Business Breakfast creates a buzz

Local business people and community groups were recently invited to attend a free business breakfast aimed at bringing the business community of Larkhall together in a unique networking forum. The event was hosted and organised by St Mark’s School in Larkhall, Bath on Thursday 23 January and was organised by the school’s Business Team.

“The business breakfasts are a positive and informal forum for students, businesses and community organisations to come together and add value to their education, business and working lives. We had over thirty businesses at the event on Thursday, creating a fabulous atmosphere with lots of shared ideas and experiences,” said Paula Hawkins, Marketing Manager for St Mark’s School.

Speaking at the event was Richard Tidswell, of Business Doctors and Louise Ladbrooke of Business West. Richard has over 15 years’ experience at a senior level in a wide range of businesses from a family-run business turning over £3million to large corporates turning over £1.6billion. Richard has led strategic business change including investment planning, planning for growth in new and emerging markets and delivering service improvement and operating efficiencies.

“The New Year is all about new beginnings and its natural to review how the last year has gone and to think about objectives for the coming year,” said Richard. “For many small business owners, regularly spending time on the business rather than in it can be difficult and often time is consumed in the day to day operations and running of the business. However, finding the time to plan ahead, developing a clear strategic plan for the business and setting yourself measurable objectives is invaluable.”

“Often those who formulate the strategy for the business are not those that implement it. It is important to engage your staff on the direction and purpose of your business. This includes everyone being clear on their roles and responsibilities, what they are accountable for delivering and being clear on how, what they do every day, contributes to the overall success of the business.”

Growth Manager for Business West, Louise Ladbrooke supported Richard’s presentation with a look at the work that Business West do to help support small businesses and some of the funding opportunities that may be available to them.

Louise complimented the school’s efforts to bring the community together at such an event, “My congratulations to St Mark’s School on such a successful event, there was such a buzz in the room and I was very happy to be part of it.”

Delegate and St Mark’s parent, commented, “Integrating business with education provides brilliant opportunities for all involved. Although the content of the talk was challenging for those running businesses it was incredibly inspiring and thought provoking and it definitely created a buzz in the room. The event was well organised and it was great to have the opportunity to not only meet and talk with like minded business people but also the future generation of workers.”

The next event will be held on Friday 7 February from 8-9.50am at The New Sixth with guest speaker Sam Holliday, former editor of the Bath Chronicle and now, Development Manager for the Federation of Small Businesses.

Anyone interested in booking a place should contact Paula Hawkins or Emily Oliver on 01225 312661.