Unlocking Local Business Support with Christy Evans

Ben Baldwin

00:00:00.400 – 00:01:33.560

Hello and welcome to Berko and Beyond, the weekly local business podcast celebrating the people who live, work and do business in Berkhamsted and the surrounding area.

 

I’m your host, Ben Baldwin, and I run Chuff Productions, a B2B video production company that’s been based here in Berko for the last six years or more.

 

Now, Berkhamsted and the surrounding towns and villages are full of brilliant people doing brilliant things, and this podcast was created to tell their stories. The goal is for it to become a part of our fantastic local business community, supporting sole traders and local businesses of all sizes.

 

Now, as part of building that community, I actually have to ask you for a big favour straight off the bat. Podcasts like this only thrive when you, like, follow and share them. So please follow Berko and Beyond wherever you watch or listen to your podcasts.

 

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And if you’d like to be a guest on the show, then drop us an email.

 

The address is podcast@clarem140.sg-host.com now, speaking of guests, I am delighted that my first on the show is someone well known to the local business community and a true supporter of businesses in Dacorum. So let’s dive straight into episode one with Christy Evans.Christy Evans, welcome to the Berko and Beyond podcast.

 

Christy Evans

00:01:33.640 – 00:01:34.280

Thank you.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:01:34.920 – 00:01:49.960

I’m so thrilled to have you here on episode one, because you are a real champion of local business, particularly in Dacorum. So tell me your job title. Official job title is a Place Officer, Economic development. What on earth does a Place Officer do, Christy?

 

Christy Evans

00:01:50.310 – 00:02:02.230

Okay, well, as the name sort of suggests, in terms of place, it’s all about the place that we live in and Dacorum, incorporating Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, of course, and Tring and all the surrounding villages.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:02:02.310 – 00:02:05.110

It’s almost like you’re describing Berko and Beyond.

 

Christy Evans

00:02:05.430 – 00:02:31.870

Absolutely, yeah. And we, in terms of economic development, we sort of focus on anything that we can do to help support local businesses and the economy to thrive.

 

So that can be a whole host of different initiatives, whether that’s town centre based or supporting businesses on the coal face or at our business centre.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:02:32.270 – 00:02:38.270

So we’ll talk about the business centre in a little bit. But this is support for businesses small and large, presumably?

 

Christy Evans

00:02:38.750 – 00:03:13.850

Absolutely, Yeah. I mean, 98% of the businesses in the borough are micro or small businesses, so they play a heavy part within the borough.

 

And absolutely, we connect and support, support as much of those as we can. We also do support the bigger players in the borough because they’re big employers and strategically important.

 

So we do have a Dacorum strategic business board where we can liaise with those businesses, get their voice on planning, strategy, development. So we come at it from both angles.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:03:14.570 – 00:03:18.810

And what are you hearing at the moment? What are the biggest challenges for businesses, small and large?

 

Christy Evans

00:03:21.410 – 00:04:26.480

Rising costs? And I think, yeah, large and small businesses, the cost of doing businesses, the cost of employing as well.

 

With national insurance going up, I think people and businesses are, you know, are really considering their costs, where they’re going to spend. I think bigger businesses, they can often have a problem with recruitment. So how do they find the right people and then how do they retain them?

 

So that’s a real sort of, you know, tricky one for larger businesses and you see all sorts of different support and initiatives that they sort of go through to try and get the right talent. And that isn’t necessarily these days just about the money and the wage. It can also be about the package.

 

Flexible working, your ethos and ethics, your sustainability and particularly within the young workforce, because they really care about where they work and who they work for and they can choose.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:04:26.640 – 00:04:59.970

I heard a great thing recently about your website is not just selling to your customers, but your website should be telling to your future talent.

 

And exactly along those lines that depending on the generation that you’re talking to or looking to attract, it’s not just about the wages of. It could be about what, like you say, it’s about the culture, but that culture could be something really as simple as, you know, breakfast is bought in every Friday for everybody to get around and chat and mingle in and so that they feel a part of something.

