Business News Advertisement Feature Published on behalf of Capital Space, operator of Milton Keynes Business Centre
‘I do not believe there is a better business space in Milton Keynes’
Award winners celebrate their success
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inners, sponsors and supporters of this year’s SME MK & Buckinghamshire Business Awards 2023 are pictured at a celebratory networking event hosted by awards platinum partner Wealth & Tax Management at Abbey Hill Golf Club in Milton Keynes. They reflected on their success at the awards ceremony in June, with some looking forward to being at the SME National Business awards final at Wembley Stadium this month.
“Having done incredibly well to win against tough competition from across the region, it was great to see and celebrate our winners once again,” said SME Business Awards director Damian Cummins. Wealth & Tax Management’s managing director Tony Byrne said: “Hosting the Winners Circle event was a privilege and a moment to celebrate excellence. We have won SME awards in the past and this year we are delighted to be SME Platinum Partners.”
Head of Dons: We need you to reach next level Club calls for business support for women’s teams
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K Dons women’s team are on course for another successful season. They sit in fifth place in the National League Southern Premier Division - the third tier of women’s football - on 19 points, having ended last season in the same position with 30 points and having lifted the Berks & Bucks Cup. The club’s ambitions remain undimmed, looking to reach the next level in their quest for top-flight women’s football. But money talks and the club has issued an appeal for Milton Keynes businesses to step up and support the team as it looks to climb the football ladder. Professional services firm MHA is one city-based company that is backing the club, having agreed a sponsorship deal for this season of midfielder Megan Attenborough, signed from Swindon Town in the summer, and pacy forward Leyla O’Brien.
Speaking to an audience of businesspeople at the City Breakfast Club, MK Dons Women’s head of operations Ethan Wallbank called on employers to follow MHA’s lead and help the club to continue its progress. The women’s operations are financed by the club’s community charity arm MK Dons Sport & Education Trust but, Mr Wallbank added: “We have financial stability but to push on to the next level we really need sponsorship and we hope that businesses will come and support us.” The women’s first team attracts crowds of around 1,000 to home games at Stadium MK. The club wants to grow the support and sees the involvement of businesses as a way to do that. “We want to give back to our sponsors,” Mr Wallbank said. “MHA sponsor two of our players and it is huge for us to have that support. It supports everything we are doing and helps us to grow
and get as high as possible in the league.” The club puts the emphasis on home-grown talent. Five current first-team players have come through the club’s academy system and of the 19 players in the under-23s, 15 have progressed through the club’s ranks. “It is a fantastic stat and we are really proud of it,” Mr Wallbank said. “We have to develop these players, create an environment to support them and give them the opportunity to grow and progress to the first team.” The club is looking forward to another successful season on the pitch and wants the city’s business community to join the journey. “It is not just about the players on the pitch,” Mr Wallbank said. “It is all about putting the right strategy and support networks in place to be able to grow. We try to develop people and support them in a football environment. We are making good people.”
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It was a move forced upon his business at the end of a lease he had taken over just two years previously. A steep rise in rent for a new lease meant that sports injury specialist Jimmy Gillespie was on the hunt for new premises… and fast. “I was ringing round frantically trying to see what was available and the only people who picked up the phone were Milton Keynes Business Centre,” Jimmy recalls. “They had a room available, I went round to view it and that was that, within 25 minutes. Deal done.” The timing was perfect, he adds. “I was lucky. Since I’ve been here, a lot of businesses have moved into the centre and there’s now a waiting list for units here, I think it was meant to be. “The facilities are superb, there’s a wonderful café, the landscaping is constantly being maintained so a client’s first impression as they drive in for an appointment is that this is a clean, tidy and well maintained centre.” Jimmy (inset) bought his business Everyday Performance Therapy to Milton Keynes Business Centre, part of operator Capital Space’s portfolio of nine business centres across the South East, in 2019. He had been treating clients - “I don’t like to call them ‘patients’” - for ten years as a oneman band, the previous two years out of premises sublet from another company at Wolverton Mill. He had set up the business after deciding that his previous working life as a electrician working first on musical theatre shows around the world and then in the construction industry was no longer for him. “I realised my quality of life and worklife balance was terrible so I spoke to my partner who said ‘What you want to do?’. “So I chose sports injury work which is something that always fascinated me. I was never gifted enough academically to go down the formal qualification route but found a course in sports massage and over the last ten years I have added and added and added on the qualification front.” Today Jimmy is fully qualified to treat a range of conditions; sport-related injuries but, just as common, office workers and long-distance lorry drivers suffering from posture-related ailments. He admits: “My typical patients are those aged 40-plus with the sort of aches and pains that arise
when the body can’t keep up with life so easily. “I never particularly wanted to become a sports injury clinic because there are already some pretty good ones around and while a large part of what I do is treating sports injuries, I wanted the business to come across as one that is open to everybody.” He now holds enough qualifications to offer a full package of treatment. “Any treatment I’m not qualified to deliver I refer to the most appropriate person.” Having been at Milton Keynes Business Centre for a year and seen his business growing nicely, Jimmy was in conversation with the centre about moving to larger premises on the site when the pandemic struck. “I lost ten to 12 months trading because of the restrictions imposed during the pandemic and although in the second and third lockdowns we were allowed to practise, no one wanted to come and see us. “To all intents and purposes we were closed and from a financial point of view that was better in order that we could apply for some of the government help that was available.” Clients have returned since the restrictions eased and the future of the business is once again on Jimmy’s mind. “It’s going to be at least another year before I expand but now is the time to start thinking about it,” he said. “The first step would be to see whether I need another room the same size or whether I look at a bigger space so we can see more clients. Then the idea would be to take someone part-time. “Right now the business is happy where it is and I am looking for the security of keeping it that way but I know that I would have the backing of the centre if I wanted to move into new premises. “But I would never want to move away from here. I would rather delay expanding and stay put than take what, to me, would be a much bigger risk and move somewhere else. I do not believe there is a better business space in Milton Keynes.”
Find out more about Milton Keynes Business Centre at www.capitalspace.co.uk or call 01908 698700. Foxhunter Drive, Linford Wood Milton Keynes MK14 6GD
Business MK | December 2023
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