Businesses in Shrewsbury are getting the chance to tap into expert advice and support through a training programme designed to help the town centre “grow and thrive”.
The programme is being arranged and run by Shrewsbury BID and will focus on retail mentoring sessions and workshops, social media and marketing workshops as well as practical first aid training with a variety of online and in-person sessions.
It is part of a wider campaign to help businesses upskill their team and get back on their feet, and is being partially funded by the Invest in Shropshire Economic Recovery Programme.
Shrewsbury BID represents and works on behalf of more than 500 businesses in the town centre, and the training programme follows an initiative earlier this year to provide expert tips through a series of workshops, helping traders to hit the ground running as Covid restrictions lifted.
Stephanie Mansell-Jones, business liaison at Shrewsbury BID, said: “We are delighted to be providing this training programme which will be open to BID members, and in some cases all businesses in the town centre.
“It’s another exciting way we can support businesses in Shrewsbury to help them grow and thrive and continue their recovery after the many difficult months of the pandemic.
“The workshops we funded earlier this year with the help of nationally-renowned retail specialist Fran Riseley proved really popular and so successful that it prompted the idea for this new training programme, which will run from now until 2022, with the addition of social media and marketing expert Teresa Heath-Wareing, and first aid training from MBO.
“Our programme will cover online and face-to-face training and we are also hoping to include some in-depth business-to-business marketing support for Shrewsbury BID members.
“The programme will initially be open for BID members but we will open this up to all town centre traders if spaces remain, while many of our online webinars and online workshop challenges are open to all businesses in the town centre.
“The series will provide extensive in-depth training covering all aspects of retailing and online marketing, with the end goal of providing traders with the tools, skills and support which we hope will help them become even more successful.
“We recommend that the one to two-hour courses are taken as a series, so are encouraging businesses owners and members of their team to sign up early to secure their space.”
For more information about how to get involved in the training programme, call the Shrewsbury BID team on 01743 358625, email info@shrewsburybid.co.uk or visit shrewsburybid.co.uk/events to see the training schedule and sign up.
