Now more than ever, businesses are tightening their belts, with training one of the first areas to be cut. However, upskilling yourself and your employees doesn’t have to take a back seat, Cumbria Business Growth Hub has a great range of fully funded training on offer and best of all it’s mainly delivered online reducing the need for time out of the office or the cost of travel.
20th September – Time-saving social media content techniques – 10am to 1pm – online
Social media eats time. The average small business could be spending up to 60 hours a month on creating social media content, finding pictures, creating graphics, writing captions, and engaging with followers.
This workshop will show you some nifty planning and organising techniques that will cut the amount of time you spend on social media in half.
21st September – Become a Supplier – NHS Supply Chain session – 10am to 11.30am – online
Join Martin Toomey, Sustainability Manager with NHS Supply Chain to find out more about the benefits of working with NHS Supply Chain, where opportunities are promoted and the services they look to procure.
The NHS work with a wide range of business sectors and sizes, this event is open to any business interested in finding out more.
26th September – Smartphone photography for small businesses – 1pm to 5pm – online
The aim of this virtual session is to learn how to use the camera on your smartphone better including how to both take and edit your photos, as well as some practical advice on how to use your own photography in your marketing.
This workshop will be split into two parts: theory and practical and is suitable for any make and model of phone, either iPhone or Android.
19th October – Measuring Your Online Success with Google Analytics – 9.30am to 12.30pm – online
If you are investing (time or money) in digital marketing, you need to know what’s working and what isn’t. The great thing about digital marketing is that you can measure and track pretty much everything, but to do this you need to have the right tools set up and know what to look out for. By effectively measuring your digital marketing activity and results, you can identify where you can invest more time or budget, or identify channels that aren’t generating any results and can therefore be taken off your to do list.
This helps you plan and prioritise, and ensure you are getting the most out of your budget and your people.
To get to this stage, we start at the beginning: what should you be measuring and how?
In this session you will learn where to find the key metrics you need to know and how to create a report – either for yourself or someone else – that you can analyse and action to keep improving your digital results. We will mainly focus on Google Analytics among other useful tools, and break down what the data actually means for you in relation to your digital objectives. This session is all about uncovering information, and analysing your progress so that you can make better decisions about the digital marketing activity for your organisation.
13th October – The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund – Stronger North Roadshow 2022 – 12noon to 2.30pm – Castle Green Hotel, Kendal
This Cumbria event in partnership with Cumbria Business Growth Hub will brief business advisers, SMEs and the professional community on the funding opportunities available and how businesses can access the £500m Fund.
Join us at either venue to hear about:
- The British Business Bank and how it supports Northwest businesses
- The impacts of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund in the Northwest
- What funding is available from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund
- Guidance from the NPIF Fund Managers on how to put together a quality application for funding
- Support available through Cumbria Business Growth Hub
There will be opportunities for networking and talking about the innovative, wide-ranging, and flexible funding packages from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund.
25th October – Finance Training with Dodd & Co Accountants – 9.30am to 12.30pm – online
Designed to provide you with a basic understanding of the most common financial issues relevant to small business entities and companies. This session will focus discussion around the following areas:-
- General record keeping and discussion of current MTD regulations
- Calculating profits and considering allowable expenses
- Thinking about VAT – why and when to register
- Taking on employees – additional responsibilities of the business owner
- Taxing business profits – important dates and deadlines
27th October – Ensuring your data protection practices are fit for future growth – 9am to 12.30pm – online
A half day workshop on data protection for businesses looking to develop and grow. Each attendee will be guided through their existing policies, procedures and documents to ensure that they will still be compliant with data protection legislation as their business changes. They will be enabled to make additions, correct any mistakes, recognise omissions and be satisfied that they have the knowledge to ensure compliance with the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act.
2nd November – SEO Essentials: Strategies to Boost Your Organic Rankings – 9.30am to 12.30pm – online
It’s all well and good having great products and services, but if no one can find your website when they are searching online, then you might be missing out on a lot of potential business. This is where SEO comes in. There are various tactics you can employ to start to boost your position in search engines and get your website to appear higher up on platforms like Google. To do this successfully you need to understand how the search engines work, and how they decide which websites to rank the highest.
In this course you will learn the fundamentals of search engine optimisation plus the benefits of optimising your website and online content.
16th November – Introduction to Sales Copywriting – 10am to 1pm – online
This workshop will show you some techniques and tips for writing content that persuades and convinces your audience to take the action you want. You will be able to use these tips for writing emails, web pages, leaflets, ads, web pages, and more.
The session will show you how to:
- Gain clarity on your market positioning and the core messages you want to communicate.
- Getting your tone of voice right.
- 3 different structure formats that can be adapted into multiple situations.
6th December – Boosting Your Productivity with Processes and Apps – 10am to 1pm – online
Did you know that the average person spends 13 hours a week looking at and responding to emails? Moreover, if you’re distracted from the task, it takes around 16 minutes to refocus on what you were doing. The Pareto principle argues that 80% of your results come from 20% of your actions. By optimising the way you work, and introducing productivity workflows, it’s possible to achieve more in less time, and avoid those costly distractions.
