For Finance & Funding Friday Newmark & District Chamber of Commerce is holding a seminar during the morning of Friday 23rd May, with the focus of this seminar on Business Growth, planning and finance.

Over the morning, they will discuss how to plan your business growth and look at ways in which you can ensure you gain successful funding. 

With speakers from Growth Accelerator, Lloyds Bank and the Funding Circle, the organisers believe this seminar will give you the tools to start planning and growing your business immediately. 

West Suffolk Council will also be introducing their new Procurement Strategy and explaining how local businesses can engage with this.

The sminar begins at 9am with refreshments and a chance for open networking.  The cost to attend is £36 for members and EEP members or £45 for non members.

At 9.30am Alan Todd, a Growth Accelerator coach and Director of Cambridge Business Advisors will look at the planning you should put in place to help you decide how, when and where your business should grow.  He will cover the tools and techniques used by Growth Accelerator when devising an achievable and bespoke growth plan.

Steve Elsom from Lloyds Bank helps fund hundreds of local business each year.  Despite popular belief, banks are lending to businesses and are keen to do so.  In his presentation at 10am called “How to manage your Bank Manager”, Steve will discuss exactly what the banks are looking for when making funding choices and how to work with your manager to give yourself the best chance of gaining the funding you need. 

After a 30 minute break for refreshments at 10.30am, a speaker from the Funding Circle will look at the alternative funding options available. The Funding Circle is an online marketplace which helps businesses find low cost loans quickly and those investing get better returns. By directly connecting people who want to invest money with vetted and established businesses who want to borrow money, the Funding Circle offers a simple solution which differs from the banks.  They will outline exactly how an established business can look at crowd funding as an option for their business finance and how to go about applying. 

The WSC Economic Development team will be introducing their draft Procurement Strategy at 11.30am and explaining how local small businesses can engage with this.

at mid day, there'll be a round up of the morning from the Chair followed by another chance to network, enjoy lunch and view the exhibition after quarter past.

Exhibitor spaces are available and will be chosen from relevant suppliers.  Newmarket & District Chamber of Commerce aim to have no more than 3 suppliers from each service base, so please book your space quickly as it will be on a first come, first serve basis. Stand prices: £36.00 for members and EEPs, £45.00 for non-members

Please contact Claire Elbrow at info@bluelizardmarketing.com or on 01638 731513 to book your place or book directly via the NDCC website, www.newmarketanddistrict.com