Our host for the morning is Curt Bean, Managing Director of Cloud9 Insight. Who will be introducing these speakers and topics:

Apprenticeships; Driving innovation, growth and diversity for business, Paul Rolfe, Associate Principal, Employers and Stakeholders, Chichester College Group (Guest Speaker)

Apprenticeships offer a cost-effective and impactful way to attract new talent as well as upskilling existing talent in your business. Paul will demystify apprenticeships, giving case studies on how they have been used in various local businesses to support diversity, growth and innovation.

Building the culture, Elissa Pette, People and Culture Director, Cloud9 Insight (event sponsor):

In the early days of business scaling, it is important to set up the ideal culture and company paradigm. Getting the most suitable first 20 people on the bus is vital in making this work. Effective recruitment of those key roles sets up your culture and helps to then retain the best. What are best processes and systems you should be implementing for inductions, probations, retention and how do you get the best out of your people? A true expert in this field, Elissa will give you some great insight, takeaways and tips for success.

Tempted to acquire, Adrian Alexander, partner at FRP Advisory (event sponsor) :

Bringing your management and employees into ownership can be fundamental to helping your company grow. Adrian Alexander from FRP Corporate Finance will explain how a ‘Two Step’ Management Buyout or an Employee Ownership Trust can help facilitate this whilst also providing an alternative exit plan for the owners. He will explain how this can really drive growth and benefit all of the stakeholders in the business.

The drive for efficiency, Gerry Lawrence, Regional Director at Freeman Clarke (event sponsor) :

Your business is doing well, sales are on the up, but so are costs. Finding the right people to grow the business further is becoming a challenge. You were expecting to get economies of scale as the business grows, but you seem to be adding people as revenue grows and those savings always seem to be just out of reach. Your aim is to keep growing, but simultaneously drive efficiency, improve reliability and improve client engagement all at the same time. Is too much to ask? Or is this the roadmap for your next phase of growth?

Legal Considerations, Karen Lord, Partner at Healys (event sponsor):

Having heard about some of the things you can do to grow your business, how do you make sure that you are taking care of things from a legal perspective, those things that as your organisation grows you may need to focus on? You want to grow but you need to do it properly and legally. In this session Karen will discuss some of the key legal risks you might face and how you can make the law work for you and your business.