Alan Ball, business information officer

Are you a high street business looking for some support after the challenges of the past couple of years? Or maybe you’ve just started out on the high street? Are you looking for a great business coach to help you out?

Meet Alan, one of our team of High Street specialists. He’s regularly out and about in his patches- the City Centre, City Road, Attercliffe Road, Tinsley, Page Hall, Totley and Dore.

Alan has supported over 300 Sheffield businesses through the recent pandemic including retail, hospitality, personal care, night-time economy- even manufacturers and distributors. He’s particularly skilled in supporting businesses across our ethnic minority communities, with a sound understanding and respect for culture as well as a track record of being reliable and responsive.

Alan checks in regularly with his businesses- in person. He’s approachable and has a very ‘no problem too small’ attitude when working with businesses. Top areas he is supporting businesses on right now include social media ideas, cash flow problems, expansion, grant applications, and even the odd project around taking local issues and finding the right people in the Council to resolve them.

Alan’s approach is simple; by taking the emotion out of the situation, he can look at the problem (or the opportunity) take the available evidence and work with the business to identify, plan and execute the solution. He knows that all calls for help, no matter how small, are significant to the business- every issue raised is treated with the same enthusiasm and empathy.

So where does all this knowledge come from? Well, from 30 years' experience running large and small businesses across many different sectors both in the UK and Internationally. In the last five years Alan has qualified formally as a business coach. This means he can combine his experience with a safe environment for business owners to seek solutions for the unique challenges running and owning a business brings.

Like all our advisors, Alan’s helpfully connected into colleagues at the council to assist with things like licensing or street cleaning. But most of all you can trust him to help you start to figure out what support you need.