Business Live: for curious entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs

Can you feel it? Can you hear it? Yes, it's the blistering, crackling heat from the South Yorkshire Tech 100 – the "hottest" startups and scaleups in the region, published today in a new ecosystem report.

It lists the most successful tech companies born since the start of 2000 with headquarters in South Yorkshire and emerging startups with tremendous growth potential. Between them they employ 4,000 people.

And it shows tech startup equity funding into South Yorkshire’s early-stage tech companies has doubled in the last four years to more than £52m.

Darren Balcombe, Deputy CEO at Capital Enterprise and Team SY lead, tells us what's changed to enable such a growth in investment, why now is a critical time for the region, and how we will nurture more entrepreneurs.

He also covers why South Yorkshire is a brilliant place for a tech startup, the importance of social-purpose driven firms in the Tech 100, and has must-listen advice on applying for grants from organisations like Innovate UK.

South Yorkshire is now home to more than 3,000 tech startups; Darren wants to "turn its emerging startup scene into a strong, self-sustaining engine of innovation and growth,  so that South Yorkshire can be home to many more global leaders" – he tells me how.

What next?

• Team SY’s South Yorkshire Tech 100 report
• Thanks for listening, to interviewee Darren of Team SY: weareteamsy.org and Capital Enterprise: capitalenterprise.org and to SheffieldLIve! for broadcasting the show.

Today's guests won't just make you make you think, I hope they'll help you to act since both offer practical and immediate action points to build a better world and better businesses.

The UK generates some of the highest amounts of e-waste (electrical waste including headphones, remotes, computer equipment and devices) in the world. Why do we hoard such devices and how can we put them to better use?

And how can we become better bosses, adapt for a hybrid-working world and plan so businesses and people can thrive amidst the digital and societal transformation underway?

Helen Milner is the Group Chief Executive of Good Things Foundation and has been named one of the most influential people in IT in the UK. Well-known for its work in digital inclusion, Good Things Foundation is building the UK's first National Device Bank. Devices will be provided to people and organisations. Helen tells us more.

She also covers social tariffs for broadband, why digital exclusion is becoming narrower but more pronounced for people affected, and her commitment to financial inclusion with MaPS (the UK’s Money and Pension Service). Listeners can put their default device to good use in the future, she tell us how.

Stefan Stern is a journalist, author and Visiting Professor of management practice at Bayes Business School, City, University of London. He is the author (with Prof Cary Cooper) of "Myths of Management - what people get wrong about being the boss" and "How To Be A Better Leader".

Stefan tells me the biggest and most surprising things people get wrong about being the boss, what we can do to be better, and how organisations and leaders can work more effectively (and supportively of their people) in a hybrid world and the future.

Stern is speaking at  Zoom’s annual conference, Zoomtopia EMEA, about how the new world of work will change business and society and how to deal with it? Register for this free event here.

Timings:

• 0 - 2:57 introduction
• 2:57 Helen Milner  – find Helen on twitter at @helenmilner
• 21:15 Stefan Stern – find Stefan on twitter at @stefanstern
• 38:17 Funding for businesses and social enterprises, including Innovate UK's Circular Economy for SMEs and Net zero living: Pioneer places funding competitions,  the Youth Music Incubator Fund, the Time After Time E-waste Fund.
• 42:48 Upcoming events, including Zoomtopia EMEA virtual user conference on 17 November (details),  the Social Enterprise Exchange conference on 17 November, Unlocking the Labour Market Crisis – Talent across the generations on 21 November (details), Business Sheffield's Entrepreneurs Conference.

Thanks for listening, to guests Helen and Stefan, and to SheffieldLIve! for broadcasting the show.

Terry Murphy runs Printed By Us, a social enterprise which sells t-shirts, prints, mugs, hoodies and other products, all featuring amazing designs by notable and up-and-coming artists.

Terry was last on the show five years ago with colleague James whose candid story moved many listeners. The business works with vulnerable people and people who are or were at risk of homelessness, teaching them screen printing and other skills, and supporting them into employment. It has grown since then to 25 employees.

Now Printed By Us has opened a shop in Orchard Square in Sheffield, is in Meadowhall, and sells online. But their product is not a "pity purchase" – Terry describes why quality and excellence is at the heart of it (and what that means for example about how their t-shirts are produced).

Terry is also involved with the Sheffield Social Enterprise Network and the forthcoming Social Enterprise Exchange Conference. He's excited about both. Listen to find out why.

Also on the show: new data from Fair4All Finance shows over 180,000 people in Sheffield are in financially vulnerable circumstances. Even before the cost of living really started escalating, a report in March demonstrated that over a million people might already be borrowing from loan sharks, illegal money lenders. The consequences are horrific.

So a new campaign has been launched to help people, warn them to steer clear of loan sharks and high cost lenders, and  make people aware of sources of support: community lenders, community development finance institutions and credit unions.

