A free 90-minute event with expert speakers, organised by The Women’s Organisation, is open to budding male and female Liverpool city region entrepreneurs and takes place on Thursday

A free webinar event is being held this week to enable budding entrepreneurs across Liverpool city region to explore their business ideas.

Liverpool social enterprise, The Women’s Organisation, says the event, taking place via Zoom on Thursday, April 29, at 11am, is open to men and women who wants to explore a business idea but feels the timing may not be right, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Called Starting a Business During A Pandemic, the webinar lasts 90 minutes and includes a panel experts and entrepreneurs offering their insight and experience.

Having successfully adapted training courses, business advice and workshops to go digital, The Women’s Organisation has seen first-hand the incredible resilience and ingenuity shown by women across the Liverpool city region.

Many have juggled incredible stresses and taken on extra responsibilities including home schooling. Despite this, lots of women have also monetised new hobbies or worked with business advisors to realise their potential and move into self-employment and business ownership with confidence. 

With the lifting of restrictions as part of the government road map, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. The Women’s Organisation is encouraging people within the city region to explore their business ideas and take inspiration from a panel of guests who have done exactly that.

Click here to register for this free event

Melanie and Bianca Skeete who launched their social media support company, My Sister Social, in March 2020. Melanie has a corporate project management background at Unilever and Seadrill, while Bianca is the social media lead at online fashion company ‘I Saw It first’ which she also co-founded.

Keeping it in the family, sisters, Anouska and Alex also joined the venture to take on an incredibly challenging first year. My Sister Social focuses its services on empowering women and offers social media support, event management, PR, graphic and digital design and more. 

Following a revamp and relaunch earlier this month, My Sister Social has also launched a planner which is helping clients to manage their own personal and business goals.

Melanie said: “We are so proud of our first product, The 90-Day Self Improvement Planner. The idea cam organically as we wanted to create a way of sharing our message and take women on a mindful journey to becoming their highest self.

“As four sisters we have trialled many planners, diaries and self-help books. We have designed and manufactured our own product and it’s proving to be hugely popular. When it comes to start up, our advice is never start a business just to make money. Start a business to make a difference.”

Also joining the guest panel is master NLP, yoga teacher and best-selling author Claire Morton is one of the UK’s most sought-after transformational wellbeing coaches.

A high-performance coach with more than 20 years coaching experience in the corporate world, Claire specialises in helping high achievers “sort their heads and hearts out” with her unique blend of science-based education. 

She said: “There’s never any right time to start a business yet so many entrepreneurs have taken advantage of the global online market, swapping face to face business with digital. There’s more than 5bn people on the internet now and if you can tap into even a small percentage of that, you can be successful.”

Led by The Women’s Organisation in partnership with BIPC Liverpool this event is part of the Enterprise Hub programme, part funded by European Regional Development Fund and offering free advice and guidance to those living in the Liverpool city region thinking of starting a business.

Jenny Wallwork, training co-ordinator at The Women’s Organisation and host of the webinar said: “Come along and be inspired by our fantastic panel, who have not only started a business but also relaunched and rebranded during a pandemic.

Enterprise Hub support is available to individuals looking to start a business within the Liverpool City Region, or businesses under 42 months looking to grow in the Liverpool city region. Enterprise Hub can be contacted on 0151 706 8113 or enterprisehub@thewo.org.uk