StartUp Saturday launches in Birmingham
As published on Enterprise Nation
Enterprise Nation community member Rickie Josen became our first StartUp Saturday franchisee on Saturday 22nd September, taking a class for new business owners in Hotel La Tour, Birmingham. Here’s her account of the day.
| The first StartUp Saturday outside Birmingham arrived with seven intrepid business people making their way to the Hotel La Tour to ‘start their business in a day’, writes Rickie (left). The attendees were a mix of those who have already started their business and were looking for direction, and those who want to start but don’t know what they want to do! It was great to see a variety of industries featured, too, from design to copywriting and a very motivated accessories designer who had already thought about trademarks and copyright. |
The other large issue bought up was the use of social media - ‘Really, just how does Twitter help my business?’ This sparked a great debate and many positive examples were then discussed.As Laura, who is starting a ceramics business, said: “Meeting other local start-ups was really great. And you really convinced me to get going with the social media networking!”Selling is always a big topic at any small business workshop and Birmingham’s first StartUp Saturday group were keen to know how a start-up gains business. Several sales ideas were talked about before we got to looking at tips on making effective sales calls.Another attendee, Colleen, remarked: “I came out feeling more confident and excited about my business idea. I loved the informal open discussion format of the workshop.”All that remains now is to put some more dates in the diary for regular StartUp Saturdays and get some more businesses started!Rickie Josen is a writer, trainer and co-working enthusiast who writes regularly for Enterprise Nation and will be running more StartUp Saturday classes in Birmingham in the coming months. You can read her short bio and all her posts on her contributor page.Find out about online business workshops here