 

Christy Evans

00:05:00.290 – 00:06:05.860

Absolutely. I mean, office environment.

 

You see some large businesses on the estate that have really done well and beyond with their HQs that when you sort of walk around there, you just go, wow, I want to work here. It really encourages employees to come into the office.

 

Whereas post Covid, everyone was quite nicely working from home and didn’t want to make that shift.

 

So businesses like Atlas Copco, who have basically redone their whole offices, and I think that’s another key thing that plays, is about wellness in the workplace. We’ve seen a real shift on that post Covid.

 

The employers really sort of taking care on, on the wellness in terms of sort of training and development, things like menopause, you know, in the workplace and just providing you know, the right facilities for people, you know, little breakout rooms, outdoor spaces, as well as all the nice stuff that you mentioned in terms of, you know, free doughnuts and a, you know, barbecue every now and again.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:06:06.820 – 00:06:23.150

So what can the council do to help that and support that? Do you find that, that it’s sometimes it’s. I was going to say pushed, but that’s the wrong word.

 

It’s something that you need to promote onto these businesses or is it other businesses coming to you to say, look, we need support in, in this particular area and that’s where the business centre comes in?

 

Christy Evans

00:06:23.630 – 00:08:05.580

Yeah, absolutely.

 

I mean the bigger businesses have obviously got their HQs and they’re sort of sorted, but when you look at the small businesses and micro businesses, they’re perhaps working off the kitchen table, spare room in the garage and for them to be able to grow, they need that space. They might want to, you know, employ someone so that they can expand but they just don’t have the facility working from home.

 

So we have the Maylands Business Centre based on the Redbourn Road and that’s an incubation centre for small businesses that haven’t had commercial property before. So we have a suite of different office sizes from one man up to sort of five or even ten in our sister business centre at Kilner.

 

And we also have light industrial units as well.

 

So again, if you’re sort of quite a practical business and you, you know, you’re outgrowing your garage but you need that space, you know, to be able to grow your business. It’s flexible terms so you’re not tied into a long lease, an affordable rent.

 

So, you know, it’s great to be able to, to help and support those businesses and we support them whilst they’re there. And also businesses that aren’t necessarily ready for premises at this point, we also provide a virtual office facility. Okay, so that’s telephone handling, mail handling.

 

So again, if you’re a busy plumber, you’re not on the end of your phones, they will answer the calls for the businesses and it makes them seem a lot bigger than they perhaps are. They’ve got, you know, a business centre as their address and they’ve got a professional service because you don’t want to miss that business call.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:08:05.580 – 00:08:20.060

No, I think that sometimes that is so underestimated as well that when people go to a website and they look at it and if he’s just got a mobile telephone number on there as opposed to the old fashioned landline, but I think it still does count for a lot, right?

 

Christy Evans

00:08:20.220 – 00:08:33.200

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And also as a business owner and sole trader, you don’t want to put your home address down on your website and other things. 

 

Ben Baldwin

00:08:33.200 – 00:09:24.250

Yeah, I think that’s a brilliant service that’s available to small businesses that like you say, those incubators that are starting. I remember when I first started, so I lived in London at the time and we’re a video production company, as you know. So for us it was video editors.

 

Obviously I can do the video editing myself.

 

But as you expand, that’s the first thing that video production companies, owners or the incubator, you know, those that are starting out, it’s generally the first thing that’s given away is the editing because that’s the thing that takes up the most time. Well, we used to have editors come to the house because there was nothing else we could do.

 

Obviously you get to know them and their friends and their freelancers. But it’s still, you know, I think it goes a little bit back to Covid times when people were living and working in one room in a flat or anything like that. So to have somewhere like the business centre is fantastic for those starting out.

 

Christy Evans

00:09:24.490 – 00:10:40.420

Absolutely. And we’ve got meeting rooms for hire as well.

 

So again, you talk about, you know, doing a podcast or you know, wanting to hold meetings in a professional environment, not in, in a coffee shop where it’s busy and noisy or you’re wanting to talk, you know, confidential matters. So yeah, we’ve got a large and small meeting room for hire and also a bonus that we have is free hot desking. We’ve got a suite of 10 hot desks.

