As November arrives, we would normally have been preparing for our final InspiringBusiness seminar of 2020 and getting ready to judge this year’s competition entries.
Sadly, however, this year hasn’t panned out as any of us would have hoped, and we had to put 2020’s planned events series – including unveiling 2019’s winner – on hold.
However, given the COVID-19 pandemic which has caused all this disruption seems unlikely to abate for some months yet, we’ve decided we cannot wait any longer, and are preparing to announce the amazing winner of our 2019 InspiringBusiness series, even if we have to do so digitally!
In better circumstances, we would have relished the opportunity to meet all of our entrants and make a real fanfare of their achievements at a special event. While that’s no longer possible, it in no way detracts from how special they are, or from the impressive prize our winner is about to benefit from.
One outstanding Yorkshire & Humber company will receive a blanket of business support worth £20,000, provided by James Legal and our Inspiring Business partners. This will include health and fitness and mindfulness services to help them with managing the day-to-day stresses and strains that come with running your own business, particularly at the moment. The package, of course, also includes an array of practical business help, from legal support from us, to funding guidance from Peacock Finance and accountancy and business planning services from cbaSadofskys – as well as mentoring from successful business owners who have seen it all.
This year, once again, we’ve been overwhelmed by the talent displayed by the many entrants and it has been no easy task to choose one winner from among them. We will be revealing our shortlist, and then our ultimate winner, in video announcements by James Legal Founder and MD Nick Miller, on our website and social media channels over the coming weeks, so watch out for details!
Nick said: “Like a lot of things over the past few months, it’s been hugely disappointing to not have the chance to continue the great momentum we’ve built up with the Inspiring Business campaign. However, we’ve recognised that there’s nothing more important than keeping people safe at the moment.
“That said, we also don’t want to keep our winner and shortlisted award applicants waiting any longer, so we’ve decided to gear up to announce the result of our competition during the course of November. We promise you’ll be impressed!”
What is InspiringBusiness?
Four years ago, at James Legal we decided we wanted to give something extra back to the Hull and Humber business community.
As experienced business lawyers, we’ve always believed in going that extra mile to help companies succeed – walking the walk with them; offering sound advice on a range of topics, including law, and generally being a source of friendship and support when our clients need it most.
As a result, we have many clients we’ve worked with for years, who view us as a trusted source of help, whatever the issue they might be experiencing, all delivered with a very human, personal touch.
In 2016, we decided we wanted to take that one step further, by contributing to the general vibrancy of the region’s business community, beyond our own clients. And that’s where the idea for our InspiringBusiness campaign was born.
We have so far had around 1,000 people share in our events, and given away support worth over £70,000 to help three amazing local businesses take what they do to the next level.
2020 would have marked the fourth year of our campaign, centred on four quarterly seminars each year featuring ‘from the heart’ stories from local businesspeople about how they achieved their success – all culminating in the fantastic competition prize designed to propel one outstanding regional business to the next level of their success journey.
Our attendees tell us they’ve taken huge inspiration from listening to others’ experiences, and encouragement from the fact that even the most successful businesspeople haven’t always experienced plain sailing. There is also a strong wellbeing theme underpinning those personal experiences, with many sharing how they had to learn the hard way how important it is to strike the right work/life balance.
Our competition prize is provided by James Legal in collaboration with our campaign partners Peacock Finance, cbaSadofskys, Computanet, Click Digital, The Business Culture Hull, Peak Health & Fitness, Sheila Granger and Handelsbanken, and covers areas from corporate finance to IT support, accountancy, website and e-marketing, and networking – as well as legals. Insurance brokerage HI Commercial have also recently come on board.
While it’s not been possible to continue with our events and competition this year, we hope to commence again as soon as possible in 2021, with the possibility of running some digital get-togethers until it is deemed safe to bring people together in-person again.
Watch this space for the grand unveiling of our runners-up and winner. And you can also sign up here to receive details of our 2021 event series when they’re ready.
