Case Study: I used to be wary about using social media for my business!

Suffering from excessive hair breakage, Natural hair enthusiast, Jumoke Adeyemi decided to start making her own Ayurvedic products to resolve the problem. She soon realised the need for more education around black haircare, sparing her on to start her own products and business, AkuaJ Naturals.

Jumoke Adeyemi, Founder of AkuaJ Naturals

She told us “I’ve always loved making Ayurvedic hair products, particularly infused oils. My focus is on black hair, especially for people of an African descent as our hair is prone to dryness and breakage in colder climates”

This gave her the push she needed to explore the possibility of turning this into her own hair oil business. Unsure where to start, she approached The Women’s Organisation for support.

Jumoke had her first meeting with Cynthia, and accessed in-house courses to get her brainstorming.

“My experience with The Women’s Organisation has been great. After filling out an enquiry form, I was contacted and quickly allocated with my adviser Cynthia. She was very helpful, talking me through the various stages of developing my business”

Attending 1-2-1 and group sessions, she was able to focus on producing a business plan and market research.  

“I learned all about the tools I could be utilising to gather and analyse data. This support was also instrumental to me finally engaging with social media, something I was wary of using!”

Cynthia Ajayi from The Women’s Organisation told us: “Working with Jumoke was amazing, she’s very passionate about the business, saw the gap for good hair care and wanted to fill it. For her, it was important to provide a quality product that was beneficial to black women and men.

She overcame a lot of moments of doubt and kept on going, building up the business”

Jumoke is now focusing on setting up hair care workshop and shows in the future.

“I’m passionate on educating black people on healthy hair practices and look forward to growing in the future!”

You can head over to Jumoke's Instagram to find out more about Akuaj naturals products and the services they offer here 

If you have been thinking about setting up your own business and would like to see how Enterprise Hub and The Women’s Organisation can help you grow your new business, then get in touch with us. Email hello@thewo.org.uk

Top 10 tips to grow your business on Instagram

Ever wondered how to build a social media presence for your business on Instagram? Here are some of Instagram’s most powerful features to help you boost your brand on this fastly growing platform.

1. Know your audience

By understanding the demographic of your target audience this will help you to create a direct marketing strategy, using your profile to increase brand awareness and engagement applying a voice for the business that speaks to them in a way they understand, developing a sense of community and rapport, giving the audience a feeling of involvement and building relationships and brand loyalty

2. Consistency

Although it is important to vary content, (which we will cover in tip 4 below) having an aesthetically pleasing profile is imperative to design a professional grid of high quality imagery that on first glance entices further exploration and curiosity, yet maintaining the business brand identity

3.  Types of content

By utilising the different content mediums on Instagram this will keep the audience experience fresh and exciting. This includes stories, posts, post sharing, video content, graphics, quotes, photographs, etc., (some of which we will cover in the tips below). Mixing content so as not to become boring and repetitive keeps your followers wanting to see more of what you will post next and this anticipation can be used to create exciting and on-going engagement

4.  Instagram stories

This feature provides a snapshot of a post that is only visible on the profile for a maximum of 24 hours, then being deleted unless shared as a highlight or shared on your profile. More personal content or lower quality imagery can work well on this feature. The use of other features as mentioned in tip 6 create the opportunity in stories to obtain instant feedback through direct conversational replies, the use of polls, questions etc. Any popular or important information shared can be saved to highlights on your profile, categorised so that viewers can return to review and revisit the content within relevant and defined areas of topic or subject

5.  Filters

Various effects can make the original post more visually pleasing, adding creative and stimulating or attention-grabbing properties. When identifying an attractive effect on another profile, by tapping the top left of the story post this allows you to save and send the effect used to your personal story settings so that it can be utilised at a later date

6.  Features

The poll, question box, quiz, location tags and gif features attract user engagement and instant feedback which helps to gain a better understanding of your audience. These features can be found when swiping to the right on your feed home page when creating either a video or picture story. The filters appear at the bottom of the screen, with the tags, gifs, poll and quiz options available to select within the icons at the top right of the screen.