 

The meeting rooms are for hire but the hot desks are for free. So that again, businesses can just get out of their four walls and sit in another four walls.

 

But quite interestingly as well, it’s that co support and the networking.

 

What you find is that, you know, they have a coffee break, go down and go to a Starbucks machine, get a coffee and they have a chin wag and then they find out about its business and you can see them sort of trading services. We had a VA that was working out of there and I think then she picked up two clients with just being within the business centre.

 

You see one of our marketing agencies that have an office there, they use the printer that are on site. We’ve got electricians. And that’s what it’s really all about. It’s about the local economy using the local supply chain and, yeah, using local businesses.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:10:40.500 – 00:11:09.380

It’s that cross pollination as well, isn’t it? And that’s where great partnerships are made as well. 

 

We were talking about this actually before we started to record, didn’t we? It’s not just about this because we have businesses clearly of all different sizes in the borough, in Berko and beyond.

 

And it’s not always about those small businesses doing business with each other, but it might be partnering to go and work with the bigger companies and that’s, that’s, you know, that’s where the growth is.

 

Christy Evans

00:11:09.540 – 00:11:28.570

Yeah, I mean collaboration is key. And I had this last week a marketing agency came in and delivered a workshop for us which I can talk about in a moment.

 

And it was all on sort of website development. But while she was there, she collaborates with this other marketing agency and because they’ve got their specialisms.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:11:28.570 – 00:11:29.010

Yeah.

 

Christy Evans

00:11:29.090 – 00:11:49.490

So they’re happy to go.

 

Yeah, I can do this part of the job that this business can, you know, sort out the printing or is the brand design or the graphic design and then hey presto, you can use the printer as well to print all your marketing literature, you know. But it’s great to see that they collaborate and don’t necessarily compete.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:11:49.810 – 00:11:50.290

Yes.

 

Christy Evans

00:11:50.450 – 00:11:52.690

Which is, it is really wonderful to see.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:11:52.770 – 00:12:57.510

So from. So from my experience as well, that for video production companies, a bit of shameless self promotion is that video production companies often specialise in different areas as well. So for instance, this space that we’re sat in here is in our studio.

 

So actually you don’t want to record your podcast in the business centre. You want to come to a professional podcast studio here, Christie.

 

So, and, and with my friend Azim who’s got Red Branch Studio, so he’s running this podcast. Part of the thing, we still use it for other bits of video production in here.

 

But people would ordinarily look at us and think, well, aren’t they in competition? But no, we’re in partnership because we cover different areas of the video production spectrum.

 

So I think it’s a big learner for people that think that or people who might be going into business thinking, okay, now I’ve got to try and you know, I’ve got to be the best at this. I’ve got to beat that. I’ve got to kind of do everything. So yeah, I think it’s a, it’s a, a big lesson to learn for some businesses.

 

Christy Evans

00:12:57.510 – 00:13:18.300

Absolutely. And you know, this is fantastic having this facility right on our doorstep for local businesses to, to, you know, make use of.

 

Because we know now, you know, video’s key, isn’t it? On social media and everywhere else.

 

So you know, I need to get out of the habit of just putting a static photo and actually move into some video content.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:13:18.780 – 00:13:28.620

Yeah, don’t worry about it. I’m rubbish at it. And we’re a video production company. We’re a bit like the builder.

 

So the build is, you know, the builder’s house is always the last one to get finished and we’re the last ones to post our own video.

 

Christy Evans

00:13:28.780 – 00:13:30.540

Yeah, exactly.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:13:30.780 – 00:13:43.580

Tell us about some of the workshops then and some of the, because there’s training available. It’s not just the space. Oh before we do actually.

 

So that, that space that’s available in those hot desk, is that literally for anybody that’s got a business within, within the borough or is there?

