Lancashire

You want to get fit this year? Hire a PT

Personal Trainer

Of the many New Year resolutions that friends and colleagues appear to have committed to in 2015, ‘getting fit’ is among the most popular.

After the debauchery of Christmas parties and the consumption of vast quantities of food and drink, it is perhaps inevitable that your personal health, and weight, with be foremost in your mind; but as we approach week three of this new year, I wonder how many of those who wanted to ‘get fit’ have done anything about it?

The usual pattern for those that do, in my experience, is for a gym subscription to be purchased. You can see in Gym facilities up and down the country at present the huge surge in gym memberships, as regulars become increasingly agitated as the ‘new year resolution’ brigade hog the treadmills, bikes classes and other equipment.

By mid-February, the vast majority of these people will have started to make their excuses (not enough time, a minor injury, a sick pet to look after at home) disappeared, and abandoned the notion of fitness – probably until two weeks before they hit the beach, when they will desperately try, and fail, to create a Baywatch like body for their holidays.

Having studied this cycle for over twenty years now, I have a suggestion for those who have started on a new health and fitness regime; and would genuinely like to stick with it. Get some Personal Training sessions booked in.

A trainer will tailor your training sessions to your fitness level. They will not let you ‘go mad’ on day one, only to find yourself too sore, or too injured, to return for session two.

Having a PT will allow you to learn from a qualified expert what exercise will work for you and your body type. They will allow you to hit your targets quicker – saving you time.

And, most importantly, a good PT will motivate you. Motivate you to keep going through what will, and should be, challenging workouts; and motivating you to come back for more.

I have been going the gym for twenty-five years now, religiously, 2-4 times a week. Vanity has most probably been my main motivator if I’m honest.

During that quarter of a century of running, cycling, punch bag and weights, I have often altered my training regime to account for age, injuries and just to prevent boredom setting in. I’ve had to alter my diet massively during that time too. Super fit mates, Men’s Health magazines and the odd tip from a social media site has provided me with all the support, advice and guidance I wanted. Until last year.

In September I got myself a Personal Trainer. He has taken my training to another level, pushing me to places that I didn’t think I could get to, bullying me into doing that extra set, but most importantly tailoring a programme that hits the parts of my body that other exercises can’t reach.

Even those of us who are experienced trainers need a lift now and again, so if you’re new to training, or a bit of a ‘veteran’ like me, do yourself a favour and seek out a good PT who can help you maximise the benefit of your fitness regime.

Make Downtown top of your ‘resolution’ list

Downtown

Well here we go! Another New Year has arrived and we are all busy trying to maintain our ‘resolutions’ of cutting back on chocolate, ‘dry’ January, starting a new fitness regime, or whatever it might be. Good luck to all of you who have made a commitment and commiserations to those of you who have given up already.

The New Year is also an opportunity to review ambitions and plans for your business, and I hope part of your plan includes engagement with Downtown in Business which is planning a fantastic twelve months of activity, in terms of the events programme that we will offer; and the involvement in an increasingly interesting political landscape that will include a General Election and continued discussion over devolution and the Northern Powerhouse.

Helping business influence government thinking, and offering a genuine business voice for the North of England is a key Downtown objective, but equally important is supporting our members to maximise the potential of their business, and we are determined to build on the £800m plus worth of deals that we have facilitated for our network during the past decade.

That is partly about the quality introductions we can provide through our business support managers who are on the ground in each city, but it is also about enabling you access to intelligence and advice from some of the most successful entrepreneurs from across the UK.

To kick off what will be a series of Downtown events that will bring together members with a high growth mind-set and business leaders who have completed the high growth journey, we have a half day conference in Liverpool entitled ‘Limitless – Developing a hyper growth Mind Set’

Among the speakers will be two of the regions’ best known business mentors and coaches Andy Bounds and Michael Finnigan. There will also be a range of business owners who have ‘been there, done that and got the T-shirt’.

This is the type of networking that allows you to meet quality people and learn a thing or two as well. It is what Downtown does best, and if one of your resolutions is to grow your business in 2015, then it would be daft not to take advantage of what we will be offering this year. I look forward to seeing you at a number of our events this year, and wish you all the very best with your hopes and aspirations.

