In my previous post, I looked at the benefits that small businesses bring to a community and I believe that there is no dispute that small businesses have tremendous value. It’s however important to point out that whereas they may be of value, not all small businesses end up being successful.

That’s the reason why I am choosing to write this article so that I can share with you a couple of tips on how you can start a successful small business in your community.

Here are 5 tips for starting a small business.

1 You need to start a business that you are sure will work

One of the major challenges when it comes to starting small businesses is the transition from a business concept in your head to an actual living and breathing business. In many occasions the excitement of having a business idea in our heads may prevent us from actually assessing whether or not the idea will work. It’s therefore advisable that we first test out the idea to see whether it works before we invest our hard earned money into the business.

2 You need to ensure that your business solves a problem in the community

One of the ways to guarantee that your business will get customers is if you are sure that the business you are forming will help solve a problem that the community has been experiencing. Businesses formed out of necessity tend to grow into successful businesses because customers will always see the value of the services that you are offering. However, if there’s no apparent problem your business will be solving then you better think twice about it.

3 You need to ensure that your customers will be willing to pay for your services

When you have decided on a small business to start, you have ensured it works and that it solves a problem, the next step is finding out whether your customers who are mostly your community members will be willing to pay for services. It makes no sense to have a good business that customers will not be willing to spend money on. It’s therefore very important for you to package your business in such a way that customers will see value and be willing to comfortably spend their money.

4 You need to ensure that the market is substantial

Without a substantial market then there is no point in starting a business. Just because it’s a small business doesn’t mean that it doesn’t need a large market. You must therefore ensure that whichever business it is you are starting, there must be more than enough customers within your community to ensure that your business is sustainable. It’s also a good idea to consider having an online option so that you can reach out to customers beyond your community.

5 You need to ensure that you have passion for the business

Running a business is never easy and can be full of ups and downs which may end up being very stressful at times. The reality is that if you are not passionate enough about what you are doing then chances are high that you will not have the motivation to fight on through the challenges. You must therefore ensure that you are motivated to do the business out of a passion for it as this will come in handy down the road.

If you are a person looking to start a small business in your community then the above insights will act as a good guide for you. If you can check all the boxes then you are good to go. Just as a recap, get your idea, ensure its practical and it serves a need, it’s affordable and your customers are willing to pay for it, and lastly, ensure you are passionate about it.

We wish you all the best in your entrepreneurship journey.

I strongly believe that for Havering Borough Community to grow into a tight knit community there is need for us to embrace a number of community services that will help enhance social cohesion. In this time when we need to boost our local economy, enhance our security and grow our community into a desirable place for residents, the need for social cohesion can’t be overemphasized.

In this article, I am going to look at 4 ways to enhance social cohesion through embracing community services.

1 It enhances our desire to want to give back

As members of our community, there’s not a greater feeling than that of wanting to give back to your community through service. This doesn’t just benefit us in the long run but will also benefit our kids and their kids especially if they choose to live their lives in this community just as most of us do. Embracing this sense of social responsibility with the desire to work together to uplift our community is the best decision one can ever make.

2 It helps us instill good values on our children

There’s nothing that makes a parent proud like raising up kids with good values. One of the best ways to achieve this is through involving them in community service. Letting kids know that working hard should not be just about becoming successful but that they can also work hard in the service of others is one of the best life lessons you can give them which will help enhance their value system as they also transition into adulthood.

3 It enhances our social connectedness

The more community members are jointly and actively involved in community services, working together for the betterment of their community, the stronger their interpersonal relationships. This will help enhance social connectedness between the different members. It even becomes more enhanced if both adults and kids are involved in this act of giving back because these values then get handed down to generations to come.

4 It can be a way to discover our passions

Most people have a tendency to live through life without ever discovering what their purpose in life is and this has resulted in many living unfulfilled lives. Taking the time to get involved in community services may be the way in which you discover your purpose. By taking up a cause that serves others, you may end up discovering that this is your passion and is actually what your purpose in life was meant to be.

With such tremendous long term benefits of getting actively involved in community services, I would like to take this opportunity to encourage members of the Havering Borough Community to sign up to be volunteers and let’s work together to grow our community.

It’s also a good idea for you to enroll your kids into community service so that they can have an avenue to make use of their extra time and in the process learn a couple of values that will benefit them later in life.

Research has revealed that private community schools produce better academic and extracurricular performances from pupils in comparison to public schools. This research sort of contradicts our previous article which demonstrated that maintained schools within the Havering Borough Community produced better results when compared to other schools.

