Business Live: for curious entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs

Sarah David runs consultancy Thrive. She has worked at an executive level in a £1.5 billion turnover law firm, and for small businesses, charities, not for profits and startups.

"As long as you're dealing with people the challenges remain the same," she told me yesterday. The live radio broadcast of this interview generated some of the most positive feedback of any episode to date.

Sarah works with teams and leaders to transform their performance and financial results. At the core of dealing with challenges, she says, is "effective communication, clarity of purpose, and leaders willing to lead through change."

Consultant, mentor and coach Sarah talks about intentional leadership, developing positive habits, supporting transformation. And, as an avid reader, the business books she rates most highly.

She's also frank, direct and anti-fragile when it comes to addressing the impact of an enormous personal tragedy. What to do when "option A" is no longer available.

The podcast also features social entrepreneur Dulma Clark of Soul of Africa, which makes and sells "shoes that change lives." 

Full timings and show notes: https://www.jamieveitch.co.uk/2018/03/thriving-with-sarah-david-plus-dulma-clark/

"You can't be what you can't see," writes Kisha Bradley, engineer, STEAM-inist, and founder of Bright Box Makerspace. For children to become the scientists, technologists, engineers, artists and mathematicians of the future, they need to know what options are available – and build appropriate skills.

Hundreds of children have played, created, and unleashed their imaginations through Bright Box's community events and workshops "focused on enabling today's children to invent the future with creative imagination and confidence." Kisha launched the social enterprise a year ago.

Since then Kisha has also collaborated with inventor and Kids Invent Stuff host, Ruth Amos, to launch #girlswithdrills. Kisha joined me in the Sheffield Live radio studio on Friday to talk about inclusive skills building and encouraging tomorrow's inventors, programmers and tinkerers.

In the interview Kisha also covers her approach to setting priorities, and accessing support for social entrepreneurs. The podcast is below.

Also on the show: Sheffield is now a Social Enterprise City. What does this mean and how has it come about? Darren Chouings, voluntary chair of the Sheffield Social Enterprise Network, discussed how collaboration between social enterprises, the private, public, education and voluntary sectors led to a successful partnership bid for the city to be recognised as a social enterprise place. And he discussed the vibrancy, diversity, size and strength of the social enterprise sector in Sheffield.

Timings:

• 0 - 5:31 introduction and updates, including recommendation at Women and Equalities committee hearing to change law on sexual harassment, with input from employer organisation, the CBI; how to get in touch with the show;
• 5:31 - 17:12 Darren Chouings: social enterprise in Sheffield;
• 17:12 - 34:14 Kisha Bradley: on #girlswithdrills and Bright Box;
• 34:14 - 39:03 forthcoming events;
• 39:03 - 49:01 Kisha Bradley: help and support for social enterprises; prioritisation; challenges overcome in Bright Box's first year;
• 49:01 to 49:59 (end) wrapping up.

Have you hugged a politician lately? Whether you feel disdain, disgust or deep love for your elected representatives, they can be a powerful force to help your business or social enterprise or to help you get positive things done in your community.

Harnessing support from a politician can help you to fight injustices, assert your consumer rights even when big businesses want to ignore you, generate publicity for your community project, and open doors you've previously had closed in your face.

But how do you get politicians on your side? Scott Colvin can tell you. He's the author of award-winning book, How to Use Politicians to Get What You Want. I interviewed Scott last week for my latest radio programme, broadcast on Sheffield Live on Friday and which you can listen to via the podcast below.

Whatever your views of politicians – listen, learn, and apply.

Also in the show: Kurtis Wright (a former banker who says "don't hold that against me," now a fellow of the Finance Innovation Lab) joined me in the radio studio.

Kurtis discussed Sheffield Community Technologies, including the launch of new peer to peer payment and loyalty reward platform Loci Pay, and "financial aggregator" Sheffield Independent Business Services, which seeks to save money for local independent businesses.

Loci Pay ("not just a payment wallet, a community for people to build social impact") is a pivot, or iteration, from the “My Sheffield Pound” scheme. It is a digital payment wallet and loyalty app for independent businesses, a “social peer to peer payment platform focusing on supporting our local independent businesses and tackling financial inequality.”

The show also includes updates about TechCity UK's Fintech for All competition and the new £10 notes.

