If you run an office-based business, it's easy to assume health and safety isn't something you need to worry about. You're not dealing with heavy machinery, dangerous substances, or high-risk environments. But offices still have hazards and those hazards still come with legal duties. HOW WE'RE DIFFERENT AT OPTIMUM SAFETY Some consultancies make health and safety feel complicated. They rely on jargon, unnecessary documents and generic templates that look impressive but don't help anyone day-to-day. That's not our approach. At Optimum Safety, we're approachable, straight-talking, and practical. We'll tell you what you actually need to do, why it matters and how to keep it manageable. No fuss, no scare tactics and no paperwork for paperwork's sake; just clear advice that fits your business. OUR TOP FOUR TIPS FOR OFFICE-BASED SMES 1) Keep your risk assessment realistic and up to date. You don't need a huge document, but you do need something that reflects your workplace. Any time you change your office layout, take on new staff, introduce homeworking, or bring in new equipment, it's worth checking that your risk assessment is still relevant. A short, accurate risk assessment is far better than a long winded one that no-one reads. It's also good practice to have arrangements in place for higher-risk groups before the need arises. For example, you must have a young person's risk assessment in place before they start working for the company and a separate risk assessment and policy for new and expectant mothers, which is updated throughout the pregnancy. 2) Take fire safety seriously in your own premises or shared buildings. If you're in a managed building, there will often be a building-level fire risk assessment, but that doesn't remove your responsibilities as an employer. Your staff still need to know what to do, where to go, and how to get out safely. Make sure escape routes are kept clear, your employees are aware of fire safety procedures and you know what arrangements are in place for alarms, exits, and evacuation. If you own your premises, you'll need a robust fire risk assessment carried out by a competent, trained fire risk assessor. This should reflect how the building is used and be kept up to date, so the right controls are in place and staff know exactly what to do in an emergency. 3) Don't overlook Display Screen Equipment (DSE), especially with hybrid working. DSE issues can creep up on people. Back / neck pain, eye strain and repetitive strain injuries often build over time. Simple adjustments make a big difference: correct chair set-up, screen height, having a separate mouse and keyboard for laptop users. If your team works from home, the duty still applies, so it's important to make sure people have what they need to work comfortably and safely. 4) Reduce slips and trips with basic housekeeping. One of the most common causes of injury in offices are slips, trips and falls. That usually comes down to avoidable hazards like trailing cables, open drawers, cluttered walkways, loose mats, or items stored where they shouldn't be. A quick walkaround once a week is often enough to spot problems early and rectify them before they can cause harm. Employees can also fall from height in offices, often because people take shortcuts. If any task involves working at height, even briefly, make sure staff have the right equipment to use (such as a suitable step stool or step ladder) and know how to use it safely. Training must be provided when any employee works at height. This could be a simple toolbox talk for low level/low risk or more detailed training either face to face or via an eLearning course for higher risk working at height. A FINAL THOUGHT "Low-risk doesn't mean no responsibility. If you're not sure whether you've covered the basics, or you would like support that's straightforward and easy to apply, Optimum Safety is here to help." Author: Chris Owen Business: Optimum Safety Email: office@optimum-safety.co.uk Photography: Headshot Toby

What I love about Lincoln is... the originality of the small independent businesses in the area. If you go off the beaten track and explore different routes around town, you can soon discover a variety of surprising, new and existing businesses offering interesting services, products or exciting new events. For example you can go to an independent book store and find they’ll do pottery classes, print-making and zine workshops, or you’ll find a refurbished church that now hosts gigs, creative markets, stage plays and life drawing classes. Lincoln is not limited to the central business district, there are so many other paths to explore. In my line of work I have come across so many innovative, resourceful and interesting people who have started up businesses from scratch, based on a passion they may have had for a while, and I would say their key to success has been their individuality and authenticity, an ability to show their personality through their business, which really stands them out from the crowd. Their passion drives their business forward, and they use their imagination and inventiveness to offer services/products/events you wouldn’t necessarily see in your average high street shop, cafe or venue. I love to celebrate and shout out about these individuals in my seasonal magazine, the Little Book of Small Businesses. This gives independent businesses and sole traders, all over the county, a platform to promote themselves in an authentic way plus a chance to connect and collaborate with other local, like-minded individuals for mutual benefit. The magazine has attracted a community of creative innovators - who I have had the greatest pleasure of getting to know, over the years - and who’s originality,boldness and creativity make Lincoln and the surrounding areas a more exciting place to be. In an age of social media trends and AI it is sometimes difficult to resist the temptation to join in and follow what everyone else is doing. My advice would be to identify what makes yourself, your project/business original, inject your personality into it and be creative. You don’t need to follow the path of others, find out what works best for you and your project. Showing your authentic self will always be more interesting to others! Author: Polly Fotheringham Business: Little Book of Small Businesses Email: polly@ravendesignco.co.uk Photography: Headshot Toby

