The Business Village People Podcast S2 E4 "I was a rebel at school, especially with my socks".

The Business Village People

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This is the Business Village People podcast. Hello, I'm David Markwell and welcome to the Business Village People podcast. This is episode four of series two. This podcast showcases stories from the companies, service providers, and staff at the business village, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Well, if you're ready, let's go!

In this episode of Business Village People, we meet a woman who was more impressed with her education from a local college than the one she received from a tuition-paying university. According to the United Nations, the top five emitters of greenhouse gases are China, the USA, India, the European Union, and the Russian Federation.

That accounts for about 60 percent of the emissions in 2021. We'll be discovering what help is available to you to reduce your carbon emissions in your workplace, with a little bit of help from the business village. Also, we meet the brand new members executive for the Barnsley and Rotherham Chamber of Commerce.

It's time to meet our first guest. Laura Fish owns Fashion Toolbox, a company that is bridging the gap between traditional education and modernity and the ever-evolving world of fashion design. Fashion Toolbox is a little bit of a long story because it didn't start out as what it is today. It started out as an idea as part of my master’s, and I was working in the fashion industry for a very, very long time.

I think it was around 15 years. And when I got into the industry from university, I realized that there was a little bit of a skills gap, shall we say, and that I wasn't really prepared for everything that I needed to know within the industry. I've got to do a lot of learning on the job. When you say that, what do you mean?

Because you've, you've just did a master's degree. Is that right? I did my BA first. Right. Okay. You've done your BA first. You've come out. ready to be working in the fashion industry, but you felt as though you were lacking certain skills. Yeah, I would say more like the technical skills. I did learn a lot.

I learned a lot about fashion design and pattern cutting. But then when you're in the industry, industry. There's so many different roles that I felt like I wasn't even informed about, to be honest. And how did that make you feel? Because you've just spent three years and got probably into a lot of debt to come out and not be able to do the job you wanted to do.

Yeah, I'm quite frustrated. I mean, I was, I did get into the job that I wanted to do, but I felt like there was a lot of learning on the job to do and a lot of upskilling, which was quite frustrating. Yes, obviously, after spending all that money, then it was a little bit of, I did courses here and there in my own time to learn, particularly in like digital skills, Adobe Illustrator is massively required within the industry.

And I just didn't, I wasn't taught it. So I think I had one lesson while I was in university. So I taught myself, um, pretty much. And then, yeah, when I asked others, they felt pretty much the same way. They didn't have the skills. So when I worked in the industry for quite a few years, as I said, and then this became a real like passion project thinking there's all these people that haven't got the skills that we need to join forces and upskill.

So when I went back to do my masters. I decided to focus particularly in fashion education and did a heck of a lot of research into the history of education, how it's evolved over time or not evolved. And I guess this is, um, I'm generalizing in a way because I looked majorly at the UK and the fashion education system here, but there are, um, other areas that Doing a lot more to support students and bring more innovation and digital skills on board, but within the UK I found that it was quite lacking and to be honest at that time so I built Fashion Toolbox, which was Originally, it was a podcast So I interviewed people.

I'll have no more of that then, quite frankly. Yeah, so I interviewed people from the industry in various roles. Roles that hadn't really been discussed at university. I basically asked them what their role involved and tried to educate people from that side of things. And I wanted Fashion Toolbox to be a platform where people could come and learn and upskill.

Okay, right. Let's just shut the back door a moment. Why fashion? Oh. And what were you like at school? I was a rebel at school. Were you? Yeah, I was, I was a rebel. I, um, got in trouble a lot. In what way? I think I probably got in trouble a lot for, uh, My appearance, more than anything, I think that's where the whole fashion thing comes from.

How, how, how did you used to go to school looking like? Was it like Charlie Carolli or, or a punk or a rebel? Yeah, a rebel, I would say. Like, I, I, Emo? Wearing way too much makeup. Always dyeing my hair, which was not really allowed at school. My tie would be so undone. My skirt would be rolled up. Oh, gosh. So many pairs of socks that you can't even I mean, the fashions then were just ridiculous.

So many pairs of socks. You could only wear one pair at a time. What, on your legs? Different hats. That's quite creative, though, I think. That's original. That's, that's, that shows Not when everybody's doing it. Yeah, but they get hung up about uniforms and stuff, don't they? I'm in two minds with it, because I can see some kids might not be able to afford, or the parents, to afford the latest designer gear that everybody's after.

