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Posted on: May 19, 2023
On the 20th April, in a quiet and beautiful corner of Wakefield, entrepreneurs and new business owners from across Yorkshire gathered at Tileyard North for Start Me Up, an event put together by the team here at the AD:VENTURE business support programme to help new business owners.
The 6-hour event began exactly as we’d hoped it would, with delegates excitedly chatting and connecting with a cuppa or a coffee before speaker programme started.
At AD:VENTURE we’ve been working with new business owners for the last 6 years, so we know our clients really value getting together and learning from each other, and the relaxed and informal format of this event was created with exactly this in mind.
Networking can be a challenge for even the most confident of people, and from speaking to our clients regularly, we know that it can be terrifying for some. We also know connections and relationships really really count. And never more so than in those early days.
The emphasis on the day was about creating a safe space where people could connect and with each other and ask any questions they wanted, whilst also learning about the business support that’s available to them from programmes like AD:VENTURE, our partners and other high quality support providers like the Business Enterprise Fund, the Department of Business and Trade, Innovate UK and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (Business West Yorkshire) A full summary of localised support can be found in our handy pdf HERE
As well as some incredible speakers, which we’ll come onto shortly, throughout the day we had subject matter experts and AD:VENTURE ambassadors on hand to share their expertise or tips on certain topics. And they were very popular! With experts on business planning, community building, e-commerce, venture capital, digital marketing, branding, cyber security, recruitment, growth, sales, pitching, exporting, innovation, technology, and inclusion and so many more, it was easy to see why there was a lot of chatter in the room (You’ll find details of all of our brilliant exerts at the end of this blog)
The main programme was opened by Yorkshire based entrepreneur and The Apprentice winner Sian Gabbidon, who compered the mornings programme with genuine passion and encouraged delegates to take every opportunity they could from the day. Sian said she would have loved to have access to this level of business support and events like this when she had started out, and told the audience to grasp every opportunity they could from this event, and from the support programmes available.
Sian was impressed by the range of individuals at the event too “It’s great to be around so many entrepreneurs, younger, older, a big mixed bag of people!”
We heard first from Stuart Ross, Programme Manager of AD:VENTURE, and Stephen Waud, Chief Executive of the Business Enterprise Fund, a dynamic business support duo perfect to open the day!
Stuart talked about the impact we’d had with AD:VENTURE to date, helping over 5,000 people and businesses with practical support, workshops, events, access to finance and grant funding. He also told delegates about our new programme that will start in July and run for three years, with new funding from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and the Mayor allowing us with our partners to continue offering our excellent business support services at no cost to our clients. (That’s what we mean when we say fully funded – it’s fee to clients, as it’s funded by partners)
Stuart shared what he felt was the greatest piece of advice in business “Always believe in yourself”
Stephen talked about the Business Enterprise Fund, a key partner of AD:VENTURE, and a not for profit social enterprise, set up to provide loans to SME businesses that will help them thrive and grow. With the AD:VENTURE programme, the Business Enterprise Fund helps early stage business owners access funds they need to grow their business when other traditional lending options are limited. Stephen shared that they have a 5 million loan fund committed to early-stage businesses through the Start Up Loan fund, which would be available to new businesses owners across the Yorkshire and Humber area.
We also hear from Nick Keynes, who shared the story of how Tileyard North came to be, along with some insights and more than a few laughs from his own journey as a founder, having started his career as a musician in the 90s with the band Ultra! His journey took a different path from what he had expected, but firmly keeping his roots in music and production, which is his passion.
On our main stage we were privileged to have an exceptional line up of talented entrepreneurs who have worked with us at AD:VENTURE and accessed support or grants to help them grow. All of them smashing it in their respective industries, and who kindly gave up their time to come and share their journeys with our delegates.
Sam Teale, Award Winning Entrepreneur - 2021-2022 GBEA Young Entrepreneur of the Year and founder of Sam Teal Productions, gave an energetic, heart-warming and very honest overview of his journey, sharing how his naivety in business had actually been at the core of his success. He told the audience how you can learn as you grow, and don’t need to have a background in business to make your passion a success.