 

Christy Evans

00:13:43.740 – 00:13:58.840

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, come along and we’re a friendly team down there, happy to support, you know, whilst you’re there you just have to call, call the team.

 

01442531002 Fantastic Azim.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:13:58.840 – 00:14:09.640

We’re off down to the business centre to do a bit of hot desking. He’s got the thumbs up in the background there.

 

So yeah, tell us about some of the support and some of the training that’s available at the business centre.

 

Christy Evans

00:14:09.640 – 00:15:29.020

Yeah, well we run sort of monthly workshops, business support workshops at the business centre. These could be really anything and everything. So we’ve had social media, we did one last week on website mot.

 

So this was like a check for businesses to sort of audit their websites and get some practical tips and checklists. We put on a budget, finance one post budget and the implications for businesses.

 

So we’ve got a lot of these sort of planned going forward and indeed, you know, love to hear from businesses if they’ve got something that they want to focus on then we can find a local expert.

 

And the way that it does work is that it is local businesses giving up their time for free to pass on their knowledge and experience to other local businesses. Which again is fantastic.

 

And talking about that collaboration and sort of ecosystem, it’s great to see that you know, even very small businesses, one man bands still want to be able to help and support local businesses. So they are free of charge and yeah, and come and use the facilities and hot desking for the rest of the day.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:15:29.580 – 00:16:01.400

We’ll put all the details of course of the business centre in the show notes for you so you don’t have to remember them as we’re, we’re saying them all out on those businesses that are helping out and that are giving their time. I mean, because as business owners when we first start out, we don’t know anything, right?

 

I mean, I know I didn’t know anything, I’m happy to say that now. You pretend you do at the time. Yeah, exactly. You blag it and you bring in other partners as well, don’t you?

 

It’s not just about bringing in other businesses that are going to share their knowledge.

 

Christy Evans

00:16:01.480 – 00:16:19.150

Yeah, absolutely.

 

And yeah, we do have this pool of smaller businesses that give up their time, but we also collaborate and link in with other support partners around Hertfordshire. So that could be Hert’s Futures which used to be the LEP, the Local Enterprise Partnership.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:16:19.150 – 00:16:19.630

Yes.

 

Christy Evans

00:16:20.190 – 00:18:59.800

Sort of owned and sort of managed by Hertfordshire County Council. We also use Wenta and we actually fund their Get Enterprising program.

 

So this is for small businesses under five years that get an intensive support program of one on one mentoring. They get a whole host of resources that they can use to help their business grow and thrive and really sort of scale up.

 

And again, they are experts in doing that. So Dacorum Council funds that program. We also, with Wenta, we also have a net zero sustainability program that is currently live and funded.

 

So this is for small businesses to get on their sustainability journey so they’ve got a carbon footprint tool so they can start to track and monitor their carbon footprint and reduce it.

 

And again, these days it is a real sort of point of difference now for businesses to actually have those clean, more sustainable credentials because as we mentioned before, you know, employees perhaps want to look at those businesses that are doing the right things in terms of their, you know, business facilities and processes. So attracting businesses in but also from a customer basis because people are now being more choosy about, you know, who they do business with.

 

And also if they are sustainable themselves, they want to make sure that their supply chain is also sustainable. It has that knock on effect. So again, that is another program that is live at the moment that local businesses can really make the best of.

 

We also work quite closely with Harts University and West Hart’s College.

 

So again, if businesses are looking to upskill their employees or you as a business owner, there are lots of funded training boot camps that they deliver that businesses can make very much make the most of.

 

There is the Hert’s Opportunities portal, where businesses can post their vacancies and that goes into a whole host of young people within the Borough. And also just.

 

Yeah, in terms of having that upskilling of your staff to retain them and develop them, which is, you know, great for, for a business owner.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:19:00.040 – 00:19:45.540

And I can speak from experience for this because as you met Freddie on your way in.

 

So Freddie’s our junior editor here at Chuffed Productions and he came from Hert’s College and he started out as work experience and the college were brilliant because I.

