NatWest's Setting up for Success Series

The Setting up for Success series is a series of 6 workshops that will make your business ready to excel in areas such as :

• Crafting a compelling pitch that captivates investors and secures funding.
• Understanding your target audience inside out, enabling you to tailor your offerings for maximum impact.
• Strengthening your financial foundation and learn how to manage your resources wisely.
• Developing a crystal-clear vision for your start-up and set achievable goals that propel you forward.
• Exploring effective strategies to expand your market reach and establish your dominance.

The Presenter: Stewart Smith

Stewart Smith is the Local Enterprise Manager at NatWest for North and West London and surrounding areas. In his role Stewart works as a local connector for SMEs working with local communities to support entrepreneurs and businesses develop and grow.

Stewart has more than 22 years of experience of working in the banking and finance sector. He also has a Professional Banker Certificate from the Chartered Banker Institute.

Workshop 1 : The Power of Mindset , 21 May 2024, 9:30am-3pm

In this session, we'll explore what we mean by mindset, and why it’s important. And we'll look at how you can understand your own mindset better.

In the first workshop, we’ll dive into the meaning of mindset. We'll look at research done by world-renowned professor of psychology Carol Dweck. And we'll see how her studies have sparked the use of 'growth mindset' techniques across many industries.

• The Importance of Mindset
• Growth vs Fixed Mindset
• Understanding your own Mindset
• The Inner Critic
• Developing a positive, powerful, growth mindset

Workshop 2 : Perfecting your 60 second pitch, 28 May, 2024, 10am-12pm

Need to raise investment for your business? Or introduce yourself at a networking event?

You’ve probably already heard people say that you only get one chance to make a first impression, which is why pitching is so important. Learning to pitch well could make you better at presenting, influencing people and developing your network.

A solid pitch is an essential tool for achieving your goals. During the session we’ll showcase the art of 60-second pitching and explore the three key elements that make for a perfect pitch: content, structure, and delivery.

We’ll look at how these parts all come together to help you create a great 60-second pitch that’ll grab the attention of everyone in the room.

• The importance of a 60 second pitch
• Content Rules
• Building a solid pitch structure
• Key techniques for pitch delivery

Workshop 3 : Understanding your customer, 4 June, 2024, 10am-12pm

During this workshop we’re going to start by setting the scene and understanding what customer discovery is, and why it’s important for your business; using the customer/ client development model to demonstrate the different steps of building a repeatable, scalable business model.

We will also explore some key methods used to capture valuable insights from your customers. You will have the opportunity to consider what insights you need to gather from your customer segments, how you might do this and who you need to speak to.

We also highlight some of the common pitfalls of customer discovery and explore some effective questioning techniques, to help you gain honest and accurate insights from your customers, to drive your business forward in the right direction.

• What is Customer Discovery
• Solving Customer needs creatively.
• Customer Personas
• Customer Validation Techniques

Workshop 4: Understanding your finances, 11 June, 2024, 10am-12pm

During this workshop we’ll show you how to use your business model to assess the financial viability of your business. We’ll also introduce some handy tools to help you understand and manage your finances. – Supported by a local accountant

• Planning your way to financial success or failure
• Finance stories
• More tools you can use – Key financial statements.
• Building Financial Resilience
• Balance Sheets
• Profit and Loss
• Financial forecasts

Workshop 5 : Reaching new markets, 25 June, 2024, 10am-12pm

To grow a business, you need to understand your customers and their behaviours to create and offer a solution that they need. During this session we will explore how you can identify your customers, analyse the marketplace, learn more about your customer habits, and think about what you need to consider if you want to spot new opportunities within your business sector to increase your market share.

Join us for an interactive session to learn more about why it’s important to identify your ideal customer and learn how you can attract them.

To navigate an everchanging marketplace and the demands of consumers it’s important we know how to react, engage, and ensure our business remains relevant.

This session will cover:

• Business Model Canvas – brief
• Finding the ‘Sweet Spot’

• Understanding existing customers
• Analysing consumer habits
• Marketplace trends
• Identifying new opportunities
• Value Elements
• Identifying the right markets

Workshop 6 : Visioning and Goal Setting, 2 July, 2024, 10am-12pm

Without a clear destination, how do you know where you are going? Having a clear vision of the future provides a sense of purpose and direction for your business. In this workshop we’ll introduce you to a technique called Visioning, helping you to paint a clear picture of the ideal future to give you the clarity and focus to get there.

During the workshop we will also help you set your goals of the back of setting your vision.

Goal setting is a great way of deciding where you want to take your business and planning how to get there. It can also give you the inspiration to turn your vision into a reality.

• What is Visioning?
• Why is it important?
• Setting Measurable Goals
• Success Measurement