River Cities uses long-term relationships to raise $100M-plus

Ever wonder how big-time investment groups like venture capital funds get big-time investors like banks, insurers and wealthy individuals to fork over investment dough?
In short, it’s a long-term process. Really long-term.
When you’re looking to raise somewhere between $100 million and $150 million like River Cities Capital Funds is, you don’t just pick up the phone and start calling around. Or shoot off a couple of emails.
Image via WikipediaDan Fleming, a River Cities managing partner, said these things are done over long time periods and typically start with a personal referral.
“We typically invest time in multiple meetings over the course of months or even years to attract new investors,” he said. “There is an extreme level of trust required to make an investment in a private equity firm.”
That’s because the investors rely on the fund manager to select companies in which they’ll ultimately invest.
Doug Roberts, a partner at downtown law firm Thompson Hine who works on venture capital issues, likened venture fund-raising to a political campaign or college sports recruiting. It’s a constant process that involves years of building relationships for a payoff down the road.
Now is when River Cities is expecting that payoff. Of course, it helps that its past and present investors have gotten healthy payoffs on their investments.
Fleming must feel confident his firm can raise money somewhere in the range he mentioned. The fact he was willing to mention sizable numbers for the next fund’s target size likely means River Cities has gotten a good response from its prior investors about signing up for the next fund, Roberts said.
“That speaks well to what River Cities is seeing,” he said. “Otherwise they would say they’re playing it safe in this market.”

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Can E-auctions deliver value without spoling long-term supplier relationships?

Despite better margins for food buyers using online auctions, suppliers remain worried by low price points and the possible lack of a long-term supply relationship, while one large food firm said that it was sometimes easier to “simply pick up the phone”.

From the late 90s e-auctions have evolved into sophisticated buying tools that cover everything from signage and stationery to dairy ingredients and butter, with e-procurement expert ScanMarket citing 12-18% savings across all UK food categories.

E-procurement generally has the advantage of allowing food firms to compile data on suppliers, buyers, purchasing orders and invoices in one online ‘cloud’, where this benefits large food firms with multiple buyers in particular.

Keeping suppliers honest

Paul Ellis, md of e-procurement specialist Wax Digital (clients include Allied Bakeries, Thorntons, Twinings and Silver Spoon) told FoodManufacture.co.uk that e-auctions are a good way of “keeping suppliers honest and drawing-out best value”.

Most UK food firms and retailers run auctions where pre-qualified suppliers compete on price, and Ellis said the recession had led to growing interest in e-procurement. “When you’re making loads of money, you’re perhaps not so attentive to costs. When you’re not, you look hard at your supply base.”

Whereas an e-auction might only take 45-50 minutes, said Henrik Balslev from Scanmarket, face-to-face meetings with suppliers to ink contracts could take days.

Balslev said e-procurement software could also streamline the tender process to decide auction candidates, with suppliers invited to participate logging-in and providing responses within an agreed timeframe.

This allowed buyers to monitor supplier responses in real time and compare answer quality to score suppliers, Balslev said, where systems included inbuilt scoring and weighing analyses.

Before, he added, buyers had to send out Excel spreadsheets, then possibly chase suppliers over missed deadlines, before manually compiling and compare partial responses or those supplied in varying formats.

Non-price factors absent

Given the commercial sensitivities that e-procurement involved, food firms are tight-lipped when discussing its use, but one chilled foods firm md said:

“We are asked to participate in private label retail and foodservice e-auctions on a regular basis. We normally decline, because making identical products at very low price points is not usually very profitable.”

He added that using an e-auction told potential suppliers “that they are not long-term commitments and that non-price factors: supply record, technical standards, financial strength, are not really considered during the decision-making process”.

A Greencore spokesman said the firm used e-auctions “where appropriate” for parts of its portfolio, while the spokesman for another large food firm said auctions were important, but that identifying suppliers and visiting their facilities still took time for buyers. “Sometimes, it’s just easier to pick up the phone."

