The Women’s Organisation steps up support for female entrepreneurs in lockdown

While its no longer “business as usual” for thousands across the City Region, The Women’s Organisation is offering entrepreneurs and SMEs a vital lifeline through its programme of online and virtual business advice, training, and webinars.

Since lockdown began nearly 60 days ago the Liverpool-based social enterprise wasted no time in re-designing its services to fully operate on an online and telephone basis, with its programme of training and events as active as ever.

Read on to find out what The Women’s Organisation has been doing so far to support women in business and how you can tap into the support on offer, plus, how to catch up with anything you might have missed…

1-2-1 business advice through the Enterprise Hub programme

The Women’s Organisation is the lead partner of the Enterprise Hub programme, which coordinates and simplifies the business start-up and growth support available across the Liverpool City Region into a “one front door” access point.

As part of this offering for aspiring entrepreneurs and growing businesses The Women’s Organisation offers 1-2-1 advice with a dedicated business advisor, either by video link or over the telephone, alongside a programme of business training.

The support on offer is fully-funded and aimed at women across the City Region who are currently thinking of starting a business, as well as new businesses which need support in navigating through the current crisis and those which are experiencing growth due to increased demand for their product or services.

Clients can now instantly book a slot online via The Women’s Organisation’s Eventbrite page, or by getting in touch via hello@thewo.org.uk.

Online business training with Enterprise Hub

As part of the Enterprise Hub programme, those eligible can also access The Hub’s full range of fully funded online training. This includes business planning course ‘Planning for Success’, ‘Building a Social Media Strategy’, ‘Basic Bookkeeping’ and ‘Understanding Tax and National Insurance’.

For anyone interested in accessing these courses, The Women’s Organisation recommends getting a business advisor as a first step before enrolling on the training.

Entrepreneurial training with Enterprise Hub Skills

In a new addition to The Women’s Organisation’s programme of training comes a special two-day ‘Managing in a Crisis: Be Resilient’ course from Enterprise Hub Skills.

This entrepreneurial training will look at what it means to be resilient, offering practical tips to strengthen personal resilience, business resilience, and other areas of life which might have been impacted.

Managing in a Crisis is free to access for women in the Liverpool City Region who are running a business or working in a business and are finding it difficult to manage under current circumstances.

The first cohort will be taking place on Thursday 28^th May and Thursday 4^st June, 10.30am – 12.30pm, with the following session happening the same time on Wednesday 17^th June and Wednesday 24^th June.

Book your place via Eventbrite or by getting in touch via hello@thewo.org.uk.

Introducing ‘Rapid Response’: expert-led online webinars

In response to the crisis, the organisation has also launched a special series of free ‘Rapid Response’ events and online webinars designed to equip the local business community with specialised entrepreneurial skills to survive, maintain momentum and thrive through the pandemic.

Led by industry experts, the series has already covered topics including accessing finance, promotion and marketing, innovation, and well-being.

The first ‘Meet the Media: Promoting your Business During a Pandemic’ session welcomed the expertise of Nazia Parveen, North of England Correspondent at The Guardian and Tony McDonough, Journalist at LBN Daily.

Life coach Claire Morton led a ‘Master Your Mindset’ session to help entrepreneurs stay positive and motivated in challenging times, also looking at how to think outside the box for business opportunities.

A special finance and legal Business Resilience Clinic Q&A looked at approaches to securing additional financial support from funders, what steps to take to ensure a surviving and viable business, as well as practical advice on the legal impacts of Coronavirus on businesses.

The Women’s Organisation’s marketing manager, Joanne Austin, led the latest session ‘Keeping Connected with Customers’ which put a focus on how businesses can use PR and social media to make sure your business stays visible.

Sessions which have already streamed are all available to watch back. Those interested should contact The Women’s Organisation directly to access a play back link.

Upcoming ‘Rapid Response’ webinars:

Following the success of the ‘Rapid Response’ series so far, The Women’s Organisation has committed to running webinars throughout the crisis tackling core business themes.

The next session, ‘SEO to Stop Google Forgetting You’ is taking place on Tuesday 26^th May at 11am.

Jo Austin, Marketing Manager at The Women’s Organisation, will be sharing her tips and tricks on improving your SEO to make sure your business remains visible and help you grow your brand.

This will be followed by ‘Reacting & Adapting During a Pandemic’ on Wednesday 27^th May at 11am, where you can hear from the women whose businesses have survived and thrived during the coronavirus pandemic.

We will dig deeper to understand why their transitions have been so successful, find out what worked for them and what business practices they will carry forward in the future.

As businesses start to look towards the post-lockdown world, ‘Rapid Recovery – Returning to a Better Workplace’ happening on Thursday 28^th May at 11am, will explore how businesses can manage a smooth transition back to the workplace.

This Live Q&A will bring together a panel of business experts to offer their advice and tips on how to minimise risks in your working environment, how to build confidence in your team and how to adapt your strategy.

All upcoming Rapid Response sessions are free to attend and are open to business women across the City Region and can be booked directly through The Women’s Organisation’s Eventbrite page.

The message from the Organisation is clear: we are here for you and your business.

Business Adviser Co-Ordinator, Francine Taylor, says: “We understand that this is a worrying and uncertain time for entrepreneurs and businesses and so we would like to assure you that The Women's Organisation is, as always, here to support you in any way we can.

“Whether this be through our team of expert business advisers who are on hand to help guide you through these difficult times and continue to thrive, or through our programme of business training and events. We’re here for you.”

To find out more about upcoming events, or to instantly book a 1-2-1 business advice session, you can visit The Women’s Organisation’s Eventbrite page:  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-womens-organisation-1282675313

Those wanting to find out more can also contact the team directly via hello@thewo.org.uk, where an engagement specialist can talk you through the support available.