We all know that those pesky personal crises have a way of sneaking up on you, and with the joys of running a small business there really is not the headspace to manage both well. It is true to say that everyone reacts different to personal crises, some lucky folk, can separate work from home effectively and for others the lines become blurred and despondency, lack of focus and clarity set in.

I have been having my own testing time for the last six months, it has been exhausting, trying, and challenging to remain on top of everything and I would suggest I have been my true self about half of the time. However, I am blessed with a fabulous support network both professionally and personally and that has made things manageable.

I was thinking about mental health week and how I constantly see posts on social media from people who are clearly struggling, and either a) attempting to put on a brave face or b) reaching out for help sometimes without even realising they are doing it.

Let’s be clear on the reality of personal crises, and their impact on us as individuals, they are real, time consuming, emotionally draining and soul destroying at times. They can take various forms from health issues, relationship challenges, career setbacks and of course loss in all shapes and forms. What they have in common is they all bring an emotional toll on us and bring an unrecognisable sense of disorientation to the forefront.

I have found that there is strength in my vulnerability, after about three months I recognised and accepted that it was ok to be feeling vulnerable, and fine to share my emotions in a safe space, for me it afforded the opportunity for some healing and growth. Support from friends, colleagues, family, and professional help in some cases is a vital component to move on. Another shout to my work wife here she has been amazing, more amazing than she usually is!

I looked at how I could build my resilience allowing self-compassion and re-evaluating my sense of purpose. Focussing on work has certainly helped me and recognising that others needed me to be on form certainly helped. I know others who have found mindfulness, yoga and breath work a great support in building resilience. I also found listening to podcasts about conquering adversity inspiring, add a sprinkle of there are others worse off than you and it all helps to get your focus back!

My job as the CEO here at the BEC comes with an expectation that I always know what I am doing. I like to think I am being my authentic self, but there have been times when I have been masking what is going on inside. I cannot emphasise enough the need for self-care and setting boundaries even in times of turmoil.

My top tips are to firstly step back and assess your current workload, identify the most critical tasks that demand attention, and delegate or postpone the less urgent items. Be realistic about your current capacity and adjust your expectations accordingly. Secondly, be kind to yourself, its perfectly acceptable to be less than brilliant all the time, focus on bite size goals you can manage. Lastly, admitting you need support without feeling ashamed or embarrassed, sometimes our coping mechanisms need a recharge and another opinion professional or personal who understands your life is invaluable.

However big or small your personal crisis feels, please remember even in the darkest moments of a crisis, hold on to hope. Remind yourself that you have the strength and resilience to overcome this challenge, and that brighter days lie ahead.

Remember, managing a personal crisis is a journey, and it's important to be gentle with yourself as you navigate through it. You are not alone, and there is support available to help you through this challenging time. I am happy to chat whenever it is needed!

We have had a busy few weeks at the BEC firstly getting stuck into the delivery of Amplify which has seen twenty businesses start their journey with us across, food, care, and other sectors. I have listened to the comments when they leave which all sound positive and after just two sessions some businesses have connected, shared information and challenges which is what we wanted from the programme.

Secondly we launched Building Bridges our social sector support programme which is very close to my heart, there was an awful lot of work involved in getting the funding and it has been on my mind for some time that we should have a targeted approach to the not for profit sector in the same way we do commercial businesses.

Whether you run a commercial business or a not for profit, the   reality is in today’s dynamic and competitive business landscape, achieving success requires more than just hard work—it demands strategic thinking, innovation, and the ability to adapt to changing market trends. Whether you're a startup aiming to establish your presence or an established company seeking to maintain momentum, here are my top tips to amplify your business success:

1. Define Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) - Clearly articulate what sets your business apart from the competition. Identify your target audience's pain points and demonstrate how your products or services offer solutions.

2. Focus on Customer Experience- however you define your customers, either as clients, participants, or residents, prioritising exceptional customer service builds trust and loyalty, gathering feedback from these folk and using it continually to improve your offer is essential to stay ahead of the game.

3. Embrace Digital Transformation – easy said than done I get that, digital transformation seems daunting and expensive, however leveraging technology to streamline operations, improve efficiency and reach new markets is all good business sense. Even as basic as a user-friendly website can enhance your business.

4. Foster Strategic Partnerships and Alliances – collaboration with complementary businesses or industry influencers to expand your reach and access new markets and develop strategic alliances that offer mutual benefits and support long-term growth objectives.

