169 - An essential listen for all SMEs in Surrey

Champ Consultants is an award winning independent firm of highly experienced, qualified accountants and tax advisors based in Caterham, providing a fully comprehensive range of accountancy and tax services. If you would like simple but creative answers to your tax problems, called Champ Consultants your business partner on one double eight three three four nine three hundred. Good morning, and welcome to your business hour with me Chantelle Me Matthew, and today we welcome Charlotte as a guest.

Good morning, Charlotte, Good morning. So. Charlotte is a project manager at Surrey Chambers of Commerce, where she leads the Source in Surrey initiatives. And if you like me, you've probably just gone what Source in Surrey initiative?

But she's going to tell us that later on. She does say. It's a program dedicated to helping local SMEs connect, collaborate, and grow through stronger supply chain relationship and community driven networking. With a career shaped by people communication and a passion for helping others thrive, Charlotte brings a rare blend of commercial experience, educational expertise, and general community spirit to her work.

She begangan her career in conferences and events, taking her to beautiful venues and putting her in front of organizations such as Xerox, Open University, Barclay's, and Mars. And she has a wide range of I can we say corporal entities where she's worked at, including Blockbuster, Wilworth's, BP Texico and on Wines, on Winds, onwine Winds, Unwinds, Winds. I don't know, probably not. We're going back a bit now, we are, So we are going to be chatting to Charlotte a bit about her career, what she did and how she got into this.

And she does call herself actually a ski guiggly career expert, and I love that, so we will find out more about this, So welcome Charlotte. So what is a squiggly career expert? There? That's a phrase I've coined from Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis, who they've got their own podcast and have written books helping people navigate their career path and recognizing that people don't tend to have that straight line trajectory anymore of you know, working their way up through one business or even one sector.

So I have stolen it completely from them, because it really resonated with me that I have pivoted a lot over the journey of my career. So take us back to the journey of your career then and how you ended up doing what you do now then. Gosh. So in the very early days, I always jumped on board with what my mum was doing.

She was in sort of hotels, you know, hospitality industry, etc. Those nice little part time jobs, and loved being around a lot of customers all the time. So each time she moved I managed to get a little move where she was going. I suppose the big one that really influenced.

Me was working for Ico Fujitsu and Old Windsor at a big conference center. There was absolutely stunning venue, and that's where I started to get to know companies like Xerox, the Open University and really interacting with their sort of commercial directors and people like that and listening to them, hearing how their businesses were running. So I started off in that sort of area and in events. But then I quite early had children, three young children, so had to move away from the job that I really loved at Mars were for Mars Confectionery, so literally Mars bars, Snickers bars, all of those lovely products.

After SCIL did amazing every week, so much free chocolate, free males, ice creams, all those sorts of things, which you know in fantastic. Part of my job there was to go and buy competitor product as well, so I'd be out around the shops buying it, and of course we would then eat it afterwards. So luckily I love chocolate, so it worked well. But this was way back when flexible.

Working didn't really exist. You know, there was no such thing as hybrid working. There was no zoom and teams. So once I had my children, you know, Mars were very great company to work for, but they wanted to know what your next career of me was and I really didn't know, you know, really torn between being a mother but also wanting to work.

So I went back into conferencing events, hotels and that sort of thing, but then felt those hours didn't really work with children either, So then got into schools when my children went to school, and thought, I can do what those two are doing, or I want to do it, and I really felt I could do it as well as the people I was watching, So I went away and did my teaching degree, still working four days a week in schools with children and delivering whole class lessons whilst doing my degree at the same time.

So I've spent the best part of the last sort of ten to seven years dipping in and out of teaching at primary schools. Oh wow, okay, and so how do you now end up doing what you're doing now? Then? So that's, you know, as I said, a bit of a squeagly career.

I do quite like change. I like doing different things. So I'd come to the end lots has changed in schools, particularly since COVID. I feel real change.

In behaviors and attitudes. And you know, it wasn't quite what I'd been used to and what I'd really enjoyed about the role. So I started looking back to my old days of networking events and that desire to work with businesses again and work with adults after all that time with children. And very very fortunate that I had a friend who knows the chains of commerce and said, I've seen a role I think you'd be really good at it.

