Events

Enabling your business to be more successful and spot gaps in the market.

Customers needs and wants change over time the potential demand for a product or service that is not being met. By identifying the needs of customers through market research, businesses are able to reduce their level of risk and make business decisions that are more likely to be successful. This webinar will provide you with an overview of the essential processes and tools to undertake market research enabling you to make better decisions for the development of new or improved products and services.

To book a place, click here.

Calling all enterprising East Ayrshire woman – if you’ve got ambitions to start a new business, monetise your hobby or expand your existing business, we want to hear from you!

The Step Up: Woman’s Enterprise Pathway programme, which starts in early November will involve workshops and networking sessions, giving them an introduction to both the Council’s start up team and other related organisations.

Come along to our Introductory sessions in Kilmarnock and Cumnock and join the like minded woman to help make your ambitions a reality. Open to all ages and backgrounds, the programme helps you explore, start, or grow your business, building confidence and supporting your journey into self-employment.

To book a place, click here.

Calling all enterprising East Ayrshire woman – If you’ve got ambitions to start a new business, monetise your hobby or expand your existing business, we want to hear from you!

The Step Up: Woman’s Enterprise Pathway programme, which starts in early November will involve workshops and networking sessions, giving them an introduction to both the Council’s start up team and other related organisations.

Come along to our introductory sessions in Kilmarnock and Cumnock and join like minded woman to help make your ambitions a reality. Open to all ages and backgrounds, the programme helps you explore, start, or grow your business, building confidence and supporting your journey into self-employment.

To book a place, click here.

This webinar aims to transform your attitude to writing and help you create engaging, useful material for your website.

You’ll learn the secrets of persuasive writing, how to make writing more accessible and concise, and common structures to help get started when you’re staring at a blank screen.

Whatever business you’re in, being able to explain what you do in the written form is an essential skill and with our feedback and coaching you’ll get better at it. Whether you consider yourself good at writing or if it’s something you’ve always struggled with, you’ll find yourself both encouraged and challenged by this interactive, engaging session.

To book a place, click here.

Whether you’re a small business owner, marketer, or website manager, this session will equip you to boost your visibility in local searches, drive more local traffic, and grow your business.

Are you struggling to get your business noticed in local search results? Want to know how to attract more customers in your area by ranking higher in local SEO? Join us for an in-depth workshop where we’ll reveal the strategies and tactics you need to master local SEO and dominate your local market.

In today’s digital landscape, appearing in local search results is crucial for businesses that rely on local customers. Whether you’re a small business owner, marketer, or website manager, this workshop will equip you with the knowledge and tools to boost visibility in local searches, attract more customers, and grow your business.

Key takeaways from this workshop include:

• Understanding Local SEO.
• Optimising Your Google Business Profile.
• On-Page SEO for Local Search.
• Building Local Citations and Backlinks.
• Leveraging Reviews and Ratings.
• Using Social Media for Local SEO.
• Tracking and Measuring Success.

This workshop is perfect for anyone looking to improve their local search rankings and attract more customers from their local area. Whether you’re new to local SEO or looking to refine your existing strategy, this session will provide you with actionable insights and proven techniques to help your business stand out in local search results.

To book a place, click here.

Delegates will learn about the key aspects of financially running a business, keeping on top of the day to day activities, developing profit and ensuring they know how to manage their financials.

This webinar will also discuss the variety of accounting packages available and if your business should be using them.

Main aims:

• To understand your profit and loss account.
• To develop your knowledge of what you should be doing on a day to day basis with the financials of your business.
• To consider if the time is right for your business to invest in an accounting package.
• To keep your business focused on how to improve your profitability.

A 2 hour webinar which will be practical and results-oriented. Working with a set of core presentation slides the core content will be a mix of knowledge delivery, discussion and the presentation of tools and techniques to challenge the attendees current thinking of profitability in their organisation. Participants will leave with a set of methods, tools and techniques to allow them to be implemented within their business.

To book a place, click here.

Discover how to generate free coverage in newspapers and on radio and television along with a look at other valuable PR tools to help raise your profile.

Former journalist Colin Kelly will show you how to identify and develop the most interesting stories within your business and then use them to achieve free, positive coverage in the mainstream media.

Topics covered include:

• How the media works and how it can help small businesses.
• What makes an interesting story?
• How to define your key messages.
• Speak about your business with confidence.
• Improve your television and radio interview skills.
• Take control and make sure you’re not misquoted.
• Write press releases that get used by the media.
• Build a “media friendly” strategy for your business.