Don’t believe me? Here are 3 great reasons why your professional development priority in 2026 should be... your speaking voice. Your voice, and the way you communicate with others, reveals who you are. People learn so much about you when you speak. You are showing them: your values and how you treat people how clearly you think and react under pressure your emotions and confidence levels at any given time When you speak, is it yourself that you hear? Is it the voice of the person you want people to experience? Real connection = honesty & clarity = better business. Your voice is the main way you demonstrate your value. It’s the way you own the room, make the sale, forge the connection and inspire the team. When we speak with someone, we are consciously and subconsciously processing numerous non-verbal signals (eg. voice tone, facial expression, eye contact, gesture, posture) and it is always these, more than the actual words spoken, that establish trust (or otherwise) in that interaction. Real communication = trust & understanding = better business. Your voice is inextricably linked with the mental and physical wellbeing that underpins your professional success. The interactions between the larynx (where sounds are made in the throat) and the nervous system (which controls our stress response), mean that our voice tone reflects and reveals our emotions. Too much strain can even prevent the voice from working properly. If you’ve ever experienced burnout or deep grief, for example, you might remember a weak voice that fatigues and rasps easily. Conversely, speaking with a resonant tone not only appeals to others, but sends messages of safety to our brain, releasing ‘happy hormones’ that support immunity and wellbeing throughout the physical body. Real wellbeing = increased productivity = better business. And if you’re convinced… The great news is that your voice is not fixed, but the product of many flexible physical and mental habits. It’s an instrument that can be developed, strengthened and trained so that it always: represents the real you sounds clear and confident and resonant sends good vibes to the brain and supports physical wellness. If you want to grow your business and increase your professional success this year, seek to transform how you speak and converse and express your ideas in the world. And if you’re not sure where to start… it’s as easy as A-B-C: Aim: At any event, in any meeting, for any presentation, what is your intention? What’s the key message and who needs to hear it? How do you want to come across – warm, friendly, in control? Set clear intentions, and your thoughts, voice and body will follow. Balance: Speaking is a whole-body activity. Breathe slow and low, relax the muscles in your hands, shoulders, neck, face and jaw, and release the voice with the breath. Not only will this enable you to think more clearly and feel safer and more grounded, but the other person will respond positively to your relaxed stance and voice tone. Connect: Use eye contact, bright expressions, open gestures and an animated voice tone to actively engage others. You’ll find other people reflect your enthusiasm and openness, and there is nothing like human connection for leaping to that ‘know-like-trust’ status. So next time you are heading into networking, or want to speak up in a meeting, or need to give a presentation - think A-B-C and enjoy that opportunity to speak and connect with other people. Realising the potential of your voice will increase your confidence, enrich your connections and enable you to project your authority this year. It’s heartening for the mind, energising for the brain, grounding for the nervous system… and it’s great for business. Author: Kaffy Rice-Oxley Business: Voice Confident Email: hello@voiceconfident.com Photography: Headshot Toby

Here's a statistic that should make every small business owner stop for a second and stare into the middle distance... According to a global study of 2,500 small business owners, only 18% of small businesses feel “very confident” that their marketing is actually working. Which means the vast majority of business owners are doing more, posting more, spending more, tweaking more, showing up more, learning more, downloading more PDFs, watching more webinars, and somehow feeling less sure than ever that any of it is getting them where they want to go. More effort, less confidence. If that feels a bit uncomfortably familiar, you’re not alone. Most people think they have a marketing problem, or a budget problem or a social media problem or a “we need a better website” problem. Usually, they don’t. They have a blueprint problem. Because before you can decide what to post, what to sell, where to show up or how to grow, there’s a bigger question that almost nobody asks: c “Who decided what your business was supposed to look like in the first place?” Think about it. When you started your business, or when it started to grow beyond what you originally imagined, where did the plan come from? Not the business plan you wrote for the bank. The actual operating blueprint. The one that quietly dictates how you show up, what success looks like, how fast you’re supposed to grow, what opportunities you say yes to, which ones you feel guilty turning down, what platforms you should be on, how visible you’re meant to be and what kind of clients you’re chasing. For most of us, that blueprint wasn’t consciously created, it was inherited. A collection of assumptions gathered over years of watching what everyone else seemed to be doing. Post three times a week, be visible everywhere, scale the team, launch the thing, start the podcast, build the funnel, create the course, grow, grow. grow. Nobody handed us that rulebook, we just assumed there was one and started following it. The problem is that rulebook wasn’t written for you. It was cobbled together from everyone else’s goals, everyone else’s priorities and everyone else’s version of success and if you’re not careful, you can spend years building a business that looks impressive from the outside while quietly wondering why it feels so exhausting from the inside. We see this all the time in our work building brands, websites and strategy for small