadyselling around the world.

She said: “My goal is to get intodepartment stores such as Libertyand Harrods.”

She has the scarves made by aproducer in Evesham and then sellsthem through her own website,w w w. j o a n n a a l l s o p . c o m and throughup-market online fashion bazaarBoticca for £160 a time, puttingthem firmly in the designer bracket.

Fortunately Joanna hasn’t had toborrow to get started, using herdegree show work for her first salesand then reinvesting the money inmore materials. That means she canplough her profits into the businessto fund her growth plans.

Degree showprofits fundedbusiness startCase study

� Joanna Allsop and some of the scarves she designs, inspired by nature Pics John Kent BRJK20140212D-009

Growing your business

ALTHOUGH we are be-ginning to see somesemblance of economicrecovery, this alone willnot ensure your busi-

ness growth.To take total control of that,

there are three elements thatmust be in place. These are yourExit Vision, Growth Strategyand solid Business Processes.For brevity’s sake, this columnaddresses the first two.

The Exit Vision is all aboutgoal setting; love or hate theword, your business needs goals.Stephen Covey told us to “star twith the end in mind” andwithout knowing your Exit Vis-ion, your Growth Strategy willfl o u n d e r.

How much do you want togrow and by when? How big doyou want to become? All thismust be underpinned most cru-cially by understanding why youwant these?

I often find far too many busi-nesses either skip this altogetheror have not spent enough timemaking the Exit Vision clear andcommunicated to their keystaf f.

The Growth Strategy is nextand this includes your ExitStrategy; (the Exit Strategy de-serves its own column).

An extremely effective way todo this is to imagine you havereached your Exit Vision andthen chart a line backwards tothe current year.

Add bullet points to this highlevel plan which maps out whatis needed to be put in place and inwhich year, so that you reachyour Exit Vision.

This Growth Strategy can beconveyed on a single sheet ofpaper and shows at a glance howyou will be achieving that ExitVision. This makes it easy tocommunicate with your staff.

When the plan reaches the cur-rent year then add the detail forthe next twelve months.

We help clients break thisdown to weekly High PayoffA c t iv i t i e s.

This makes this so powerful;completion of those High PayoffActivities each week and meansyou and your staff will be con-tinually driving your businesstoward your Exit Vision.

Mark TannerGrowth StrategyPeople

Recovery willnot help yourbusiness grow

Exper teye

PLANNING IS VITAL BEFORE SOWING SEEDS FOR GROWTH

team and put steps in place tostrengthen the business, plan howyou can achieve growth, but also howyou can manage it.

“A lot of businesses focus on theday-to-day, with no clear plan wherethey want to be. You need a strategy.Where do you want to be in sixmonths, 12 months, three years?”

He also warned of being too relianton one customer because that couldstymie growth in other area.

“I have seen businesses with onefantastic client and all the costs of thebusiness are built around that,” hesaid, adding that the business neededto be flexible to changing circum-s t a n c e s.

For managers unsure where to gonext, there is plenty of advice outthere. Professional advisers will cost,but if it puts the business on a betterpath it will pay off in the long run.

The Growth Accelerator pro-gramme, for example, offers coachingfor businesses with fewer than 250employees which have the potentialto grow quickly. It focuses on over-coming barriers preventing growth,and helps with attracting investment,and with product development and

leadership. The basic cost is £3,500,although that can be less, dependingon the size of business.

Another area where there is plentyof support out there is exporting. TheGovernment is pushing for morefirms, big and small, to export and it’san obvious way to grow.

Clive Wray, director of BusinessWest with responsibility for runningthe UKTI contract in the South West,said: “Research shows that busi-nesses generate an average growth of30 per cent after exporting for just twoyears, are 34 per cent more productivein the first year alone, are more in-novative and 11 per cent more likelyto survive.”

There are several ways UKTI canhelp companies to export their goodsand services, including:� The Passport to Export scheme,which helps firms decide if exportingis right for them, provides training,planning and ongoing supportneeded to begin their journey andincludes mentoring and advice froman international trade adviser for 12months� Gateway to Global Growth, whichhelps more experienced exporters

ready to expand further afield, en-abling firms to conduct extensivemarket research, undertake languagetraining and attend networkingeve n t s� Joining trade missions overseas.

Mr Wray said: “After years of eco-nomic uncertainty it is good to seebusiness becoming confident againand talking about growth. But it isclear that we cannot rely on Gov-ernment spending to generategrowth. Trade and investment mustremain top of the agenda – and in-vestment overseas by companies is

absolutely vital. So many companieshave the potential to achieve successthrough trading overseas, but theyeither don’t realise it or are reluctantto expand existing export activityinto new markets.

“T hat’s what we are here to do – toencourage and support companies toexport for the first time or exportmore. Why do we put so much effortinto this? Quite simply because weknow that exporters have signific-antly higher growth prospects, moredurability and better profitabilitythan comparable businesses thatd o n’t export.

“Taking the plunge and tacklingthe unknown in overseas marketswill often seem daunting, to say theleast. But help is at hand and I wouldencourage all businesses to take thishelp to offset the risk. Business Westand UKTI together can provide all thehelp you need to export success-f u l ly. ”

So there are ways to grow yourbusiness. The key is decide what youwant it to look like. And then if youd o n’t know how to get there, call in aprofessional to help you work outwhere to plant the seeds.

� Kate Hargreaves teaches a student English

Robin GoddardRegional directorClose Brothers07809 877198robin.goddard@closebrothers.com

• Start up advice and support• Business advice clinics for growing businesses• Coaching and mentoring• Training courses• Office space www.businesswest.co.uk

Start, grow and succeedwww.businesswest.co.uk

Damien Webb

“You should alwayshave a business plan inplace and a strategy toappraise that. You canhighlight questions thatneed to be answered

� Clive Wray

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6 We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 7We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

WALK down any suburb-an street and look at thegardens. Some of themwill be blooming riotsof colour, others will

manicured, ordered and planned,some a mess, filled with weeds, and afew simply covered over with pav-ing.

It’s easy to spot the influence of theowner. Vibrant but chaotic, metic-ulous, too busy, or simply not wantingthe hassle.

Now think about your business inthe same way. If asked, most ownersand managers would say they wantedtheir business to grow, but to achievegrowth, and growth in the rightareas, you have to know what youwant your business to look like first.

Damien Webb, restructuring and

recovery director at Baker Tilly inBristol, said: “You need to ask your-self what’s the purpose of your busi-ness. Why are you doing it? Is it justwhat I have always done? Is it to sellthe business in five years’ time? Is itto fund a lifestyle? What are youtrying to achieve?

“When you go into a good businessyou often feel as soon as you get therethat they know what they are for.”

But he said in others, oftenlong-running family businesses, itseemed the people were there just tokeep the business going, not to getanything out of it.

While all firms start with a busi-ness plan – at least any firm thatneeds capital or investment does –many lose their way a few years in.

Mr Webb said: “You should alwayshave a business plan in place and astrategy to appraise that on a regularbasis. It means you can highlightquestions that need to be answeredabout the business.

“You can look at your management

AFTER a long period ofstagnation, the eco-nomy is finally showingsigns of recovery. Thelatest results from our

Business Barometer, a quarterlysurvey of more than 700 UKSMEs across a variety of in-dustry sectors, reveals that athird of businesses have expan-sion plans for 2014.

For many this will be naturalgrowth but for others seeking tooutperform the wider economy,or to achieve their growth am-bitions more quickly, it maymean considering mergers andacquisitions, refinancing or per-haps a management buyout(MBO).

One of the most importantquestions is how to finance it.Many companies have the am-bition to expand but lack themeans or professional advice todo so.

For example, if a business islooking to grow relativelyquickly, a strategic acquisitioncan be a transformative momentin their evolution, but it requiressignificant investment.

Asset based lending (ABL) isone possibility to consider.

It is an invoice finance-led ar-rangement and works by releas-ing cash from a sales ledger butcrucially it also enables man-agement teams to leverage as-sets – be they inventory, plantand machinery or real estate –from their business to unlockgreater funding and provide thenecessary capital to supportbusiness growth.

Both invoice finance and ABLwork harmoniously alongsideeach other to ensure a businessis best positioned to take ad-vantage of any growth oppor-tunities that come along.

The asset based finance in-dustry, and ABL in particular,has never been in better shape –it is currently one of the fewforms of lending that is growing– good news for business.

At Close Brothers Invoice Fin-ance we are collaborating withan increasing number of localorganisations, as well as theirfinancial advisers, to put togeth-er tailored funding arrange-ments which will aid businessesin taking full advantage of theopportunities that 2014 is set tobring.

Fulfilling yourgrowth aims

Know how

Most businesses don’t growon their own, at least not inthe way you’d want. You –the manager or owner –need to make it happen.Gavin Thompson looks athow you achieve it

� A LANGUAGE teaching businessis growing by tapping into thegrowing global demand forpersonalised English tuition.

Living Learning English arrangesfor people who want to learn thelanguage to stay with a tutor intheir home, immersing them inEnglish and giving them a tailor-made programme. The service isused by business people, studentsand even politicians.

Kate Hargreaves set up thebusiness 19 years ago and nowbrings around 2,000 students ayear to the UK.

Kate is joining a UKTI trademission to Brazil, one of the fastest

growing markets in the world.She said: “A lot of our clients are

business people who would notfind it easy in a language school sothey feel more comfortable learningon a one-to-one basis insomeone’s home.

LLE uses agents overseas tobring students in and has seen bigdemand from Russia, Ukraine andalso France and Spain, where theeffects of the recession has meantmany business people needEnglish to apply for new jobs onthe international market.

The company has a turnover of£2.5 million and employs 10 staff atits offices in Portland Square butmajor growth in recent monthsmeans it is looking to expand.

When she wanted to look forbusiness in new markets overseas,Kate turned to UKTI for support.

She said: “The help we havereceived from UKTI has beeninvaluable. All our work isdependent on overseas marketsand when we started-up we gothelp under the Passport to Exportprogramme which helped fund ourvisits abroad and with translationwork. They have also helped payfor important industry networking.”

‘UKTI has been invaluable in helping us to grow’Case study

� UWE graduate Joanna Allsop hasgone into business straight fromuniversity, designing scarves thenselling them online.

Originally from ruralWorcestershire, 23-year-old Joanna,her partner Ross Gibson andchihuahua Moses moved toClapton-in-Gordano last year.

“All my work is inspired by natureso it’s nice here,” she said. “It’salready inspired my next collectionfor autumn and winter.”

Joanna has ambitions to grow herfledgling business and is alreadyselling around the world.

She said: “My goal is to get intodepartment stores such as Libertyand Harrods.”

She has the scarves made by aproducer in Evesham and then sellsthem through her own website,w w w. j o a n n a a l l s o p . c o m and throughup-market online fashion bazaarBoticca for £160 a time, puttingthem firmly in the designer bracket.

Fortunately Joanna hasn’t had toborrow to get started, using herdegree show work for her first salesand then reinvesting the money inmore materials. That means she canplough her profits into the businessto fund her growth plans.

Degree showprofits fundedbusiness startCase study

� Joanna Allsop and some of the scarves she designs, inspired by nature Pics John Kent BRJK20140212D-009

Growing your business

ALTHOUGH we are be-ginning to see somesemblance of economicrecovery, this alone willnot ensure your busi-

ness growth.To take total control of that,

there are three elements thatmust be in place. These are yourExit Vision, Growth Strategyand solid Business Processes.For brevity’s sake, this columnaddresses the first two.

The Exit Vision is all aboutgoal setting; love or hate theword, your business needs goals.Stephen Covey told us to “star twith the end in mind” andwithout knowing your Exit Vis-ion, your Growth Strategy willfl o u n d e r.

How much do you want togrow and by when? How big doyou want to become? All thismust be underpinned most cru-cially by understanding why youwant these?

I often find far too many busi-nesses either skip this altogetheror have not spent enough timemaking the Exit Vision clear andcommunicated to their keystaf f.

The Growth Strategy is nextand this includes your ExitStrategy; (the Exit Strategy de-serves its own column).

An extremely effective way todo this is to imagine you havereached your Exit Vision andthen chart a line backwards tothe current year.

Add bullet points to this highlevel plan which maps out whatis needed to be put in place and inwhich year, so that you reachyour Exit Vision.

This Growth Strategy can beconveyed on a single sheet ofpaper and shows at a glance howyou will be achieving that ExitVision. This makes it easy tocommunicate with your staff.

When the plan reaches the cur-rent year then add the detail forthe next twelve months.

We help clients break thisdown to weekly High PayoffA c t iv i t i e s.

