Events

Discover how to generate free coverage in newspapers and on radio and television along with a look at other valuable PR tools to help raise your profile.

This workshop is led by former broadcaster and journalist Colin Kelly. He will show you how to identify and develop the most interesting stories within your business and then use them to achieve free, positive coverage in the mainstream media.

Topics covered include:

• How the media works and how it can help small businesses.
• What makes an interesting story?
• How to define your key messages.
• Speak about your business with confidence.
• Improve your television and radio interview skills.
• Take control and make sure you’re not misquoted.
• Write press releases that get used by the media.
• Build a ‘media friendly’ strategy for your business.

To book a place, click here.

A good business reputation is important for potential consumers since it indicates trustworthiness and honesty. Customers are more likely to revisit and recommend you to others.

How to build a positive reputation, particularly if you are at the early stages of your business life. During our webinar we will help you:

• Understand what makes positive reputational content, and how you can build your own positive reputation (for either yourself or your brand).
• Be aware of the necessity and benefits of trusted and reputable online marketing content.
• Receive tips on gathering reviews, and how best to respond to reviews, both positive and negative.

To book a place, click here.

This session will help you to understand the important steps required to plan for the launch of your new business.

This session will help you to understand the important steps required to plan for the launch of your new business. It will help you to identify the requirements of your potential customers, the research that will carry out, and the resources you will need to get your business launched.

Launching a new business requires a deep understanding of who your customers will be, and why they would buy from you. To help you increase your potential for success, we’ll help you to understand how to research your market, assess your competitors and develop a compelling marketing plan. We’ll also cover key decisions, and essential steps needed to take to plan for success.

We will cover:

• The importance of fully understanding your target market.
• The need to identify your potential customers and their needs/desires.
• How to assess your competitors, and find ways to be different.
• The role of marketing in a successful business.
• An introduction to the main business formats.
• A basic overview of hey tools to manage your business finance.
• The importance of understanding how much funding you’ll require to get started.
• Why a viable plan is essential, and how you can start planning.

Workshop outcomes:

After this training session, you will understand the information that you’ll need to find out to launch your unique new business, and then the next steps to take to plan ahead.

To book a place, click here.

This session is a must if you are exhibiting this year and want to have a successful show. This session provides a host of practical tips and techniques to bring success at your next show!

Exhibitions provide an ideal platform to speak with customers when they are in buying mode. This hugely valuable session lets you practice successful ideas that bring sales in the short space of time you have to make an impression at shows.

This session will show you how to:

• Set out and plan your stand ahead of time.
• Quick Sales Ladder process on stand.
• Stopping visitors – Making your stand busy with the right contacts.
• Good Opening Lines to encourage customers.
• Quiet stand, busy stands – what to do.
• Qualifying prospects – talking to the right audience.
• Listening Skills
• Dealing with multiple contacts when your stand gets busy.
• Deliver compelling messages that encourage buying signals.
• Complete the conversation with a sale or a firm agreement to contact again.
• Dealing with timewasters.
• Follow up.

It is practical, fun and led by a tutor who works at shows every year. It is useful for whole teams who will be working on stand.

The outcome – better more qualified leads, maybe some orders and a wider spread of information about all your business in the right target markets.

To book a place, click here.

This workshop is aimed at establishing businesses which are looking to prepare their first self – assessment or alternatively require a refresher on completing.

The aims of the workshop is to allow the person to leave with a greater knowledge of how to complete a self-assessment form, to ensure they have the right information ready to complete the self-assessment process, to ensure that they understand what to fill in and also to make sure they are claiming for ever allowance that they should be. As a result of this session, delegates will be able to:

1. Determine who must complete a self-assessment tax return.
2. Understand how and when to register for self-assessment.
3. Be aware of HMRC deadlines and penalties.
4. Understand how to obtain an estimate of their income tax liability.
5. Be able to complete the relevant sections of a self-assessment tax return for their business.
6. Know where to go for further information, help and advice.

To book a place, click here.

Cyber Security is now more important than ever, this session will help you get on top of what is required to be cyber safe.

With more and more business processes moving into the cloud. we need to be more cautious than ever, defending against hacks, exploits and scams. This practical webinar will look at website security, social media safety, password protection and more.

Aimed at small business owners who want to embrace online opportunities, but who understand the real dangers and their impact in today’s connected world.

To book a place, click here.

This webinar will give you 30 uncomplicated, effective steps that you can do yourself for free that will help strengthen your digital presence.