7.  Save tab

Located at the bottom right of every post, the save tab allows you to save and create collections of other users posts to be collected as inspiration and reference. This is also good for trying to be consistent with posts if you do not have content of your own, although credit should be given to the original creator

8.  Post sharing

When you wish to share a post from another profile this can be done by tapping the arrow/send icon below the post picture to send to either a person or profile from within your ‘following’ list, or you can share publicly by sharing to your own profile story for everyone to see

9.  Post times

Instagram has a feature on a business profile that enables viewing of insights by tapping on the ‘insights’ tab that is visible on your profile page. The insights provide you with information on your prime times to post and details on the audience demographic. This will be different for each business and therefore it is imperative that you understand your engagement statistics to know what posts get the most likes and attract more followers, giving you an opportunity to improve the overall figures on your profile

10.  IGTV – Instagram Television

For video content longer than 1 minute in duration there is an IGTV option, which enables users to choose whether to continue to watch the footage. This allows you to share more detailed and in-depth content such as tutorials, story time, etc. When uploading a video onto your feed instead of a photograph or still content if the video is more than 1 minute long the option to choose IGTV will appear automatically. When utilising this feature ensure that the content within the first minute is engaging enough to promote continued interaction

Hopefully these tips will help you to understand and build your business profile on Instagram successfully, using these tips to design, develop and deliver professional content that engages your target audience and heightens your business profile.

If you have a business registered under 42 months within the Liverpool City Region - we can support you! get in touch on enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk

Natalie Reeves-Billing: Author to Social Entrepreneur with help from Enterprise Hub

Starting a business in an unfamiliar industry can be a tough step to take. It might feel like a risk to begin with, but many entrepreneurs have come out on the other side shining.

Author and founder of Split Perspectivz – Natalie Reeves-Billing has just released her debut children’s book ‘My Mummy Is A Monster’, the first in the series of her Monstrous Me collection. With books published on Amazon, her online store and a following of over 27,000 people on social media, you might find it hard to believe that just a couple of years ago she was a newbie to the industry. 

Natalie Reeves-Billing

A jack of all trades – Natalie began her career as the lead singer of a signed touring band before moving on to run an electronics and textiles recycling plant. She also spent her time working on a slew of projects that got her entrepreneurial cogs turning. 

Her light bulb moment came when she realised there was one part of those projects she loved doing.

She told us: “I had many projects on the go, from developing soundtracks to creating new bands. I finally had a revelation when I realised it was the writing part of it, I loved, coming up with ideas and the creativity – that really charged me up”

She began her journey into Children’s writing after having her two children – and although she had been a songwriter and poet for many years, she still felt like she had a lot to learn about children’s publishing.

Struggling with structure and planning, she decided it was time to seek out business support to push herself further.

Approaching the Business Clinic at Liverpool Central Library, Natalie had the opportunity to present her Bubs book collection, a series about furry creatures with magic powers, who help children learn how to read. There she met Ali McGrath from The Women’s Organisation.

Natalie told us: “As soon as I met Ali, I knew I was in safe hands. Before discovering The Women’s Organisation, I was still trying to find my feet in a new industry”

Working with The Women’s Organisation, she was able to make huge leaps in her self-confidence as a new author by formulating long term goals and asking the right questions to the right people.

Natalie explains that by having her business advisor, Ali, to meet up with, she was able to build connections through a network of new people. 

She said: “I like the informal manner of conversation and advice. I feel like you are spending time with a wise friend. That dynamic allowed me to open up and admit my vulnerabilities, revealing the weak spots in my business model

“I found the sessions on SMART very useful and have recently applied it to a PR company I engaged with to do some work on my behalf. It meant that at briefings, I was asking the right questions and setting joint monthly goals”

Together with the programme of support from the The Women’s Organisation and Writing on the Wall, Natalie has gone on to debut her first children’s book and start a new social enterprise with an aim to provide free, enriched education.

“Split Perspectivz will use storytelling as a tool for healing and growth, and empower youngsters by discovering who they really are, through story.

