An event helping businesses move to the next stage of growth

The independent Scale-Up Report on UK Economic Growth 2014 identified five key barriers that businesses must conquer if they are going to achieve their growth ambitions. Together with ICAEW, Enterprise Nation will deliver this one day event that will help you as a business overcome these barriers:

• Finding employees to hire who have the skills your business needs
• Building your leadership capability
• Accessing customers in other markets/home market
• Accessing the right combination of finance
• Navigating infrastructure

ScaleUp 2017 will hear from entrepreneurs who've been there and done it and experts who can take your business to the next level. There will also be a chance to hear from Enterprise Nation founder Emma Jones MBE, the government’s SME crown representative.

Full programme

09:00: Registration and refreshments

09.30: Introduction and welcome

Emma Jones MBE, founder, Enterprise Nation, business expert, author and the government's SME crown representative and Matthew Rideout, director, Business, ICAEW

09.45: How to recruit the best staff and keep them

Pip Jamieson, founder, The Dots

Pip believes that entrepreneurs and SMEs etc are on a rollercoaster of highs and lows and one of the tricks for weathering the hard times is to hire happy, positive, people who naturally focus on creative ideas, solutions and not blame. It’s an inherent characteristic that you can’t really teach which leads to a very productive working environment.

10.15: Making London the best city in the world to scale up a business

Rajesh Agrawal, Deputy Mayor of London for Business

Rajesh Agrawal is passionate about promoting entrepreneurship, creating opportunities for young people and growing businesses. He is a strong voice for London’s business community, protecting jobs and growth, and ensuring the capital remains the most open and attractive place to do business in the world.

10.45 Raising funds and building a new market leader

Giles Andrews OBE, co-Founder and chair, Zopa.com and chairman of MarketInvoice and Bethnal Green Ventures

Giles founded Zopa with the belief that a loan should be there to help you and not hold you back and an investment should be rewarding, but also ethical. He will show how you can raise funds and grow to become a market leader.

11.15: Morning coffee break

11.45: Accessing customers by building a brand

Shamil Thakrar, founder, Dishoom

Shamil Thakrar co-founded Dishoom in 2010. Dishoom now has four sites in London and one in Edinburgh and employs over 600 people. Before 2010, he had, amongst other things, been a management consultant for 5 years and worked in the food industry for 8 years. Shamil and the Dishoom team care enormously about creating beautiful and democratic shared spaces which pay homage to the old Irani Cafes of Bombay. They also care deeply about creating a company which is an awesome place to work.

Shamil describes how a strong focus on the Dishoom brand and the customer and staff experience is key in enabling the company to grow.

12.15: Show me the money!

Access to finance can be a route to growth. Hear from a panel of funders and an entrepreneur who crowdfunded £160,00 in 24 hours to explore your options and have your funding questions answered.

• Mike Turner, founder and managing director, Bluebird Tea Company
• Peter Shearing, regional director for small businesses S&E region, HSBC
• Sonia Chiu, Tech Growth, KPMG

13.00: Lunch

14.00: Selling to government: How thebigword has secured over £200m of contracts with the UK and US governments

Diane Cheesebrough, deputy chief executive of thebigword

Diane will share the story of Larry Gould. A true entrepreneur, Larry has grown his business every year and has always made a profit. He shows how companies need to reinvent themselves and innovate; he describes ways to cut costs by using technology, but still maintaining profits. He looks at the need to make that level of investment in order to offer the same level of service.

14.30: Thinking outside the box

Aynsley Damery, CEO, Tayabali Tomlin

Aynsley will show how chartered accountants can not only scale-up their own businesses / practices but can also help transform the lives of entrepreneurs, by providing clarity on numbers, financial models and the fundamental economics of their business in order to help them achieve sustainable growth, superior profits and a plan for exit.

15:00: Go global: Take your business to the world

There is no better time to be exploring new trade opportunities. Hear from an expert panel on how you can expand your business to other regions of the world.

• Jan van der Velde, founder, Kit for Kids
• Richard Corbett, founder, Eyetease
• Ed Pikett, digital director, Department for International Trade
• Kiel Harkness, marketing director, UPS

15.45: Grab a coffee!

15.55: Scale-up in 2017!

• Irene Graham, CEO, ScaleUp Institute
• Doug Monro, co-founder, Adzuna

16:25 Networking Drinks

About Enterprise Nation

Join Enterprise Nation from just £4 per month or £36 annually and get 25% off this event! In addition, get 25% off all of our other events, free telephone consultations with up to three advisers on the Enterprise Nation marketplace, weekly business masterclass and lots more! Select the 'plus membership' ticket below and you’ll automatically get 25% off this event.