The Forum of Private Business
The Forum of Private Business is a must view for any SME, with six sets currently live they cover a broad range of subjects ranging from finance advice to employment terms and conditions to maternity leave to redundancy advice. Although these sets contain invaluable information for employees, the information is particularly educational for employers.
The Forum of Private Business is a member support organisation established in 1977, which currently represents 25,000 companies employing in the region of 600,000 staff and their members cover all sectors of industry across all regions of the UK. The FPB are recognised by government as being one of the six major business support organisations in the UK.
The aims of the FPB are to provide business support solutions for its members and to campaign and lobby on their behalf. The FPB achieves this in three ways, by looking at small businesses and start-up businesses and see what campaigning needs they have and what lobbying needs to be done to support them within government. The FPB also provide specific business solutions for that sector of the small business market. Secondly, they provide similar support mechanisms for those companies which are in a business growth environment and thirdly the FPB support local businesses around the UK.
Jane Caven is a non-executive director of the FPB and a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD. Jane offers advice on Maternity Leave and explains exactly what women are entitled to in terms of time off, pay, benefits and holidays.
Jane also explains redundancy from the employer’s point of view; she clarifies exactly what redundancy is, as well as the considerations an employer must take into account before making redundancies.
In Jane’s third set, she clarifies employment law and explains employment contracts and what this contains. All employees should receive a statement of main terms and conditions or an employment contract within the first eight weeks of starting their employment.
Phil Orford joined the FPB in 2008 as Chief Executive. Phil explains all about the Forum of Private Business and exactly how it can benefit small businesses. The FPB is recognised by the government as being one of the major business support organisations in the UK, this means the FPB is invited to regular government meetings and are able to take the views of their membership and other small business and campaign and lobby hard for the interests of the small business sector. Phil also clarifies the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme, which provided a new fund of £1.3 billion of available lending to small businesses from all the major high street banks. As the Government backs 75% of the loan, it means the businesses with a slightly riskier business model should find it easier to secure funding through this scheme.
Noel Guilford is Chairman of the FPB and has considerable experience in advising the shareholders, directors and management of private companies on raising finance.
In Noel’s exclusive set, he offers detailed advice on how small businesses can still access finance in today’s economic climate.
The Forum of Private Business are the experts when it comes to business support solutions, these sets not only offer practical advice when it comes to the day to day running of your business, but they explain the laws and regulations in easy to understand bite sized videos.