June's Start Up Conference Was A Total Success!

Yesterday Enterprise Hub's Start-Up Conference proved to be a great success, as over 50 would-be entrepreneurs attending an informative morning at 54 St James Street, home to Enterprise Hub partner; The Women's Organisation.

Men and women packed out the room and were able to hear stories from individuals who had received support and advice from the Enterprise Hub programme, which helped them to set up their own businesses. 

They were also able to hear from Start-Up Direct, who were able to offer advice to attendees on how to access start-up loans and card services/payment options from the UK's leading payment provider.

As well as this, the men and women present were able to network with each other, talk about their business ideas and register for Enterprise Hub, so they could begin receiving support and advice!

It was fantastic to see so many people in the room who were looking to start a new chapter in their lives, and think about the possibility of self-employment and starting their own businesses.

Entrepreneurs From Across Liverpool City Region Gathered For Start Up Conference

Last week, Enterprise Hub partner; The Women’s Organisation hosted a Business Start Up Conference for budding entrepreneurs across Liverpool City Region. Over 30 individuals attended the conference to hear all about the support that Enterprise Hub can offer them.

We were joined by our event sponsors, Nick Bell from StartUp Direct and Lee Brooks from World Pay. Nick told the entrepreneurs all about their loan scheme that they can offer to businesses who need a helping hand financially to get started. And Lee let everyone know about World Pay’s great technology for payment that many of the entrepreneurs may need to invest in when they are up and running.

As well as this Enterprise Hub invited Florentyna Sidery to speak about the support that The Women’s Organisation had given her when starting her business Florentyna Designs. Asking business owners who have received support from Enterprise Hub to speak was a great way for the individuals attending the conference to hear first-hand about the support that they too, can receive.

Our Training Coordinator; Bernie Cox talked to the attendees all about the characteristics of an entrepreneur, thinking outside of the box being one of them! Splitting the attendees into small groups and asking them to think of all the possible uses for the cardboard box that they had been given.

And of course, as always there was time for a little networking. Even though our guests hadn’t yet started their businesses, they knew that it was never too soon to start networking and getting the word out there about what they intend to do! Following on from the Start Up Conference, everyone that was in attendance and was eligible for Enterprise Hub support will be paired up with an Enterprise Hub partner and begin working on turning their dreams of starting a business, into a reality!

Thank you to everyone who attended the event, and a special thank you to our event sponsors; Start Up Direct and World Pay and our guest speaker; Florentyna.

If you have an idea for a business, then contact Enterprise Hub to find out about the free advice and support available on 0151 706 8113 or enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk

Enterprise Hub Business Start-up Conference Heads to Sefton

Following two successful conferences in Liverpool City Centre, the Enterprise Hub team are excited to be heading out on the road to inspire the local residents in Sefton.

Teaming up with Invest Sefton and Startup Direct, the Enterprise Hub Business Start-up team will be giving budding entrepreneurs in Sefton the opportunity to explore their ideas and understand the practicalities of going into business through the 'Enterprise Hub Business Start-up Conference Sefton'. 

The conference takes place on Thursday 20th October from 10am-1pm at the L20 Hub, the new conference centre within the Hugh Baird campus in Sefton. Places are FREE and open to anyone living in Merseyside who is looking to start a business.

At the event budding business owners will hear from successful entrepreneurs about how they went about building their business empire, get more information about how to access finance to start, be taken through excercises to understand the practicalities of business, and find out more about how Enterprise Hub and InvestSefton can help local businesses to start and flourish. 

Jo Austin from the Enterprise Hub Team said:
"We have run two fantastically successful conferences in Liverpool so far, but Enterprise Hub is a Liverpool City Region service, so it's important that we take the key enterprise messages out to the other boroughs.  I'm please that our first one outside of Liverpool is in my home turf of Sefton where there is a great opportunity for new businesses to get started.  We look forward to hearing from our inspirational speakers and supporting everyone attending to assess their ideas and tap into free support."

Nick Bell,Startup Direct North West Regional Development Manager has said:

"Startup Direct Liverpool are very pleased to sponsor the Enterprise Hub conference in Sefton. As a leading delivery partner for the UK government's Start-Up Loans Scheme we have already helped more than 1,500 UK businesses access more than £12M of funding." Anyone interested in finding out more about the funding can hear a short talk on this at the conference and chat to the team. 

Business Growth Adviser Julie Swarbrick from Invest Sefton told us  “InvestSefton is delighted to participate in this event, hosted by the Enterprise Hub.  InvestSefton offers a range of funded support for businesses in Sefton, to help them flourish and grow.  We do this through a ‘one stop shop’ approach for all business enquiries, whatever your business type or sector.  Some of our friendly growth officers will be on hand at the event to chat to local businesses, and if you miss it you can call our team who will be pleased to assist you with your business enquiry.”

Book a free ticket for the event here. 

If you can't attend the conference, but want to find out more about the Enterprise Hub which is delivered thanks to European Regional Development Fund please contact our team on 0151 706 8113 or enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk. 

