TBV Newsletter May 2017 Edition (English)

MAY 2017
COLLABORATION IN
BUSINESS
NEXT EVENT
Thursday 22nd June 2017
5:00PM
Wednesday, 17th May
9am - 1pm
Cwmbran Stadium, Torfaen
IN THIS EDITION:
PAGE 3
Collaboration in
Business
Top tips of working together.
PAGE 6
Meet the member:
Create Ceremonies
Celebrate a milestone in an alternative
way.
PAGE 7 & 8
Torfaen Business
Exhibition 2017
Full programme and list of exhibitors
inside.
www.twitter.com/TorfaenBiz
www.facebook.com/TorfaenEnterprise

Notes
from our
chairman
The forthcoming exhibition is the second one for TBV and I
am sure it will exceed expectations. The first one in 2015 was
very well received and once again we’ll have a great mix of
networking opportunities, fantastic speakers and a wide
range of exhibitors.
Hopefully you have a stand booked? If not book time in your
diary to visit as a delegate because this will be an event you
don’t want to miss!
Are you a collaborator? Yes, it’s OK to admit to it. I’m proud
to say that I am; and have been for a considerable time. I
collaborate with other business to help them fulfil contracts
and project requirements. Collaboration can enhance
business relationships and be beneficial to all parties.
If you have experience of collaborating with other Torfaen
Business Voice members we would love to hear your story.
I’ll be trying my best to put this art into practice at the Torfaen
Business Exhibition on the 17 May and using my stand to
collaborate with a local print business and a book-keeping
service (there might be a surprise guest too!).
Dennis
Ricketts
Chairman, Torfaen
Business Voice
Our next Meeting of 2017
Thursday 22nd June
5:00pm Registration for a 5:30pm Start
Our next
event
Dates for
your diary
17/05/17 - Torfaen Business Exhibition 2017
22/06/17 - Torfaen Business Voice - 5pm
21/09/17 - Torfaen Business Voice - 5pm
07/12/17 - Torfaen Business Voice - 5pm
All of our quarterly events are held at
Greenmeadow Golf and Country Club,
Cwmbran
To book, please use the
following link:
http://bit.ly/tbv-june2017
The next Torfaen Business Voice members’ quarterly event will
take place on Thursday 22nd June 2017 at Greenmeadow Golf
and Country Club, Cwmbran. The event will feature a business
expert giving us an insight into how collaborative working can
benefit all parties in a business deal.
Following this will be two members’ five minute spotlights then
we’ll continue with a round of facilitated networking. There will
be further opportunities to network informally over a buffet to
finish the evening.
Members of Torfaen Business Voice are entitled to two free
places at this event, so make sure you bring along a colleague,
client or business contact to take full advantage of your places.
Members of Torfaen Business Voice can also bring along a pop
up banner – please indicate if you are bringing yours on the
electronic booking form.
Not a member? Why not
join and come along?
Call 01633 648644
Email: info@southwalesbusiness.co.uk
Click on the following link:
http://bit.ly/TBV-business-club
2
TORFAEN BUSINESS VOICE | MAY 2017 NEWSLETTER

