We launched our Sandwell Start-Up Hub this week. But a few lucky people got a sneak preview during Get Connected in Sandwell. This is our breakfast networking event held in partnership with Sandwell College and the Black Country Chamber of Commerce.
We held our latest edition of Get Connected in Sandwell on Thursday 21 September. It’s an early morning breakfast meeting to get Sandwell businesspeople talking and networking before they start their working day. With our shared belief that we’re stronger when we work together, we run it alongside colleagues from Sandwell College and the Black Country Chamber of Commerce.
This month, we held Get Connected in Sandwell at our Sandwell Start-Up Hub based at Jack Judge House in Oldbury. This is a new co-working space, opened by the Sandwell Business Growth Team, to give small business owners and entrepreneurs a place to collaborate, learn and work towards growing their Sandwell businesses.
Nicy Morgan officially launched Sandwell Business Growth (the website you’re viewing now!) during Get Connected in Sandwell. As you may know, Sandwell Business Growth has replaced Think Sandwell as the business support platform of Sandwell Council.
If you haven’t explored it yet, take a look today. Go to our resources for starting a business, growing a business, or managing the everyday running of your business.
Open4Business
One feature of Sandwell Business Growth is our Open4Business funding portal, created by software developers Idox. Using the search function, you can explore current EU, government and council grants, loans, venture capital funds and tax credit programmes.
We were lucky to have Matt Godfrey from Idox to introduce the portal to our Get Connected in Sandwell guests.
‘Breaking the curse of the accidental manager’
We also had an informative presentation from Bridgette Bennet from Sandwell College’s School of Management & Inclusive Leadership. Bridgette’s topic was ‘Breaking the curse of the accidental manager’. She explored the impact on productivity and employee retention when (usually high-performing) team members become managers without due training.
We’ll bring you more information soon on Sandwell College’s support for local businesses.
Winning Moves
Finally, we heard from Maddison Walker from Winning Moves – the business development consultancy we’ve hired to deliver growth support to our local businesses. Maddison shared the ways in which she and her team can help you in the coming months. We’ll also bring you more on Winning Moves very soon – and how you can take advantage of this powerful support.
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The next Get Connected in Sandwell will be in December.
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