Welcome to the Harborough Business Bulletin. We provide a fortnightly overview of the latest business related news, initiatives and support packages.

Mark Taft, NatWest's Local Enterprise Manager for Leicester, Derby and Nottingham, will be delivering a six-week programme of fully-funded business workshops covering a variety of topics including Mindset, Visioning, Business Model Canvass, Pitching and Financing.

The workshops will start on Monday 25 September 2023 and will continue every following Monday with the final session on 30 October. They will take place at the NatWest branch in Granby Street, Leicester, and are designed for anybody thinking about setting up a business or organisations looking at accelerating their growth.

Places are available on a first-come, first-served basis and anyone booking onto the programme must be able to commit to attending all six sessions.

Join the Big Business Exchange from 9:00am to 2:00pm at the Harborough Innovation Centre on 26 September 2023. There will be a networking breakfast, followed by mini masterclasses and bookable one-to-one sessions, all focused on business support and sharing knowledge. The event will also launch the new Leicestershire Business Advice Service, which will provide free support for businesses in the Harborough district and other areas of Leicestershire.

Take away some key interviewer techniques and be sure to snap up the opportunity for a free professional business portrait! And if that’s not enough, stay a bit longer and grab a free lunch whilst you drop-in and engage with experts in the small exhibition area.

Mini-masterclasses:

• Mastering Effective Interviewing for SME Success
• Workplace Pensions: Your Legal Duties & Common Misunderstandings
• Social Media is evolving - What you need to do next

The Quarterly Economic Survey is the most significant business survey in the East Midlands. Results provided by East Midlands Chamber members are analysed to help shape crucial policy discussions locally, regionally and nationally.

Many members use the results to gain a competitive edge and find new opportunities, using this knowledge to see how their local markets are faring. The results also feed into the British Chambers of Commerce QES, the largest and most representative independent business survey of its kind in the UK.

Have your say to help influence how East Midlands Chamber represents organisations like yours. The survey should only take around five minutes to complete.

The application deadline for the Harborough Rural Grant Scheme has been extended until Monday 30 October 2023. 

Applications submitted by the original deadline, 11 September 2023, will be reviewed with an outcome in September 2023 (Tranche 1). Applications submitted after 11 September and before 30 October 2023, will be reviewed in November 2023 (Tranche 2). If all funds are allocated in Tranche 1, the remaining applications will be reviewed and considered for the next round of funding which will be available from April 2024. 

Eligible businesses located in rural areas of Harborough District could benefit from capital grants between £5,000-£20,000 to support their business to diversify, innovate and grow. 

The grants are being managed and distributed by Harborough District Council using funding received from the government through the Rural England Prosperity Fund which is an extension of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills.

The grant covers four themes:

• Farm business diversification

• Innovation and growth

• Green technology/infrastructure

• Rural tourism

British businesses can access brand new advice and support to reduce their energy bills while cutting their carbon emissions.

The recently-launched UK Climate Business Hub includes a free carbon calculator and a suite of new tools to help businesses measure, track and report on their emissions and save money by using less energy. It offers detailed advice on everything from sourcing products from green suppliers and reducing emissions from freight and logistics to the most cost-effective ways of installing solar panels and electric vehicle (EV) charging points.

Research shows that such measures can significantly save companies on their overheads. For example:

• switching to EVs can not only cut running costs but also lower servicing and maintenance costs by around 40% compared to petrol or diesel cars
• with up to half of companies’ overall electricity bill coming from lighting, making changes such as switching to LED bulbs can help shave up to 40% off bills
• giving drivers fuel efficiency training can help save companies an average of 15% on fuel use and carbon emissions in transporting goods

The new support is aimed particularly at 5.5 million small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) in the UK, with business and industry accounting for around 25% of emissions. Research shows that 90% of SMEs are keen to tackle climate change, but find it difficult to know how or where to start to find the right solutions to reduce their carbon footprint.

Studies also show 85% of consumers are more likely to buy from a business with a reputation for sustainability, meaning going green can help grow the economy.

A new cyber cluster has been launched to support small to medium-sized enterprises across the East Midlands in the cyber security industry, to help the sector grow and boost the region’s economy.

Backed by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and endorsed by the UK Cyber Cluster Collaboration, the East Midlands Cyber Cluster (EMCSC) will create networks and collaboration between cyber security companies across the region.

Its three founding directors are De Montfort University’s Dr Ismini Vasieliou, David Nicholls, MD of Better IT, and Phil Harding, director of CyRisk.

The EMCSC will host events and training sessions, and support activities to address the digital skills shortage, promote the region’s cyber expertise, and showcase innovation at a national level.

Phoebe Dawson, Chief Executive of the Leicester & Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership, said: “Ensuring local businesses are cyber secure is incredibly important. This project is enabling companies to become as resilient as possible and lower the threat of cyber attacks whilst also upskilling the local workforce. I would encourage local businesses to engage with EMCSC and explore the other programmes on offer as part of the Digital Skills Partnership.”

Congratulations to these Harborough district businesses on achieving the highest rating of 5 following their recent food hygiene inspections!

The Leicester Business Festival is an annual fortnight of business events, held across Leicester and Leicestershire. This year, the festival will take place from 6 to 17 November.

Local organisations are behind the events, which aim to offer help and support, educate, share information and knowledge, or create forums for networking, engagement and business growth. Each year the festival sees hundreds of events and thousands of attendees.

Events are free and anyone can attend. They vary in type, structure and size, across digital and in-person platforms, and from workshops and seminars to product demonstrations, showroom tours and round table debates, to name but a few!

As a firm fixture in the business calendar, the LBF is also known across the UK and it draws a spotlight on Leicester and Leicestershire, demonstrating the region’s business strengths, innovation, and its huge investment potential.

Tickets can be booked online for events already confirmed to run at the festival, and applications are still open for organisations wishing to host an event.