Send me your LinkedIn profile now and I'll get it over to Louise Punter, who was the CEO at the time. And what was amazing about Louise was that she really recognized the transferable skills that people have. She can really understand squiggly careers and how people might want to move and careers can overlap, and she saw my ability to present to network with people, connect the dots. I love problem solving.

I look for patterns in things, and I think within about forty five minutes she was asking me whether I wanted to work for her, rather than me having to persuade her that I was the right person. So very very fortunate to get that role as soon as I'd left teaching. And I think that's really good because nowadays life careers are very very varied, aren't they. And even when you go and run your own business, you might have started a corporate career or whatever career you might have started and then end up running your own business.

There's so many skills that you learn throughout your journey that when you rub your business that you didn't realize that they were skills that you have later on in life. Absolutely, and that's what I did. Spend two years prior to getting this role, building up on all my knowledge again and what transferable skills I really did have, and having to really unpick the things I do as a teacher on a day to day basis, and then becoming a mentor and a coacher of newly qualified teachers and realizing how transferable all of that was, And since joining the Chambers, the amount of people I've met who are running their own businesses who've had very different careers.

For example, I met a lady a couple of weeks ago. She was working for Spotify for over ten years. She's now got her own business elevators or grazing, platters and boards for conferences and private catering, you know, so different to Spotify. But again she's building on all her networking sales skills, negotiation.

Skills, etc. So the source in Surrey initiative, what is it? In a bit more detail. What is it?

Well, originally it was Louise Punter's brainchild. She applied for an award with Surrey County Council to get grant funding for a new project and it's from the Economic Growth Fund, which obviously directly comes from the UK Government. And she had this. Idea after twenty five years of working in Surrey and at the Chambers and really understanding businesses.

She had an idea of how to make sure businesses could grow through getting more customers. And she could really see that there is so much money in Surrey. It's the second largest economy in England to London, fifty billion a year and she wanted to make sure that our SMEs are small and medium enterprises could tap into that money. And we've got huge businesses in Surrey.

You know Kimberly Clark's in Surrey, You've got McLaren in Surrey. So many big big names with huge budgets. But why is that not always being spent with our SMEs who are so highly skilled, so many great ways that they can fulfill the contracts that these big businesses are looking for, and yet they're not often being used. Quite often people are relying on preferred supplies that might be a national supplier when actually they could get the same service or product provided in Surrey.

So it's all about creating a platform for Surrey SMEs to grow and win more contracts with the local big players. And so how does so if you are an SME, because sorry is full of SMEs. If you are an SME, how do you get involved and how do you benefit from. This okay, So this year we're grant funded, so everything we can offer is free, so it's you know, a win win for everybody, really easy way to get involved.

So there's a series of events. So we're on next week. We're in Guilford at our seventh road show out of ten. We're coming across the whole of Surrey, come right out as far as Tandridge and we've been to Surrey Heath, all over the place.

So the road shows are events where it's like a regular networking event with other SMEs. But we've also then brought in guest speakers. We wanted local people who could offer practical advice and top tips that literally our SMEs could walk out the door and go and put into practice without spending any money. So we have had a number of people, you Miller, you is talking at Guilford about marketing your business.

We've had Mark Peacock talking about competitive pricing for your business. We've had Morgan Arnell from Reigate, who I don't know if you know, Crumbs Brewing, he's Chief Crummer. That's his really entitle he's given himself. So they give top tips of their their journeys, their experiences of running their own businesses and how other businesses can translate that and take that away with them.

So we've got that side of it on the road shows. Then we are also providing sales skills training for businesses, so we've employed the skills of Anita Sani from HX Solutions, who has got a wealth of experience in bidding for contracts negotiating with big buyers, so she's training up businesses. There's been six of those in total. I think we were on the third ones at Jaguar Landrover in Sunbury's coming up free again.

Four hours for your staff to get trained up. How often do you get the opportunity. To train your staff for nothing, especially where budgets are tight at the moment, you know, it's one of those areas people cut back on and people are walking out the room from Anita's sessions going can you come and work with our teams? How can we book with you?

So already we're doing that business to business connection just with Anita. She's getting so many inquiries. So then there is. Also an AI powered business to business matchmaking platform which people A couple of people said, oh, do you mean like Tinder for business?

Love that I've tried to steer away from. But essentially it is a platform we've had built where bias can go on and write about their opportunity, a service or a product that they require for their business. A sorry sme can be on there, have built their profile, and then you click match and the buyer should then be sent a list of businesses who can provide the service or products that they are looking for. We've done a lot of research with big.