This makes this so powerful;completion of those High PayoffActivities each week and meansyou and your staff will be con-tinually driving your businesstoward your Exit Vision.

Mark TannerGrowth StrategyPeople

Recovery willnot help yourbusiness grow

Exper teye

PLANNING IS VITAL BEFORE SOWING SEEDS FOR GROWTH

team and put steps in place tostrengthen the business, plan howyou can achieve growth, but also howyou can manage it.

“A lot of businesses focus on theday-to-day, with no clear plan wherethey want to be. You need a strategy.Where do you want to be in sixmonths, 12 months, three years?”

He also warned of being too relianton one customer because that couldstymie growth in other area.

“I have seen businesses with onefantastic client and all the costs of thebusiness are built around that,” hesaid, adding that the business neededto be flexible to changing circum-s t a n c e s.

For managers unsure where to gonext, there is plenty of advice outthere. Professional advisers will cost,but if it puts the business on a betterpath it will pay off in the long run.

The Growth Accelerator pro-gramme, for example, offers coachingfor businesses with fewer than 250employees which have the potentialto grow quickly. It focuses on over-coming barriers preventing growth,and helps with attracting investment,and with product development and

leadership. The basic cost is £3,500,although that can be less, dependingon the size of business.

Another area where there is plentyof support out there is exporting. TheGovernment is pushing for morefirms, big and small, to export and it’san obvious way to grow.

Clive Wray, director of BusinessWest with responsibility for runningthe UKTI contract in the South West,said: “Research shows that busi-nesses generate an average growth of30 per cent after exporting for just twoyears, are 34 per cent more productivein the first year alone, are more in-novative and 11 per cent more likelyto survive.”

There are several ways UKTI canhelp companies to export their goodsand services, including:� The Passport to Export scheme,which helps firms decide if exportingis right for them, provides training,planning and ongoing supportneeded to begin their journey andincludes mentoring and advice froman international trade adviser for 12months� Gateway to Global Growth, whichhelps more experienced exporters

ready to expand further afield, en-abling firms to conduct extensivemarket research, undertake languagetraining and attend networkingeve n t s� Joining trade missions overseas.

Mr Wray said: “After years of eco-nomic uncertainty it is good to seebusiness becoming confident againand talking about growth. But it isclear that we cannot rely on Gov-ernment spending to generategrowth. Trade and investment mustremain top of the agenda – and in-vestment overseas by companies is

absolutely vital. So many companieshave the potential to achieve successthrough trading overseas, but theyeither don’t realise it or are reluctantto expand existing export activityinto new markets.

“T hat’s what we are here to do – toencourage and support companies toexport for the first time or exportmore. Why do we put so much effortinto this? Quite simply because weknow that exporters have signific-antly higher growth prospects, moredurability and better profitabilitythan comparable businesses thatd o n’t export.

“Taking the plunge and tacklingthe unknown in overseas marketswill often seem daunting, to say theleast. But help is at hand and I wouldencourage all businesses to take thishelp to offset the risk. Business Westand UKTI together can provide all thehelp you need to export success-f u l ly. ”

So there are ways to grow yourbusiness. The key is decide what youwant it to look like. And then if youd o n’t know how to get there, call in aprofessional to help you work outwhere to plant the seeds.

� Kate Hargreaves teaches a student English

Robin GoddardRegional directorClose Brothers07809 877198robin.goddard@closebrothers.com

• Start up advice and support• Business advice clinics for growing businesses• Coaching and mentoring• Training courses• Office space www.businesswest.co.uk

Start, grow and succeedwww.businesswest.co.uk

Damien Webb

“You should alwayshave a business plan inplace and a strategy toappraise that. You canhighlight questions thatneed to be answered

� Clive Wray

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8 We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 9We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

Growing your business Growing your business Broadband connection vouchers

So, you’ve created yourbrand, got your companyname safely registered,grabbed a great domainname and are now safe to

get down to growing your busi-ness. Or are you?

Ideally, before you start using abrand, you should have searchesperformed to check for the ex-istence of conflicting trade markrights, to avoid walking intop ro bl e m s.

However, even if you’ve donethis, and been trading for sometime, your brand may be vul-n e r abl e.

If a third party subsequentlyregisters a trade mark, identicalor similar to your brand name,logo or domain name, that couldcause you to infringe, albeit in-nocently. Even though you star-ted using the branding first, it ispossible that a competitor couldrely on their later registration toprevent your business from ex-panding, or to force you into anexpensive rebrand.

This can be particularly prob-lematic for newer companies,trying to build up a strong brandreputation. The simplest way toavoid these problems is to re-gister your own trade mark first– it’s also a defence against al-legations of infringement.

There are other benefits too – atrade mark registration enablesyou to enforce your rightsagainst anyone who uses or at-tempts to register an identical orsimilar trade mark without yourpermission. A registration al-lows Trading Standards to bringcriminal charges against coun-terfeiters. It is also a businessasset which can be sold, mort-gaged, franchised or licensed.

Fortunately, there’s no cut-offdeadline for applying for regis-tration. It’s possible to wait untilyour branding is finalised andyour product line planned beforeyou apply; one application couldthen cover all your intendedproducts and services.

Even if you’re already usingyour brand, it’s not too late toapply. Money well spent? A trademark registration lasts for tenyears and can be renewed everyten years thereafter.

Not only does it provide se-curity for your business but it isalso an asset which adds value tothe business and can be includedon the company’s balance sheet.

The more successful the busi-ness becomes, the more valuableyour trade mark becomes.

Addy BridgerAssociatePage Hargrave

So are youp rote c te d ?

Expert eye

There are those who will tell youthat a car is just a car, it gets youfrom A to B and that’s all there isto it. Others will tell you that hi-fiis hi-fi and as long as it makes a

noise it’s fine, or that one mobile phone ismuch like another... and the truth is thatt h at ’s all rubbish and while it might notmatter to you what car/hi-fi/phone youuse, it matters to me.

The same thinking should be true ofbroadband and your phone and IT sys-tems generally; it really matters whatsystems and connectivity you use andwho you choose to provide it, because ifyour business is important then yourtelecoms should be too. It plays too vital arole not to be.

Yo u ’ll note above that I’ve referred toboth phone and IT in one breath: Why?Because the two are inextricably linked –like love and marriage you can’t have onewithout the other, both are interdepend-ent, both are data hungry and, if usedsensibly, both can run on your broadbandconnection and be used to make moneyfor your company instead of just being anecessary cost.

It’s this hunger for data that is drivinginitiatives such as the excellent Con-nection Voucher Scheme. As we link tothe Cloud, increasingly use Voice overInternet (VoIP), have a workforce thatlives and works remotely to the office, usedata-dependent CRM systems to manageour clients and spend our lives browsingand emailing, our standard broadbandpackages struggle to keep up, leaving usannoyed, frustrated and probably swear-ing as we impatiently wait for our sys-tems to catch up with us. Slow broadbandis plainly inefficient and, what’s worse, itcosts us money.

For most of us rescue is at hand, butt h at ’s the rub... how at hand? Even nowt h e re ’s a range of broadband optionsavailable on the market for both fixed andmobile telecoms. Bristol, for instancenow enjoys 4G, but some of these solu-tions are eye-wateringly expensive; fin-ancially challenging enough on amonthly basis to encourage businesses toput up with what they’ve got, no matterhow attractive the connection voucherscheme. So where does that leave us?

It’s a matter of time. Businesses in thecities listed on the Connection Voucherwebsite can already have superfastbroadband, if they’re prepared to pay forit. What a reputable supplier such asTeam Partners Telecommunications willdo is enable you to register with them(w w w. t p t e l e . c o m / f i b re ) so that they canthen get in touch and let you know assoon as an affordable broadband con-nection that meets your needs is availablefor you to connect to.

T hey’ll also be able to tailor yourbroadband connection to achieve themaximum possible within your budget,meeting the requirements of your busi-ness at a price you can afford and makingsure that, like your car, hi-fi, mobile andanything else that’s really important toyou, both your systems and your con-nectivity are precisely what you wantand need.

Stuart SermonManaging DirectorTeam PartnersTe l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s03333583333

Telecoms shouldbe a top priority

Know how

BUSINESSES in Bristol are beinginvited to apply for grants from a new£4 million pot – but they need to beq u i ck .

The fund is being run by the Uni-versity of the West of England, withgrants of £25,000 to £150,000 availablefor research and development pro-j e c t s.

Professor Martin Boddy, pro-vicechancellor, research and business en-gagement, said: “We are delighted tooffer support to promising enter-prises across the South West.

“Not only in the Bristol area, butright across the region – from Truroto Tewkesbury, Bideford to Bourne-

mouth – the fund will enable usto help businesses innovate andg row.

“Any company with plans for re-search and development, or thinkingabout an innovative project, shouldconsider applying.

“We would typically fund 35 percent of project costs for small andmedium-sized businesses, and a bitless for larger companies – so a sig-nificant portion of expenditure canbe claimed.”

Financed by the Gover nment’s Re-gional Development Fund, thescheme will help businesses developnew or improved products, techno-

logies, processes or services, safe-guarding existing, or creatingadditional, jobs as a result.

The university’s administration ofthe scheme reflects its goal to be a keypart of Bristol’s business com-m u n i t y.

But companies have not got long toact. The application deadline isMonday, March 10.

Professor Janice Kiely, director ofthe Institute of Bio-sensing Techno-logy, who leads the project, said: “It isimportant that businesses express aninterest as early as possible.

“Having said that, our dedicatedadvisers are more than happy to

provide assistance with both theshort application form and the over-all process, making things much easi-er for those considering asubmission.

“Businesses should complete thebrief online registration of interestform in the first instance.

“An adviser will then contact themwithin three working days to discussthe potential application and to or-ganise further telephone orface-to-face support, if required.”

For details of the scheme and theregistration of interest form, visitthe website at w w w. i n n o v a t i o n 4g rowth.co.uk.

Firms must act fast for share of research cash

MAMA Bear’s Day Nurseryhas been one of Bristol’sfastest growing busi-nesses in the past 10years. It all began as

something of a romantic notion forhusband and wife team of Tony andBev Driffield,

Tony, 47, said: “We decided wewanted to work together. We looked atwhat our joint skills were. Bev’s back-ground is as a nursery nurse andearly years teacher. My backgroundis business. At the time I was trav-elling the world as a marketing man-ager and was fed up.

“The day nursery seemed logical,Bev could provide the product and Icould provide the infrastructure.”

Once they had made the decision,however, the pair didn’t rush in –planning was paramount, says Tony.

“I would advise any new businessto do your research before you doanything else,” he said.

“We started trading in February2004 but made the decision to start thebusiness in July 2002.

“We spent a lot of time planningand getting it right, testing the modeland looking for what assistance therewas out there.”

Knowing what help you can find iskey to growth, said Tony. MamaBear’s had grant support when itstarted and recently it has securedfunding from the Going for Growthcampaign run the West of EnglandLocal Enterprise Partnership andbacked by the Po s t to help it expand.

Other factors in its expansion in-cluded a strong relationship with itsbank, Santander, which Tony de-scribed as “very supportive”.

But most of all, the couple knewwhat they wanted to achieve.

Tony said: “With our businessmodel, everything is about the qual-ity of the product, the quality of thecare. If you can provide quality careand education everything else falls inbehind it.

“Parents want and deserve goodquality care and education to give

their children a good start in life.”The business now has 19 sites, 12 in

Bristol and seven in Somerset andDevon, employing 400 people.

“It’s never been about profit foru s, ” said Tony. “Profit is importantbecause we want to reinvest.

“You can’t buy capital itemswithout profit but it’s never beenabout taking it all out of the business,we have invested more than the profitwe have retained.

“It was about achieving criticalmass from a business point of view.

“We needed to get to a certain size,which we are about now.

“We can take a different strategygoing forward now that growth is lessimportant. We can look at more waysto improve the product.”

So the business formula hasworked, what about the marriage?

Bev said: “It has worked for us,being a couple who work and livetogether. For us, it’s invigorating.”

Tony added: “We ’re certainly neverone of those couples who go out todinner and have nothing to say.”

‘Parents want and deserve agood start for their children’

C h i l d c a re

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

Fast track Swift action needed toclaim ‘va l u a b l e ’ broadband boost

BRISTOL businesses needto act fast if they want toget connected to superfastbroadband, courtesy of thet a x p aye r.

The city was one of just a handfularound the country to be givenfunding for broadband connectionvouchers from the Treasury in theChancellor’s Autumn Statement.

George Osborne believes key cit-ies, including Bristol, with a strongcreative and digital sector need ac-cess to fast broadband to stay com-p e t i t ive.

