Business Support
A wide range of business support networks across the Yorkshire region provide companies with opportunities for collaboration, access to finance, networking, events, knowledge-sharing, best practice and training and advice.
Whether you are just starting out and need someone to talk to and bounce ideas off, or you are an established business juggling the demands of clients, finance, recruitment, expansion and a turbulant market, there are a whole host of networks, support services and advisors to help.
Advice and support
With organisations established to support the different sectors of the creative economy across the region, there’s plenty of specialist advice available whatever your area.
Screen Yorkshire is designed to support and promote film, television, games and interactive media. Providing everything from venue sourcing to film crews, extras and even funding for productions, Screen Yorkshire can also help to advise on distribution channels and broker collaborations between creative organisations and investment companies.
Game Republic is an industry-led games network. Yorkshire boasts one of the world’s top-performing regions for games development, with such talented companies as Rockstar Leeds, Sumo Digital, Team 17, Tuna and Revolution Software. Now fully integrated into Screen Yorkshire, Game Republic work closely with UKTI and 4iP to bring funding for research and development and further export opportunities to the games market in the area.
Having developed a culture of entrepreneurship early in its life, Leeds has access to some of the most talented, creative and business savvy minds across a broad spectrum of industries. Leeds Ahead have developed a dedicated mentoring service matching business talents to community groups and fledgling start-ups, creating a ready supply of knowledge and skills to help businesses become sustainable.
Other organisations such as Culture Vulture are also on hand to offer advice and support for businesses looking to develop their social media strategy. A programme of ‘Cultural Conversations’ is currently being developed bringing together those with the technical knowledge and those looking for an easy no pressure way to learn. And if you have a more specific social media request you could always plug-in to one of the many social media surgeries taking place across Leeds, offering down-to-earth advice and support for social media novices.
For more traditional forms of business advice and support there is a vast range of services available via Business Link Yorkshire, from grants and loans to dedicated business advisors and planners, and seminars and training opportunities.
Networking know-how
There are a number of business networks opperating across the region from breakfast briefings to after work drinks clubs. The main creative and digital groups are Creative Networks and Leeds Media, although the city also regularly hosts Girl Geek Dinners and a range of other business-focused events throughout the year.
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Creative Networks is a free networking group led by Leeds College of Art to bring together artistic disciplines from across the city including film-making, web design, graphic design, photography, animation, fine art, advertising and many more. A series of events are held the last Thursday of every month attracting a range of speakers from high profile advertising gurus such as Sir John Heggarty, to local artists and performers, like local band Ska Volution featured above at last year’s summer party. The events aim to share knowledge and encourage collaboration across the industry.
Leeds Media represent the views of the city’s media and communications sector, working with partners from across the UK to bring training, knowledge sharing and a spotlight to the Leeds creative scene. As the specialist media division of Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, Leeds Media have access to some of the key media buyers across the Yorkshire region and are able to broker business relationships across sectors of the economy.
Social support
Holbeck Urban Village is located close to the suburban communities of Holbeck and Beeston, with many of the residents seeking employment in the city centre. Traditionally this area has experienced high levels of worklessness and poor levels of education.
Holbeck Urban Village have commissioned Leeds Ahead to develop a tailored pilot programme of business and community support to help increase opportunities in the area for businesses and residents to support each other. The one-off package of support includes mentoring for new business and start-ups, a series of commercial-focused education workshops in local schools, bespoke CV workshops as part of the current New Deal and Job Centre services, and work experience visits for older pupils to prepare for the world of work.
This pilot scheme will run until summer 2011, and aims to match the skills of businesses to aid communities, alongside providing businesses with local ways to develop CSR policies and develop staff skills.
Further Resources
The Holbeck Urban Village team recently hosted an event exploring the relationship between business and ethics. As a result of the event a short serie sof podcasts were created to help businesses develop their own approach to ethics. These podcasts are free to download.
B.E. 11.8 – Biz & Society
What are the relationships between business and society? Does business owe something to the society it is part of? Where does the term ‘responsibility’ come into the equation? Are good ethics good business? How do values and principles in organisations work? What are our responsibilities and obligations in our everyday work and do these differ for companies whose work is based in virtual space?
11.8.10 Mission statements
What are they used for? Are they relevant? Do they enable companies to develop trust in other companies? Is a stated value of ‘honesty’ in a mission statement something that is expected as standard? What do mission statements mean in terms of attracting investment? Do they make a difference to the obligations your business holds? Are we moving towards a time of heightened ethical expectations? What might such a situation mean for identity and differentiation?