I decided to set up a social enterprise after speaking to a dear friend who is also a social entrepreneur, I realised this was my way of giving back – I wanted to make a real difference”

In the future, Natalie hopes to visit schools in Merseyside to deliver workshops on creativity, emotional wellbeing, and literacy.

“Having this pause has allowed me to take stock of the advice I have been given, and to start putting them together into solid plans and strategies. The team at Women’s Organisation have been a great help to me at this challenging time.

The Monstrous Me Collection is now available on on Amazon or through Natalie's online store. 

Facebook: /natalieRbillingauthor

Twitter: /billingReeves Instagram: /natalie_reeves_billing

For more information about the support available to help start or grow your new business through Enterprise Hub, please contact enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk.

JourneyMEN CIC - Making New Roads to Recovery!

With mental health being such an important issue, you’d be surprised to hear that it has been difficult to access mental health provision for men on Wirral – until now!  Phil Roberts has known this for some time and that is why he set up JourneyMEN CIC, to fulfill a need that was not being met.

However, it all started for Phil when he was working for the police.  It was during this time that he realised that many people he was dealing with day-in, day-out needed mental health support, not a night in the cells.  That was when he became aware there was brilliant support out there, just needing to be joined up and men guided towards it.

Phil Roberts

In 2018 Phil became part of Wirral’s Early Help Team.  From there, Phil started to engage with his contacts and organisations in the health support sector and drew these together under an early intervention “Mental Health Umbrella.”

Not being someone to hang around, Phil invited local organisations, professionals and potential beneficiaries to an ‘Open Day’ and the response was overwhelming. One of those was the Neo Community Café who offered Phil premises on Chester Street, Birkenhead.  The need was clearly there, the integrated support required was identified and JourneyMEN CIC was born.

So, what does JourneyMEN CIC do?  It is aimed at local men in need of mental health support and involves a ‘Journey Plan’ tailored to each person. This plan goes from initial assessment, ongoing support such as counselling, training and social interaction, right through to helping men become job-ready, be able to volunteer, or upskill with further training.  

Phil is particularly proud of the narrow boat which allows for a ‘floating counselling’ facility.  The guys can have a relaxing trip up the canal, meet new people, get trained and even gain an accredited qualification to become a skipper!

Phil is all about community and he is seeking to develop JourneyMEN CIC further.  For example, Phil is developing a ‘Man Cave’ – a safe space - where there’ll be the opportunity for men to network with others with similar issues, partake in various fun activities and ‘get out of the house.’  This will need money, so Phil will be exploring what funding might be available.

And what has Phil learned after being on his own ‘journey?’ 

“One important piece of advice is to surround yourself with the right people as you cannot do everything yourself no matter how good you think you are!  And do not struggle as there is a lot of help out there and you will learn from your mistakes. The Enterprise Hub and Community Action Wirral are worth their weight in gold so get in touch with them!  Both Paul and Zel worked together to give me the belief to go forward, and without their help, JourneyMEN CIC would not have happened.”

To find out more about JourneyMEN CIC or if you are a man with mental health issues needing support, you can contact Phil on 0151 792 9159 or e-mail enquiries@journeymencic.com or visit www.journeymencic.com

Create whilst you isolate.

The following is a guest blog from Catherine Rogers – Cut Out Collage

Whether you’re an art scene regular, a curious creative or stuck at home looking for things to do, making art during this period of isolation is a sure-fire way to positively impact your mental wellbeing and escape the worldwide conversation of these strange times!

Hi, I’m Catherine, the founder of Cut Out Collage. Before everything changed, I was running creative workshops across Liverpool, giving artist talks, exhibiting alongside collectives and selling original artworks at markets and events, so this current climate has had a huge impact on my business. Despite the curveball I’m committed to focusing on adaptation and how I can creatively respond to the current crisis. So, I’m going to share with my top tips for staying motivated amongst the mayhem.

