Little Orchard Workshop: Carving a strong future thanks to start up support

“Through the Good2Great Start-Up Programme, Little Orchard Workshop evolved from a small-scale woodworking project into a growing heritage map business, combining craftsmanship, local history, and modern entrepreneurship to create carved wooden maps that connect people with the story of where they live.”

Read the full article on Business Growth West Midlands.

Growing the High Streets

This article came about because I happened to be eating a sandwich next to some fellas at a West Midlands Combined Authority event in Digbeth back in March. I didn't know at the time but the fella was Ian McLaughlan, at the time he was the Strategic Lead for Business Growth West Midlands. We had a very nice chat about what I was doing with my workshop and how Good2Great had helped me. Turns out he was the fella responsible for funding those programmes. So he got to see an example of the effect the funding had had on a person.

He asked if I would be interested in telling my story and I was happy to. Then the strangest thing happened from my point of view: a load of emails started flying around about me! Within a week Osborn PR were on the phone interviewing me.

I think what I learned from this is as far as networking goes, when you're starting a business, go to everything you can. Even the stuff that you might think is not 100% relevant, especially go to those.