Opt for Optimum!

Around 80 businesspeople from Newark and the surrounding areas gathered at the YMCA for the April meeting of the Newark Business Club.

After the welcome from chairman Simon Gabbitas, the roving mic was passed from person to person, giving everyone the opportunity to introduce themselves and their businesses.

Safety First

Health and safety consultants Optimum Safety sponsored today’s meeting. In the first presentation, founder and managing director, Chris Owen, gave an insight into his background and entrepreneurial journey. Originally, he worked in the building trade, learning on the job and having his fair share of accidents and near-misses. This taught him what not to do on a building site. After graduating from university, he moved into the field of health and safety, working for a consultancy for ten years.

When he set up Optimum Safety in 2017, his vision was to create a client-focused health and safety business in which every client is valued and receives value for money. Optimum Safety looks at each client company holistically, conducting bespoke, comprehensive health and safety audits and risk assessments. It advises clients on the adjustments and improvements they need to make, and clients often ask for advice on specific areas.

Optimum Safety also offers face-to-face training, including training sessions on the legal aspects of health and safety for company directors and senior managers, asbestos awareness training, and workplace first aid training. Over 100 online courses are also available to help businesses remain compliant with health and safety legislation.

Although Optimum Safety has developed and grown into a company with seven employees, it is still a small, independent business that offers a personal service to all its clients. It works with both large and small businesses in a variety of sectors in Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and the rest of the UK.

Member Spotlight – Physiocare Rehab

Next on the agenda was the business card draw. The winners of a write-up each were Jonathon Statham of Bishop Grosseteste University, a first-time visitor, and Nicola Hunt of Physiocare Rehab, a regular attendee.

Physiocare Rehab has over 20 years of experience working with people with brain injury. We understand the brain, how to help it recover from injury, and how to keep it healthy. We provide individualised rehabilitation for brain injury survivors and deliver education and training in a range of topics related to brain injury, rehabilitation, and brain health.

At the heart of everything we do is our desire to ensure people achieve the fullest recovery they can. We want to help you feel better, move better, achieve more.

Our Principal Physiotherapist, Nicola Hunt is also a certified coach, with additional qualifications in brain health coaching and sleep, fatigue, and stress management.

We are now expanding our services as we know that it is not just people recovering from brain injury who can benefit from improving their brain health or need help with managing sleep and energy levels.

The term brain fog is something I hear many times a day. It is consistently one of the top keywords searched worldwide.

At Physiocare Rehab, we combine the best technology plus our clinical expertise to assess physiological data and use this to create a truly personal stress and wellness management plan alongside which we offer a brain health coaching programme. Brain health is not just about mindset, it’s about making the right choices to keep those brain neurons healthy and reducing the risk of future brain-related conditions such as dementia.

If you would like to know more, email info@physiocarerehab.co.uk or visit www.physiocarerehab.co.uk

Annual General Meeting

Simon Gabbitas celebrated his first year as chairman of Newark Business Club with a wrap-up of the club’s achievements over the past year.

Through its Charity of the Quarter initiative, the club has made a difference to several charities, with small, local charities particularly benefiting. Business club members have benefited from training workshops, and this is an area that the club is planning to expand in future. A new summer event is also being planned in addition to the Evening at Harlaxton Manor, which will be held again in December 2024. The business club will also be redeveloping its website.

Michelle Allen, Newark Business Club’s treasurer, presented the club’s annual finance report for 2023. Income increased over the year, partly due to the addition of patron sponsors, but costs also rose. Nevertheless, the club ended the year with a healthy surplus and cash reserves to fund future projects.

Michael Hardy gave an update on the Action Group’s work, which has included working with Newark & Sherwood District Council on a project to transform vacant space above retail premises into apartments. An update on the progress of the A46 upgrade project was given: if approval for the project’s funding is granted by Department of Transport and the Treasury this month, it should be completed by December 2028.

After table networking and a coffee and breakfast break, it was time for the Who Gives a Book?! slot in which Louise Sinclair of Beaumond House recommended It’s Tough at the Top by Debra Allcock Tyler. The winner of a copy of this book was Jack Tinegate of QuickTask. To date, ten inspiring business books have been given out in this section of the meeting and are circulating around the club.

Newark Towns Fund Update

In the second presentation, Neil Cuttell and Elaine Poon from Newark and Sherwood District Council’s Economic Growth and Visitor Economy team gave an update on the nine priority projects in Newark that are being funded by the Town Fund 2020-26. These include the Air and Space Institute, which will open this month, extending the range of training opportunities for young people in the area. Planning approval for a new tourist attraction – the Castle Gatehouse – has been received. This will increase interest in Newark as a destination for visitors while boosting footfall for retailers, cafes, restaurants and other businesses in the town.

Following a consultation with the public, Newark & Sherwood District Council are currently compiling a Newark Masterplan that includes a vision for the town. They are inviting proposals for future priority projects that will make Newark a better place to live, work and do business. These will be used as a basis for an investment plan. An application for further funding under the Long-Term Town Fund 2024-34 will be submitted on August 1st 2024.

Newark MP Robert Jenrick described how the Town Fund was created in 2019 in a bid to give smaller towns funding because they lack the investment often allocated to larger towns and cities. In Newark, the funding has been invested in four main areas: town centre regeneration, training in technical and vocational skills for school leavers, tourism, and cultural development. The future vision for Newark includes more residential projects in the town centre following on from the combined housing and retail redevelopment in Stodman Street, which is underway. In future, Newark could potentially benefit from additional funding of £40-50 million from the Long-Term Town Fund.

Several events were among the closing announcements. Newark Business Club are hosting a hustings for the East Midlands Mayor candidates on Friday 12^th April at YMCA. A Small Business Showcase will be held in the Buttermarket in Newark on 27th April, giving people the chance to taste, try and buy goods and services provided by an array of small, local independent businesses.

Newark Business Club’s next meeting will be on May 3rd at 6.45 am at the YMCA.

By Roz Andrews, RA Writers For Hire Ltd