This workshop will be broken down into 3 sections:

• Making sure you understand what you’re doing and why.
• Helping you gain control and organise your assets.
• Be confident in knowing not only what content you should be producing, but where you should post it to be of most help to your customers and potential customers.

You will leave feeling motivated and with a sense of purpose. Confident that even if you don’t complete all 30 steps you are doing something constructive to help your business during this time.

To book a place, click here.

Discover what hiring will look like in 2026. This webinar will explore the essentials of HR, including hiring, interviewing, payroll, pensions, contracts and remote working.

One of the scariest things you can do as a business is take on staff – from hiring, interviewing, payroll, pensions, contracts, remote working and more, it is a minefield for the business owner.

This webinar will allow you to have the key information in your possession to take on staff and manage your team.

Topics covered:

• Recruiting, managing and retaining staff.
• Attracting and recruiting the best and right people for our business.
• Our obligations as employers.
• Managing people to stay with us.
• Moving on.
• Dismissal.
• Restructure/Redundancy

We will also look at:

• How in the current climate you can manage staff and teams in a remote environment, considering their productivity, efficiency, and the issues of home working.
• How you can best manage staff to ensure productivity is kept and mental health is supported.
• The impact of companies who may be considering restructuring and therefore redundancy for the first time and how that can be managed.

To book a place, click here.

This webinar aims to transform your attitude towards writing and help you create engaging, useful material for your website.

You’ll learn the secrets of persuasive writing, how to make writing more accessible and concise, and common structures to help get started when you’re staring at a blank screen.

Whatever business you’re in, being able to explain what you do in the written form is an essential skill and with our feedback and coaching you’ll get better at it. Whether you consider yourself good at writing or if it’s something you’ve always struggled with, you’ll find yourself both encouraged and challenged by this interactive, engaging session.

To book a place, click here.

This session covers customer service/sales and delivers practical ‘no cost’ steps you can take in your business to ensure your customers keep on coming back.

Retaining customers is cheaper than acquiring new ones. This session is about customer service and sales and delivers ‘no cost’ steps you can take in your business to ensure your customers keep on coming back. The time on the course will let you examine your business and to think through ideas for you and your team to encourage customers to return. This session falls into 2 parts.

Part 1 – the Strategy

• The role of customer satisfaction in business.
• Commercial considerations – growth in margin and profit OK, Good and WOW – the goals for customer service.
• Creating a customer service culture and strategy.
• Internal communication and zippering – team work & delivering customer service to internal departments.

Part 2 – Tools of the Trade

• Greetings and initial impressions – ideas working in different mediums – face to face, telephone, email and mobile.
• Communication and keeping customers informed – delivering service, new products etc.
• Managing expectation.
• Opportunity spotting – keeping the radar on LAPASA – dealing with angry and difficult customers.
• Dealing with old baggage.
• Features, benefits, proof – areas of competitive edge.
• Knowing products and services, knowing customers – playroom technique.
• Looking at how to use good customer service as a means of increasing business – techniques.

To book a place, click here.

Designed for businesses who want more visibility on Google without getting lost in technical jargon. We’ll break down the key things search engines actually care about.

You’ll learn:

• The most common reasons business websites struggle to rank.
• Simple on-page improvements that make a real difference.
• How to optimise pages for the searches your customers are making.
• What to prioritise first when time and budget are limited.

You’ll leave with clear, practical actions you can apply to your own website straight away.

To book a place, click here.

This webinar aims to help you understand the process of employing people. It will also deal with legal obligations and point you in the direction of further assistance.

This webinar will examine:

• Preliminary steps such as job descriptions and salary.
• Recruiting new staff.
• How to confirm a job offer.
• Registering as an employer with HMRC.
• Your obligations when an employee starts work.
• Health and safety legislation and employers’ liability insurance.
• Managing staff performance.

By the end of the workshop you will have a structured plan for taking on staff.

To book a place, click here.

This is the session for you if you want to learn some ‘quick wins for social media’ to help your business stand out amongst the rest.

You probably already know that social media should be a large part of engaging with your audience and potential new customers. The question is, how does your business adopt a strategy that stands out and is engaging and effective?

Social Media for business serves two purposes:

• It engages your audience.
• It attracts new business.

In this webinar you will explore using free mobile tools, easy to use, that will help your business stand out and serve these two purposes.

Topics covered:

• Making Graphics that pop!
• Design Hacks.
• Free Apps to make your life easier.

At the end of the workshop you’ll have up-to-date information and tools to help you utilise your social media platforms to their fullest potential.

To book a place, click here.