Kate Hutchinson, Founder of Yorkshire Sustainability Week and MD at The Secret Event Service, an event management company Kate had launched just before the pandemic. Kate talked about her determination and drive to make her business a success, and how she got through the incredibly challenging time she had when the government ruled her business was illegal overnight. Sharing how she overcame this by constantly adjusting to stay ahead of competitors, delivering hybrid and online events and keeping her position in the market until live events came back.
Georgia Halston – CEO of Halston Group, a group of industry experts, with years of experience in heavy, technical, and sustainable industries. She is also the founder of Halston Marketing and co-founder of No Code Lab. Georgia shared how she started out by herself with Halston Marketing, after a number of years working for large agencies, and a photocopier (By her own admission, not her best purchase, having used it twice!) building her business and bootstrapping until she had secured enough work to build the team. The business grew faster than expected, and Georgia has gone through several acquisitions, leading to the formation of the Halston group.
Alixe Lobato – Creative Director and founder of Flying Duck Studio Lab with 20%2B years’ experience in Design Innovation and Video Production. With specialist knowledge of B-Corp and Branding, Alixe talked about the incredible range of benefits of becoming an ethical, diverse, inclusive, and sustainable business and the journey she had taken to build the business with sustainability at the core.
Phil Holdgate – Head of Production Sustainability at ITV Studios & Co-founder and director of Sustainable Arts In Leeds (SAIL), and Jamie Saye – Co-founder and Operations Manager of Sustainable Arts In Leeds (SAIL), talked about their reasons for setting up this sustainable not for profit, which is a network of organisations and individuals in the creative and cultural sector, who take action on the Climate Emergency.
Munir Mamujee MBE – DIT Export Champion and Owner & MD of M2R Global – an international education services, recruitment, tutoring and digital English course business. At Start Me Up, Munir presented his Wakefield based exporting journey and support received from the Department of Trade. Although he had been established for over 20 years in business, he had to rethink and build the business back up from scratch with a whole new business model because of the pandemic, which had decimated his original recruitment business for overseas tutoring and teaching services. As Munir described, this felt very much like starting all over again and he had to do some serious pivoting to save the business and his team. Thankfully he did, and the business is now going from strength to strength in a totally new direction!
Dirk Mischendahl – Founder & Director of Northern Bloc Ice Cream. He founded Logistik in 1996, a Leeds events and communications agency. He then went on to start Northern Bloc Ice Cream in 2014, pioneering the vegan ice cream market, nationally and internationally. He is also a champion of culture and contemporary art, co-founding the Northern Art Prize. At Start Me Up, Dirk spoke about his experience as an entrepreneur and told the audience growth for growth’s sake isn’t always the right approach.
Our host for the afternoon, and compere of our panel at the end of the day was Rima Ahmed, BBC Radio Leeds presenter and journalist.
Rima said of the event “Being here is brilliant because I’m in a room of changemakers. I’m in room full of people who believe they can change the world!”
So how do we summarise such an incredible day? Not easily!
What was clear from the day was the message that entrepreneurship is not easy, and it takes passion, resilience, tenacity, and a fierce drive to succeed. But when you have that, as our speakers shared, you can pretty much achieve whatever you set out to do. By building networks, developing relationships, and asking for help, those challenging, and often lonely early stages can be a lot easier to navigate. High quality free business support is out there, and it can really help too.
Some key takeaways from the speakers and delegates:
Something that really stood out for us, was the strong themes of sustainability and diversity that wove through all the speakers’ stories, and throughout many of the businesses and people who attended.
As Rima commented, this really was a room full of changemakers and it’s these new businesses that are acting against our substantial societal and environmental challenges and using their passion to have a positive impact on the world around them. No longer is profit the only bottom line for our future enterprises, and this can only be a very good thing for everyone.
Are you ready for a new AD:VENTURE?
As mentioned by Stuart and Stephen on the day, we are delighted to have secured funding to continue delivering business support to new businesses with big ambitions across West Yorkshire.
The new programme will have the same great offer, giving you access to:
One to One support
Workshops and Webinars
Events
Peer to Peer Support
Connections and Networks
Start Up Loans and Grant Funding
All of this fully funded by AD:VENTURE partners, meaning this high quality business support service comes at no cost to you. We know, it’s hard to believe, but it’s true.
We will be sending out a new registration link in early July, so if you’d like to express your interest now, use the link below to drop us a quick email and we’ll get that across to you as soon as it’s available.