MISS businesses Taylor Wimpe Waits Construction for example, Gatwick Heathrow and their buyers procure and procurement managers often are still googling for things they need and we're like, well, let's make that simple. Let's let's make that an easier process for people. So this AI tool has been built and we're hoping we'll go live very very soon. We've got it just sent to us in the last week excited.

So it's very exciting and it's what lots of people are very excited about. Using and getting their hands on. Basically, the final part of this year's sort of funding that we bringing a buyer Supplier exchange events, so we're going to get our SMEs in front of buyers and procurement managers, commercial managers, so that they can really understand how to become a preferred supplier. How do you get onto these supply chains.

You know, you know you've got a great product or service, but how do you make sure the right people know about it? And how how do you actually decide should we bid for these big contracts are available, or should actually get involved as a subcontractor, or should we build a consortium of businesses to work together and provide the service. So really addressing a lot of the needs that SMEs have told us they're finding, you know, that are barriers to them accessing more more work.

And so once this year, because you've said these events are all free this year, what's the plan going forward? Are we hoping for more funding from the government. Is there something that you've got to reapply for or is that not in the options. It's one of the things that we are just talking about.

We're six months in now, so I get that point where a we can prove the impact it's having already that the positivity around this initiative has been huge, so we can start to look back. It might come in a slightly from a slightly different angle the funding. We're also because we are talking to people such as Gatwick, you know, these huge economies themselves who would be potentially interested in sponsorship. So we're looking at different angles to see what's available.

But the whole point with this initiative is making sure it's relevant for Surry SMEs. So we want to look for funding from people who are really in board with helping SMEs grow. And so how does an SME do they do they apply to sign up or is it free to sign up? Do you just sign up?

And then how do you sign up? Do you have to be a member of them? And that's the bit I love that. Obviously we do great work with our chambers at the Surrey Chains of Commerce and our members absolutely are benefiting from this initiative.

But this is open to all SMEs in Surrey, so. Member on non member and if you never join up that you know, that's fine. But obviously if you join up, I think it gives people a taste of what the Surrey chambers is all about and what you can gain from them. But the easiest way to sign up to any of the events and the AI tool is by emailing us at the source in Surrey email box.

So it's on all our sort of socials. It is out is out there and. Your socials is at Source in Surrey, isn't it exactly? So yeah, if you just go on to is it Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and LinkedIn Source in Surrey, then you can contact you directly.

And hopefully, but you know, by the time few people have heard this that the actual website will be out there as well and you'll just literally be able to google Source in Surrey or one word dot co, dot uk brilliant. So from an experience point of view, you've said that you've had some people on who have really benefited from it. What do you find from your experience that one of the things that people benefit most from. Is it like the networking part of it, or is it like the obtaining free information?

Because everyone loves a freebee, don't we, So is it? And sometimes we always think to ourselves there's no such thing as a free lunch, and sometimes as people, not necessarily business owners, but as humans, we think to ourselves, don't want to go to this event because it's free, because they're probably only going to tell me a little bit of information and I'm going to have to pay a fortune for everything else and therefore I'm not going to want to go. So that could be quite a disadvantage for you.

You really who's selling giving something for nothing? Absolutely, and you know that was part of our marketing was really thinking about if you put free over everything, actually what impression does that give people? And also do people sort of like you're saying, worry about then they're going to be pressured into signing up for something and having to then spend money that they don't really have, or does free minutes of reduced you know, reducing the quality of what you're going to get.

So I've been determined that that is absolutely not the case. So this is what I love about it is it genuinely is free for our Surrey SMEs to benefit from. They do not have to spend anything to join in. And if they come to one event and decide yeah, that was great, but that's done for me and walk away, that's absolutely it.

Nobody's going to be chasing them. They're not going to be receiving tons of marketing from us. It's out there on our socials. They know where to find us.

But what's really interesting from the very first event back in February at Duke's Court in Woking. There has now been businesses that have signed up to three or four more road shows because they've found them so beneficial. So because we've had different guest speakers at each of the events, there's something different to learn every time and you then get to speak to that person at the end as well. We are finding it's really interesting that we're giving the opportunity with each presentation people to ask questions throughout nobody has done so far.