Jackie Hallewell, CEO at Sheffield Credit Union and Faisel Rahman, CEO at Fair Finance, join me to explain what their organisations do and why.

Both have important comments and advice about credit, saving, debt and finances, and their advice could be directly relevant to listeners or could help people you work with. Timings and links:

• 0 - 3:00 Introduction
• 2:59 Terry Murphy, Printed By Us, www.printedbyus.org and Sheffield Social Enterprise Network, www.ssen.org.uk  Terry also flagged up the Social Enterprise Exchange conference on 17 November, www.socentxchange.net
• 20:06 Jackie Hallewell, Sheffield Credit Union, www.sheffieldcreditunion.com
• 36:42 Faisel Rahman, Fair Finance, www.fairfinance.org.uk – Fair Finance is a member of Responsible Finance, an organisation I work with www.responsiblefinance.org.uk
• 49:14 Wrapping up, check out a recent episode with Helen Barnard, and last week's show with funding opportunities for businesses and social enterprises.
• Upcoming events: The Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup starts today in Sheffield. The Sheffield Adventure Film Festival has lots going on.
• Prospect Magazine's "What Sheffield can teach us about true levelling up" is worth a read. It mentioned several folk we have interviewed including Deborah Bullivant and

Every week on this show we try to highlight new grant and funding opportunities for businesses and social enterprises.

Today (28 October 2022) we have details of 10 x £40,000 grants; funding streams with  £8,000 and £18,000 awards; and a new games and tech accelerator programme.

Those come after news of the shortlist announcement for the Sheffield Business Awards 2022. Several of the finalists have appeared on previous episodes of this radio show.

One is The Treehouse Board Game Café, shortlisted for the High Street Hero Award which recognises "an independent retail, hospitality or leisure business that is playing a vital role in supporting the high street experience in Sheffield."

So today you can hear an interview with Ruth Haigh of Treehouse Board Game Café which we recorded in 2019. It has aged well: Ruth described how she left a career in data analysis for the civil service to launch the business and her advice on:

• testing the market and market-research when launching a new business
• one critical success factor
• her most useful sources of advice as a startup
• how to secure business premises
  
  

After the interview with Ruth it's back to 2022 for some new funding opportunities. Timings and details:

• 0:00 Introduction and news – from this weekend the programme (and Sheffield Live! radio) will be available on DAB+ as well as FM radio
• 2:58 Interview with Ruth Haigh, first broadcast in 2019
• 28:12 Recap
• 29:40 Power to Change Community Tech: Makers & Maintainers two year programme will offer 10 x £40,000 grants for community businesses working on existing community tech solutions, not new projects. Deadline 4 Novemer 2022. See www.powertochange.org.uk
• 30:23 The Indielab South Yorks Games Accelerator South Yorks Investment Readiness Programme 2022 is designed for games developers, and for games technology and service providers. Indielab Games is looking for South Yorkshire’s "innovative, up-and-coming games companies to take part in this full funded programme, commencing in November 2022." Registration is open until 1pm on Monday 31 October. See www.indielabgames.co.uk
• 30:50 UnLtd, The foundation for social entrepreneurs, has funding streams with grants of up to £18,000 to grow existing social enterprises (1-4 years old) and up to £8,000 for new (pre-trading, and up to one year old) social enterprises. Details: https://www.unltd.org.uk/awards/
• 31:23 EVENTS: The Social Enterprise Exchange Conference 2022. Business Sheffield webinars. Business and IP Centre Sheffield events. And the Sheffield Forum meet-up 
• 33:01 Recap of last week's show with Helen Barnard about creating and environment in which good businesses can thrive, and what businesses can do to address poverty and inequality; and of our recent interview with writer Akeem Balogun (I've since been along to the event he curated as part of Off the Shelf, it was excellent).

Thanks for listening and to SheffieldLIve! for broadcasting the show.

Most people in poverty in the UK are in working families. Four million workers live in poverty: their resources are well below their minimum needs.

That means 'not being able to heat your home, pay your rent, or buy the essentials for your children. It means waking up every day facing insecurity, uncertainty, and impossible decisions about money.'

And seven in ten children growing up in poverty live in a working family. How have we come to this? And what can we do about it?

Helen Barnard has spent her career researching poverty. She is the author of new book Want, part of Five Giants, a series published eighty years on from the original Beveridge Report in 1942 which identified five barriers to social progress and led to the creation of the modern welfare state (and NHS).

Today mass unemployment is no longer the issue it was:  big factors behind poverty and insecurity are low pay, lack of progression, insecurity and underemployment as Helen explains.

She tells me about a business which trusts, empowers, and supports its workforce – as a result it has happy and engaged employees, and they and the business prosper. She contrasts this with an exploitative approach and gives a three-pronged approach to how we can support more "good" businesses and address the bad ones.