Bristol City Council is managingthe scheme, worth up to £4.8 mil-lion. So far, 40 businesses havemade expressions of interest in thes ch e m e.

Small and medium-sized firmsbased in Bristol can get up to £3,000

to pay for a high-speed broadbandconnection. That can include up-grading from a slower broadband.

High-speed, high-grade broad-band can benefit businesses by en-abling them to operate moreefficiently and therefore increasep ro d u c t iv i t y.

Speaking when the scheme wasannounced, Bristol mayor GeorgeFerguson said: “This is a hugelyvaluable opportunity for the Bristolbusiness community and I supportthis investment to help build ourcity’s digital infrastructure.

“Connectivity drives innovationand new opportunities, whichare essential to the success ofour business community, and tobuild a strong, sustainable locale c o n o my.

“I urge all eligible businesses tolook into the financial support andbusiness benefits that the Connec-tion Vouchers Scheme presents.”

Stephen Hilton, director of thecity council’s digital futures divi-sion, said: “Many businesses in

Bristol will already be aware of thebenefits that a high-speed,high-grade broadband connectioncould bring to their business.

“Equally, there will also be manybusinesses that do not yet appre-ciate the enormous benefits that itcan bring in terms of competit-iveness, productivity, efficiency andg rowth.

“High-speed, high-grade broad-band is not just about speed of

connection, it is also about businessre l i ab i l i t y.

“This is an opportunity for Bris-tol SMEs to put in place a businessessential that will ensure they be-nefit from a fast-approaching futurewhere this type of connectivity isthe norm.

“There will be a limited numberof vouchers and we expect demandto be high, so we urge businesses toapply as soon as possible.”

Communications Minister EdVaizey said: “Businesses expect anddemand faster broadband to com-pete in the global race.

“Connection vouchers will be animportant tool for cities in helpingto address that demand.”

The grant is for installation, butbusinesses have to meet the run-ning costs and should be careful tolook at the real price – not just theintroductory offer price – b e fo resigning up to a supplier for the longter m.

See www.connection vouchers.co.uk for more information.

Te c h n o l o g y

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

� Tony and Bev Driffield with Mama Bear Pic: Barbara Evripidou

How do I apply? Go tow w w. c o n n e c t i o n v o u c h e r s . c o . u k , where you canfill in an application form or register an interestand someone will contact you.

What will the voucher pay for? Your vouchercan be used towards making the physicalconnection to your business premises. Itdoesn’t pay rental or for IT equipment or VAT,which you have to pay direct to the supplier.

Am I eligible? You have to be based in Bristoland be an SME – broadly that means youshould employ fewer than 250 people and yourturnover is below £40 million. If you havereceived other grants or state aid, you could beineligible. Best to get in touch and check it out.

What if I work from home? The connectionhas to be to your main place of work. If that’syour home, that’s fine. If you work from homeoccasionally, it’s not.

Anything else? The cost of the connection hasto be more than £250 to get the grant. It will payup to £3,000. You also have to sign up to atleast a six-month contract with your chosensupplier. The broadband speed must be30Mbps or higher.

HOW THE SCHEME WORKS

� Saves time and resources and reduces theneed for travel� Faster processing times mean you canincrease productivity and communicate withsuppliers and customers more efficiently� You can stream online content such asvideos, webinars and podcasts more efficiently� You can communicate confidently withcustomers, suppliers and staff at any time, nomatter how many people are using the sameconnection� Fast broadband will help you to access thesoftware and tools customers and suppliers use� Makes you more competitive in local andinternational markets by ensuring you have thetechnology in place to meet your customers’expectations.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

� Bristol mayor George Ferguson

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8 We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 9We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

Growing your business Growing your business Broadband connection vouchers

So, you’ve created yourbrand, got your companyname safely registered,grabbed a great domainname and are now safe to

get down to growing your busi-ness. Or are you?

Ideally, before you start using abrand, you should have searchesperformed to check for the ex-istence of conflicting trade markrights, to avoid walking intop ro bl e m s.

However, even if you’ve donethis, and been trading for sometime, your brand may be vul-n e r abl e.

If a third party subsequentlyregisters a trade mark, identicalor similar to your brand name,logo or domain name, that couldcause you to infringe, albeit in-nocently. Even though you star-ted using the branding first, it ispossible that a competitor couldrely on their later registration toprevent your business from ex-panding, or to force you into anexpensive rebrand.

This can be particularly prob-lematic for newer companies,trying to build up a strong brandreputation. The simplest way toavoid these problems is to re-gister your own trade mark first– it’s also a defence against al-legations of infringement.

There are other benefits too – atrade mark registration enablesyou to enforce your rightsagainst anyone who uses or at-tempts to register an identical orsimilar trade mark without yourpermission. A registration al-lows Trading Standards to bringcriminal charges against coun-terfeiters. It is also a businessasset which can be sold, mort-gaged, franchised or licensed.

Fortunately, there’s no cut-offdeadline for applying for regis-tration. It’s possible to wait untilyour branding is finalised andyour product line planned beforeyou apply; one application couldthen cover all your intendedproducts and services.

Even if you’re already usingyour brand, it’s not too late toapply. Money well spent? A trademark registration lasts for tenyears and can be renewed everyten years thereafter.

Not only does it provide se-curity for your business but it isalso an asset which adds value tothe business and can be includedon the company’s balance sheet.

The more successful the busi-ness becomes, the more valuableyour trade mark becomes.

Addy BridgerAssociatePage Hargrave

So are youp rote c te d ?

Expert eye

There are those who will tell youthat a car is just a car, it gets youfrom A to B and that’s all there isto it. Others will tell you that hi-fiis hi-fi and as long as it makes a

noise it’s fine, or that one mobile phone ismuch like another... and the truth is thatt h at ’s all rubbish and while it might notmatter to you what car/hi-fi/phone youuse, it matters to me.

The same thinking should be true ofbroadband and your phone and IT sys-tems generally; it really matters whatsystems and connectivity you use andwho you choose to provide it, because ifyour business is important then yourtelecoms should be too. It plays too vital arole not to be.

Yo u ’ll note above that I’ve referred toboth phone and IT in one breath: Why?Because the two are inextricably linked –like love and marriage you can’t have onewithout the other, both are interdepend-ent, both are data hungry and, if usedsensibly, both can run on your broadbandconnection and be used to make moneyfor your company instead of just being anecessary cost.

It’s this hunger for data that is drivinginitiatives such as the excellent Con-nection Voucher Scheme. As we link tothe Cloud, increasingly use Voice overInternet (VoIP), have a workforce thatlives and works remotely to the office, usedata-dependent CRM systems to manageour clients and spend our lives browsingand emailing, our standard broadbandpackages struggle to keep up, leaving usannoyed, frustrated and probably swear-ing as we impatiently wait for our sys-tems to catch up with us. Slow broadbandis plainly inefficient and, what’s worse, itcosts us money.

For most of us rescue is at hand, butt h at ’s the rub... how at hand? Even nowt h e re ’s a range of broadband optionsavailable on the market for both fixed andmobile telecoms. Bristol, for instancenow enjoys 4G, but some of these solu-tions are eye-wateringly expensive; fin-ancially challenging enough on amonthly basis to encourage businesses toput up with what they’ve got, no matterhow attractive the connection voucherscheme. So where does that leave us?

It’s a matter of time. Businesses in thecities listed on the Connection Voucherwebsite can already have superfastbroadband, if they’re prepared to pay forit. What a reputable supplier such asTeam Partners Telecommunications willdo is enable you to register with them(w w w. t p t e l e . c o m / f i b re ) so that they canthen get in touch and let you know assoon as an affordable broadband con-nection that meets your needs is availablefor you to connect to.

T hey’ll also be able to tailor yourbroadband connection to achieve themaximum possible within your budget,meeting the requirements of your busi-ness at a price you can afford and makingsure that, like your car, hi-fi, mobile andanything else that’s really important toyou, both your systems and your con-nectivity are precisely what you wantand need.

Stuart SermonManaging DirectorTeam PartnersTe l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s03333583333

Telecoms shouldbe a top priority

Know how

BUSINESSES in Bristol are beinginvited to apply for grants from a new£4 million pot – but they need to beq u i ck .

The fund is being run by the Uni-versity of the West of England, withgrants of £25,000 to £150,000 availablefor research and development pro-j e c t s.

Professor Martin Boddy, pro-vicechancellor, research and business en-gagement, said: “We are delighted tooffer support to promising enter-prises across the South West.

“Not only in the Bristol area, butright across the region – from Truroto Tewkesbury, Bideford to Bourne-

mouth – the fund will enable usto help businesses innovate andg row.

“Any company with plans for re-search and development, or thinkingabout an innovative project, shouldconsider applying.

“We would typically fund 35 percent of project costs for small andmedium-sized businesses, and a bitless for larger companies – so a sig-nificant portion of expenditure canbe claimed.”

Financed by the Gover nment’s Re-gional Development Fund, thescheme will help businesses developnew or improved products, techno-

logies, processes or services, safe-guarding existing, or creatingadditional, jobs as a result.

The university’s administration ofthe scheme reflects its goal to be a keypart of Bristol’s business com-m u n i t y.

But companies have not got long toact. The application deadline isMonday, March 10.

Professor Janice Kiely, director ofthe Institute of Bio-sensing Techno-logy, who leads the project, said: “It isimportant that businesses express aninterest as early as possible.

“Having said that, our dedicatedadvisers are more than happy to

provide assistance with both theshort application form and the over-all process, making things much easi-er for those considering asubmission.

“Businesses should complete thebrief online registration of interestform in the first instance.

“An adviser will then contact themwithin three working days to discussthe potential application and to or-ganise further telephone orface-to-face support, if required.”

For details of the scheme and theregistration of interest form, visitthe website at w w w. i n n o v a t i o n 4g rowth.co.uk.

Firms must act fast for share of research cash

MAMA Bear’s Day Nurseryhas been one of Bristol’sfastest growing busi-nesses in the past 10years. It all began as

something of a romantic notion forhusband and wife team of Tony andBev Driffield,

Tony, 47, said: “We decided wewanted to work together. We looked atwhat our joint skills were. Bev’s back-ground is as a nursery nurse andearly years teacher. My backgroundis business. At the time I was trav-elling the world as a marketing man-ager and was fed up.

“The day nursery seemed logical,Bev could provide the product and Icould provide the infrastructure.”

Once they had made the decision,however, the pair didn’t rush in –planning was paramount, says Tony.

“I would advise any new businessto do your research before you doanything else,” he said.

“We started trading in February2004 but made the decision to start thebusiness in July 2002.

“We spent a lot of time planningand getting it right, testing the modeland looking for what assistance therewas out there.”

Knowing what help you can find iskey to growth, said Tony. MamaBear’s had grant support when itstarted and recently it has securedfunding from the Going for Growthcampaign run the West of EnglandLocal Enterprise Partnership andbacked by the Po s t to help it expand.

Other factors in its expansion in-cluded a strong relationship with itsbank, Santander, which Tony de-scribed as “very supportive”.

But most of all, the couple knewwhat they wanted to achieve.

Tony said: “With our businessmodel, everything is about the qual-ity of the product, the quality of thecare. If you can provide quality careand education everything else falls inbehind it.

“Parents want and deserve goodquality care and education to give

their children a good start in life.”The business now has 19 sites, 12 in

Bristol and seven in Somerset andDevon, employing 400 people.

“It’s never been about profit foru s, ” said Tony. “Profit is importantbecause we want to reinvest.

“You can’t buy capital itemswithout profit but it’s never beenabout taking it all out of the business,we have invested more than the profitwe have retained.

“It was about achieving criticalmass from a business point of view.

“We needed to get to a certain size,which we are about now.

“We can take a different strategygoing forward now that growth is lessimportant. We can look at more waysto improve the product.”

So the business formula hasworked, what about the marriage?

Bev said: “It has worked for us,being a couple who work and livetogether. For us, it’s invigorating.”

Tony added: “We ’re certainly neverone of those couples who go out todinner and have nothing to say.”

‘Parents want and deserve agood start for their children’

C h i l d c a re

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

Fast track Swift action needed toclaim ‘va l u a b l e ’ broadband boost

BRISTOL businesses needto act fast if they want toget connected to superfastbroadband, courtesy of thet a x p aye r.

The city was one of just a handfularound the country to be givenfunding for broadband connectionvouchers from the Treasury in theChancellor’s Autumn Statement.

George Osborne believes key cit-ies, including Bristol, with a strongcreative and digital sector need ac-cess to fast broadband to stay com-p e t i t ive.

Bristol City Council is managingthe scheme, worth up to £4.8 mil-lion. So far, 40 businesses havemade expressions of interest in thes ch e m e.

