University supports community in a crisis

Matt Bailey-Jones NEW BUSINESS HITS TARGETS AND EXPANDS

A county firm that launched at the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic is expanding rapidly.

Link Business Finance was founded by Matt Bailey-Jones in March 2020 to help other SMEs across the UK to grow through asset finance, commercial loans, invoice finance, secured loans and car finance products.

Despite the pandemic, the firm has hit its targets for its first year, recently opened its new office in Moulton Park and has begun expanding its workforce.

Matt said: “Last year was tough for everyone but we’re proud that we have achieved our targets. We celebrated moving into our second year by opening our new office in April and a few days later I was joined by our new account manager Kurt Jewell.

“Kurt has been doing really well since he joined the business and I’m thrilled to say we’ll be expanding our workforce further soon.

“We’ve been in talks with fellow Chamber members Northampton College and JBC Skills Training Ltd about recruiting some of their apprentices.

“We’ve also been accepted onto the Government’s Kickstart Scheme which provides funding to create job placements for 16 to 24-yearolds. This is great news because we are keen to help more young people into work. It’s obviously good news for them but we believe it’s also good news for our business because we can teach them how to deliver a high quality service to our clients.”

For further information about Link Business Finance visit www.linkbusinessfinance.co. uk

UNIVERSITY SUPPORTS COMMUNITY IN A CRISIS

Northampton’s Energy Centre tower shows its support for the NHS. Right: Nursing student Hannah Shaw

University of Northampton staff and students have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to help the NHS, charities and the wider community.

Shortly after the lockdown started in March 2020, the university provided 400 free rooms in vacant student accommodation to house healthcare staff and patients to ease the pressure on the NHS. University accommodation was also temporarily given to a local charity supporting rough sleepers.

Molecular Bioscience lecturer David Young juggled daily lectures and his own research with volunteering to support local hospital colleagues and gave his spare time to support Northampton

General Hospital’s testing of Covid-19 samples. The university’s Podiatry Clinic supported over 250 patients during lockdown and the Waterside campus housed temporary Covid-19 assessment and testing clinics. Staff from the university’s Institute for Creative Leather Technologies helped dye half a tonne of material that was turned into clinical scrubs for NHS staff.

More than 500 students from the Faculty of Health, Education and Society stepped up when the Government asked for nursing, midwifery, occupational therapy and paramedic science students to help the NHS. The university helped the Red Cross when it needed a base in Northampton to store food for

‘OVER 500 vulnerable people across the

STUDENTS county and provided a large RESPONDED WHEN donation to local foodbanks. THE GOVERNMENT From January, people were also

ASKED FOR STUDENTS TO HELP THE NHS’ given the chance to share messages of thanks on the power tower screen on the University of Northampton’s well-known Energy Centre tower.

More information about how the university has supported the wider community throughout Covid-19 can be found at www.northampton.ac.uk by searching for ‘Covid-19 – Serving the community in a crisis’.

FIRM IN RUNNING FOR TWO AWARDS

An outsourced finance company has been shortlisted for two SME National Awards.

Cornerstone FD, which celebrated its second year of trading in January, is up for Young Businessperson of the Year and Best New Business at the prestigious awards, the winner of which will be announced in July.

It is the culmination of 24 months of success for Cornerstone FD, which already has two awards under its belt and has doubled its business and employed two new staff since September.

Director Annie Thompson (pictured) said: “We are delighted to have been shortlisted for these honours. I am proud of all we have achieved in such a short space of time and during the uncertainty of Covid19.

“We have stopped two big clients from losing their businesses during the pandemic and look set to triple our business during 2021.”