How can you grow a business you love, in a way that brings on board loyal partners who share your values – to work with clients using the tried-and-tested methods you’ve developed over 20 years?

In this week’s show, Carl talks to Angela Rhodes, Founder of Crispin Rhodes HR – one of the most respected and widely-referred professional HR consultants in the UK.  

In this episode, Angela shares how having a series of mentors and coaches has helped her throughout her professional and business life – and how, she has chosen and developed a franchise model to grow and scale her HR consultancy, establishing a growing number of Crispin Rhodes offices across the UK.

Recommended Reading:

Getting Things Done:

Recommended Tools:

Pipedrive

breatheHR

Slack

Trello

How to Connect:

Angela:

Linked in

Crispin Rhodes

Web

LinkedIn

Twitter

Alan Price is one of the most notable thought leaders in employment law and HR, in Britain.

Alan is currently CEO of Croner Group, award-winning consultants in Employment Law, HR, Health & Safety and Reward. His background in Industrial Relations within the Trade Union movement, has meant he has taken a more unusual route to a career in corporate HR. However, it’s precisely this journey, that gives him such a refreshing understanding, of both Employees AND Employers. This perspective, leaves him well placed – and highly motivated – to achieve win-win outcomes for both parties, in case of relationship breakdown or dispute.

In this episode, Carl and Alan discuss a range of issues – from the importance that having a great mentor has meant to his career (Peter Done, founder and group MD of Peninsula Business Services) – to how companies concerned about the impact of Brexit on their workforce, can think ahead – and take action now, to prepare for the future.

Are you tasked with managing HR – and keen to spend less time managing paper, so you can spend more time leading and managing people?

Jonathan Richards can help. Jonathan is Founder and CEO of breatheHR – a company that helps SMEs simplify and automate their people management. breatheHR is an easy-to-use cloud-based software system designed to help businesses onboard and retain the people who, together, can become great teams.

Jonathan is passionate about freeing up time for important conversations in the workplace, so managers can really get to know their people – and work with them, to help them maximise their performance at work.

In this episode, Jonathan also shares extensively from his personal experience in business. He explains how a love for outdoor adventure (and local coffee shops), has enabled him to dig deep to navigate the considerable challenges of a deep recession, which lead him (and his co-founder Gareth Burrows), to completely reinvent their business – and develop a new software product, which now successfully serves the SME community in the UK.

 

Are you a Manager who feels like you are constantly being asked to do more – with less?

Against a backdrop of political and economic cuts and restructuring, many Managers are being tasked with running high performing teams and services, under more pressure, with fewer resources.

It’s in exactly this sort of challenging environment, that Hayley Lewis loves to help. Hayley is an organisational psychologist who helps managers – and their organisations – overcome problems to do with people, performance and change.

Hayley is passionate about investing in people, helping them develop their emotional intelligence – and teaching managers ‘how to be with other people’ – in ways that nurture their teams, whilst running a successful business.

 

With the General Election fast approaching, we contacted the Conservatives, Labour, The LibDems, UKIP and The Green Party – and their respective Business spokespeople for Business, to invite them all to guest on the show, as part of a special edition of the Twentisphere podcast.

This week, we’re delighted to share an extended interview with Rachel Collinson, The Green Party’s spokesperson for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Rachel shares her own background and experience, as a small business owner and employer, explains why she got involved in politics – and how she ended up finding a home in the Green Party.

Whatever your own political leanings – and however you plan to vote in this General Election, we hope you’ll enjoy this refreshing conversation about life, business and politics.

Rachel and Carl discuss topics ranging from the challenges of running a small business in Britain, in a fast-changing political and economic climate, to the Green Party’s vision for small business, economic growth – and Europe.

 

Have you successfully navigated the ‘Start-Up’ and ‘Early-Stage’ of your business – only to find yourself getting stuck (and feeling a sense of overwhelm) when it comes to taking your business to the next level?