They all save it to the end, wait till everybody's networking a bit and then go and find the key person they want speak to and have that one on one and we build that into the event to make sure there's that time where people do get to speak and go and have their questions answered. But absolutely there's nothing about this that means you're held down and committed to us anything. I really feel we've got such talent in Surrey and I want to make sure this initiative gives them all the opportunity to use the service.

And quite where it will develop next year, we're not quite sure yet, but we are listening to SMEs all the time of what's helpful working We've got feedback from the first couple events saying we'd actually like more time to network. So we've built that into the road shows and we're building that into the Bier supplier exchange events as well. Good old fashioned face to face networking. It really works.

In the last week, I have linked five businesses with other businesses that I knew to maybe partnership in some ideas, whether they'll actually become a customer will make the money. But it's those conversations, isn't it. So the networking is proving really, really valuable. And we're getting such positive feedback as well about the guest speakers that the people are hearing from.

And I said before Anita's sales training, the bars in the room is incredible where people really are learning how to build relationships. We're getting so out of touch with working with each other on a face to face basis. Screens are brilliant. We know it's really economic, you know.

If you're worried about your carbon footprint and things like that, it's great, but nothing beats being in a room with people. And so Surrey, what does that mean? Does it mean your business has to be in Surrey? Because I'm just thinking I'm sitting in Talent with right now.

In ten minutes I could be in Kent and in fifteen minutes I could be in West Sussex. So in this part of Surrey we are very very close to three other counties. So when it's Surrey Source of Surrey Initiative in the SME, is does the SME business has to be operated in Surrey or does how what geographical do we have to have? Absolutely so the SMEs need to have a base in Surrey.

So it may well be you know because obviously with sort of franchises and things like that, but you need to have a base in Surrey. It really is all about business to business by local and helping our Surrey SMEs to grow. And given that the funding has come from Surrey County Council, you know, we really have got to honor that our buyers that we're working with are principally based in Surrey. But obviously we know people like Heathrow and Gatwick who are huge partners with Surrey chains of commerce and are brilliant at working with SMEs, So obviously we're working with them even though their borders just cross Surrey.

So from a buyer side with the larger businesses. We are working with people on the fringes, but we want our Surrey SMEs to benefit. There is an idea you know who knows, I like to think further into the future. Sauce in Surrey, sauce in Hampshire, you know, source in Berkshire.

Who's to say it can't grow into something bigger and certainly the AI platform if it takes off in the way that we're predicting because of the interest we've had, that that can grow as well into two other areas. And so really you could be a work at home person working from home in Surrey or wherever else and you would still qualify because that's another massive part of our SMEs of people who do our work from home people. Absolutely, and with our road shows we have had so many sort of micro businesses, you know, those tens and unders and soule traders as well coming along that we've noticed how much they just need that bit of support and encouragement to get out there and network and to realize that just because you're small, take this from Morgan Arnell or Crumbsbury, just because your small shouldn't stop you thinking big and striving towards working with as bigger partners.

He's done a fantastic job of get his beers into waitros for example. You know he's a small business that started off in you know, he's in Reigate working with bakeries in Rygate to produce his beers. He's got himself into waitros. You know.

So just because you're small, you're a micro. We know you're probably a micro now, but maybe ten years ago you probably would have. Been quite a big company. But technology is allowing us to do so many jobs as individuals and like you say, from home, you don't need a big office space, so size doesn't stop you.

From getting involved. It's more you have to be based and sorry. Yeah, it's very true. Once I met somebody who made donuts from home and they were gluten free, lactose free, not free, completely free, free.

Of any religence, that's the word. And they were based in Croydon and very small business from home and basically are one of selfridges is only free from distributed and that's totally it don't have to have this massive factory to be able to supply a big organization. Absolutely exactly. And we're also finding we're building case studies that we will put onto our website soon as it's live.

The fact that our really large big businesses like Vision Engineering, for example, who in Woking, you know, we're struggling with their cleaning teams coming in because they were coming from further afield and if people are sick, it was hard to get people in. And we've connected them with a much smaller business in Surrey just around the corner though, who can supply exactly what they need, can have really quickly and easy have face to face meetings to ourn out any problems and things.

So just because the new business is smaller has had no detrimental effect at all. It actually means they can operate a lot more flexibly. And that's another thing that the businesses are learning from the road shows of because you're small, can actually flex and adapt really quickly, whereas these big machines of companies that we're so used to thinking, oh, you know, they're the best and they're the ones we should be working with, Well, actually they can't always meet your needs because they can't adapt.