Small and medium-sized firmsbased in Bristol can get up to £3,000

to pay for a high-speed broadbandconnection. That can include up-grading from a slower broadband.

High-speed, high-grade broad-band can benefit businesses by en-abling them to operate moreefficiently and therefore increasep ro d u c t iv i t y.

Speaking when the scheme wasannounced, Bristol mayor GeorgeFerguson said: “This is a hugelyvaluable opportunity for the Bristolbusiness community and I supportthis investment to help build ourcity’s digital infrastructure.

“Connectivity drives innovationand new opportunities, whichare essential to the success ofour business community, and tobuild a strong, sustainable locale c o n o my.

“I urge all eligible businesses tolook into the financial support andbusiness benefits that the Connec-tion Vouchers Scheme presents.”

Stephen Hilton, director of thecity council’s digital futures divi-sion, said: “Many businesses in

Bristol will already be aware of thebenefits that a high-speed,high-grade broadband connectioncould bring to their business.

“Equally, there will also be manybusinesses that do not yet appre-ciate the enormous benefits that itcan bring in terms of competit-iveness, productivity, efficiency andg rowth.

“High-speed, high-grade broad-band is not just about speed of

connection, it is also about businessre l i ab i l i t y.

“This is an opportunity for Bris-tol SMEs to put in place a businessessential that will ensure they be-nefit from a fast-approaching futurewhere this type of connectivity isthe norm.

“There will be a limited numberof vouchers and we expect demandto be high, so we urge businesses toapply as soon as possible.”

Communications Minister EdVaizey said: “Businesses expect anddemand faster broadband to com-pete in the global race.

“Connection vouchers will be animportant tool for cities in helpingto address that demand.”

The grant is for installation, butbusinesses have to meet the run-ning costs and should be careful tolook at the real price – not just theintroductory offer price – b e fo resigning up to a supplier for the longter m.

See www.connection vouchers.co.uk for more information.

Te c h n o l o g y

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

� Tony and Bev Driffield with Mama Bear Pic: Barbara Evripidou

How do I apply? Go tow w w. c o n n e c t i o n v o u c h e r s . c o . u k , where you canfill in an application form or register an interestand someone will contact you.

What will the voucher pay for? Your vouchercan be used towards making the physicalconnection to your business premises. Itdoesn’t pay rental or for IT equipment or VAT,which you have to pay direct to the supplier.

Am I eligible? You have to be based in Bristoland be an SME – broadly that means youshould employ fewer than 250 people and yourturnover is below £40 million. If you havereceived other grants or state aid, you could beineligible. Best to get in touch and check it out.

What if I work from home? The connectionhas to be to your main place of work. If that’syour home, that’s fine. If you work from homeoccasionally, it’s not.

Anything else? The cost of the connection hasto be more than £250 to get the grant. It will payup to £3,000. You also have to sign up to atleast a six-month contract with your chosensupplier. The broadband speed must be30Mbps or higher.

HOW THE SCHEME WORKS

� Saves time and resources and reduces theneed for travel� Faster processing times mean you canincrease productivity and communicate withsuppliers and customers more efficiently� You can stream online content such asvideos, webinars and podcasts more efficiently� You can communicate confidently withcustomers, suppliers and staff at any time, nomatter how many people are using the sameconnection� Fast broadband will help you to access thesoftware and tools customers and suppliers use� Makes you more competitive in local andinternational markets by ensuring you have thetechnology in place to meet your customers’expectations.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

� Bristol mayor George Ferguson

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10 We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 11We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

PREMIER BUSINESS SHOW ‘A WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY’

ONLINE promotion and marketing specialist GWS Media has been attending the Bristol Business Exhibition for the past five years.

Marketing director Richard Graves believes that relationship has been of great benefit to his company. He said:

“It’s very valuable for us as a chance to show people that our business is here and is progressing.“I never go with the aim of going to do busi-ness that day, but see it as an incredibly good way to build our credibility and relationships with a whole host of business contacts.“It’s a wonderful networking opportunity and a chance to make new business contacts.”GWS Media creates websites and carries out social media marketing for firms across the UK but with most of its customers in Bristol and the South West.Richard said: “For anybody targeting Bristol and the South West, this is a wonderful place to exhibit,”He added: “It’s also extremely good value.”For exhibitors, stands cost £200 or £300, with a 50 per cent discount for mem-bers of the Federation of Small Businesses.The exhibition attracts 500 to 800 delegates and more than 100 exhibitors so is an ideal place to make contacts that could lead to new business.But for delegates it is free to attend and with free parking too. There are a number of semi-nars – also free – including a talk by Don Cam-eron, founder of Cameron Balloons in Bedminster sharing his vast business experience, and Guy Longmore from RE Cloud talking about wheth-er using the cloud is right for your business.The Bristol Business Exhibition, sponsored by Brunel One printing, is organised by Neil Kinnerly. This will be the 15th event since it began just over five years ago and so far well over £1 million of busi-ness has been generated for companies taking part.For exhibitors, the large numbers of visitors and low price for a stand make it attractive.“It only takes one good lead to make the whole day worthwhile,” said Neil.For delegates, the exhibition offers a one-stop shop for all their business support needs. The owner of a hairdresser or restaurant, for ex-ample, can find someone to design their web-site, print their flyers, handle their books, run their Twitter and Facebook accounts and more.The Bristol Business Exhibition takes place at Ash-ton Gate on Tuesday March 4 from 10am to 3pm.

For more information, visit www.bristolbusinessexhibition.co.uk.

As part of its commitment to printing for businesses in the Bristol area, Brune-lOne.com is very proud to be the main spon-sor for the Bristol Business Exhibition in March 2014.

As the new web-to-print website from the experienced team that have been printing in Bristol for over 100 years, BrunelOne.com is very keen to support local business-es in Bristol and the South West. Brune-lOne.com has also recently signed up to the Bristol Pound currency, who will also be returning to exhibit at the event again.“The open plan set up of the exhibition, together with the number and variety of businesses it attracts makes it an ideal networking opportunity for businesses in the Bristol area. It is also great value, both for exhibitors and for delegates, who not only get in for free but also get to at-tend the seminars throughout the day too.

We have followed the show through from near the beginning when it was occupying corners of hotels and other spaces to where it is now – the premier exhibition event in Bristol.

BrunelOne.com... your local online printer

THE BRISTOL BUSINESS EXHIBITION 2013

MAIN EVENT SPONSOR 0117 300 2223www.brunelone.comExhibition Stand 13

We can’t wait for the exhibition and look forward to speaking to people at our stand, whether it’s to talk about print re-quirements or just for a chat. We prom-ise, unlike the Bristol Croc, we don’t bite!”Said Ian Chambers, BrunelOne.comBrunelOne.com offers easy online print-ing services to upload artwork, browse templates or create your own design on-line, together with their valued ‘local’ cus-tomer service & exceptional print quality. Aimed at sole-traders, start-ups & small-businesses, their focus is on high qual-ity, affordable print, easy online opera-tion, and useful design & business advice.

The exhibition is the perfect opportunity for Bristol-based businesses to meet each other, face-to-face and to celebrate the brilliant business community of Bristol. The BrunelOne.com team very much look forward to meeting new and familiar faces at Ashton Gate Conference Centre.

Sue TugmanManaging Director - BrunelOne.com

AMONG THE EXHIBITORS ARE

Tuesday 4th March 2014 10am - 3pm Ashton Gate Stadium, Bristol

For full details visit www.bristolbusinessexhibition.co.uk or call 0117 9114223

ECO IPAt the heart of every successful modern business is an effi cient and cost effective communications so-lution. In collaboration with leading manufacturers, we provide products at the forefront of technology. Our specialists will deliver unrivalled applications for your business, regardless of size, service or location.

At Eco IP we take the time to understand the chal-lenges your organisation may face, not only today but in the future – for example time, fi nance, resources, staff mobility and globalisation – and provide an effective, innovative solution that works for you.Working with you, offering impartial advice, we will provide a diverse and tailored solution that meets your needs, now and for the future.We assess the Environmental impact of the solution and by supplying low-power consumption; recycla-ble equipment can reduce your carbon footprint.

Whether it’s due to Regulations, a Corporate So-cial Responsibility Policy, cost reductions or all of the above, Eco IP are here to help you.To take advantage of our FREE, no obliga-tions, on site telecoms review, contact us today. As usual, the exhibition

was fab. I have already made two sales as a direct response of the exhibition... Which paid for the cost of my stand in fullAlison JonesOwner Alison Websites

A great event - plenty of new faces in terms of companies exhibiting and visitors to the event. I had a very productive day meeting new people - over 30 new leads which is brilliant - and catching up with people that I already know. The catching up is sometimes seen as one of the least important of the reasons to exhibit but, and I suspect that there is research to prove it, it is for me one of the most important reasons. I will add that everything was so well organised and made the whole experience greatSean HumbyMD Business Network

NetPilot Internet Security LtdBristol based NetPilot has fi fteen years’ expe-rience of developing and manufacturing in-ternet security and productivity devices for businesses, schools and the armed forces.

The company creates all its own software and hard-ware, which it then combines to build products in-cluding the new SoHoBlue product range – being shown for the fi rst time in public at the exhibition. The new SoHoBlue devices protect complete or-ganisations from a wide range of internet threats including viruses and hackers. To enable busi-nesses to get the best focus and productivity from employees, SoHoBlue either monitors or enforces company policies defi ning which websites can be accessed. With interest growing in the use of ‘Cloud’ services, SoHoBlue provides extremely fast and secure connectivity to Cloud hosted resources including over high speed fi bre optic internet links.

We will be happy to answer any questions you may have on business internet connectivity.See us on Stand 9.

Business West – A Powerful Voice for BusinessBusiness West, the largest business membership organisation in the region, represents and works with 16,000 businesses from large to small and across all sectors.

We provide a full range of advice and support services from how to start, develop and grow your business to expanding over-seas and breaking into foreign markets.

As the voice of business in our area we are uniquely positioned at the heart of the lo-cal business community – advising, leading, connecting and helping businesses to grow. We also ensure that business issues are taken into account when key decisions are made at the local, regional and national levels, so together we can make a difference to your business and the local economy.

For free expert advice visit us at stand 124 to seehow we can help your business.

Nozey ParkersWe are business troubleshooters that workwith SMEs to sort out chaos and ineffi ciencies.We are often bought in where others have failed to deliver, and quickly spot the problem areas. This means businesses see the results immediately.A company may have grown too fast, the own-ers might be looking to retire/sell/or franchise and want everything in order, or it could be that busi-ness is not improving and they don’t know why.We can get your business to run effi ciently, smooth-ly, increase performance and save time and money.We can help you fi nd customers & keep them hap-py, so they use your services time and time again.We can eliminate the stress of un-happy, under productive staff.

We are passionate about making improve-ments, so businesses become more effi cient, streamlined, cost-effective and competitive.Knowledgeable, pragmatic and approachable, enabling owners in many diverse businesses to fi nd and resolve ineffi ciencies since the mid-80s.

TESTIMONIALS FROM LAST YEAR’S EXHIBITORS

01275 333 608sales@netpilot.comwww.netpilot.comExhibition Stand 9

0117 911 2992www.ecoip.co.ukExhibition Stand 111

CostcoCome and see us at the Bristol Business show and fi nd out more about how Cost-co can help you in your business. Costco Wholesale is a membership warehouse club, dedicated to bringing our members quality goods and services at the lowest possible prices. We provide a wide selection of merchandise, plus the convenience of speciality departments and ex-clusive member services, all designed to make your shopping experience a pleasurable one.We are confi dent in the quality and val-ue of our products, and we stand behind them with our guarantee of satisfaction.

The annual membership fee for Stand-ard Trade Membership is £20 (plus VAT). Membership criteria applies, to fi nd out more see us at the show or call us on 01179160130.

0117 916 0130.www.costco.co.ukExhibition Stand 90

The Bristol HotelThe Bristol Hotel is a luxurious beacon of bold modernity, sitting pretty on the quay-side of the Floating Harbour. Experience the great location and enjoy the chic cuisine in The River Grille, cocktails in The River Lounge and for the more informal ex-perience drinks and food in The Shore Bar – the perfect place to watch the world go by.

The self contained Meetings and Events Centre features meeting rooms for as few as 6 or as many as 400 - from the stunning executive boardrooms to the splendour of the Ballroom with superb com-plimentary conference technology, you can be sure of outstanding facilities, elegant surroundings and a highly experienced events team all combining to make you your meeting effortlessly productive. You can also relax in the knowledge that you can stay in touch via the complimentary wi fi throughout the hotel.

