Michael Lassman, Chair of the North London Branch of the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) announces a great initiative for local businesses. 

As part of our Keep Trade Local campaign and in support of Small Business Saturday, which takes place on 6 December. We have a really exciting opportunity come our way and something you may like to share in.

Transport for London have kindly donated to us the use of a large shop in the heart of Southgate town centre, to use as we please.

Following a special FSB branch committee meeting with some of our local business partners, we have decided to open the venue as a pop-up shop for small businesses in our branch – the boroughs of Barnet, Brent and Enfield – and surrounding areas.

We have the keys of the shop at 1 Station Parade N14 5BL (formerly Blockbusters) from Saturday 22 November until Saturday 6 December and are hoping to open it to ten businesses per day to display and sell their products and services from 9.30 until 3.30 from Monday 24 November. Those of you who know the area will confirm that this is a really great venue.

There is no charge for a pitch, but certain restriction will apply, particularly anything that involves licencing. We only ask that you commit to a whole day, where possible.

This is a link to an Eventbrite booking page for the first week. You will see there is no charge to take a pitch, but we reserve the right to charge £40.00 for people who book and then do not turn up.

Following the completion of the booking form, you will be contacted by one of the project’s administration team to share more details and discuss terms and conditions of use. They may ask you how flexible you are regarding dates; at this time we do not know how popular this opportunity will be and therefore we may not open every day – though this would be disappointing. However, if oversubscribed, priority will be given to N14 and FSB member businesses.

At this time, there may be additional use of the shop in the evenings for business networking or cultural events. These have not yet been planned and I will email again if anything gets confirmed.

This seems like a really exciting opportunity and may “sell out” fast. So don’t delay – book today!