Happy New Year!

To learn more about Downtown CLICK HERE 

End of year reflections…

Reflections Lan

The last twelve months has seen the economy slowly, if not surely, start to go in the right direction; business confidence returning; our mainstream national politicians continue to struggle to win back the trust and credibility of the voting public; Scotland remaining as part of the Union, but nationalists still pushing for separation; and on the back of that Scottish referendum a significant move towards devolution for England’s city regions.

Downtown celebrated its tenth anniversary and as ‘metro mayors’ and devolution has been an issue we have advocated for many a year, it was with some satisfaction that our decade in business coincided with this agenda being genuinely discussed and debated by political leaders from all parties.

Manchester has, once again, stolen a march on the rest of the North, with its ‘Devo Manc’ deal, but there is no reason why Lancashire can’t get its act together in the New Year and begin to map out a new governance structure for the county that will give us the new powers and additional resources that would surely be welcomed by even the most parochial of local politicians.

Despite a now tired campaign by some political leaders who still prefer to look backwards rather than to the future and are in their 99th year of calling for a split between the East of Lancashire and the rest of the county, the Manchester deal has woken most up to the fact that unity of purpose and scale is the only game in town.

West Lancashire’s flirtation with Liverpool, and the tiny fiefdoms Fylde and Chorley threatening possible UDI will surely be seen as what they are – a final hurrah from small time politicians who would be better suited to running a Parish Council.

One of few negatives in a year of many positives for Lancashire this year has been the sad and untimely reminder that at a senior political level we remain disconnected and poorly co-ordinated despite the fact that government is demanding strategic unity.

The work that Marketing Lancashire has undertaken under the leadership of Ruth Connor has demonstrated that entrepreneurial spirit, innovation and an ability to ignore the peripheral nonsense and just get on with it can lead to impressive results.

The business support initiative BOOST has been a real positive too, as has the growth not only in the traditional sectors of manufacturing, but also in the creative and digital arena, and the hospitality sector, where there has been significant investment in new build and refurbishment across the county.

I am optimistic that there will be more positives than negatives in the New Year, with a shake-up of the well run but poorly marketed Local Enterprise Partnership promised; the forging of closer links between the county’s previous warring politicians for the common good, and the private sector hopefully working more effectively together too as Downtown initiates a ‘network of networks’ for organisations to come together and offer businesses a more consistent voice.

Nonetheless, the public sector cuts agenda that has to be implemented will have a huge impact; there may be two General Elections not just one if the existing polls are to be believed; and Lancashire has yet to punch its weight sufficiently to be in George Osborne’s Devolution plan.

Whatever, the glass is most certainly half full. In 2015 Downtown will continue to discuss and debate these issues and more besides I’m sure. We will ruffle a few feathers, no doubt fall out with one or two people – but we will remain a force for good.

We are passionate about this county. We are passionate about the North of England. It is why we do what we do, making this the best business club in the region, the most relevant, the best connected and never afraid to speak our mind.

Have a fantastic Christmas, a prosperous New Year, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!

Look at Manchester – and weep

Devo Manc

The Autumn Statement from the Chancellor on Wednesday provided yet more good news for the city of Manchester.

Following the recent ‘Devo Manc’ deal that delivered the Greater Manchester region with a significant devolution of powers with over a billion pounds of investment to match, George Osborne announced additional benefits to what he clearly sees as the hub of the Northern Powerhouse , with plans for the establishment of a huge theatre – named the Factory after Tony Wilson’s legendary label; a £235million national advanced materials centre, the Sir Henry Royce Institute, which will be set up at Manchester University; and a whole range of infrastructure projects around road and rail that will directly benefit the Manchester city region.

There were some crumbs off the table, by comparison, for Liverpool, Leeds and Lancashire – but once again the big winner was Manchester with an early Christmas gift from the Chancellor that is worth an estimated £1.3billion.

Rather than be envious of this remarkable deal, struck largely by Manchester Labour politicians with a Tory Chancellor, other northern cities and regions need to finally wake up and learn the lessons that Sir Richard Leese, Sir Howard Bernstein et al have been teaching us for twenty years or more.

