The Local Entrepreneur Workshop is designed to stimulate, inspire, and support enterprising change makers develop their business idea and maybe even to help prepare to pitch at the next Local Entrepreneur Forum.  This workshop is one night a week for four weeks, from March 23 to April 13, 6pm-8pm at the REconomy Centre. It will focus on four themes: Leadership, Innovation, Business Models, and Pitching Your Plan. The sessions will be productive and fun with interactive discussion, activities and lots of resources.  Cost is £35 for the course with bursaries available. To book, email info@reconomycentre.org

March 23 – Leadership
Want to start something that will create livelihoods and be supported by the community?  Something that will be part of the solution, not just business as usual?  What’s your vision?  How can you attract people to your project – potential supporters, investors, customers, partners, employees?  Starting a new business is tough – how will you sustain yourself?

March 30 – Innovation
Creative destruction? Disruptive technology? World changing and ‘insanely great’? Is this what it takes to successfully launch a new enterprise in this economic environment? Is innovation even necessary for social, ethical and sustainable enterprises? And isn’t innovation simply an accident of luck or genius? Or is it a process, something that can be learned and applied to any endeavour?  We’ll dive into these questions and see what answers we find, answers that can be applied to your own business context.

April 6 – Business Models
Starting up or growing a social or sustainable enterprise? What’s your model?  Is it well matched to your values and goals? Is it innovative enough to succeed or not?  During this workshop, we’ll look at how to analyze business models and understand them as extensive, dynamic systems. You’ll learn valuable skills you can use to more effectively think through your own business idea and business plan.  We may even discover together some innovations that can help you ‘get to the next level.’

April 13 – Making Your Pitch
You may have a clear idea of your sustainable business model and even a fleshed out plan, but if you can’t communicate effectively, it will never get off the ground. Who are you and what’s your vision? Do you fully understand the problem you’re proposing to solve? What do you need to succeed and how will you get it? In this final workshop in the Local Entrepreneur Workshop Series, we’ll look at how to bring it altogether into a powerful pitch that will, hopefully, close the deal.