So this whole culture around working with SMEs is what we're trying to change and get the mindset of those big buyers and commercial managers to recognize the talent and opportunity that sary SMEs have got, and we have got a lot of talent. Champ Consultants is an award winning independent firm of highly experienced qualified accountants and tax advisors based in Caterham, providing a fully comprehensive range of accountancy and tax services. If you would like simple but creative answers to your tax problems, called Champ Consultants your business partner on one double eight three three four nine three hundred.

And welcome back to your business hour with me chantal Me and Charlotte, who is leading source in sorry initiative. So we've heard lots about what it does and how people can get involved and whatever else from a point of view of the SMEs who come, No, let me take it back. How new is sourcing? Sorry?

How long has it been going for? Okay, good question. So in September last year, September twenty five, Louise wrote her brief and got the funding from Surrey and she bought myself and two others on as a team. So there's a team completely dedicated to this, which I think is another reason why it's being effective.

More than other projects that you know, similar things have run over the years. So we came on board in November and started straight away with really trying to understand what it was all about. I didn't know what a Chamber of commerce was, I must admit Louise will probably horrified to hear that. Didn't really know what a chambers did?

You know? How people got involved and didn't really understand the SME landscape. So we spent a lot of time as a team making sure we really understood the needs of Surrey and Surrey SMEs etc. So that starts in November when we also started building our AI tool, the matchmaking tool, and then our actual events started mid February six twenty six exactly.

We were very kind to ourselves. We started by our first event was in our home offices in Woking, just to warm ourselves up, which was fantastic. And then yeah, then we came out to Tandridge and then we came out to mull Valley as well, so we really are trying to cover all boroughs and districts in Surrey. So that's a lot of feedback we get from businesses is oh, you never come out our way, So we really are trying to address that with the different events.

I'm really keen to make sure that we do. Get out as far as Tandridge and working with Gatwick makes that easiest for us to do as well. Definitely so as a new organization because it is very new. How Oh, it's a bit weird this question how do you know?

But what you're doing is effective to an SME because somebody might say, oh, you're just a newbief an, I mean, going for six months, how do you know? How? Where's your proof, where's your sort of stuff? I think the whole positioning of this that you know Surrey deciding to award the funding to Surrey Chambers was a brilliant idea because at the end of the day, you've got Chambers that's been running for twenty five years in Surrey, has got such knowledge and connections of Surrey businesses and how they work, not just with Louise as people like Sarah Butcher there who's head of membership and sales, and they've got so many contacts.

So we knew what we already knew what was going on in Surrey. We knew what the needs were as well. We've got huge busines as partners like I keep saying, he throw Gatwick, you know, Jaguar Landrover we're working with as well. We work with all the colleges as well, and Rob Holloway for example, all the f E colleges.

So we're getting feedback all the time from these different businesses, public and private sector. And I think the fact that we had letters of support from so many public and private sector companies when Louise applied for this grant shows that, you know, there's real support there for it. And at the moment we have got two over two hundred businesses have signed up to who want to be the first to get the hands on the AI tool. And they wouldn't do that if they didn't feel it was something that they actually could really add value to their business.

And yes it's free, but there's also the fact behind it. Even big buyers and procurement managers like this could make my life so much easier. This actually could streamline my way of working. So you know, the impact is starting to show already in the fact the numbers we've got signed up to this, and hopefully in the next few days we should be sending out to them.

I think the other messaging about it with semes as we've said, we want their feedback. We really are not sitting you know in our Ivory Tower game. We know everything about sorry, we know everything about SMEs. And what businesses need.

We know a lot, but we want their input as well. So even with the AI tool, everybody that this will go out to in the next week or so, it will be and police send us any feedback. You know, We've got budget there that we can adapt it and change it month by month as well. So we've produced something that with consultation with larger business said what they would be looking for.

So we've built something, but it can be adapted and changed over time. And I suppose really jumping on a bandwagon when it's in its early days mean that you get to benefit more than other organizations because in your buying, in your buying and like precurrement sector there, you haven't got a load of load of people, so there's more likely you might get matched to somebody than if there's a choice of like four thousand people exactly. And the AI behind it has been trained to recognize different contexts and things.

