Are you affected?  Help keep our country strong!

Hello fellow Share Member,

In light of the current global health crisis, we thought it appropriate to send all our members and subscribers an email update.  We think there is little need for us to circulate details of how to stay safe from CoVID 19, as the government sites/NHS etc, are circulating clear messages, however, we appreciate this is a terribly challenging time for us all, as both communities and businesses.

With self isolation measures seemingly moving ever closer, we wanted to 'share' with you many of the ways our share sites are here to support you and your business.  As online platforms, they were built to enable home and remote working, to save businesses time and money and to put all you need in one place to make life easier and increase opportunities for us all.  YOU helped us to build this, for our counties.  World leaders are telling us to stay united, that we are stronger together, a message we echo fully.  With this in mind, we would like to take this opportunity to share with you some ways in which our share sites can help to support your business through this difficult time and how you can support other businesses across the county, to stay in a stronger position.

We are happy to schedule calls and online meetings with our members and many of you have already taken advantage of this. We have seen a huge uptake in activity as businesses move to operate online more than ever before.  We will keep regular updates coming out, but here are our first set of guidelines to both maximise your membership, get support, and ways which you can help other businesses access the support and opportunities they need, more than ever.

TIPS TO SUPPORT YOUR BUSINESS & YOUR COUNTY!

1.  Keep sharing!  Do keep sharing your jobs, your news, your offers, your website, your contacts, your products and services, your property, your advice, your funding and more.  Not only is it great exposure for your business, (we share and track everything you share with us) but it puts all these resources central in our county, critical for businesses to survive and succeed.

2.  Buy Local  -  If your business is open and running and you're procuring, why not do it via our procurement / tender portal?  It genuinely keeps business local and gives local suppliers an opportunity to keep their pipelines moving - key to keeping some of our businesses open and local people in work.

3.  Grow your network - We've done hundreds of introductions between our members, with a huge uptake in the last week.  Each of you have an 'introduce me' button on your pages, please make sure you're opted in.  This means other members can reach out and connect with you, set up remote calls or online meetings or arrange to meet up later in the year.  Please reach out and grow your network.

4.  Keep talking - Request to join our LinkedIn group and get talking. It's another great way to stay connected, share advice, meet new people and find synergies between you.  Every member will have something to offer another one, we'll facilitate where we can and intend on 'going live' on our linked in groups each evening 7-8 pm.

5.  Share Advice - Our online forums were launched recently, they're a great way to share what you do, share best practice, give top tips and help tonnes of people across our county.  We've created our own Lancashare Advice Forum, with updates on support for small businesses, grants, requests for manufacturers and more.

6.  Build your local supply chains - get connecting with members of Lancashare, talk to us about who you need in your supply chain and let us do the rest - keep it local where you can.  If you need an introduction to someone, just ask, if we can help, we will!

7.  Win Business - Watch our tender pages, we've shared around £800m of local tender opportunities with some great wins for Lancashire businesses.  Two of our local councils (also members) share procurement opportunities direct with our members.  Our bid writers will give you free initial advice on your position and support your bid wherever possible. Use the time off wisely and build your pipeline.

8.  Recruit Online - Some sectors are still operational.  If you are still looking for staff, our jobs pages do incredibly well at sharing your vacancies across the county and some members are recruiters.  Help us reduce our unemployment levels and keep people in work.  

9.  Get Seen - If you're a member, use our logo on your own web page and link it back to your 'share' page listing, this will help increase your own SEO and get more people seeing your brand!  Showcasing the logo on your site or signature strip is a a great indication of your solidarity for our county.

10.  SHARE, SHARE, SHARE - Tell everyone about our share sites, they don't have to join as paid members, it's free to access many of the resources on our sites and we don't want any businesses struggling for support or information as a result of this crisis.  They can still use the platform to find work, advice, funding, support and much more and every click, drives up your own statistics and helps us connect the county.

OFFER OF SUPPORT
If you are one of our valued Lancashare members, we'd like to give you the opportunity to help another local business.  If you know of another business who would benefit from joining our sharing community, please give them your page link and ask them to email info@lancashare.co.uk  Even though our membership is extremely low for such returns, we have a duty to support our county.  When another business quotes your page link, we'll reduce the price for them on your behalf by £50* for anyone joining between now and 30 April 2020.  This achieves several things; It brings more traffic to the site for you, it increases everyone's returns, it puts more opportunities in the pool (share site) and helps to keep our county connected and strong.

COMMUNICATIONS
We will keep regular communications with you and we will share as much as we can in terms of maximising your membership, introductions, opportunities to win business and more.  Please ensure you're opted into our weekly newsletter too, this will be a key media channel for us.  We ask that you all gain access to our LinkedIn group and encourage other businesses to join us in sharing.  Use our online forum to tell us what you need and we'll try our utmost to help or signpost.

Do remember, our members have been sharing for over 3 years, the impact locally is incredible.  Together, we've helped to reduce unemployment, carbon footprint, create local supply chains, embed social values, we're helping to keep more money and opportunities in our county and making it as collaborative as it can be.  

USE ONE ANOTHER.... AND US!
Some sectors have seen in increase in demand for their products and services and are in full swing and still need suppliers.  Please be encouraged to keep it local wherever you can, we'll help facilitate introductions.  If you need insurance, income protection or other, our insurance providers are here to offer advice and support, some networking groups are operating online with great discounts, why not access a business coach, review your branding, business plan or website. Our charities, specifically Age UK Lancashire are feeling the pressure, if cash flow is good, keep it in the county and help a fellow business. 

AND FINALLY ..... A SHOW OF GRATITUDE
We'd like to end our update with a thank you to some amazing people.  To our NHS staff and other emergency services, our teachers, supermarket workers, pharmacists, delivery, postal services and other sectors who continue to support us as both communities and businesses, a huge thank you!

Lancashire can leave this health crisis in a strong position.  Let's stick together and keep sharing.  Please share this email with people in your network, they may just need the support we're sharing!

*£50 Discount applicable to new members only, not current or renewing members.