 

We actually did a little test project and, and took it in and few of them, basically for them to see if they, if it was a kind of thing that they, they wanted to do and wanted to learn and, and to be fair, a few of them were like, this is not what I want to do. But Freddie and a couple of others threw their hat in the ring. We went with Freddie.

 

He did work experience with us for his final year when he was at Harts College and he’s now been with me for nearly three years.

 

Christy Evans

00:19:46.020 – 00:20:46.050

Amazing. I love to hear this.

 

This is great, great stories and it is all about just giving them that little seed and it’s important to know what you don’t want as well as, you know, what you might want to want to go into.

 

And as an example with West Harts College, we recently put a brief into their photography and video students to capture a networking event that we ran locally.

 

And it was great because, you know, we get sort of then coverage and edited video, but also, you know, photography and it just gives them a live project to work on something real for their portfolios and CV. And just being out there in the, in the real world, you know, there were business owners there and they were mixing and mingling.

 

So I think it’s, you know, real opportunity. If, you know, businesses out there can give an opportunity of work shadowing and work experience, the college and university will snap your hand off.

 

You know, it’s so important, I think,

 

Ben Baldwin

00:20:46.050 – 00:21:21.740

for the small businesses out there as well. Again, I can speak from experience.

 

It can be tricky because if you’re the business owner and you’ve got a small team, you feel as if you’ve got to kind of hold their hand or be there and, and you do need to give them the time because it’s only fair, you know, on, on that young person to come in and that you, you do give them your knowledge.

 

So from my experience, we say make sure you’ve got that time, but when you have, like I say, it can turn into something, you know, really great for some member of staff that’s been with me for three years and is an integral part of the business now.

 

Christy Evans

00:21:21.740 – 00:21:22.860

Yeah, it’s fantastic.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:21:22.860 – 00:21:54.000

And I love the fact that that’s what you’re doing as a council as well and as part of the economic development is getting people without experience involved and giving them that experience.

 

Because particularly with things like photography, like videography, it is very hands on and you learn on the job and until you’re actually in the real world, as it were with them, that’s when you start to develop. I always liken it to driving in a car. It’s like you can have as many driving tests and driving lessons as you like.

 

You don’t learn how to really drive until you pass your test.

 

Christy Evans

00:21:54.160 – 00:22:17.360

Absolutely, yeah, yeah. And again, you know, there’s different disciplines as well. It’s not just photography and video.

 

I put a brief in for graphics design students to design a logo for us, but they do copyright him website. So again, that’s a great facility.

 

It’s a win, win, win for the students but also for small businesses that can’t afford that, they can put a brief brief into the students.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:22:17.920 – 00:22:18.480

Brilliant.

 

Christy Evans

00:22:19.260 – 00:23:48.630

We can also refer into Herts Futures for apprenticeship support as well because you know you’re talking about taking Freddie on. There are different ways of upskilling and bringing new talent in.

 

An apprenticeship is an ideal way of that and we have a specific officer that’s at Herts County Council that can help support and navigate particularly small businesses through the whole apprenticeship process.

 

Because I think, you know, they shy away from it, they don’t really understand the process and our contact there can help them through all that paperwork.

 

They can help to find a course supplier so a training provider and they can also look at apprenticeship Levy transfer to help try and fund some of that as well.

 

So again, a great resource and we had a fantastic success example of this with Kent Brushes that are based locally, they make, they’ve got the royal warrant for making loads of hairbrushes or paintbrushes, everything, everything family run business and they struggled for years and years to get an apprenticeship because they hand draw their, their brushes and it’s a bit of a dying trade and they wanted some young fresh blood in there. And Leslie the, the apprenticeship officer literally came in, she sorted them out with an apprenticeship training provider.

 

Exactly what in terms of the woodwork, of the brush heads.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:23:48.630 – 00:23:49.030

Yeah.

 

Christy Evans

00:23:49.590 – 00:23:57.270

And yeah, they just said, God, for years we were struggling with this and now it’s really worked and they’re looking to, you know, continue with that and

 

Ben Baldwin

00:23:57.270 – 00:24:17.010

I think there’s going to be more young people wanting to go into apprenticeships just because of the cost of going into higher education. I mean, I don’t think I know we can, we, we’ve all seen already the statistics of that, their apprenticeships.

