Purves Ali – Boost Business Lancashire
Last week I went into an engineering company in the county. I was just talking about staff retention and where the owner was going with recruitment and he said he gave everybody a pay rise of 20 per cent.
It’s engineering and once people get experience under their belt, they go to BAE Systems or Rolls-Royce.
I asked him what that across-the-board rise did and he said that it changed the whole atmosphere of the company. Everybody bought into the idea and he now knows they are going to be there for quite some time now.
He’s invested in them, and he’s reaping the reward and I was really happy for him. I just thought that’s the first time I’ve ever come across that much of a pay rise, but the guy knows what he’s doing and the business looks quite healthy as well.
The businesses I see are resilient, they are looking at the short-term, mainly three months ahead, and they are buoyant. They are thinking, ‘Yes we’ll be alright.’
Everyone is worried about living costs and utilities going up. Strikes are coming on as well, so they are wary of what is around them, but the companies are just getting on with it.
There is a lot of support available to help them grow. Businesses have to buy into what you are trying to offer them. We can give them impartial advice and it is all confidential as well.
Adam Holden – UCLan
A big part of what we are doing now is engaging better with businesses. We’re asking, ‘What do you need? What can we help with?’ It is about unlocking academic knowledge and using it better in businesses.
From our point of view, it is being more available, getting into businesses and getting in front of businesses in a similar way to Boost and not just being that ‘ivory tower’. It is just actually being there and linking people better. It is about making the academic world more accessible for business
A lot of the businesses that I work with in the Innovation Clinic are looking at innovative processes and saving money and doing things more efficiently.
They’re looking at saving money in the short-term but then making that a long-term solution as well. It is looking at patterns for things, looking at new products, energy efficiencies, and we tie in with other projects that do that as well.
People are looking at that efficiency. They’re looking at that new product and they want to do it in a cheaper way, hence why they come to us
It is also about reducing the barriers to growth and sustainability. Start- ups in this country tend to get looked down on if they’ve failed whereas in other economies they’ll say, ‘Great, you did it. You earned your stripes. Have another go at it.’
As far as we’re concerned, we’re getting back into working as a group and sharing ideas, which we need to do better. Work together and then translate that to how we work with businesses.
David Lavery – EVC Group
I know it is a cliché but it is about being proactive rather than reactive. We started out installing electrical vehicle chargers but we knew that we had to diversify.
We are now offering other renewable solutions, such as solar, wind, heat pumps. We knew we couldn’t just stand still so we’ve got these other strings to our bow.
However, it is all well and good offering these solutions but they cost and people just don’t have the money at the moment. It is a question of want and need for a lot of people.
We look to help them. We have introduced finance options; we have monthly payments and we have shared ownership. These are options that we have brought forward.
We did a lot of residential work installing charges at first because the charging scheme seemed to really incentivise people. That stopped earlier in the year but the workplace charging scheme continues to be live.
So, while people aren’t installing them at home, they are knocking on everybody’s doors and saying that chargers are needed at work because they would be good for corporate responsibility and the environment, as well as good for them.
As a result of that, we are seeing a lot of businesses coming to us looking to have chargers installed and that seems to have flourished over the last couple of months.
Would you like to see your business grow?
So would we.
Find out how our funded growth support service can help your business. Call our team today.
County Councillor Aidy Riggott, cabinet member for economic development and growth, Lancashire County Council
0800 488 0057
boostbusinesslancashire.co.uk LANCASHIREBUSINESSVIEW.CO.UK
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