We also discuss supporting people in under-invested communities to support and grow businesses and social enterprises; unleashing the power of civil society and how to create a more level playing field for corporate taxation.

The book involves powerful and heart-rending stories about modern poverty and new,, fit-for-purpose ideas and solutions.

Listen to this interview with Helen Barnard for practical, fit-for-purpose ideas about the power of good business to address modern poverty and inequality today.

Timings and links:

• 0 - 3:00 introduction
• 3:00 interview with Helen Barnard of Pro Bono Economics and The Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Find Helen on twitter and get a copy of her book here, or there are lots of non-Amazon options to buy it here.
• 32:20 wrapping up and upcoming events including Off the Shelf and Celluloid Screams.

Thanks Helen for such comprehensive and thoughtful interview and thanks as ever to Sheffield Live for broadcasting the show on FM radio today, 21 October 2022  https://web.sheffieldlive.org . Thank-you for listening – please go and buy Helen's book if you can!

It can  be unfair to quote a line from a writer's work out of context.  But the words 'Truths are unpopular. Lies are famous' capture the weird maelstrom of social media posturing, fake news, politicians who'll promise whatever it takes to get elected, and over-friendly corporate messaging we're bombarded by today.

The lines come from Akeem Balogun's 'Nothing too Serious,'  published at Written Gallery, and written in a different context. But imaginative fiction can show us future possibilities as well as risks. Akeem's debut short story collection, The Storm, won the Somerset Maugham Award and "shows us the often questionable ways that people deal with extreme crisis and how ordinary human relationships can become distorted in severe conditions."

I met Akeem three years ago at the Hallam Enterprise Awards where his reading of a piece from The Storm met with a standing ovation, and the small press he co-founded, Okapi Books, secured a £1000 award for 'best pitch' voted by the audience.

So I was delighted to interview him and hear about an exciting event he's curated as part of Sheffield's Off The Shelf Festival – Words, Vision and Sound – on 22 October at Event Central, Fargate, Sheffield.

"Delight" and the joy of immersion in words, music and visuals will underpin the event, Akeem explains in this interview, which also covers the near-future imaginative writing he specialises in, two new, recently published stories about social care and some of Akeem's thoughts on Sheffield as a writing hub.

Enjoy the interview and get yourself tickets for Words, Vision and Sound.

• 0 -3:17 introduction
• 3:17 Akeem Balogun interview
• 31:26 Funding for entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs and freelancers, including the Power to Change Community Tech programme for community businesses and the PPL Momentum Music Fund (£5k to £15k grants from the PRS Foundation in partnership with PPL; deadline 26 October), and the Social Enterprise Exchange grant scheme (act fast, deadline 17 October).  And events including a free Social Enterprise Exchange HR masterclass

Find Akeem at https://www.writtengallery.com/stories/ and get tickets for Words, Vision and Sound here https://offtheshelf.org.uk/event/words-vision-sound/ This show was broadcast  on 14 October 2022 on Sheffield Live FM radio https://web.sheffieldlive.org 

All this talk about "slashing red tape" and a sudden zeal for deregulation as a magic bullet for growth made me climb aboard my soapbox.

This episode starts with a rant and a reminder: regulation per se is no barrier to inclusive growth, and careless deregulation risks encouraging a race to the bottom in business and life. Do we want crappy, rubbish businesses exploiting people and planet for ever-diminishing returns on investment? I don't. Glad I've got that off my chest (and let me know what you think).

Then an interview with engineer-turned-air-quality entrepreneur, Kate Barnard, whose business helps cities and governments achieve air quality standards and show they've done so.

Air pollution contributes to around 40,000 deaths a year in the UK and more in many other parts of the world. Enjoy The Air sees cities as engineering systems. Kate explains how it catalyses behaviour and policy changes and the importance of "WIIFM" or "What's in it for me?"

Also on the show today: lots of exciting events, funding for businesses and social enterprises, and more.

Timings:

• 0 - 1:30 Introduction
• 1:30 I have a rant about de-regulation snd why fit-for-purpose regulation is a tool for sustainable growth, not a barrier
• 6:12 Interview with Kate Barnard, Enjoy The Air
• 32:32 Quick recap of last week's episode with Jon Barton, Vertebrate Publishing
• 34:28 Upcoming events including an exhibition at the National Videogame Museum, the Off the Shelf and No Bounds Festivals, Peddler Market,  Black History Month events in partnership with the African Heritage Forum
• 36:30 Reminder of the Fair and Sustainable Economies Fund and Digital Innovation Grant programme (more details here)
• 37:06 More events including Business Sheffield's Networking event and series of free virtual business workshops
• 38:52 Reflections on this week's SCCCC "Winter Pressures Service" launch event – I went along and their work supporting elderly, isolated and vulnerable people and relieving pressure on the NHS is so important – CEO Mark Storey was on the show 6 years ago
• 40:11 How to get in touch (email [email protected] ) and wrapping up

Thanks for listening!