 

So I think it’s a win, win for business and for those young people looking for a career, particularly in something, something like that.

 

Christy Evans

00:24:17.170 – 00:24:17.970

Absolutely.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:24:18.130 – 00:24:33.570

So all of this then, Christy. I know there’s a newsletter because I’m on the newsletter. I’m hoping the podcast will be on the newsletter very soon. I’m sure it will be.

 

So is the one portal that we can direct people to, to get the support.

 

Christy Evans

00:24:33.730 – 00:25:12.050

So we provide a fortnightly business newsletter. So anything that we do or anything that any of our partners do or I hear about, I think that would be really useful.

 

It all goes into that newsletter. So it could be funding, training, workshops, networking.

 

We also have business pages on our website that incorporate all the workshops that we do at the business centre.

 

We also list all the local networking groups as well because that’s a great way to build connections locally, local knowledge and you know, sort of drive awareness. And all of the other programs that I’ve just spoken about are available on the website.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:25:12.290 – 00:25:25.410

Superb. And we can often find you at these networking events as well. I know you’ve got three, three this week, a few next week.

 

But it’s great that people will be able to meet with you face to face, and talk about these things.

 

Christy Evans

00:25:25.490 – 00:25:54.850

Absolutely.

 

And you know, very happy to follow up after that because the networking events can be a bit busy and noisy but it’s all about that relationship building.

 

So absolutely we can do follow up meetings online or come to the business centre just to chat a little bit more and almost sort of triage the business to understand where they’re at, what are their challenges, what are their opportunities, how we can help, support, refer, introduce, connect. So yeah, very happy to speak to businesses.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:25:55.009 – 00:26:05.170

Great stuff.

 

Now I want to turn our attention to something that’s happening this month of March and actually entries for a competition that you’re running that close on the

 

Christy Evans

00:26:05.410 – 00:26:10.840

24th of March, I think nearly 25th, 21st. You’ve got an extra day to apply.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:26:11.630 – 00:26:14.590

Tell us all about Dacorum Dragons Den.

 

Christy Evans

00:26:14.910 – 00:27:06.350

Yeah, okay, well Dacorum’s Den is our version of Dragon’s Den. So it’s a business grant fund so small businesses can apply online and then pitch for some funding to help their business grow.

 

And the way that this works is that we approach bigger businesses in the borough. They’re our sponsors, they’re our Dragons, as it were.

 

And so we’ve got a pot of funding and I think this is really important because these days and since we’ve left Europe, there isn’t that much business funding around. It’s the first thing when I speak to a business, as they say, have you got any, you know, grant funding?

 

So this is a fantastic way for Dacorum Council to be able to, to provide funding for small businesses. So it’s now in its 12th year and over that period we’ve given.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:27:06.670 – 00:27:09.110

Wow, I didn’t realise it’d been going for 12 years. Wow.

 

Christy Evans

00:27:09.110 – 00:27:17.610

Absolutely. I wish I could say I dreamt it up and it was my baby, but it wasn’t. I inherited it. But it. Yeah, it’s a fantastic looking, looking after

 

Ben Baldwin

00:27:17.610 – 00:27:19.370

it and nurturing it for these years as well.

 

Christy Evans

00:27:19.370 – 00:27:43.290

Absolutely, yeah. So we’ve given over £114,000 to 88 local businesses.

 

And, you know, this is a great way to be able to, you know, provide that funding support to help businesses grow. Or it could be a new startup. So somebody that’s got a great idea and they need some funding to get started and build some momentum.

 

We usually say you sort of pitch for about a thousand pounds.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:27:43.290 – 00:27:43.770

Okay.

 

Christy Evans

00:27:43.770 – 00:29:50.530

So that’s the sort of, the sort of size pop. Yeah. However, we have given up to £2,500 away before.