Beat suppliers with stick

But Balslev said it was a “misunderstanding” that auctions are only run on price, adding that tailored events could also weigh variables such as delivery timescales, credit terms and product quality.

As a“tool in the buyer’s toolkit” he said auctions were indispensable, but admitted that certain unit volumes were necessary for an event to be worthwhile to either party, while bidders needed to find the event attractive and have a clear product specification.

One obstacle to uptake was traditional buyers, Balslev said, who if they didn’t relish “beating suppliers on the head with a big stick”, at least enjoyed the thrill of face-to-face negotiations, where e-procurement suited more analytical personalities.

Ellis said Wax Digital had also seen cases where firms awarded contracts to companies that hadn’t won auctions, which he said was unfortunate. “We want a fair process where the winner wins, although that said the buyer makes its mind up, and is free to do so.”

EAGLE ROCK ENERGY ANNOUNCED IT ENTERED INTO A FIVE-YEAR SENIOR SECURED CREDIT FACILITY (EROC)

Eagle Rock Energy (NASDAQ:EROC - Snapshot Report) announced that it has entered into a five-year senior secured credit facility with a syndicate of banks led by Wells Fargo, N.A. as administrative agent, Bank of America, N.A. and Royal Bank of Scotland plc as co-syndication agents, and BNP Paribas as documentation agent.

Initial commitments totaled $675 million, with the ability to increase commitments up to $1.2 billion.

"We are pleased with the support shown by our lender group, which includes several institutions continuing long-term relationships with Eagle Rock and others beginning new strategic relationships," said Jeffrey P. Wood, the Partnership's Chief Financial Officer. "The refinancing of our credit facility, together with our inaugural senior notes issuance last month, provides further long-term stability and financial flexibility to Eagle Rock's capital structure as we continue to focus on our growth strategy."

Eagle Rock Energy has a potential upside of 27% based on a current price of $11.02 and an average consensus analyst price target of $14.

Eagle Rock Energy is currently below its 50-day moving average (MA) of $11.37 and should find support at its 200-day MA of $9.09.

In the last five trading sessions, the 50-day MA has climbed 0.24% while the 200-day MA has risen 0.76%.

Eagle Rock Energy Partners LP gathers, compresses, treats, processes, transports and sells natural gas, and fractionates and transports natural gas liquids. The Company also acquires, produces, and develops, oil and natural gas properties.

Inspired by innovation: Harley-Davidson and Volvo Trucks

Harley-Davidson is one of the planet’s coolest motorcycle brands. In the transport industry, Volvo Trucks is inextricably linked with the company’s core values of safety, quality and care for the environment.

Two very different companies, each with a shared vision of innovation and the objective of always being there for customers at all times. In fact, given the two companies focus on customer relationships, it could be said that both Harley-Davidson and Volvo Trucks are on a very similar, if not the same, journey.
Now, for the first time, both Harley-Davidson and Volvo Trucks are working together to jointly build on their individual brand's strengths with an innovative business relationship designed for the ultimate benefit of both company's customers. This long term relationship involves sharing business experiences and also customer opportunities.

In the words of Harley-Davidson UK's XR1200® Race Series Manager Ian McLeod: "We ride with you. Harley-Davidson is not just about the motorcycles but also the long term relationship with our customers. The motorcycles are an enabler for a lifestyle."

Volvo Group UK Managing Director Göran Nyberg agrees: "In much the same way as Harley- Davidson, Volvo Trucks is about more than just the vehicles. Our objective is for our trucks to enable operators to run a successful business. But, long term, it's the partnership that customers develop with Volvo Trucks and our Dealer Network which is at the heart of the relationship."

"Like Harley-Davidson, that relationship is often about affinity with the manufacturer as well as trust in the brand to deliver on core values, and we mustn't forget that pride in ownership plays an important part for many Volvo operators too."