Express your interest for the next ADVENTURE
Our experts and ambassadors!
We had so many people sharing their skills on the day, including supporters of AD:VENTURE, current and past clients, business support partners and a lot of all-round great folk.
A big thank you to you all. You are amazing!
We know it was a busy day, and if you missed a connection, or wished you’d had chance to grab that certain someone for a quick chat, here are the details of all of our supporters and experts if you wanted to follow up or connect with them.
You can see details about everyone and what their area of expertise was in.
We can’t share the delegate list because of GDP but if you want a connection to an expert or to each other that you didn’t make on the day, pop an email to Daneile and she’ll do her best to help.
The ADVENTURE Team
Daneile Moore – Communications, Marketing and Events Manager at AD:VENTURE, helping Start Ups succeed with fully funded expert practical support and grants. Start Me Up Event Coordinator. Expert topic – Start Up Business Support.
Bruce McLeod – Business Coach and Kirklees adviser at AD:VENTURE, helping ambitious start-ups and established businesses to grow quickly and profitably. At Start Me Up: Expert topic – Start Up Business Support.
Tony Armson – Grants Officer at AD:VENTURE, assisting small and medium sized businesses with grant funding applications. At Start Me Up: Spoke in the Funding, Finance, and Investment huddle. Expert topic – Grant Funding.
Paula Denison – Operations Manager at AD:VENTURE. Has worked extensively across the social enterprise sector in Yorkshire and Humber. Expert topic – Grant Funding.
Balbir Sembi – Young Business Manager at AD:VENTURE. Has worked across a range of business support programmes and has expertise in business growth and start up. At Start Me Up: Expert topic – Business Growth Support.
Keith Evans – Business Advisor at AD:VENTURE. And an independent Business Growth & Development Consultant. At Start Me Up: Spoke in the Technology for Growth and Good & EDI Everything Equal huddles. Event expert topic – Tech and Innovation.
BEF Team
Habib Karimi – Investment Manager at Business Enterprise Fund (BEF), providing loans from £500 to £250,000 to businesses, helping them begin, expand, and flourish. Start Me Up: Spoke in the Funding, Finance and Investment huddle. Event expert topic – Start Up Loans.
Tom Kelton – Associate Investment Manager at Business Enterprise Fund (BEF), providing loans from £500 to £250,000 to businesses, helping them begin, expand, and flourish. Start Me Up: Spoke in the Funding, Finance and Investment huddle. Event expert topic – Start Up Loans.
Expert Ambassadors
Becky Pritchard – Head of Marketing at This is Distorted. Specialising in the world of audio and podcasting. At Start Me Up: Expert topic – Podcasting.
Aimeé Hargreaves – Director at Ultra Accountancy. And a Chartered Certified Accountant, helping owner-managed businesses. At Start Me Up: Expert topic – Accountancy.
Debra Samuel – Founder of The Computer Guru, a friendly, outsourced IT department, supporting local businesses and individuals. At Start Me Up: Expert topics – IT to Start Up and Cyber Security.
Steve Harrison – Founder & Head of Earned Media at Discovery Agency. A digital marketing agency with a focused aim on delivering quality of service and expertise. At Start Me Up: Expert topic – Digital Marketing.
Isaac Wilkinson – General Manager of Elm FM, specialising in project delivery of building facilities. At Start Me Up: Spoke in the Talent - Finding and keeping your people huddle. Expert topics – Project Management, Apprenticeships, Finance and Operations.
James Garner – CEO of Sticky. James is a deep tech founder with a focus on ubiquitous computing, personalisation and digital ethics. At Start Me Up: Spoke in the Funding, Finance and Investment & Technology for Growth and Good huddles. Expert topics – E-Commerce and Venture Capital.
Sophia Kupse – Director of MBH Training. Empowering health and behaviour changes through evidence-based education and understanding. At Start Me Up: Spoke in the Innovation Management & Global Opportunities huddles. Expert topics – Innovation & Collaboration.
Bethan Aspland – Award winning Founder of Pretty in Paper by B. Providing specialised craft kits, educational videos and downloadable activity guides. At Start Me Up: Expert topic – Instagram, organic growth.
