📢 LINE-UP ANNOUNCEMENT: Enterprise Hub's Start Up and Grow Week 2019

Enterprise Hub are excited to announce the line-up of events for Start-up and Grow Week this September!

Running from 16th - 20th September 2019, this week long programme of training, workshops and events is designed to equip you with the skills and know-how to start or grow your business. 

You can follow all the action using #StartUpAndGrowWeek on Twitter!

For the full line-up so far, visit the Enterprise Hub blog by clicking here.

 

Neuroscience in Marketing– what neuromarketing is and how it can boost your marketing return on investment

The following is a guest blog written by Founder and Managing Director of Cheshire-based marketing management consultancy, Think Beyond.

What do neuroscience and marketing have in common?

A solid foundation for marketing success is to have a marketing strategy. This strategy is founded on a clear understanding of your value proposition (your differentiators) and your market, customers and competitors with the aim of aligning your marketing activity to what customers need.

Neuroscience contributes to marketing and is a fast-developing field looking at the function of the human brain and nervous system. It helps you understand how people think and react.

What is neuromarketing? Neuromarketing, sometimes called ‘consumer neuroscience’, studies the brain's responses to advertising and branding, considering how to fine-tune those messages based on data and feedback.

According to the Harvard Business Review, “neuromarketing has been bolstered over the past five years by several ground-breaking studies that demonstrate its potential to create value for marketers”.

How businesses can benefit from neuromarketing

Neuromarketing includes scientific, evidence-based study of physiological and neural signals via sensors to help gain a deeper insight into preferences and decisions, which can in turn influence advertising campaigns, products and services.

How do I use neuromarketing? The sensors used are EEG (electroencephalogram) on your head, eye tracking cameras and fingertip sensors for BVP (blood volume pulse – heart rate/tension) and GSR (galvanic skin response – skin conductance/sweat). These are used to monitor a person’s state during a human-computer interaction where they are exposed to stimuli.

Put simply, you can measure and record data on responses to your marketing activity, before you commit to the spend. This dramatically reduces the risk by removing the educated guesswork involved in predicting the response of prospective customers.

Neuroscience is a game-changer in marketing campaigns

The initial scepticism around neuroscience marketing has long since subsided and as an increasing number of neuroscience PHDs leave university and move into the private sector, marketing is set to benefit.

Imagine launching a new product to market that your neuromarketing research suggests has a very high probability of a positive adoption rate, confident that you have understood customer preferences, what decision they are likely to make and how it will make them feel. You can literally see the reaction to your latest development before committing the resources to making it.

According to the Harvard Business Review, Google, Microsoft and Facebook all have some form of neuromarketing division, an in-house ‘neurocapability’.

Is neuroscience market research replacing traditional surveys?

Traditional methods of gauging reaction to advertising and branding may involve focus groups, surveys, interviews and PR trends. The main problem with the traditional methods is the potential for bias, error and withholding the truth.

Take two examples. First, we all know that unconscious bias can affect our decisions and someone who has a preference for urban living might not give an appropriate response to a campaign to visit the great outdoors. Second, we know that some people may have motivations or a powerful compulsion to lie, such as someone responding to a product to help them quit smoking.

Before committing to spend your hard-earned money on marketing activity that may not yield the response you expect, you could take a further step and leverage neuromarketing research for a more reliable result.

You may require specialist advice before proceeding and a marketing consultancy, such as Think Beyond in Cheshire, could provide the advice you need to successfully deploy neuromarketing in your business.

An innovative, successful, Chartered Marketer and former Marketing Director with a career history of developing marketing strategies, growing revenue and driving profitability, Mercè garnered a series of awards across a successful career including: Employee of the year 2013, Exceptional High Performer 2014, award winner 2015, talent programme 2016, board member in 2017 and founded Think Beyond Group in 2018.

Enterprise Hub business expert set to take up residency in The Atkinson to help drive local business growth

An Enterprise Hub business expert is set to take up a weekly residency at Southport Library, in The Atkinson, to help Sefton residents start and grow their new businesses.

This fully-funded business support is aimed at helping those in the Sefton area who are looking to start a business, or those who are looking to grow a new business which is under three years old.

Enterprise expert Jacqueline Daley will be offering a number of 1-2-1 appointments every Thursday between 10am - 12pm at Southport Library in the iconic Atkinson building. Appointments should be pre-booked by those wishing to register onto the Enterprise Hub programme.

Enterprise Hub is Liverpool City Region’s “one front door” access point for business support, offering clients a programme of 1-2-1 business support and advice, as well as access to training courses, to help develop their ideas and learn core business skills.

To find out more, visit the Enterprise Hub blog by clicking here. 

Enterprise Hub announces Start Up and Grow Week this September!

Enterprise Hub have announced that they're hosting a business Start-up and Grow Week this September!

Running from 16th - 20th September 2019, this week long programme of training, workshops and events is designed to equip you with the skills and know-how to start or grow your business. 

The full line-up of events and how to book is still to be announced, so watch this space! Visit the Enterprise Hub blog for the line-up so far, by clicking here. 

Follow Enterprise Hub on Twitter and Facebook using @MerseyEntHub to be the first in the know and book your place. 

Change it: Progress to Success - “When Did You Start to Fall Apart?”

Steph thought she was living the perfect life until she hit a bump in the road which eventually led to her losing her job, her house and most importantly her family. Nearing rock bottom, she decided it was time to take control of her own life and knock down those barriers getting in the way of her happiness...

"When did you start to fall apart?

This is what The Women's Organisation's trainer Mandy asked me during our first day of Change it: Progress to Success… and that’s when my journey back to ME began. 

I am a woman in her late forties, and I can honestly say that I thought I had it all. A nice partner, great kids, a fabulous house and a great job in the health sector, we went on holidays abroad, no money worries and our friends were fun living family people… life was good!