5. Cultivating your organisational culture – whether you be a commercial business or a not for profit, fostering a positive work environment that encourages collaboration, innovation, and employee engagement can only be for the good, aligning your company values with your actions and empowering employees to contribute to success.

Here comes a shameless plug folks if you would like to look at your organisational culture through your leadership then you can join us on this workshop on May 16^th link below.

(link)

Amplifying your business success requires a combination of strategic planning, innovation, and a customer-centric approach. By implementing these strategies and staying adaptable to change, you can position your business for sustained growth and prosperity in the ever-evolving marketplace.

If you ready to take your business to the next level, then you can find out about Amplify here (insert link), and if you are a social sector business or a budding social entrepreneur in Barking and Dagenham you can find out more here.

Here's to your continued growth and prosperity!

In early March we had some fabulous news which I am delighted to share. After a long and arduous process, it was confirmed that City Bridge Foundation would be funding the BEC for the next three years to deliver a new project. The Project we call Building Bridges will start in earnest in May and we are busily beavering away in set up mode to ensure the project is good to go. Now one could argue as to whether it is a new project as the BEC has been supporting charities and social enterprises with business support for several years, which happened as a response to a gap in provision. What is new is to have dedicated funding and a targeted approach over the next three years, we are elated to be able to offer local charities, social enterprises and those people who want to start a not for profit access to business mentoring, training and support in the same way we do commercial businesses.

The social sector locally is close to my heart it would be having worked in the borough for 25 years both in the social sector and in local government. I describe it as poacher to gamekeeper and back again but even when in local government those relationships I had made in the social sector made the work in adult social care so much easier. I have always valued the contribution the social sector makes locally, and I know more widely to supporting people, and changing people’s lives.

I hate to mention the C word but the response from the social sector to covid and the impact of the pandemic happened overnight, vulnerable residents were supported to access prescriptions, medication, and groceries through a network of social sector organisations including charities, faith groups and social enterprises. I must acknowledge our local council who provided financial support to the organisations to deliver this vital work, without a lengthy process to get the funding. For me personally this demonstrated a measure of trust in the sector and how the council views the sector as a trusted partner.

However, the aftermath of the pandemic and more recently the cost-of-living crisis has left many of our residents, businesses and social sector organisations facing challenging times. The reduction of central government funding to local councils, means that they can no longer give grants in the way they have done previously. The old mantra in life if you have not got it, you cannot give it. How the funding landscape is difficult to navigate and the complexities of bid writing when you are a new organisation is daunting and challenging. For some social sector organisations, they are of a size and proportion that they can employ or engage bid writers (yes that is someone’s day job). For most, like the BEC that falls to the senior person in the organisation, and it is a lonely and arduous job. A decent bid can take up to 8 working days and then to get a rejection at the end is soul destroying and plays havoc with your self-esteem. So, you can see why I was delighted when the people at City Bridge Foundation said yes!

You may be thinking, what are our plans for the Building Bridges Programme? Well our primary objectives revolves around fostering collaboration, capacity building, and sustainable growth within the social sector. We aspire to equip social sector entrepreneurs with the tools and knowledge necessary to establish robust organisations founded on sustainable business principles and growth strategies.

We want to bolster the capacity of existing small groups, enabling them to realise their full potential and contribute meaningfully to the community.

The Building Bridges Programme is not just about supporting individual businesses; it's about building a resilient and interconnected ecosystem where social sector organisations can flourish and collectively address the needs of the community.

Together, we can build bridges to a brighter future for Barking and Dagenham if you would like to find out more then please reply here and I will send you an invite for Thursday 25^th April.

Doing what you love is not something you do; it is who you are, so they say. It’s how you want to live life—all of us create the life we want. Whether you are in a happy fulfilled job like me or whether you’re a frustrated business owner I think it’s human tendency to find ways to keep ourselves sane and happy. And you can only be sane and happy (in my opinion) when you like what you do at least a little bit. Most of my job I love, its varied and interesting but like us all, there have been times when I have pondered that there must be more to life than this. I love podcasts about people who in their 50’s has gone on that big adventure, moved abroad to work and now live in a cabin in the mountains working a few hours a day. I watch the videos on Facebook of the panda keepers in China and think how much fun that must be to work with baby pandas all day (big sigh time). If you hear of any openings for panda keepers do let me know 😊

One of the questions I get asked all the time from younger people is about how to get into a management role, and I have worked with so many people in my career who have moved up the ladder and find that what they liked about their job before they don’t get to do so much of. That is so true, the more senior the role the less opportunity there is to go back to the floor and work with people, customers, or clients. Don’t get me wrong I work with people all the time, but my interactions in the most are brief and then I am handing it over to someone else to continue it’s the nature of the role. However, this week I got to go back to the floor and deliver face to face training, this was my first time in front of people for four years. In the last four years I have delivered the odd workshop but all online due that covid thing.

