Later this month the Liverpool city region’s Good Business Festival will return and small businesses are being offered free expert advice at three clinics across the city. Tony McDonough reports

Small businesses are being offered free expert advice and practical tools at three support clinics in Liverpool during the Good Business Festival.

Taking place from March 22 to 24 in 2022, the next instalment of the Good Business Festival will see six showcase events held across three days. They will comprise presentations, panel discussions, workshops and knowledge sessions in Sefton, St Helens, Halton, Wirral, Liverpool city centre and Knowsley.

Running parallel those main events will the Good Small Business Programme which will take place at three hub venues in Liverpool across the three days which are on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of that week.

They have been created specifically for local SMEs, offering a mixture of networking sessions, ‘business clinics’ and one-to-ones. The three venues are Oh Me, Oh My in Water Street, Crypt Hall in Liverpool Metropolitan (Catholic) Cathedral, and Dock Leaf at Cains Brewery Village in the Baltic Triangle district.

Among the partners offering advice and support all four city region universities, – University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool Hope University & Edge Hill University, as well as The Growth Platform and its Local Growth Hub Brokers, including local chambers of commerce.

Additional insight will come from Be Ethical Training, Gather (Form), Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority (MRWA) Circular Economy Club, Luma Creations and Baltic Creative, while PoWEr Up Mentoring from the PoWEr Collective will be on hand, too.

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Also as part of the programme, purpose-driven networking group Firestarters will hold practical workshops, covering a range of hot topics around “Powering Communities”, “Green Revolution” and “Cultural Inclusion”.

The Good Small Business Programme at the TGBF Festival Hub, is a partnership between The Good Business Festival and Growth Platform – Liverpool City Region Growth Company, follows a pilot scheme in 2021, involving eight companies from the Liverpool City Region. 

Online baby care brand Joy and Joe Baby has significantly improved its environmental footprint since taking part. Owned and managed by husband and wife team Bisi and Mayo Osundeko, the company based in St Helens, manufactures woven baby wraps.

Mayo said: “The programme helped us to take a step back, review our practices and make many small changes which will make a big difference. The team really got under the skin of the company, analysed our processes and how we did business and provided us with clear advice and a roadmap on how to become more sustainable.

Claire McColgan, director at Culture Liverpool, added: “Our region’s rich and diverse SME community can play a vital role in tackling issues such as sustainability, climate change and ethical business behaviour – and many companies are keen to do so as soon as possible. 

“What we’re doing with the Good Small Business Programme is providing expert thinking on important issues and translating it into relevant, practical and inspirational knowledge for local SMEs.”

For more information about The Good Small Business Programme and to register for a free ticket to attend any of the Business Support sessions and clinics at the TGBF Festival Hub, click here.