Lee-J Walker – Managing Director at The Business Desk. And an experienced sales manager within the world of on-line advertising and recruitment. At Start Me Up: Spoke in the Pitching and Sales & Finding and keeping your people huddle. Expert topics – Business Development and Marketing.
Ian Winterbottom – A Partner of Winter Brand Partners. Ian has 45 years in Media, Marketing and Design. Running, managing and inspiring multi-disciplinary teams. At Start Me Up: Expert topic – Branding.
Lanie Green – Owner of Polish a Word. Developing content with meaningful values that represent an organisation’s unique tone of voice, to appeal to their audience. At Start Me Up: Expert topic – Copywriting.
Colin Glass OBE – A Consultant at IBB Law, a Non-Executive Director, and Mentor to start ups and growing SMEs. At Start Me Up: Spoke in the EDI Everything Equal & Global Opportunities huddles. Expert topics – Growth and Scaling.
Heather Magner – Owns Northern Exposure. Creating photos & videos for businesses - headshots, construction site progress, personal branding and PR. At Start Me Up: Provided headshots for attendees. Expert topic – Photography for products and services.
Michael Edwards – Director of The Northern Affinity, a community for Northern businesses to flourish. At Start Me Up: Event expert topic – Building a Business Community.
Pete Evans – Head of sales at Emerse. A certified Coach, business growth specialist, sales effectiveness expert and sales mindset specialist. At Start Me Up: Spoke in the Pitching and Sales huddle. Expert topic – Sales.
Nick Bramley – Director of Impact (CEO) at Impactus Group. Nick develops individual, team and business performance, creates interactive content and is a training host. At Start Me Up: Spoke in the Pitching and Sales & Innovation Management huddles. Expert topics – Pitching, Scaling & Innovation.
Tom Ridgeway – BCN Group Innovation Director & Public View Health Founder. An experienced health tech leader delivering innovation, performance, and system change. At Start Me Up: Spoke in the Finance and Investment & Technology for Growth and Good huddles. Expert topics – Selling to Public Sector & Managing Growth.
Kelly Smith – Managing Director of Juice Personnel and a Multi-Sector Recruitment Expert providing Recruitment Solutions for the Wakefield District. At Start Me Up: Spoke in the Talent - Finding and keeping your people huddle. Expert topic – Recruitment.
Terri Ward – Recruitment Consultant at Juice Personnel, an independent recruitment firm and Wakefield employer of the year 2022. At Start Me Up: Spoke in the Talent - Finding and keeping your people huddle. Expert topic – Recruitment.
Mel Ellyard – Founder of Include Me and The D-list. A platform to connect, communicate, and to work together to bring about positive change to our region. At Start Me Up: Spoke in the EDI Everything Equal huddle. Expert topics – Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Tech & Investment.
Daniel Tiffany – Managing Director of Dream Big Digital, a web design agency based in Leeds. At Start Me Up: Expert topics – E-Commerce & Selling your products online.
Chloe Baldwin & Abigail Baldwin – Founders of Buttercrumble, providing graphic design, illustration, and consultation on branding. Empowering businesses to express themselves through design. At Start Me Up: Expert topics – Branding, Styling & Illustration.
Jeremy Meadowcroft – Investment Manager for Finance for Enterprise, providing loans of up to £250,000 to SME business owners who cannot access mainstream lending to grow their business. At Start Me Up: Spoke in the Funding, Finance, and Investment huddle. Expert topics – Finance and Investment.
Sherin Matthew – Founder and CEO of AI Tech UK, a knowledge centre and innovation lab for advanced innovation democratising technologies such as AI, Data & Cloud. At Start Me Up: Spoke in the Technology for Growth and Good, Innovation Management & Global Opportunities huddles. Expert topics – Tech & Artificial Intelligence.
Chantelle Brandon-Reeves – Senior Innovation and Growth Specialist at Innovate UK Edge, providing innovation and growth support to businesses across the north. At Start Me Up: Spoke in the Innovation Management & Global Opportunities huddles. Event topic – Innovation.
Simon Grandidge – Customer Engagement Officer at the Department for Business and Trade, supporting growth in the UK and abroad, promoting investment and championing free trade. At Start Me Up: Spoke in the Global Opportunities huddle. Event topics – Exporting & Global Trade.
And that’s a wrap!! Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions or queries about business support and what’s right for you, please do get in touch!
