Thame Businesses Together
Thame Town Council has established a virtual business forum through ‘Basecamp’ – creating an online community of ‘Thame Businesses Together’. The impact of the extraordinary circumstances under which we are all currently living call for cooperation between businesses large and small to pool their knowledge, skills, and resources to the common good in a spirit of mutual support.
One of the few positive outcomes of recent weeks has been the enterprise, resilience and determination of our local businesses to get through our current situation in one piece, in many cases re-inventing whole business models virtually overnight. This is perhaps most obviously illustrated by pubs and restaurants that have turned their facilities over to home delivery services, essential retailers who are able to remain open often extending their range and availability of products stocked, some setting up order and collect services to avoid long queues, and even taking telephone orders and delivering toys and games to keep kids occupied at home. It is not just the High Street either! Trades – plumbers, electricians, domestic appliance engineers, and many others – have continued to respond to urgent call-outs, providing immediate local support to many who have needed it. And some of the larger companies on our industrial estates are releasing stocks of PPE, in one case re-purposing their production facilities to manufacture face visors, with others donating materials to cottage-industry home workers sewing scrubs for the NHS.
The entrepreneurial spirit of businesses, not just in Thame but nationwide, is shining through as they take positive action to help themselves and help each other, defying the odds rather than rolling over in defeat, and often putting community interest ahead of their own. They deserve to flourish when life returns to some sort of normal, many will actually be stronger as a result, and we can only hope that the public remember their contribution and retain some loyalty. In particular where personal service has proven its value, and where businesses have supported the community, there is a new momentum to build on.
As you will be aware Thame Town Council is NOT able to offer direct business advice. However what we do have, in great abundance and both collectively and individually, are contacts, networks, and access to higher authorities which can assist businesses in responding to challenges and resolving particular problems. We also have the ability to resource and administer the set-up of a NEW online business forum and we would like to invite any local businesses to join it.
This forum provides an opportunity for any business to share their concerns, support each other and the local community, and where possible work together to mutual benefit. This has been happening for some time, though informally and fairly low profile, amongst members of the Thame Business Forum, but the current situation presents the opportunity to make mutual self-help more accessible, embracing the whole of the local economy. Please come and join us to:have the opportunity to talk to other businesses to share knowledge, advice and experience to help in the present access shared resources to support you at this time offer what assistance you can to support other businesses and the wider community receive updates on any relevant local information take part in planning for when restrictions begin to ease, to bring people back to our local town centre, and to find ways to remind the public of the part played by local businesses in making lockdown more bearable.
There will probably never be a better opportunity to champion our local economy, so please join us now and also help to spread the word to other local businesses who you feel would benefit from, or contribute to, Thame’s economic and social well-being through this forum. You can also sign up through the link below:
Thame Business Together Online Forum
On sign up, please make sure you read the ‘Basecamp Set-up’ messages on the Message Board before you start posting. This will ensure your inbox is not overwhelmed by notifications and will make sure that you do not have messages moved/deleted after posting them.
Any questions feel free to contact becky.reid@thametowncouncil.gov.uk
Date posted: Thursday 23 April 2020