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New film highlights wealth of investment in region

As a city that is on the up, Hull has made some real progress in terms of its regeneration and consequently there is a high demand and opportunity for businesses to invest in Hull & East Yorkshire.

• A city centre apartment in Hull can now sell for 500,000
• 800,000 people are within a 45 minute drive of Hull, including 220,000 ABC1′s with a comparison spending power of 1.9bn
• Hull’s hotels are at over 80% occupancy mid-week
• Hull & Humber has the largest ports complex in the UK, handling 16% of all UK’s seabourne trade
• World Trade Centre Hull & Humber connects into more than 90 countries and 750,000 businesses

Find out how you can be part of Hull’s success:

Opportunities in Hull City centre for:

• Bistro/cafe bar on landmark footbridge
• Restaurants
• Hotels
• Offices
• Retail
• Conference and entertainment

The number of apprentices qualifying in Yorkshire and the Humber has more than doubled in just four years, figures show today. A total of 15,380 people completed an apprenticeship in 2007/08, compared to just 6,530 in 2003/04, an increase of 135 per cent or 9,000 more apprentices.

The percentage completion rate in the region is the highest outside London and the South East. In Yorkshire & Humber, Barnsley and the East Riding showed the highest percentage increases in the number of apprentices qualifying, both over 200 per cent.
New analysis, issued as part of the national Apprenticeship Week, show how each part of the region has fared with the numbers qualifying between 2003/04 and 2007/08:

• Barnsley – 730 – up 218 per cent from 230
• Bradford – 1,090 up 142 per cent from 450
• Calderdale – 560 up 150 per cent from 220
• Doncaster – 1,100 up 178 per cent from 400
• East Riding – 2,010 up 215 per cent from 640
• Hull – 840 up 86 per cent from 450
• Kirklees – 1,150 up 166 per cent from 430
• Leeds – 1,430 up 166 per cent from 540
• NE Lincs – 400 up104 per cent from 190
• N Lincs – 440 up 94 per cent from 230
• North Yorkshire – 2,470 up 80 per cent from 1,370
• Rotherham – 690 up 103 per cent from 340
• Sheffield – 1,270 up 118 per cent from 580
• Wakefield – 830 up 167 per cent from 310
• York – 390 up 156 per cent from 150.

Source: Government Offices for Yorkshire and the Humber

The best of Yorkshire and Humber’s Healthcare Technologies industry has been put on show to a delegation of global trade advisors this week to help raise the region’s profile for inward investment.

The delegation of 14 UK Trade and Investment advisors from the United States, Japan, Europe and the Middle East were in the region last week as part of a fact finding tour of the North.  As part of their tour the delegates visited Hull, the regional hub of Smith and Nephew, the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham and the University of Leeds, home to leading experts in healthcare innovation. These advisors work in international markets, advising businesses who are looking to invest in the UK of the different opportunities on offer in the regions.

One of the delegates, Nadeem Ali-Khan from the United States commented; It has been extremely impressive to see Yorkshire and Humberside’s capabilities within the healthcare sector and obtain a first hand view of how these translate into opportunities for organisations in our market.’’

The group were given an overview of the assets and investment opportunities in the region’s healthcare technologies sector by Yorkshire Forward’s healthcare technologies sector manager Andrea Scully. She explains; “The regional industry is one of the strongest in the UK with major players including Smith and Nephew and Johnson and Johnson DePuy based locally.

“We have particular commercial and research strengths in orthopaedics and wound care, and as the market for new technologies is remaining relatively strong in the current downturn, there are some excellent opportunities for international companies to develop links with the regional industry base.”

Delegates were also given an introduction to the opportunities for overseas investors to develop links into the NHS through Yorkshire and Humber, as well as the opportunity to find out more about the growing regional market for assistive technologies that can support the increasingly aging UK population.

Theresa Lindsay, Assistant Director of Marketing and Business Development for Yorkshire Forward comments; “In the current global economic situation it is critical that we showcase the investment opportunities in our leading regional markets so that Yorkshire and Humber can continue to attract its share of overseas investment.

“We have shown them firsthand the excellent work being done by our region’s businesses in conjunction with our world class universities. This will enable them to advise overseas companies looking to expand into Europe.”

1. Submit your terms: The first important thing you can do to make sure clients don’t have excuses for late payments is to state the terms and conditions of the payment clearly on your initial invoice. State to the client when you expect to be paid in advance. It is surprising how very few small businesses remember this important must!
2. Charge interest on late payments: All companies have a legal right to start charging interest on any late payments. Although many small businesses won’t like to do this in case  they lose the work, what harm can be done in mentioning that late payment interest may be added on the invoice to remind the client about it. It might even encourage clients to before the due date.
3. Get tough: Most small businesses often fail with the lack of financial stock and skill that would ensure they are paid on time, therefore anything you can do to increase you weight of cash will help your case. Some small businesses even put a stickers on all their invoices saying ‘we use a debt collection agency for overdue payments’. Clients will not want the hasle of a debt collection agency knowing about their late payments as it could in fact harm their credit references, so including stickers on your invoices could help you get paid more quickly. Very Simple, but very effective.
4. Building up relationships: Many reasons are the cause to late payments but one of the main problems with late payment is that it’s often anonymous: accounts departments may not know you and can’t put a name to a face. Single out someone who can help you and introduce yourself and try to speak to the same person each time and create a good relationship. Once you have built up a good friendly working relationship, it will be much harder for them to let you down or not send out payment.
5. Don’t focus work on one company: Relying for revenue on one big company or client for most of your profits is a BIG recipe for disaster, this can cause huge head aches if they are late payers. Avoiding this is simple, try and get a mix bag of clients who are both small and large companies, this will spread your risk. It’s just not worth the gamble on one big client, no matter how big and well respected they are companies go bust.
6. Call it a day while you’re ahead: The important question to ask yourself when dealing a company that’s a late payer is: ‘Am I still making money out of this client’?’ If the deals you are doing with this company not leaving much profit margin anyway, and your waiting for the payment is it causing you to incur debts, then you could be making a loss out of the deal. Do your sums, do the add up in your favour? Make sure you know when it’s time to cut away.