"This all has to be coupled to an innovative approach to helping transport operators manage costs through our Total Transport Solution approach which includes schemes such as the Fuelwatch programme and maintenance contracts to suit every operation. However, we believe that by working closely with another high profile brand like Harley-Davidson, we can learn a great deal from each other in terms of how best to work even more closely with our customers."

Although there are innovative programmes in development which will be announced in due course, the first manifestation of this innovative partnership is the appearance of a guest motorcycle which is currently competing in the XR1200® Race Series in the UK.

A different guest rider, whose points don't count towards the overall standings, is saddling up on the Harley-Davidson XR1200® for each round of the seven event series which takes in major circuits such as Snetterton, Oulton Park and Brands Hatch, finishing the season off in September at Donington Park.

With eleven teams drawn from the Harley-Davidson UK and Ireland dealer network and eighteen riders competing on the USA Flat Track style machines at some of the country's toughest twistiest short circuits, there is bound to be plenty of close quarter dicing and great sporting entertainment.

Five Tips for Using Social Media at Festivals

I'm Antonio Hicks. I'm on a mission to help businesses and residents in Virginia-Highland use social media and technology to their advantage.

This week we'll explore how to use social media at festivals. We'll look at dos and do-nots, with Virginia-Highland Summerfest as a case study. And we'll hear from Summerfest vendors who made smart use of social media.

1. Use social media to build long-term relationships with fans.

Many artists and food vendors focus entirely on making sales at the festival. But these transactions are typically one and done. Which is not good business.

In addition to making sales at the festival, I encourage vendors to build relationships with fans that continue long after, via social media. Fans are more likely to make repeat purchases. They also help spread the word with their friends – who in turn can become customers. And that's good business.

Or put another way, "put the social in social media."

This comes naturally to Keith Schroeder, founder of High Road Craft Ice Cream, which had a booth at Summerfest.

"They don't call them ice cream socials for nothing," Schroeder said. "It's an inherently social product. Typically, ice cream is part of a shared experience. We're stretching out the framework that was established hundreds of years ago, for what ice cream is all about, having fun and being together."

The good news is you don't have to be in the business of ice cream to use social media to build long-term customer relationships with fans. Anyone can do it. But not everyone will.

How about you?

2. Make it easy for festival attendees to tell their friends about your business.

When I give keynote speeches at conferences, I include my Twitter username @davideckoff on the footer of every slide in my presentation, to make it easy for conference attendees to tell their friends about my speech. As a result, more people Tweet the most interesting things they hear me say, along with my Twitter name. This extends the reach of my message to many thousands of people.

The same principle can be applied to festivals. If you're an artist, display your Twitter username at your booth as prominently as you display your art.

"We are sharing things every day in our lives that we never would have picked up the phone for years ago," New York Times bestselling author Gary Vaynerchuck said at SXSW Interactive this year. "You would have never picked up the phone and called a buddy and said 'this Tropicana orange juice is yummers.' And you definitely wouldn't call everybody. But you do it now."

So it's critically important to make it easy for people to tell their friends about your business.

Unfortunately, I didn't see even one artist displaying their Twitter username or Facebook account at their booth at Summerfest. This made it harder to tell my friends about them. So I didn't. And I'm sure other people who would have, didn't tell their friends.

Don't have a Twitter account? What are you waiting for? It's free. It couldn't be easier to use. And bottom like, you'll sell more art.

Summerfest Success Stories

I'm pleased to say that I saw three vendors at Summerfest who made it easy for people to tell their friends about them.

First up, High Road Craft Ice Cream prominently displayed its social media contact information at its booth.

"Almost all the awareness we've built for the company is word of mouth and social media," Schroeder from High Road Craft Ice Cream said. "We've done nothing else but that and attending events."

Schroeder is finding that Twitter is the social network that enables him to connect with super fans of his business.