businesses. Someone comes to us convinced they need a new logo, or a better website, or stronger social media, or a clearer offer. And to be fair, they probably do. But far more often than not, those things aren’t the real issue. The real issue is that they’ve never stopped long enough to ask, “What am I actually trying to build here?” Not what sounds impressive, not what gets applauded on LinkedIn, and not what everyone else in your industry is doing. Forget what your accountant said about growing the team. What does your version of a brilliant business actually look like? Not the impressive one, the right one. For you, your life, the clients you genuinely love, the work that makes you feel like you’re operating at your best. That answer is different for everyone, which is precisely why copying someone else’s blueprint, however successful they seem, is such an expensive mistake. The businesses we’ve worked with that made the biggest leaps weren’t the ones that found a better marketing strategy or finally cracked the Instagram algorithm. They were the ones that got brutally honest about what they were building and why, scrapped the assumptions that had quietly accumulated over years of just getting on with it, the ones that gave themselves permission to build a business that actually fit. Before we start anything, we go underneath all of that, before the logo, the website, the messaging, the marketing plan, we uncover the Blueprint, the real one, the one that’s unique to that business, that owner and the life they’re trying to create. And it’s absolutely, categorically worth it, because when you know exactly what you’re building and exactly who it’s for, everything else, the brand, the messaging, the marketing, the offers, gets so much easier to get right. Not because you’ve found the perfect formula. Because you’ve finally stopped following someone else’s. The rulebook was never yours. The good news is, you can write your own. And that one, by definition, will fit. Author: Eleanor & Matt Hancock Business: Number 75 Design Email: hello@number75design.com

Every successful business I have created has been purpose driven, I’ve won many awards along the way. But there has always been a bigger purpose and story behind what I do. My first business was an online department store for natural and organic products, back in 2005, I was a pioneer in e-commerce for all things green. I wanted to be an impartial advisor to the consumer, a trusted friend enabling people to easily choose products to help them go organic from top to toe. After that, I turned my attention to Make An Entrance, the custom doormat brand I created with my business partner Stuart. This business stemmed from charitable roots and today it is still a business with purpose, currently working with prisons to teach skills and provide employment opportunities to offenders. And now as I turn 50, navigating the challenges of being a midlife woman, I’m starting something new once again. Peace Place People is my Yoga and Meditation Centre in the heart of Lincoln, it is a social enterprise, with the aim of bringing yoga and meditation to everyone in society, not just those who have the means to pay. Throughout my business career I have experienced a lot of highs and some of the deepest lows. I have lost everything and narrowly escaped bankruptcy when a business failed taking all my assets with it. And I’ve won awards and been invited into rooms with prime ministers, royalty and celebrities when things have been on the up. Throughout it all there has been constant support to help keep me on an even keel. And that has been my yoga and meditation practice. It lifts me when things are tough, helps slow me down when I’m getting carried away and has nothing whatsoever to do with whether you can touch your toes. Yoga is a toolbox for life and the various practices: physical postures, breathwork, relaxation, meditation, yoga nidra are the tools. If yoga or meditation is something you are curious about but are not sure where to start, talk to me. There really is something for everything, whether you are injured, unfit, or simply can’t sit still. I have been there, and I will find a way to help whether through a group class, one-to-one tuition, or a wellbeing group in your business. I also have a very limited number of spaces to offer business mentoring & coaching. Author: Sam Burlton Business: Peace Place People Yoga & Meditation Centre Email: sam@peaceplacepeople.co.uk Photography: Headshot Toby

Joe Peck on why businesses must take back control of the illusion. The renewal appears, seemingly out of nowhere: premium up 10%, same coverage, same insurers, same explanation about “market conditions.” The presentation is polished, the logic sounds plausible, and the deadline is approaching fast. And then the broker vanishes again until next year. You’re left holding the result trying to figure out how to absorb an unexpected cost increase. Somewhere in the organisation, a project will quietly lose funding to make room for the insurance line. Budgets will be juggled and wands waved to balance the books like a circus performed spinning plates on a unicycle. It’s hard not to feel like you’ve just witnessed a carefully performed illusion. And yet, insurance remains one of the largest fixed business costs for most companies. A bizarre situation where people don’t want to buy it and certainly don’t want to use it. How did it come to pass that a purchase of such significance is surrounded by such misdirection and obfuscation? When did smoke and mirrors become the norm? Companies often slip into a reactive way of dealing with insurance. The renewal gets parked until the last minute, and by the time attention turns to it the goal has shifted from strategy to just getting it done. Conversations happen in a hurry, information moves quickly, and much of the real work takes place behind the curtain betweenbrokers and insurers. Brokers have fallen into a rhythm that works for them rather than challenging the thinking of their clients and asking challenging and insightful questions about the future of the business. Urgency is a barrier to success. The complexity of insurance policies doesn’t help here. Insurance underwriters and brokers are used the idiosyncrasies of schedules and wordings. We can find specific