Nearly 20 years ago Jon Barton created a mountain biking guide to the trails he loved to ride in the Peak District. Since then his firm Vertebrate Publishing has grown with its authors and the business scooping multiple accolades and awards, including Small Press of the Year at the 2022 British Book Awards.

It publishes beautiful and inspiring outdoor adventure books and guides. Jon joins me for a thoughtful conversation about:

• how the publishing industry and his business has evolved over nearly two decades
• what the business did to double turnover without diluting the quality of its books
• collaborating with other independent publishers in Sheffield and the UK
• the impact of massive increases in the cost of printing
• publishing carbon neutral and carbon negative books
• taking a more robust approach to commissioning and what that means
• selling direct vs selling on Amazon and elsewhere
• what Sheffield's "Outdoor City" campaign means for the business and Jon
• new titles: "We Can't Run Away From This" by Damian Hall,  "Where There's a Hill" by Sabrina Verjee and "Retirement Rebel" which comes out in October
• why he loves being harangued at the crag or in the pub about his books

Vertebrate Publishing is a great Sheffield success story. What's the next chapter?  Jon gives open and candid answers about the highs and lows of running a business built on passion for adventure in many forms.

Also in the show: new funding and events for businesses and social enterprises.

Timings:

• 0-2:45 Introduction
• 2:45 Jon Barton interview (Vertebrate Publishing's website: www.adventurebooks.com)
• 45:49 Funding for businesses and social enterprises – grants of up to £200,000 from the Friends Provident Foundation Fair and Sustainable Economy Fund; the Digital Innovation Grant (DIG) programme in South Yorkshire; the Energy Bill Relief Scheme
• 49:57 An upcoming event: Sheffield Forum Live #4: 12 October 2022
• 51:30 Wrapping up with reflections on interest rates, the power of regional radio, the late author Hilary Mantel and how to get in touch

Thanks for listening.

Today's guest says he's the "world's oldest" digital nomad – until proven otherwise. Malcolm McClean has always loved the work he does, and when he hit 65 years of age he sold everything he owns to embark on a new adventure.

Malcolm is an author and consultant to a remarkable social enterprise, PossAbilities Community Interest Company, which has grown from 200 to 600 employees during the time he's been involved. It works with people with learning disabilities and vulnerable people so they can "live the life they choose," providing accommodation, short breaks and many other life-enhancing initiatives.

How did Malcolm's friends and family react when he announced his plans? Is it difficult or expensive to be a digital nomad? How does his lifestyle work? What can we learn about scaling-up social enterprises and purpose-driven businesses from PossAbilities? And what tips can Malcolm – who has written five books which have been published worldwide – give us about writing?

Listen to find out. Malcolm recorded this interview with me from Stockholm on Tuesday 6th September.

Also in this episode: £12,500 Business Productivity Grants, comments on energy price support for businesses and social enterprises, and research into  preferences around salary and work-life balance.

Timings and links:

• 0 - 36:36 introduction and interview with Malcolm McClean, Bearhunt, PossAbilities, and School of Curiosity.
• 36:36 businesses eagerly awaiting more details of energy bill support scheme
• 40:36 Business Productivity Grant Programme from Sheffield City Council – up to £12,500 available – how to apply (it's easy to do so but you need to act soon).
• 42:20 new research into employee preferences around salary, benefits and work-life balance.
• 43:28 wrapping up – please get in touch!

Always treat the customer as though they're your mum, says Stephen Tighe, CEO and co-founder of Allegro Opticians.

Launched just a few years ago, Allegro now has customers from  America, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and many other parts of the world, after identifying and addressing a profound need for specialist optical care for musicians and performing artists.

Stephen, who worked in financial series for 35 years, and wife and business partner Sheryl Doe are both accomplished musicians – optician Sheryl is a cornet, cello and double bass player; Stephen a conductor and brass band player.

In this episode Stephen describes how when he and Sheryl first met, at a concert, it not only led to their becoming husband and wife but immediately demonstrated the problems their business solves.

Since launching Allegro has gone from two to twenty employees. It has three branches, works with the Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain and the Royal College of Music and has been recognised with awards from the Federation of Small Businesses, as well as being named Dispensing Optician of the year in 2019 and 2021 and Arts and Entertainment Business of the Year in 2019.

Stephen covers financing the business, its customer service ethos, the value of mentoring (as mentor and meet) and the importance of giving back. He's a thoughtful guest and it's a masterclass in running a business based on thoroughly understanding your customers and giving them an exemplary experience.

Also in the show (after the interview with Stephen) – funding opportunities for businesses and social enterprises.

Links:

• Allegro Optical