The Swindon and Wiltshire Growth Hub held its first event of the year ‘Making your Business Greater’ on Thursday, March 23 2017 at Wellington Barn, Calne. The event was attended by close to 100 delegates from Swindon and Wiltshire’s small, medium and micro businesses seeking support to accelerate their future business plans.
Paddy Bradley, director of the Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership (SWLEP) which manages the Growth Hub said “Swindon and Wiltshire is recognised for its entrepreneurial spirit, through this event we wanted to reach out to our small, start-up and growth-oriented businesses with an offer to support them on their specific challenges.”
The event was an opportunity for local businesses to highlight challenges faced while doing business in the area and seek expert advice to resolve them. The issues that came to fore include: sourcing qualified people for jobs, affordable office space to support expansion, lack of adequate communications infrastructure in rural areas, funding for future business growth and marketing support for small business.
The event provided attending businesses with an opportunity to access private and public business support experts across areas they find challenging. Nicki Kinton of NK Credit Consultancy a small business in Wiltshire who was at the event said “It’s been quite interesting to see what’s on offer in the area that could help me take my business forwards. Coaching and Social Media were two areas I was interested in, so I really think this event was very relevant to me.”
The Swindon and Wiltshire Growth Hub is part of the national network of Growth Hubs funded by central government to ensure business support is simple and easy to access for small business. In 2016 alone, the Swindon and Wiltshire Growth Hub has reached close to 6000 businesses locally catering to start-ups and small and medium businesses across all sectors particularly those demonstrating potential and having an honest appetite for higher growth.
The main speaker at the event was Mark Miles, managing director, Rendermedia a local CGI and virtual reality company, who gave the audience a roadmap of the company’s success despite facing challenges and how business support helped provide resolutions.
The Swindon and Wiltshire Growth Hub plans to organise a series of regular business events to continue to promote its agenda of business development among Swindon and Wiltshire’s many small businesses.
The Swindon and Wiltshire Growth Hub can be accessed online on www.swindon.wiltshirebusinesshub.co.uk or businesses could call 01225 402096 to speak to a business advisor.
Pictured above: John Mortimer, chair of the SWLEP addressing the audience at the Swindon & Wiltshire Growth Hub event