details and key clauses in next to no time, because we live it every day. Often that complexity is underestimated and the onus of understanding is pushed on to a client through renewal reports spanning 100’s of pages. All missing the critical question that matters more than any other: “What do I need to do so that the policy does what I need from it?” And finally, the big finish from the broker! The disappearing act concludes the renewal cycle act every year. Not to be seen or heard from until the same time next year, with the inevitable repetition of all the smoke and mirrors that led you here in the first place. But knowing the issue isn’t even half the battle, what can you do to win a world you don’t understand? A fundamental shift of mindset is key. If you were selling your house, would you appoint two estate agents to market it at the same time? In theory it might feel as though you are increasing competition and have a wider market reach. In practice it usually creates confusion: duplicate listings, mixed messages to potential buyers, and uncertainty about who holds the ability to make the big decisions. The property market tends to work best when one agent represents the seller with a clear brief and a clear strategy. Insurance placement operates in a similar way. A single broker, selected through a transparent process and given a defined mandate, can present a coherent submission to the market and maintain control of the message. It is not about reducing choice; it is about creating clarity, so the market responds in a structured and competitive way. But choosing a single broker is only the first step. The real transformation comes from turning the whole renewal cycle on its head. Start Early. Decide Intentionally. Act Strategically. When businesses bring insurance into strategic conversations months before renewal, everything changes. Time stops being the enemy. The “urgent scramble” is replaced with a measured discussion about future, investment decisions, operational changes, and risk appetite. Suddenly, your insurance programme becomes something designed with your business rather than merely reacting to it. Demand Simplicity, Not More Paper Hundreds of pages don’t equal competence; it usually signals the opposite. A good broker should translate complexity, not hide behind it. You should know exactly: • what your policy does, • what it doesn’t do, and • what actions you need to take so it responds when you need it. That’s it. If your broker can’t explain your programme with clarity and confidence, they don’t understand it well enough. Take Back Control of the Illusion Insurance doesn’t need to feel like sleight of hand. When you take a strategic approach, select the right partner, and set the tempo early, the smoke clears. The mirrors disappear. What’s left is a clear, structured, transparent process where you understand the value, influence the outcome, and make decisions confidently. Insurance is too important to be treated as a mysterious annual ritual. With the right mindset and the right broker, the magic trick ends. Insist on Visibility After Renewal The disappearance act is optional. You should expect ongoing support throughout the year. Not performing once every twelve months. Regular check-ins, claims reviews, market updates, discussions about future changes in your business. These shouldn’t be extras; they are core to the job. When your broker shows up often, the renewal becomes a simple continuation of a year-long conversation, not an annual firefight. Author: Joe Peck Business: Attis Insurance Brokers Email: lincoln@attisinsurancebrokers.com Photography: Headshot Toby

Maintaining a skilled workforce is a major, long-term issue and a key priority for many businesses in Greater Lincolnshire. This means that the role of employers in preparing young people for the world of work is more important than ever. Many local SMEs are now asking; how do we find and develop people with the right skills, when many young people aren’t fully prepared for the realities of the workplace? The answer lies in businesses working more closely with schools, colleges and students. By opening doors to young people and sharing valuable insights, employers provide real world experiences that influence the younger generation and inspires them to consider new careers they didn’t know existed. Whether offering work experience, giving just one hour of your time, or opening your doors to school visits, businesses can play a vital role in shaping a skilled, confident, future workforce. Moving from education into work is becoming more complex. Young people now need more than qualifications alone - they also need transferable skills such as problem-solving, teamwork and communication, and in some cases, practical work experience, to succeed in a changing economy. Statistics show that the more encounters a young person has with the world of work, the less likely they are to be NEET (not in education, employment, or training) at 19. Four or more meaningful encounters can significantly improve a young person’s chance of realising their aspirations. For businesses, this creates both a responsibility and an opportunity, even small involvements can help cultivate future talent whilst giving you access to motivated, skilled individuals. The Greater Lincolnshire Careers Hub is here to help bridge this gap and bring together schools, colleges, and local employers to strengthen careers education across the region. Recently, more than 150 education and business leaders gathered at Lincoln Bishop University for their From Classroom to Boardroom event - a flagship gathering designed to develop stronger, strategic connections between schools, colleges, and employers across Greater Lincolnshire. The day featured expert insights, practical workshops, and networking opportunities to help schools and employers build durable relationships. Whilst creating new connections, the event matched businesses with schools aligned to their sector, and sparked plans for ongoing collaboration. Mark Jarvis, a small business owner who attended the event, commented: “Our responsibility isn’t simply to inform students about work, but to invite them into it. When education and enterprise collaborate with intent, we create pathways that last far beyond a single