This Wednesday, GV Media Group invited a selection of Business owners to their offices in the Docklands to take part in a workshop aimed at providing professional and practical expertise.

Facilitated by consultants at CLR Management Consultancy, this session focussed on teaching the fundamental principles of strategic planning that are needed behind every winning business. The morning workshop was taken by Cherry Hinkson and covered the principles behind setting a stable foundation with a clear vision and mission statement while the afternoon was lead by Cliff Hinkson and encouraged the group to assess how prepared they were to expand their business. Each person also received hands-on-coaching which looked at the individual challenges within their business.

The forum was organised by Sophia Bailey, GV Media’s new business development executive as a platform to recognise the many challenges faced by BAME business startups and established businesses within the UK.

‘Many businesses fail within their first few years, a high number of these within the Black Community. We wanted to find out if black business owners fail because of their ethnicity or simply because they are not accessing the correct levels of expertise to guide towards success in their industry’ says Sophia ‘We hope that readers following the story will be able to use the information and apply it to their own situation, this is also a perfect opportunity to highlight the many role models within our community’ she says.

Among the attendees were Agnes Mannah, a social entrepreneur who has created a range of food sauces, the proceeds of which will go towards feeding one child in Africa with every jar sold. Agnes says ‘I really want to be focussed in this new venture, I came here today because I wanted to be exposed to the correct business mentors, and to be with people that are like minded. I also feel that my story could perhaps help another single mother in my position.’

The workshops will run every fortnight, for startup business owners with an idea that they’d like to become a viable business and also for established business owners that would like to move to another level. Workshops will be facilitated by experts in every field from market research and negotiation to branding and financing.

Notes from each workshop will be available by the Business E-newsletter, which also contains promotions and special events throughout the year.

To get involved or to find out more please email Sophia.bailey@ gvmedia.co.uk