Webinar: How to get funding for your training

Did you know that businesses with 5-249 staff could be eligible to access a grant of £1,000?

The funding is provided through Train to Gain’s Leadership and Management Programme which is designed to help owners and directors of small and medium-sized enterprises to enhance their business skills. (Incidentally, despite what you might have heard in the newspapers the funding for this particular programme has NOT been cut.)

You are invited to attend a 30 minute presentation explaining exactly how to claim the grant. You can attend easily from your computer, so there is no need to travel or leave your office.

Date:Wednesday 23rd June 2010
Time:9.30am UK

To attend, please complete the registration form below:

More Train to Gain Leadership & Management Funding released

Train to Gain have released more funding under the Leadership & Management Programme.

This means eligible businesses can claim up to £1,000 to fund training courses, coaching/mentoring programmes and other training & development support for the leaders in their business.

Topics covered:

• Leadership & Management Skills
• Sales & Marketing strategy
• Strategic Business Planning
• Time/Stress Management
• And much more

Contact us for more details.

Business Growth Course Starts 8th July 2010

The next Business Growth Course starts on 8th July 2010.

This course is designed for directors and owners of small businesses who are going through periods of change. It will give you the practical business knowledge you need to get through changes positively. All the course content is relevant whether you are growing, restructuring or rationalising.

For some people, recession is good for their business. For others, it causes uncertainty and worry. Either way, the Business Growth Course helps you to analyse what’s going on in your business right now and work out a plan for what to do next.

Topics covered:

• Goal Setting & Vision
• Diagnostics
• Business Strategy
• Marketing Strategy
• Business Planning (including Financial Planning & Forecasting)
• Project Management

Session Dates & Times

Thursday afternoons 3-5pm

Session 1: Goal Setting & Vision
Session 2: Diagnostics
Session 3: Business Strategy
Session 4: Marketing Strategy
Session 5: Business Planning
Session 6: Project Management
Session 7: Individual Coaching
Session 8: Individual Coaching

Number of Group Workshop Sessions: 6

Number of Private Coaching Sessions: 2

Course Fees: £1,200+VAT

Funding Available? Yes – certain businesses qualify for a grant of up to £1,000 to help part-fund the course. Please contact us to find out how to access this grant.

You can find full details at Business Growth Course.

Contact Hannah McNamara for a free, no obligation discussion on whether this course is right for you and to find out about the funding options available.

Contact details: 020 7939 9910 (+44 20 7939 9910) or email hannah.mcnamara (AT) smeacademy.co.uk – replace (AT) with @.

Limited Funding available for Business Growth Course

Under the Train to Gain Leadership & Management programme eligible businesses can claim a grant of up to £1,000 to help with funding of SME Academy’s Business Growth Course and other programmes such as one-to-one business coaching or mentoring.

To find out if your business qualifies, contact Hannah McNamara on 020 7939 9910 or hannah.mcnamara @ smeacademy.co.uk

As there are only limited opportunities available, we strongly recommend that you act today to express your interest in this programme.

Business Growth Course Feb – Mar 2010

The next Business Growth Course starts on 18th February 2010.

This course is designed for directors and owners of small businesses who are going through periods of change. It will give you the practical business knowledge you need to get through changes positively. All the course content is relevant whether you are growing, restructuring or rationalising.

For some people, recession is good for their business. For others, it causes uncertainty and worry. Either way, the Business Growth Course helps you to analyse what’s going on in your business right now and work out a plan for what to do next.

Topics covered:

• Goal Setting & Vision
• Diagnostics
• Business Strategy
• Marketing Strategy
• Business Planning (including Financial Planning & Forecasting)
• Project Management

Session Dates & Times

February – March Thursday afternoons 3-5pm

Session 1: Goal Setting & Vision 18/2/10
Session 2: Diagnostics 25/2/10
Session 3: Business Strategy 4/3/10
Session 4: Marketing Strategy 11/3/10
Session 5: Business Planning 18/3/10
Session 6: Project Management 25/3/10
Session 7: Individual Coaching Set by you
Session 8: Individual Coaching Set by you

Number of Group Workshop Sessions: 6

Number of Private Coaching Sessions: 2

Course Fees: £1,200+VAT

Funding Available? Yes – certain businesses qualify for a grant of up to £1,000 to help part-fund the course. Please contact us to find out how to access this grant.