placement or programme.” Participants left with clear action plans, new contacts, and renewed momentum for embedding employer engagement into school careers programmes. These strategic interactions can ultimately make careers education more relevant, meaningful, and impactful. Schools also benefitted from the employer engagement at the event. Steve Penney, Head of 6th Form from St Peter & St Paul Voluntary Academy added: “For most of human history, education and work have been one and the same. We learned the skills we needed alongside those who practised them every day. The reality is that we are all educators, and we are all learners. Strengthening links with local businesses helps reconnect learning with the real world of work, giving students greater confidence, clearer direction, and a better understanding of where their learning can take them. We all share a common purpose, and we should never lose sight of it.” Without these partnerships, young people risk missing critical insight into career pathways, and the skills, both technical and transferable, needed to thrive. Engaging with local education providers can also bring a range of tangible benefits for businesses. It allows companies to discover future talent early, helping to reduce recruitment gaps. At the same time, staff can improve their own skills through mentoring, leadership, and communication opportunities. Businesses also raise their profile as community-minded organisations, while benefiting from fresh ideas and perspectives brought into the workplace. To explore how your business can get involved, contact the Greater Lincolnshire Careers Hub. Author: Alex Nightingale - Operational Careers Hub Lead Business: The Greater Lincolnshire Careers Hub Email: alex.nightingale@lincolnshire.gov.uk Photography: Headshot Toby

I never planned to build a print business from a garden shed, but like many people in this industry, my journey started on the production floor. Long before sales meetings, business strategy and acquisitions, I was learning the trade properly, understanding machinery, deadlines, pressure and the reality of what it takes to get work out of the door on time. After redundancy, I found myself at a crossroads. I had a young family, bills to pay and no real safety net. What I did have was experience, determination and a belief that customers still valued service, honesty and reliability. That was the beginning of Visual Print & Design. What started as a small operation from home slowly grew into something far bigger than I could ever have imagined. Sixteen years later, the business had grown into a £1m turnover company with more than 1,000 customers across councils, universities, schools, charities and national brands. But the reality behind growth is rarely as polished as people imagine. Running a business teaches you resilience very quickly. There are sleepless nights, cashflow worries, staffing challenges, difficult customers, supplier issues and moments where you question everything. Especially in print, where margins can be tight and expectations are always rising. One thing people rarely talk about in business ownership is the weight of responsibility that comes with employing people and managing cashflow. There were periods over the years where the pressure was enormous. Customers paying late, supplier costs increasing, unexpected machinery issues, economic uncertainty and still needing to make sure wages were paid on time at the end of every month. When you run a business, especially in print where margins can move quickly, that responsibility never really switches off. You carry it home with you. Those moments taught me some of the biggest lessons of my career. Stay calm under pressure. Make decisions early. Communicate honestly with both staff and customers. Most importantly, build strong relationships because the customers, suppliers and people who genuinely trust you are often the ones who help you through the hardest periods. I think many business owners also learn the hard way that turnover alone means very little without strong systems and financial discipline behind it. Growth is exciting, but sustainable growth is something completely different. The print industry has changed massively during my career. When I started, relationships were built over handshakes, site visits and face to face meetings. Quotes were slower, workflows were manual and customers expected longer lead times. Today, clients want instant pricing, automation, online ordering, sustainability credentials and faster turnaround times than ever before. At times, the pace of change has been relentless. We have seen recessions, digital disruption, Covid, paper shortages, energy increases and enormous pressure on independent businesses. I think many people outside the industry underestimate just how tough print can be operationally. But despite all of that, I have always believed good businesses survive by adapting. One of the biggest lessons I learned building Visual Print & Design was that relationships matter far more than transactions. We retained more than 90 percent of our customers over many years, not because we were always the cheapest, but because clients trusted us to deliver, solve problems and care about the outcome. That culture became the foundation of the business. As the company grew, my role changed too. In the early days, I was doing everything myself, sales, account management, production, delivery runs and even building furniture in the office at weekends. Over time, leadership became less about doing everything personally and more about building a team, empowering people and creating consistency. In the early years, I thought good leadership meant doing everything yourself and being involved in every detail. Over time, I realised that approach only takes a business so far. One of the hardest lessons for many founders is learning to let go, trust people and build systems that do not rely entirely on you. That transition was not easy for me personally because when you care deeply about standards, customers and reputation, delegation can feel uncomfortable. But sustainable growth only happens when businesses move from reactive decision making into structured processes, accountability and scalable systems. I also learned that growth alone is not enough. Businesses