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Getting started with your sales strategy

    Your idea becomes a business once you have those first customers and cash flow. It sounds simple, but in reality there are many complexities to defining how you will draw in customers, retain their loyalty and continue producing profit. In this session you can get to grips with the essential early decisions needed to set out how much it will cost to deliver your products and services, how to determine what price to charge and how to keep people coming back for more. And importantly, we will discuss how you can do all of this with heart and the social impact front and centre.

    You will hear from the 2020 winner of The Small Awards’ Bricks and Clicks category, MODO Creative who have experimented and evolved an impressive multi-channel sales strategy.

    MODO Creative also focus on the idea that a money-making business can also be community-forging and impactful. They will discuss how you might consider independent makers, designers and services to pass on sales further down the supply chain and keep them retained within the small business community.

    Karen Campbell from The Small Awards will be on hand to outline some tips and best practice as well as moderating the interview.

    Though you may be starting small at the beginning, join us to learn about some clever ways to cultivate a winning customer experience for your walk-in and online audience.

Speakers

Karen Campbell

Small Business Saturday

Emma and Andrew Tucker

Founders of MODO Creative

More Events

In conversation with Louisa Ziane, co-founder of Toast Ale

In this, the first of our Inspiring Entrepreneurs interviews for Start-up Day, we meet and hear from social enterprise entrepreneur, Louisa Ziane, the co-founder of Toast Ale. This trailblazing brewing company, motivated by climate change and food waste, produces ‘planet-saving beer’ with surplus fresh bread.

Louisa will discuss how you can build a viable, profitable and job-generating business that still keep your core values front and centre, as well as how to integrate these principles into your brand.

As the Chief Operating Officer on the Toast Ale team, Louisa’s focus is on the productivity and people in her business so she will also talk about how leaders can drive innovation and change as the team and the business grows.

Louisa will be interviewed by Toast Ale board member and BIPC Ambassador, Paul Lindley, himself a formidable founder of childrens’ food brand, Ella’s Kitchen, and author of Little Wins: The power of thinking like a toddler.

As Toast themselves would say, “Raise a toast. Save the world. Cheers.”

In conversation with Irene Agbontaen, founder of TTYA London

In this, the second of our two Inspiring Entrepreneurs interviews on Start-up Day, we meet and hear from Irene Agbontaen, founder of fashion brand TTYA London, in conversation with Anis Qizilbash.

Irene’s company TTYA - or Taller Than Your Average - is a fashion apparel brand for taller women, supplying a market that Irene - standing at 5’11’’ - knew was underserviced. TTYA launched in Selfridge’s in 2013, becoming their first tall-specific brand. TTYA has gone on to have a home in Barneys New York and was the first pioneering tall brand to debut on ASOS.com. Irene’s designs have been worn by major celebrities.

In this discussion Irene will be speaking about how she has navigated the industry and gone on to secure contracts with major stockists whilst keeping a very strong commitment to herself, her beliefs about inclusivity and to the essence of the business. There will also be lots of practical advice about how to truly be the face and voice of your brand, and how social media, e-commerce, endorsements and collaborations are all just as much a part of modern businesses as much as planning, accounting and sales.

Whether you are starting up in fashion, or another sector, you may find yourself being expected to change and conform to fit in with the establishment. Irene talks powerfully about her inner voice to resist this and how that, ultimately, has strengthened the business. For TTYA’s first catwalk show at Lagos Fashion Week in 2018 it was a team comprised solely of women of colour that went with her.

We all face a very challenging retail landscape in the light of the pandemic and changes in consumer spending. We’ll talk to Irene about how TTYA has faced this past year and what the future holds. Having played just a small role in TTYA’s story at the beginning, as Irene accessed stats on consumers from our market research databases to help progress her business, the BIPC is so happy to work with Irene again to inspire you as you begin your business now.

Getting started with your side hustle

Going in to business might feel like a leap into the unknown, but with a side hustle you can minimise the risk.

Earning through a side hustle helps you earn extra an income while keeping paid employment and helps to maintain the cash flow as the new business establishes itself. With digital communities and marketplaces helping to fast track the route to market and allowing entrepreneurs to tap into a wider breadth of customers than ever before, more and more people are choosing to start side hustles, and seeing them grow.

Vicki Broadbent has grown her blog, The Honest Mum, from a hobby and passion to her full-time commercial income. She is also the author of Mum Boss, which examines the opportunities you can unearth by unlocking spare time, often, while at home with a family.

This session will explore the skills and support you will need to put your plans into action after Start-up Day, as well as practical tips on keeping up a side hustle while working the 9 to 5. If you have entrepreneurial ambition and a skill that can be monetised, join us and Vicki to hear about whether a side hustle start-up is the right option for you.

BIPC Liverpool's Start-up Stars: Female founders

Join BIPC Liverpool and entrepreneur and business advisor Jacqueline Daley as she talks to two other female founders about the challenges and rewards of starting your own business or social enterprise. They will talk about:

Carrying out market researchFundingMarketingCoping in difficult timesAnd offer practical tips for people thinking of starting a business now.

BIPC North East: Developing a sustainable/green brand


This session is perfect for start-ups who need to develop and communicate green credentials and sustainability effectively.

Andy will detail how businesses can develop and use green credentials. He'll present ideas around how to embed green thinking into your organisation's core idea, as well as providing general tips on how to communicate green credentials through marketing and communication material. He'll also share examples from other organisations that are leading with sustainability.

Attendees will leave with a better understanding of how to communicate green credentials to create a competitive advantage.

Michael Cashman

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