The Bristol Hotel bringing you extraor-dinary hospitality and expert service.

0117 923 0333www.doylecollection.comExhibition Stand 136

07784 611399tina.parker@nozeyparkers.co.ukwww.nozeyparkers.co.ukExhibition Stand 18

01275 373 373info@businesswest.co.ukwww.businesswest.co.uk Exhibition Stand 124

We had a great reception from new businesses and some immediate sign ups on the day.....Sarah Forrester - WilsonCommunity Engagement & Events CoordinatorThe Bristol Pound.

Absolutely great day as usual and very professionally run. Stand 40 is becoming a landmark for us I think nowJulian PuddyFinancial ConsultantHartsfi eld Financial

A great exhibition and some inspiring talks. I look forward to the next one. Look forward to seeing you soonAndy EllisOperations Manager Dynamic Heating Services

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10 We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 11We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

PREMIER BUSINESS SHOW ‘A WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY’

ONLINE promotion and marketing specialist GWS Media has been attending the Bristol Business Exhibition for the past five years.

Marketing director Richard Graves believes that relationship has been of great benefit to his company. He said:

“It’s very valuable for us as a chance to show people that our business is here and is progressing.“I never go with the aim of going to do busi-ness that day, but see it as an incredibly good way to build our credibility and relationships with a whole host of business contacts.“It’s a wonderful networking opportunity and a chance to make new business contacts.”GWS Media creates websites and carries out social media marketing for firms across the UK but with most of its customers in Bristol and the South West.Richard said: “For anybody targeting Bristol and the South West, this is a wonderful place to exhibit,”He added: “It’s also extremely good value.”For exhibitors, stands cost £200 or £300, with a 50 per cent discount for mem-bers of the Federation of Small Businesses.The exhibition attracts 500 to 800 delegates and more than 100 exhibitors so is an ideal place to make contacts that could lead to new business.But for delegates it is free to attend and with free parking too. There are a number of semi-nars – also free – including a talk by Don Cam-eron, founder of Cameron Balloons in Bedminster sharing his vast business experience, and Guy Longmore from RE Cloud talking about wheth-er using the cloud is right for your business.The Bristol Business Exhibition, sponsored by Brunel One printing, is organised by Neil Kinnerly. This will be the 15th event since it began just over five years ago and so far well over £1 million of busi-ness has been generated for companies taking part.For exhibitors, the large numbers of visitors and low price for a stand make it attractive.“It only takes one good lead to make the whole day worthwhile,” said Neil.For delegates, the exhibition offers a one-stop shop for all their business support needs. The owner of a hairdresser or restaurant, for ex-ample, can find someone to design their web-site, print their flyers, handle their books, run their Twitter and Facebook accounts and more.The Bristol Business Exhibition takes place at Ash-ton Gate on Tuesday March 4 from 10am to 3pm.

For more information, visit www.bristolbusinessexhibition.co.uk.

As part of its commitment to printing for businesses in the Bristol area, Brune-lOne.com is very proud to be the main spon-sor for the Bristol Business Exhibition in March 2014.

As the new web-to-print website from the experienced team that have been printing in Bristol for over 100 years, BrunelOne.com is very keen to support local business-es in Bristol and the South West. Brune-lOne.com has also recently signed up to the Bristol Pound currency, who will also be returning to exhibit at the event again.“The open plan set up of the exhibition, together with the number and variety of businesses it attracts makes it an ideal networking opportunity for businesses in the Bristol area. It is also great value, both for exhibitors and for delegates, who not only get in for free but also get to at-tend the seminars throughout the day too.

We have followed the show through from near the beginning when it was occupying corners of hotels and other spaces to where it is now – the premier exhibition event in Bristol.

BrunelOne.com... your local online printer

THE BRISTOL BUSINESS EXHIBITION 2013

MAIN EVENT SPONSOR 0117 300 2223www.brunelone.comExhibition Stand 13

We can’t wait for the exhibition and look forward to speaking to people at our stand, whether it’s to talk about print re-quirements or just for a chat. We prom-ise, unlike the Bristol Croc, we don’t bite!”Said Ian Chambers, BrunelOne.comBrunelOne.com offers easy online print-ing services to upload artwork, browse templates or create your own design on-line, together with their valued ‘local’ cus-tomer service & exceptional print quality. Aimed at sole-traders, start-ups & small-businesses, their focus is on high qual-ity, affordable print, easy online opera-tion, and useful design & business advice.

The exhibition is the perfect opportunity for Bristol-based businesses to meet each other, face-to-face and to celebrate the brilliant business community of Bristol. The BrunelOne.com team very much look forward to meeting new and familiar faces at Ashton Gate Conference Centre.

Sue TugmanManaging Director - BrunelOne.com

AMONG THE EXHIBITORS ARE

Tuesday 4th March 2014 10am - 3pm Ashton Gate Stadium, Bristol

For full details visit www.bristolbusinessexhibition.co.uk or call 0117 9114223

ECO IPAt the heart of every successful modern business is an effi cient and cost effective communications so-lution. In collaboration with leading manufacturers, we provide products at the forefront of technology. Our specialists will deliver unrivalled applications for your business, regardless of size, service or location.

At Eco IP we take the time to understand the chal-lenges your organisation may face, not only today but in the future – for example time, fi nance, resources, staff mobility and globalisation – and provide an effective, innovative solution that works for you.Working with you, offering impartial advice, we will provide a diverse and tailored solution that meets your needs, now and for the future.We assess the Environmental impact of the solution and by supplying low-power consumption; recycla-ble equipment can reduce your carbon footprint.

Whether it’s due to Regulations, a Corporate So-cial Responsibility Policy, cost reductions or all of the above, Eco IP are here to help you.To take advantage of our FREE, no obliga-tions, on site telecoms review, contact us today. As usual, the exhibition

was fab. I have already made two sales as a direct response of the exhibition... Which paid for the cost of my stand in fullAlison JonesOwner Alison Websites

A great event - plenty of new faces in terms of companies exhibiting and visitors to the event. I had a very productive day meeting new people - over 30 new leads which is brilliant - and catching up with people that I already know. The catching up is sometimes seen as one of the least important of the reasons to exhibit but, and I suspect that there is research to prove it, it is for me one of the most important reasons. I will add that everything was so well organised and made the whole experience greatSean HumbyMD Business Network

NetPilot Internet Security LtdBristol based NetPilot has fi fteen years’ expe-rience of developing and manufacturing in-ternet security and productivity devices for businesses, schools and the armed forces.

The company creates all its own software and hard-ware, which it then combines to build products in-cluding the new SoHoBlue product range – being shown for the fi rst time in public at the exhibition. The new SoHoBlue devices protect complete or-ganisations from a wide range of internet threats including viruses and hackers. To enable busi-nesses to get the best focus and productivity from employees, SoHoBlue either monitors or enforces company policies defi ning which websites can be accessed. With interest growing in the use of ‘Cloud’ services, SoHoBlue provides extremely fast and secure connectivity to Cloud hosted resources including over high speed fi bre optic internet links.

We will be happy to answer any questions you may have on business internet connectivity.See us on Stand 9.

Business West – A Powerful Voice for BusinessBusiness West, the largest business membership organisation in the region, represents and works with 16,000 businesses from large to small and across all sectors.

We provide a full range of advice and support services from how to start, develop and grow your business to expanding over-seas and breaking into foreign markets.

As the voice of business in our area we are uniquely positioned at the heart of the lo-cal business community – advising, leading, connecting and helping businesses to grow. We also ensure that business issues are taken into account when key decisions are made at the local, regional and national levels, so together we can make a difference to your business and the local economy.

For free expert advice visit us at stand 124 to seehow we can help your business.

Nozey ParkersWe are business troubleshooters that workwith SMEs to sort out chaos and ineffi ciencies.We are often bought in where others have failed to deliver, and quickly spot the problem areas. This means businesses see the results immediately.A company may have grown too fast, the own-ers might be looking to retire/sell/or franchise and want everything in order, or it could be that busi-ness is not improving and they don’t know why.We can get your business to run effi ciently, smooth-ly, increase performance and save time and money.We can help you fi nd customers & keep them hap-py, so they use your services time and time again.We can eliminate the stress of un-happy, under productive staff.

We are passionate about making improve-ments, so businesses become more effi cient, streamlined, cost-effective and competitive.Knowledgeable, pragmatic and approachable, enabling owners in many diverse businesses to fi nd and resolve ineffi ciencies since the mid-80s.

TESTIMONIALS FROM LAST YEAR’S EXHIBITORS

01275 333 608sales@netpilot.comwww.netpilot.comExhibition Stand 9

0117 911 2992www.ecoip.co.ukExhibition Stand 111

CostcoCome and see us at the Bristol Business show and fi nd out more about how Cost-co can help you in your business. Costco Wholesale is a membership warehouse club, dedicated to bringing our members quality goods and services at the lowest possible prices. We provide a wide selection of merchandise, plus the convenience of speciality departments and ex-clusive member services, all designed to make your shopping experience a pleasurable one.We are confi dent in the quality and val-ue of our products, and we stand behind them with our guarantee of satisfaction.

The annual membership fee for Stand-ard Trade Membership is £20 (plus VAT). Membership criteria applies, to fi nd out more see us at the show or call us on 01179160130.

0117 916 0130.www.costco.co.ukExhibition Stand 90

The Bristol HotelThe Bristol Hotel is a luxurious beacon of bold modernity, sitting pretty on the quay-side of the Floating Harbour. Experience the great location and enjoy the chic cuisine in The River Grille, cocktails in The River Lounge and for the more informal ex-perience drinks and food in The Shore Bar – the perfect place to watch the world go by.

The self contained Meetings and Events Centre features meeting rooms for as few as 6 or as many as 400 - from the stunning executive boardrooms to the splendour of the Ballroom with superb com-plimentary conference technology, you can be sure of outstanding facilities, elegant surroundings and a highly experienced events team all combining to make you your meeting effortlessly productive. You can also relax in the knowledge that you can stay in touch via the complimentary wi fi throughout the hotel.

The Bristol Hotel bringing you extraor-dinary hospitality and expert service.

0117 923 0333www.doylecollection.comExhibition Stand 136

07784 611399tina.parker@nozeyparkers.co.ukwww.nozeyparkers.co.ukExhibition Stand 18

01275 373 373info@businesswest.co.ukwww.businesswest.co.uk Exhibition Stand 124

We had a great reception from new businesses and some immediate sign ups on the day.....Sarah Forrester - WilsonCommunity Engagement & Events CoordinatorThe Bristol Pound.

Absolutely great day as usual and very professionally run. Stand 40 is becoming a landmark for us I think nowJulian PuddyFinancial ConsultantHartsfi eld Financial

A great exhibition and some inspiring talks. I look forward to the next one. Look forward to seeing you soonAndy EllisOperations Manager Dynamic Heating Services

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12 We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 13We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

City of Bristol College partners in business launchIn pictures B r i sto l ’s businesscommunity out and about

Business diary

Email your business events togavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk.Events are sometimescancelled without us beingnotified so please check withorganisers before travelling.

We d n e s d a y @ 6 : Bristol Instituteof Directors informal freenetworking at The Radisson Blufrom 6-8pm, February 19. Call0117 3707785 to register.

Responsible Business Awards:Business in the Community , thecharity led by HRH The Prince ofWales, is calling for inspiringexamples of responsiblebusiness to enter its annualawards before February 21. Formore details, visitw w w. b i t c . o r g . u k / a w a r d s .

Advice clinics: One hour clinicswith Business West forambitious managing directorswho want to focus on thechallenges of growth. Bristol andBath Science Park on Tuesday,February 26. Emailinfo@growthsouthwest.co.uk.

FSB South Gloucestershireseminar: Wednesday, February26, 6.45pm-9.45pm, Azec WestHotel, Almondsbury, BS32 4TS.Register at w w w. f s b . o r g . u k .

Ready for business workshop:Introductory workshops foranyone who is exploring theconcept of self-employment orstarting a business at Brave, TheCoach House, Upper YorkStreet, Bristol, 10am-4pm,Thursday, February 27. Free.Contact r eadyforbusiness@businesswest.co.uk.

Emerging Europe trademission: Join Lord Livingstone,Trade Minister, on our highprofile mission to discover thebenefits of exporting to a regionwhich holds huge potential forboth novice and experiencedexporters in Poland, CzechRepublic, Hungary and Slovakia.March 3-7. Contact Angela.Maynard-Smith@uktisouthwest.org.

Colston St Bar & Kitchenlaunch: Colston Hall, ColstonStreet, Monday, March 3.Invitation only from Bath Ales.