Artists are still working, we’re just online

Art has not ceased, just the physical places we congregate and share it are closed. Creativity is very much alive in people’s homes, minds and spirits. Therefore, there is a ton you can still get involved with. I would suggest following local and international artists on social media so the content you are browsing each day can motivate and inspire you. I find new and exciting creatives everyday who are hosting online chats, workshops, all kinds of creative spaces and offerings. Following artists can feed your soul and help you discover things you may want to try at home.

Get making, keep making

Don’t know where to start, why not start a sketchbook? What an amazing time to experiment in this way. You can buy one online or use a spare notepad you may already have at home and give it a new lease of life.

Sketchbooks are great for scribbling down ideas, cutting and pasting old magazines into, sketching your garden or your family or to capture your work as you follow online tutorials. Also, when normality returns you will have a record of your creativity and productivity to show for it!  Who knows you may get hooked on sketch booking – it’s the best!

Share your masterpieces, inspire others

Artworks can have a huge impact upon those who view them. Never underestimate the transformational power of making art and sharing it with other people. The offering of something you have created to another person can have a profound effect on their day, so if you make something that lifts your spirits, let someone else be lifted by it to! I am loving the art being sent to my inbox, its inspiring and lets me know people are thinking of me, very encouraging indeed.

Support one another and say thank you

If people share images that move you and or you enjoy in some way, comment on them, let people know that their work has encouraged you. This wave of paying encouragement forward is hugely impactful, it can create a chain reaction of kindness from such a small gesture.

For me and my business, I want to say thank you to the Women’s Organisation and The Common Zine. I want to thank them for believing in my dreams, even before I completely did. They have encouraged me every step of the way and I have taken leaps I likely would not have if it hadn’t been for their support. If confidence is your barrier, I couldn’t recommend them both enough.

Join the Collage Revolution

Obviously, I’m a little bias about this one, but if you’re unsure about where to start I couldn’t recommend collage highly enough. I release weekly Cut Out Collage bitesize workshops on our YouTube channel and top tip videos on a Tuesday! It’s a new platform for Cut Out Collage, so we’re all in it together and learning as we go. There are also collage packs available on our Etsy store, so you have plenty of images to work with!

Thank you Catherine! If you would like to find out more about Cut Out Collage you can find them on:

Instagram
Facebook
Twitter
Etsy
Youtube

Boosting Team Morale Working from Home

It is vital that managers continue to make their workers feel appreciated whilst working from home during Covid19. This can be done by putting in place a strong employee recognition strategy. The same tactics that are effective in an office setting might not be as meaningful for people who are working from home. Please don’t forget to make the social and emotional well being of your staff a top priority during this time. Enterprise Hub has suggested new ways to boost employee morale at home.

Virtual Lunch and Coffee Breaks
Lunch breaks and regular coffee breaks with your team on a virtual setting can be just as fun as chatting in the staff room or a coffee shop. Video chat platforms such as Zoom, Ovoo or Skype are the preferred forms of video chatting. During these breaks ask your colleagues or employees questions other than work. A good morale does not always come from praise it can simply be from asking how they are and talking about their hobbies or recent events.

Regular Team Meetings
Weekly or even daily virtual team meetings to discuss work-related topics and check-in to see how team members are doing is important. This is an excellent way for team leaders and team members to show their support for one another and to share opinions and advice that they find helpful in work projects. Sorting myths and keeping employees calm is important when dealing with low morale during this time of covid19.

Address Staff concerns via Phone or Emails
You can still provide an “Open door” policy with staff despite working from home. Contact staff members individually to discuss their concerns regarding work or life in general during this time of uncertainty. individual staff members to learn about their concerns. Listening and addressing your staff concerns during the Covid-19 pandemic shows your employees that you care about their health, as well as their safety.

Employee recognition and rewards
Ensure that you continue recognise and reward individuals or teams who are making significant contributions and going beyond during this time. For example, some staff members may be going extra lengths to operate IT systems from home or balancing work with kids at home. Showing extra support and recognising their efforts boosts employee morale and reassure employees that their work is valued.  Employers may consider introducing a weekly email, which can be circulated to employees highlighting these achievements.

