Like last year the BMC Summer Barbeque will take place in the Client Garden at 15-17 Middle Street between 5-9pm. We will be providing the food (meat and vegetarian) and the first drink will be complimentary.

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Steve is a journalist, media consultant and trainer. As a journalist he is Brighton & South Coast Reporter for national gay & lesbian newspaper The Pink Paper and also writes widely on arts, theatre and entertainment, celebrity interviews and travel features. He was formerly a journalist for national BBC News.

As a media consultant, Steve works to help organisations looking to raise their profile in the news media and works with a lot of charities and not-for-profit groups, campaigning groups, trade bodies and trade unions. Steve also runs high-level media training courses, training senior staff and public figures to deal with media interviews, focusing on broadcast media. He also trains PR agencies and freelancers in how to place their clients with broadcast media, and how to target the gay market.

More details about Vada Media activities can be found at: www.vadamedia.co.uk

You can contact Steve at steve@vadamedia.co.uk or on 01273 648339.

Away from work, Steve performs as a stand-up comic in Brighton, London and around the country.

For details of his forthcoming gigs, see: www.myspace.com/steve_bustin

Gigs coming up at the Concorde..

The legalities

There are a number of things you must do to ensure you are legally compliant before beginning to run your business from home, including:
consult a solicitor to assess your overall legal position;

• check with your mortgage lender or landlord whether the terms of your contract allow you to use the premises to run your business;
• find out if your insurance premiums will change and inform the provider appropriately;
• ask your local branch of the Valuation Office Agency if you will incur business rates;
• check with both HM Revenue and Customs and an accountant, to see what your income, VAT and capital gains tax will be;
• ask your local Health and Safety Executive (HSE) about the health and safety aspects of running a work at home business and how to do a risk assessment;
• ensure your neighbours have no objections to you running your business from home; and
• check whether you will require structural changes and, therefore, planning permission.

The Maritz Incentives study also found that 42% of employees and 32% of onsite employees believe that employees who work onsite get more recognition than those who work offsite.

It also found that intangible rewards, like praise or recognition, are very important to homeworkers. However, only 40% of offsite employees' supervisors frequently thank them for a job well done.

Pros and cons:
Benefits of remote and homeworking include:

• more flexibility about the hours you work, particularly for those with caring commitments;
• freeing up time and money that might be spent travelling;
• helping to reduce stress.

• the possibility of feeling isolated;
• missing out on office-based learning opportunities;
• having to sacrifice living space to set up a workstation which will satisfy health and safety standards; and
• distractions, such as housework and friends or relatives who do not understand that, even though you are "at home" you are still "at work".

Have a support network
Find out about local networking events for others in the same boat. Is can be easy to feel isolated, particularly if you are used to the social aspects of working alongside others. Making contacts at such events will also allow you to bounce your ideas off others and provide you with business opportunities.

Working hours
Figure out what times of the day you feel you work best and take advantage of the opportunity to set your own hours. Not everybody is at their most productive between nine and five. Whichever hours you choose, it is important to stick to your routine.

Have a routine
Organise your day in the same way you would if you were working in an office, prioritising tasks, using a calendar and implementing a filing system. Avoid sitting in your pyjamas as this will put you in the wrong frame of mind.

BRIGHTON IS A MAGNET FOR BUSINESS START-UPS

Brighton & Hove is one of the most popular places in Britain to start a new business. Figures from accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young show that Brighton has more start-ups per head than London, Manchester or Leeds, with 10 new businesses launched each year per 10,000 adult residents. The average in Britain as a whole is 6 per 10,0000, measured using the number of new VAT registrations against the number of VAT de-registrations.

Richard Simmons from UHY said that the city offers good support fro entrepreneurs and was tapping into growth sectors - IT, biotechnology, media and engineering, for instance, along with the business conference industry, tourism and financial services. He warned, however, against complacency. "Bournemouth is another coastal tourist destination that had attracted major international financial service companies such as JP Morgan Chase.

While Brighton is out-performing London and Bournemouth to create new businesses, it must ensure that it maintains its competitive edge. Brighton will need to ensure that continues to attract new business investment. The City Council will need to review the punitive parking restrictions and the high cost of city-centre parking".

The study found Swindon and Bristol top the table, with a net total of 11 new businesses being set up per 10,000 adults, while Wolverhampton has emerged as the worst-performing city having an actual decline in the overall number of businesses.

Recycling your Electrical Waste gets help!

e-waste recycling laws come into effect

Regulations that require British producers and importers of electronic goods to be responsible for the recycling of their products have come into force.

'E-waste', which includes PCs, games consoles and household appliances such as microwaves and washing machines, is considered to be the fastest-growing form of rubbish in the European Union.

The UK produces an estimated 1.2m tonnes of e-waste each year, most of which goes to landfill sites.

Under the new Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, retailers selling electrical goods are obliged to offer customers a free in-store take-back service on a "like for like" basis, or help fund the expansion of a network of WEEE collection points.

The directive also requires manufacturers to join a "Producer Compliance Schemes", monitored by the Environment Agency, which collect and recycle the e-waste on behalf of the companies.

The WEEE directive has had a troubled history. It was supposed to be operational by August 2005 but was delayed by "major difficulties". It then entered the statute book at the beginning of 2007, but full producer responsibility was delayed until 1 July.

Kate Whyman who is based at our Old Steine site, who is director of the Festival, is delighted that the Brighton Media Centre is supporting the event once again this year.

They aim to inspire and entertain you with wonderful music, but also to encourage understanding between people of all faiths and none. For this reason many of their events combine artists from different traditions

In addition to their unique programme of concerts and workshops they also work in schools, hospitals and prisons.

The festival, which is now in its 4th year, is a 5-day celebration of sacred music spanning diverse traditions, including Buddhist chanting, Gospel a cappella, Hindu ragas, Jewish klezmer, Pagan songs, Sufi music and much more.

This year’s highlights include London Community Gospel Choir, Israel’s Yair Dalal and Raymond Redfeather from Colorado.

For more information on the event go to: www.worldsacredmusic.org

or contact Kate Whyman on 01273 648374.

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If you're interested please contact Caroline on 01273 201372 or email her at: caroline@mediacentre.org

The man is a Genius!

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• Suite 201 - 211Sqft @ £750.00 + VAT

• Suite 402 - 240Sqft @ £830.00 + VAT
• Suite G02 - 328Sqft @ £1095.00 + VAT