Help is at hand for small business bosses who cannot find enough hours in the day to get organised and plan ahead.

The Brighton Business Forum has appointed former public relations executive Maddy Carr as a "roving secretariat" who will work with members of the city's business associations providing secretarial duties such as minute-taking, arranging conference facilities and sorting out IT support.

The new role is the third phase of the Business in Regeneration (BiR) project, a two-year capacity building programme for local business groups organised by the forum to enable them to better participate in regeneration activities.

The post is being funded by the Area Investment Framework (AIF), the Government-backed development agency which channels money for regeneration into various projects across the city.

Mrs Carr, 53, who lives in Ovingdean and has two grown-up daughters, has years of experience in the PR and customer service industry and is looking forward to her new role.

She said: "Because business associations are made up of traders themselves, very often they don't have the time or resources to perform these duties because they have got their own businesses to run.

"This means they are unable to follow through with their own ideas about how to get members more active within the association or organise get-togethers."

As well as working directly with traders, Mrs Carr will keep business associations informed by regularly updating the Brighton Business Forum web site.

She said: "I am really excited about the new job."

Mrs Carr is based at Pavilion Buildings in Brighton and can be contacted on 01273 735442.