If you want to grow your business but don’t know how, have reached a plateau & are feeling a little ‘stuck’, or just want to prepare yourself for when that day comes – our 1-day ‘Newcastle Scaleup Summit‘ at the Live Theatre on 23rd November is for you!
Here are 8 big reasons why you should attend:
1. You need to think bigger
One of the biggest barriers to growth in a small business is the mindset of the founder or founders. If you’ve already started your own business then you already think differently to most people in the UK and deserve a pat in the back for getting this far. But how do you adopt a ‘Growth Mindset’, open yourself up to more opportunities, new ways of working and start thinking more strategically in ways that will help your business step up a gear?
We’ll have successful entrepreneurs like Darren Jobling (CEO, ZeroLight), Stefan Lepowski (MD, Karol Marketing) and e-commerce power couple Alice and Andrew Hall (Pink Boutique / Glam Homestore) sharing how they think and act, plus a panel discussion on this topic with Carl Haagensen (Entrepreneur Development Manager, Natwest Entrepreneurial Spark), Holly Thompson (Future Skills Vision Ltd), Scott Rowland (HiThrive) & Jim Mawdsley (Generator).
2. You need to get better at selling, marketing and PRing your products or services
You might have the best products or services in the world but if no-one knows about them then you’ll never be able to reach all the customers or clients you want to! What tips, techniques and processes can you adopt to generate more qualified leads and convert them into sales and happy customers?
One of the biggest strengths of the North East of England is how many fantastic freelance marketing / PR experts and bloggers we have plus some of the UK’s best award-winning digital marketing and PR agencies. Learn how you and your colleagues (if you have them) can become better sales and marketing professionals and how great PR can open doors for you from the likes of Nevil Tynemouth (Founding Director, New Results Ltd) and Stefan Lepowski (MD, Karol Marketing).
We’ll also have Janet Balneaves (Director, Growth at Skyscanner) sharing how they applied Silicon Valley thinking in their Edinburgh-based business to turn it into a global ‘tech unicorn’ which was sold for £1.4bn last year!
(Pro Tip: A quick and easy way to start promoting your business today and amplify your reach significantly is by including the #ThisIsMINE (Made In North East) hashtag at the end of your Tweets. This is a regional campaign to celebrate and promote businesses from the North East of England with Tweets being Retweeted on a daily basis by the likes of Plan Digital, Digital Union and Sunderland Software City + many more to all of their Followers).
If you like learning by reading, you should find my ‘Small Business Marketing For Dummies‘ book very useful, especially the chapters about Inbound Marketing, Social Media and PR.
3. Innovating, developing & launching new products or services
One thing that really sets bigger businesses apart from small ones is the range of products or services they offer or how quickly they can innovate and bring new ideas to life.
Professor Roy Sandbach has held international R&D leadership positions with Procter & Gamble for over 30 years, is an internationally recognised name in innovation and has visiting professor positions with Newcastle, Northumbria & Cranfield Universities and Central St. Martin’s College of Art & Design. Let him share what he’s learned along the way and how you can develop your own R&D function within your business, even if the business is just you!
Naomi Morrow (Head of Innovation, Sunderland Software City) will also be sharing insight into the Open Innovation Challenge projects she’s run for the likes of Nissan, Barclays and PwC to help enterprise level businesses and SMEs collaborate, innovate and co-create new products or services.
4. Improving processes to save time & money to invest back into your business
A common barrier to growth for small and micro businesses is spending too much time in your business and not enough on your business, especially with owner manager companies. Although you might want to adopt the DIY approach when starting out to keep your costs down, there comes a point when it may actually become detrimental to your business and stressful to you as there aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything you want to do.
If this sounds like you, you’ll enjoy hearing Dave Gibson (Co-Founder, Blu Sky Tax) and Jill Dovey (Tech Specialist, Muckle) in conversation about when to bring the professionals in to free up some of your time and money, make your business run more smoothly and put you in a stronger position for partnerships, raising investment or exiting your business through a sale or acquisition.
5. Finding people with the right skills & experience to grow your business
The people who helped you start your business are unlikely to be the same people that will help you grow your business. But how do you find, attract and retain talented people with the skills and experience of scaling a business like yours?
Whether it’s finding a co-founder, making your first hire, growing and managing a bigger team, opening another office or finding a Non-Executive Director, you’ll want to hear our panel discussion with Neil Stephenson (Director, Tetrad Recruitment Group Ltd), Michaela Reaney (MD, Gradvert), Peter Neal (Head of Strategic Talent, UNW LLP) and Lynsey Walton (Walton HR).
6. Learning how to forge & maintain partnerships with bigger businesses
One way to grow your business significantly is by partnering with a bigger business and offering your complimentary product or service to their customers. Our headline sponsor Sage is the global market leader for technology that helps businesses of all sizes manage everything from money to people – whether they’re a startup, scaleup or enterprise level business.
With a new ISV Partner Programme being launched soon, they’re actively looking for tech/digital products that can integrate with their cloud accounting, payroll and people products which can provide huge opportunities for you in the UK and around the world.
7. Understanding how membership organisations can help & which one is right for you
There are a lot of membership organisations for businesses of all sizes, paid and unpaid. But what value can they bring, how can they help your business grow and how do you know which ones are right for you?
We’ll have a range of regional, pan-Northern and national membership organisations onstage (including Digital Union, Dynamo North East, The IoD & Tech North’s Founders’ Network) explaining what they can offer and which type of business they are looking for so you can make a more informed decision about whether to join or not and how to make the most of your membership.
8. You want to help your clients grow or become an ‘Intrapreneur’!
Even if you’re not a business owner or entrepreneur, perhaps you’re an ‘intrapreneur’ within a large business and want to help your colleagues become more entrepreneurial and adopt ‘The Startup Way‘? Or maybe your business is all about helping your clients grow their operation and you want to tell them how they could do it and how to avoid some of the pitfalls along the way?
Buy your ticket
Take the first step to growing your business in 2018 by booking your ticket below. (If you’re still not sure, check out our awesome list of speakers).
