Collaboration is one of the buzz words – We need to look out
for opportunities to work together and learn from each other. In a recent
survey by Enterprise Nation they looked at the growth of small businesses in
the UK, and the interesting facts that came from that was how little businesses are getting from
banks and traditional Governmental support. So where do we get support from to
grow, develop, innovate and change?
For me the answer comes from collaborating with others,
engaging with businesses and learning and developing together. As part of this
process I’m taking part in an action learning set .
Do you dare join us? There are a couple of places left, and
they could be perfect for you and your business – You never know what you might
learn, what networks you might access and what support your business might get.
Here's the info from Spaceworks the kind folks who are housing us:
Here's the info from Spaceworks the kind folks who are housing us:
Most of us juggle many different roles to make our business(es) work, and, as we’re not experts in everything (much as we’d like to be!), it’s good to be able to tap into someone else’s expertise sometimes.
This effect is borne out by research which suggests that better networked business owners run more successful businesses. Why? Because nobody knows everything – so having a network increases the odds that someone you know, knows a ‘man/woman who does’.
To develop the way we support each other we’re experimenting with setting up a Spaceworks ‘Action Learning Set’ for business owners.
Our plan is to have an initial introductory session on 20th May to explore the idea - and then sign up 8 business owners to work with a specialist facilitator for 6 meetings between June - Dec 2013.
4 of us have already signed up. We include a social media whizz, someone who has successfully built up a waiting list for a course programme and someone who has successfully negotiated loan funding for business growth in the last 12 months. We also include among us though, someone who needs to learn about delegating to enable business growth, someone who needs to get better at selling, and someone who needs to learn how to say ‘no’ to clients to improve profitability. So, we feel confident there are lots of ways our businesses could benefit from this group.
To run the group we think we need 8 people, so we’re looking for 4 more. Could one of them be you?
If you’d like to find out more please get in touch to register your interest. Everyone will be then be invited to join us at our initial meeting where we’ll meet our facilitator, hear a bit more about how Action Learning Sets work, and discuss costs and session timings.
This meeting will be on
Monday 20th May at 6.30 pm at Spaceworks (in Harland Works, John St).