World Class Marketing, Madein the South West: A freemonthly networking event for thecreative services sector run byMarketing network Bath &Bristol. Guest speaker TimHughes, professor of appliedmarketing at UWE Bristol. At theClifton Club, 22 The Mall,Tuesday, March 4. Call 08458382159.

Advice clinics: One hour clinicswith Business West forambitious managing directorswho want to focus on thechallenges of growth. RivergateBusiness Centre, Temple Quay,on Tuesday, March 4. Emailinfo@growthsouthwest.co.uk.

FSB Bristol branch networkingevent: Free for membersnetworking, 9.30am-11.30am,Wednesday, March 5,9.30am-11.30am, 1 Friay TempleQuay BS1 6EA. Register atw w w. f s b . o r g . u k .

We d n e s d a y @ 6 : Bristol Instituteof Directors informal freenetworking at The Radisson Blufrom 6-8pm, March 5. Call 01173707785 to register.

IF YOUR company needs training,City of Bristol College can tailora package for you. That was themessage at the launch of the col-le ge’s new Partners in Business

prog ramme.Businesses from across Bristol

were invited to the college’s City Res-taurant in Anchor Road to hear aboutthe scheme and enjoy the hospitalityof the institution’s catering students.

Principal Lynn Merilion said thecollege had 27,000 students, 2,000 staffand plenty to be proud of. But whenshe arrived in 2012, it was run, asyo u ’d expect, like a college.

“We had a structure very muchbased on education,” she said.

“We had faculties which were al-most like silos. If you are an employerwho wanted to interact with us, youhad to navigate our str ucture.”

The introduction of Partners inBusiness aims to change that, with asingle point of contact for businesseswhether they are looking to offerwork experience, hire apprentices orfind training for their employees.

“The message which we are givingtoday is that this is something quitedifferent, something hopefully youwill be a part of. It’s about bringingtogether employers and the college.”

She said the programme meant em-ployers should never have to say thecity was not providing the right kindof workers, because it was an op-portunity for them to work with thecollege and shape that future work-fo rc e.

Peter Lewis, director of the engin-eering division at Precision Profiles,told how his firm had worked with thecollege investing in apprentices.

He said it was helping the firm meeta skills gap in engineering.

“The old guys love it because theycan share and pass on their skills andknowledg e,” he said.

“It’s the only way forward if en-gineering in this country is to growand pull back business from Chinaand the Eastern Bloc.”

To find out more email programmedirector Will Cookson at will.cook-son@city ofbristol.ac.uk.

Send us photosfrom your event,

with namesplease, tobusiness

@b-nm.co.uk

Get inthe picture

� City of Bristol launches its new partners in business programme at City Restaurant, City of Bristol College BRDB20140211C-004

� Joanne Van, business development manager for City ofBristol, Chris Mitchell, projects officer for City of Bristol andKen Simson, chairman of the Federation of Small BusinessesPics Dave Betts BRDB20140211C-002

� Ela Walford, work placement manager at City of Bristol, Helen Sims, HR manager forOffice Response, Karen Dicks and Academy team manager at Office ResponseBRDB20140211C-003

� Rachel Gollin of GKN Aerospace, Georgina Baxter, a professionalindemnity solicitor at Kennedy’s Law and Iain Johnston, businessdevelopment manager for City of Bristol Pics Dave Betts BRDB20140211C-010

� Above, City of Bristol launches its newpartners in business programme Dave BettsBRDB20140211C-013� Below: Lynn Merilion, Principle and ChiefExecutive of City of Bristol addresses the crowdBRDB20140211C-014

� City ofBristollaunchesits newpartners inbusinessp ro g r a m m eat CityRestaurant,City ofBristolCollegePicsDave BettsBRDB20140211C-012

� City of Bristol launches its new partners in businessprogramme at City Restaurant, City of Bristol College

Pics Dave Betts BRDB20140211C-005

Trav Medianetworking event

� TRAVEL writers and journalistsfrom across the South West met upat Bristol’s newest four-star hotel ata networking event.

Organised by the South Westbranch of Trav Media, the 40-stronggroup discussed the latest issuesaffecting the sector at DoubleTreeby Hilton, Bristol City Centre.

Trav Media is an online tool forjournalists researching and writingtravel stories.

John Dowling, general managerat the hotel, said: “Despite theatrocious weather, there was a reallygood turnout and we were delightedto play host.”

On the tourism industry, headded: “Not only is confidencereturning to the economy as a wholebut people looking to enjoyweekend breaks are also spendingmore. Let’s hope it’s a trend thatcontinues throughout 2014.”

The Bristol DistinguishedExecutive Address Series

� A LEADING light in the theatreworld delivered the first talk in thenew round of the BristolDistinguished Executive AddressSeries. Rosemary Squire OBE isco-founder and joint chief executiveof the Ambassador Theatre Group.

The firm has managed to growdespite a tough economic climate,when funding for the arts has beensqueezed, and it has recentlybought the biggest theatre inBroadway – the Foxwoods Theatre.

The group also owns dozens ofUK theatres, including the BristolH i p p o d ro m e .

Ms Squire gave a founder’sperspective on creating the largestlive theatre group, talking about how

to make theatre pay withoutcompromising what’s on stage andhow to persuade city investors tosee the arts as a viable businessp ro s p e c t .

She told the audience of gatheredbusiness people and academics:“It’s an industry that does make youfeel part of something that’s a littlebit of magic.”

The address series, held at CityHall, is delivered by the BristolBusiness School at Bristol UWE inpartnership with ACCA, Bristol CityCouncil, the Bristol Post, BusinessWest, CBI, CMI, FSB, IoD and theWest of England LEP.

See Rosemary Squire’s Q&A videoat w w w. S o u t h We s t B u s i n e s s . c o . u k .

� The Bristol Distinguished Executive Address Series. UWE Students at CityHall Pics Michael Lloyd BRML20140212A-005

� The Bristol Distinguished Executive Address Series. Speaker RosemarySquire OBE, of the Ambassador Theatre Group Ltd, makes her presentationPics Michael Lloyd BRML20140212A-003

� The Bristol Distinguished Executive Address Series with Jane Harringtonof UWE, mayor George Ferguson, Rosemary Squire OBE, Nicholas O’Reganof UWE and Ian Mean, Bristol Post Pics Michael Lloyd BRML20140212A-001

� The Bristol Distinguished Executive Address Series Pics Michael LloydBRML20140212A-010

� Left to right: John Dowling, general manager at Bristol DoubleTree by Hilton, Fiona Quinn of Trav Media, ElaineGibbins, director of sales at Bristol DoubleTree by Hilton and James Mundie of Trav Media

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12 We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 13We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

City of Bristol College partners in business launchIn pictures B r i sto l ’s businesscommunity out and about

Business diary

Email your business events togavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk.Events are sometimescancelled without us beingnotified so please check withorganisers before travelling.

We d n e s d a y @ 6 : Bristol Instituteof Directors informal freenetworking at The Radisson Blufrom 6-8pm, February 19. Call0117 3707785 to register.

Responsible Business Awards:Business in the Community , thecharity led by HRH The Prince ofWales, is calling for inspiringexamples of responsiblebusiness to enter its annualawards before February 21. Formore details, visitw w w. b i t c . o r g . u k / a w a r d s .

Advice clinics: One hour clinicswith Business West forambitious managing directorswho want to focus on thechallenges of growth. Bristol andBath Science Park on Tuesday,February 26. Emailinfo@growthsouthwest.co.uk.

FSB South Gloucestershireseminar: Wednesday, February26, 6.45pm-9.45pm, Azec WestHotel, Almondsbury, BS32 4TS.Register at w w w. f s b . o r g . u k .

Ready for business workshop:Introductory workshops foranyone who is exploring theconcept of self-employment orstarting a business at Brave, TheCoach House, Upper YorkStreet, Bristol, 10am-4pm,Thursday, February 27. Free.Contact r eadyforbusiness@businesswest.co.uk.

Emerging Europe trademission: Join Lord Livingstone,Trade Minister, on our highprofile mission to discover thebenefits of exporting to a regionwhich holds huge potential forboth novice and experiencedexporters in Poland, CzechRepublic, Hungary and Slovakia.March 3-7. Contact Angela.Maynard-Smith@uktisouthwest.org.

Colston St Bar & Kitchenlaunch: Colston Hall, ColstonStreet, Monday, March 3.Invitation only from Bath Ales.

World Class Marketing, Madein the South West: A freemonthly networking event for thecreative services sector run byMarketing network Bath &Bristol. Guest speaker TimHughes, professor of appliedmarketing at UWE Bristol. At theClifton Club, 22 The Mall,Tuesday, March 4. Call 08458382159.

Advice clinics: One hour clinicswith Business West forambitious managing directorswho want to focus on thechallenges of growth. RivergateBusiness Centre, Temple Quay,on Tuesday, March 4. Emailinfo@growthsouthwest.co.uk.

FSB Bristol branch networkingevent: Free for membersnetworking, 9.30am-11.30am,Wednesday, March 5,9.30am-11.30am, 1 Friay TempleQuay BS1 6EA. Register atw w w. f s b . o r g . u k .

We d n e s d a y @ 6 : Bristol Instituteof Directors informal freenetworking at The Radisson Blufrom 6-8pm, March 5. Call 01173707785 to register.

IF YOUR company needs training,City of Bristol College can tailora package for you. That was themessage at the launch of the col-le ge’s new Partners in Business

prog ramme.Businesses from across Bristol

were invited to the college’s City Res-taurant in Anchor Road to hear aboutthe scheme and enjoy the hospitalityof the institution’s catering students.

Principal Lynn Merilion said thecollege had 27,000 students, 2,000 staffand plenty to be proud of. But whenshe arrived in 2012, it was run, asyo u ’d expect, like a college.

“We had a structure very muchbased on education,” she said.

“We had faculties which were al-most like silos. If you are an employerwho wanted to interact with us, youhad to navigate our str ucture.”

The introduction of Partners inBusiness aims to change that, with asingle point of contact for businesseswhether they are looking to offerwork experience, hire apprentices orfind training for their employees.

“The message which we are givingtoday is that this is something quitedifferent, something hopefully youwill be a part of. It’s about bringingtogether employers and the college.”

She said the programme meant em-ployers should never have to say thecity was not providing the right kindof workers, because it was an op-portunity for them to work with thecollege and shape that future work-fo rc e.

Peter Lewis, director of the engin-eering division at Precision Profiles,told how his firm had worked with thecollege investing in apprentices.

He said it was helping the firm meeta skills gap in engineering.

“The old guys love it because theycan share and pass on their skills andknowledg e,” he said.

“It’s the only way forward if en-gineering in this country is to growand pull back business from Chinaand the Eastern Bloc.”

To find out more email programmedirector Will Cookson at will.cook-son@city ofbristol.ac.uk.

Send us photosfrom your event,

with namesplease, tobusiness

@b-nm.co.uk

Get inthe picture

� City of Bristol launches its new partners in business programme at City Restaurant, City of Bristol College BRDB20140211C-004

� Joanne Van, business development manager for City ofBristol, Chris Mitchell, projects officer for City of Bristol andKen Simson, chairman of the Federation of Small BusinessesPics Dave Betts BRDB20140211C-002

� Ela Walford, work placement manager at City of Bristol, Helen Sims, HR manager forOffice Response, Karen Dicks and Academy team manager at Office ResponseBRDB20140211C-003

� Rachel Gollin of GKN Aerospace, Georgina Baxter, a professionalindemnity solicitor at Kennedy’s Law and Iain Johnston, businessdevelopment manager for City of Bristol Pics Dave Betts BRDB20140211C-010

� Above, City of Bristol launches its newpartners in business programme Dave BettsBRDB20140211C-013� Below: Lynn Merilion, Principle and ChiefExecutive of City of Bristol addresses the crowdBRDB20140211C-014

� City ofBristollaunchesits newpartners inbusinessp ro g r a m m eat CityRestaurant,City ofBristolCollegePicsDave BettsBRDB20140211C-012

� City of Bristol launches its new partners in businessprogramme at City Restaurant, City of Bristol College

Pics Dave Betts BRDB20140211C-005

Trav Medianetworking event

� TRAVEL writers and journalistsfrom across the South West met upat Bristol’s newest four-star hotel ata networking event.

Organised by the South Westbranch of Trav Media, the 40-stronggroup discussed the latest issuesaffecting the sector at DoubleTreeby Hilton, Bristol City Centre.

Trav Media is an online tool forjournalists researching and writingtravel stories.

John Dowling, general managerat the hotel, said: “Despite theatrocious weather, there was a reallygood turnout and we were delightedto play host.”