Timings:

• 0 - 3:23 introduction;
• 3:23 - 24:40 Kurtis Wright;
• 24:40 call to get involved and have your say;
• 25:18 - 52:04 Scott Colvin;
• 52:04 - end (55:47) wrapping up, including the introduction of the new £10 note (which features the image of Jane Austen after a campaign successfully challenged the Bank of England to include this on the note) and a forthcoming event.

What do you want your website to do for you? It's the key question which must be at the top of your brief, not what do you want your site to look like according to Ant Clifford of Creative Stream.

 Ant covers how to come up with a powerful and specific brief to ensure your website design and build agency delivers a site that does what you need it to do, and generates a return on your investment.

Creative Stream delivers coding, bespoke web design, animation, content management and more, to businesses, charities and social enterprises. Ant also covers effective proposals, communication, design and technical briefs in the interview. Plus outside the business, Ant's band Lofter are back together and have an exciting series of gigs coming up.

The show also includes announcements about business funding, data protection, some local success stories and more.

Timings:

• 0 - 6:22 introduction including: a call for your input to the radio show; “total despair” expressed for Sheffield and Rotherham businesses by the FSB in response to Yorkshire devolution approach.
• 6:22 - 33:30 Ant Clifford interview.
• 33:30 - end announcements and events.

Pam Warhurst trained as an economist, has held senior board level roles for all sorts of organisations and is the founder of the Incredible Edible movement through which food has been a catalyst for community action, for learning and education, and for business creation.

This is now a worldwide movement stretching from Canada to New Zealand. It's simple. "If you eat, you're in," says Pam. "Everyone understands food. Food could get people talking; even better, it could inspire people to take action."

Now Todmorden and many towns all over the world have boosted their local economies, through "getting pounds into the pockets of local food businesses so that over time they might be able to produce more and employ more people." And even through vegetable tourism.

Also in this episode: studio guests Paula Walsh and Natalie Mosley of Lucy May Lingerie. Their business has been three years in development and launched this month; products are made by hand in South Yorkshire and carry the Made In Sheffield mark.

Natalie and Paula described how they have developed Lucy May, creating a detailed "Lucy May" brand persona and identifying and engaging with their target audience. Their tips will be invaluable for any business.

Plus Mark Ramsell, chair of Plot44, an emerging social and community business refreshing long abandoned allotments.

Timings:

• 0 - 9:49: introduction and updates including UK female founders are being ignored by male investors, according to new statistics released by AllBright.
• 9:49 - 32:21 Natalie Mosley and Paula Walsh.
• 32:21 - 38:05: Pam Warhurst.
• 38:05 - 43:08: Mark Ramsell.
• 43:08 - end: wrapping up.

Olusola McKenzie, founder of Learn to Re-create Ltd, a fashion and textiles social enterprise, on how determination, consistency and flexibility are the key factors which helped achieve her vision.

Daniel Koseoglu of Affecto Recruitment, with an update on skills and recruiting talent in the tech, data science and digital industries. 

And Jay Bhayani with a pre-election run through of employment law policy proposals and how these would affect business and social enterprise.

The result of the election will impact on employment law. Each of the three main political parties is proposing distinct policies – do you know what they are and how they will affect your business or social enterprise?

Jay Bhayani does, and she gave me a pre-election run through of employment law policy proposals from the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties on my radio show on Friday. Listen to the podcast below.

Also on the show: Olusola McKenzie describing how determination, consistency and flexibility are the key factors which helped achieve her vision.

Olusola is founder of Learn to Re-create Ltd, a fashion and textiles social enterprise. Learn to Re-create runs an international incubation programme and launched a fashion collection last year, and Olusola's team are now working on their second.

Olusola popped into the Sheffield Live radio studio on Friday for a chat about what her business does, why and how they do it, and challenges they have overcome.

The programme also features an interview with Daniel Koseoglu, managing director of Affecto Recruitment, with an update on skills and recruiting talent in the tech, data science and digital industries.

Timings:

• 0 – 11:32 introduction and updates, including research showing that companies with broader leadership diversity secure more funding than other businesses; new data about turnover, growth, profitability and employment of the UK social enterprise sector; a fifth of IT managers not confident their business will be compliant with GDPR by next year; forthcoming events;
• 11:32 - 23:57 Olusola McKenzie, Learn to Re-create Ltd;
• 23:57 -  33:34 Daniel Koseoglu, MD of Affecto Recruitment;
• 33:34 - 44:09 Jay Bhayani, Bhayani HR Employment Law;
• 44:09 - 46:58 wrapping up and a final word from Learn to Re-Create.

