Learn how to improve the performance and resilience of your business by joining a growing number of business leaders taking part in the Help to Grow: Management Course. The course is 90% funded, so the cost is only £750 per person!

This practical course offers 1-1 support from a business mentor, peer learning sessions and help in developing a business growth plan. It focuses on giving you the tools to improve performance across a range of key areas, including strategy, innovation, financial management, marketing, employee engagement and digital adoption.

The Onboarding session for the next course is this Monday 15^th April – online from 2pm to 3.30pm. For further details and to book click here

Business Growth West Midlands host a series of free  webinars. Full deals can be accessed via the link here

Some coming up later this month include

Writing Website Content to Rank Well In Google

25th April  10am – 11.30am

Wondering how to ensure your website shows up on Google? Join our webinar and learn how to write content that gets noticed! In this insightful session, you will discover the essential techniques for identifying customer-searched keywords and using them to maximise your web pages for top-ranking positions on Google. For more information and to book a place please click here

Social Media Essentials.

29th April   2pm - 3.30pm

A webinar focusing on Instagram essentials for businesses in the West Midlands. Despite its reputation as a photo-sharing app, Instagram offers numerous opportunities for businesses to connect with their audience and boost sales. In this session, we'll break down the key features of Instagram and show you how to make the most of them for your business. For more information and to book a place please click here

Join the Wolverhampton Creative Chain for an inspiring and informative session with Mitch Lane of MealsbyMitch, a TikTok sensation from Wolverhampton, renowned for his captivating content on creating low-cost meals. This event, aimed at marketing professionals, small business owners, aspiring influencers, and local community members from the Black Country, is designed to ignite your TikTok journey, irrespective of your prior experience with the platform. Attendees will leave the event with a deeper understanding of TikTok’s impact and how it can be leveraged for personal and business growth.

25th April

10am - 12 noon

Wolverhampton Science Park

For further details and to book a place click here

The Creative Chain is all about building an ecosystem for creative business owners to increase collaboration in the city and enable public and private sector organisations to keep their marketing and advertising spend local.

They aim to empower the creative community, support top creative talent and create jobs putting Wolverhampton on the map.

This programme run through Performance Through People has been launched to prepare young people for the world of work and help them land apprenticeships that pay at least the national minimum or living wage.

The ask of businesses in the first instance is for information on any vacancies you have in any of the following sector:

• Administrative, customer service, IT, HR or other business related roles.
• Care or care related roles.
• Warehouse/logistics or related roles
• Engineering or manufacturing and related roles

The programme could help with support to recruiting for these positions - they will advertise for you, vet applicants and match to your vacancy for you to interview and run a work trial before you commit to progressing with the applicant. If you can help or want to have a further discussion, contact:

01922 651100 or email maureenb@ptp-training.co.uk or paul.smith@ptp-training.co.uk

Made Smarter has launched a £1.9 million digital adoption push to drive growth in West Midlands manufacturing and engineering small and medium businesses and help them boost productivity.

Digital experts will provide advice to manufacturing businesses on how to switch to advanced and automated technologies as well as working to improve employees’ overall digital skills.

With up to 30 hours of prescriptive learning, you’ll be able to transform your business, enhance value creation, create efficiencies and engage your employees to deliver better results. With the Made Smarter leadership skills training, it will help you discover new and innovative ways of developing and managing your people.

For more details click here

Whatever your knowledge of VAT may be, take advantage of HMRC's online support for the latest information – including the following live webinars

VAT - using the Flat Rate scheme

16th April 9.45am

For more information and to book a place click here 

VAT - The basics and the VAT return

17th April 9.45am

For more information and to book a place click here

You can also choose from a selection of short videos on the Registering for and paying VAT - You Tube playlist – available on HMRC’s YouTube channel