Online: Entrepreneurs’ Network Event – November 2020

Our free Entrepreneurs’ Network Event runs monthly and is aimed at Gloucestershire-based entrepreneurs and SMEs. Each month, we feature a different guest speaker and a change in theme.

These brilliant networking events offer a chance to gain valuable tips and insights from professionals and experts, and other start-ups and entrepreneurs.

You’ll connect and share skills, and hear about the support available to your new or growing business from Start and Grow Enterprise, University of Gloucestershire, and more.

This is an online event, held on Zoom. Get ready by Downloading Zoom to your computer. You’ll get an email to register and then a link to join the meeting. This online course involves exciting discussion, interaction, and practical activities with others in your shoes.

This Entrepreneurs’ Network Event is open to everyone. If you’re not already signed up with Start and Grow Enterprise, get your free ticket here.

Schedule

09.45am Enter Zoom waiting room

10.00am Event start time

10.20am Introduction to Start and Grow Enterprise

10.30am Guest talk

10.50am Q&A

11.00am Open networking & skills exchange

12.00pm Event closes

Details of this month’s speaker…

Steve Ackroyd is founder and Owner of The Job Guru, a recruitment business based in Gloucestershire and a co-founder of Taylormade Legal Recruitment, a specialist in the legal sector.

Starting out on your own is hard; going to school for the first time, first time staying away from home, leaving home, they are all times when our confidence is tested.  For many people starting a new business is more of a test of their confidence than anything that’s come before.

I am going to be talking about how I took the leap of self-belief and started my own business on a shoestring, in an extremely competitive and congested market and why it’s been more than worth it.

In today’s Covid affected market it’s easy to think now is not the time to start a business, but this could be a perfect time for you.  With the right support, a business that starts now could be stronger and more resilient than a business started in “easy” times.  Microsoft, IBM and AirBNB all started during a recession!

There are plenty of obstacles to starting and running your own business but they can all be overcome if you have the right mix of tenacity, belief, passion and support.  As a young business, I know how important the support of organisations such as Start and Grow Enterprise can be to help get a business off the ground successfully.  Now that I have experienced life as an entrepreneur I will never return to being an employee. This is a positive story, and your story can be a positive one too.

Entrepreneurs’ Network events are offered by Start and Grow Enterprise, a University of Gloucestershire project with funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Start and Grow Enterprise supports the growth of Gloucestershire-based entrepreneurs and start-ups (trading up to 3 years) through free training, events, networks and resources.