Member Experiences

As an individual Business Advisor Branduin Business Support provides me with the opportunity to work as part of a fantastic team of people who are as passionate as I am about helping small businesses.

In some ways, it’s just like being back at Business Link as I now have a close circle of people I can rely on and trust for support, advice and objective feedback. It also means that I can offer a range of services to my clients that I know will be delivered by quality-assured specialists who will only enhance my standing with those clients.

The ethos of the group encourages a collaborative approach and we have real debate about the way we can improve our offer to members and partners such as the Chambers of Commerce. The focus on Chambers has also been a big help as most of the new clients I have gained by working with BBS are within a 10-mile radius of my office!

It can be lonely running your own business – you have no ‘manager’, no-one at your side to give you a morale boost or guidance, no-one to advise you when you’re stuck, no-one giving you training or CPD. For me, this is where Branduin came in to help.

I wanted to change our business direction, as our main line of business was becoming defunct and unsellable – and I needed to build it fast. But I wasn’t confident I could do it. My peers at Branduin gave me that confidence, plus the encouragement to ‘get going’, advice on how to succeed and introduced me to people who could help me (e.g. becoming a registered Growth Accelerator coach)

At Branduin I found like-minded people, who are honest, have integrity and whose underlying motives are of helping others. I couldn’t have surrounded myself with a better support network – I had found people I could trust.

The information-based members’ meetings are an invaluable source of CPD and have helped to keep me abreast of changes in our working environment (including politics, the law, new innovations and finance/grants).

What about leads? Over the years, Branduin has produced some direct leads for Ryall Marketing – but not that many. However, when I sat down to write this, I discovered that over 90% of our turnover came from clients who wouldn’t be with me if it hadn’t been for Branduin. I found Branduin (and its Partners) opened doors and gave my business credibility by association. For example, I gave a presentation about Branduin at one of our Chamber partners networking events – in the audience was someone looking for my skills. Branduin gave me all the credibility he required, so he has introduced me to six of his clients over the following 12 months, who went on to realise 35% of my turnover last year.

So, what has Branduin done for me?
Branduin has:

• Opened doors for me, giving my business credibility by association
• A few direct but many indirect leads via connections, networking & exposure to opportunities
• Access to finance and many additional, quality-assured services for my clients
• Training and CPD (through members’ meetings)
• Information to help keep up with what’s new
• Peer-support and advice

I am perhaps in a slightly different position to most of you in that in addition to being a business support specialist, I am also chairman of our thriving family business, Fletching Glasshouses, that mainly trades as Plants4presents.co.uk

Nevertheless, in parallel with our main operation I have a been running a practice focused on researching and developing content mainly about how small companies use the internet to improve the operations and marketing of their business. Most of this was commissioned and paid for by public sector or quasi public sector bodies.

After the Coalition government took office the opportunities for such contracts declined sharply and among other routes to market I was invited to join Branduin in 2012. The following year I became Regional Director for Sussex

At Branduin I found like-minded people, who are honest, have integrity and whose underlying motives are of helping others. I have worked with several associations of consultants in the past but this is one of the few that actually delivers any tangible results.

Since joining Branduin I have carried out numerous clinics with Sussex Chamber of commerce and met lots of interesting people. One of the indirect contacts from this has led to me becoming a mentor on the NatWest e-sparc Programme.

I also became a Growth Accelerator coach via the Branduin connection and carried out 2 fascinating support contracts via that.

Finally, we have successfully bid with the chamber for 2 contracts with West Sussex County Council to deliver clinics and manage the implementation of the Be the Business Grant programme. With my team, I have been responsible for presenting the programme, helping companies apply and monitoring the progress of the 40 grant awardees in each of two years.

This has been fascinating, has led to ongoing support contracts and growth accelerator projects, has contributed to the content development which has fed through into the other side of my business and has generally transformed my local standing as a business advisor.

Finally, over the last couple of years it has contributed about 30% of my turnover.

Working within the Branduin team enables me to call on expertise for clients in multiple business areas Similarly, Branduin members who require website marketing experience, for themselves or clients, have used one or more of my services. This varies from independent one-off reviews of websites to monthly website and media updates and/or analytics reports.

Branduin retains many long-term and returning clients, in line with its sound business advice and a choice of contacts, budgets and wide-ranging expertise. It can provide an additional source of information as well as potential new clients.