New year workshops for small businesses

BUSINESS Gateway Argyll and Bute is encouraging business owners to take advantage of free business skills workshops in Lochgilphead, Inveraray and Campbeltown over the coming weeks.

Anyone thinking about starting their own business should sign up for the ‘Business Start-up’ workshop on February 7 and 8 in Lochgilphead to help develop their ideas into a practical and effective plan.

Run by an experienced Business Gateway adviser, the one-and-a-half day workshop covers market- ing, planning and finance.

Business owners wanting to improve their current marketing activity should attend the ‘Marketing your Business’ workshop in Inveraray on February 8.

This will help review the impact of current activity, better understand markets, customers and competitors, strengthen your unique selling points and develop the right marketing mix for your goals and budget.

This workshop will be delivered for Business Gateway by Alistair Kennedy of Lornal Ltd.

Alistair has more than 30 years of experience in domestic and export markets and runs his own consultancy.

Aimed at those new to marketing their business, a ‘Reaching More Customers’ workshop will be held in Inveraray on February 16.

Marketing

This one-day workshop gives a practical insight into basic marketing tactics, including setting your pricing, choosing where to sell, how to reach your customers and how to make an impact at trade fairs and events.

This workshop will be delivered for Business Gateway by Jack Redpath of Redpath Marketing. Jack is a chartered marketer who enjoys working with small businesses to help them develop marketing skills.

The ‘Pricing for Profit’ course in Inveraray on February 22 is aimed at anyone wanting to improve their business profitability.

It covers the range of pricing strategies available, how to review costs, identify true break-even points and how to manage profitability. This trainer for the workshop is Alistair Kennedy.

Running in Campbeltown on February 22 is the popular half-day ‘Practical Basic Book keeping’ workshop.

Those new to business and with little or no formal training in book-keeping will particularly benefit from this workshop, which covers the starting point for good record-keeping and understanding financial information.

To book a place or to find out more about the full range of workshops, contact the Business Gateway team on 01546 604555 or email business.gateway@argyll-bute.gov.uk.