You can find full details at Business Growth Course.

Contact Hannah McNamara for a free, no obligation discussion on whether this course is right for you and to find out about the funding options available.

Contact details: 020 7939 9910 (+44 20 7939 9910) or email hannah.mcnamara (AT) smeacademy.co.uk – replace (AT) with @.

NEW SERVICE: Business Health Check Launches!

We are pleased to announce that from today we are officially launching our Business Health Check service.

This service is open to both existing and new clients.

In this intensive one-on-one session we show you how to uncover hidden opportunities in your business and see where you’re losing money (and what to do about it!).

Limited number of sessions available before Christmas.

Full details of the Business Health Check sessions can be found at http://www.smeacademy.co.uk/courses/business-health-check/

£250 voucher a.k.a. Shameless Bribe

Urgent Announcement (and ‘Shameless Bribe’!)

YOU NEED TO READ THIS TODAY

How to get your hands on a £250 voucher

…..Urgent message from Hannah McNamara, Director, SME Academy…..

I had to put this post together rather quickly and you’ll see why in a minute. Did you see the recent promotion for our webinar called ‘Recession: Sales Problem or Growth Opportunity’? Well, we planned it some time ago to promote our forthcoming Business Growth Course.

We had these great ideas that we would use the event to showcase what we do, tell you about the course and then let you know that there was a grant available to help you fund it. You’d be so impressed and delighted with getting the grant that you’d instantly book onto the course – or at least that was the plan.

BIG PROBLEM!

The grant which we were going to help you access has been way too popular and so the people allocating it have told us – “no more referrals”. That means even if you were eligible for the grant you wouldn’t be able to get it in time for the course.

That leaves us in a slightly tricky position because the course starts on Thursday 10th September 2009 and we still have places to fill. Plus Patrick White (who presents it) only just got back from running a course in Dubai, so until now we haven’t been able to get our heads together to think about what to do.

This is what we came up with: a ‘Shameless Bribe’.

It’s a voucher for £250+VAT and you’ll find it below. We didn’t have time to make it look pretty, but it does what it’s supposed to.

You can use the voucher for ANY of our services – the Business Growth Course, in-house training, one-to-one coaching or mentoring, consultancy – anything you like (you’ll find a list below showing what we do).

If you want to do the Business Growth Course (have a look at www.businessgrowthcourse.com) – you can ALSO pay using our payment plan which means you can pay it off over six months.

This voucher is being released at 10.30am on Tuesday 25th August 2009 after the webinar, and it is going to be offered to everyone who’s on our email list, so places are going to sell-out pretty quickly plus we might get fully booked-up with training courses, one-to-one coaching sessions and so on.

For this reason (and so we don’t bankrupt ourselves by giving too much away) the voucher is only valid for bookings made in the next 7 days.

Hannah McNamara

This means if you want to book the SME Academy for courses, training, away-days with your team, coaching sessions, consultancy or advice and you want it to happen sometime over the next few weeks/months you need to tell us by phone or email me as soon as you possibly can.

Have a look at the voucher (below) and as soon as you know what you want to spend it on give us a ring on 020 7939 9910, fill in the form below the voucher or email me at info@smeacademy.co.uk.

I look forward to hearing from you soon,

Hannah McNamara – Director, SME Academy

Fill in your details below to express your interest in taking up this offer – we will get back to you within 1 working day.

Recession: Sales Problem or Growth Opportunity?

Watch video about this event

Free seminar delivered live via your computer
Time: 9.30-10.30am
Date: Tuesday 25th August 2009
Can’t make it? Don’t worry. A recording will be available if you are unable to attend.

Right now a certain kind of small business is thriving. While their competitors scratch around for sales leads and a magic bullet to solve their short-term cash-flow problems, these canny businesses are systematically building solid foundations for growth – often flying completely under the radar of their competitors.

Find out more about what makes these businesses grow in a recession and what you can do to make immediate changes in the way you run your business.

