In his regular blog post for Caerphilly Observer, Andrew Diplock, chair of Caerphilly Business Forum, looks back on this year’s CBF Awards.
How success leads to success
Sometimes you’ve got to stop and smell the roses.
If you run a business the chances are you work long, hard hours, have made many personal sacrifices and taken plenty of knocks along the way. So the fruits of your labours really should be enjoyed.
I was very pleased to see everyone do precisely that at theCaerphilly Business Forum’s annual awards evening earlier this month.
The overall winner, Direct Healthcare Services, had a great story to tell of how 70% of their workforce had been long-term unemployed, how they use UK-made components, how their products are made here in Caerphilly County Borough and how they’ve achieved so much in just 19 months.
I’ve heard their success hasn’t stopped there – they believe winning the award has already opened new doors to them. I’m sure we’ll hear more in due course but it just goes to show the value of these awards.
The endorsement from an organisation like CBF and the recognition of your peers really does make a difference as I can confirm after UES was a winner last year.
Media coverage of this year’s event echoed far and wide including, three days later, a busy trade show in Yorkshire where Direct Healthcare’s biggest competitor – a giant of a company in comparison – came to their stand and congratulated them on the award. That must have felt good.
But the celebrations sparked by the CBF event also benefited us all. Being associated with success helps the way we are perceived by our South Wales neighbours, by colleagues elsewhere, by people in our business networks, by suppliers, visitors, would-be investors and, not least, by potential customers.
Stopping to smell the roses really does help, especially when you share the sweet smell of success with as many others as you can.
Andrew Diplock
Chairman, Caerphilly Business Forum
For more information about Caerphilly Business Forum call 029 2125 1395 or email leah@cbforum.co.uk