Growing Your Own Business event

This summer, business owners are invited to attend The British Franchise Exhibition at Manchester’s EventCity on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th June, to take advantage of the new workshops facilitated by successful entrepreneurs.

Showcasing for the first time this year, the ‘Growing Your Own Business’ workshops and seminars will give key insight into developing and sustaining a successful business.

Welcoming speakers from a range of industry sectors, the workshops will cover everything from using social media to promote your business, to raising finance through crowdfunding. Making this event a must-attend, the extensive programme will provide an invaluable opportunity to hear experts give advice on hot topics such as SEO, PR, creative marketing and sales growth.

This year’s exciting line-up includes Joshua Cook, Managing Director at Zeven Media, who recently gained the backing of Deborah Meaden after appearing on the BBC’s Dragon’s Den; and Helen Lawson and Sophia Lucop-Leech, who started up their company Inspired Goodbyes with the help of Business Growth Hub.

Helen Lawson and Sophia Lucop-Leech, both Directors at Inspired Goodbyes, will be delivering their keynote speech on Saturday June 20th at 12:15pm, talking about how their personal tragedy inspired them to start a business. Helen comments: “Inspired Goodbyes is a small company that produces unique and innovative bereavement cards and gifts. We launched in January 2014 from Sophia’s dining room table after we both had personal experience of bereavement. People can be afraid to talk to you when you’ve just lost someone you love and cards that say ‘with sympathy’ don’t really say anything at all. We wanted to improve the choice of cards and gifts for people to give to better support people through grief.”

Within just three months, the pair went from just one complete product, to launching a range of 24 cards and four pieces of jewellery.

Sophia explains: “Key to our success has been having a unique idea, being confident about our products, and approaching different market sectors – we sell to the consumer, the retail trade and to funeral directors.”

Their keynote will not only look at the experiences that led the women to start the business, but will also detail how important planning and strategy is when bringing a new product to the market. Helen finishes: “Seeing a gap in the market is one thing, bringing your product to market is another. We want to show that although passion, excitement and enthusiasm is crucial so too is sound thinking and solid business basics.”

Joshua Cook, co-founder and Managing Director of Zeven Media will also be advising visitors on how to start a business from scratch. His keynote ‘Kickstarting your business to success’ will take place on Friday June 19th at 12.15pm.

Guests are able to visit www.franchiseinfo.co.uk for more information on the ‘Growing Your Own Business’ workshops and seminars incorporated in The British Franchise Exhibition.

Visitors can gain free entry by registering online at www.franchisetickets.co.uk and entering the promotional code FMG3 (saving £10). Follow the event on Twitter @UKFranchising, Like the Franchiseinfo page on Facebook and join The Franchise Exhibitions on LinkedIn for more updates.