Chance for businesses in Rugby borough to learn how to knock down barriers to growth

Karen Shuter, chair of the Rugby branch of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, writes a regular column for the Rugby Advertiser. Here is her latest column.

I wanted to start this month by drawing businesses’ attention to our two forum events this year and would highly recommend that companies in Rugby sign up to attend.

It’s a chance for businesspeople to have their say on what they think is great about doing business here in Rugby and the surrounding borough and, also, what might be holding back growth.

The events are taking place on Friday, April 26, at the Valiant Serviced Offices and then on Friday, September 13 at Draycote Hotel.

They will run in the morning to give businesses a chance to come and have their say but then return to work by mid-morning so as not to take up too much of the working day.

It’s part of the Chamber’s overall offer of both bringing companies together but also to listen and provide a voice to decision-makers in the region and beyond.

Another event I am really looking forward to is the Chamber’s BIG Business Lunch this month.

It was great to read that the ‘face of space’, Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE, a scientist and broadcaster who presents the world-famous The Sky at Night on the BBC, will be the keynote speaker on Thursday, March 21.

The event, running between 11am and 3pm at the IXL Events Centre in Southam, is set to be a sell-out with more than 200 people already registered so I’d advise that you book quickly.

Away from events, there was the disappointing news that the UK entered technical recession at the end of 2023 but as colleagues at the Chamber here in Coventry and Warwickshire as well as nationally have pointed out, firms in our area shouldn’t let it weigh heavy on them.

It’s been clear for a couple of years now that the economy has been quite flat after Covid and that looks set to remain the case for the foreseeable future.

But, if you are a business that is looking to invest and grow, don’t hold back because of the word recession. Had the economy grown by a very small margin in the final quarter of 2023, we would have avoided recession but the facts would have remained virtually the same.

There is, undoubtedly, work to be done to knock down the barriers to growth.

That is something the Chamber continues to speak up about at a local, regional and national level and whoever forms the next Government needs to have as one of their key priorities.

More for information on the Rugby Business Forums and the BIG Business Lunch go to www.cw-chamber.co.uk/events