I am pleased to have been at the inception and indeed birth of many businesses. In rural areas there now is as broad a spectrum of business as in urban areas, indeed with the north east having broadband access second only to London we are well placed to start new business here and indeed encourage entrepreneurs to the area with their families to start and grow businesses. It was thus great to see the new incubator space in Berwick The Workspace is fantastic and I think farmers should be thinking about how they can diversify off the farm into such sites.
I converted my farm to a business park and am indeed looking for new tenants as we speak following two key tenants moving on into new units in the Alnwick area - that is success. I have created a community of 15 businesses and the Berwick space could see as many as 35. Fresh Element - a food business I hold shares in - was also incubated just off the Scotswood Road at The John Buddle Work Village.
Farmers can, and increasingly so can any individual, work from their own homes but the spill over of personal life and lack of 'community' means the best place for starting a business is in a safe and innovative environment...well done TEDCO and I hope the open evening tonight goes well.
A thought I had this week about carbon sequestration is that we could pack it along with our worries about starting a business in a suitcase and send it to terminal 5...where indeed they would disappear forever?
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James Mills is a web developer in the North East of England and founder of Refresh Teesside »
Mike Hughes is the Head of Business for the Evening Gazette. He will be blogging on all matters of importance to Teesside businesses - and some that are just worth knowing »
Jez Davison, business writer at the Evening Gazette, is a regular blogger on all things business - particularly finance, entrepreneurship and the state of the Teesside economy »
Karen McLauchlan is the Evening Gazette's deputy business and features editor - with special interest in all things industry, property and arts related »
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