12 education & business


Growth workshops prove a boost for businesses


Businesses from across the region have given a resounding thumbs-up to a series of growth workshops held recently at Southampton Solent Business School, reports Alison Dewar of The Business Magazine


mentor visited my premises and has been able to help me apply what I‘ve learnt across my business practices, so now I have a much clearer idea of how to grow the business. For me, that was the icing on the cake,“ she added.


Scott Rogers, managing director of software developer Dawn Works, agreed that the mentoring programme had been excellent, but said he had also valued the workshops.


“As a fairly small company, we have the technical capabilities and industry expertise, but we don‘t have the experience of running a business, so the workshops on topics such as finding funding, how to use social media, the legal and HR areas were quite invaluable.


“For me, however, having a mentor from the ‘real world‘ of industry to visit on a regular basis has been the biggest benefit. Being able to bounce ideas off someone who has spent a long time in industry has been fantastic; someone who will say you might need to change your thought process or consider something a different way – that has been key.“


Another business to benefit was Aulos Acoustics, a technical engineering and design consultancy specialising in acoustics, based in Guildford.


Managing director James Tomalin is full of praise for the programme, calling it “extremely good value“.


Five of the business owners to receive one-to-one support: (from left) James Tomalin, Toby Winn, Dr Claire Whitehead, Scott Rogers and David Scott


More than 70 business owners applied for the scheme, which was run through the Association of Business Schools‘ Growth Voucher Programme (GVP), with the aim of making business tuition and expert knowledge widely available to micro- enterprises across the region.


Professional business people, business coaches and higher education lecturers, were on hand to give advice on issues such as marketing, HR, finance and business planning.


Professor Georgina Andrews, director of Southampton Solent Business School, who was a driving force in bringing the programme to Southampton, said: “It has been a real team effort to make sure that small businesses get the support they need and feel empowered to grow their business in the current climate.“


The Solent business school team was able to utilise its industry-leading virtual learning environment, allowing businesses to access the programme‘s resources at home or at work.


Participants, all of whom shared an ambition to grow their customer base, improve their product reach and boost their incomes, paid £2,000 for the 10 workshops and mentoring programme, a sum which was matched by government funding.


www.businessmag.co.uk


Among those attending was Dr Claire Whitehead of Camelid Veterinary Services, an Oxfordshire-based specialist veterinary practice focusing on reproductive and health issues affecting alpacas and llamas.


She started her practice in 2011 but said she had found it hard to have the time to focus on wider business issues rather than her day-to- day role.


... having a mentor from the ‘real world‘ of industry to visit on a regular basis has been the biggest benefit


“The courses were really useful because they helped me to think outside the box,“ she said. “I‘m less of a business person and more of a clinician, so it was good to have time to think about issues such as business planning and to focus on what I am doing and where the business is going.“


Each participant received nine hours of one- to-one mentoring from leading academics in the university‘s business school and Whitehead said this had been “extremely valuable“.


“Having the theory in the classroom is good, but you come away not sure how to always apply what you‘ve learnt. My


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – JULY/AUGUST 2015


“The workshops have given me greater clarity of purpose than I had before and enabled me to focus my mind to a much greater extent on certain key issues, something that can be hard to do when you‘re actually running a business,“ he said.


From a practical viewpoint, Tomalin also found that in talking to university staff, he has potentially been able to solve some of his recruitment issues and discuss new ideas around the ability to source high-quality freelance employees when he needs them.


“On balance, I think this was probably the best value for money course I have taken,“ he said. “It was extremely positive. I don‘t think I could have found another course which, for the costs involved, would have given me the same sort of value and expertise.“


Also taking part in the scheme were David Scott, owner of Phoenix Office Cleaning, and Toby Winn, of Amber Pumpkin.


The Growth Voucher Programme is led by Aston University, in partnership with business schools from Southampton Solent, Loughborough, Nottingham and University College London.


Details:


023-8201-3888 fbse@solent.ac.uk www.solent.ac.uk


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