Help and advice

George worked for a large company for several years, culminating in running a department with more than 500 staff. He then worked as a trainer in management development and has also run his own small business, a retail store. The combination of his private sector career together with his experience of running a small business has given him a clear and realistic understanding of the needs of SME owners and managers.

Terry has owned and managed 10 businesses as well as working in both the public and private sectors. After setting up his own Advertising and PR Agency in London in the 1970s, he went on to work for the National Economic Development Office as Deputy Head of Communications. With his history of running businesses Terry brings a unique perspective to the Business Link Adviser role – enabling SMEs to learn from his experience.

David originally trained in engineering and worked in this field before moving into Human Resource (HR) Management. He then worked in professional and managerial roles for large and small businesses in the private sector. He worked in London, abroad and other parts of the region before returning to Norfolk four years ago to join Business Link. He brings together his management experience and HR capabilities to offer SMEs all-round advice on developing and growing their business.

Following a science degree and a PhD, Roger was a technical and commercial manager for large multi-national companies in the food industry in his early career. He has been a Business Link Adviser for the past 14 years, based first in Suffolk then moving to his current patch in 2007. His long career as an Adviser has given him a knowledge of a wide range of businesses and the issues they face: experience which he can share with other businesses in a similar position.

Stephen spent nine years in the banking industry, where he started as a Call Centre Operator, and moved into Training and then Project Management before finally working as an Operations Manager. Stephen has since been involved in Skills Advice for 5 years. His first role involved liaising with groups of businesses to assess and identify local industry skills needs and then tender projects to meet the needs identified. He now works with individual companies to identify skills and business needs and propose solutions. Stephen draws on his own management experience to assist business owners and managers find the appropriate solutions for their organisations across various departments.

Philip is well placed to understand the needs of SMEs having started his career by setting up, growing and running his own business with 15 employees on two sites. Then followed 30 years with a global brand. This lent experience in sales, marketing, training on sales and sales management roles. He gained joint bidding experience in a small multinational software company. More recently, he has undertaken consultancy as a sole trader, offering services including sales management training. Industry standard best practice and direct SME experience have given Philip an understanding of the challenges facing small businesses and potential routes to performance improvement.