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A MESSAGE FROM THE PRIME MINISTER

A message from the Prime Minister Hi there - is there anything you’ve ever wanted to ask me?  Well, now’s your chance.On Monday 24 April I’ll be answering questions from the business community live on LinkedIn.One of my top priorities as Prime Minister is to grow the economy.  And you - the British businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators and young people inventing the future - are at the heart of that.Click here to attend and ask me a question.Speak to you then,Rishi SunakThe Prim...

Interior Designer Lorraine McGill from Willow and Maine talks to us about growing her business

Meet one of our newest DBN members, Lorraine McGill from Willow and Maine Interior Designs. Lorraine started her business in 2018 and grew it while she was employed in a full time role for a North East IT business. Now, four years later she is working in her interior design business full time! In this podcast Lorraine talks to us about growing her business, some of the projects she's worked on and what her future plans are for Willow and Maine.Listen to the podcast HEREWebsite: https://www....

Maximising Your R&D Claim: The Secrets To Securing More Funding

So, you’ve filed a research and development tax claim - nice work. Better still, your claim was successful and you’ve received R&D tax relief. But what if we told you that you could have received more?Lumo Tax have written a blog giving you the secrets to optimising your R&D tax claims and helping you to maximise the amount of funding you’re entitled to. With some strategic tweaks to your internal processes and operations, you could begin reaping the rewards sooner than you think!...

EMPLOYMENT LAW BREAKFAST SEMINAR - SWINBURNE MADDISON LLP & BUSINESS DURHAM

DATE & TIME: Tuesday, 25th April 2023 - 8:30-10:30VENUE: Swinburne Maddison LLP, Venture House, Aykley Heads Business Centre, Aykley Heads, Durham, DH1 5TSEMAIL: srs@swinburnemaddison.co.uk...

BIG IDEAS EVENT IS BACK!

This is the 3rd fully funded programme we have been able to deliver thanks to the team at RTC North and Supply Chain North East.The DBN Big Ideas event is an action-packed, two-day event full of 'BIG IDEAS' to help you think, create, focus, be inspired and innovative with your business!Packed full of bite sized interactive workshops, our programme is designed to get you thinking about how to work smarter within your business and to encourage growth, increase your profit, customer satis...

NATIONWIDE TEST OF EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM ON SUNDAY, 23rd APRIL AT 3:00 p.m.

Nationwide test of Emergency Alert system on Sunday, 23rd April at 3:00 pm.The UK Government are launching a new life-saving Public Emergency Alerts system in the UK, which will give the Government and emergency services the capability to send an alert directly to mobile phones when there is a risk to life.Alert systems such as this are already successfully used across the world and save lives.The system went live on Sunday, 19th March and you may have heard that there will be a national test of...

OUR 'BIG CONVERSATION' ONLINE MEETING

Great to see everyone at our 'Big Conversation' online meeting this morning.... just look at all those smiling faces!Our Zoom meetings are another way to network with fellow DBN members when you are unable to attend our face to face meetings.Thank you to Gary and David for being wonderful hosts 😀Take a look at our meeting line up for the coming months HEREJo Long Ann English ★ Create Intrigue Jan Cook Trish Guy 3D Virtual Spaces Owen Weightman Mary Jallow David Andrew Kelly Coral Sirett Gar...

April Networking Meeting at Citizens House, Consett.

Our next face to face networking meeting is on Tuesday 18th April atthe newly refurbished Citizens House in Consett.Join us for some speed networking, bacon butties and tea/coffee from 8.30 am to 10.30 am. We also have new member announcements, guest speakers, funding updates and much more!Make sure you book your place here: https://bit.ly/42PiE29In the meantime if you'd like to find out more about Citizens House in Consett take a look at this video they've created to highlight their facili...

FREE Content Creation CoWorking Session with CDC Enterprise Agency

Hey, Small Business Owners!Do you want to get all your content planned and created for the next month?Do you need help exploring ideas and would love to support other businesses?Would you love to network with other local business owners?Would you enjoy free tea and coffee (and possibly biscuits)?Then come along to our free Content Creation CoWorking Session. Bring a laptop, phone or tablet so you can create your content. Pick the brains of our team and other attendees to get your mar...

DURHAM COFFEE - LIMITED EDITION CHARITY COFFEE

Our Honduran Charity Coffee is our newest limited edition coffee which directly gives back to our community.  In the case of our Honduran Charity Coffee, 20% of each bag sold is being donated to the Poverty Hurts Appeal.Poverty is becoming a harsh reality for more and more families and individuals across County Durham.  The region now has the highest rate of child poverty anywhere in the UK, limiting the hopes and opportunities of thousands across the county who have so much to offer.&...

DERWENT VALLEY PARTNERSHIP AREA - MAY 2023 HALF TERM

Holiday Activities with Healthy Food (HAWHF) – May 2023 – Derwent Valley Partnership AAP.Funding is available for face to face activities for children young people and families during the May half term holidays in 2023.The scheme aims to support local community groups and organisations based in the Derwent Valley Partnership AAP area to deliver enriching holiday activities during the May holidays including healthy food.Please note we cannot fund individuals or profit making organisations.App...

Welcome to DBN Willow and Maine Interior Design

We are thrilled that Lorraine McGill from Willow & Maine Interior Designs has joined DBN as a new member 🎉Willow & Maine is and interior design and styling consultancy based in Ryton. Lorraine has been running her business for 4 years now and she has turned houses into beautiful homes all across the North East!Take a look at some of her most recent projects on her website: https://www.willowandmaine.co.uk/Be sure to give her a follow on Linkedin ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorrainem...

