Your Chamber, through its Director Chris Plant, provides regular information on important topical business stories.
The current Greek crisis has received much airtime and commentary; and rightly so, as it has potentially far-reaching impact.
Chambers are major supporters of all local businesses, large and small; this support can and does take a wide variety of forms.
For smaller businesses, meeting new start-ups and similar sized local companies provides vital assistance and shared experience in their early stages of development. Similarly, many smaller businesses find important additional customers and clients from amongst the ranks of fellow Chamber members. Our networking events are designed to foster those relationships.
However, your Chamber recognises that continued growth often requires businesses to develop enhanced strategies. Many Chamber members have come up to me, since I joined in the 1990s, and pointed out that after an initial period of growth, they recognise that developing the next stages in their planned expansion are sometimes more difficult to achieve. A change of approach, new thinking, application of expertise, marketing communications, or critically finding new customers, was essential.
Here again, your Chamber can provide vital assistance through its training courses, workshops, and networking opportunities. With your Chamber joining the Greater Birmingham Chamber Group, and now fostering closer relationships with Staffordshire Chamber, members have access to expanded services to support them.
Your Chamber’s regular series of events and workshops can readily form the basis for your networking and training. Our events also provide information on key aspects of running and operating a business.
For example, the Business Breakfast on Thursday 17 September will be focussing on The Diversity Debate. With the eye-catching title – ‘Can your business afford to pay £237,000 in employment tribunal compensation?’, it offers members the opportunity to enhance their understanding of the importance of creating an inclusive culture within the workplace.
This Breakfast event at the Mercure Burton on Trent, Newton Park, Newton Solney is one of our series under the banner of ‘Don’t Put Your Business at Risk’. I find these workshops most informative in keeping me up-to-date and ‘on-the-ball’ in terms of the legal requirements.
Then looking ahead to October, our Breakfast event addresses Intellectual Property (IP) for SMEs. Richard Ellis from Swindell & Pearson will be talking about how to ‘Maximise the Commercial Value of your IP’; and, particularly, how this can give your business a commercial edge over its competitors. The event is being held at Hoar Cross Hall, Makers Lane, Hoar Cross on Thursday 15 October 2015, from 7.30 to 9.00am.
I look forward to welcoming all our existing and all new potential members to our monthly events which can be found on the Birmingham Chamber Group website – http://bit.ly/1tWOIKW with other information available from Keellee Williams – [email protected]
I welcome feedback and comment on this column and the work and activities of the Chamber. You can contact me at [email protected]
Simon Chapman
President of Burton and District Chamber of Commerce
Managing Director, Yee Group Limited
