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Working for your Business
Supporting businesses across the Harrogate district
September 2
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Welcome to the September edition of Working for your Business with the usual round-up of local information, opportunities and events to help support your business.
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Economic Overview of the district
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The latest economic overviews of the Harrogate district have recently been published with generally positive headline messages.
The 2016/17 Q4 report showed:
- an annual increase in new dwellings and planning applications and a decrease in office space proposed for conversion to housing.
- an encouraging increase in new business formation following five consecutive quarters of decline.
- a year-on-year decrease in the number of households accepted homeless and in priority need.
- however, a low average wage of jobs advertised in the district continues to be of concern, with most job vacancies in the residential care and hospitality industries.
The 2017/18 Q1 headline messages continued in the same positive manner with:
- a significant year-on-year increase in development activity, with a record number of completed dwellings and planning applications.
- an encouraging increase in jobs advertised within target growth industries. Moreover, jobs advertised seeking technical computing skills continue to be prevalent in the local labour market.
Despite some positive recent trends, the median house price increased in the district by 6% whilst the average wage of advertised jobs remained low. Additionally (and despite preventative work exceeding targets) the 2016/17 total of 160 households accepted by the council as homeless is the highest annual figure since recording began.
Despite these challenges, there have been encouraging signs that the district's economy will become more robust and less vulnerable to wider economic conditions - with pipeline commercial property particularly promising in terms of meeting the needs of growing target industries as outlined in the council's Economic Growth Strategy.
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| Latest workshops from the Enterprise Gateway |
The latest series of workshops from the Enterprise Gateway will soon be up and running, providing advice and guidance about setting up and running your own business.
The programme includes an introduction to self-employment, looking at what's involved in setting up a business. There's a workshop on creating your business plan as well as others that focus on identifying your target customers and creating a marketing plan, the importance of finance in business planning and how to sell.
All of our workshops are free of charge to people who live in the district or will have business premises in the area.
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| Support for Digital Businesses |
This week the Digital Enterprise support programme has reopened its successful voucher scheme that allows businesses to apply for small grants to buy equipment that will improve their digital capacity - click here to find out more.
Those businesses that trade predominantly business to business are also able to benefit from a new series of workshops being run across the Leeds City Region through the Digital Enterprise programme. Covering topics such as cyber security, digital marketing and social media, sessions will be held in various locations across the City Region over the next 18 months.
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| Propertyfinder - our free to search online commercial sites and premises register. |
| Quarterly Economic Overview - the latest figures from the Harrogate district. |
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Business Matters:
a brief update
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The Tourism Alliance is running a survey about the impact package travel regulations are having on the domestic tourism industry. The five-minute Package Travel Directive Survey is aimed at those running businesses in the tourism sector.
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New guidance has been published by Acas to help employers, small businesses and managers understand the basics around gender reassignment and equality law.
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Is your business ready for GDPR?
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Even after the Brexit vote, every business in the UK will still be required to conform to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by 25 May 2018. The Regulation is currently being transferred into UK Law.
Join us in Harrogate on Thursday 26 October for a morning workshop that will cover a number of essential points for senior business decision makers, including:
- GDPR and Brexit
- What GDPR means for your business
- What the changes are between the current DPA and GDPR
- Practical steps to implement GDPR
- The potential impacts of not doing it properly
- What benefits businesses can realise by implementing GDPR
On behalf of Harrogate Borough Council, the session will be delivered by legal professional Paul Berwin of Berwins Solicitors, and expert Information Security Consultant, Andrew Atkins.
The event aims to help attendees gain a good understanding of the new requirements and know where to start with their implementation. There will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the session.
A breakfast sandwich and refreshments are included in the event price of £15+VAT.
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Raising capital: tech, digital and creative sectors
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Raising capital to grow a business can seem like a minefield. Equity funding, debt funding, crowd funding, peer-to-peer lending, borrow from family....
Our next Harrogate Digital event, taking place on Tuesday 3 October, is about trying to help inspire you into making your business growth plan happen by raising the cash you need.
This is your chance to hear from local tech business owners who have successfully raised £millions of investment between them.
View our line-up of speakers and book to attend
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Liftshare week 2017 and your chance to win £250
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Next week is Liftshare week, a nationwide event that taken place each October to celebrate the social, financial and environmental benefits of car-sharing.
As an extra incentive around Liftshare Week, between now and 15 October, anyone who uses harrogatecarshare.com to get in touch with another member via a message or a share request will be entered into a national prize draw to win £250. And to say 'thanks for sharing', those of you already in a Liftshare team will be automatically entered too.
Join our lift sharing community to help tackle traffic congestion and share the cost of travelling. Simply register your journey if you are driving or need a lift, and Harrogate Car Share can help find a journey match. Registration is free and no private details are shared until you make contact with a journey match.
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Food incidents: advice for your business
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The Food Standards Agency (FSA) are reminding businesses that you are legally required to tell your local authority and the FSA if there is reason to believe that food or feed is not compliant with food or feed safety requirements.
A food incident is where concerns about actual or suspected threats to the safety or quality of food require intervention to protect consumers. Incidents could include contamination of food or animal feed in processing, distribution, retail and catering, or environmental pollution incidents such as fires, chemical/oil spills and radiation leaks.
Preventing incidents is important for protecting consumers' interests, ensuring food standards and safety, and maintaining trust in the food chain.
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Health and Safety: 'Offence to Sentencing' the process
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With the introduction of unlimited fines for health and safety offences, have you got health and safety under control?
Health and Safety offences may be identified during routine inspections, following accidents or incidents in the workplace or as a result of complaints. A number of actions could be required as a result which may significantly affect your business.
The next
Harrogate and district Health and Safety Forum event, on Wednesday 4 October, aims to give you an understanding of the process which you need to follow should a serious incident happen in your business and explain the range of options that enforcement officers can use in relation to non-compliance. It will provide guidance on when and how a business can/should conduct its own investigation, including the role and scope of the investigating enforcement officer, and includes a case study of a workplace fatality.
The complex process of preparing for court, court procedures, the new sentencing guidelines and corporate manslaughter will be covered by a legal expert.
View the event programme and book your place
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