So it's going to be a terrible example to give you. It's only one my brain's thinking of right now. But talking to Gatwick, they did work with people who produced a similar tool quite a few years ago before AI was around, and it did fail for various different reasons, but one of the things was it couldn't pick up on the different context of where these products or services were needed. So their example was, sometimes it's the nuance of the language, and make sure you know English English versus American English.

It will pick up on nuances to do with that. You know, if you're looking for a sink versus a basin, it will understand where that will be because you might have had something else within your profile to do with kitchens or bathroom sort of recognize those. It won't then discount them because the language is strict slightly at odds. So the AI, the intelligence behind the AI is fantastic, and the company with Views have been training it, building profiles into it, so it is trained up ready to read those profiles and match.

Such an amazing world. Yeah, it fantastic. It's so scary. So the next lot of events coming up.

You've got a few more events coming up, haven't you. So you've said you've done some, So we've got some more events coming on. Some of them are training as you mentioned, and you mentioned a lady called Anita say so she's doing some training. These are more about seals and securing contracts.

But there's also other events which don't know if I do understand, so we have a look at those. But the training ones, there's still four more to go before June, right. Absolutely, so four more sales training dates. So the next one on the twenty first of April is at jaguar Land Drove in Sunbury, which I went to a networking event there the other day.

Such a flashy showroom, What an amazing place and it literally they've probably got the best training room I've seen. Will they try and say wowly have a test drive that would be great, but the training room is fantastic. The kit they've got in there is brilliant. And again as part of.

Their sort of community networking and their CSR, you know, they've helped us by providing that venue. So we've got such support from these businesses who are helping us make sure that our SMEs can attend for free. You know, it's not just the grant funding, it's the fact that these businesses are on board as well. And supporting us, so the Jaguar land Rover one will be there from the twenty first fate Pril.

That's the four hour workshop with Anita, So all the training are exactly the same, so you only come to one training. I think you might be a bit of overabs for us. On the east side of the county. The next few events coming a bit further eastern Sunbury, but even though I wouldn't mind seeing their showrooms and yeah stuff.

And then the other ones are you've got the next one's EPSOM. Yeah, so Epsom racecourse. Sorry, this is the global house one get some office space. City Skyline is the business there who are supporting us with some of their office space.

So that literally is in Epsom. Dead easy to go and that's on the twelfth of May. Absolutely, these are morning events, so they go from sort of eighty nine o'clock through to one. Absolutely yep, ye meet on arrival eight forty five tea coffee and a pastry and then we get straight into it.

Yeah. And then we've got the old Council Chamber in Ryegate, which if you've never been before, it's beautiful. I've been there once before for a Surrey Chambers event, so I know where that is. Yeah, great space.

So again that's where Surrey Well Rigating Bancy counselor on board with us and helping us with that space. And then the five. Sorry that one's on the third of June, it is. Yeah, and then the final ones on the sixteenth of June at the beautiful Denby's Wine Estate in Dorking, which I've been to before but to do a park run.

So I've been to their function room and I can't remember why. Maybe had a Christmas event there once we did, Oh yes we did. There you go. So I think that's the garden room we've got, which hopefully in June the weather should be perfect for it.

So yeah, really lovely space. And what's great about these sales trainings we take bookings right up to the last minute on them. They are capped at about twenty five but you know, if people cancel last minute, we then have a waiting list and we can put people on so so you know, never think you haven't got a space. We will fit you in wherever we can.

We're as flexible as we possibly can be. And then one of these other two events in April. These are described as road show events. So there's one at Epsom Racecourse on the twenty third of April, one at Brooklyn's Museum on the twenty eighth of April.

What are these events? Okay, so the road shows are. We had ten of them in total, so we've got the last few coming up now. So the one at Epsom Racecourse, we have got Ali Fisher talking all about sustainability and CSR and showing that in your business, particularly when you're looking at getting involved.

In biggum to those listens, what CSR is. That's corporate social responsibility. Yeah, yeah, google away. People talk about it all in slightly different ways, but it's a lot of businesses are really focusing on that.

Now. If you're trying to get in, say with one of the big construction companies, you know they can have as much as nearly twenty percent of waiting when you're bidding for a contract is showing your CSR side. So it's important to understand it and to be able to show it clearly. All the CSR that I've heard has been in the context of big business.