Fun Weekly Challenges
Create an online community group on Facebook or WhatsApp and create fun weekly challenges for staff to participate in. This could be posting a photo of their remote workspace, their favourite homemade meal recipes, posting a meme/gif that summarizes their life right now, or a photo of themselves wearing their favourite pyjamas.

Highlight the good news
We’re all familiar with the disappointing and frightening Headlines and we don’t need to spend any more time dwelling on the negative. Take some time to gather a few happy updates and share with the team each morning via word of mouth or via email. This will help give employees and co-workers a positive lift that they may need each morning.

If you'd like to speak to a member of our team to find out more about the support on offer, please contact us at enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk or 0151 706 8113.

How to Cyber Protect your Business During COVID-19

Isolation during COVID-19 means that businesses have resorted to operating almost everything online with many employees working remotely. During this time of uncertainty, it is vital to stay vigilant of cyber-security risks. Fraudsters are taking advantage of the coronavirus outbreak to enable various types of fraud and cyber-crime. 

Email fraud ‘Phishing’

Email fraud is one of the most common types of fraud as it is easily done. Phishing refers to when fraudsters send false email messages requesting confidential information. During this time Fraudsters are sending out coronavirus themed phishing emails to trick people revealing personal information and financial details. These emails may be from could be from the Government asking for “research”. Common phishing emails might also be from HMRC, your bank, Apple and Amazon who claim that you need to click a link to change your password or a refund has been awarded and therefore they need your account details.

False emails may also be sent to staff claiming  to be from a senior member of staff  within the organisation such as a Director, CEO or Chairman etc. requesting an  urgent payment. They will often say that the payment is needed for urgent cleaning or medical supplies to help with coronavirus. It is crucial that you report phishing scams so information can be tracked but it’s also crucial to report these phishing emails so we can beat fraud. Fraudsters will try and target as many people as they can, so if you report the phishing email it can prevented from spreading further. 

Phone fraud (Vishing)

Vishing is the combination of voice and phishing. It is a phone scam where fraudsters target you by phone and try to trick you into revealing personal and financial information. Be alert to false calls linked to coronavirus as these could be from fraudsters who claim that they’re from the bank, the police, an IT company or an official health organisation. 

Never reveal personal information until you have validated that the caller is a genuine representative of the organisation. If you are unsure about a phone and hesitate to give out information reassure them that you will call them back when you are ready. If they are genuine, they will understand and welcome your need to validate them.

Invoice redirection

Fraudsters may act as a creditor or supplier and tell you their company’s bank details have changed due to the coronavirus outbreak. The communication will ask you for your account details and convince you to make all future payments to a new sort code and account number. To overcome this, it is important to be vigilant. Check and challenge any request to change account details. Contact suppliers and creditors independently to check the request is genuine, use contact details you already hold or that have been obtained independently rather than any included in the request. Once a payment has been made confirm with the intended beneficiary that it has been received.

For more information about the support available to help your business during the COVID-19 outbreak, contact Enterprise Hub on enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk

How to conduct market research online

Market research for your business should never be underestimated! Successful start-ups are surviving in the long run because their owners are investing in market research to understand their target market, identify consumer problems and overcome competitors. Regularly conducting market research also allows you to identify trends, opportunities and potential threats in the market. Find below different ways you could conduct market research to suit your Business.

Customer Feedback
Online polls and surveys are a great way to understand customer experience and your position in the market. You can structure your research more effectively and collect specific information needed in your marketing campaign. Polls and surveys collect information that is more reliable as it explores several aspects relevant to your business. Also, be careful to keep them simple, as most online users may not have the attention span to answer lengthy or time-consuming questions.

Social Media 
Social media is a great way to start recognising conversations and mentions around your business idea. This will help you understand the language of your target customer base. Follow hashtags related to your business on social media platforms such as Instagram or twitter. This keeps you up to date. You can discover latest trends and use these for your product descriptions, blog posts, ads, social media, and promotions. Using the dialect of your target audience will help drive quality traffic to your site, build a loyal customer base, and spark conversions.

