Following the Rating Revaluation of Ports in the UK, premises within ports face significantly increased rates bills and an additional bill backdated to 1 April 2005. We at the chamber are concerned that this could have a significant impact of businesses located within the port.

The Mersey Dock Ratings Group has been formed to lobby on this issue. This includes representatives from affected businesses, Mersey Maritime and Liverpool Chamber of Commerce.

If you have been effected by this rate change, and would like more information please contact Maresa Molloy - maresa.molloy@liverpoolchamber.org.uk or 0151 227 1234

Former Big Brother winner Craig Phillips was on hand to give starters orders this Sunday at the Chamber of Commerce 5k Team Challenge.

The sound of over 1,500 feet pounding through the city centre was heard as competitors from across Liverpool’s business community competed to be the fastest team on Merseyside.

The race was run in teams of 4, with the winning team being the one with the lowest group time. Individual runners also competed. The team from Dress Sense placed first overall with the lowest aggregate time of 74.47 minutes. Over 200 teams were competing on the day.

The course of the race wound from the Three Graces at the Pier Head, out to the Stanley Dock and back. The sun was out to greet the runners on an unusually warm September Sunday morning.

Large crowds gathered at the start and finish line on Brunswick Street, in-between the Cunard building and the Port of Liverpool Authority building.

The Chamber of Commerce 5k Team Challenge was previously known as the Corporate Cup. The Corporate Cup was moved out to Croxteth Park for a number of years due to the Big Dig, and declined in popularity as a result. With backing from the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, the event has been returned to the city centre and saw a massive increase in numbers taking part. The event is hoped to return to being a regular feature on the running calendar within the city.

The individual winner was Nathan Vengdasalam in the men’s with a time of 16:55. Nathan was running in the Olympic Scaffold team. Kelly Sutton placed individual first in the women’s with a time of 19:10. Kelly was running for Deloitte’s number 1 team. Both runners received a £50 prize for placing top of the field.

For more information and to look up all of the results, visit www.runliverpool.org.uk

NoGuru would like to invite you to a dynamic, stimulating, informative …and free… seminar on the  afternoon of Friday 26th September at Partnership for Learning.

This interactive event will give you coaching skills to take away on the day and give you ideas about how to improve your business in many areas.

This event received great feedback earlier this year and proved a great opportunity to network, share ideas and commit to action. If you want to bring about change to help your people and teams deliver high performance, then this is the best investment of 2 hours you can make.

NoGuru work with clients such as British Gas Business, NHS Trusts and Business Post,  delivering  acclaimed training events for their people and are an accredited centre for the Institute of Leadership &
Management (ILM). Now they want to share their experience with fellow chamber members.

To find out more and book your place on this free event, visit the Noguru website.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is a voluntary organisation dedicated to saving lives at sea. Since 1824 when the charity was formed over 137,000 lives have been saved.

Situated on the Wirral peninsula the Hoylake lifeboat provides a 24 hour service to the Port of Liverpool and Liverpool Airport and, with the increase in cargo and leisure traffic, 2007 was the busiest year in the history of Hoylake lifeboat station.

In 2007 the charity launched the Hoylake Lifeboat Station Appeal to raise £2m toward the cost of providing a new lifeboat station and thereafter a new generation all weather lifeboat for the volunteer crew at Hoylake.

The charity would welcome all donations that can help them achieve their target of providing their crews with the 21st century facilities they deserve.

To donate contact Audrey on 07767 310 829 or visit the website at rnli.org.uk/hoylakeappeal.

Merchant Taylors’ Schools invite you to two open mornings taking place in October:

Stanfield Mixed Infants, Junior Girls and Senior Girls
Saturday 4th October 9:00 - 12:00noon

Senior and Junior Boys
Saturday 11th October 9:00 - 12:00noon

Come along to see why we are the North West’s leading independent day school for boys and girls aged 4 -18.

Extensive bus services available throughout the North West

A Level Results 2008
Boys 70% and Girls 78.8% A B grades

2008 GCSE Results
Boys and Girls 70% A* A grades

Stanfield 0151 924 1506

Senior Girls 0151 932 2414

Boys’ Schools 0151 949 9333

www.merchanttaylors.com

The Best Education For Life

A free Regional Business Question Time event is to be held at the Reebock Stadium in Bolton on the 23rd October.

A limited number of places are available for businesses, budding entrepreneurs (and journalists) to join a handpicked audience at a unique Business Question Time.

The event, taking place between 5:30pm and 8:30pm on the 23rd October is organised by Chambers of Commerce North West and promises an honest and lively discussion on a range of issues affecting our business community.

The panel members for the event will feature prominent figures from the world of business, renowned for expressing their hard hitting and frank opinions on a whole range of issues affecting business in our region. Whatever your political opinion or whatever type of business you own or manage, we’re sure that you ‘ll find the event stimulating and entertaining.

The free event will include a buffet supper and a coach is available to leave from Liverpool at 5pm.

For more information, click here… Or email Maresa Molloy at maresa.molloy@liverpoolchamber.org.uk.

We are pleased to announce the latest event being organised by the IT support group Merit. It takes place on Wednesday 15 October at Everton FC.

We have been describing work as a place we go to for hundreds of years. Within the next ten years, your business will be ‘doing business’ in different ways from today.

Attracting and retaining staff, reducing the cost of doing business and continually improving product and customer service capabilities will be the key elements to maintaining and improving profitability. The ‘old’ way of getting the job done in one place of work will be replaced by more flexible and responsive methods. In particular, more people will be working from outside the ‘traditional’ office.

As well as providing an excellent networking opportunity this event will look at the economic, environmental and social benefits of ‘flexible working’ and what it means to your business now and in the future. It also looks at dispelling the myths of flexible and home working providing tips on how to get started and will show how businesses can maximise the benefits from technology to help them work more flexibly.