Aldo Monteforte is CEO and co-founder of insurance telematics leader The Floow.

Last week, The Floow was named winner of the Red Herring Top 100 Europe award – another trophy in the innovative Sheffield firm's cabinet.

Red Herring's awards honour the year’s most promising private technology ventures from the European business region.

Aldo explained why the Red Herring award has special meaning for The Floow, since Red Herring has a reputation for accuracy in highlighting innovation.

The award came after a recent £13m investment into The Floow. Aldo explained the business' plans to grow (from a current size of about 80 people, mainly based in Sheffield, of whom 70% are computer, data, and social scientists) to around 140-150 team members.

What about skills in the Sheffield region? Can The Floow recruit people with the skills they need in Sheffield? Aldo says skills are here in the city region and in abundance. Have a listen to his views on how the firm will scale.

Timings:

• 0 - 11:15 introduction and updates, incl
  •  figures from the British Independent Retail Association and the Local Data Company
  • New research from the innovation foundation Nesta for the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy into business incubators and accelerators
• 11:15 - 31:40 in light of the new figures about independent shops, published this week, a chance to hear an interview with Laura Bullock of the Seven Hills Bakery
• 31:40 - 43:27 Aldo Monteforte of The Floow. Innovation, investment, growth, skills development.
• 43:27 - 52:37 more on skills - comments from Daniel Koseoglu, MD of recruitment firm Affecto Recruitment, about perceptions of a tech skills and talent shortage in the region.

Running your own business? Always make sure your clients are happy? Great.

But if those clients aren’t making you happy, don’t respect you or pay you on time (or want to pay you in fish and chips!) then you don’t really have a business, you have a pretty miserable job.

And many freelancers and small business owners are frustrated with cycles of feast to famine in their work, bemused by a multitude of potential tactics, or fed up with how they are treated by some clients.

One business owner who understands their challenges – and knows what to do about them – is Vicky Fraser. She's the author of Business for Superheroes and presenter of a popular podcast of the same name. And Vicky gave business owners a feast of great ideas in this interview.

It’s crammed with advice based on solid experience. A must-listen for business owners, the interview covers dealing with clients from hell, the value in finding a mentor, positioning your business, pricing strategy (and why price is elastic), prioritising and much more.

Timings:

• 0 – 9:21 introduction, including comments from a listener about the Budget and National Insurance for the self-employed; the opening of new Kirkthorpe Hydro, Yorkshire’s largest hydroelectric power plant; and controversy over ads on YouTube;
• 9:21 – 47:14 Vicky Fraser interview;
• 47:14 – wrapping up, including preview of a mentoring event in Sheffield.

The Anglers Rest in Bamford – a few miles west of Sheffield – is more than a pub: it's a post office, cafe, music venue, meeting space for clubs and societies, art gallery and community hub.

But a few years ago its future was uncertain. Part of the portfolio of a remote PubCo, The Anglers Rest had suffered years of under-investment and a short-term approach. And in 2012 it was at risk of permanent closure.

That was when someone suggested the residents of Bamford buy the pub – and they raised over £260,000 through a 'community share issue' to do so. But their purchase was nearly thwarted at the last minute, until they were able to fight back, buy the pub and begin the hard work of making it a successful business and community hub (which also houses the village Post Office).

Now The Angler's Rest employs over 25 staff, contributes over £200,000 annually to businesses in the Hope Valley, and has built a reputation for its warm welcome, diverse activities and quality food and drink.

Rebecca McIntyre, one the founder members of the Bamford Community Society which was set up to save the Anglers Rest, and Amanda Taylor, its General Manager, joined me in the Sheffield Live radio studio to talk about how they saved the pub – and turned it into a thriving community-owned asset.

Timings (music played within the live broadcast removed from podcast):

• 0 - 8:58 introductions and update about this week's Budget announcement, already causing controversy
• 8:58 - end interview with Rebecca McIntyre and Amanda Taylor

Also mentioned in the show: Power to Change; The Plunkett Foundation; Locality; The Community Shares Unit.