Collaboration
in Business
Stop and think about this…
If you stop and think about it collaboration is a remarkable,
tangible, impressive, fragile, and almost miraculous reality.
Almost every product that you buy has come to you from a vast
network of companies working in collaboration. The last shirt
that you bought was a triumph of international business co-operation
involving farmers, manufacturers and chemists, not to
mention the marketers, packagers, logistic companies and
retailers. And all them working together so that when you
decided to buy a shirt, that item was waiting there for you.
Collaboration is simply a fact of business, and one that should
make us pause and wonder.
Collaboration and
competition
Every business faces competition. Some business networks
even exclude your competitors if you join them. Competition is
a good thing. It generates higher levels of service, better
quality products, and new marketing strategies. It forces you to
out-think others in order to survive and thrive.
But competition is nothing without collaboration. It is a big
mistake if you never get the opportunity to talk to your competitors.
Why regard competitors as a threat, when they could be
the key to unlocking greater opportunities for you both? Far
from being mutually exclusive, collaboration and competition
complement each other.
Big picture thinking
Individual businesses can face a number of limitations when
trying to compete in larger markets. This may include scale and
expertise. Through collaboration, businesses can often
complement each other and specialise in different areas to
compete in markets usually beyond their individual reach.
If you are a small business, a sole trader, it is well worth looking
for others with whom you can collaborate, pitch for bigger
projects, and grow your business with.
JANUARY
Making friends with
competitors
Business finance
MAY Despite - being JUNEtold to avoid the competition at all costs it is
worth sitting down with them over coffee and finding out if
there are niche skills between you that in fact complement
JULY - AUGUST
each other.
Not only is it likely that your competitors will be experiencing
SEPTEMBER
the same challenges as you, there might be an opportunity to
work together and come up with strategies for developing key
areas of the market for your, most likely, niche offering, in
Manufacturing
order to create a ‘bigger pie’.
Adding value together
Can you offer a service that offers added value to clients? For
example, OCTOBER a marketing business could join forces with an
events management company allowing them both to offer a
wider range of services. Ask your clients what additional
products may be beneficial.
Shared values
For any business, culture and values are vital, and anyone
who joins the business, whether an employee or a collaborator,
has to think the same way. Before jumping into any joint
ventures, make sure you understand who you are and what
you stand for and express that clearly. Then listen carefully
before you make a judgment call on your would-be partner.
Personalities play a key part of any business relationship and
you need to be honest about your compatibility.
Ground rules
A collaborative partnership is about finding a win-win scenario.
You will need to be transparent about your client base and
target prospects. It is vital that you continue to discuss and
agree joint objectives as things move forward to ensure the
partnership remains mutually beneficial, and then review them
at each appropriate stage.
Finding your bigger team
Where does collaboration begin? How do you get started?
Where can you meet the individuals and businesses with
whom you can team up? Collaboration starts with a conversation.
Business networks, exhibitions, events, social media, and
referrals are a great place to start when looking for businesses
to partner with.
We’re on the looking out for professionals and
experts who can write articles that are independent,
authoritative and appropriate to the topics - so please
get in touch with Jo John if you are able to contribute.
joanne.john@torfaen.gov.uk
TORFAEN BUSINESS VOICE | MAY 2017 NEWSLETTER 3

4
3 benefits
to take away
You will find that collaboration helps boost
the following areas of business:
Being a Landlord
can be hard!
With the growing pressure on housing across the UK, it is
becoming increasingly important that there is property
available to rent. This means people being prepared to
invest time and money in buy to let properties, becoming
registered Landlords, undertaking the legal training and
dealing with a growing number of legislative and financial
changes affecting their investments.
Sometimes just keeping track of all these new laws and
financial implications can put people off!
Cwmbran based Rubin Lewis O’Brien solicitors in
partnership with Green & Co Accountants have been
running a free Landlord Forum since 2015. This event,
held bi-monthly at the Parkway Hotel in Cwmbran,
provides an opportunity for rental property investors to
access all the latest information and regulatory changes
at a relaxed and informal meeting. They hear from
experts from across a variety of relevant professions,
gaining insight and knowledge that can help them make
informed decisions for dealing with issues and concerns
that plague most landlords from time to time.
Speakers have included the Channel 4 Can’t Pay, Take it
Away presenter, representatives from Welsh Water, the
Residential Landlords Association, and a ‘Contract Killer’
(specialist in eradication of Japanese Knotweed) to name
but a few. Leanne Flanagan, Tax Senior at Green & Co
has also regularly updated landlords on all the latest
budget changes and Damian Lines has covered the value
and processes involved in estate and other future
planning matters.
The event is growing in popularity as word spreads. The
next events are on 31st May and 12th July. To register
contact penny.jarman@rlo.law or
katie@greenandco.com
STOP PRESS – a new Commercial Tenancy Forum will be
launching in June 2017 with Andy Harvie of TPG consulting Ltd
talking about the scary topic of Dilapidations.
TORFAEN BUSINESS VOICE | MAY 2017 NEWSLETTER
Financial benefits - the financial benefits of
collaboration can include an increase in local, national,
or export sales, submitting a joint tender to win larger
contracts, or a reduction in costs by sharing resources.
You may even want to share office space.
Professional development benefits - the
intellectual capital of a business can benefit through
information-sharing, engagement in collaborative
research and development, and design activities. You
will learn and develop through observing complementary
strengths, capabilities, and sharing best practice.
Marketing and sales benefits - collaboration
can support a business to develop new or innovative
products, processes, or services. It may help increase
your knowledge of a marketplace and help you identify
potential new customers, allowing you to compete more
effectively.
Local business
collaboration with
Luminous Media
As a creative company, collaboration is a regular feature of
working in our industry. At Luminous Media we prefer not to
outsource or ‘white label’ our work, but on larger projects we do
look to collaborate with other companies or freelancers to share
the workload, increase our capacity, and to utilise the specialist
skills of others. We have collaborated with other companies and
freelancers on branding, web design, and social media projects.
For us collaboration isn’t just about getting the right mix of skills
and experience; it is also about having the right values too. Our
culture at Luminous Media is to be an ethical company. We not
only work with charities and other third sector organisations, but
we have given away our time and expertise for free for specific
charity and community groups.
At the end of 2016 we collaborated with local web designer Be
Webwise to build and design a new website for the Lottery
funded group Dads Can. By enlarging the team we offered more
to the client. Each member of the team played to their strengths,
and the timescale for completing the work was reduced. It all
resulted in a high quality product and good customer service to
the client. The experience has been so positive that we have
continued working together.
Collaboration not only enables us to tackle bigger projects but it
is also a great way to feed further creativity, and to pool wisdom.
We are always looking to collaborate with other creative
businesses and freelancers and are open to chat with any.