This special event supports ‘Small Business Week 2008′ - a week-long campaign dedicated to championing the 4.3million-plus small enterprises in the UK , bringing together small businesses from across the country, independent business organisations,

For further information on the campaign visit www.sbw08.co.uk

Registration 11:00 - 11:30

Presentation 11:30 - 12:30

Lunch/Networking/Demonstration 12:30 - 2:00

There will also be a FREE tour of the ground and a prize draw.

Venue

Everton Football Club,
Dixie Dean Suite,
Liverpool
L4 4EL

Register for FREE on the Merit website.

Please note: This event has been cancelled. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Liverpool Chamber’s Ultimate Business Class is holding the first Ultimate Business Forum at the Chamber on 8th October 5.30pm to 7.00pm.

Chaired by Chamber member, Michael Welsh, Managing Director of Blackcircles.com, our specially selected panel of experts in finance, marketing, HR, recruitment and tax specialists will answer your business questions in an open forum.

Are you currently having problems with recruitment, marketing your company, looking for advice on tax issues or need financial help? Or are you interested to find out what others have to say?  If so join us on the 8th October for an opportunity to solve your business problems and make some new business contacts.

You can reserve  your place by booking online here. Places are £15 for Chamber members, £20 for non-members.

If you have a particular question for our panel, just email events@liverpoolchamber.org.uk

More about our panel members

Martin Hinchliffe FCIPD
Martin has gained a reputation as a commercially aware independent Human Resources Director with a practical, Innovative, common sense approach to HR.

Having previously worked within Operations he has gained experience at all levels within the HR function and currently assists Qdos with Senior Management teams and their respective business needs.

Martin operates over a wide range of businesses in differing industry sectors.

Marian Catterall
Marian has a wealth of experience lending to businesses having spent 24 years with Nat West Bank where she worked as a Senior Manager, managing and analysing personal and business lending on transactions of up to £100k and managing a bad debt portfolio. Her role included managing two city centre branches where she was responsible for 40 staff across both sites.

She joined AFM in 2002 as an investment manager and was promoted to investment director soon afterwards. Marian has been instrumental in setting up the Merseyside Turnaround and Development Programme which aims to assist businesses in rescue situations and source advice and finance to help get them back on track.

She is also responsible for managing Business Owners Support Services (the BOSS programme) in particular introducing Mentors to MSIF clients and managing the subsidy process.
Marian sits on the North West Business Loan Fund’s steering group and regularly presents on behalf of the MSIF Small Firms Fund at events and seminars throughout Merseyside and the wider North West.

Kirsty Craig
Since launching her career in the recruitment industry almost twenty two years ago, Kirsty Craig has founded Chester’s longest established and most reputable agency, The Business Connection, and provides tailor-made recruitment solutions to many blue chip corporations. Kirsty has become renowned throughout the recruitment sector for her passion, knowledge and professionalism and was recently appointed as Managing Director of TEAM, a global network of independent recruitment agencies.

The Business Connection celebrates its 20th Anniversary this year and is currently undertaking an ambitious expansion programme with the first of ten new North West branches opening in Liverpool. Specialising in the Office Staffing, Contact Centre and Management sectors, Liverpool’s newest commercial recruitment agency will be launched this month.

Geraldine McEntegart
Geraldine McEntegart is the managing director of McEntegart Marketing. Her company is based in the Plaza on Old Hall Street. It was set up two years ago and now employs five staff. Alongside their Washington based sister agency the team provides marketing and communications services to a range of local, national and international clients in technology, finance, food and creative sectors.

The agency also specialises in event management and regularly stages a wide range of events ranging from product launches for SMEs through to large scale conferences. Before setting up MM Geraldine was the Marketing Director of MSIF’s fund management company Alliance Fund Managers.

Michael Welch
Michael Welch is the Managing Director of the UK’s leading online tyre retailer. Since starting Blackcircles.com in 2001 at the age of 23, Mike has championed the motorist by selling tyres at up to 40% cheaper than high street retailers and fitting them at a person’s local independent garage at no extra csot. Around 200,000 motorists a year now shop with Blackcircles.com which has seen turnover increase to £10 million. Passionate about service, Mike has ensured his company enjoys a 99% customer satisfaction rating.

More about Ultimate Business Class

Liverpool Chamber’s Ultimate Business Class offers business advice and support to organisations across Merseyside. Starting with a free consultation to discuss how we can help you and your business, we design a tailored support package to help you achieve your goals.

All meetings are confidential and offer specific advice which is individual to each business. We plan growth strategies for staff, products /services or franchising, we help you plan for the future and even your exit strategy!

If you are looking to start a new venture we can also help with your business planning and give you the support you need  to help you achieve business success.

For more information on ‘UBC’ services please contact either Amanda or Geoff on 0151 227 1234.

Get Registered for REACH

What is REACH?

REACH is a new EU law on chemicals.  It deals with Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals.

Under the new legislation, all chemicals manufactured, sold, used or distributed within the EU must be registered and approved by the European Chemicals Agency.

The new regulations will be phased in over 11 years. However, to benefit from the phase in period, you must pre-register your chemicals by 30 November 2008. If you do not pre-register, you will have to register your substance immediately from 1 December 2008 to continue to market and use them legally.

How could it affect your business?

If you are a manufacturer or importer of chemicals, you must register your chemicals. If you do not pre-register the chemicals you manufacturer or import before 30 November, or register them from 1 December, you will not be able to legally manufacturer or import them.

If you are a user of chemicals, you should talk to your suppliers to ensure that the chemicals you use will still be available. If you use chemicals or preparations containing chemicals in an unusual way, you may need to register this.

What action do you need to take?
Read the rest of this entry »