But also, I think it's a, it's a way of expression. Yeah, and, and, and And they put too many Gates, in the way. Oh, and then you set fire to the school. I didn't do anything like that. That's not what I've heard. I did once, um, go and I picked up a for sale sign from outside the house and stuck it outside the school.

Okay. I think we'd better stop it now. So, which school is this, Kingston? Kingston, yeah. Yeah, okay. Anyway, you got over that. The seed had been planted for you to work in fashion. What happened next? So then I went to college. I went to Barnsley College and studied fashion on, I think it was a BTEC back then, a National Diploma, and learnt I'd say that probably my education at college was more informative than university, which is, um, yeah, it's not very good, but I learned a heck of a lot at college and, uh, really opened my eyes to what the industry would be like and what fashion was like.

All of the, um, the pattern cutting and everything I just found fascinating. I've always been interested in that side of things and how something 2D can. make something 3D, which is probably why I'm so addicted to what I'm doing now. Tell me about Fashion Toolbox. What is it? While I was doing my master's, I came across a software called Clo3D, which is a digital fashion software.

And as soon as I saw the software, I thought this is going to be the next big thing in the industry. Like everybody before had to learn Adobe Illustrator to get on. And with Clo3D, I thought, yeah, this is going to be the next software and I've 100 percent got to learn it. So I did. I learned that as well as doing my master's and made it kind of part of the whole fashion toolbox project.

And thinking about how, um, Things would develop in the future in terms of both fashion education and the industry and then Fashion toolbox over the past couple of years has become a platform for it because I am majorly majorly Interested in sustainability as well So I like the tools like 3d fashion design can help companies save money reduce the carbon footprint and All by reducing sampling and, um, doing more like design iterations in real time.

So, um, I decided that this was what Fashion Toolbox would become. But what is it? It's a I know it's a computer, uh, platform. Well, it's, it's a service basically. Fashion Toolbox is, is a service. I don't own the software. I utilize the software to provide the service. So I help people to upskill. Um, so I train people in the software so that they can use it either as individuals within the business or as students.

Um, and then I also offer it as an actual 3D design service. So I will go into fashion companies and show them how it can help support their business, how it can help save them money and help them be more sustainable. But what do you do with it? What do you mean, what do I do with it? How does it, what can I achieve by using your services?

Um, I suppose I'm asking, what does it do? You know, I've had a look at your website, and I think I understand it. Yeah. Basically, you've If I explain it this way and you tell me I'm right or wrong, you've created some designs, I'm assuming it's you, of different articles of clothing. Mm hmm. I can buy that off you.

Oh, yes, yes, I've got a resource library on top of that. Yeah, yeah. And I can, put some material into the system and say what's it going to look like bang and it goes into a 3d yeah so that's all we're asking you as well as the services that i provide i also have a resource library on my website which people can download and use and they can add their they can Download these files, upload them into their own software, and they can add their own fabrics, their own textures, their own trims, and make their own garment, basically visualize it in 3D.

Um, so that is a tool that I, it's a library that I'm constantly building. I've, I've got a ridiculous collection of manual patterns, probably over a hundred. 100 pieces that I've started to digitize in and I wanted to be able to make that available to the wider market. Are you going to develop the business?

Do you want to grow it? Yeah, yeah, definitely. No, I don't. I won't. It's a good bus, David. That's it, I give up. You've talked me out of it. Yeah, I definitely want it to grow and to succeed, um, because I think that there is, there's a lot. In it there's a lot of passion behind it as well like The whole fact that I want to help support and upskill others in in the software and help them to understand what the future of the fashion industry is going to look like because it's scary for a lot of people who maybe they didn't even upskill when it was the first digital revolution in fashion.

Now we're here at the second or third, whatever you'd call this now, and it can be really, really scary. So yeah, I want to help support those people and bring them up to date. How can anybody get in contact with you? I guess the best way to get in contact is via the website, um, but there is also my profile on LinkedIn where people can just send me a direct message.

They're probably the two best platforms, I think. Okay, and it's Laura Fish, that's what we're looking for. Laura Jane Fish on LinkedIn and my website is fashiontoolbox. co. uk So now you know.

The UK has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. And here at the business village being net zero is high on its lists of objectives. Here is Kevin Steele, Business Development Manager at The Business Village. So, Net Zero really has grown, uh, a life of its own in the last couple of months, realistically.

So, we set off with the Net Zero Accelerator a couple of years ago. We're now delivering another project on behalf of Barnsley Council in partnership with Simca. That's the combined authority. And we're tasked with helping 48 further businesses in the borough. Tell me about the businesses that you're trying to Okay, the business we're trying to target is a wide variety of types of businesses, manufacturers, retailers, service providers, uh, solicitors, accountants, you name it.

We're covering all of them. We've actually opened up the doors as well to organizations and charities. In fact, uh, last Thursday I was at a meeting with, uh, Barnsley CBS, uh, the governing body for charities in the Barnsley area. Um, We did a little presentation, presented a video, and as a consequence of that we've had two charities express interest in how they can benefit from receiving net zero support and a possible grant of up to twelve and a half thousand pounds.

So tell me what kind of support you provide. Okay, so, uh, we're entering the last cohort of six, so, uh, this is the sixth and final cohort. Roughly six to eight businesses on each cohort over the last 18 months. Uh, they've been receiving peer to peer support, mentoring, education about understanding their baseline, creating a baseline emission, understanding their carbon footprint.

And then at the end of that, we're delivering a innovation plan for them. So this is where information will fall out from their innovation plan as to how they can reduce their carbon footprint and stop chucking carbon into the atmosphere. Where does the money come from? The money for this project is delivered via, uh, HM government.

So it's a net zero project in partnership with central government. The main fund provider is Sheffield city council in partnership with the mayoral combined authority and Barnsley council. How much money are we talking? Uh, businesses can apply for up to 12 and a half thousand pounds for each project.

So that's a match funded project. So worth the total of 25, 000 pounds, if I get my sums, correct. I've looked at your website, and it tells me that you've got the experts. Who, who are the experts? The experts for this project are wide and varied. We're in partnership with the Institute of Sustainability.

Our friends at Brook Corporate Developments are providing us one of our key mentors, a chap called Shane. Shane is an expert in renewable sustainability and establishing a carbon footprint, and he's the go to person. We're also working with a chap called Nigel Trent, who's one of the key partners from Barnsley Council, and these two guys are putting the flesh on the bone to making the sums add up to making sure that we can put possible, profitable grant forward for you.

Like I mentioned earlier, this is the second time the project's worked. Um, what, what did you achieve from the first one? So the first time around we, uh, delivered 38 innovation plans. These are projects where, uh, our coaches work with the businesses to understand what their priorities are. So 38 of those were delivered.

16 decarbonization plans. Uh, and we took an estimated, uh, 11, 067 tons out of the atmosphere by September 2023. 43 businesses were helped across the program. And as a result, an estimated CO2 equivalent emissions of 41, 500 tons by 2025. And that's just in Barnsley? Yeah, just in Barnsley. Prediction is amazing.

Yeah, yeah. As a consequence of that as well, we provided six case studies, uh, five video case studies, and we delivered over, would you believe, 760 hours of coaching support. That's an equivalent of a days. And how has it changed at the business village? On every roof bar, our temporary port a cabin building, which is building three down at the very bottom, there is a plan in place to put a PV array and battery system in place there, uh, by the end of August this year.

So that will include, uh, every building on site and at Cudworth will also have PV. We've got, I think it's now eight. car charging points on site and we're looking at installing those in Cudworth as well to give tenants of Cudworth the electric vehicle charging points as well. Tell me about the Two Gates Fishery at Shafton.

We help Two Gates Fisheries in Shafton with the purchase of a very economical deep fat frying range for his fish and chip shop. I didn't believe that a fish and chip range would cost in excess of 65, 000, but that's what it actually costs. That's why the price of it has gone up. That's why fish and chips has gone up so much, absolutely right.

Uh, I had, speaking to Craig recently, the guy who owns the fish and chip shop, he told me that his gas bill has reduced from 450 per week to around about 150 per week, so you can see immediately the savings that that has delivered for him. What projects have you got going at the moment? Recent installations, we've helped Thurglen village haul out just on the east side of Penistone.

Third One Village Hall Community Center operated by volunteers, a charitable trust. Uh, we've put 24 solar panels on the roof and a really high performing battery storage system, which will help secure their power usage over the next few years. Uh, this in addition to the work that they'd already done, such as LED lighting.

I think they looked at car charging points, so we're actually seeing where organizations and charitable, uh, Charitable premises are really taking advantage of the system and learning about what they can do to help the environment. So you said you've got this cash for a certain amount of time. Are you still looking for businesses to get involved?