need structure, systems and scalability if they are ever going to become genuinely sustainable or saleable. Preparing a company for sale is probably one of the hardest parts of business ownership because it forces you to look at the company differently. You stop asking, “Can we grow?” and start asking, “Can this business operate successfully beyond me?” that is a huge mindset shift for many founders. Earlier this year, I sold Visual Print & Design and joined Solopress as Head of Partnerships Selling a business is a strange experience emotionally because from the outside people often assume it is simply a commercial transaction. In reality, it is letting go of something that has consumed a huge part of your life for many years. You remember the difficult periods far more than the highlights. The risks taken. The customers who backed you early. The team members who helped build the culture. The moments where things could have gone badly wrong but somehow worked out. I think going through that process gave me a completely different perspective on business. Growth is important, but longevity, relationships and reputation matter far more in the long run. Joining Solopress has opened my eyes to the scale of innovation now happening within print technology, workflow automation and AI driven systems. What excites me most is not replacing the human side of print, but improving the customer experience around it. Customers now expect the same ease and speed from print procurement that they receive in other sectors, and businesses that embrace technology intelligently will have a huge advantage over the next decade. What has not changed though is the importance of people. Print is still a relationship industry. Trust still matters. Accountability still matters. Service still matters. I genuinely believe print remains one of the most powerful forms of communication when done properly. It creates impact, credibility and permanence in a way digital alone often cannot. For me personally, this next chapter is not about leaving entrepreneurship behind. It is about taking everything I have learned from building a business over sixteen years and applying it in a new environment with fresh opportunities ahead. The industry is evolving rapidly, but that is exactly what makes it exciting. And after more than 30 years in print, I still believe the best businesses in this industry are yet to come. Author: Graham Hunstone Business: www.solopress.com Email: graham.hunstone@solopress.com Photography: Headshot Toby

James Fowler tells us how to build value where you already stand Many businesses spend a lot of time looking ahead. More leads. More sales. More customers. More turnover. There is nothing wrong with wanting to move forward. Ambition is a good thing. But there is a risk when a business becomes so focused on the next opportunity that it stops seeing the value already sitting in around it. Business development is not simply about selling more. It is about building a stronger, more profitable, and more sustainable business. Sometimes the biggest opportunity is not in the next prospect. It is in the client you already have, the relationship you have not fully looked after, the service you have not introduced yet, or the problem you have not taken the time to sort out Think of your business like a well run workshop. You can keep bringing new materials through the door, but if the tools are not in the right place, the team is unclear, and half finished work is left on the bench, you are creating activity, but not always real momentum. That is where businesses can get caught out. They chase more sales, profitable or not, while existing clients quietly drift, their needs go unnoticed, and potential margin is left on the table. Sometimes that opportunity is something you can provide directly to them. Sometimes it is something another client, partner, or trusted supplier can help with. Either way, if you are the person who makes that connection, solves that problem, or adds that extra value, you become harder to replace. This is where business development is different from sales and marketing. Sales has a place. Marketing has a place. But business development is wider than both. It brings together strategy, account management, customer service, relationship building, pricing, supplier relationships, internal processes, team support, and commercial understanding. It looks at how the business works, how clients experience it, where profit is made, where margin is lost, and where opportunities are being missed. A good business development strategy starts with the right questions. Are we selling the right things to the right clients? Are we making enough margin on the work we win? Do our existing clients understand everything we can do? Are we checking in with people, or only contacting them when we want something? Do our systems support the team, or slow them down? Are sales, marketing, service, delivery, and finance all pulling in the same direction? These sorts of questions can show you where the gaps are. A business might have plenty of enquiries but poor conversion. It might win work but the price is too low. It might deliver a great service but then never go back to ask what else the client needs or wants. It might have a CRM full of data that nobody trusts, updates, or uses. None of those things are dramatic on their own, but together they silently hold a business back. The first step is to understand where your work really comes from. Look at your last ten good clients. How did they find you? Why did they buy? What did they value? What did they buy again? Which ones were profitable, easy to work with, and good for the team? This is really important as it should be a judgement of all three parts together, not just one. I have seen businesses label a great client because of the value it bought in, but missed the fact they took up so much time, labour and removed any profit. The next step is to keep your eyes and ears open with the clients and prospects already around you. Not every opportunity arrives as a clear buying signal. Sometimes it is hidden in a throwaway comment, a frustration mentioned in passing, a project they are struggling with, or a supplier they are not happy with. If you are too focused on getting to the next sale, you