A fantastic group of budding business owners took part in the 2022/23 Reigate & Banstead Entrepreneur Academy.  Huge congratulations go to Lucy from Good Aura Co. who was named overall winner in this year's Dragons' Den! Claire from Creative Pickle and Jessica from Nibble & Feast were also picked out by the judges and took a share of the £5k prize.

Highly commended by the judges were Rachel from Eco Earlswood and Sarah from Wonder Juice who both won £1k Business Support Grants. Meeting the dragons and pitching their businesses was the culmination of a free, 6-month entrepreneurship support programme from Reigate & Banstead Borough Council in partnership with East Surrey College.

Well done to all of our Entrepreneur Academy 'graduates', our guest speakers, and to our fantastic ‘dragons' - Rosemary French OBE, Matt Turner from Creative Pod, and Spencer Copping from WS Planning & Architecture.

For the June Learning Lunch, Nicola Macdonald from Attractive Marketing will share the three most important foundations for your marketing, so you can get better results from your marketing efforts and smash your business goals.

There are a lot of new skills to acquire when you start a business, and marketing has to be at the top of the list.

Without promoting your business and generating quality enquiries, you’re not going to engage new clients or sell your products. Marketing is your responsibility, so you’d better work out fast how best to accomplish it. It doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, simple is good.  You just need to have the right foundations in place and the rest will follow.

Connick Tree Care (Reigate) has won Arboriculture Company of 2023 at the Pro Landscaper Business Awards

Loungers, which has bars in Redhill and Reigate, has won pub/bar brand of the Year (50+ sites) at the Casual Dining Awards 

Infinity (Reigate) has won Technology Company of the Year at the British Data Awards 2023

Have you got some great news to shout about?  Let us know!

21 June: 12.00-14.00 Reigate & Banstead Learning Lunch - How to fast track your marketing skills and get more clients (Town Hall, Reigate)

Nicola Macdonald from Attractive Marketing will share the three most important foundations for your business marketing.

Book now

18 October: 12.00-14.00 Reigate & Banstead Learning Lunch - How to improve your public speaking to engage your audience (Town Hall, Reigate)

Anna Randall from The Speaker’s Coach will share her top tips and tools for crafting your presentations as well as demonstrating how to stand up and deliver talks without feeling anxious and uncomfortable.

Book now 

22 November: 12.00-14.00 Reigate & Banstead Learning Lunch - How to beat burnout and thrive! (Town Hall, Reigate)

Nikki Paine will give advice on how to identify the key signs of burn out and how to create a resilient lifestyle and mindset. Book now 

Designed to help you unlock business potential, the Help to Grow Management course is 90% funded by the government.

The course supports leaders and senior managers of small and medium-sized businesses in any sector via a 12-week programme that can be completed alongside full-time work.

With the extra support of a one-to-one mentor and a group of local business peers, you'll come away with an actionable plan to grow your business.

The Horley Jobs Fair will take place on 28 June, 10:30am - 1:30pm at Horley Baptist Church RH6 8RG. If you are local business with live job vacancies and would like to be involved, email: economy.growth@surreycc.gov.uk

Visit our Supporting Local Business web pages for the latest business updates.

Information about Council services can be found on our website.

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