Enterprise Hub Start Up Conference is a Great Success

This blog has been written for us by a great new member of our team; Sam Millne, who is joining us this week for work experience…
           On 13^th July, 2016, here at 54 St. James Street, we held an Enterprise Hub Business Start-up Conference. There were many pastries and drinks laid out for the guests as we welcomed them in to the conference room. Many of them were very impressed with 54 St James Street and it’s views with comments such as ‘you’ve got some views here!’ and ‘I’m really impressed by the building’ were being dropped. 

At the beginning of the conference, the attendees were given 20 minutes to network and get to know each other. One guest said’ it’s great to be able to network so easily’. Our sponsor’s representative, Nick Bell from Start Up Direct, came and told us about Start Up Direct’s loan scheme for businesses. Start Up Direct is a delivery partner of the Governments Start Up Loans Scheme that provides up to £25,000 in start-up funding for entrepreneurs wanting to start a business.

Next we heard from Tom Rogers who left his secure teaching role-as a history teacher-uncertain of his future, to set up his own business. He’s set up Rogers History, a business which uses the internet to tutor teachers and students. He has his own website and is currently supply teaching as well. Tom gave an interesting, animated speech in which he was greatly informative to all of our guests as to what he had experienced in setting up his business and how he wants to take his business forwards. Shortly after the conclusion of Tom’s speech the conference took a fifteen minute break to socialize and enjoy the wonderful sights of the city, from our fourth floor terraces.

Once the conference had reconvened we heard from another business owner, Jenn Appleton. Jenn is the owner and an instructor at Kumon Woolton, which is part of a franchise that provides study programmes for maths and English, in order to build children’s confidence and inspire a passion for learning. Jenn went on to tell us how life changing experiences forced her to take action and remember how life’s too short so she must seize the opportunity to do something she loves. A guest said that it was good ‘hearing the experiences of other business start ups’.

Once Jenn’s inspiring talk had concluded, all the guests introduced themselves to the group, showing bravery, which is needed to be self-employed. There was a range of different backgrounds, but there was an underlying theme of an education background showing through, perhaps highlighting the stress that the teaching industry is undertaking and the urge many teachers feel to have more freedom and get out of teaching.

Soon after, the guest came up with a list of pros and cons of being self-employed. Some examples of cons were that you need to be self-disciplined and flexible. However on the other side of the argument there were ideas mentioned such as having higher aspirations and more freedom to experiment with ideas. There were positives thoughts on the pros and cons exercise with one attendee saying ‘it was a good exercise to make more aware of what you’re buying into’.

In conclusion, the conference was a success and it opened many people’s eyes to the world of starting your own business. The guests gave their thoughts and said ‘it was very informative’, ‘inspiring’ and ‘useful for someone looking for a starting point’. Many of the attendees are going to continue to pursue their dream of owning their own successful business. 

If you have an idea for a business then contact Enterprise Hub to find out about the free advice and support available on 0151 706 8113 or enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk

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Enterprise Hub is part funded by

Enterprise Hub invite Budding Entrepreneurs to a 'Business Start-Up Conference'

Last week the new business start-up programme for Liverpool City Region ‘Enterprise Hub’ was declared ‘open for business’ as it launched at The City of Liverpool College, and is kicking off in style with the ‘Enterprise Hub Business Start-up Conference’.

Part funded by European Regional Development Fund, the Hub will provide support to over 6,000 residents of Sefton, Knowsley, Liverpool, St Helens, Wirral and Halton over the next three years. The programme will help local residents to assess their business ideas, develop a business plan, understand their tax and national insurance liabilities, create an innovative marketing plan and access finance to get started.

The first major event of the Enterprise Hub calendar following the launch comes to Liverpool on 13^th July in the form of a Business Start-up conference.  The conference run in partnership between Enterprise Hub partner The Women’s Organisation and Start-up Direct will offer men and women from Liverpool City Region opportunity to find out about how they can benefit from the free support on offer.  Local entrepreneurs who are already running their business will share their experiences of getting started and advice on things to think about along the way.  Those attending will also be given opportunity to join in workshop style activities to understand the practicalities of self-employment and will discover how to work with enterprise hub to move their ideas forward.

Nick Bell, Startup Direct North West Regional Development Manager said “Startup Direct Liverpool are very pleased to sponsor the Enterprise Hub Start-up Conference. As a leading delivery partner for the UK government’s Start Up Loans Scheme we have already helped more than 1,500 UK businesses access more than £12M of funding. The Enterprise Hub will provide the tools and support for even more local entrepreneurs to launch or expand their business and our new Liverpool office is ready to help them access funding. Talk to us via the Enterprise Hub or visit www.startupdirect.org.”

The Enterprise Hub Business Start-up conference will run 10am-1pm at 54 St James Street in the Baltic Triangle. If you would like to book on the conference CLICK HERE to reserve your ticket. 

For more information about enterprise hub please contact Enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk or 0151 706 8113.