Or is it, is this the last run of it? Uh, very good, very, very good question, David. Yeah, we need to get the money out the door really by the end of this year. So it is limited. Time is running out in more ways than one. If you have a project in mind that will help reduce your carbon footprint, if you're a business based in Barnsley, if you're an organization or a charity based in Barnsley, Just hashtag net zero Barnsley, you'll get to our website, you can speak to either myself or colleagues at Barnsley Council, and we can help you get that project up and running as quickly as possible.

This is the Business Village People podcast. News now that the Barnsley and Rotherham Chamber of Commoners will be hosting several drop in sessions here at the Business Village in the coming months, and Shirley Kay is the newly appointed membership executive. The executive position is to actually promote the Barnsley and Rotherham Chamber to members, uh, and non members, and get members or, uh, people who are not members to sign up as members to Barnsley and Rotherham Chamber and give them the information about what that is all about, what it entails, and the benefits of being a chamber member.

So you've been here six weeks, you've been? Executive member, member, member chambering for three of those weeks. How many have you signed up? Uh, my first one today. Oh, excellent. Yes. And I've just had an email from a guy that I met a couple of weeks ago who's going to sign up. Uh, it's going to complete the paperwork and send that to me ASAP.

I've just also had another email from a lady that I spoke to about three weeks ago as confirmed that she's going to sign up. She's just on holiday at the moment. Oh, that old excuse. We're going to have a chat next week on the phone about what we're going to move forward because I have actually invited her to an event that's nothing to do with the chamber that I've been going to that I think she would really benefit from and I have picked a couple of leads up from as well.

So we're going to talk about, so that will be three, hopefully by the end of this month or the beginning of next month. Excellent. Before we go any further, looking at what you actually do now. Where are you from? Right, so my background is training and education. No, where are you from? Oh, where am I from?

I'm from Barnsley. I'm from Athersley. Athersley? So, I'm a local girl. Um, I was brought up in Great Houghton. Houghton? Houghton, whatever. I left there 34 years ago, uh, when I met my current partner, Andrew. Um, but that's where I was born and bred, um, and I'm a Yorkshire Barnsley girl and proud of it. You wouldn't think so, listening to your talk.

Really? Because I was saying that I think I'm taking the mickey. I was going to say, I was saying to the guys in the office last week when I found out we were going to do this, I'm just so not looking forward to this because I will sound so common. And, and they all, they know what they said to me. You're talking to Barnsley folk.

You're a Barnsley girl and you're talking to Barnsley folk. You'll be perfectly fine. Well, you know, you're talking to the world. Everybody can listen to this, but, but, but you should be proud of your accent. And, and And the words that you use, because that's your, you know, that's your life. You just mentioned a little bit earlier that you were in recruiting, did you say?

I've worked in training and education for most of my career. Uh, I've, I've looked after apprentices. I'm a qualified trainer, assessor. But the last 15, 20 years I've been in business development. So, I've worked with employers to recruit apprentices and then work with them. wherever, whatever company I were working, we've gone in and delivered the training.

So yeah, I've done a lot of recruitment over the years, yeah, and sales. And when you were a young lass growing up at Greater Houghton, what did you want to be? I don't know. I never really wanted to be anything. I just wanted to be happy and have a good job. Um, I started out life in a sewing factory. Uh, which one?

Cora. Oh yeah. Uh, and I were the youngest supervisor that they ever had. I didn't go in as a supervisor, but I worked my way up. I were 19 when I would appointed a supervisor to look after a line of 10 girls and that were the young, they'd never had a supervisor as young as that. Yeah. Before, uh, and I probably would've stayed there and grown within the company.

I did not close down in the 1990s. That was a bit of a problem. Yes, it was. And I loved it there. Yeah, wasn't it down in Woosborough? It was, and it was my first job out of school. I didn't really have any aspirations to go to college or anything. I just wanted to work because I like to spend, I like to spend money.

I just wanted money to help my mum because my dad had passed away just before I left school. So, um, I just wanted a job, and it was the first job that I had. And I would I, well, I had it for 11 years until the factory closed down, and I probably would have stayed there as long as I could have. Um, and then I went into retail.

Okay, where did you work? I worked at New Look, when they first opened the one in town. In town? Yeah. Yeah. And then I were a part time sales assistant, worked my way up to manager, got my own store in Jewsbury, which I managed for a good nine years before I decided to leave. And now, what happened was, I had, I employed apprentices in my shop and the lady that used to come in to do their training.

When you meet, when you see somebody every month for a year, you get to know them quite well. And we just got chatting one day and we're having a bit of a, a day. And I just said, I'd fancy doing something different and I'd love to do what you do, but you've got to be trained and you've got to have a qualification, haven't you?