Nervous, yes, I was definitely …. however, after about ten minutes I settled into the flow and realised how much I had missed delivering training to real people. If you are interested the training was on public sector contracts, not the most exciting of topics for some but vital for the small business community in Barking and Dagenham. In the UK last year, the public sector, spent £242 billion with 33% of that going to small businesses. This is something Barking and Dagenham council and its partners like Be First have committed to do more of, so training small businesses in the process and what to expect is a key driver for us at the BEC if we want to keep revenue in the borough, grow local small businesses and fulfil our ambitions for economic growth in the area.

As part of our Amplify programme in partnership with Barking and Dagenham Council we are delivering a series of workshops for small businesses of course we are keen to support local businesses but if you are not from our borough, you are still very welcome to attend any of the workshops.

You can find out more about them on our website www.beccic.co.uk and I will be delivering a bid and grant writing workshop soon too.

We also have a small business event on Tuesday, where we will be working with Film Barking and Dagenham to look at the opportunities for small businesses to get contracts in our new growth area.

There are a few spaces left you can attend by following the link below:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/be-part-of-the-film-industry-growth-in-barking-and-dagenham-tickets-862908692127

Finally, to the person who left the training I delivered yesterday on public sector contracts and said ‘I am fired up’ thank you, you didn’t realise it, but you made my day 😊

I don’t know about you, but I have been feeling pretty glum lately, a lot going on at home and at work and let’s not get started with the weather. I am so over all the rain and grey days. Like all of us I try to be bright and cheery but that mwah! feeling takes over on occasions. It struck me over the weekend that sometimes we all need to be reminded of the creative light that is and always is in each and every one of us. Sometimes we all need just a little help switching that light back on. Sometimes we all need to be reminded to get out of our own way and just to be present.

I think this year’s theme for International Womens day sparked a thought about what we do to inspire inclusion as an organisation and as individuals it is part of our role to ensure we inspire women to be entrepreneurial, great leaders and elevate other women where possible.

Here are our top tips for inspiring women.

1. Just do you - Be your unapologetic self, don’t try to shrink yourself, be quieter, or take up less space. This is your time to shine and show others you mean business. It took me a long time to accept that you are the only one who must spend every single day with yourself, so make sure you love yourself. It will be a far more enjoyable experience.

• Support other women - Openly supporting other women is going to be a huge help when you want to inspire others. Champion women from all backgrounds, of all ages, and let people know why you support them and how they have inspired you. This will show women that we are not competition for one another the way we may have been brought up, to be seen and not heard, that our opinions and thoughts are not valid, and that other people know what is best for us. We need to build and lift one another up. The only place for competition between women is sport!

• Share your experiences – In Barking and Dagenham there are so many rich and enlightening stories of women who have overcome challenges and adversities to be their best selves and doing magnificent work with communities. Whether they are politicians, community champions or business leaders. The fact is that talking about your experiences with other people to inspire them and show them that anything is possible. Be honest and authentic and speak nothing but your truth.

• Live dangerously – go against the status quo and break free from expectations we all grow up with them from childhood but do what is right for you, spend time figuring it out!

• Personal growth- do whatever is right for you, podcasts, books, listening to others, or attending events. Sometimes personal growth takes a back seat when women are such givers, and it can feel incredibly selfish to take time for yourself but do it. Others will reap the benefit as well as you.

• Network – network with anybody and everybody. You never know who you might meet and who you may be able to team up with! You could be inspiring them, just as they do for you.

So, are you ready to inspire other women?

If so, then please join us for our Speed Networking event to celebrate Womens Empower month on Wednesday March 20^th at 5pm till 7pm. This is an informal networking event all are welcome and a private room will be available for those breaking their fast.

You can sign up with the link below:

It was the BEC’s 8^th Anniversary in February and that means that we have been celebrating International Women’s Day the same number of years. Of course, we go big in Barking and Dagenham with a whole month of events and celebrations. From the BEC perspective, for obvious reasons some years have been bigger than others due to lock downs and home working and of course any event is reliant on how much you want to spend. Our ethos at the BEC is that any money left after running the business should go on delivering more programmes to support businesses locally. However, this year’s theme ‘Inspire Inclusion’ resonates well, with the work that is being done across the borough in supporting women and girls to have the same opportunities as others.

