Start-Up Bootcamp: Review, Reflect, Create

This bootcamp will take place over the course of March, split into eight 2-hour sessions (2nd, 4th, 9th, 11th, 16th, 18th, 23rd, 25th March) 09:30 – 11:30. Attendees must be able to attend at least six of the sessions to be eligible.

Business is changing. We’re conducting so much more online with the increase in screen interactions and transactions and as a consequence, your perspectives will be shifting. What you professionally took for granted, might no longer be sustainable. So maybe it’s time to reflect on where you are, reframe your strategy and reinvent your business model to align with this new, post-lockdown world?

This online Business Bootcamp provides an ideal opportunity to do just that: reflect, reframe and reinvent. Designed for SMEs and Sole Traders across all sectors, who are new to business (trading less than 12 months). Perfect as well as for any person considering starting a new business instead of or alongside their current employment.

Split into manageable twice-weekly 2-hour workshops spread over a month, you will have the chance to review, plan and action what you have learnt between sessions allowing you to really monitor your progress alongside a group of peers.

After the month, you will feel confident that you have the tools to ensure your business is on track to commercial success. The sessions will be very interactive and participants will be encouraged to engage and share with one another to ensure learnings stick.

So, sign up to take some time out from working in your business and instead, focus on planning, developing and future-proofing your business.

The bootcamp will cover the following (please contact the team if you would like more detailed information):

• Session 1 – Mindset & resilience.
• Session 2 – Lean start-up modelling for those thinking of starting a business, launching a new product or who may wish to start a spin off business.
• Session 3 – Finance and funding, the basics.
• Session 4 – Reviewing, developing and testing your value proposition.
• Session 5 – Experiment design/hypothesis and live testing.
• Session 6 – Developing your pitch.
• Session 7 – Marketing on a shoestring.
• Session 8 – Accountability, moving forward and creation of your two-week boost plan.

Introduction to the Delivery Partner

Ruby Star Associates help businesses, social enterprises and charities of all shapes and sizes grow, build accountable teams, generate more income, and innovate. We help leaders free up their time, surround themselves with brilliance and focus on the stuff that really matters. We are all about enterprise, entrepreneurship and making a massive difference.

Simon Calderbank, the Ruby Star Associate delivering this bootcamp, is an expert in behavioural psychology, elite performance development and developing growth mind-set. He is an experienced facilitator, trainer and coach and has great experience and knowledge in helping people and their start-up businesses, given he runs his own! He also helped develop and delivered our inaugural online Business Bootcamp in May and another in November 2020, to great acclaim from both delegates and business coaches.

Who can attend?

You need to be registered, or be eligible to register, on the ERDF-funded Cheshire and Warrington Business Growth Programme. To be eligible you must be:

• Small – your business must be an SME. An SME has under 250 staff, turnover of £45 million and any ownership by a wider commercial group is below 25%. You may also be a pre-start business.
• Local – your business address (registered or trading) or home address is within the Cheshire East, the Cheshire West and Chester, or the Warrington council areas.
• Able to commit to receiving 12 hours of support through our workshops and 1:1s before September 2021, and must not have achieved over 6 hours of support already.
• For this bootcamp you must be new to business or facing significant need to change or adapt your business. You must be able to attend at least 6 out of the 8 sessions.

You need to be registered, or be eligible to register, on the ERDF-funded Cheshire and Warrington Business Growth Programme and have received less than 6 hours of support already. To be eligible you must be:

Please contact us to discuss the support if you're unsure bgp_team@chester.ac.uk, 01244 512 655.

How to join the workshop

Once you have registered your interest through Eventbrite, a member of the team will be in contact to confirm your eligibility and place on the workshop. You will then be provided with a link to join the sessions via Zoom. If you have not used Zoom before, try downloading and testing it out beforehand. Here is a link to some tutorials if you struggle or you can email us bgp_team@chester.ac.uk.

Photography

Photographs and/or recording will take place throughout the events advertised above. The images will be used for publicity or other purposes to help achieve the UoC ERDF Funded C&W Business Growth Programme aims. This might include (but is not limited to), use in their printed and online publicity, social media, press releases and funding applications. If you do not wish to be photographed or filmed, please speak to a member of the Business Growth Programme Team when you join the event.