{"id":643,"date":"2015-01-09T18:31:45","date_gmt":"2015-01-09T18:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/?p=643"},"modified":"2015-01-26T13:11:01","modified_gmt":"2015-01-26T13:11:01","slug":"supporting-otford-small-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/?p=643","title":{"rendered":"Supporting Otford Small Businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_657\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-657\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FSB090115_044.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-657 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FSB090115_044-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Mille Fleurs Otford\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FSB090115_044-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FSB090115_044-624x935.jpg 624w, https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FSB090115_044.jpg 683w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 85vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-657\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mille Fleurs Otford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Michael joined members of the West Kent branch of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in Otford today to provide support and advice to their members. \u00a0Among the shops he visited in the High Street were\u00a0<a title=\"Mille Fleurs\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mille-fleurs.net\/home\/4558859180\" target=\"_blank\">Mille Fleurs<\/a>\u00a0(bespoke hats) and the <a title=\"Bill Skinner Studio\" href=\"http:\/\/billskinnerstudio.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bill Skinner Studio<\/a> (bespoke jewellery).<\/p>\n<p>Jane Cave has been a milliner since 1982 and set up the shop Mille Fleurs in 1997. \u00a0The shop also hosts a workshop, where bespoke hats are made on-site using traditional millinery techniques.<\/p>\n<p>The Bill Skinner Studio creates collections using traditional techniques as well as state-of-the-art technology such as 3D printing. \u00a0The company employs 14 people at three different locations and exports internationally following extensive restructuring three years ago.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_659\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-659\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FSB090115_026.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-659\" src=\"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FSB090115_026-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Bill Skinner Studio Otford\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FSB090115_026-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FSB090115_026-624x416.jpg 624w, https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FSB090115_026.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-659\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bill Skinner Studio Otford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Michael said: &#8220;The small business rate-relief has helped\u00a0many businesses. \u00a0However,\u00a0I am also keen to support the cutting of red tape in any way possible. \u00a0Small businesses in small villages don&#8217;t get the same footfall as in the larger towns. \u00a0There is strong competition from the internet \u00a0so anything that we can all do to help to promote local small businesses must be worthwhile.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael joined members of the West Kent branch of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in Otford today to provide support and advice to their members. \u00a0Among the shops he visited in the High Street were\u00a0Mille Fleurs\u00a0(bespoke hats) and the Bill Skinner Studio (bespoke jewellery). Jane Cave has been a milliner since 1982 and set &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/?p=643\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Supporting Otford Small Businesses&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[19,96,97],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=643"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":660,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions\/660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}