So when a small sme, I don't know if you're maybe a painter and decorator who works from home and as a van and travels. How are they going to bid for painting the corporate training room? How are they going to be able. To show their CSR if it gives that much waiting to whether they win the job or not.

Yeah, I mean to be honest. If it's something smaller luk like that, you're probably not looking to get onto one of the big contracts. You would be looking to get into the supply chain lower down, maybe as a subcontractor you might be if you're getting involved. With the councils, for instance.

They've got certain thresholds that they work too, and if it's below a certain threshold, they just need to do like your eye might to get three quotes in for a job and you pick the best one. But certainly all businesses need to show that they're working towards net zero, which comes unto your CSR. And we have got on our website that's just about to come out lots of resources to show you how to achieve those things. So you don't have to already be at net zero in your business.

You just have to show how you work towards it. So your painter and decorator, for example, might be looking to work to have a hybrid vehicle as their next vehicle. That's part of their business plan. So it can be something simple as that that they're looking to do.

If you've got limited company, you might just both. Well, we put solar panels on our roof of our office so it helps. Yeah, it's all those small little steps. It's not one big thing to tick off.

It is small things. And then the next one at Brooklyn's that's with Sally Pritchett. What's that one? So Brooklyn's.

I'm very excited about going. I love Brooklyn's. If you if you've never been, what a day out. And get to sit on Concord which obviously you can't do anymore, and have the whole Concord experience.

It's brilliant. So they've been amazing giving us an absolute beautiful room to use their to welcome businesses. But Sally's looking at that social value side of things, so it's building on what Ali's doing as well. So Sally and.

Ali similar vein to each other. They're looking at the whole CSR side of things. But we also have what's missing off there is our event. As I said at Guilford Pavilion this coming Tuesday where your miiller you who's part of the Institute of Directors.

She's a mentor for businesses etc. She's going to be delivering on marketing and how to market your business quick wins. You know where you're not spending out fortune. So as we've said before, was there again anybody who wants to book on those You don't have to be a member of the seat sorry chain of commerce.

You could just be an complete independent person, independent business. You have to have a business based in Surrey and you can just go Facebook, Instagram, on LinkedIn, source in Surrey and there is links in there as well, just in case. So Charlotte Charlotte's also mentioned the AI tour. We called it the Tinder for businesses.

Is that related to the Buyer Supplier Exchange because you've got an event on that so in May, haven't ye. So there's going to be four buyer supplier exchanges. The first one is on the twentieth of May, and stunning building called one the Cause when in Egham. Really beautiful space that we're getting to use there.

So that's where come along for roundtable discussions. You'll get sixty seconds to just let everybody in the room, know who you are and what your business can offer. Then you work with buyers and commercial managers about what are all the barriers to business for you, what are the barriers to getting onto contracts in the supply chain. Then you also have the opportunity to sign up for some speed sessions with buyers.

You get one to one time with them. You can also bring along your flyers and your business cards because there will be time there to network. So they're going to be four hour sessions, so look much longer than the roadshows have been to give that in depth time where people really can network and get themselves in front of those bigger businesses as well, and we will have people along from much larger SMEs into the sort of there'll be local government there as well, so a real mix of people coming along.

So the first one is the twentieth of May, then there'll be three others running up until the end of October as well. And at those events we're going to demonstrate the AI business to business matchmaking tool, so I will be running webinars for people who can't come along. You can also sign up and play with it yourself as well. It's quite hard to break tech these days.

Really you can't really go too far wrong with it. But I will run webinars, but I will be there at the Buyer Supplier exchange events showing how you build your profile as a buyer and list all your buying needs, and then how you would build your profile if you're a supplier, and then we'll show it in action how it matches up. We've had great fun in the office creating a gifting company who needed kitkats and things like that. Chocolate hampers back to chocolate, and.

You know, we've had a bit of fun in the office creating our own buyer and supply profiles and making the match and it does. It's great. It gives you the information that you need to hopefully fulfill your contract. And that first event is on the twentieth and May and Eggum, you said there's going to be some more.

Do you know yet where they're. Going to be. I have got my sights on Ryegate for one of the ones in the center of Ryegate, one in Guilford, probably at the University of Surrey. They've been great partners, really really really supportive, and another one possibly around Leatherhead talking area.

So couple over more over your side and a cuffle over. I mean, Surrey is quite big and we are very wide. Yes, so if we cover we cover practically nearly the whole of London effectively from a wick point of view. So we are very big county.

