Hounslow Business News

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October 2024

Advance for Growth competition closing tomorrow

Time is ticking away to enter the Advance For Growth competition. The closing date is this Friday, 18 October 2024 at 5pm.

Launched by Hounslow Council, in partnership with JCDecaux and West London Chambers of Chamber, the competition is designed to find and support aspiring Hounslow businesses, providing a platform for growth and success.

The unique prize package includes: 

• DOOH advertising campaigns to run throughout 2025 on the Council’s and JCDecaux’s digital estate across the borough
• Creative advice, campaign planning, audience insight and campaign research from JCDecaux
• Post 2025, for a period of 12 months, JCDecaux will value match any cash investment from the winning entrant on DOOH booked through JCDecaux
• One-year one-to-one business mentoring and support from Hounslow Council
• One-year free subscription to West London Chambers of Commerce and front cover feature on their magazine” Let’s Talk Business”

Previous winners include Hang and Wild Chai who each made fantastic use of their prize of Out-of-Home advertising and tailored business guidance.

For more information and to apply, visit https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/advanceforgrowth

Winners will be announced at the West London Chambers of Commerce Business Awards on 21 November 2024.

Upskill in Retrofit through Hounslow’s Green Skills Bootcamps

Two new green skills bootcamps designed to help employed people from large organisations upskill in Retrofit are open for registration. The courses, that are 70% funded by the GLA, are being delivered by the London Borough of Hounslow and the Retrofit Academy CIC. Businesses interested to upskill their employees into a new retrofit roles or responsibilities are encouraged to apply to the following bootcamp courses:

• Combined Domestic Energy Assessor and Retrofit Assessor (Level 4)
• Retrofit Coordinator (Level 5)

Eligibility of Employer:

• Organisations with 250+ employees
• Must be able to demonstrate positive impact for employee or the organisation at the end of training (offer of new job, increased responsibility, increased opportunities or contracts for company)

Eligibility of employee:

• Aged 19+ and has the right to work in the UK
• Be employed
• Residents living in Hounslow and West London Boroughs will be prioritised.

Contact info@retrofitacademy.org for more details.

FREE Digital Support For Your Business

London Business Partnership are delivering a FREE programme of support to businesses in Hounslow and West London, thanks to funding from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

This programme of support is designed to help small businesses expand online, and ensure they are fit for the modern digital economy.

It teaches:

• How to turn social media likes and follows into customers and revenue
• What SEO is, and how it can help to generate new business for you
• Effective strategies for your email marketing campaigns

The support is delivered through in-person training sessions with experienced digital experts, and group learning webinars with lively Q&A discussions.

To register for this FREE programme of support, simply click this link and fill in the form.

For enquiries and questions, please email info@londonbp.co.uk

Delivering your pitch

Pitching is the act of presenting an idea to an audience in a persuasive way. In this session we are going to concentrate on delivering your investor pitch. To show you how to persuade others to invest with you.

Pitching may feel daunting, but the skills you develop through the process will be invaluable.

Join us on this session to learn the best practices for delivering a persuasive investment pitch presentation. Take your fundraising pitch from good to great by enhancing your pitching skills.

This interactive workshop will focus on delivering your pitch deck, we will go through all the essential ingredients to pitch successfully.

We will cover:

• Turning your pitch into a compelling story
• The art of a great pitch delivery
• How to create an emotional response
• Creating a powerful elevator pitch
• How to share your proposition with passion & purpose
• Take your fundraising pitch from good to great
• Calming your nerves and how to build your confidence.

This is a must for anyone who wants to win investment funding.

Have your say on pharmacy services

The Council wants to hear how people access and use pharmacy services to help make improvements in the future. If you have employees who work irregular shifts patterns, this may be of particular interest to them.

The responses will help inform the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) which will look at health needs in Hounslow, the level and accessibility of pharmacy services, and how these will be maintained and developed in the future.

The questionnaire should take no longer than five minutes to complete and the information provided is confidential.

Female Entrepreneurship Programme

Starting and growing a business is a rewarding challenge as there is so much to learn. This webinar is designed to show you how to get started quickly without wasting time, resources and money.

This series is specifically aimed at female entrepreneurs.

Join us for this live workshop and learn how to prepare your business to be funding ready is a fundamental step in your business growth. In this session we tell you exactly what you need to do to get ready. In this session we will help you:

• Understand the funding landscape
• Understand the types of funding available
• Discover the best financing alternatives tailored to your business needs
• Get a breakdown of each of the major funding options
• Learn how to get your numbers together without breaking a sweat
• Develop a sales forecast for the upcoming 12, 24, and 36 months
• Gain proficiency in understanding your numbers like an investor will

Landlines going digital 

Landlines in the UK are going digital by 2025. It’s likely that this change will affect anything that currently plugs into the existing analogue telephone wall sockets. This includes any equipment that you may provide to clients and customers or equipment they purchase to utilise the services you offer.

Now would be a great time to take an inventory of what you use in your offices and which products and services you provide to your clients and customers and check to see if they’ll work, when lines migrate from analogue to digital. 

Have you got a story you would like to share with local businesses, or are you a business that wants to share your news? Get in touch with us today! Email towncentre.management@hounslow.gov.uk 

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