 

I think that was to a local dog groomers who was wanting a new doggy spa bath and obviously did a fantastic pitch and the judges felt like actually, you know, they’d like to give more money to, to fund that. So you could for part funding as long as you then demonstrate how you’re going to fund the rest of it. The application is really simple.

 

It’s just online where you just sort of, you know, have a think about what you want the money for and how that’s going to grow your business.

 

And the feedback that we’ve had before from some of the previous participants and winners is that actually just taking the time out to think about the application, to think about how they’re going to grow their business. Everybody, you know, small business owner, they’re in their business, they’re in it and they need to work on it.

 

So just having that time and having an application form that’s forcing you to sit down and have a think about that is a really good, you know, time well spent. And also, you know, we’ve had comments from, from previous winners.

 

I think it just gives them a real confidence boost because they have big businesses in the borough that sit on the judging panel, MDs of, you know, these businesses that buy into their business, they get them, they want to fund them and that just gives them a massive confident boost to go, yeah, I’m doing the right thing. And that sort of, you know, motivates them.

 

As they come out of that pitch presentation, you can see they’re sort of walking on air, you know, really feeling pleased with, with, you know, the backing that they have. And you know, we do, you know, call it Dacorum’s Den and we have referred to the Dragons, but they’re not, it’s not scary like the TV program.

 

They’re not that dragony. They really do want to, you know, back and support businesses and you certainly don’t have to give a percentage of your business up.

 

It is purely a grant fund.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:29:51.250 – 00:30:16.080

Brilliant stuff.

 

I’m really pleased that we’re gonna have a couple of the winners on episode two of the podcast, which will actually go out at the same time as episode one. As we’re launching, we’re gonna put two episodes out together so we’ll find out from them what the experience was like.

 

But it’s not just a fill out a form. Go stand in front of them and see what happens. You help them with the pitch as well, don’t you?

 

Christy Evans

00:30:16.400 – 00:30:42.980

Yeah, absolutely. I mean the money obviously is great, but we’ve had feedback also over the last few years is we put together a business support package.

 

So before they go into pitch, Sales Geek Leigh Cohen, again using local, local businesses. He runs a workshop for them all with hints and tips.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:30:43.060 – 00:30:44.460

This is Leigh, from Sales Geek.

 

Christy Evans

00:30:44.460 – 00:30:59.490

Yep. So that they get that sort of workshop and then he does a one to one surgery with each of them for an hour. We set up at the business centre.

 

So we set the panel up as it would look on the day he videos them. If they’re happy to do that.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:30:59.490 – 00:31:00.010

Yeah.

 

Christy Evans

00:31:00.250 – 00:31:28.560

So they can have a practice in front of me and Leigh and we can give feedback and you know, they feedback that that was really valuable. And I think it’s just that practice being able to practice in a safe environment and you know, you can give them little tweaks and pointers.

 

So I think they feel a lot more confident then when they come back in for the real thing to be able to pitch. So that is support before the pitch presentation.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:31:28.720 – 00:31:42.640

Just to say I’m a massive fan of Leigh’s because I’ve worked with him and he does give so much back to the local business community and we’re definitely going to get him as a guest on the podcast because his sales teachings are brilliant.

 

Christy Evans

00:31:42.800 – 00:31:59.420

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Again, he’s run a sales club at the business centre and now he’s on board for a second year giving his time up.

 

And again, you know, it could be up to about 10 businesses that one to one support. It’s a lot of time to, to. So we are very, very grateful for his expertise.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:31:59.420 – 00:32:00.860

They will learn lots from him.

 

Christy Evans

00:32:00.860 – 00:33:18.870

Yeah. As with our other support package providers, also the winners get some marketing support. Okay, this is from Bloom with BB Jules Rennison.

 

Again, this is the second year that she’s provided this marketing support. And what’s great about it is it, it’s bespoke. She’ll sit down with them and go, right, where are you at? What, what do you need?

 

Is it focused on your social media? Is it about your branding? Is it about your proposition? It’s about your website.

