Topic: Business support

Women Wellbeing Hub in partnership with ACP is holding a menopause awareness session at our Sandwell Start-Up Hub on Friday 15 December. Come and get equipped with knowledge and tools to support you during this transformative life stage.

A Wellbeing Engagement Officer/Menopause Wellbeing Practitioner will lead this menopause awareness session. They are from the Women Wellbeing Hub in partnership with ACP. Together you will explore physical, emotional and professional impacts of menopause, and get practical tips to prepare for or manage the transition.

Covering everything from common symptoms to lifestyle changes, the session will give you valuable insights to enhance wellbeing and productivity.

Whether you’re working for an organisation, self employed, seeking work, volunteering or running a business, this event is for you. Learn how to cultivate a supportive environment that values and empowers women experiencing menopause.

The event takes the form of a talk and networking (12 noon to 1pm), followed by a light lunch. It’s free to attend. See our Sandwell Start-Up Hub page for information about parking and access to the venue. Why not come and work from the Hub for the rest of the day?

VCSE Health and Wellbeing Fund is supporting this menopause awareness training. This is a collaboration between the Department of Health & Social Care, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency.

See also our resource pages on ‘Support for women in business’ and ‘Workforce health and wellbeing’.

We’re holding a series of international trade workshops for Sandwell businesses. Join us for the third one in the series on Thursday 23 November at our Sandwell Start-Up Hub.

We (the Sandwell Business Growth Team) are holding a series of international trade workshops covering:

• How to improve your import, export and customs procedures
• Ambition to export: mapping and accessing new markets
• Cutting costs and improving productivity through customs
• Reviewing Brexit: customs compliance and audit for UK importers.

The third workshop in the series takes place on Thursday 23 November at Jack Judge House in Oldbury. It’s called ‘Cutting costs and improving productivity through customs’.

We (the Sandwell Business Growth team) are hosting the international trade workshop and experts from Falsum Consulting Ltd will deliver the session. It’s a whole-day event from 9.30am to 4.30pm.

It will provide an understanding of international regulatory laws (handling tariff classifications, valuation issues, country of origin, customs audits, duty minimization programs, AEO status and so on).

The workshop will look at how to develop, implement and manage various branches through the EU and worldwide and how to establish performance metrics (KPIs), administer internal audits and maintain compliant record keeping. 

The session will provide information and guidance fully updated after the implementation of UCC and the EU referendum vote, such as:

• International trade compliance techniques – MSS, EORI, VIES, MRN, ECS, ICS, EAD, CFSP, NES, AEO, TFA, UCC 
• Brexit – review current international trade activities and the impact on your business of the UK no longer being in the EU
• Rules and regulators – where can I find the rules/ who are the regulators I need to work with? 
• Tariff classification – the importance of tariff classification of goods (commodity code numbers)
• Valuation of goods rules – what is included in the value for duty and VAT payments and what can be excluded?
• Duty reliefs – how to save money on imports by using legal and HMRC approved regimes
• Origin and preference – what are the rules and when are these declared?
• Audits – customs, DIT-ECJU and internal perspectives – what is expected? How should you react? Setting up internal audit programmes, logging results and setting up improvement plans
• Authorised Economic Operator – what is it? Are there benefits/ negatives? Should we become an AEO? Will AEO be relevant when the UK has left the EU?
• Intercompany transactions – do we have sister/ parent companies in the UK, EU or worldwide? Should these differ from normal import/ export activities? How to work between internal departments (HR/ finance/ purchasing/ sales/ production/ logistics)
• Record keeping – what information and documentation you should keep, performance metrics, documented procedures, computer system support
• Working with HM Revenue & Customs, suppliers, customers, freight agents – documented processes/ service level agreements
• Compliance culture – how to set up an internal/ external compliance culture
• Export controls – how are you affected by export controls compliance? 

This workshop will be ideal for compliance managers, finance leaders, business heads and logistics management.

We’re holding a series of international trade workshops for Sandwell businesses. The fourth one takes place on Thursday 22 February (new date!) at our Sandwell Start-Up Hub.

We (the Sandwell Business Growth Team) are holding a series of international trade workshops covering:

• How to improve your import, export and customs procedures
• Ambition to export: mapping and accessing new markets
• Cutting costs and improving productivity through customs
• Reviewing Brexit: customs compliance and audit for UK importers.

The first three workshops covered a beginners’ guide to importing and exporting, how to improve your import, export and customs procedures, and cutting costs by improving productivity.

The fourth workshop in the series takes place on Thursday 22 February* at Jack Judge House in Oldbury. It’s called ‘Ambition to export: mapping and accessing new markets’. It is an introduction to exporting and fully revised to reflect Brexit issues and current practices.

*Postponed from Friday 12 January.

We (the Sandwell Business Growth team) are hosting the workshop and experts from Falsum Consulting Ltd will deliver the session, which is designed to offer basic grounding in export procedures. It’s a whole-day event, from 9.30am to 4.30pm.

The workshop will cover the key points of exporting, including export documentation and working with freight forwarders. It is ideal for any businesses new to export or for anyone whose job has an export connection. 

Whether you work in sales, contracts, finance, customer services, shipping, logistics or you would like a managerial overview of the whole export procedure, attendance will increase your confidence and awareness.

The workshop aims to provide a greater understanding of overseas requirements and export document procedures, such as:

• Rules and regulators
• Trading inside the EU
• Goods on the move – a look inside the freight world
• Export procedures –  the steps along the supply chain road and what happens to goods when they arrive overseas 
• The export control system (ECS) and the export accompanying documents (EAD)
• INCOTERMS® 2020 RULES –  a review of the importance of using shipping terms correctly 
• Documents – finding out what documents are needed and key documents examined and explained
• Origin rules – certificates of origin and preference certificates, ATR and EUR forms, invoice statements, approved exporter status
• Customs control – an introduction to customs procedures, how to handle temporary movements and record-keeping requirements
• The language of exports – jargon explained, including shipping terms (incoterms), payment terms, customs codes and common abbreviations
•  Working with a freight forwarder – getting it right
• Where to go for advice.

This workshop will be ideal for compliance managers, finance leaders, business heads and logistics management.