Business Newsletter

30 June 2023

Latest News

How to supply Somerset Council

Have you ever thought about supplying your local council?

Join the Federation of Small Business (FSB) to find out how to make Somerset Council your next customer.

On September 12, at Deane House, Taunton – join the team and have the opportunity to ask questions to Somerset Council’s commissioning and procurement teams and find out more information from South West Cyber Resilience Centre about how to stay safe online.

You will be able to find out how to know what contracts are coming up, how to apply for them and how to get on the radar for those smaller jobs and purchases which don’t need to be tendered.

Find out more

NetZero Week

image of person hand with net zero sign

The UK’s National Awareness Week, 1-7 July 2023

On the 27th June 2019, the UK became the first major economy in the world to pass laws to end the UK’s contribution to climate change. The legislation committed the nations of the UK to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Net zero means any remaining emissions would be offset by schemes to remove an equivalent amount of greenhouse gases.

The UK’s national awareness week highlights our challenge and provides the best expert advice and information to help us all better understand the challenge and how to benefit from making changes. Our greatest pursuit requires us all to take on our fair share of tackling emissions to stop global warming.

Find out more

CHOMP

Interested in working for yourself? Running your own business? Want to earn some money?

CHOMP is an exciting new, free programme supporting young people to setup, run and manage a business. No business idea? Come and talk to SBA to learn how to be successful.

The programme will cover a combination of business training and hands-on experience of setting-up and working within a business. The programme will look to cover:

Support setting-up & running a business
Initial business ideas & resources
Business start-up training
Personality profiling
Access to business mentors and business advisors
Support with business plan development & launch

To be eligible, you need to:

24 years or under,
Live in Somerset,
Fully committed to the programme,

To find out more information about CHOMP or to get in touch with the team, please visit the link below:

Find out more

Business Support

The Growth Hub Business Support

Digital Leadership Training for SME’s

Free digital leadership training across Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay is now available for small and medium businesses (SMEs).

Business leaders who operate in the following sectors:

Manufacturing
Clean Growth
Health
Adult Social Care
who have 250 or fewer employees

are eligible to apply for this free training opportunity.

Businesses can receive up to 32 hours of tutor led digital leadership training with the aim of embedding digital transformation within their business. Two training opportunities are available, these include driving digital transformation and driving digital business.

Find out more

Thrive Business Support Programme Extended until July 2023

Many small businesses in Devon, Somerset, Plymouth and Torbay would benefit from free one-to-one business support but are unaware of where to access such support.

Fortunately Thrive, the popular business support programme for small business owners, has announced the extension of its services until the end of July 2023.

The programme’s one-to-one business support ensures that each participant receives fully-funded advice and personalized guidance to address their unique challenges and opportunities. From refining marketing strategies to bolstering resilience, growth, recruitment, and more, Thrive’s dedicated business advisors are ready to assist SME’s at every stage.

Find out more

Thrive Free Digital Guides!

Thrive have provided free digital guides to help small business owners seeking to improve their online digital presence and business marketing:

Small Business Guide to Instagram
Small Business Guide to Facebook
Business Guide to Social Media
Small Business Owners Guide to using Chat GPT for your Marketing
Digital Information Pack

Get in touch with the team today stating which free guides you’d like to receive and what guides you’d like to see next.

Find out more

Grant Funding for Food Waste Reduction

Image of food waste recycling

‘Eat It Up’ is a new grant fund aimed at finding and supporting creative approaches to reducing food waste.

The £200,000 fund, launched by Hubbub in partnership with Starbucks, is offering grants of up to £40,000. They are looking for projects that have either been tested and need funding to support their expansion or are at an earlier stage with a concept ready to trial, examples of this could be:

Address pre-farmgate waste (the food production process, up to the point where the products have been harvested and prepared as produce for sale)
Prevent food from being wasted at manufacturing and processing stage
Minimise food waste from retailers
Find ways to use surplus food in creative ways in communities or at home

To find our more information or to check your eligibility, please visit the Hubbub website:

Find out more

Coastal Networking Events for the Tourism and Hospitality Sector

image of sandcastle on the beach

A free networking event designed exclusively for tourism and hospitality businesses, within 5 miles or so of the Somerset/Exmoor coast from Brean to Porlock, who could benefit from a new project to promote the coast.

The aim is to bring together like-minded professionals who are passionate about promoting the Somerset and Exmoor coast.

This event will provide you the chance to look around a unique venue, chat with other businesses and find out how you can get involved in the new Coastal Festival and Coastal Passport. At no cost to you, you will have the opportunity to participate in new packages we are creating.

4 July – 13:30-15:00

Bossington Hall, Bossington, Porlock, TA24 8HJ.

To reserve a space, please see the link below.

Find out more

Have an enquiry about the Coastal Networking Event?

Get in touch with Nell if you have any questions or alternatively, as we move into the busy tourism season, and you are unable to make it, pop Nell an email to state your interest in getting involved:

Get in touch

Farming Sector Support

Sustainable Farming Incentive 2023 update

image of Somerset fields

The Sustainable Farming Incentive 2023 will start accepting applications in a controlled rollout from August.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive will offer farmers more flexibility to choose the actions they want to get paid for. Farmers will get paid for taking actions that support food production and improve farm productivity and resilience, while also protecting and improving the environment.

The 23 actions on offer cover existing themes including soil health and moorland, as well as new actions on hedgerows, integrated pest management, nutrient management, farmland wildlife, buffer strips, and low input grassland.

To find out more information, please visit the Government website.

Find out more

New On-Farm Resilience Competition

image of two people holding soil

Farmers and growers can now apply for the new competition for up to £1 million in project costs to drive the development of new technology and innovative farming methods, with a focus on practical solutions that make a real impact on farms.

If you have an ambitious research and development project which supports productivity and sustainability in the sector, you can apply for a share of the £12.5 million from the Farming Futures competition, which is part of the Farming Innovation Programme.

There are two strands of funding under the competition: