Two young local entrepreneurs, Peter Quittenton and Christian Salter, have bought specialist recruitment agency, Driver Hire Lincoln.

Peter (24) and Christian (24) already know the business well because they both worked for the previous owner.

“Over the last few years, at our appraisals, our boss asked us about our long-term plans,” says Peter. “We always said, when he decided to sell, we’d love to make the business ours. And now our dream’s come true.”

Before joining the Driver Hire Lincoln team, Peter, having successfully completed an Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) Level 4 diploma, was working on a farm and doing evening work in a bar. Christian joined Driver Hire in 2014 as a school leaver apprentice. Over the past eight years he’s learnt the recruitment business from bottom to top and is now eagerly looking forward to using that knowledge to take Driver Hire Lincoln to new heights.

“Our respective skill sets work really well together,” Peter continues. “We’ve got away to a flying start and there’s definitely more scope for us to develop the business further. We both love working for Driver Hire and now the business is ours it’s even more rewarding.”        

SME insurer Superscript has found that complacent attitudes among employees towards cybersecurity is putting UK businesses more at risk. In a survey of 1,500 UK employees, 40% feel that upholding cybersecurity best practice is not their responsibility. Alarmingly, over a third (34%) claimed to be unaware of what preventative measures their company has in place to prevent such an attack, despite 53% claiming they rely on the systems their employers have in place to keep them safe. 45% stated they felt unconcerned about a cyber-attack as their employers should ensure they have insurance in place to cover any related losses. These findings emphasise the complacent attitudes employees have towards their role in keeping the workplace safe. Cameron Shearer, Co-Founder & CEO at Superscript commented, “A digital presence is a necessity for all modern businesses. This opens up new risks, and with the widespread adoption of hybrid working cyber attacks are sadly becoming more prevalent. It is important that businesses approach protection with a full 360° view. As a first step, businesses should be educating employees about the collective responsibility to cybersecurity and instil good habits. This is just as important as ensuring they have protective systems in place in case they are attacked, and insurance in place in case of a successful attack.” Even with the adoption of more advanced cybersecurity measures including biometric, multi-factor and computer recognition authentication, one in five (21%) still believe passwords to be the most secure measure while more than a quarter (29%) prefer passwords due to their ease of use. In fact, as many as 40% viewed multi-factor authentication as an inconvenience. This preference for convenience might explain common bad password habits identified by this study:

• 34% have changed secure and ‘strong’ workplace passwords to a weaker but more memorable one that does not meet best practice i.e., not long, complex or include symbols
• 31% have shared their workplace passwords with colleagues and people outside of work
• 30% only use two-three different passwords at work
• 15% only use one password at work
• 12% did not change their password when notified that it had been compromised

Jamie Akhtar, CEO and co-founder of CyberSmart said, “We have certainly seen an increased awareness among businesses, particularly SMEs, with regard to cybersecurity in the last couple of years. While encouraging, the next step requires us to make the transition from knowing ‘what to do’ to ‘how to do it’ and getting those best practices embedded into company culture. Now more than ever, businesses need to take a holistic approach to cybersecurity. It is no longer enough to rely solely on basic password practices. Rather, businesses and their employees must take on board other measures from regular security awareness training and implementing MFA, to updating software as well as adopting cyber insurance.” Employees had cited that virtual private network (VPN), antivirus software upgrades, multi-factor authentication, privacy screens, investment in cybersecurity training and cyber insurance upgrades had been introduced due to increased remote working*. Promisingly, 56% of those surveyed felt confident they knew what steps to take in the event of a cyber-attack or breach on their computer whilst working remotely. An understanding of the risks posed to businesses was also prevalent among employees**. When asked which common cybersecurity risks posed the most danger to their businesses, employees identified business interruption (49%), privacy liability (43%) and payment card data breaches (40%) as the top three threats.

In a bid to support the net zero efforts of the region’s SMEs, East Midlands Chamber is subsidising the cost of 400 one-year licences to access the Zellar sustainability platform. Zellar empowers SMEs to rise to the challenge of climate change by making sustainability simple and actionable. It supports UK businesses with a single view of their emissions and with step-by-step guidance on how to become a more sustainable business. As well as helping them calculate and manage its carbon footprint, the platform helps a business understand its performance against competitors and create a decarbonisation action plan with measurable results. The initiative is one of several being offered as part of the East Midlands Accelerator, a £5.27m project part-funded by the Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund (UKCRF), and which has received an additional £471,000 of match funding from East Midlands Chamber and its partners. It is being delivered in the seven areas of the East Midlands that the Government has chosen for UKCRF support – Bassetlaw, Derbyshire Dales, High Peak, Leicester city, Mansfield, Newark and Sherwood, and Nottingham city. The first 400 businesses to sign up from an eligible UKCRF area – regardless of whether they are a Chamber member or not – will be granted a year’s fully-subsidised access to Zellar. East Midlands Chamber deputy chief executive Diane Beresford said: “The importance of net zero to the East Midlands Accelerator project is reflected in the fact it forms one of five key strands. In fact, it’s a condition of the Accelerator grants and growth vouchers that a business commits to a sustainability plan within six months of receiving the funding. “By helping businesses to gain green business skills, invest in net zero business practices, and access financial support to start their journey towards net zero or carbon neutrality, we’re building a much more Sustainable East Midlands. The Zellar platform is at the heart of that ambition.” Gary Styles, CEO and founder of Zellar, added: “As a proud Leicestershire resident, I know only too well the important role that East Midlands industry plays in the national economy. From the manufacturing powerhouses of our cities to the cottage industries of the Peaks and Dales, every business can, in some way, reduce their carbon footprint. “Businesses need and want to stand up and be counted, and change their energy-inefficient business practices, especially as energy costs are so high right now. The problem is they don’t always know how. “East Midlands Chamber is our flagship Chamber project, and we’re delighted to be partnering in such an active, innovative region. We’ll be hosting dedicated drop-in sessions for eligible East Midlands businesses every Wednesday, and look forward to showing them how best to use Zellar to achieve their sustainability goals and build a forward-thinking sustainable business community.”

Ahead of Mental Health Awareness Week (9 -13 May) new research from Grant Thornton UK LLP shows that mid-market employers are looking to increase investment in supporting their people’s mental health over the next 12 months. From the 604 respondents to Grant Thornton’s latest Business Outlook Tracker survey, around half (47%) intend to increase their investment in mental health support in the coming year. Employer support for mental health has been an increasingly important investment priority for business leaders, with 51% saying they are investing more in their people’s mental health now than they did 12 months ago. The study found that the pandemic had increased employers’ awareness of the importance of investing in mental health, with half of respondents saying they currently arrange regular mental health check-ins with their people, and train and provide mental health first aiders. The prevalence of hybrid working is also having a positive effect on general employee wellbeing. Of the businesses surveyed, 310 were adopting a hybrid working approach and most of these businesses (65%) believe it is improving their people’s wellbeing. Whilst mental health is clearly high on the agenda for business leaders, more support is needed for mid-market employers in developing programmes and policies to do this effectively, with 21% of respondents saying they don’t currently have a clearly articulated mental health strategy. Sue Knight, partner and practice leader at Grant Thornton UK LLP in the Midlands, said: “We know that healthy people are more likely to have higher functioning cognitive capacity and therefore are better able to respond to stress. At Grant Thornton, our people take pride in delivering outstanding service for clients, and that can be challenging. When people have a high functioning, healthy stress response, challenge can energise performance, often enabling us to perform at our best by helping us to think quickly, solve problems and interact fully. “However, this balance can easily tip, so we need to be vigilant in looking out for the signs of burnout in ourselves and others, putting effort and conscious action in place to mitigate for that. If we care for our brain in the same way as we care for our physical bodies, it supports us to be more resilient to pressure and change, creating sustainable healthy performance in organisations. “Here at Grant Thornton, we are creating a culture of living well by investing in the psychological, physical and financial health of our people. To highlight the importance of mental health in the workplace in line with Mental Health Awareness week, we’re encouraging all our people managers to complete structured check ins (one to one conversations) about health and wellbeing with their direct reports within the month of May.”

Managing finances is critical in every aspect of life. From your personal finances through to those more professional, we have the utmost belief that you, the reader, are doing all that you can to keep yourself afloat. Following a period of financial difficulty throughout the pandemic, the country faces a new bout of stressors through the likes of energy costs and fuel increases. Ultimately, the first thing you want to do when reading this sort of information is to find a way to keep your costs low or find a way to manage increasing costs. This extends beyond your household finances, too; businesses are also feeling the impact of increased costs for services. While existing business owners might have a plan of action to weather the storm, those who are seeking to open an enterprise in the coming weeks or months might find themselves a bit more unsure. That being said, those of you in this position who are reading this piece have found themselves in the right place at the right time. We have compiled a helpful list of suggestions below, tailored towards keeping business costs low as a budding entrepreneur. Read on for more! Create and Manage Your Budget It goes without saying, but when wanting to keep your business costs low, you should make an effort to stick to any relevant business budgets you have set yourself. Going above and beyond in your spending will more than likely drive up your business costs and could be detrimental in the short and long term. Creating a list of your regular outgoings versus your income will give you a better idea of your finances and provide a foundation from which to work moving forward. However, any business owner and entrepreneur know that reductions have to be made in various areas of your company when keeping costs low. Unfortunately, this sometimes includes making redundancies within your business, which nobody enjoys. Should you be in a position where you have to make a decision like this, you are likely considering how to make the process run a bit smoother for all parties involved while also keeping your costs low. You should check how an outplacement works, for this is a useful resource to use in instances like this. It is also a resource that can save your company money; what more do you want? On the other hand, you should also be thinking of ways that you can improve your financial situation. Finding new avenues for generating revenue is something that most entrepreneurs do regularly but is something worth mentioning in this piece all the same. This takes us to the following section. Generate New Forms of Revenue This might not be the first thing you think about when intending to keep your business costs low; it is worth making a note of all the same. Generating more income for your business is a sure way to keep your business costs low and ensure that your company stays afloat for longer. Not to mention, you will have more budget to play around with and will feel confident in your ability to pay for any outgoings that your business may have. Thinking about what niches in the market you will be able to fill is the first port of call. Making adjustments in your business to accommodate this newly offered product or service is also required; should you be offering something similar to your existing services, this is a process that should run smoothly. Who knows, you might even find new and innovative means of undertaking a task within your business, which could reduce your operating costs. Regarding reducing operating costs, this takes us to the final section in this piece. Negotiate Costs of Production Particularly if you are a business with a significant manufacturing and operations budget, you will likely be spending a vast majority of your budget on the running and upkeep of certain machinery. Whether you have in-house manufacturing or outsource this elsewhere, you should think about how you can negotiate any costs associated as a means of saving yourself money and bringing your business costs down. Navigating a process like this can be challenging, and it is a skill that plenty of entrepreneurs work upon throughout their careers. Most people think of the negotiations on shows like The Apprentice when picturing a situation like this, but there are plenty more layers. It would help if you started by developing a working relationship and rapport with the person/s you intend to negotiate with. Being impersonal in your approach is sure to backfire, and you might even get a better deal with someone you have developed a working relationship with. Negotiating contracts and costs relating to the running of your business will leave you with more funds in your back pocket while also ensuring that your company is still able to run and generate an income.