Teamwork to save
money, reduce
landfill and help
people in need
Teamwork between a large and small social enterprise in
Torfaen is showing businesses that it makes financial sense
to recycle and reuse.
Bron Afon Community Housing and TRAC2, a recycling
charity based in Torfaen, work together to make the most of
what is left behind in empty homes. Furniture and items left in
empty Bron Afon homes are given to TRAC2 who then make
up starter packs so people in need have the essential items
like a bed, chair and cutlery. Wood goes to another local
charity, Reseiclo, where adults with learning disabilities are
taught skills to build items like bird boxes and desk tidies for
sale.
Dave Smith, Bron Afon’s logistics manager, said:
"I am extremely proud of the partnership Bron Afon has
with TRAC2 and the benefits we are able to provide to
local families and communities by recycling unwanted
household items.”
In 2015/16 enough items were donated to make sure 40
struggling families didn't move into an empty house.
Dave added: "Throwing away items that could be reused
doesn't make sense morally or financially. As one of Wales'
largest construction companies with over 150 trade staff we
use a lot of products each week.
"Our work with TRAC2 and Reseiclo mean that virtually
everything on our sites that can't be used goes to them or is
recycled. The stories that come back from those two organisations
about how they change people's lives with the things
that we used to throwaway are heart-warming.
"In 2012/13 we paid a bill of £285,000 for sending waste to
landfill. This year our estimated cost is just £9,000."
Michael Sheen helps out
The teamwork attracted the attention of Hollywood actor
Michael Sheen who visited TRAC2 twice in 2016. Late last
year he spent the day volunteering collecting items from
Bron Afon’s recycling centre in Cwmbran and delivering
them to local families.
More info
Visit bronfaon.org.uk or trac2.org.uk/
Facts on the award-winning partnership
18.9 tonnes was given to TRAC2 in 14/15. This
jumped to 33.3 tonnes in 15/16.
In two years Bron Afon recycled 24 tonnes of
cardboard.
Since March 2014 150 tonnes of wood has gone to
Reseiclo.
2,237 items left in Bron Afon homes were given to
TRAC2 in 15/16. This included washing machines,
settees and beds.
In 15/16 TRAC2 used donated items to make up 40
starter packs for people in need.
Inside Housing
3 businesses sharing
the same ethos
King Financial Services is a family business built on the
traditional values of trust and integrity. We didn’t want to
spread our knowledge too thinly and so we have specialised
in protection.
This enables us to provide honest and current advice on insurance
for you, your family and your home. We are experts in
Life, Critical Illness, Short or Long Term Income Protection,
Private Medical Insurance and Home Insurance. We help
protect your business too by reducing the impact when key
personnel are unable to work and providing Business Healthcare.
Additionally we work with sports men/women providing
a wide range of products designed to protect their income.
When looking for commercial partners, it was important to find
those who shared our ethos; we were delighted to find Mike at
Safe Hands Mortgages & Protection and Lisa at BeSure
Insure. Once we have established our client’s needs, we
introduce them to Mike, Lisa or both. This can mean joint
appointments, working simultaneously and packaging
services together where possible.
Mark originally met Mike through a serviced office space. We
decided to move to Mamhilad Park together so we could work
alongside each other. This makes referring business easy and
personal, our clients can review their mortgage and protection
needs all at the same time.
Fiona met Lisa through our BizMums Network, a social enterprise
that was set to up to support and inspire mums in
business. I run the Torfaen and Newport meetings that take
place on the second Tuesday of every month at Go Play @
Cwmbran Stadium.
These partnerships have enabled us to provide advice in
specialist areas and strengthen our overall service. Following
the success of these partnerships we are expanding our
network to Pensions, Investments and Life Planning.
TORFAEN BUSINESS VOICE | MAY 2017 NEWSLETTER 5

