Peer support for Sheffield small business owners @HarlandWorks

Do you run a small business?

Do you find you need to wear a multitude of different hats to make your business work?

Do you have a network of people like you you can turn to for advice when you need it?

Spaceworks @HarlandWorks is a shared office space for people running businesses who like the access to the flexible work and meeting space Spaceworks offers. Most of us juggle many different roles to make our business(es) work, and, as we’re not experts in everything (much as we’d like to be!), it’s good to be able to tap into someone else’s expertise sometimes.

This effect is borne out by research which suggests that better networked business owners run more successful businesses. Why?  Because nobody knows everything – so having a network increases the odds that someone you know, knows a ‘man/woman who does’.

To develop the way we support each other we’re experimenting with setting up a Spaceworks ‘Action Learning Set’ for business owners.  More information on action learning sets is available via this link.

Our plan is to have an initial introductory session on 20^th May to explore the idea - and then sign up 8 business owners to work with a specialist facilitator for 6 meetings between June - Dec 2013.

4 of us have already signed up. We include a social media whizz, someone who has successfully built up a waiting list for a course programme and someone who has successfully negotiated loan funding for business growth in the last 12 months.  We also include among us though, someone who needs to learn about delegating to enable business growth, someone who needs to get better at selling, and someone who needs to learn how to say ‘no’ to clients to improve profitability. So, we feel confident there are lots of ways our businesses could benefit from this group.

To run the group we think we need 8 people, so we’re looking for 4 more. Could one of them be you?

If you’d like to find out more please get in touch to register your interest. Everyone will be then be invited to join us at our initial meeting where we’ll meet our facilitator, hear a bit more about how Action Learning Sets work, and discuss costs and session timings. This meeting will be on Monday 20^th May at 6.30 pm at Spaceworks (in Harland Works, John St).