one to one free expert advice

If you need specific guidance on an aspect of your business, or want to chat through your idea, you can book a free 1-to-1 session with one of our Business Experts 

Meet the Experts here to help you...

Business Development

Richard Love

Richard has a history of founding start-ups across several fields, from Alcohol to publishing, Renewables to Arts and Crafts. He’s worked across Europe, learning French and Spanish on his journey.

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Social Enterprise

Sarah Taragon

Sarah Taragon runs Clarity CIC, which provides advice, support and consultancy for charities, community groups, and social enterprises in the South West. Sarah has over 25 years of experience in

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Social Enterprise

Stephen Woollett

Stephen, along with Sarah Taragon, run Clarity CIC which provides advice, support and consultancy for charities, community groups, social enterprises and public bodies across the South West. Together they have

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branding

Stacey Sheppard

Stacey Sheppard is a freelance writer and multi-award-winning interior design blogger. She started her blog, The Design Sheppard, in 2009 and it is has ranked as one of the top

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Peter Totterdill headshot
People & HR

Peter Totterdill

Peter has helped a wide range of companies, charities and public sector organisations to achieve successful and sustainable change, enhancing growth, innovation, and workforce engagement and retention. Peter focuses on

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branding

Tanya Rodgers

Tanya is a small business branding specialist. Her business, Me & Spirit Design Studio helps women-led creative businesses craft purposeful brands that not only feel deeply authentic but are strategically

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Chris Howsam Headshot
Product Design & Engineering

Chris Howsam

Chris is a hugely experienced Product Design Consultant with over thirty-five years in design consultancy, delivering over a thousand products, manufactured in their millions globally. He founded Hillside Product Design

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Marketing

Liz Pendleton

‘LingoLiz’ founded Lingo Design in 2005 after her hobby-website building became more enjoyable than the ‘real job’ – which at the time was working for Norfolk radio station KLFM. Her

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ethical businesses

Kalkidan Legesse

Kalkidan Legesse (MBA) is a social entrepreneur who works to deliver scaling businesses that are environmentally sound and socially inclusive. In a world facing failures of leaderships, systematic racism and

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Funding & Finance

Joshua Rees

Josh is the Director of BCDF Ltd, a professional services firm specialising in commercial finance solutions for new and growing businesses. Access to finance is often ranked as one of

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Coaching

Gabi Glover

Public Speaking Trainer. Confidence Coach. Growth and Development Consultant  Gabi Glover has been helping business owners, start-ups, SMEs and freelancers grow their business and develop their professional skills for over

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Coaching

Clare Palmer

Clare Palmer – Award-winning coach and founder of Clarity Coaching by Clare Palmer Clare had a highly successful and accredited career working as a senior compliance manager for a multinational

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Headshot of Guy Arnold, holding Slow Selling and Great or Poor books
Business Development

Guy Arnold

​Guy is an unconventional business adviser who helps owners of small businesses build sales and profits through reputation, loyalty and referrals … above all else. Guy has run his own businesses and

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Lauren Lepley-Caldon
Business Triage

Lauren Lepley-Caldon

Lauren Lepley-Caldon is a Life and Business Executive Coach, primarily working with purpose-led businesses. Rooted in her passion for educating others in bettering themselves both professionally and personally, Lauren works to help

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Sales

James White

James White is the Small Business Sales Expert. He is a keynote speaker, author, trainer and mentor for sales professionals and ambitious small business owners and their sales teams. With

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Marketing

Alison Jobson

Alison is a Chartered Marketer and a no-fluff marketing consultant. Her approach is straightforward, plain-speaking and honest. In 2010 she created Straight Marketing, a marketing agency focused on helping busy

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Marketing

Siobhán Lavelle

Siobhán is a PR and marketing communications consultant.  With nearly 30 years experience, she works with clients to develop marketing communications programmes that support business goals and drive growth and sales,

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Social Enterprise

Chris Gunson

Chris is Co-founder and Director of Local Spark: Torbay Community Supported Enterprise CIC. Local Spark works with members of all communities across Torbay to start up and support businesses for

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Marketing

Nigel Wilkinson

As founder and Director of the Nican Group, I support our clients by advising them on Digital Marketing, website and engagement strategies. I believe business success happens through understanding customers,

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how to register for a FREE one-to-one

STEP 1

Check out our list of Experts, above. If there’s someone you’d like to speak to, click the Enquire button alongside their details – you will be asked to provide some basic contact details. 

STEP 2

When we receive your enquiry, we will ask you a few questions, to help our expert understand you and your business idea.

Once you reply, we’ll be able to confirm your booking, and our expert will contact you with details of how to access the meeting.

STEP 3

This meeting will be delivered remotely.

If you have any additional requirements which will help you to access a
1-to-1 session, please let us know and we’ll do our best to help.

All 1-to-1 sessions are free to access.

Please note that due to demand, only Devon-based businesses are eligible to book 1-to-1s and there is a limit of one booking per business.

If you would like to book additional follow-up appointments with an Expert, you are able to go ahead and arrange this on their own terms (this may include payment at the Expert’s usual rate).

ACCESSIBLE

If you have any additional requirements which will help you to access a 1-to-1 session, please let us know and we'll do our best to help.

IP Information Appointment

A virtual one-to-one meeting to help you better understand how you can protect and use the IP in your business.

Intellectual Property (IP) consists of four main areas: copyright, trademarks, patents and registered designs. Knowing and understanding your IP rights can help you to ensure that you are safeguarding your creativity effectively, and reduce the chances of problems further down the line.

In this session, our BIPC Devon staff will help you identify the IP in your business, and consider options for protecting it. We can give you an overview of the IP system in the UK, information on how to apply for the different rights, and help with basic searches.

Please note: We are NOT able to provide legal advice. We can, however, provide information and signposting, to help you better understand how you can protect and use the IP in your business.

Testimonials

Thank you for a very focused and interesting session, it was most useful.

The internet is brilliant, but overwhelming if you don’t know where to look, so to discover that the information I need can be found in a few specific sites was invaluable.

Liz, Barnstaple
I’ve accessed several of the BIPC Devon services over the past year and have found them to be invaluable sources of information each time.

The staff have always been kind, professional and helpful, even when I haven’t really known exactly what I am looking/asking for. I’d recommend them as the perfect place to start if you are even considering something IP related within your business, or if you have never even considered IP and your business.
Excellent! So valuable and down-to-earth.

I have been so impressed and relieved to have found BIPC...especially during the (sometimes daunting) period of setting up my own business.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!
The free resources and tools that BIPC Devon are able to offer are fantastic and can really help any business of any size.

Being able to access.... the support is an incredible opportunity that all budding entrepreneurs should seize.
Can I just say these courses are such a huge help, thank you to everyone who is involved with running them.

It’s great to feel that there is support out there to start on this epic business journey in such a time of chaos, so thank you all once again.
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