In this super-productive workshop we will look at some of the most popular productivity hacks and explore the top apps that can make you a productivity ninja, while improving your work/life balance.
12th December – Embedding data protection in your plans for growth – 1pm to 4.30pm – online
A workshop on ensuring that data protection documentation and practices will still be fit for purpose as businesses develop and grow. Each attendee will be guided through their existing policies, procedures and documents to ensure that they will still be compliant with data protection legislation as their business changes. The day will include an interactive project planning exercise that will enable participants to take control of what needs to happen as their business grows rather than coming to data protection as an afterthought.
10th January – Influencer Marketing – 9.30am to 12.30pm – online
Influencer marketing has matured and evolved and is no longer a marketing strategy just for brands selling products to consumers. Charities, public sector organisations, and B2B businesses are finding ways to utilise influencers to gain awareness, trust, and credibility for their products and services online. That said, people today don’t want to be sold to badly and this applies across all industries. Customers are more switched on and want to feel in control of their purchasing decisions, so it’s incredibly important to assess how influencer marketing can fit into your wider marketing strategy, in line with your business goals and reputation.
If you are new to influencer marketing, naturally you may be asking yourself where you would start and how to know whether influencer marketing could provide a return on investment for your business. Fortunately, influencer marketing has been developing for over a decade now and lots of businesses and organisations have gone before and tested the waters. We’ve seen huge successes as well as glaring failures which we can learn from to refine the approach to influencer marketing and use it strategically and effectively.
In this session you will learn about the influencer marketing landscape and understand the different models of influencer marketing. You will then learn the key steps for planning an influencer campaign and how to navigate the process. Plus, we will share some top tips and things to look out for along the way.
18th January – Building a Brand on Social Media – 1.30pm to 4.30pm
There is no doubt that Social Media should be a tool within every business marketing toolkit, but many businesses still struggle to get past the concept of ‘push’ marketing and using it as a broadcasting tool. Social Media is most effective when it’s an interactive space used to build relationships and turn potential customers into advocates and fans. This workshop is full of tips and examples of how to truly engage on social media, looking at simple methods to increase the effectiveness of your content, and examining the usefulness of paid for services available on various Social Media platforms.
14th February – Tik Tok and Instagram for Business – 10am to 1pm – online
As of last year, 9 out of 10 adults in the UK owned a smartphone, but do you feel you’re using it to its full potential? We’ve come a long way since the days of Nokia 3310s and spending hours playing Snake. The modern smartphone is much more than just a computer in your pocket. It’s a communication tool, and video camera, a podcasting tool and more. In fact, more recent social platforms such as Instagram and TikTok are almost exclusively populated by smartphones and tablet created content, meaning that little device you have in your pocket is key to your entire content marketing strategy.
In this interactive workshop, we will give you everything you need to make full use of your smartphone, to create an Instagram page, launch a TikTok channel and create your first video. If you think TikTok is all dance trends and young people, you couldn’t be more wrong! With the number of users expected to reach 10 million in the UK by the end of this year, it’s a platform that businesses cannot afford to ignore. This session is for businesses who’d like to get started on TikTok, or those who’d like to develop their digital marketing skills.
14th March – How to turn your expertise into an online course – 10am to 1pm – online
Have you ever pondered on the idea of creating an online course, but don’t know where to start? This workshop will give you some insight on how to turn your expertise into an online course.
For further details on any of the above workshops click here.
We can only offer one place per business on any of the above sessions, apart from the British Business Bank roadshow on 13th October.
To book your place on any of the above please email info@cumbriagrowthub.co.uk
And delivered by other business support providers…….
Applications are now open for the next Funding Readiness Programme that begins 3 October 2022.
Online sessions cover:
- Grant funding
- Crowdfunding
- Equity investment
- Alternative ways of funding your business
By joining you will:
- Improve your knowledge of the funding landscape
- Learn about the available innovation grant funds and what makes a compelling grant application
- Understand how to plan, market and deliver a successful crowdfunding campaign
- Connect, network and learn from a cohort of ambitious businesses like yours who are looking to grow
- Gain access to educational content
- Receive additional support from the Eagle Labs team after the programme ends as well as mentoring from growth experts
- Receive 1:1 mentoring support from a grant and/or crowdfunding expert*
- Benefit from tailored and 1:1 investor readiness support to help you shape and deliver a compelling pitch to potential investors*
- Attend a demo day*
* selected businesses only
Applications close 23 September, 2022
Doing business with defence
Join the UK Ministry of Defence SME Engagement team (Defence Procurement) hosted by the Defence and Security Accelerator on Monday 26th September to understand how innovators can get involved with defence.
The team will provide a briefing on defence procurement and you will have the opportunity to ask questions of the team in an open Q&A session.
To register click here
CITB new short courses to develop leadership and management skills
To support the construction industry’s need for leadership and management skills, CITB have created 11 new short courses, aligned to the Institute of Leadership and Management framework, for employees, supervisors and managers.
Training can be completed in person or remotely and employers can receive up to £120 per module, thanks to CITB grant.
Interested? Contact Monica Costelloe – monica.costelloe@citb.co.uk – 07768 208850