Keywords
Search for "keywords" that people would use to find your type of products or services on the Internet. See how much interest there is in these keywords, what competitors are coming up? Is your Business at the top of the list? Keyword searches can also help remind you of product niches that you might not have considered. Using Google Ads helps you to discover keywords that have the highest search volume with the lowest competition. It also allows you to browse recommended or related keywords, so you can find a whole new group of terms that improve your search engine optimisation.

Competitor analysis
Don’t be afraid to keep track of your competition. Follow them on social media or check up on their online website. Take note of how they operate, maybe there is a weakness in their business that you can take advantage of. By learning what your competitors are up to you can also make decisions on which products to roll out and how to differentiate themselves in the market. It is important to know who your competitors although try not to get too caught up in their business that you forget about your own!

For more information about the support available to help with your market research, contact Enterprise Hub on enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk

Thinking about moving your coaching business online?

The Coronavirus has left many coaching businesses looking for solutions to meet customer needs. Now more than ever, coaching can offer valuable support and guidance to someone. Whether you are a fitness coach, school teacher, or business adviser – online coaching can be made simple if you consider the following.

Type of coaching
Before you build a website or start making coaching sessions let’s determine what coaching type you should pursue. Do you want to conduct private coaching sessions or group sessions for clients? One to one coaching session are indeed more beneficial to the client although they are more time consuming. If you are looking for a more scale-ready option or would rather meet with groups of people at a time, you might be more interested in group coaching.

Choose an Online Platform
The platform you use to provide your online coaching depends on what kind of coaching your business entails. For example, if you switching to an online teaching class “Skills Share” is a perfect platform.  Almost every course lesson entails two key components video and class project. Courses are made up of a series of small videos whose duration is typically anywhere between 10 and 25 minutes.

Live Stream
If you would prefer to coach publicly live streams is an ideal option.  You may want to use Facebook, YouTube or Instagram live streams as they notify all your followers to join. Not only does it allow followers to engage it also can be accessed publicly. This is a perfect option for fitness coaching as many people can join at one time.

Video call sessions
Video call sessions are ideal for one to tone or small group coaching sessions. If you are looking for a formal video conferencing app ezTalks is perfect for you! This app is complexly free and allows 100 participants to join a video conferencing per time. Compared to other free group video conferencing apps, this app has more comprehensive features to better your group video conference experience, such as screen sharing, file sharing, interactive whiteboard, meeting scheduling, meeting recording and meeting presenter control. Skype and ooVoo are also famous for person-to-person video chat or group video conferencing free, which enables you to do group chat with up to 12 persons.

Engage with your target market 
Who is the target market you want to coach? Knowing your audience is incredibly important to keep create ideal marketing strategies and customer loyalty. Social Media and Email Marketing are great ways to grab the attention of audiences. For example, int terms of formal academic or business coaching daily emails with news, links, updates and reminders allows you to inform clients and create customer relationships.

Find your unique selling proposition (USP)
What is your unique selling proposition that differentiates you from other coaches online? This can come from your own experience, your personality, or positive client results. For example, what makes you different from the fitness coach with a similar online fitness session. Give your clients a unique online experience, play upbeat music or if you’re a business or financial coach attach beneficial links to sessions.

For more information about the support available to help you take your business online, contact Enterprise Hub on enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk

Building a PR Strategy for Launching Your New Business

While you are building your business plan preparing to launch your new business, it is worth sparing some time to think about a PR strategy for your start up.

If you get PR right it can be a great way to get a bit of 'free' advertising for your enterprise at a start up phase. Ok free is never free as time is money, but it can certainly offer a great saving while cashflow is minimal.

