April 2011

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Copeland Borough Council have arranged for ‘The Shop Doctor’ to spend a day in May evaluating the retail scene in Millom as part of an excercise to help revitalise trading opportunities.

Following the day visiting the key retail areas The Shop Doctor will present an evening Masterclass detailing his thoughts about the visual impact that Millom retailers make on their customers, and recommending cost effective routes to develop business performance.

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 8 rural businesses in Cheshire East will be receiving a ‘surgery’ visit from the Shop Doctor during April.

Shops in Gawsworth, Cholmondeley and Sutton have already been visited  enabling the Shop Doctor to evaluate issues impacting on business performance and helping identify cost effective solutions to develop sales.

Each of the shops provides a bespoke service to its local community from the one month old (and extremely well presented) community shop operating with a paid manager and 23 volunteers in Gawsworth to the superbly equipped and stocked Farm Shop at Cholmondeley and the wide convenience offering at Sutton Lane Ends.

Opportunities were identified at each shop and these will be incorporated into a comprehensive written recommendations ‘prescription’ highlighting routes to enhance performance.

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6 April 2011 was the first Common Commencement Date (CCD) of 2011. This event, which happens twice a year, is where key government departments issue new regulations and make changes to existing ones. Some of these changes simplify existing legislation for businesses.

Business Link is committed to providing the latest news and relevant information for your business. For your convenience, they have summarised the key points of the changes and the action you may need to take in order to comply.

Visit their website to check if any of the new regulations apply to your business.

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Following the winding up of South Lakes Development Trust (www.sldt.co.uk) Let’s Talk Shop Ltd has taken on the key business support activities originally established by the Trust to help support small local businesses in South Lakeland.

A range of support services are now available from bespoke telephone call handling in the name of the local business or general handling of transferred calls.

By filtering out unnecessary sales calls or ensuring that customers are talking to ‘real people’ rather than taking the risk of recorded messages not being picked up the service proves invaluable to small business operators.

For more information refer to our Business Support page.