"Our Twitter followers are hyper active in their conversations with us," Schroeder said. "They are the real evangelists of High Road. They are more active, their conversations are more frequent and the level of intimacy we have with our Twitter followers is greater."

Next, Georgia State University Athletics prominently displayed its social media coordinates at its Summerfest booth.

"We typically put Facebook and Twitter on anything we have from a promotional standpoint," Griffith Hunter, marketing coordinator for Georgia State University Athletic Department, said. "Our season ticket brochures and schedule cards, for example."

Finally, Atlanta Beer Festivals had a booth at Summerfest and their goal was to get the word out about their upcoming Summer Beer Fest on Saturday June 25.

"What excites me is the retweets and the mentions where influential people mention us," Michael DiLonardo, Director of Operations, Atlanta Beer Festivals told me. "For example, Beer Connoisseur magazine has over 30,000 followers and they mentioned us. ATL Events has 9,000 followers and she retweets. That's where I see the value escalating."

Ideas for Festival Organizers

Festival organizers can make it easier for people to follow all the tweets about an event via Twitter Search. Define and promote a hashtag for people to use when posting about the event (for example #summerfest) and this simple step can yield big results for viral word of mouth. People who follow the event on Twitter are likely to retweet messages to their friends, extending the reach of your festival's message.

There are numerous other ways festivals can make it easier for customers to tell their friends about a festival, as well, and Hunter from GSU offered a few ideas.

"Summerfest could include the event's Twitter and Facebook accounts on the festival T-shirts to promote them," Hunter said. "Also, if Summerfest had a Twitter account, we could have retweeted their messages and interacted with them more as well."

Summerfest did a good job with its Facebook page. But it doesn't surprise me that people didn't know about the Summerfest Twitter account. It wasn't promoted well. And it was used sparsely, with only three tweets during the three day event.

3. Encourage photographs.

I might not buy a particular piece of art at a festival. But many of my 3,000 followers on Twitter might.

Despite that, I saw several artists with signs at their booths saying "no photography," which made it hard to tell my friends about their work. Yeah, I get it, your art is your copyrighted work and you don't want people to duplicate it. I also think you're being shortsighted. If you believe your "no photography" sign is really protecting your work from someone who wants to rip you off, you're deluding yourself. It's not. You're only discouraging people from telling their online friends about your art and limiting the audience for sales of your work.

How about this? Instead, put up a sign that says something like: "We encourage you to take photos of our art and share them with your friends on social media! We're @YourTwitterName on Twitter."

Festival organizers can also have a big influence on photos. Before, during and after the event, encourage vendors and attendees to take photos at the festival and post them to Twitter, Facebook and Flickr (with the event hashtag). Then showcase links to the very best photos in a post-event recap on your website.

4. Avoid social media marketing overload

Some business people push a non-stop stream of marketing messages through social media.

"The word 'social media' tricked all the people that are just executors, the ones that aren't thinking," Vaynerchuck said at SXSW Interactive. "They hear the word media, and they think one thing. Push. All they want to do is push. And it's not their fault. Because marketing for the last hundred years has been push. Radio. Print. Billboards. TV. Email newsletters."

Don't do that.

Think of social media like a cocktail party. No one likes the person who comes up to them at a cocktail party and immediately starts trying to sell them something.

"It is my firm belief that everybody in social media marketing today acts like a 19 year old dude," Vaynerchuck said. "They try to close too fast. You need a little patience."

Put another way, don't be the social media version of the marketer who puts marketing flyers on parked cars.

Be a smart marketer and have conversations via social media with people who are talking about the festival. Build relationships with people through social media.

"When you post, it has to be content, it can't be advertising or overly self promoting," Schroeder of High Road Craft Ice Cream said. "You'll see an immediate drop in number of followers if it smells like advertising. It has to be a genuine dialog."

5. Monitor Twitter and provide real-time customer service.

My advice to businesses: monitor social media for mentions about your products and services and respond in real-time.

