Partnerships; Ensuring local businesses thrive

I reviewed my vision for ActionCOACH Oakham & Welland Valley recently and added “be part of the reason that the area around Kettering and Corby is recognised as a national hot spot of growth and development.” This was not, as it looks at first sight, my ego going into overdrive but a definition of success, something to aim for beyond what I can achieve on my own.

There is a lot of investment in the area from the government and other sources to build the local economy and provide jobs. Whether an established business or one that is starting on a new venture, many of the Business Owners need additional support to reach their full potential as quickly as possible.

Business Owners are busy people who do not have time to go through a long selection process to decide who they will work with. This is why it is so important to develop partnerships between companies that really know each other, work effectively together, and compliment each other.

The new partnership with Square Media is one brick in the wall of support for local businesses. ActionCOACH Oakham and Welland Valley will work with the Business Owner to ensure they align and achieve their goals, whilst the marketing of the business can be outsourced to Square Media. So how will we make this work? In order to offer the best service, free initial advice to each others’ customers will be provided and over time we intend to add other partners such as accountants, IT, and HR to offer a truly holistic service to our joint customers.

What is also great, is that the Northamptonshire Chamber can then introduce our joint customers to a wider business community for them to build the relationships they will need to thrive.

My ultimate dream is to see local businesses growing, thriving, and succeeding; looking out for each other, and finding ways to succeed together!

Partnerships that make life much easier for local businesses

This is an extremely exciting opportunity for ActionCOACH Oakham and Welland Valley. I run a local business although I have the backing of a global organisation.  Many businesses don’t have the luxury of being part of a franchise or consortia, and this is why it is important to me that we partner with other local businesses to give businesses the support they need. Square Media is based in Corby and work with local businesses, right in the middle of one of our areas, and have a client base that also aligns with ours and there are companies that no one has heard of, which is why effective marketing is so key to any business, especially during the current COVID pandemic – if people don’t know they are trading they may not get much business!

It makes sense that we should be working with the Northamptonshire Chamber

Our first event together is a webinar on 21st January, where we will be talking about improving your business performance and marketing, and it is great that the Northamptonshire Chamber is working with us on this as part of their “New Year, New Start-up” business membership https://www.northants-chamber.co.uk

The Chamber of Commerce has been bringing local business owners together to help them achieve their goals for 150 years. The power of working with other businesses is ingrained in their DNA and so they are at the heart of local business communities. I see the chamber’s involvement as a massive boost to what we are trying to achieve!

A word about how ActionCOACH works with Start-Up businesses

ActionCOACH works with start-ups in a variety of ways depending on the size and maturity of the business.

  • If a Business Owner is looking for rapid growth, maybe with an investor or starting a bigger business, One to One coaching is probably what is required.
  • For many, slower growth is the objective so they will benefit from either ProfitCLUB or ActionCLUB, these are both group coaching sessions with a structured curriculum to teach the basic business skills.
  • For busy female business owners, we have CoffeeCLUB group coaching, designed to work around the school run and again, has a structured approach.
  • Sometimes a business owner just needs support with a particular area of their business for which we will provide a gifted coaching session.

Whatever coaching programme our client follows, we follow the ActionCOACH 6 Steps System to ensure we cover every element of a successful business.

Have a look at this short video which explains the system in a bit more detail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crwueFHvMi4

3 levels of support to the local business community

This is a really exciting partnership and webinar, intended to support local businesses holistically.

  • The Northamptonshire Chamber has developed the business community
  • ActionCOACH works with the business owners to get the results they want
  • Square Media makes sure that the market knows what each business does

It is a match made in heaven! Well, Corby!