On the tourism industry, headded: “Not only is confidencereturning to the economy as a wholebut people looking to enjoyweekend breaks are also spendingmore. Let’s hope it’s a trend thatcontinues throughout 2014.”

The Bristol DistinguishedExecutive Address Series

� A LEADING light in the theatreworld delivered the first talk in thenew round of the BristolDistinguished Executive AddressSeries. Rosemary Squire OBE isco-founder and joint chief executiveof the Ambassador Theatre Group.

The firm has managed to growdespite a tough economic climate,when funding for the arts has beensqueezed, and it has recentlybought the biggest theatre inBroadway – the Foxwoods Theatre.

The group also owns dozens ofUK theatres, including the BristolH i p p o d ro m e .

Ms Squire gave a founder’sperspective on creating the largestlive theatre group, talking about how

to make theatre pay withoutcompromising what’s on stage andhow to persuade city investors tosee the arts as a viable businessp ro s p e c t .

She told the audience of gatheredbusiness people and academics:“It’s an industry that does make youfeel part of something that’s a littlebit of magic.”

The address series, held at CityHall, is delivered by the BristolBusiness School at Bristol UWE inpartnership with ACCA, Bristol CityCouncil, the Bristol Post, BusinessWest, CBI, CMI, FSB, IoD and theWest of England LEP.

See Rosemary Squire’s Q&A videoat w w w. S o u t h We s t B u s i n e s s . c o . u k .

� The Bristol Distinguished Executive Address Series. UWE Students at CityHall Pics Michael Lloyd BRML20140212A-005

� The Bristol Distinguished Executive Address Series. Speaker RosemarySquire OBE, of the Ambassador Theatre Group Ltd, makes her presentationPics Michael Lloyd BRML20140212A-003

� The Bristol Distinguished Executive Address Series with Jane Harringtonof UWE, mayor George Ferguson, Rosemary Squire OBE, Nicholas O’Reganof UWE and Ian Mean, Bristol Post Pics Michael Lloyd BRML20140212A-001

� The Bristol Distinguished Executive Address Series Pics Michael LloydBRML20140212A-010

� Left to right: John Dowling, general manager at Bristol DoubleTree by Hilton, Fiona Quinn of Trav Media, ElaineGibbins, director of sales at Bristol DoubleTree by Hilton and James Mundie of Trav Media

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14 We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 15We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

Focus on start-ups | Sponsored by THEME SPONSOR’S NAME HERE.

Commercial feature

William SanzoDir ectorEurotaxis

Further growth is very much achievable for usKnow how

MoT hold-ups drove us to radical solutionGavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

Mini Buses & Coaches Taxis & Weddings ATF - HGV & PSV MOTsRecovery & Repairs

eurotaxis.com 0333 666 66 66

Not Just Taxis

� Eurotaxis directors Keith and William Sanzo

AYATE taxi and coach-hirecompany is opening its doorsto other businesses after in-vesting in a commercialvehicles MoT lane.

Eurotaxis has been a phenomenalsuccess story since it was founded byJuan Sanzo in 1980.

It has grown from a one-man op-eration, after Juan bought a“battered old” Austin for £200.

Now the firm has 180 vehicles –taxis, buses and coaches – and aturnover of £5 million a year.

It employs 95 people and uses anumber of other self-employed taxid r ive r s.

That growth, however, caused Juana headache. Every commercialvehicle has to be MoT-tested eachyear. And unlike with a personal car,you cannot take it to many garages.There are a select number of spe-cialised testing lanes in AuthorisedTesting Facilities.

Difficulties in getting Juan’s fleetof vehicles to the nearest centre, andlack of available appointments,prompted Eurotaxis to come up witha radical solution.

Juan said: “You can never get anappointment – it was a real problem.And when you did it was taking fourhours to take a vehicle for testing andthen bring it back.

“So we decided to invest £150,000 inbuilding our own lane to do iti n - h o u s e. ”

It took six months to get throughthe red tape and logistical hurdles.

But the lane finally opened for busi-ness in November, just before thefir m’s 33rd birthday.

The benefits for Eurotaxis are thetime and cost savings in not having toget its vehicles to the test centre. And

to cover the running costs and even-tually recoup the investment, thefirm has opened up the lane to otherc o m p a n i e s.

It has a VOSA tester on site threedays a week, but is hoping to extendthat to Monday to Saturday once ithas enough customers coming in –that could add up to 80 tests eachwe e k .

Juan says the MoT lane will neverbe a big profit-maker for the company,but has mutual benefits for his busi-ness and other firms in the area thatcan make use of it, paying just a smallpit fee on top of the VOSA charges.

The MoT lane is just one of theservices Eurotaxis offers over andabove a typical taxi firm.

It runs a commercial-vehicle re-covery service for breakdowns, cancarry out repairs and maintenancework, and can collect and returnvehicles for their MoTs.

And its coach hire arm takespeople across the UK and Europe.

Eurotaxis undertakes around 8,000to 10,000 taxi journeys every week,and buses about 5,000 children to andfrom school.

Juan said: “The key to growing thebusiness has been hard work andf amily.”

His wife Anne is the managingdirector, sons Keith and William aredirectors and son-in-law Toby runsthe workshop.

Juan said: “It is very importantthat it is a family business. It givesyou trust, and know how, from lengthof service. For example, Keith hasbeen with the business for about 20ye a r s. ”

As to his own involvement as com-pany secretary, Juan, 63, has no plansto retire.

He said: “I enjoy this too much.”And he still gets behind the wheelre gularly.

Juan said: “I still drive every day –buses, taxis, whatever. I enjoy thedriving. There is no hassle. There isno stress. Driving is driving.”

WITH the Government’scontinuing frugality,it may seem that thetransport industryhas been regulated an

exponential amount.Rising costs of fuel coupled with

increasing traffic congestion meanthat for many operators profits arebeing squeezed like never before.

Established more than 33 yearsago and still a family-run taxi andPCV operator, Eurotaxis has seenmany changes, the largest of whichwas amalgamating two sites and

moving to a purpose-built transportyard in Yate.

Only last year we were based on asmall, dusty yard in Westerleigh

with our maintenance facilitiesbased eight miles away, and ournearest VOSA Authorised TestingFacility 16 miles away in Avon-mouth.

If you think that some PCVvehicles will only do eight miles pergallon, we were wasting a smallfortune in fuel and wages commut-ing daily between the sites.

After 13 years, we finally found asuitable location and moved to apurpose-built transport yard inYate with on-site facilities.

However, we still had the 32-mile

round trip nearly twice a week for aPCV vehicle to go to the ATF for itsMoT. We have invested £150,000 in anew ATF lane at our depot in Yate.The ATF lane is now open to thepublic and to other operators.

Since its opening day we haveseen all kinds of vehicles on site,from horseboxes to coaches, fromHGVs to buses.

Some individuals or operatorswho do not have maintenance fa-cilities have even brought theirvehicle to us for its MoT prepar-ation where we have guaranteed it

will pass its MoT.Alongside our ATF lane we have

invested in our vehicle-recovery in-frastructure with a Mercedes Act-ros and a Mercedes Atego.

So far there have been numerousHGV and PCV operators who haveused our maintenance and recoveryservices as a one-stop shop for theirve h i cl e s.

Our other significant investmentlast year was building a classroomand becoming an authorised centreto give the Driver Certificate of Pro-fessional Competence.

We see that growth – althoughdifficult at the moment – is, with theright infrastructure and commit-ment, very much achievable.

In pictures B r i sto l ’s businesscommunity out and about

� ALTERNATIVE lenders gathered inBristol for Community Finance ’14,the annual conference of theCommunity Development FinanceAssociation, where they werethanked by the Government.

Speaking to the guests at theMarriott City Centre hotel, financialsecretary to the Treasury Sajid Javidsaid: “Community developmentfinance institutions served 50 percent more customers than inprevious years, dispersed 50,000loans and helped create and protect50,000 jobs.”

The MP for Bromsgrove wasbrought up in Bristol and he tolddelegates it was nice to be home.

“I’ll be popping to my mother’shome for a cup of tea afterwards,”he said.

Being brought up in Bristol, heknows the area, particularlyBedminster, and said localknowledge was so important incommunity lending.

“When you understand the localcommunity and know them well youcan sometimes seize theopportunity that larger banks

cannot,” he said.“These opportunities make a

difference to the community and tothe economy too.”

The event included the CityMicro-entrepreneurship Awards, inassociation with the CDFA,presented by BBC business reporterSteph McGovern. Bristol-basedCo-operative & Community Financewon the innovation award, and a£20,000 prize, for its new fund tosupport communities wanting toraise money through a communityshare issue.

� The CDFA team Pat Conaty, chief executive Ben Hughes and Shamima Begum at Community Finance ’14; insetthe BBC’s Steph McGovern hosts the awards

Community Finance’14 at the City CentreMarriott Hotel

� Simon Quinn, of Moon Consulting Executive Recruitment,at the Gregg Latchams business breakfast

� Ben Preece of Gregg Latchams at the Gregg Latchamsbusiness breakfast h

� Marie-Clare Brind, of Sustainability Plus, at the GreggLatchams business breakfast Pics Rupert Janisch

� Stuart West of Calne Town Council at the Gregg LatchamsBusiness Club breakfast

� Julian Pyrke of Gregg Latchamsat the Gregg Latchams businessb re a k f a s t

� Business owners from aroundBristol received an environmentalupdate from experts in commercialproperty and construction law at thelatest Gregg Latchams BusinessClub breakfast event.

The meeting, held at the M Shed,featured talks from Julian Pyrke,head of commercial property atGregg Latchams, his colleague BenPreece from the firm’s constructiondepartment, and Marie-Clare Brindof Sustainability Plus.

Delegates were advised on howforthcoming legislative changes –relevant for anyone developing,buying, renting or building a newproperty – could affect their

properties and businesses.Ms Brind, an experienced

management surveyor, used casestudies to show how EnergyPerformance Certificates are alreadyimpacting property decisions.

Mr Preece looked at the situationfrom the construction angle, whileMr Pyrke examined how theseactions need to be documented.

The next Gregg LatchamsBusiness Club event takes place onThursday March 13 and is themedon social media.

If you’d like to come along, tobook your place please emailKayleigh Groves atk a y l e i g h . g ro v e s @ g re g g l a t c h a m s . c o m .

Gregg Latchams Business Club breakfast

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14 We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 15We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

Focus on start-ups | Sponsored by THEME SPONSOR’S NAME HERE.

Commercial feature

William SanzoDir ectorEurotaxis

Further growth is very much achievable for usKnow how

MoT hold-ups drove us to radical solutionGavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

Mini Buses & Coaches Taxis & Weddings ATF - HGV & PSV MOTsRecovery & Repairs

eurotaxis.com 0333 666 66 66

Not Just Taxis

� Eurotaxis directors Keith and William Sanzo

AYATE taxi and coach-hirecompany is opening its doorsto other businesses after in-vesting in a commercialvehicles MoT lane.

Eurotaxis has been a phenomenalsuccess story since it was founded byJuan Sanzo in 1980.

It has grown from a one-man op-eration, after Juan bought a“battered old” Austin for £200.

Now the firm has 180 vehicles –taxis, buses and coaches – and aturnover of £5 million a year.

It employs 95 people and uses anumber of other self-employed taxid r ive r s.

That growth, however, caused Juana headache. Every commercialvehicle has to be MoT-tested eachyear. And unlike with a personal car,you cannot take it to many garages.There are a select number of spe-cialised testing lanes in AuthorisedTesting Facilities.

Difficulties in getting Juan’s fleetof vehicles to the nearest centre, andlack of available appointments,prompted Eurotaxis to come up witha radical solution.

Juan said: “You can never get anappointment – it was a real problem.And when you did it was taking fourhours to take a vehicle for testing andthen bring it back.

“So we decided to invest £150,000 inbuilding our own lane to do iti n - h o u s e. ”

It took six months to get throughthe red tape and logistical hurdles.

But the lane finally opened for busi-ness in November, just before thefir m’s 33rd birthday.

The benefits for Eurotaxis are thetime and cost savings in not having toget its vehicles to the test centre. And

to cover the running costs and even-tually recoup the investment, thefirm has opened up the lane to otherc o m p a n i e s.

It has a VOSA tester on site threedays a week, but is hoping to extendthat to Monday to Saturday once ithas enough customers coming in –that could add up to 80 tests eachwe e k .

Juan says the MoT lane will neverbe a big profit-maker for the company,but has mutual benefits for his busi-ness and other firms in the area thatcan make use of it, paying just a smallpit fee on top of the VOSA charges.

The MoT lane is just one of theservices Eurotaxis offers over andabove a typical taxi firm.