Hannah McNamara

====> Click play to hear a message from Hannah McNamara (right)

Audio lasts approx 1 minute

Join Patrick White and Hannah McNamara as they show you how to maximise the opportunities for growth in a recession

Topics covered:

• Why your business plan is useless and could be damaging your chances of increasing turnover and profitability
• How to weigh-up short-term gain against long-term growth
• Exactly what to look for when prospecting for business – you could get a MUCH better conversion with certain sections of the market, we’ll show you how
• Why you need to watch your back now more than ever before – while you focus on new leads, your competitors are getting ready to poach your most loyal customers
• How to turn your customers’ fear of recession into a selling tool

Patrick White will be previewing material from his forthcoming Business Growth Course starting on Thursday 10th September, which is also available as a home-study course.

Register now to receive details on how to attend this seminar.

About Patrick White

Dr Patrick White

Dr Patrick White is a Consultant and Trainer specializing in Business Strategy, Business Finance, Marketing Management and Organizational Behaviour.Initially qualifying as an accountant, he then obtained his Master of Finance and subsequently his Master of Business Administration (Marketing Major) In 2000 he completed his PhD which was focused on Business Strategy and Leadership. Mr White is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (New Zealand).

After a successful international corporate career in a variety of industries across 13 countries with responsibilities for up to 14,000 staff he then went on to become a serial entrepreneur owning businesses in the hospitality, retail, IT and food and beverage industries. His last business covered fuel and oil distribution and had a turnover of $US 2 billion and 600 staff.

For the last 12 years while owning the above businesses, he has also worked as a high level management consultant in various business sectors as well as an international public speaker and trainer on a variety of business and people management topics.

What people have said about Patrick White:

“Just setting aside time to focus properly on planning was a major benefit.”
Ian Cockburn, Managing Director, Rescue IT

“The right mix of practical working, listening and learning, and I felt it was truly value for money. The tools will be useful, and I have already scheduled regular review sessions into my diary to work on my business not in it. I will certainly recommend Patrick to all my business associates.”
Michael Gottlieb – The Smart Information Consultancy Ltd

“The course was great and I really appreciate all the work you did and the enthusiasm you generated which was a great inspiration and has spurred Belderbos Landscapes on to bigger and better things.”
Ed Belderbos – Belderbos Landscaping

“I found the Business Growth Course to be a valuable learning experience, particularly because of the flexibility of the course material to suit my individual needs, and also because of friendly and informal atmosphere that made for a comfortable learning environment that was rich with anecdotes and nuggets of shared experiences. The course content included some really useful tools and templates – all of which were of exceptional quality and will serve me well for years to come.”
Mark O’Brien, Head of Retail, Richard House Children’s Hospice

“The insightful presentations and workshops were led by friendly Aussie ‘serial entrepreneur’ Patrick White.”
Rebecca Parker – Into English Ltd, comments taken from her blog

http://intoenglish.blogspot.com/2007/11/seminar-report-business-link-win-win.html

Register now to receive details on how to attend this seminar.

Business Growth Course Sept – Oct 2009

The next Business Growth Course starts on 10th September 2009.

This course is designed for directors and owners of small businesses who are going through periods of change. It will give you the practical business knowledge you need to get through changes positively. All the course content is relevant whether you are growing, restructuring or rationalising.

For some people, recession is good for their business. For others, it causes uncertainty and worry. Either way, the Business Growth Course helps you to analyse what’s going on in your business right now and work out a plan for what to do next.

Topics covered:

• Goal Setting & Vision
• Diagnostics
• Business Strategy
• Marketing Strategy
• Business Planning (including Financial Planning & Forecasting)
• Project Management

Starts: Thursday 10th September 2009

Ends: Thursday 15th October 2009

Number of Group Workshop Sessions: 6

Number of Private Coaching Sessions: 2

Course Fees: £1,200+VAT

Funding Available? Yes – certain businesses qualify for a grant of up to £1,000 to help part-fund the course. Please contact us to find out how to access this grant.

You can find full details at Business Growth Course.

Marketing for Professional Services | Business Link

Thursday 9th July 2009 | Free Event

SME Academy’s Hannah McNamara will be presenting a one-day workshop on Marketing for Professional Services, hosted by Business Link London on Thursday 9th July. Read more

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