Why your membership matters.

Why YOUR

membership ma ers

What’s the bene t to my business? This is the question most often asked when someone is approached to join us, or indeed, any trade association. It is also the most di cult to answer as many of the real bene ts are not tangible, such as the work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure that the industry’s good name and interests are protected as much as possible, particularly from government.

REPRESENTATION AND PROTECTION

This can all seem very remote if you are running a café or sandwich bar where your focus is on the day-to-day job of making sandwiches and keeping customers happy. Yet, in reality, our work provides ongoing protection for you as we ght back against attempts to impose increasingly draconian legislation.

This unseen work leads to very tangible bene ts that members can take advantage of.

Perhaps the most important one is translating legislation into practical advice, which we do both through guidance and the relationship we have with both national and local government. This is often presented as Assured Advice, which has quasi-legal status, thus making it di cult for the authorities to challenge businesses following it.

Only BSA members can take advantage of this protection.

ADVICE

Through the same agreement, and our own knowledge base, we also provide members with a reliable source of technical, legal and other advice which they can use to get assurance that they are doing things correctly. For example, our industry agreements with government can be used by members to check the wording on a label is correct.

Members also have unrestricted access to a wealth of information on our website which includes guidance on issues around employment law as well as member-only access to specialist employment lawyers for more speci c advice.

The Association also organises regular on-line brie ngs on issues likely to a ect member businesses, including presentations from leading market researchers that many smaller businesses would generally not have access to. Furthermore, these brie ngs are recorded and available for members to access at any time.

On top of all this, there are a range of very speci c bene ts, such as discounts on insurance, that members can tap into if they wish plus, we keep them informed of legislation and other matters that might a ect the running of their business through weekly ebulletins.

In many ways membership is rather like an insurance policy that you hope you will never need to use but with the added value of advice and support that you can use as and when you need it.