can miss what is being said between the lines. Then comes the internal work. Your pricing needs to reflect value and cost. Your proposals need to be clear. Your follow up needs to be consistent. Your team needs to know what a good opportunity looks like. Your customer service needs to feedback what clients are saying. Your systems need to help people do the right thing, not become another admin pain. The best business development strategy is not complicated. It’s joined up. It connects the client, the team, the numbers, and the plan. More sales can look good from the outside, but better business development strengthens what is underneath. It helps you build a business that is not just busier, but sharper, calmer, more useful, and more profitable. So, keep looking ahead. Just do not forget to look around first. The next stage of your business may not come from doing more. It may come from developing what is already there. Author: James Fowler Business: Komplete Metanoia Email: james@kompletemetanoia.com Photography: Headshot Toby

There's a version of you that has a great headshot. Updated LinkedIn profile, proper photo on the website, something you’d actually be happy to send across when someone asks for a bio picture. You’ve thought about it more than once, and you will sort it… just not yet. Ring any bells? You’re not alone. It’s one of the most common things I hear, usually so mewhere between “I’ve been meaning to do it for ages” and a slightly embarrassed laugh. And what’s interesting is after ten years of working with business owners and professionals is that the reasons people give for waiting are almost never the real reason. The most common ones go something like this. I’ll wait until I’ve lost weight Or get a haircut. Or wait until the new office is ready. Or until the rebrand is finished. Or until things have settled down a bit at work. These feel like practical, reasonable reasons to pause. It can feel like timing is everything as if you only get one shot at photos. Ideally, treating your photos as a brand campaign that you will use and update every 1-2 years takes all the pressure off waiting for the stars to align. I’ll wait until I’m more confident. Working with business professionals, rarely do I meet people in the studio who are excited to get in front of the camera. Even the creatives! I share this to reassure anyone reading that if you’re nervous about having your photo taken then you are with the majority! The positive is that confidence actually comes with taking action, getting booked in and discussing how you want to be represented and how you can utilise your new photos. I’ll wait until I’m ready. Ready for what, exactly? Ready to be seen. Ready to put yourself out there. Ready to be the kind of person who has professional photos? I totally get it, it can feel like a declaration, but this can actually be a really powerful and motivating change for your personal brand. Simply updating your photos on LinkedIn can boost engagement from your community and who knows what conversations could spark from noticing you. If you’ve built your reputation through word of mouth and doing good work, the idea of putting a professional photo on LinkedIn and actively saying “here I am” can feel uncomfortably self-promotional. I’d love to remind you that you’ve worked incredibly hard to build your brand, and now you get to own and enjoy it! Because for a lot of people, the hesitation isn’t really about the photoshoot itself. It’s about what comes after. Getting the photos means using them. Using them means people will see them. And being properly seen is quietly terrifying for a lot of otherwise very confident, very capable people. The photo isn’t the problem. Visibility is. But what I’ve noticed after ten years of watching people walk into a studio feeling one way and leave feeling another, is that most of the time, the fear of the thing is much worse than the thing itself. The opportunities and empowerment to promote themselves with their new photos and marketing materials far outweighs the nervous initial moments of booking a photoshoot. So don’t rush into it, but also stop getting in your own way sharing old selfies with the justification that you’ll update them professionally soon. Honestly, who would do such a thing? Author: Toby Lee Business: Headshot Toby

Stuart Burlton shares how growing up around a traditional factory, and seeing it disappear shaped the way he thinks about skills, work and why they matter more than we often realise. My perspective on manufacturing was shaped long before I ran a business of my own. It began with my father and the factory that he managed - RSB - the Royal School for the Blind. The charity employed partially sighted and blind workers, in solid full time employment making hand stitched Coir Mats. Using the same craft techniques that had been used for hundreds of years, they made Traditional Coir Matting for the likes of the National trust, English Heritage, and people’s Edwardian and Victorian homes. Just the same way as they had always been made. Factories like that rarely make headlines. Skilled jobs for workers that may usually be economically inactive. For many people, RSB wasn’t just a place of work; it was a long-term commitment. Skills were learned slowly, passed on informally, and refined over decades. That kind of environment creates something hard to measure but easy to recognise: confidence. The workers knew what they’re doing. They trusted their hands, their judgement, and the people around them. All in an inspiring environment where everyone is treated equally. When the factory closed, it didn’t happen because the work had suddenly lost value or because the workforce had failed to adapt. A change of government policy towards the workshops, fundamentally changing the business model, made them unsustainable. The decision itself may have made sense on paper. The consequences were felt far beyond it. What struck me most at the time was how quickly something solid could disappear. A factory that had taken decades to build, with centuries old skills was gone in a matter of months. Machinery was removed. People dispersed. Skills disappeared. That experience stayed with me, because it revealed something uncomfortable: manufacturing capability is far more fragile than we like