It’s been absolutely inspiring to see so many businesses adapting and rolling their sleeves up during this extremely tough pandemic!
From the early days of “what on earth is this all about?”, to “ok, we can do this” and now, for many, what feels like a real kick in the teeth with this next lock down.
However, we are not defeatists and because of our passions for our businesses, we are determined to keep calm and carry on. Whether that means learning new digital skills to take our businesses online in a way we never dreamt we would, or whether it’s opening a different arm to our business, temporarily or what could be long term, to enable us to continue.
Collaborations, working together, helping and supporting each other are vital (as they are even when there isn’t a pandemic – but even more so now).
Support is there! Help and advice IS available – and there are lots of online networking groups, webinars and workshops to give you ideas, a hand to hold and plenty of motivation. STANTA are still on hand too – with 1-2-1 advice, as well as their online workshops. Plus, the jellies are online – next one is Thursday 12th November – it’s an opportunity to chat with the people behind the profiles – to connect with other business owners, to get motivated, inspired, share ideas and help and support each other. All details for the events can be found here.
Communication is also extremely important – keeping customers in the loop not only enables them to know what you have on offer, what’s available, how your service benefits them, but it also makes them feel valued – that they are not sitting there guessing whether you are operating or not.
We know that marketing and communication can be really time consuming – that we are expected to be absolutely everywhere – social media, blogging on our websites, google my business, LinkedIn, email marketing, it goes on – it can we absolutely overwhelming – but did you know that there’s lots of ways that this can be made easier for you – which is why TBC (The Businesses Community) was set up.
We’ve built a fantastic community of not only business owners, but also consumers, that are there to help and support each other. People want to #ShopLocal. And we are here to help them to find businesses such as yours.
Whether that’s via our facebook group of over 5,000 members
Or via the St Albans News Round Up email that goes to thousands of inboxes, to thousands via instagram, twitter and facebook, and also features on the TBC website
Or whether it’s communicating what’s going on in your business via the TBC website (news, products, services, tips, events etc) – did you know that your feature then gets promoted solely via our social media channels which has a ready made, active and engaged audience of thousands?
And we know that things are financially tough for many businesses – so we’ve got free options as well as low cost, yet highly effective, options to help and support businesses across St Albans and the surrounding areas.
Grab these opportunities for your business – whether it’s a coffee and a catch up via zoom with a pal, or joining one of the groups or jellies online – you will definitely be inspired, motivated, get fresh ideas and make plans for the upcoming months – whether that means a plan A and a plan B 😉
It’s always good to talk!
If you want to have a chat with us, simply give us a shout – stalbans@thebusinessescommunity.com and we can get a call booked in.
You can reach STANTA at advice@stanta.co.uk
St Albans District Chamber of Commerce and Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce are also on hand with help and support as well as The Bid and St Albans Council. Check out the Business Summit online on 11th November – one not to be missed if you are interested in business in St Albans.
We can do this! Together!