The same principal applies to festivals.

Festival organizers: assign at least one or even more volunteers to monitor social networks (Facebook and Twitter are musts) and respond in real-time.

Your attendees are talking on Facebook and Twitter. Listen and respond and you can win loyal fans.

The bottom line: Make social media a core part of the festival experience for attendees, so that their experience of being at the festival is made even better.

How do you use social media?

Silverware Joins the Intacct Business Partner Program

Intacct, a leader in cloud financial management and accounting software, today announced that Silverware, Inc. has joined the Intacct Business Partner Program. Silverware, a Microsoft and Sage partner that has been designing, implementing and supporting customizable business management software for clients in the southwest United States since 1988, is adding Intacct to its portfolio to meet the needs of an increasing number of professional service firms asking for cloud-based financial systems.

Silverware's success has been driven by its focus on services and consulting engagements, which have enabled the firm to build long-term relationships with clients. Silverware's customers are mainly mid-sized businesses in the manufacturing and distribution industries, but the firm has wanted to expand its opportunities with professional service and project-based businesses -- many of which want a pure cloud financial system. Intacct will now be Silverware's "go to" product for clients in this market.

"Demand from professional service businesses is definitely on the upswing and Silverware is ready to address the unique requirements of this growing market with the Intacct financial management solution," said Sara Silver, president of Silverware. "Our approach is always to find the best solution for each customer. With many of our clients moving to a cloud-only IT infrastructure, we wanted the opportunity to offer them the top cloud financial management and accounting applications on the market. We look forward to expanding our relationships with professional service firms and adding long-term value to many satisfied Intacct users."

Silverware carefully surveyed the market before partnering with Intacct. They passed on joining the SAP Business ByDesign partner program over concerns that SAP's long-term focus was on larger accounts. Accumatica and NetSuite were also considered, but Silverware preferred Intacct for its zero-conflict channel model and lower total cost of ownership. Silverware was also impressed by a successful Intacct implementation in the Phoenix area. Intacct's applications are well-suited to the needs of professional service firms looking to maximize profitability and gain competitive advantages.

With Intacct, Silverware gains access to a powerful project accounting application built on Intacct's robust cloud financial platform. Intacct Project Accounting seamlessly combines financial information and project information in one system, ensuring total transparency while improving operational efficiencies and finance department productivity for the project-based businesses Silverware wants to target. Silverware has long emphasized the value of customizable software platforms; Intacct provides partners with tools they need to tailor deployments to meet the specific needs of its clients.

"Intacct gives us a market-proven solution for professional service firms. The robust and flexible cloud-based software will enable us to grow our business through repeatable, low-risk implementations that yield happy clients," said David Thikoll, Director of Business Development for Silverware. "Prior to this partnership, we actually lost out on a deal to Intacct where the implementation cost for Intacct ended up being about half of what our fees to implement Microsoft Dynamics NAV would have been. That is a powerful message for our customers and prospects and helps to open up additional markets for our firm."

"Silverware is a great addition to the Intacct Business Partner Program," said Taylor Macdonald, Vice President of Channels for Intacct. "They have built an impressive consulting practice based on delivering outstanding customer experiences, and that fits well with our philosophy of total customer satisfaction. We look forward to helping Silverware grow its business with professional service firms in the Southwest."

About Silverware
Since 1988, Silverware has been designing, implementing and supporting business management systems for small and mid-sized manufacturers, wholesale distributors and services businesses in Arizona and the southwest United States. Silverware delivers customized solutions that work the way you do, providing powerful tools to overcome today's problems and capitalize on tomorrow's opportunities. For more information call 480.423.8324, ext. 117, or visit our Web site at http://www.silverw.com.