to admit. According to the Office for National Statistics, UK manufacturing employment has been in long-term decline since the late 1970s, with the steepest impacts felt in regional economies. Statistics like that help explain what many communities have lived through, the gradual erosion of skilled work and the confidence that comes with it. But numbers don’t capture the full picture. When a factory closes, it’s not only jobs that go. It’s informal training. It’s problem-solving knowledge. It’s the quiet understanding of how materials behave, how processes fail, and how quality is maintained under pressure. These things don’t transfer easily into manuals or spreadsheets. RSB didn’t survive, but the lesson it left behind is practical rather than sentimental: if you still have skilled people, functioning processes and shared knowledge, they are worth protecting. Once they’re gone, no amount of hindsight can bring them back intact. When we made the decision in 2018 to reboot traditional coir matting, the starting point was skills rather than scale. The craft knowledge had disappeared, so the focus was on rebuilding it patiently, teaching ourselves how the material behaves, how designs translate into fibre, and why consistency matters over speed. That approach now supports a dedicated workforce, producing traditional coir mats both in our own workshops and our workshops within Lincolnshire prisons, where learning a tangible craft helps rebuild confidence, discipline and pride. In a country where reoffending remains a persistent challenge, restoring practical skills has proved to be about more than making products - it’s about giving people something solid to build from. For readers, the takeaway is broader than manufacturing alone. Any organisation that relies on skill, judgement and experience faces the same risk. These things don’t disappear with a bang. They erode quietly, one shortcut at a time. Seeing that up close taught me to treat capability as something active, not assumed. Something that needs looking after. And that understanding, earned early and reinforced often continues to shape how I think about work, value and responsibility today. With social impact at the core and giving people a chance. Author: Stuart Burlton Business: Make An Entrance Email: stuarty@makeanentrance.com Photography: Headshot Toby

Michelle Wright & Nicola Auckland share how their podcast is helping women step forward with confidence... Although very different people, Nicola and Michelle have one very important thing in common... Nicola is known for proclaiming that she will “die on the hill” of making women visible in their business, and Michelle has a passion for helping women to feel confident in what they’re wearing. They just want women to stop playing small, to step out of the shadows and own the space that they have worked so hard for. And it’s for these reasons that they decided to host a podcast. Nicola and Michelle met when their kids were at primary school together, however neither can remember the other from the school gates! So, their first ‘real’ meeting was through networking, something they are both big advocates of. Nicola recognised a gap when her clients often asked her what to wear to a shoot. As she was clueless, not her zone of genius, she pointed them in Michelles direction for a pre-shoot styling session, and then Michelle was also on hand during the shoot as well for styling touch ups. Then followed a chance conversation where they both confessed to wanting to do a podcast. The chat quickly turned to throwing round some ideas, to excitement and Michelle, as a Pantser (IYKYK) wanted to just launch it there and then. However, Nicola being the voice of reason and a Planner (again IYKYK), reigned Michelle in by insisting on putting some plans in place before the eventual launch in April 2025. They couldn’t be happier with the response, now on season 2, with regular listeners and downloads, they are going from strength to strength. The Reinvention Diaries is aptly named as it is based on their own experiences of reinventing themselves. They were both in their 40’s when they started their own businesses, which truly felt like their calling. Nicola knew the corporate world wasn’t for her anymore when she was made redundant, so she took the opportunity to turn her side hustle dream into a reality and is now the owner of Nicola Auckland Photography, a brand photographer specialising in working with female business owners. Michelle had been a stay-at-home mum for fifteen years, however, she realised during lockdown that she wanted more than being an unpaid taxi-driver and packer of lunches, so returned to her fashion roots and launched a styling business to help women feel good about themselves. She is now known as Mrs Stylewright - a Style Coach & Colour Analyst. Whilst setting up their businesses they went through the sometimes difficult, sometimes liberating, transition of reinvention, rediscovering themselves and regaining lost confidence. Although they don’t claim to be business experts, they are experts in their respective fields and have real life experience of running a small business, so they are more than qualified to speak about the upsides and the pitfalls of working for yourself. They also regularly invite expert guests on the podcast to chat and impart their valuable knowledge, many with incredible stories! The Reinvention Diaries doesn’t always focus on work and business, Michelle and Nicola often delve into home life, so listeners also get a bit of a peep into their, very different, family lives often much to the dismay of their husbands, and luckily their children don’t listen! Each week brings something different, everything from valuable and insightful business advice to uncontrollable laughter and even tears on more than one occasion! You can listen to The Reinvention Diaries on all the usual podcast platforms, with a new episode every Wednesday. Nicola and Michelle invite listeners to email them at the studio on studio@thereinventiondiaries.co.uk or through their Instagram page @thereinventiondiariespodcast. Author: Michelle Wright | Style Coach & Colour Analyst Nicola Auckland | Brand Photographer Podcast: The Reinvention Diaries Podcast Email: studio@thereinventiondiaries.co.uk Photogrpahy: Headshot Toby