KEEPING THE HEART IN HERTFORDSHIRE
Chamber’s Peer Networks programme helps to ‘Connect Herts’ as two firms partner up The Chamber’s high-profile ‘Let’s Keep the Heart in Hertfordshire’ campaign led to a match made in heaven for two businesses which joined the Peer Networks programme. The programme creates diverse cohort groups of local businesses to collaboratively work through common business issues. When Strand PR’s Managing Director, Laura Pearce, volunteered her expertise in all things marketing as part of the Chamber’s Peer Networks programme, little did she know that it would lead to a blossoming working relationship with another Hertfordshire company. Peer Networks, a Hertfordshire Growth Hub service delivered by the Chamber, creates diverse cohorts of business leaders who collaboratively work through common business issues. Covering topics ranging from finance and HR to sales and marketing, the programme provides the opportunity to share experiences and improve business performance. Laura shared PR and marketing tips during the monthly calls between eight local business leaders.
It was her depth of knowledge and a flair for the creative that impressed Kevin Jones, Chief Operating Officer at Omega Commercial Solutions, who invited Laura to handle the company’s PR and digital media. Strand PR has been helping businesses communicate their key messages to target audiences since its inception in 2012, delivering PR, marketing strategies and digital campaigns for companies nationally and internationally.
Laura said. “As a local business, I’m passionate about the future of Hertfordshire, joining Peer Networks allowed me to do my bit to support other local businesses.” Kevin said: “As well as bags of experience, she brought a flexible, personalised approach to each company. It was never a case of one size fits all – Laura would tailor her advice according to the needs of each individual business.”
Kevin Jones, Chief Operating Officer at Omega Commercial Solutions
Heart in Hertfordshire’ campaign, which was launched to support the county’s economic recovery by creating connections and highlighting business opportunities for Herts-based companies. To find out more information about the Peer Networks programme, visit https://www.hertschamber.com/ business-support
Omega Commercial Solutions specialises in commercial and specialist finance and, since its formation in 1992, has built one of the UK’s most experienced teams of commercial brokers. The successful partnering of Omega and Strand PR reflects the ambition behind the Chamber’s ‘Let’s Keep the
HERTFORDSHIRE GROWTH HUB
Building Business Resilience Over the past few years we’ve all become painfully aware of how quickly the business environment can change. For some businesses this has delivered a positive impact, but for many the opposite is true. EU Transition and COVID-19 have led to higher costs, supply chain disruption, and accelerated digitisation in businesses. As businesses strive to return to a pre COVID-19 sales level and/or grow, it is still important to build resilience. What does it mean to be a resilient business?
A resilient business is one that can withstand, adapt, and thrive in the face of shocks that are internal and external. It’s all about building strength within each of the business functions and developing the business to be equipped for dealing with the unknown and unidentified risks. This also involves crisis management and business continuity planning.
Resilience starts with you
Many SMEs are led by a small number of people, commonly only one business owner. What happens to the business if those people are unavailable for any length of time?
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INSPIRE
Building resilience into your organisational structure is an increasingly important part of risk management. Have a defined layer of middle management - staff who can take on critical responsibilities and service oversight (should the need arise). This provides the dual benefit of ensuring business continuity but also aids in identifying those in your team able to step up and take on key duties as your business grows.
you may not always have the resources or specialisms in-house to work through every situation or take advantage of new opportunities. By establishing new relationships and strengthening existing ones businesses can collectively share resources and knowledge. Networking and connecting with peers has also never been so important in order to gain a new perspective and share best practice.
Looking after and developing your workforce
Financial planning is essential to ensure that your business has the means to withstand any further shocks and maintain the ability to grow. Planning and budgeting for these financial needs is crucial in highlighting opportunities and risks as well as helping you understand your market better. It’s important for business owners and leaders to understand the financial position of the business and to regularly review this against plans and budgets so that any areas of concern are quickly identified and addressed.
Your workforce is the cornerstone of building resilience. Supporting employees with their personal wellbeing is just as vital as addressing their training and development needs. As your business faces new challenges so to does your employees. Creating a workplace culture with communication around mental health and physical health and facilitating access to further support will help to build a stronger workforce and ultimately a more robust business. Upskilling employees ensures your workforce continue to develop, their skills remain relevant, and that they are better equipped to meet demands and challenges.
Collaboration
One positive effect of the current pandemic crisis has been a renewed commitment to business partnerships. As a small or medium sized business,
Financial management
Technology
There is no doubt that the pandemic accelerated our move to adopting technology further in our businesses. Many businesses from all sectors have turned to technology to eliminate the physical barriers brought about by COVID-19 so they can continue to trade as well as bringing about business growth. This has included
communication and collaboration tools to enable a remote or hybrid workforce to operate successfully as well as many businesses moving their sales to online.
Be ready for opportunities
Getting your business in shape not only sustains it but puts you in a position to take advantage of new opportunities. These new opportunities could be arising from climate change or new market needs leading to market expansion or new/service product developments. Ensure you know your target market and its needs, and that they are aware of your products and services. Changing business environments can result in increased competition and changing needs of your customers. Review marketing activity and ensure this delivers the required impact and results. Our Growth Account Managers can help you to build up your business’ resilience as well as navigate your way to any additional support, enabling your business to focus on what really matters - getting back on track for future growth. Grow with us hertsgrowthhub.com