Meet the
member
About seven years ago I became a casual registrar – registering
and conducting weddings at weekends which I loved
doing. It was this experience coupled with my own Buddhist
wedding that led me to start thinking about training as a
celebrant. When a friend of mine asked me to conduct a
Buddhist / green funeral for his 24 year old son I knew that I
had found my new direction. I wanted people to be able to
mark key points in their lives with ceremonies that truly
reflected them, not to be restricted by tradition or legislation.
I set up Create Ceremonies a year ago to do just this!
We create unique ceremonies with you to celebrate the most
important milestones in your lives. Many people now want to
have greater flexibility when they are planning events to
celebrate their weddings, funerals and the birth of a child.
Indeed, there are an increasing variety of ways that you can
choose to mark commitments. It can be frustrating to find that
your options about venue and even choice of music restricted
when you follow the traditional routes.
We create unique ceremonies with you to celebrate the
most important milestones in your lives.
A Civil Celebrant can help you to create the day of your
dreams by working with you to compose a unique ceremony
with all the elements which are important to you. This way we
can help family and friends to share in the joy (or sorrow) of
the day, whether it’s a Steampunk Wedding at Blaenavon
Ironworks, a natural burial or the celebration of a birth or
adoption
Jane Grayer
Create Ceremonies
www.createceremonies.co.uk
Bespoke weddings,
funerals & Naming
Ceremonies.
We Start With You
Not a Member?
There couldn’t be a better
time to join!
You’ll find a very warm welcome as a new member of Torfaen
Business Voice and be able to take full advantage of our
quarterly events and the publicity opportunities available
through our website. What’s more, joining one of the area’s
most popular and thriving business clubs is easy.
Advertising
opportunity in 2017
We now have an advertising screen that
you may have seen at our March meeting
and will be on show at our June event.
This is a great opportunity for you to
showcase your business at our four
events with a message that’s tailored to
the audience for just £25. Ask us for a
demonstration at the June meeting and
we’ll show you how you can spread the
word about your products and services!
New members
Ali M Coaching - www.alimcoaching.com
Business Partnership - www.business-partnership.com
Bright Financial Affiliates - www.brightfa.co.uk
Caspian Fish Restaurant - caspianfishrestaurant@gmail.com
CHIPS (Complete Home Improvements and Property Service
Ltd) - www.chipsproperties
Dragon Education Solutions Limited - dorford11@gmail.com
King Financial Services Ltd - fiona@mkingfs.co.uk
Kingsman Associates - www.kingsmanassociates.co.uk
Lightology Ltd - www.lightology.ltd
RWA - www.rwabusiness.com
Pontypool Golf Club - www.pontypoolgolf.co.uk
We would like to thank our contributors:
6
TORFAEN BUSINESS VOICE | MAY 2017 NEWSLETTER

There are plenty of opportunities for informal networking, listening to inspirational business speakers,
making new and local contacts plus a chance to find out what Torfaen Business Voice (Business Club) has
to offer businesses.
7:45am
9:00am
10:30am
11:30am
12:00pm
Exhibition Open 9.00am until 1.00pm
Pre-Exhibition Facilitated Networking Breakfast
Exhibition Opens
BBC Wales Business Correspondent – Brian Meechan
Here is a fantastic opportunity to hear from BBC Wales Business
Correspondent, Brian Meechan, an award winning business journalist
who covers business stories for ‘Wales Today’. He also
presents the weekly BBC programme ‘Wales at Work’. In these
roles, he has interviewed a huge range of people from the chief
executives of global companies to small business owners and the
odd Nobel Prize winning economist.
Facilitated Networking
Miranda Bishop: Director, Consultant and Trainer at
Talking Social Media Ltd
An expert in Social Media, Miranda works in both business-to -consumer
and business-to-business markets and platforms, with
everything from one-man-bands to global PLCs. Miranda can help
you truly get the most out of social media in an accessible and
human way.
Miranda is young in the speaker circuit providing exuberance in a
modern and exciting industry. She started speaking professionally
after intense training in LA for a global travel brand and now regularly
speaks at conferences, panels, design events, launch parties
and a host of networking events and seminars.
Why attend?
Breakfast
sponsored by:
Speaker
sponsored by:
Tea & Coffee area
sponsored by:
Free networking events
Listen to high profile business speakers
Find out what businesses there are in your local area
Make new local businesses contacts
Gain business knowledge
Meet business experts from Torfaen Council and Welsh Government
Free parking. Free tea and coffee available throughout the morning.
Whether you want to attend any of the exciting events we have on offer or simply
attend the exhibition, you can book your place on http://bit.ly/tbv-exhibition-2017
@TorfaenBiz
/ TorfaenEnterprise
Torfaen Economy & Enterprise
Torfaen Economy & Enterprise, Ty Blaen Torfaen, Panteg Way, New Inn, Pontypool, NP4 0LS
TORFAEN BUSINESS VOICE | MAY 2017 NEWSLETTER 7

