38 DEBATE


James Sandwell – The Fun Experts


Chris Brown – Brown & Co Accountants


The businesses which continue to do well are the ones with a growth mindset. The ones with their head in the sand and the approach that ‘We’ve always done it this way, we just need to do more of the same’, are the businesses we’re seeing struggle.


Businesses that have clarity about their goals, their plans, are the ones doing well.


They are crystal clear about who they work with, what their ideal client looks like. They are very focused.


So too are the ones that are good at shifting the business model or looking at new opportunities and are not afraid to try things. Perhaps the change doesn’t work but it doesn’t matter, they learn from it.


It is important not to be short-sighted. Yes, there are some immediate concerns and issues which businesses need to address but we’re saying to clients you still need an action plan of at least 12 to 24 months.


We can tweak things; we can do some scenario planning on some immediate stuff, but you need a plan and the businesses that haven’t aren’t doing very well.


Small businesses are crying out for support – someone to bounce ideas off. We’re talking to all our clients and saying we need to be talking to them monthly or quarterly. It’s what business are calling out for.


We’re moving away from a compliance model to an advisory one, we’re saying to clients, ‘Let’s create an action plan’ and look at it monthly. We’re asking if we need to signpost them to Boost. It is about having a good network of people. The more people you talk to, the chances are you are going to do a lot better.


Michael Dugdale – Trident Utilities


Ahead of our May pay rises earlier this year we gave everybody an additional inflation pay rise as well. It was six per cent, which at the time we thought was a reasonably prudent view of where inflation was going. But of course, we now know we are north of 10 per cent.


An initiative that we’re now looking at from the staff retention point of view, ahead of winter, is matching the government’s £400 energy payment.


We are balancing out our longer-term strategy and keeping an eye on finances. We’ve got a rolling budget and when something comes along, 42 people all being given £400 that you haven’t budgeted for, it’s quite a challenge from a commercial point of view, but it ties into that longer-term strategy.


If we don’t have the skills within the business, then that puts an awful lot of pressure on being able to deal with not just the products and services that we’re supplying, but the recommendations and the integrity of those recommendations.


Everybody wants more money and the energy sector has a skills shortage as well. It is very competitive, and we’ve seen salaries increase way beyond what you would see or believe to be reasonable for roles.


All our costs are increasing and we have to be able to look at ways to innovate and engage our staff and customers further. We can’t do that if we just stand still.


The Covid years taught us a lot about customer engagement. We’ve invested in digital engagement and we’re still learning a lot as we go along.


Darren Grantham – Nybble.co.uk


Brexit, Covid, climate change. We had a flood recently in the centre of Blackburn that wrecked loads of equipment, so we’re going through the insurance claim at the minute. Then there’s the container ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal, that didn’t help with some of the products coming through.


Add to that Ukraine and utilities. Everything’s going up, including pay and we have a skills shortage as well. A lot of our products come from China and the lead times on those are ridiculous. There are freight strikes, all this stuff is going to have an impact on us.


We’re having to deal with all those things on a daily basis. So, we have to be looking at short-term strategies and they are at the front at the minute. But the long-term strategy is still there.


We are sticking to our principles, and we can diversify as a business. So, we’re seeing some opportunities arising as well, which we may jump on quicker than we would have normally.


Nybble is known as an IT company, a managed service provider which is a core part of the business but that is beginning to change. We’re moving more to audio-visual, digital, signage solutions.


Companies are looking at cutting back on travel and want videoconferencing suites in the building. We have the skillsets in place and we’re seeing that part of the business starting to develop a lot stronger and quicker than we thought.


We are also collaborating with more organisations to get our message out. If I had a wish, it would be that there was some kind of route map that points out all the different areas of support that Lancashire can tap into.


When Covid hit we thought that after 18 years in business that was it for us. But our gut feeling told us something different and we’ve now come out of it stronger than ever.


One thing we learned was when your profits are high and things are growing, that is when you should be looking at your numbers, where you are now. People seem to leave it until things are bad and then it’s panic mode. We just continuously look at everything and keep very lean.


We are hitting the weekly cashflows, so we know short-term all the way through where we’re heading, what our bank balance will be on December 31. But I’m also constantly just tweaking everything and making sure that anything that is out of the day- to-day spend comes across my desk and I rubberstamp it.


We can see where we have to invest in equipment, but that’s already in the cashflows and the budgets. It is very detailed and, luckily, we’re smashing the targets, but again, we’re adjusting them. During Covid we also slashed a huge amount off our overheads.


We’ve set something up called ‘Fun at Work’ where we put equipment into offices on a monthly rotation. It is going really well and is helping the businesses retain their staff. They are more energised and productivity is going up.


So, we’ve gone from being equipment hirers to actually working with companies on their culture now. It’s a win-win.


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