She says, well, yeah, you can, but you can do your qualification while you're doing the job. And it just so happens that they're looking for someone. Yeah. Customer service retail assessor. Why don't you apply? And I did, and I got the job. And the rest is history, really. I've just, uh, training's been, well, since the 90s, middle 90s, I started working in training, and I've, I loved it.

Um, And I've worked for different, I've worked for colleges, I've worked for small training providers. Um, so this is very similar to what I've always done, but different because I'm not selling funding, I'm not selling apprentices, I'm selling memberships to the chamber with lots of benefits that come along with that.

Okay, here we go then. Um, try and convince me to become a member. Why should I join? I'm a small business, very small business. Uh, What benefits would I get from it? You'd get the chance to do a lot of networking with other like minded, uh, people like yourself. I know not everybody likes networking. I love it.

I love it. Yeah, I do. Um, you get, um, a friend chamber certificate to put on your wall, which is a lot of people see as a status symbol. Um, you get, um, If you're a small business, you can get access to 750 documents, including HR, health and safety, VAT, tax and legal. Um, you get our logo on your website, you get the chance to promote anything that you do in events such like on our website as well.

You get lots of support from the team, not just myself. You get an account manager that looks after you and will contact you three or four times a year, or you can contact them if you need any support with anything. You get the chance to meet a lot of really nice people, which I have done in the last six weeks.

Um, you get the chance to show yourself and promote yourself. At the events that we run and other, other events, you can just go to that to meet like minded people. So it's all about growing your network, really, and putting yourself out there and letting people find out about you. And it all depends what you want for your business.

So I've spoken to a lot of people who are members who are not actually utilizing the membership. And I've said that's a real shame because there's so much that you can gain from it. I've, I've looked at it and said to them, it's like a gym membership, why would you pay every month and not go to the gym, which I know a lot of people do, why would you pay for your membership and then not utilise it, cos there's lots you can get from it.

So tell me about these events that you organise. Pick one and let's find out a bit more about it. So the Chamber Means Business event, which sold out in 48 hours. So it's a massive event that's held at Rotherham, um, New York Stadium. Um, so we've got members who are exhibiting. And then delegates that can come and talk to the people who are exhibiting.

So it's a way to meet other people in business. It's a way to promote your business. It's a way to meet other members of the chamber and find out all about what they do and how they use their membership. It's a chance, as I said, to get your business out there. You can only exhibit if you are a member.

But anyone can actually attend, but you've got to book on to say that you come in because they'll have a delegates list, you'll have a badge and everything. So that's one of the biggest events that we do, but there's um, the race day at St. Ledger, St. Ledger in Doncaster. So members can go to that and you can have a table of ten, there's food and drink and you get your race card, you get, uh, there's a marquee that you're in.

Again, you can talk to different people, you can network if you want, or you can just have a great day out. So they're two of the ones that I've, um, unfortunately will not be able to attend because I'm on holiday. So how many members do you have? 1, 100. Is that individual members or organisations or a bit of everything?

A bit of everything. We've got some massive organisations. We've got Soul Traders, we've got charities, we've got a really Uh, from the ones that I've seen and met, the lot of them seem to be SMEs, so small to medium enterprises, but we have got charities and sole traders as well. You're planning to run some drop in centres at the Business Village, aren't you?

I am. I've got them booked in, uh, starting in September. Uh, I'm doing the, the BB, sorry, the Business Village, and BB? No, and then I'm doing the one at Cudworth as well. Uh, I'm, we're going to be promoting it through the website, and also I've got a leaflet that we've done. Just need to put the dates on, and then I'm going to take some up to the BB, because then The Business Village!

Sorry! You need a, you need a sway box or something, don't you? Yeah. So Kevin can promote and send to the tenants. Is that it? Barsley Business Village. Um, yeah, starting in September, uh, I've already booked the dates. I'm just waiting for the leaflets and then once we've confirmed everything, Kevin will be advertising it on the website and obviously the podcast as well.

If they're listening to this and they want to be part of the Barnsley and Rotherham Chamber of Commerce, how do they get in touch with you? They can go on the website and they can have a look and they can sign up on the website or they can contact me personally. I've got an email address and I've got a phone number.

I am actually on the website. If they go on the membership team, they'll find me there and my contact details are there if they want to come straight through me personally. But they can just actually go on the website and sign up on the website. Shirley, thanks for your time. Thank you very much. Hope you're having a nice holiday.

I will. Thank you. I'm looking forward to it.

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