Yeah, so it is very wide. So, Charlotte, I know the answer to this, but I mean, it's a bit silly asking the question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. What are the disadvantages of somebody coming to one of these events? Disadvantages?

Oh, that's that's a bit, that's a bit meat. I suppose you know, from a networking perspective, you might not find those quite the right people in the room for you because we haven't matched them up. We thought about whether we invite certain sectors along to road shows or the buier supplier exchanges. We thought about whether do we aim some events at private business, you know, commercial businesses, or we keep some for public But actually, all the feedback from all the people we work with said no, Actually, there's such value in mixing things up and getting people in front of new people.

So I've been to other networking events and I love coming to a networking event, So please invite me along to speak at any of them. But I go to other network events and people do that age old human instinct of sticking with who they know, So it might feel like a advantage. You might not see people there, you know, because it's not a member's only event and it's open to the whole of Surrey. It's not just a tangentge event and things like that.

But actually it really is about being brave and stepping out for your comfort zone and getting to know other people and to. Be at Jaguar Landrover. The other week, talking to business Spelthorne sort of jumped in slightly on a conversation I was hearing, as I said, from this lady earlier who was at Spotify and has now got her grazing platters, and I am said, oh, I think I've got someone for you. I've got someone that I could connect you with, you know, completely out of the blue, that you just don't know where those conversations are going to take you.

So in all honesty, I don't think there's any real disadvantage, and I think, you know, the odd person might feel, oh, that wasn't the best use of my time this morning or this afternoon whatever, but you just never know. Where it's going to take you. We gave a lot longer answer than I thought you were going to give. Actually thought that you were just going to go none one word answer to Shane's question, right, so let's go for this answer question.

Then, what would you say are the major advantages? Obviously networking, which you've mentioned a few times now, any other major advantages. Yeah, it's really interesting because when I started this project, I didn't realize how valuable the networking was going to be because there's so many networking events out there, and I thought, well, what's that really adding, which is why the guest speaker side for me was really important to have that to make it slightly different. And I do think that has been hugely beneficial to hear the businesses talk and to the feedback that they've sent us afterwards.

You know, one business had to leave the event early to go and do a call, and something he'd heard in the presentation he put into practice straight away on this call he had where he was pitching for new business. So you know, there's so much to get out of these events. The AI tool as well, you know, getting to see that in action and hear about it, getting to hear about what other things that you. Can book onto.

We always have someone there as well from the Chambers who can talk about MEMIP and of course you don't have to be a Chambers member even to go to Chambers events, so there's so many little connections that you can make just from coming along to an event. I genuinely feel like it's a really good use of a letsa these. Time, brilliant so that I don't think for any other questions now, I don't think that sort of explains it, doesn't it really. I'm glad you gave a longer answer than the other one as well.

I would have been very worried. Right, so we have actually come to the end of our conversation which has been brilliant. So I will say again I probably said it a few times already, but I will say it again. You can find Source in Surrey on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, and that's where you can find more information about the events and the email address in which to book on two and that is just normal spelling Source in Surrey, so as straightforward as that.

Thank you very much, Charlotte, And if you do want to check out actually sorry's Chamber of Commerce. Then you can just go on to their website as well, sorry Chamber of Commerce, if you wanted to do that. Yeah, all our events are listed on there as well, so you can find all the information you might want from there. And please do the old fashioned thing, pick up a phone.

I love chatting to people on the phone. We're not scared of the phones at the Chambers, So do you give us a call and ask any question. And if you just maybe want to know, like if there's an event nearer to you or whatever else, then do pick up the phone and speak to them. And you can get their phone numbers obviously from the Chambers website and from sourcing sorry places.

So that's it from Matthew and myself this week. Thank you very much again, Charlotte. Your Business Hour is available to listen to all our previous shows on wherever you get your podcasts from, and that is your Business Hour. Wherever you get your podcasts from.

You can follow us on Instagram and on Facebook, and we are your top business hour on both of those two social media platforms. So that's it from us this week. We wish you a wonderful time and if you are an sme business, then do get onboard and maybe check them out. There might be an amazing event for you or there might be something you really really want to go to, so please do check them out and.

Have a good of fun. And I have linked all Sin Surrey's socials on all of our socials on your Business Hour. So that's it. From us this week and we hope we catch up with you again soon, Thank you very much.

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