Written by: Miriam Nicholls
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Welcome to your Arun Business Partnership Monthly Newsletter
Welcome to your Arun Business Partnership August newsletter. As ever there’s lots going on in and around the Partnership so read on and enjoy. Don’t forget we are always looking for news to pass on to the rest of the business world in and outside Arun so do send things our way. The newsletter goes to around 3,500 local businesses each month so it really is a great way for you to promote your company – and better still, it’s free!
Partnership News
What’s Going On?
There’s lots of preparation going on, that's what's going on! We’re getting ready for our next Quarterly Meeting on 12th September, the Golf Day on 28th September, our B2B event in October and if that wasn’t enough the Annual Business of the Year Awards in November. I’ve sacrificed the Where’s Miriam section this month so that I can give you some more details about each of these.
Our Next Meeting - our next meeting is on 12th September at The Comfort Innat Lyminster. I will remind you again but put the date in your diary now. It’s the usual format, come along for 5.00 p.m., bring lots of business cards and be prepared to meet lots of business colleagues who may just be looking for your product or service. There’s no need to book, just come along and enjoy a fun evening. Oh and again, it’s free!
Teeing Off - just after that we are holding the annual Partnership Golf Day, it’s on Wednesday 28th September. Once again we’re guaranteed lots of great golf, great food and a very warm welcome at Bognor Regis Golf Club. If you’ve not yet signed up get in touch with Mike at CAM on 0870 1900 220. We still have a few spaces left for hole sponsors so if you’d like to be involved that way just let Mike know.
Getting To Know You – once again we’re running our great B2B event. We’re expecting around 200 of you to gather at Fontwell Park Racecourse on 13th October for this one day event and if previous years are anything to go by you’ll make lots of contacts and do lots of business. Last year’s quote by Sean Maginnis from The Lock Centre says it all – “you’d have to be some sort of sales person to get around that many businesses in 2 days.” This year it’s one day so there’s a challenge for you! The booking forms are nearly ready and a separate email will follow shortly with more details.
Arun Business of the Year Awards – all categories are sponsored and we’re just about ready to launch! A big thank you to each of our individual category sponsors, to AJS Labels for sponsoring the Overall Business of the Year Award and particularly to Butlins who are providing the venue, catering and entertainment in their Conference Suite. The date is 17th November and we’ll let you know about nominations and how to get your free tickets any day now!
News from Our Partners
NEW! Carolyn’s Corner
A reasonably quiet time in Carolyn’s Corner this month – but I bet if you ask Carolyn she wouldn’t say that!
A couple of things to bring to your attention - a small number of thefts / burglaries have been reported on the Riverside Industrial Estate area. Various items have been taken and some have been returned when the thief discovered he was on CCTV!
A business premises in Felpham was also broken into recently and a number of small items removed – please try to secure small items as well as you can.
Bognor Regis Police now have a Twitter account – Bognorpolice. Get tweeting!
Let's Hear It For .....
Barnham Parish Council & B.L.A.D.E . who have secured a £50k grant from the S.I.T.A. Trust towards the development of the new ‘Barnham Game Zone’, a multi use games area located within Barnham Community Park at Murrells Field. The Barnham Game Zone will offer local residents, young and old, new facilities for enjoying sports all year round on a new hard surfaced court. It will be useable for tennis, basketball, netball, five-a-side football and much more, and will complement the Trim Trail constructed last year. Work will begin shortly on constructing the new Game Zone and it is expected to be completed by the end of October.
Elena Edwards from Helen Services who will be trekking the Inca Trail for St. Barnabas Hospice. If you go to the Helen Services Facebook page and buy a pack of microfiber dusters they will give £1.00 for each pack sold to the charity. Similarly if you’d like to sponsor Elena or pay for her to wear your company logo from London to Machu Picchu then get in touch with her.
Parsons, Son & Basley who are expanding with the opening of their new West Sussex Auction Office. The new office is based in Chichester (very close to Bognor Regis!) and will serve the whole area. Great news!
Money, Money, Money ..... and Training
Free Workshops for Start Up Businesses!
