Sefton Start-Up Conference Proves a Massive Success!

Now in week two, we’re really in the thick of our Enterprise Hub Business Start Up Festival!

We’ve had a jam-packed calendar of informative events, seminars and drop-ins, all with a mission to help you feel more prepared and confident with taking the leap into self-employment.

A full house at our Sefton start-up conference!

We’re taking our Business Start-Up Conference on the road and today (Thursday 1st February) we headed to Sefton! We were at Bootle Town Hall with over fifty local people in attendance, all wanting to hear more about the support available through Enterprise Hub.

And guests heard it straight from the horse’s mouth! We had three business-owners on hand, all who turned their business dream into a reality with the support of Enterprise Hub.

Richard Medley set up a consultancy business with the support of Alt Valley Community Trust, Shane and Sue set up a home-made chocolatier business called ‘Chocolatism’ (combining both ‘chocolate’ and ‘autism’ with a mission to raise awareness on autism), and lastly Baiba, who started his coffee venture inspired by the idea of bringing a taste of African coffee to the UK!

We had many local organisations in the room including AltValley Community Trust, The Women’s Organisation, Invest Sefton, SAFERegeneration and Liverpool Central Library, all working underneath the Enterprise Hub umbrella to support local people with entrepreneurship.

Kris and Sharon from Invest Sefton.

Following this, Bernie from The Women’s Organisation led an interactive and insightful session on working out if self-employment is the right choice for you.

We also had a surprise visit from local Sefton councillor and special guest, Cllr. Marion Atkinson, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Skills!

From left to right: Richard Medley, Cllr. Marion Atkinson, Sue & Shane of ChocolatismUk. 

As always, we finished with tea, coffee and networking and our guests left feeling informed with the impetus to pursue their business dream. Check out what they said:

“Very well organised”

“Such a supportive environment, looking forward to seeing where it takes me”

“I feel reassured knowing that there IS help available”

“This has helped me a lot, I plan to attend more events”

“I feel ready to take my business from the present to the future”

“Loved hearing what the speakers had to say”

Thanks to everyone who attended the event today! If you were unable to attend, we have two more start-up conferences taking place in Wirral and Knowsley – you can book your FREE place now!

You can view our full calendar of events taking place on the last week of our Enterprise Business Start Up Festival here.

Students attending our Sefton start-up conference!

Alternatively, you can contact our Enterprise Hub team on enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk or 0151 706 8113 for more information on how we can support you.

Enterprise Hub is the Liverpool City Regions gateway service to accessing FREE business advice and support. Our team of expert business ideas will guide you through the process of setting up your own business and demystify all the worries you have around starting your own business.

Start Up Conference is back! Thursday 27th April - 54 St James Street

Following the amazing success of the Start Up Conference in Sefton, the Enterprise Hub are back on April 27th to provide invaluable information for potential entrepreneurs. If you have a passionate business idea, but not sure how to get started then don’t hesitate to register for this FREE conference.

During this event, you will hear from various successful local business owners who will share valuable business tips. There will be group activities to allow you to understand the practicalities involved in self-employment. As Networking is vital for your success, you will be given the chance to network with others who are considering starting a business and develop key connections.
 

 

 

Asking business owners who have received support from the Enterprise Hub to speak is a fantastic way for the individuals attending the conference to hear first-hand about the support they too, can receive. At Sefton's  event, the Enterprise Hub invited along Florentyna Sidery to speak about the support that The Women's Organisation had given her when starting her business Florentyna Designs. The upcoming event will continue to invite guest speakers to discuss their success.

 

The Enterprise Hub work in partnership with The Women's Organisation and Start-up Direct. Combining these successful organisations has created a powerful force that offers you all the advice you require to become your own boss. The conference takes place on Thursday 27th April from 10am-1pm at 54 St James Street. Places are FREE and open to anyone living in Merseyside who is looking to start a business. So, if you would like to attend this event,  register here.

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

 

 

 

 

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.