To book a place, click here.

How to get stuff done. It’s not easy as just doing it.

We will walk through different techniques which will set you up forever. Bring 30 minutes of work you keep putting off with you.

To book a place, click here.

In this session you’ll define a style and tone of voice that makes it easier to create consistent content, build trust, and strengthen customer loyalty driving an increase in sales.

Bring your brand to life and boost conversions

“A strong brand personality – one that resonates emotionally – can boost customer lifetime value (i.e sales) by over 30% and is a key driver of enduring loyalty”.

In this practical workshop, delegates will focus on developing a clear brand persona designed to build stronger relationships, enhance reputation, and drive sales. The session will guide participants through selecting a brand archetype, establishing tone-of-voice principles that reflect their organisation’s values and ambitions and how to turn this into marketing content.

Each delegate will be provided with a Brand Personality Canvas template to capture their work during the session. By the end of the workshop, participants will leave with a completed brand persona framework that makes it easier to create consistent content, build trust, and strengthen customer loyalty driving an increase in sales.

To book a place, click here.

This webinar covers everything from basic boosting to Ads Manager campaigns – giving you the skills, knowledge and strategy to confidently target customers and boost Christmas sales.

Get ready to boost your Christmas sales with strategic, well-targeted Meta advertising. This webinar will guide you through everything you need to know to confidently run effective campaigns across Facebook and Instagram during the busiest retail period of the year. Whether you’re completely new to Ads Manager or just looking to improve your current ad strategy, you’ll leave with the skills, tools and structure to create a festive campaign that delivers results.

By the end of this session, you will:

• Understand the difference between boosting posts and using Meta Ads Manager.
• Know how to choose the right campaign type and goal for your business.
• Be able to build and target your audiences with a variety of targeting methods.
• Gain practical tips for creating effective ad visuals, videos and copy.

What we’ll cover:

• How to configure your Facebook account to run ads.
• Boosting organic content: What works and when to use it.
• Introduction to Meta Ads Manager: Layout, key features and navigation.
• Understanding campaign types and choosing your objective.
• Setting up tracking with your website for better performance.
• Building audiences: Cold, warm and lookalike targeting.

Please ensure you have a Facebook Business Page created and can access it during the session. Running Meta Ads requires a paid budget.

To book a place, click here.

This in-person training session will help you understand the essential steps required to plan for your new business. It will guide you through the development of an effective, detailed Business Plan.

Building a successful business depends not only on providing a desirable product or service, but also a deep understanding of your customers and why they might buy from you. We’ll help you to think about how to research your market, assess your competitors and developing a compelling plan to attract buyers. We’ll help you to think ahead, and understand how to increase your likelihood of success.

We will cover:

• The importance of fully understanding your target market.
• The need to identify your potential customers and their needs/desires.
• How to access your competitors, and find ways to be different.
• The role of marketing in a successful business.
• An introduction to the main business formats.
• A basic overview of key tools to manage your business finances.
• The importance of understanding how much funding you’re require to get started.
• Why a viable plan is essential, and how you can start planning.

Workshop outcomes:

After this training session you will understand the information that you’ll need to find out to start your unique new business, and then the next steps to take to plan ahead.

There will also be information on additional services from Business Gateway and details of other workshops which may be appropriate for you.

To book a place, click here.

This is for you if you want to learn some “quick wins for social media” to help your business stand out amongst the rest.

You probably know that social media should be a large part of engaging with your audience and potential new customers. The question is, how does your business adopt a strategy that stands out and is engaging and effective?

Social media for businesses serves two purposes:

• It engages your audience.
• It attracts new business

In this workshop you will explore using free mobile tools, easy to use, that will help your business stand out and serve these two purposes.

Topics covered:

• Making Graphics that pop!
• Design Hacks
• Free Apps to make your life easier

At the end of this workshop you’ll have up-to-date information and tools to help you utilise your social platforms to their fullest potential.

To book a place, click here.

Did you know a strong LinkedIn headline can increase profile views by 10 times?

Learn more at our interactive webinar that will give all attendees the opportunity to ask questions as we go along. We’ll cover the processes that will enable your conversations to make money and convert leads.

You will leave with a clear and focused plan of how to spend your time on LinkedIn and what your next steps should be.

(Ideally you should have access to your LinkedIn profile to make an immediate start).

To book a place, click here.