Expert Expo Boosts Local Entrepreneurs

As part of our Building Business Horizons programme, we held our virtual Boost Your Business Expert Expo on 28 April which was well attended by entrepreneurs, trustees and experts alike.

Attendees were treated to a wealth of mini workshops from local Croydon businesses including Rajan Amin of Coversure Croydon who explained how the different types of insurance available to business owners.

They also heard from Bhairav Patel, Managing Director of Atom CTO about how technology can help improve turnover as well as sharing details of some great resources in the form of the Atom CTO podcasts and The Real World Entrepreneurship podcast series which provides tips, techniques and strategies on many aspects of running a business and the technology development process.

Our Building Business Horizons (BBH) in-house trainer and adviser Anna Burke explained the importance of having policies and procedures in place especially when applying for contracts.  She also shared her own experiences

of crowdfunding through Spacehive and was joined by one of our current BBH participants, Victoria Maddox of The Nature Spa who is currently crowdfunding for a sauna in Hackney Wick.

We were also delighted to hear from Rochelle Tomlin, Local Enterprise Manager at NatWest and Georgina Mackey, Regional Ecosystem Manager across London & South East who shared details and the benefits to entrepreneurs and business owners of their Business Builder initiative.  Attendees also heard from Dave Norwell, Business Development Manager at FreeAgent and how it can support businesses with not only their finances but also streamline their workflows.

For the social entrepreneurs attending, our BBH trainer and adviser Geoff Ranson shared details of funding routes for social ventures and businesses for good including an alternative revenue sharing model provided by the Fredericks Foundation.  Further details of this are available here Fredericks Foundation Revenue Share (002).

We also had the opportunity to undertake some virtual online networking, getting to know other attendees, trustees and experts which was a great break from the workshop sessions.

All in all a great morning was had by all and we look forward to being able to deliver these in person again later this year.  If you are interested in hearing about how Building Business Horizons or any of our other support services can help your business, contact us at info@startupcroydon.co.uk.

We’re here to help you.