The Let’s Do Business Group will be providing free Start Up Workshops at the Civic Centre in Littlehampton on a monthly basis starting on Tuesday 30th August. If you know someone who wants to start up but isn’t sure how, why or even if they should please let them know. For more information get in touch with Kaye Crittell on 0844 4152272 or email kaye.crittell@ldbgroup.co.uk
Shell Springboard Awards
The Shell Springboard Awards are looking for innovative ideas to help reduce carbon emissions. They give out £320k each year and the programme is open for submissions now. More details at http://www.shellspringboard.org/home/
Waste Prevention Loan Fund
The Waste Prevention Loan Fund (WPLF) has been established to enable organisations to introduce business models and processes which make more efficient use of material resources. Examples include product reuse, repair and upgrading services (e.g. through leasing), and materials recovery and reuse by the manufacturer. More details at http://www.wrap.org.uk/retail_supply_chain/home_electrical/wplf.html
GSK Impact Awards
The IMPACT Awards have been running since 1997 and are designed to recognise and reward charities that are doing excellent work to improve people’s health. They are funded by GlaxoSmithKline and managed in partnership with The King’s Fund. The awards are open to registered charities that are at least three years old, working in a health-related field in the UK , with a total annual income between £10,000 and £1.5 million. The awards are designed to recognise success and achievements for existing work so you do not have to present a new project. http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/current_projects/gsk_impact_awards/
Leadership & Management Advisory Service Grants
Owner managers and senior leaders of businesses and social enterprises with plans and potential to achieve high growth have an opportunity to develop their leadership and management skills. An impartial and experienced advisor will help you identify your personal development needs at your place of work or other convenient venue and can help fund solutions through coaching or mentoring, workshops, peer learning, action learning, bespoke or qualification-based training. Up to £1,000 grant funding is available to help pay for the training solution. For more information visit: www.skillssoutheast.co.uk
Ashden Awards 2012
The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy are seeking entries for the 2012 awards. They want to hear from organisations that are increasing use of sustainable energy, reducing carbon emissions and/or changing behaviour to significantly cut energy use. Have a look at http://www.ashdenawards.org/uk_awards for more information
Other Great Stuff You Really Should Know
An Insight Into Littlehampton
Over 500 answers to ten simple questions have given the organisers of an alternative tourist information centre an insight into life in Littlehampton. The Ministry of Littlehampton asked a range of questions, like 'what does Littlehampton taste like?' and 'if Littlehampton was a colour, what colour would it be?'. Postcards were circulated to local schools, with over 400 returned by parents and pupils alike. An online survey gathered further responses, and a campaign on Twitter saw hundreds of Tweets about the town read by thousands of people across the world.
The project was the idea of social artist Dan Thompson, who runs the national Empty Shops Network (emptyshopsnetwork.com), and The Littlehampton Academy's Sara Hopkins. After the initial survey, inspired by the Mass Observation Archive at Sussex University , the Ministry took up residence in The Arun Ideas Shop, a local empty shop project which had its name suggested by Dan. A week of workshops with local schools saw a range of artwork created from the responses.
All the responses and the artwork are being collated to form a booklet, a website littlehampton.tumblr.com and to create a walking guide taking visitors on a route from the station around the town's official and more informal landmarks.
And in answer to the question 'what colour is Littlehampton?', it's Dulux's 'Delhi Bazaar 4' - a hot, dusky yellow.
The South Coast Design Forum is expanding into Kent ! If you’ve got anything at all to do with design you should know about the Forum. http://www.scdf.org.uk/index.php
Land to Let
Littlehampton Harbour Board has some secure open storage land to let. There is around 35,500 sq. ft which can be let as one or in smaller lots. It’s a c ombination of hard standing and shingle and is 81p per sq ft p.a.x. For more details contact Anne Carnegie, Harbour Manager on 01903 721215.
Looking for Knowledge for Growth?
The Knowledge Exchange is a matching service for small businesses and experienced, commercial business professionals. Through the Knowledge Exchange small businesses can access individuals with the skills and knowledge they need to help them overcome specific challenges or barriers to growth and gain fresh perspectives.
Businesses have the flexibility to choose the type and level of interaction most suitable to them and their specific requirements. The Knowledge Exchange provides a spectrum of support from Mentors through to Business Coaches, Consultants and Non Executive Directors. It also has registered ‘Knowledge Angels’, individuals providing their time in exchange for equity in the business. This is particularly suitable to a growing business that may lack the cash resources to secure the help they need at the necessary moment in time. More details at http://www.financesoutheast.com/news/?id=2082
Last But By No Means Least
A second plea for you to please sign up for the campaign to build Littlehampton the hospital it has been promised for 6 years. If you click here you can put your name to the campaign letter, take part in the poll and find the link to the Facebook page. It will only take a minute of your time so click away before you click away from the newsletter – thank you!
And finally ..... please don't forget to let us know about your news and if you'd like to feature in 'Where's Miriam' my list now has spaces so get in touch. My only criteria for visiting is that you can make a decent cup of tea!
Best wishes.
Miriam Nicholls
on behalf of the Partnership Team
Arun Business Partnership, all rights reserved