Our March Networking Meeting

It was lovely to see you all again this morning, we certainly had lots to talk about!Thank you to David Hardy DipPFS for his presentation about planning for retirement. His informative visuals certainly helped us to understand the importance of having a plan in place for retirement! David has kindly offered a free consultation to any DBN member who'd like discuss they pension plans with him.Also, it was lovely to see Andrea McGuigan from Business Durham. Andrea and James Miller from WE ARE UMi k...

Robson Print Celebrates 50th Years in Business.

We had a great evening at Hexham Abbey last night celebrating Robson Print Ltd 50th Business Birthday 🥳Special thank you to Sharron Harrison and the team for organising such a lovely night and to John Young from Logi Firewalking for showing us what you can achieve when you focus on mind over matter 👏We have no blisters on our feet this morning but they needed a good scrub last night as they were black 🤣Happy 50th Business Birthday Robson Print 🥳 Here’s to many more successful years...

DBN Member Podcast

Coral Sirett is a qualified nutrition and weight management adviser, speaker and the founder of Zest Health.In this podcast episode Coral talks to Melanie about how employers can support their employees by offering ways to support health and wellbeing in the workplace.After moving to the North East just under a year ago Coral tried various networking groups before joining Do Business Network. Networking has not only helped her connect with other business owners but it's also introduced her to ne...

AUTISM ACCEPTANCE WEEK

This year, we'd love you to celebrate with us by attending our 'Working well with Autism' event.  Here, we will be screening our national documentary about:Positive relationships between employers and Autistic employeesSuccessful self-employed Autistic peopleOrganisations who are going above and beyond to make the work place better for Autistic peopleWorking Well with Autism - Thursday, 30th March 2023 - 13:00-16:00Star and Shadow Cinema, Warwick Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 1BB.Tickets...

AND FINALLY . . .

A big thank you from "Our Hec" to Ruth at Jacwicks Designs for making us an extra large pet perch which has already been on several picnics as well as every room in the house.  No more soggy doggy bottoms here!...

KEVIN BREWERTON: "A JOURNEY FROM WHITE TO BLACK; FIGHTER TO ARTIST"

In 2020 we had the pleasure of meeting Kevin Brewerton online at two of our DBN After Dark events.  He joined us from Los Angeles to speak about his childhood in Newcastle and his fascinating journey of self-discovery.  A few weeks ago our very own Ann English bumped into Kevin at TEDxNewcastle . . . well this is his talk which is now available to watch by clicking here.  We hope Kevin can join us in person at one of our events later this year....

ANN @ CREATE INTRIGUE

Truth be told I’ve struggled to write this post . . . I struggle to write every post.  As a naturally introverted person I prefer to be invisible.  My default is to hide behind the work I do, and I like to connect with people individually through private messages.You may think you see a lot of me on social media . . . in reality I only created 42 posts on LinkedIn last year, even though it is actually my go-to favourite platform because of all the lovely people I’m connected to.&nb...

MARY JALLOW & UTILITY WAREHOUSE

DID YOU KNOW UTILITY WAREHOUSE (UW) started in 1996 and has over 70 awards of which half are 'Which' awards, for our home services and customer service.DID YOU KNOW UW will pay up to £400 to buy you out of a contract. You don't have to worry about early termination fees.DID YOU KNOW UW will pay up to £200 in your account as a boost to help with energy.DID YOU KNOW UW will pay you £50 to have one of our smart metres installed.DID YOU KNOW UW have the highest paying cashback card, up to 10% sho...

WILLOW BURN DIAMOND RAFFLE 2023

Win an 18ct White gold diamond cluster pendant with Pear, Marquise and Round brilliant cut diamonds with Willow Burn Hospice.  Donated by Berry's Jewellers.  Worth £5295!  More details on the pendant can be found here.The 18ct White gold diamond cluster pendant with Pear, Marquise and Round brilliant cut diamonds has been donated by Berry’s Jewellers, a luxury, independent and family-owned top quality retail jewellers with a store on Grey Street in Newcastle and across the UK i...

TOOTH FAIRY!

In Japan, when a child’s tooth comes out, we throw it towards the roof or under the rim, hoping that a strong adult tooth will grow like rat teeth. Rats usually live under the roof or the rim, so by giving the baby teeth to the rats, children grow strong teeth.When we were visiting Japan this summer, I told my children that there is no tooth fairy in Japan.  They had wobbly teeth but they said they would hang on to their teeth until they go back to England.  But not everything goes a...

HAPPY 14th BUSINESS BIRTHDAY, WESTWOOD ACCOUNTANCY!

Thank you to everyone who has supported us on our business journey, here's to celebrating many more!Sharron, Westwood Accountancy...

INNOVATION MEETS HISTORY . . .

Over the Summer we had some interesting projects to undertake, which included six walkover surveys in Northumberland combining to well over 1000 hectares.  Some of the sites we inspected were stunning examples, one of which was the Kettley Rock Art Shelter, Scheduled Ancient Monument List entry 1417677.  The rock art panel likely dates to the Late Neolithic or early Bronze Age, and was originally discovered in the late 20th century.  Unlike a lot of the panels we inspected in the ...

JAN COOK WILLS & TRUSTS

I was delighted to be featured in the Hexham Courant in their supplement on coping with bereavement.  Lots of signposting for receiving advice at a very difficult time.Lasting Powers of Attorney are one of the most important documents any of us can have in place - not just for older family members although often they are considered to be more time sensitive.  To chat about helping elderly relatives get their affairs in order, or to discuss setting them up for yourself, please give us a...