In this article, we are going to look at some of the benefits of community schools which help in ensuring better overall performances from pupils in such schools.

Here are 4 benefits of community schools.

1 They provide a better learning atmosphere

In most cases, the size of a private community school will be much smaller than a public school and this therefore means that the school will have a small number of students therefore guaranteeing a better student to teacher ratio. In addition to this, the fact that pupils are smaller in number means that there will be more opportunities for them to interact thereby forming good friendships which have been proven to promote better learning.

2 They provide more discipline

Cases of indiscipline in private community schools are usually much lower in comparison to public schools because the former are much stringent when it comes to enforcing discipline. You will therefore realize that cases of bullying are much lower or even nonexistent in private community schools, the same of which can’t be said for public schools. This therefore means that private community schools will produce an all rounded pupil both academically and socially.

3 They produce more social pupils

Most private schools focus on offering curriculum that is learner centered and this type of curriculum encourages pupils to actively participate in class that nurturing them to be self-expressive thereby getting rid of their shyness. This is a quality that goes on to tremendously benefit them in college because they are already used to speaking up while in class. The same can’t be said of public schools because their mode of delivery is mostly teacher centered thus promoting introverted tendencies among pupils.

4 Pupils learn how to form strong relationships

Because of the small number of students in a private community school, most of the interactions be they between the pupils themselves or between the pupils and teachers will often be on a one-on-one basis. This has the benefit of teaching these pupils early on how inter-personal relationships work and this is something that ends up benefiting them later in life. The same can’t be said of public schools because there are very limited opportunities for one-on-one interactions.

With all these benefits of private community schools, as members of the Havering Borough Community, we can encourage the formation of more of them or pick these best practices and introduce them to our maintained schools.

All in all, we can be confident that we are one of the boroughs in the UK that are enjoying the benefits of a very good academic track record.

Did you know that the Havering Borough Community has some of the best performing primary schools in London? Well now you know. Based on key performance metrics such the percentage of pupils comfortably satisfying expected standards, pupils’ good performance in reading, writing and math, primary schools in this borough rank quite highly.

In this article, we are going to briefly look at the 7 best performing schools in Havering.

1 Elm Park Primary School

Elm Park Primary School which is a maintained school in Havering registered some very impressive results in 2017 with 73 per cent of the pupils meeting and even surpassing the expected standards. These pupils average score in math and reading was 108 and 107 respectively. The school also has a very engaging extracurricular program.

2 R J Mitchell Primary School

R J Mitchell Primary School which is a maintained school in Havering registered some impressive results as well in 2012 with 80 per cent of the pupils meeting and even surpassing the expected standards. These pupils average score in math and reading was 108 and 110 respectively. Data on the schools extracurricular program was not available.

3 Nelmes Primary School

Nelmes Primary School which is also a maintained school in Havering continued with the impressive results in 2017 with 92 per cent of the pupils meeting and even surpassing the expected standards. These pupils average score in math and reading was 108 and 109 respectively. Data on the schools extracurricular program was not available.

4 St Mary’s Catholic Primary School

St Mary’s Catholic Primary School which is also a maintained school in Havering also registered impressive results in 2017 with 80 per cent of the pupils meeting and even surpassing the expected standards. These pupils average score in math and reading was 107 and 108 respectively. Data on the schools extracurricular program was not available.

5 Broadford Primary School

Broadford Primary School which is another maintained school in Havering equally registered impressive results in 2017 with 80 per cent of the pupils meeting and even surpassing the expected standards. These pupils average score in math and reading was 108 and 105 respectively. Data on the schools extracurricular program was not available.

6 Whybridge Junior School

Whybridge Junior School which is also a maintained school in Havering also registered impressive results in 2017 with 88 per cent of the pupils meeting and even surpassing the expected standards. These pupils average score in math and reading was 109. Data on the schools extracurricular program was not available.

7 Harold Court Primary School

Harold Court Primary School which is also a maintained school in Havering also registered impressive results in 2017 with 83 per cent of the pupils meeting and even surpassing expected standards. These pupils average score in math and reading was 105 and 106 respectively. Data on the schools extracurricular program was not available.

From this data we can conclude that most of the best performing schools in the Havering Borough are maintained schools and this is an indication to the community members that maintained schools can still be a very good option if you are looking for a school to enroll your child.

I trust that this has been an eye opening article about the state of our schools.