 

And then there’s a certain amount of time that she is allocated to be able to support those businesses. And again, really great, great feedback. So it’s not just, here you go, there’s the money off your pop.

 

You know, we’re there, we’ve got support package providers and also we are also on hand. That’s just the start of the relationship with these businesses. We then are in constant sort of contact with them to help support along the way.

 

They also get a free bronze membership to Connected Dacorum, which I think is the longest standing networking group in the borough. It’s run by Community Action Dacorum, so they’ve very kindly given up bronze membership there.

 

So again, there’s an opportunity to connect locally, build your network as part of this, this program.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:33:19.750 – 00:33:26.230

So for getting yourself out of your comfort zone, getting yourself in front and doing a pitch, there’s a lot of value in return from that.

 

Christy Evans

00:33:26.710 – 00:33:32.070

Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s worth, you know, pushing yourself, you know, out, out of your comfort zone.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:33:32.710 – 00:33:39.110

So it’s pretty much for any business of a certain size, isn’t it? So let me get this right up to 10 headcount.

 

Christy Evans

00:33:39.270 – 00:33:58.770

Yeah. So again, we are focusing this on small businesses that do need that monetary support. So there are some sort of T’s and C’s around.

 

You need to be based in the borough. You need to have 10 headcount or less and under 500,000 turnover.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:33:58.850 – 00:33:59.330

Okay.

 

Christy Evans

00:33:59.330 – 00:34:05.570

Just so that we’re making sure that the money’s going to those businesses that really sort of need that, that sort of level of funding.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:34:05.730 – 00:34:21.410

All right. And just to remind it, I’LL get it right this time. Entries close on the 25th of March again, all the details we will put in the show notes.

 

If you fancy doing Dacorums Den and getting all that support.

 

Christy Evans

00:34:21.890 – 00:34:33.890

Absolutely. And we’re on hand as well if you need. If businesses need any help with that application.

 

We can, you know, help sort of ask any questions and answer any questions and support in that way.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:34:34.050 – 00:34:43.010

So, Christy, we’ve spoken lots about the council. Tell me a little bit about yourself. What do you love about living in the borough and what do you love about your job?

 

Christy Evans

00:34:43.330 – 00:36:10.630

What do I love about my job? I guess, what’s not to love? We’re here helping businesses and I get huge, you know, satisfaction from that.

 

It’s almost like you’re, you know, you’re sort of babies and when you see them thrive, and particularly when you have on some of the previous winners in the next podcast, it’s just great to see they’ve got that money and how they’re moving forward and, you know, and how that develops the local economy for some of these businesses as they grow, they’ll then employ locally, supply chain locally. So it’s. That’s a sort of pleasure in my job, I guess, in terms of the locality here, I mean, Dacorum.

 

And Berkhamsted is really well placed, really close to London, so you can access it quite quickly into London airports, you know, train links, but also it’s a great place to live.

 

We’ve got some really great green spaces, the Chilterns, but also just for leisure, there’s plenty of climbing walls, caving, indoor ski centre, you know, you name it, it’s all there. But I think from my perspective from economic development is just in terms of the business opportunity here.

 

We’ve got the Maylands Industrial Estate, which is one of the biggest in south of England with big employers, you know, attracting employees to, you know, into the borough and, yeah, helping, you know, businesses thrive.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:36:10.950 – 00:36:16.230

Brilliant. Christy, thank you very much for being my very first guest on the Berko and Beyond podcast.

 

Christy Evans

00:36:16.310 – 00:36:17.350

It’s been a pleasure.

 

Ben Baldwin

00:36:18.870 – 00:36:51.940

Thank you for watching and listening to this episode of Berko and Beyond.

 

The links to everything we’ve talked about or mentioned today are in the show notes or in the summary below this video, along with the links to all our social media channels where we’d really appreciate a follow and a share. Don’t forget to subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. It really does make a massive difference to us.

 

And if you’d like to be a guest on the show, then send us an email to podcast@clarem140.sg-host.com. thanks again for watching and I’ll see you next week.