Whereas the skills you have, may have served you well, you may find you now need a different sort of mindset – and a set of new skills – to take things forward.

So how do you source the right help, to enable you to grow and structure your team and premises, to help you significantly increase turnover, whist keeping a close eye on profit?

Many business owners can testify about how having the right coach, has helped them to scale their business successfully. However, many remain curious (and understandably cautious) about whether finding a coach will be worth the investment of time and money?

Before you start looking for the right coach for you and your business, it can really help know what sort of benefits coaching could bring – and how a mentoring or coaching relationship might work.

In this week’s show, we talk to Kevin Appleby of Appleby Consulting. Kevin offers some great insights, into how finding the right business coach or mentor can help you take your business to the next l

 

Have you thought about starting a company but worried about the cost.  Maybe you already have, and wonder how you can take it to the next level.

In this episode, Rich Myers talks to Carl about Transmit Startups, a company that helps businesses get of the starting blocks  and get the bug for entrepreneurship.

With some notable successes, Transmit Startups realise that business is risky and the funding they channel from the British Business Bank can be paid back on very flexible terms depending on how things go.

If you, or someone you know is starting a business, this episode is a must!

 

Ever feel like you could do with a personal ‘Chairman’? Someone who could offer you many of the benefits of having a Chairman of the board – but without you having to take a leap to a formal structure of regulatory governance.

What if someone could onboard with you and your business, to act as a Coach, Mentor and Consultant, to help you get better financial results? Someone who would help you set targets and milestones – help you execute and deliver – and then, by agreement, hold you to account for achieving them.

Perhaps you’re at the stage where you’re considering external investment, as you look at the need for development capital, to finance your company’s future growth? Or maybe you’re getting ready to exit your company by selling – or taking it through a Management Buy Out.

Simon Jones of SJ Associates, offers some sage advice to CEOs and aspiring CEOs in search of the right way ahead.

 

How well do you really understand your business finances? Many business owners, if they’re honest, would answer ‘probably not well enough’ – yet feel embarrassed to confess they don’t understand the information their accountant is giving them.

So what CAN you do, to help you understand your finances better and put some foundations in place, to help you protect your business – and steer it in the right direction?

Financial Strategist Serena Humphrey, explains how experiencing three financial disasters in 18 months, early in her adult life, set her on a mission to give owner managers the financial skills they need to:

understand their business finances better

take control of their finances, to avoid predictable and preventable business failure

Clear the S.M.O.G

find freedom – and create the sort of balanced life they always hoped running their own business would give them.

Listen in, as Serena shares three top tips that will make a massive difference to every business owner.

 

Live from Venturefest East Midlands – Episode 2

Are you looking for support, to help you develop an innovative new (or new-to-you) idea, for your business – or the organisation you work for?

On Wednesday 22 April 2017, Derby Arena played host to VentureFest East Midlands – a one day regional business growth event, designed to connect innovators, investors and entrepreneurs.

During the day, host Carl Benfield spoke to some of those involved. He recorded sixteen short conversations, which we’ll be airing across two episodes of the Twentisphere podcast.

Those we spoke to, included representatives from local Universities, Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) – and organisations involved in providing Finance, Legal/IP and HR training services.

So what is the message these organisations are wanting to get out? And what did we learn?

The main thing that stood out, is that there is a thriving and well networked business support community across the East Midlands.

This community is made up of people who are ready to provide professional expertise, to help businesses develop innovative ideas, set their business on a sound foundation – and to launch, grow and scale, both in the UK and overseas.

Whilst some of the organisations we spoke to offer paid business support services, we learned that a lot of expert help is available, either partly funded, or completely free of charge.

We understand that for many people, taking a day to attend live events like VentureFest isn’t always possible, due to time constraints.

With this in mind, we’re offering you another opportunity for you to connect with some of those who are offering help. We hope you’ll enjoy listening in to these conversations – and that they may give you some useful ideas and contacts, to help you develop your ideas.