Today I attend an inspiring event hosted by IoD YDF & Business Link Yorkshire at Gandhi Hall, Leeds Met Uni.
Andy Chapman, IoD YDF Committee collaborated with the team at Business Link to put on an informative event. Which aim was to give practical tips for business owners in Leeds about how they can manage their businesses in tough times.
The line up of speakers was a good spread of the key aspects that business owners should consider:
- Jonny Abraham, Barclays, gave a concise and topical talk about how to raise finance from banks
- Simon Riley, Yorkshire Forward talked through the current funding and grants available for businesses
- Iain Brown, Business Link Yorkshire – talked through how Business Link operates to support businesses
- John Holroyd, Mazars, talked through some really practical advice on managing debt and improving cashflow
- Keith Arkle, Sage – talked through how software can help manage cashflow, forecasting and reporting
- Gary Bristol and Maurice Sibar – talked through how to win business with Leeds City Council. The new procurement website for the Councils within the Yorkshire and the Humber region should definitely make this more accessible along with the implementation of Purchase Cards
- Andy McMenemy, 2Inspire talked through how to sell yourself in tough times
What really stood out for me was that to survive and thrive in tough times, you need to make sure that you:
- Find out if there’s any grants or funds which could assist the growth of your company
- Have the management information (such as your accounts, aged debtors creditors, cashflow forecast) up to date
- Act on the information – whether it’s chasing up debtors or information from your business advisers etc
- Use other software such as CRM or sync-ing your outlook calendar with sage, so you can streamline some of the business processes so you can work smarter
- Need to have a good relationship with your bank and ensure that you are in frequent dialogue with your bank manager.
- If you need funding (loans, overdraft, business investor) you need to act in good time, rather than leave it too close to the decision
- Look at tendering for public sector projects – as this could be a good source of regular revenue
- Build key relationships with your clients, management team, key contacts and network will put you in good stead for building your business.
- Stand out from the crowd at networking events and invest the time in building your network – as after all it’s people that we do business with, not brands
For many emerging leaders, this is the first recession that they will have lead their business through. Building a network of contacts is essential so you have a reliable support network that you can lean on.
The information shared today is certainly wise, relevant and definitely has inspired me to look at new opportunities and smarten up on a few tasks!
Did you go to the event – what are your reflections on it?