Bridging the Gap – Business Support & SMEs – Tools & Communities for SMEs

SME Business owners need our support now more than ever. This won’t be news to you, but what solutions/services are out there to help?

Whether you work in a Local Authority, Local Enterprise Partnership, Business Improvement District, Chamber of Commerce, Accountancy firm or any other organisation that helps small/medium-sized business owners, this event is for you.

What will you get from this free online event?

1) Insights into cost-effective tools that aid SME growth.

2) Tips from knowledge experts sharing experiences and current business needs that need resolving.

3) A new network of like-minded people looking to add value to their regions through great, affordable business support.

4) Links to alternative tools, communities and resources (paid & free) that help SME growth.

Rich Burn from WSX Enterprise will host the session and explore resources, tools & communities that aim to help SMEs flourish. Rich has worked in Dorset Growth Hub for over 8 years and also designed and implemented business support projects across the South Coast. In this time he has explored many resources & tools to help deliver support to SMEs. This new series aims to explore those that really have helped and been seen first-hand by Rich in his capacity as a business support specialist.

Rich will explore cost-effective solutions that support organisations can consider as part of a suite of resources for SMEs. He’ll invite in trusted guests who deliver valuable, cost-effective, and perhaps alternative services to small/medium-sized business owners

In this first episode, Rich will have guests Mark Masters from You Are The Media and Peter Ibbetson from Journolink. They will focus on marketing as a growth tool. Rich will also discuss and showcase other resources that help SMEs with marketing as a growth tactic.

Rich will be talking to his guests about what challenges they see at the moment with SMEs and how their resources amongst others are aiming to help solve some of the challenges they face. This will help you to explore new ideas that may help with your business support portfolio.

They will discuss;

Peter Ibbetson – Journolink

1. Time prioritisation

Businesses tend to focus on the day’s immediate needs….getting out invoices and chasing for payment, getting VAT returns in, email responses etc. The more strategic issues are left for the next day, and marketing planning is one.

2. Education

We avoid those areas that we don’t immediately understand. PR is one of those, yet critical to any marketing strategy and sales growth. JournoLink removes the ‘Dark Art’ barrier and makes things easy and straightforward, as well as providing a whole series of support articles and webinars to remove the ‘mist’.

3. Cost

Every penny counts nowadays in a small business budget. The technology that Journolink has invested in building means that businesses can run effective PR strategies costing them less than a daily cup of coffee, and without long-term tie-ins. ‘Affordability’ has been the JournoLink key work ever since the platform launched in 2014.

Mark Masters – You Are The Media (YATM)

4. You are not alone!

The belief that people have to create content on their own and rely on the algorithm to be seen online.

What YATM does is help build a community where others are familiar with each other and feels easier to give each other a ‘lift up’. Whether you are in Dorset or New York, YATM brings like- minded people together through content, events and training to help them grow.

5. Building an audience

YATM helps others by either working together or sharing ideas (YATM weekly newsletter) for what it takes today to build something where you are not 100% reliant on social media. YATM explores how a business owner can build their own voice and create a community that engages and purchases their services.

6. Attention

YATM helps people and businesses realise that it’s about finding our voice and being consistent that helps to gain the attention of others and then to target the right people