About Intacct
Intacct is the cloud financial management company. Bringing cloud computing to finance and accounting, Intacct's award-winning applications are the preferred financial applications for AICPA business solutions. Intacct applications are used by thousands of organizations from startups to public companies and are designed to improve company performance and make finance more productive. Hundreds of leading CPA firms and Value Added Resellers offer Intacct to their clients. The Intacct system includes accounting, contract management, revenue management, project and fund accounting, inventory, purchasing, vendor management, financial consolidation and financial reporting applications, all delivered over the Internet via cloud computing.

Intacct is headquartered in San Jose, California. For more information, please visit www.intacct.com or call 877-437-7765. Connect with Intacct on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

Eagle Rock Announces $675 Million Credit Facility and Update to Hedge Portfolio

Eagle Rock Energy Partners, L.P. ("Eagle Rock" or the "Partnership") EROC +1.75% announced today that it has entered into a five-year senior secured credit facility with a syndicate of banks led by Wells Fargo, N.A. as administrative agent, Bank of America, N.A. and Royal Bank of Scotland plc as co-syndication agents, and BNP Paribas as documentation agent. Initial commitments totaled $675 million, with the ability to increase commitments up to $1.2 billion. The facility, which matures in June 2016, replaces Eagle Rock's former senior secured credit facility, which was scheduled to mature in December 2012.

"We are pleased with the support shown by our lender group, which includes several institutions continuing long-term relationships with Eagle Rock and others beginning new strategic relationships," said Jeffrey P. Wood, the Partnership's Chief Financial Officer. "The refinancing of our credit facility, together with our inaugural senior notes issuance last month, provides further long-term stability and financial flexibility to Eagle Rock's capital structure as we continue to focus on our growth strategy."

In conjunction with the credit facility refinancing, Eagle Rock (i) restructured certain of its existing commodity hedges to remove as counterparties two institutions not continuing as lenders under the credit facility and (ii) restructured certain of its interest rate hedges to rebalance its fixed versus floating interest rate exposure following the issuance of the fixed-rate senior notes last month. Specifics of the hedge transactions were as follows:




-- Terminated a 2011 and a 2013 crude oil swap at a cost of approximately
$4.8 million; the volume of the terminated 2011 swap was re-hedged with
a continuing lender at the current market price.
-- Novated a portfolio of 2011, 2012 and 2013 commodity hedges to a
continuing lender in the credit facility and adjusted the strike prices
of certain of the novated hedges to reflect current market prices at a
total cost of approximately $14.6 million.
-- Terminated $150 million notional amount of the Partnership's existing
interest rate swaps at a cost of approximately $5.0 million; following
the termination, approximately 100% of Eagle Rock's interest rate
exposure is fixed through December 13, 2012.
-- Extended $250 million notional amount of the Partnership's remaining
interest rate swaps from their original maturity date of December 2012
to a new maturity date of June 2015. The fixed rate to be paid on the
extended swaps declined from 4.095% to 2.950%. There was no cost
associated with the extension.





As a result of the commodity hedge transactions, Eagle Rock's average strike price on its crude oil hedges increased from $73.44/Bbl to $75.27/Bbl for the remainder of 2011, $79.35/Bbl to $81.75/Bbl for 2012, and $91.02/Bbl to $96.44/Bbl for 2013.

Details of the recent hedging transactions are included in the updated Commodity Hedging Overview presentation Eagle Rock posted today to its website. The latest presentation can be accessed by going to www.eaglerockenergy.com ; select Investor Relations; then select Presentations.

About the Partnership

The Partnership is a growth-oriented master limited partnership engaged in two businesses: a) midstream, which includes (i) gathering, compressing, treating, processing and transporting natural gas; (ii) fractionating and transporting natural gas liquids; and (iii) marketing natural gas, condensate and NGLs; and b) upstream, which includes acquiring, exploiting, developing, and producing hydrocarbons in oil and natural gas properties. Its corporate office is located in Houston, Texas.