City regions and county’s work ‘better together’. They can produce cohesive and consistent policy and strategy proposals that are then efficiently delivered. The economic benefits are tangible. The political fall outs are negligible, and anyway are always kept private.

Whilst Leeds comforted itself with the promise from Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg that it could have devolution without signing up to a ‘Metro Mayor’ (another broken promise Nick?) and Liverpool continues to indulge in a parochialism in politics that is more akin to the practices of a Parish Council than a super Combined Authority, the Chancellor and his Treasury officials took a look at the northern landscape and decided that, Manchester aside, the North simply isn’t mature enough to be trusted with a huge chunk of devolution and cash.

Lancashire’s civic leaders are at least now talking to one another, although there are still threats of UDI from places like Chorley and the Fylde, whilst West Lancashire is flirting with Liverpool and some in the East of the county delude themselves that splitting from the rest of Lancashire would be a genuine option.

By next May, devolution will be a big part of all the major parties agendas. By then it is imperative that the rest of the north gets its act together and has a narrative in place to take maximum advantage of whatever devolved powers and resources are on offer.

A ‘Me Too’ approach is clearly not going to be enough, and it is now crucial that the public and private sectors come together in each region to work up plans that will convince Westminster leaders and officials that we have the maturity to recognise the need for unity, innovation and reform of local governance structures.

If that doesn’t happen, we won’t just have a north-south divide; but a two speed north of England, where Manchester powers ahead, leaving the rest to watch and weep.

What’s in a name?

Networking

There has been a bit of controversy of late in Liverpool with news that a new networking brand ‘Twit Faced’ was about to launch in the city.

Established in Manchester, Twit Faced is organised by a bunch of colourful entrepreneurs, largely from the creative sector of town, and the purpose of the quarterly Friday night out is for business people to come together, let their hair down, have a good time, and, possibly, make some useful business contacts in the process.

Some in Liverpool have suggested that the brand encourages irresponsible drinking behaviour and alcoholism! The same folk who have been pretending for years that Downtown’s very own ‘Sexy Networking’ brand is in some way an open door for sexual predators.

These prudish critics have never bothered to come to a Sexy Networking evening in the ten years we have been hosting them – nor I guess a Twit Faced event in Manchester either– but on the back of what are very clearly tongue in cheek brand names they feel able to take cheap shots (forgive the pun), criticise and make all sorts of false assumptions and accusations.

Comparing Sexy Networking to some sort of cattle market; or Twit Faced to a drink till you drop beer fest is akin to claiming that the Chamber of Commerce’s ‘Eat and Greet’ event promotes obesity.

These are simply brand names that are attempting to stand out from a crowded and, sadly, largely stale, male and pale business networking circuit. Whilst Downtown, Sexy Networking and all, celebrated a decade of activity earlier this year, over 80 networking ‘brands’ have been a gone in the city of Liverpool alone. Many networking platforms in Leeds, Lancashire and Manchester have crashed and burnt too.

Stale cucumber sandwiches, a warm glass of house wine and some stale nibbles in a room full of grey suited blokes is far more offensive networking experience to me than a colourful brand name.

For the 200 plus business folk who attend these ‘edgy’ entitled events, they serve a social and business purpose and there is nothing wrong with that. If you don’t like the name of the event, then don’t attend. But don’t be making things up and making assumptions that you simply cannot back up either. And here’s a thought – try setting up a half decent business networking event yourself, and see how you get on. As I said earlier, many, many have tried – and failed miserably!

Sexy Networking won’t be here forever – but it will never and has never been a platform for lewd behaviour anymore than Stamford Bridge was a football venue where you could go and enjoy a quick grope because Ruud Gullit introduced ‘Sexy Football’ to Chelsea.

I probably won’t attend Twit Faced if and when it does launch in Liverpool. But good luck to it, because the twenty-something entrepreneurs who are emerging as the future businesses of tomorrow are probably looking for something different, something new – and this could be it.

Meanwhile, my Downtown events team will be spending this afternoon coming up with another dynamic programme of events for 2015 that I promise you it will be as eclectic, entertaining, exciting and effective as ever. I look forward to seeing you at some of them next year.