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With summer upon us, and festival season beginning, we held our own. The Festival of Enterprise brought together over 300 Greater Manchester entrepreneurs to talk about all things related to starting, owning and operating a business. Attendees also had the chance to visit a vibrant marketplace with 25 stalls run by other GM based businesses, from a maker of down sleeping bags to a Mexican coffee importer. Alongside the stalls, we enjoyed live music from local bands and DJ throughout the day.

We heard from individual speakers and panel discussions, with side conversations and even a free photo booth! The panels covered topics like how to use AI in your business and mindful leadership - how to look after your team, and of importance to every new business, how to navigate the financial world from start up to raising capital. All vital to any business, but that was not all!

Away from the main stage, there was a lot going on. An important element of our work involves collaboration with GM Local Authorities, who had a dedicated spotlight area where attendees could engage with them about the support available to them in their local area. The high-energy pitching corner was bustling with entrepreneurs lining up to pitch and present their businesses.

In addition, there were representatives from the Federation of Small Businesses, Business Compliance Support, BIPC Manchester Libraries and local universities exhibiting and engaging with delegates. Attendees gained insights into the fully-funded support available from the GM Business Growth Hub to fuel the growth of their businesses, with people from GC Business Finance & Start-Up Loans, GM Business Growth Hub - Business Development and from Access to Finance.

All in all, a true celebration of entrepreneurship and encouragement for those looking to take that leap within a unique festival vibe.

One of the panel discussions was focused on the work of the EnterprisingYou programme, which quite a few of those at the event had the benefit of experiencing. The panel was a lively and interesting discussion and Tsitsi Mtasa of Wisterias Care Software was a panel member.

You can always find somebody. You can text them whatever you want. I was fortunate enough to find an advisor to be able to help me. Shout out to Julian Guest and all these fantastic helpers. He's been my motivator, he's been somebody that knew what I wanted to achieve, understood the vision of the business. And he really excelled.

Tsitsi Mtasa, Founder, Wisterias Care 

After the lunch break, attention turned to short but insightful presentations by successful individuals their journey to success with the audience. They provided practical insights that the attendees were paying close attention to! We heard from Gordon Ker of Blacklock and Karl Considine of LoveFrom as well as others.

Judging by the number of people that engaged for the whole day, there was clearly a lot of people interested in starting or taking their business further!

The Festival was a great success, and we are pleased to continue supporting Greater Manchester entrepreneurs with:

  • Access to a wide range of workshops to upskill from marketing and sales to business planning and more
  • Practical guidance on managing finances
  • Resources to support overall wellbeing
  • Help to boost confidence to expand and grow their businesses

Lucy Wilkison of Louby Lou Ltd (Children’s entertainer and EnterprisingYou client) enjoyed making delegates smile and summed up the message of the event well:

Just don't overthink it, just go for it. Opportunities are just everywhere.

About the event, Yvonne Sampson, Head of Enterprise at Business Growth Hub told us:

“We’ve supported over 4000 entrepreneurs and small businesses across Greater Manchester since 2020 and the Festival of Enterprise was a fantastic celebration of this.”

“I’ve been a small business owner myself, and it fills me with hope and ambition to see so many amazing people and businesses coming out to show what they can do. It was brilliant to meet and engage with them and to hear all about why they set up their businesses and how passionate they are."

Self-employed people make up 10% of the UK workforce, but it can feel very lonely. Today was an excellent way to bring people together, connect and celebrate.”

Yvonne Sampson, Head of Enterprise, GM Business Growth Hub 

If you're ready to take the next step and transform your passion into a livelihood, or if you've already done the hard work of setting up a business and you're eager to go even further, you don't have to do it alone.

EnterprisingYou is FREE to access. Contact our team today to find out how we can support you.

Get in touch

Please contact us at 0161 3593050 or query below.

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“I’ve been a small business owner myself, and it fills me with hope and ambition to see so many amazing people and businesses coming out to show what they can do. It was brilliant to meet and engage with them and to hear all about why they set up their businesses and how passionate they are."