This news release may include "forward-looking statements." All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this press release that address activities, events or developments that the Partnership expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements and speak only as of the date on which such statement is made. These statements are based on certain assumptions made by the Partnership based on its experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors it believes are appropriate under the circumstances. Such statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Partnership. These include risks related to volatility of commodity prices; market demand for natural gas and natural gas liquids; the effectiveness of the Partnership's hedging activities; the Partnership's ability to retain key customers; the Partnership's ability to continue to obtain new sources of natural gas supply; the availability of local, intrastate and interstate transportation systems and other facilities to transport natural gas and natural gas liquids; competition in the oil and gas industry; the Partnership's ability to obtain credit and access the capital markets; general economic conditions; and the effects of government regulations and policies. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties occur, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, the Partnership's actual results and plans could differ materially from those implied or expressed by any forward-looking statements. The Partnership assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement as of any future date. For a detailed list of the Partnership's risk factors, please consult the Partnership's Form 10-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") for the year ended December 31, 2010 and the Partnership's Forms 10-Q filed with the SEC for subsequent quarters, as well as any other public filings and press releases.

This news release was distributed by GlobeNewswire, www.globenewswire.com

SOURCE: Eagle Rock Energy Partners, L.P.



CONTACT: Eagle Rock Energy Partners, L.P.
Jeff Wood, 281-408-1203
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Adam Altsuler, 281-408-1350
Director, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations

Beware: frisky business

Relationships at work should be approached with caution, but if it is too late for that advice, Donata Huggins finds out what you should do
Donata Huggins
A TUC survey showed that a quarter of all long-term relationships in the UK started at work. Hardly surprising, given most of our time is spent there. But this happens against a backdrop of employers’ growing restrictions on office romances. While it’s understandable that employers are fearful of the consequences and the impact on their business, employees are still entitled to a private life and there is a line to be drawn between the two interests. An employer can’t sack you for simply having a relationship with a colleague, but they can get you on other things. And since navigating that path is far from easy, we have put together this guide to help you steer clear of the pitfalls.

LABEL IT
It’s that dreaded label thing. Feared by men and women across the globe. You have to define the relationship you have with your colleague if you’re going to protect yourself from any potential negative consequences. Adrian Crawford, an employment law specialist and partner at law firm Kingsley Napley, says: “If it was just a one night stand after the office party then you don’t need to panic. It all depends on whether or not you intend to keep seeing them.”

CONFLICT OF INTEREST
If the relationship has the potential to be more serious, then you need to consider at what point you need to tell your superiors. Crawford says this is far more important if there’s a conflict of interest: “If a Chinese wall is broken. For example, one person is front office and the other back office staff, then informing your line manager is very important. In theory it’s a sackable offence.” For the majority, however, discretion in the early stages might be the wisest move. Bethany Whittle met her fiance at work: “I would definitely recommend keeping the relationship on the down-low. The management will be nervous that the relationship will turn sour and it’ll create a bad atmosphere.”

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
In big City firms your rights and any restriction placed on you will usually be spelt out in your contract or in the staff handbook. Be sure to check these, because your employer will hold you to it. Crawford says these conditions are binding and while you can’t get fired without being formally disciplined first, you don’t need to be formally disciplined many times before you’re out.

RULE OUT THE NAUGHTINESS
Naughtiness in the stock cupboard will count as gross misconduct that could have you packing up your things almost instantly. But it’s best advised to refrain from any affection, even doe-eyes and sweet nothings, because anything that makes your colleagues feel uncomfortable could have you called into the boss’s office to be cautioned.

YOUR EMPLOYER’S REACTION
The complexity of employment law gives you a degree of protection. The nuances of policy can be interpreted in multiple ways, so if you feel you’re being treated unfairly, an employment laywer or your union representative will be able to help. Employers choosing to move one half of the couple into another role or department often causes problems. The trick to resolving this situation is to work out where you stand legally. If you have been employed to conduct a particular role for a company rather than by the company at large, you may have a case against your employer.