As a senior leader in an anchor institution, I certainly see that it is my role to do my bit in championing this cause. I am blessed with a network of strong female leaders, in both my own organisation. I have a strong work wife in our Operations Director Donna Finley, and the wider social sector. I haven’t looked at the statistics, but women leaders outweigh men in this borough in the social sector. Of course, our partners in the London borough of Barking and Dagenham have a female Chief Executive and there are more women than men in the cabinet of elected members.

Why is this important you ask, well there are several reasons, providing visual representation as role models to women and girls, comes to mind first. Secondly, the evidence suggests that women often make better leaders for a variety of reasons, from their ability to add fresh perspectives and diversity of opinion, to their willingness to compromise and respect work-life balance. I think women are more comfortable in asking for help, certainly. in our industry of business support there are far more women who reach out for support than men, the men tend to leave it until there is a problem and are not always comfortable in seeking assistance.

Most importantly Barking and Dagenham has the youngest population in the country, and so it is our duty to inspire all young people to be the best they can be, make use of the opportunities and strive for fulfilment and of course to be happy which is so important in these challenging times with mental health deteriorating at an alarming rate.

If you would like to find out how you can help inspire inclusion in Barking and Dagenham, then please join us for a speed networking event on Wednesday March 20th from 5pm – 7pm,   where you can get to network w with other likeminded people. Where we will all be publicly pledging to do one thing to inspire inclusion for women and girls in Barking and Dagenham in 2024.   You can sign up for the event here.

Ps men also invited before you feel the need to comment! 😊

February is an exciting month for us at the BEC – it is our 8th anniversary! If you are not familiar with our history, then you will not know that the BEC spun out of the local authority in February 2016 as a Community Interest Company. In those early days we just had the one building and four staff with me leaving my career in local government to focus on developing the BEC. When you live it, breathe it, and become consumed in the daily stuff, it is hard to focus on the achievements to date.

I like to use February as a period of reflection to focus on the outcomes and think about the next year, it is always helpful as it helps inform our budget for the next fiscal year so is very timely. It can also provide negative thoughts as an ambitious organisation committed to our values it can be easy to look back on what we did not manage or what could be better. A stark reminder is that this is 96 months and 417 weeks; and that Rome was not built in a day.

What has remained solid in those 417 weeks is our commitment to providing quality services to the business community in Barking and Dagenham. Whether that be affordable accommodation, training or one to one mentoring for businesses we are proud of the quality of service we provide.

We have found our place as one of the boroughs anchor institutions, and we have so many partnership working arrangements across a wide range of sectors. This makes the work exciting and affords us the opportunity to help shape initiatives for the future and the growth and development of the borough as well as the residents. Our strength is in our values as a company, and our Board and staff reflect this ethos through the work they do in support of the BEC. We are blessed with a range of freelance trainers, mentors, and support contractors, who are committed to the values of the BEC and deliver excellent support on behalf of the organisation. With our family run business approach, we know the value of looking after our own: colleague or client, we treat all those we work with as part of the clan.

What have we achieved in the last 8 years? well we have developed over 500 start-ups; this could have been more but of course covid and the cost-of-living crisis has meant a downturn in people wanting to start a business. We have however seen a rapid growth on people wanting to start a business for a social purpose in the not-for-profit arena, more about that later. We have invested over £750k back into the borough with our funded training and mentoring programmes which we fund from income we generate. We have gone from one building to three including our first capital project (still recovering from that one) and our two-pizza team has expanded to the point that there is now only one slice each!

What’s next you may ask; we are looking forward to working on Amplify a borough funded business support programme from UKSPF funding which will provide intensive support to businesses with growth potential. A generous portion (no pun intended) of the programme is working with food businesses which is a real growth area for the borough. To find out more about Amplify you can check out our website or watch this short video here.

Hot off the press we also have other exciting news, that from end of March we will be able to support charities, social enterprises, CICs, and startups in the not-for-profit world for the next three years. We are grateful that City Bridge Foundation can see how hard we have worked on this over the last few years and have granted funding for a more targeted approach. The project with no name …good suggestions welcome! It will provide a vital resource to Barking and Dagenham.

@CityBridgeFndn, @City-Bridge-Foundation, @UKSPF, @lbbd