It runs a commercial-vehicle re-covery service for breakdowns, cancarry out repairs and maintenancework, and can collect and returnvehicles for their MoTs.

And its coach hire arm takespeople across the UK and Europe.

Eurotaxis undertakes around 8,000to 10,000 taxi journeys every week,and buses about 5,000 children to andfrom school.

Juan said: “The key to growing thebusiness has been hard work andf amily.”

His wife Anne is the managingdirector, sons Keith and William aredirectors and son-in-law Toby runsthe workshop.

Juan said: “It is very importantthat it is a family business. It givesyou trust, and know how, from lengthof service. For example, Keith hasbeen with the business for about 20ye a r s. ”

As to his own involvement as com-pany secretary, Juan, 63, has no plansto retire.

He said: “I enjoy this too much.”And he still gets behind the wheelre gularly.

Juan said: “I still drive every day –buses, taxis, whatever. I enjoy thedriving. There is no hassle. There isno stress. Driving is driving.”

WITH the Government’scontinuing frugality,it may seem that thetransport industryhas been regulated an

exponential amount.Rising costs of fuel coupled with

increasing traffic congestion meanthat for many operators profits arebeing squeezed like never before.

Established more than 33 yearsago and still a family-run taxi andPCV operator, Eurotaxis has seenmany changes, the largest of whichwas amalgamating two sites and

moving to a purpose-built transportyard in Yate.

Only last year we were based on asmall, dusty yard in Westerleigh

with our maintenance facilitiesbased eight miles away, and ournearest VOSA Authorised TestingFacility 16 miles away in Avon-mouth.

If you think that some PCVvehicles will only do eight miles pergallon, we were wasting a smallfortune in fuel and wages commut-ing daily between the sites.

After 13 years, we finally found asuitable location and moved to apurpose-built transport yard inYate with on-site facilities.

However, we still had the 32-mile

round trip nearly twice a week for aPCV vehicle to go to the ATF for itsMoT. We have invested £150,000 in anew ATF lane at our depot in Yate.The ATF lane is now open to thepublic and to other operators.

Since its opening day we haveseen all kinds of vehicles on site,from horseboxes to coaches, fromHGVs to buses.

Some individuals or operatorswho do not have maintenance fa-cilities have even brought theirvehicle to us for its MoT prepar-ation where we have guaranteed it

will pass its MoT.Alongside our ATF lane we have

invested in our vehicle-recovery in-frastructure with a Mercedes Act-ros and a Mercedes Atego.

So far there have been numerousHGV and PCV operators who haveused our maintenance and recoveryservices as a one-stop shop for theirve h i cl e s.

Our other significant investmentlast year was building a classroomand becoming an authorised centreto give the Driver Certificate of Pro-fessional Competence.

We see that growth – althoughdifficult at the moment – is, with theright infrastructure and commit-ment, very much achievable.

In pictures B r i sto l ’s businesscommunity out and about

� ALTERNATIVE lenders gathered inBristol for Community Finance ’14,the annual conference of theCommunity Development FinanceAssociation, where they werethanked by the Government.

Speaking to the guests at theMarriott City Centre hotel, financialsecretary to the Treasury Sajid Javidsaid: “Community developmentfinance institutions served 50 percent more customers than inprevious years, dispersed 50,000loans and helped create and protect50,000 jobs.”

The MP for Bromsgrove wasbrought up in Bristol and he tolddelegates it was nice to be home.

“I’ll be popping to my mother’shome for a cup of tea afterwards,”he said.

Being brought up in Bristol, heknows the area, particularlyBedminster, and said localknowledge was so important incommunity lending.

“When you understand the localcommunity and know them well youcan sometimes seize theopportunity that larger banks

cannot,” he said.“These opportunities make a

difference to the community and tothe economy too.”

The event included the CityMicro-entrepreneurship Awards, inassociation with the CDFA,presented by BBC business reporterSteph McGovern. Bristol-basedCo-operative & Community Financewon the innovation award, and a£20,000 prize, for its new fund tosupport communities wanting toraise money through a communityshare issue.

� The CDFA team Pat Conaty, chief executive Ben Hughes and Shamima Begum at Community Finance ’14; insetthe BBC’s Steph McGovern hosts the awards

Community Finance’14 at the City CentreMarriott Hotel

� Simon Quinn, of Moon Consulting Executive Recruitment,at the Gregg Latchams business breakfast

� Ben Preece of Gregg Latchams at the Gregg Latchamsbusiness breakfast h

� Marie-Clare Brind, of Sustainability Plus, at the GreggLatchams business breakfast Pics Rupert Janisch

� Stuart West of Calne Town Council at the Gregg LatchamsBusiness Club breakfast

� Julian Pyrke of Gregg Latchamsat the Gregg Latchams businessb re a k f a s t

� Business owners from aroundBristol received an environmentalupdate from experts in commercialproperty and construction law at thelatest Gregg Latchams BusinessClub breakfast event.

The meeting, held at the M Shed,featured talks from Julian Pyrke,head of commercial property atGregg Latchams, his colleague BenPreece from the firm’s constructiondepartment, and Marie-Clare Brindof Sustainability Plus.

Delegates were advised on howforthcoming legislative changes –relevant for anyone developing,buying, renting or building a newproperty – could affect their

properties and businesses.Ms Brind, an experienced

management surveyor, used casestudies to show how EnergyPerformance Certificates are alreadyimpacting property decisions.

Mr Preece looked at the situationfrom the construction angle, whileMr Pyrke examined how theseactions need to be documented.

The next Gregg LatchamsBusiness Club event takes place onThursday March 13 and is themedon social media.

If you’d like to come along, tobook your place please emailKayleigh Groves atk a y l e i g h . g ro v e s @ g re g g l a t c h a m s . c o m .

Gregg Latchams Business Club breakfast

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16 We d n e s d a y, February 19, 2014w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

� PROPERTY consultancyAlder King has appointedJames Nicholas as a partner inits asset management andconsultancy teams.

Previously a surveyor in AlderKing’s professional team forthree years, James hasre-joined the company afternearly 10 years holding seniorpositions managing theAshtenne Industrial Fund.

James will provide clientswith high-level strategic adviceacross a wide range ofdisciplines including assetmanagement, investment,agency and lease advisory.

He said: “The opportunity toreturn to Alder King and take upsuch a strategic andwide-ranging new role is veryexciting.

“It feels good to be back!”

Movers & shake-upsUp and comingThe latest appointments news. Sendyour news to business@b-nm.co.uk

� BUSINESS and financialadvisers Grant Thornton havemade a new addition to theircorporate finance team inBristol.

Nic Ross joins from RoyalBank of Scotland in Reading,where he was an associatedirector in the structuredfinance team.

Mark Naughton, corporatefinance director at GrantThornton, said: “Nic brings realinsight into the debt market andthis will be invaluable to clientswho are looking to raise financeas the economy emerges intofull recovery.”

� THREE members of St John’sChambers based in VictoriaStreet have been recognised inThe Chambers UK 100 Bar.

Leslie Blohm QC, AndrewMarsden and Glyn Edwardshave been ranked in top 100silks and barristers practising atthe Bar of England and Wales.

St John’s Chambers is thelargest set in the South Westwith 80 members and sevensilks working from it.

Head of chambers RichardStead said: “This clearlyindicates that Bristol’sreputation in providing highquality legal advice andexpertise has been recognisedas a genuine alternative toLondon.”

Business support

ENTREPRENEURS wanting ahelping hand have a new potof potential funding thanksto a collaboration betweenVirgin StartUp and Business

We s t .Businesses wanting expertise or

funding support can submit an ideato Business West by the end of Marchand secure a mentor or loans ofbetween £1,000 and £25,000.

The programme is targeted primar-ily at young entrepreneurs agedbetween 18 and 30 who may have agreat business idea but are unsure ofhow to get it off the ground.

Business West is delivering the pro-gramme in the South West in part-nership with Virgin StartUp, with aproject team managed by Tara Gillamand supported by colleagues TaylorMilsom, Alyson Eyval and two othera dv i s o r s.

Tara and her team want entrepren-eurs to send them ideas – the detailcan fit on the back of an envelope –which they will then assess and de-cide on whether the businesses aref e a s i bl e.

She said: “We are just after briefbusiness ideas. Then for any onewhich is commercially viable, withan entrepreneur who is really pas-sionate and committed to gettingtheir business up and running, wecan probably find them some fundingand a mentor as well.

“We would love to find a situationwhere a youngster is looking to growa business and employ some people,but even if it’s a small independent ora sole trader, we’d really like to hearfrom them as well.

“For example it could be someonewho has come out of college, or hasbeen unemployed but has an am-bition to start something of theirown. As long as it’s credible, there’s asolution.

“Our mentors are volunteeringtheir own time to give young businessowners a helping hand through thedifficult early stages of setting up abusiness and we will manage theprocess of matching the right peopleto gether.”

Virgin StartUp is a non-for-profitinitiative instigated by the company’sboss Richard Branson.

He said: “I started my first businesswith a handful of coins out of aphone-box at school, but it was the£300 from my mum that reallykick-started our student magazineand sparked the Virgin adventure 40years ago.

“Today, young people need thatsame help and I believe VirginStartUp will provide it – with accessto early capital, strong mentorship,advice and promotion.

“We look forward to helping launchthousands of new businesses acrossthe UK in years to come.”

To apply, entrepreneurs need to fillin a form or send their idea to theteam at Business West.

For more information contact theteam on 01275 376 233 or email re a d yfo r bu s i n e s s @ bu s i n e s sw e s t . c o. u k .

Fund Virgin givesa helping hand tostart-up ideas

Apprentice wows in UK awards

the South West, said: “Ensuring thatthe UK has future engineers, teamleaders and managers is essential tolong economic prosperity, which iswhy it is essential to nurture thetalents of apprentices such as Kim-berley. Her enthusiasm is infectiousand I hope that his passion and in-terest encourages more young peopleto become engineers.”

AN apprentice based at Abbey Woodin the procurement and support or-ganisation of the Ministry of Defencehas been acknowledged at a nationalawards ceremony.

Kimberley Hill, who is 19 and fromCoalpit Heath, was runner-up in theprize for outstanding achievement bya final year apprentice at the EEFFuture Manufacturing Awards 2013.

Kimberley was named runner-up ofthe award, sponsored by EAL, for hercommitment and determination tosucceed in her apprenticeship at De-fence Equipment & Support.

The judges praised her t re m e n d o u spotential.

Julia Chippendale, managing dir-ector of EAL, the specialist awardingorganisation for industry qualifica-tions, said: “First of all, I’d like to sayhuge congratulations to Kimberley.

“Apprentices are such a vital partof the future of the engineering andmanufacturing industry and it isgreat to see such outstanding talentbeing recognised for their efforts.”

Phil Brownsord, region director for

Start-up group creates 300 jobsOutset’s advice, help and workshop

sessions are particularly open tothose in difficult circumstances, suchas the long-term unemployed, dis-abled or disadvantaged.

Mr Dean, p i c t u re d , has calculatedthat a third of clients come from

minority backgrounds andaround three of every five

are from deprived wardsin the city.

He said: “Nearly halfof the people we workwith were unemployedwhen they joined the

programme. Outset en-ables everyone, no matter

what their situation, tostart a new company and a new

life for themselves. It’s certainly notfor the privileged few.”

Bristol South MP Dawn Primarolo,recognised Outset Bristol’s achieve-ment: “The quality support providedby Outset is truly valuable for peopleto set up their own business. It’s clearthat Outset’s advice and experiencereally makes a difference.”

AN organisation based in QueenSquare which supports start-upsfrom all over Bristol has created morethan 300 jobs in the city in less thanthree years.

Since early in 2011, Outset Bristolhas helped 272 companies startup in Bristol, creating morethan 300 new jobs for thelocal economy at a rate ofeight jobs per month.

Andy Dean, OutsetBristol’s programmedirector, said: “We ’veworked very hard tobring these jobs to Bris-tol, and create new oppor-tunities for our clients,many of whom were unem-ployed or aspiring to be their ownb o s s e s. ”

Since inception the team at Outsethas engaged with 2,359 Bristoliansinterested in starting their own busi-ness. Of these, more than 1,000 clientshave received support to develop mar-ketable ideas and build strong andsustainable businesses.

� Tara Gillam, project manager, and Alyson Eyval, advisor, at Leigh Court,Abbotts Leigh, Bristol Picture Barbara Evripidou BRBE20140213B-2

Ed u c a t i o n New businesses

� Kimberley Hill with JuliaChippendale and Declan Curry

Rupert JanischBusiness@b-nm.co.uk