Here are some ideas you may want to consider:

• Put together a press release - One of the best times to put together a press release is when your business reaches any kind of milestone as journalists want to know the what, where, when and how of a story.  Day to day running of your business is difficult to make newsworthy, however 'New Business Opens in the Local Area Creating Jobs' is great news, particularly for local press. Do a bit of google research to find out the details of journalists in media outlets you want to target.  Put together the key elements of your story: when your business launched, where, why you wanted to start that type of business, what makes you unique and build them into a story to send to those key contacts.  Ensure you include a high resolution photograph as this will make their life easier when putting the story together. 

• Create a build up on social media - Before you business launches engage followers in the process.  "Look at our new office, we can't wait to show you what we've been working on" type of posts are a great way to make people feel a part of your start up experience.  Try to connect with social media influencers who talk about brands like yours to perhaps send them samples of your product, or invite them to try your service. A 'countdown to launch' reminds people when they can start buying from you, so don't be shy in reminding people '5 days to go!'. Etc. 

• Hold a launch event - This may take a bit of budget to put on some drinks and nibbles, but having an event is a great way to create a buzz about your new business.  If you have premises you could literally do an opening event with a ribbon cutting and the whole nine yards.  If you invite local dignitaries such as your local mayor, key influencers within your industry, local MP etc. and even local press contacts you can massively increase your chance of getting press coverage.  Even if not it is something to shout about online and encourage those attending to tag in your social media accounts to get them noticed. 

If you are in the process of planning a business, but needing help with elements of getting the business off the ground such as marketing strategy, finance etc. then contact our team who can offer free advice and guidance through the European Regional Development Fund supported Enterprise Hub programme.  Call us on 0151 706 8113 or contact enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk 

Thinking of starting your own business? Your 5 BIG questions answered…

“I’ve got this idea, but I don’t know where to start…”. Talking about your business ideas out loud for the first time can be very daunting. There are so many questions you want to ask and so much information to unpick.

Jo Mountfort, our business advisor extraordinaire, has worked in the start-up business arena for over a decade. During this time, she has worked with hundreds of clients, supporting them to organise their thoughts and develop their business ideas. We asked her to tell us some of the top questions she’s asked on a daily basis. Here’s what she had to say…

1. “I’ve got this idea, but I don’t know where to start...”

This is probably one of the most common things that clients say to me when we have our first face to face or telephone chat. My response: you’ve taken the first step! Speaking to someone impartial about your idea is really important. Nobody is going to laugh at you. What we will do is help you break it down bit by bit to see if it could work. We can offer 1-2-1 support and a range of training and networking courses to get you thinking.

2. “Do I have to write a business plan?”

No, is the short answer, but you really should! Certain establishments may require to see one – banks, funders etc. But more than that, taking the time out to plan something that could potentially be the biggest step of your life is a no-brainer! A business plan is your handbook to business and is a hugely useful tool. In the start-up research stage it acts as a checklist to all the things you need to think about. There are many different formats that a business plan can take so don’t shy away. The truth is, if you’ve been thinking this idea through then you’ve already started the business plan in your head.

3. “Is there any funding available to help me start?”

Possibly. There are some pots of money available to new businesses but they are often subject to credit and other checks. Some people’s circumstances can make them eligible for financial support but this is something your advisor can support you with. As advisors, we know what funders are looking for so we can do all the correct prep work with you before you submit applications.

4. “I’m going to undercut my competition when I first start-up.”

Don’t do it! Take the time to think about your pricing structure. Don’t just presume that the best way to get customers is have a price cheaper than your competition. Of course, some customers will factor price into their buying habits but not all will. Quality and standard of service will go a long way…

5. “Do you think it’s a good idea?”

This is a really difficult question to answer and it’s not up to us to judge what’s ‘good’ or not. But honestly, I think it’s always down to the individual. You can have two people running exactly the same type of business but running them very differently. Our job is to encourage you to research and think objectively about your idea to help you come to your own conclusion.

Our support is offered via the Enterprise Hub programme which is designed to help explore ideas and develop enterprise skills. We’ve seen and heard it all. So don’t be shy, get in touch and let’s start talking about your business! Or, if you’ve got a friend or a family member who could benefit from an initial chat, tell them to get in touch!

Contact enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk or call 0151 706 8113 for an informal chat.