The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) hosts the largest event of its kind in the small business calendar – "Celebrating Small Business Awards". This event showcases the best of small business entrepreneurship.

The awards are a sought-after prize in the small business arena, with thousands of businesses entering every year in categories including Start-Up Business of the Year, Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Self-employed/Sole Trader of the Year.

With winners from each of the 12 geographical finals securing a spot at the prestigious UK Final, it's an opportunity for national recognition. Being shortlisted as a finalist is a remarkable achievement and a fantastic chance for publicity and exposure, with the awards in many areas trending on social media and in the press.

The entries for the Celebrating Small Business Awards 2022 are now open, so don't miss this opportunity to participate! 

You can enter or find out more using the link below.

The Harborough Grow-on Centre is looking for new residents!

The Harborough Grow-on Centre is a brand-new energy efficient, high specification office building designed for dynamic and growing small and medium-sized businesses, located in an expanding commercial area just on the south side of Market Harborough town.

The centre works in tandem with the Harborough Innovation Centre, which offers flexible co-working and offices for start-ups, to provide a range of business space and support for companies to grow and enjoy the benefits of Harborough District as a place to do business.

Their office suites are available now. To arrange a viewing or find out more, please contact Tim Bradbury.

Phone: 01858 414398
Email: T.Bradbury@harborough.gov.uk

You can also find out more about the Grow-on Centre by visiting their website using the link below.

Following huge success in February 2019 and 2020, Leicester Comedy Festival and Harborough District Council has confirmed that the BIG Weekend will return to Market Harborough from Wednesday 9th to Monday 14th February 2022.

To make the 2022 festival just as successful as prior years, they need venues and organisations to get involved. It doesn't just have to be stand up events either, there are numerous events that you could hold such as:

• Theatre performances
• Films
• "Fancy dress"/Themed nights
• Comedy quiz nights
• Photography exhibitions
• Cartoon workshops and much more

This is a fantastic opportunity for you to raise the profile of your venue/organisation and attract new business too. Along with this, your venue/organisation will be listed in almost 100,000 pieces of promotional material.

The Big Difference Company will help support venues and organisations that want to participate by helping them decide which events they want to hold.

Harborough District Council will cover all festival fees; all you will need to pay for is your show and 100% of the income from that show will be yours as well.

If you want to find out how you can take part as a venue in 2022, please get in touch with Big Difference producer - Charlotte Laidet: charlotte@bigdifferencecompany.co.uk 

The next round of Additional Restrictions Grants (ARGs) are now open. These grants are specifically designed to help businesses bounce back from Covid-19 and secure a prosperous future through going digital, going green, or innovating their workspaces and procedures.

Below, you can see the details of each of the grant schemes that are available.

Go Digital – This scheme supports digital technology solutions which improve business performance and encourage wider, online access to customers, (e.g., digital marketing, software & hardware, mobile apps, digital training/ courses, digital signage, cyber security, etc.).

Go Green – This scheme helps businesses to reduce their carbon footprints, increase energy efficiency and reduce fixed costs, (e.g., adopting green transport solutions, including bikes and E-bikes, using E-Vehicles / delivery vans, introducing LED lighting, solar panels, insulation, and heating pumps etc.).

Innovation – The scheme encourages the adoption of sustainable and innovative solutions, by reviewing product or service delivery to improve operations or service provision, (e.g., innovation to reduce of packaging, support for business diversification, moving to more local supply chains, developing solutions to support faster turnaround on products or services etc.).

Business Survival –  This is 'funding of last resort' to support businesses still severely impacted by the extended Covid-19 restrictions and which are not able to get any other support from other sources.

Applications for this round close on Monday 13 December 2021

Find out how to apply for any of these grants using the link below.

If you need help in the application process or have any queries about the schemes, please email j.powar@harborough.gov.uk

Are you looking to hire new talent and struggling to recruit?

Harborough Jobs can support by sharing your local vacancies across our channels. Let us know about your vacancies and we will get them added! We would also be interested to know what avenues you have already tried to fill your vacancies, in order to explore different options and provide other forms of support.

Email us: business@harborough.gov.uk 

We can also help you to set up sector based Work Academy programmes, which provide training to a group of applicants before you even interview them, giving you access to a pool of prepped applicants specific to your role. 

You can see all current job listings using the link below.

Along with this, we also support businesses wanting to adopt the Kickstart scheme, which provides valuable work experience to those aged 16-24 on universal credit. These are 6 month work placements that are fully funded. More info on this is available here.

If you are interested in offering apprenticeships, we can offer support to businesses and provide grants to help fund these opportunities. Find out more about how we support apprenticeships here.

From this month, new government legislation (Natasha's Law) will require all foods which are prepared and packed on the same premises from which they are sold to have full ingredients listed on the label, with the 14 major allergens emphasised for easy identification.

This legislation comes after the tragic death of teenager Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died from an allergic reaction caused by a non-labelled ingredient in a baguette bought at a food outlet at Heathrow Airport in 2016.

Foods which will now need to be fully labelled will include fast food, such as sandwiches and wraps, which are already packaged for sale before a customer orders, and cheeses and meats from the deli counter at a supermarket, which have already been wrapped.

Foods pre-packaged elsewhere already require full ingredients labelling, with allergens emphasised in the list. This new law extends this requirement to foods packaged on the same site at which they are sold.

Click the 'More Info' button below to view the Foods Standards Agency page for an in depth view on allergen labelling changes along with useful toolkits for caterers and other businesses.

For further guidance on allergies for caterers visit Allergy UK's new website: www.allergyuk.org

We are also encouraging food industry organisations and businesses, and general consumers to take part in free allergen training, available here.