Floor Plan / Cynllun y Llawr
Access to car park / Mynediad i’r Maes Parcio
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
Main Exhibition Area / Prif Ardal Arddangos
Main Exhibition Area / Prif Ardal Arddangos
Networking Area /
36 35 34
30 29 28
Ardal Rhwydweithio
Main Exhibition Area / Prif Ardal Arddangos
18
19
20 21
22 23
24 25
10
11
12 13
14 15
16 17
Main Exhibition Area / Prif Ardal Arddangos
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9
54 53
52 51
Business Clinics/
Networking Area
Clinigau Busnes/
Ardal Rhwydweithio
Public Sector Area / Ardal Sector Cyhoedduss
50
Coffee Lounge /
Lolfa Goffi
49
Breakfast /
Seminar Zone
Parth Brecwast/
Seminarau
48
44 45 46 47
27
26
Main Entrance / Prif
Film Booth / Bwth Ffilmiau
Twitter Screen / Sgrîn Twitter
TWEET LIVE FROM THE EVENT USING
#TORFBIZ17
Torfaen Economy & Enterprise
/ TorfaenEnterprise
@TorfaenBiz
8
TORFAEN BUSINESS VOICE | MAY 2017 NEWSLETTER

1
Green & Co
greenandco.com
26
Everett Tomlin Lloyd &
Pratt Solicitors
etlp.co.uk
2
Barclays Bank PLC
barclays.com
27
WSI 4 Web Business
wsi4webbusiness.com
3
Finance Wales
financewales.co.uk
28
Kymin Financial
Services
kymin.co.uk
4
TSW Training
tsw.co.uk
29
Safe Hands Mortgages
and Protection
shmp.org.uk
5
RWA Group
rwabusiness.com
30
Congress Theatre
congresstheatre
cwmbran.co.uk
6
Psychology Wales
psychologywales.co.uk
34
Action Wales Business
cbsa.org.uk
7
Debra Hughes
Financial Services
debrahughes.co.uk
35
Coleg Gwent
coleggwent.ac.uk
8
Snowy Cones
snowycones.com
36
Dynamite Branding
dynamitebranding.com
9
EST HR Ltd
est-hr.co.uk
37
Porterhouse Balloon
Empire
maria.more@ymail.com
10
Spectrum Positive
spectrumpositive.co.uk
38
Torfaen Leisure Trust
torfaenleisuretrust.co.uk
11
Serenliving Letting Agency
serenliving.co.uk
39
Barry Training
Services Ltd
barrytrainingservices.co.uk
12
Federation of
Small Businesses
fsb.org.uk
40
Bron Afon
Community Housing
bronafon.org.uk
13
AVA Security and
Communications Ltd
ava-cctv.co.uk
41
ION Leadership
ionleadership.co.uk
14
Rubin Lewis O’Brien
rlo.law
42
Beehive Photography
Studios
beehivephotography
studios.co.uk
15
Zenith Media
zenithprintgroup.com
43
Hudman Ltd
hudmansolutions.com
16
Pontnewydd Golf Club
pontnewyddgolf.co.uk
44
Torfaen Economy
& Enterprise
southwalesbusiness.co.uk
17
N&R Accountancy Ltd
nraccountancy.com
45
Business Wales
businesswales.gov.wales
18
Lightology
lightology.ltd
46
PSM Sportswear
psmsportswear.com
19
Smart Solutions
Recruitment
smartsolutions.co.uk
47
South Wales Chamber
of Commerce
southwaleschamber.co.uk
20
DMP Printing
dmpprinting.co.uk
48
St Davids Hospice
Care
stdavidshospicecare.org
21
ITEC Skills &
Training
itecskills.co.uk
49
Plutus Health
plutushealth.co.uk
22
A2Z Computing
a2z-computing.com
50
Torfaen Training
training.torfaen.gov.uk
23
Holmes & Castle
holmesandcastle.com
51
Johnsey Estates UK Ltd
jeuk.co.uk
24
Weston FM Group
weston-security.co.uk
52
Parfitt Financial
Planning
jonathanparfitt.co.uk
25
Indelible IP Limited
indelibleip.co.uk
53
BrandNuCreative
brandnucreative.co.uk
54
Therapi Tylino
therapitylino.co.uk
TORFAEN BUSINESS VOICE | MAY 2017 NEWSLETTER 9