A great offer from the Chamber

It isn’t often in life that you get offered something for free and if you’re anything like me, you’d normally approach the words ‘free workshops’ with a healthy dose of scepticism. However, with the Chamber’s new series of Ride the Wave workshops, ‘free’ doesn’t mean the hard sell or a waste of your valuable work day, it just means great advice that gives you the tools to move your business forward.

Something for everyone
The Chamber’s clearly planned Ride the Wave well, funded by Brighton and Hove City Council and offering one or a series of workshops for different business sectors and evolving stages of business development. There will be workshops for:

•    start-ups and young businesses (a year old);
•    retailers;
•    creative businesses;
•    hospitality;
•    social enterprises and charities;
•    environmental organisations.

There’ll also be a workshop on how to win that all important new customer or client as well as a guide to exporting for creative and digital businesses.

What do you get for free?
Workshops led by experts in their respective fields and a chance to share ideas with your peers.  Experts such as Erica Russell who will be leading the upcoming Eco-marketing: selling an environmental brand workshop at Jury’s Inn in central Brighton. With a long career in marketing and a dynamic speaker on marketing green credentials, Erica is the Head of Sustainability and Insight at BSK Community Interest Company, a business development company. Erica will be helping you figure out the best way to market your green product or service, cutting through the jargon and creating solid messages that will help you gain clients and increase your audience.  

The second workshop for environmental organisations will be looking at the all important areas of funding and income, ably led by David Bloomfield, Director of Peter Heath Consultancy.

Delivered by the Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce and backed by the Business Support Partnership, you can expect all of the professionalism and friendly networking we view as essential parts of the Chamber. Some delicious biscuits too.

Dates and locations for the rest of the Ride the Wave workshops will be announced soon and there’s a great choice, from looking at all the legalities of contracts for social enterprises to figuring out just how mystery shopping can work for retailers.

As a creative business, I’m looking forward to the workshop on selling, an area that I’ve always found difficult to explore without sounding like too much of a used car salesman (apologies to all used car salesmen out there!).  

As a relatively new business, I wish the ‘Preparing for Lift-off’ workshop had been available when I’d started.  Being able to cover all the aspects of starting your own business in a one stop shop?  This workshop could’ve saved me weeks of research and sometimes pointless information gathering from a wide variety of sources.  This workshop is highly recommended and aims to save you a lot of that legwork that takes up so much time when you start a business.

Taking time out for your business
Taking a couple of hours or a day to sit back and take stock of your business should be an essential part of your overall business vision. Being able to grow your business, especially in these straitened times, takes determination and strength. View Ride the Wave as a crowd cheering you on and you’ll get the most out of the workshops.  The workshops are just that – open-minded settings that allows you to work collaboratively with your peers and gain valuable advice from the workshop leader. These aren’t meetings where a Chair keeps talking and your mind starts to drift off to more important matters. Come prepared to get involved and you’ll be surprised at the results – learning more about your industry and how to keep your own business growing.

To find out about workshop dates and programme details as they are announced, please sign up to the Ride the Wave mailing list by emailing HEREwith the subject ADD ME and your name. And follow us on Twitter @brightonchamber #ridethewave. Or call Eleanor on 01273 719097.

By Susan B. Bentley, Comms with a Conscience

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk