At the Business Gateway, the vast majority of our clients are microbusinesses. That means we understand their challenges and have experience of supporting them to grow. One of our most successful programmes is a thing called Peer Networks. That’s where we bring together a number of businesses from the same sector or with the same challenges and encourage them to help each other find solutions to their common problems. We support them with a professional session leader and provide regular training sessions to grow their practical knowledge.
This is the first time we’ve offered a Microbusiness Peer Network and we’re confident that it will be of real benefit to the companies that sign up for the seven week programme (that means an hour and a half commitment each week). You’ll develop a network that will support you for many months after the programme finishes, just like our other Peer Networks.
The focus of this Microbusiness Peer Network is thinking differently to help make your business more efficient, more attractive to customers and more successful.
Developing new ideas for products or services isn’t just for big businesses and big budgets. Enterprises of all sizes can apply different thinking to increase their impact, to work more efficiently, to produce greater margins and create competitive advantage. New ideas or points of view can also improve the quality of products and services for your customers and clients.
In a series of seven weekly webinars starting 23 November Solvers Studio will not just tell you how your micro business can benefit from thinking differently, they’ll help you do it. Our sessions will be interactive and collaborative, giving you the chance to develop your own micro innovations. The activities and tools you’ll use throughout the seven weeks are flexible and entirely transferable, and you can use them time and again.
The series of sessions will take you from identifying where you need to think differently to tackle a business-related problem, to how to produce, test and validate the ideas you (and your team if you have one) come up with. Finally, we’ll look at how to implement the idea you’ve chosen into your microbusiness.
This webinar series includes:
- 23 November, 2-3.30pm – Problems and priorities
- 30 November, 2-3.30pm – The idea generation game
- 8 December, 10-11.30am – Rapid prototyping
- 15 December, 10-11.30am – Developing products and services with your customers
- 06 January, 10-11.30am – Winning at failing
- 12 January, 10-11.30am – Implementing new ideas
- 19 January, 10-11.30am – How to sprint
To book all of the events in the programme, just email jay.lad@bizgateway.org.uk
About Solvers Studio
A Leicester-based studio with a collective of designers, innovators and from around the country, Solvers Studio use their diverse team to design new products and services with a range of clients and are specialists in supporting start-up and small businesses. The facilitators for these sessions are rooted and well-connected to the local business scene and have good knowledge of the opportunities – and the challenges – for micro-businesses in Leicestershire.
Carl Quinn – Founder & CEO
Carl is an accomplished designer and developer of projects, programmes and services. He’s a passionate believer in empowering others to make a change in their own lives, their organisations, and their communities. Putting people at the heart of developing new products and services is the best way to create positive, sustainable impact which aids continual growth.
Lindsey Newman-Wood – Associate and Innovation Specialist
Lindsey is a results-driven, innovation and marketing consultant, facilitator, coach and speaker and is passionate about running exciting and engaging workshops that are practical, ‘jargon free’ and fun! She has great experience in working with SME’s across the region in a consultancy capacity and has a wealth of insight and great examples of how innovation is applied and helps businesses grow and thrive.