When you run a business, you are not immune to the government’s austerity cuts, especially with my husbands’ contracts being from Merseyside and his business went bust. He started gambling and lost all our saving and cut a long (familiar) story short, we lost everything. 

It was the most stressful time of our lives and I must admit I didn’t handle things well. It started out just a few drinks to help me sleep at night, I kept telling myself it was medicinal and I needed it with what I was going through, because I was still at work in a respected role I told myself that this made it ok. 

Within a few months I was drinking (secretly) a litre bottle of vodka a week hidden in empty bottles of water. And I thought I could handle it, until one day I was picking the kids up from school and I fell in the corridor and their teacher reported me to social services, not allowing me to take them home.

Drink is the acceptable demon we turn to in a crisis and it turned me into an alcoholic within 6 months. I lost my job, we lost our home and my marriage broke down in front of me and I am under social services for neglect, this is the mother who used to take her kids horse-riding for god sake. I moved back in with my mum, began an alcohol program and at times felt lost and broken. What had happened to my life?

Sitting in the Life Rooms I saw a poster for Change it, thinking what have I got to lose and I had only popped in to see what it had to offer… life was in the title and my life had fell apart in fact. On the first day of Change it, I know I was amongst friends… I was with women in the same boat as me.

On the first day I laughed ‘till I cried. The trainer Mandy has a way that takes the pain out of a bad situation and looks at the humour in everything. She said at the beginning of every session “Change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”

It’s funny how you go through life believing one thing and suddenly you begin to challenge the very beliefs that was the glue that banded your whole existence together. I was brought up to get married, get a dab house, buy nice things and have the kids do well. I had all of that, but still I wasn’t happy. I realise now when all that fell apart, I was just left with ME and who the hell was I without all of that? Change it opened a doorway that I thought was firmly shut and that was the opportunity to be who I’m meant to be. 

The best thing from the course was learning it was ok to fall apart and putting ME together again was a choice and an opportunity for a chance to be the real you for once. It gave me the courage to challenge my beliefs to explore what really makes me happy, and since the programme I am going back to college to study art.

I have a support worker who helped me get another house, half the size of my old one and I’m so much happier. One of my barriers to changing my life was debt and I found Citizens Advice support from the programme and that has helped me so much in sorting out my money matters. 

We all have some crutch, drink, drugs, eating, shopping which can start off small and it’s so easy to let them destroy us. The strange thing is I thought it destroyed me, but Change it helped me see that it has set me free. 

I don’t drink anymore; the course has helped me see that hiding in a bottle doesn’t make the problem go away. I never knew there was so much free support available in Liverpool. If any woman is reading this and maybe feels lost or unhappy then look at me, I am proof it works. I changed my life for the better. Who would have thought I would have started to paint murals, be divorced and jobless …and be the happiest I’ve ever been? Sometimes you must fall apart …to start again

What are you waiting for?"

If you're looking to get started on building a positive future, we still have 'Change it: Progress to Success' dates available:

The Women's Organisation - 54 St James Street, L1 0AB
4 Week session starting Wednesday 19th February 2019 (10am - 3pm)

The Women's Organisation - 54 St James Street, L1 0AB
4 Week session starting Monday 24th February 2019 (10am - 3pm)


If you'd like to find out more information about the programme or to book contact us on 0151 706 8111 or email us on hello@thewo.org.uk and find out how we can support you.

Business expert set to take up residency at Formby Pool to help drive local business growth

An Enterprise Hub business expert is set to take up a weekly residency at Formby Pool to help Sefton residents start and grow their new businesses.

Heather Davies, Community Development Officer at Formby Pool (left), 
pictured with Enterprise Hub advisor Jacqueline Daley (right).

This fully-funded business support is aimed at helping those in the Sefton area who are looking to start a business, or those who are looking to grow a new business which is under three years old.

Enterprise Hub is Liverpool City Region’s “one front door” access point for business support, offering clients a programme of 1-2-1 business support and advice, as well as access to training courses, to help develop their ideas and learn core business skills.

Enterprise expert Jacqueline Daley will be offering a number of 1-2-1 appointments every Thursday between 1-3pm at Formby Pool. Appointments should be pre-booked by those wishing to register onto the Enterprise Hub programme.

This support will help clients understand the process of starting or growing a business and to research and develop a business plan or growth strategy. Budding entrepreneurs will also be able to learn key skills to develop a sales and marketing strategy, as well as understanding the everyday practicalities of running a business and looking at ways of accessing finance.

Eligibility criteria does apply. To find out more about the service and how to access support, read the full story on the Enterprise Hub blog by clicking here. 

Practical advice service helping to tackle causes of poor health

A ground-breaking service that provides financial support and advice through Liverpool GP practices is demonstrating a significant impact.

An evaluation of the Advice on Prescription service, which was introduced by NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and is run by Citizens’ Advice Liverpool (CAB), has shown how it is helping some of the city’s most vulnerable households to increase their income and reduce debt.

NHS Liverpool CCG announced a new five-year contract for Advice on Prescription in 2016, representing a £2.5 million investment as part of its mental health strategy.

Operating from 50 locations across the city, all Liverpool GPs can refer patients for assistance from CAB advisors on a range of issues including: housing, homelessness, job loss, complex debt issues and benefits advice.

Figures compiled by the CCG and the CAB show that between 2016 and 2018 the service resulted in:

• A total of £6.7 million in income maximisation – helping people make sure they are receiving all the financial support available to them and reducing debt and other outgoings where possible.
• An average increase in household income for referred patients of £762.
• Helping people to manage debt totalling £2.7 million – with more than £157,200 of this written off.

The service was developed after GPs reported a rise in patients presenting with problems that had a practical rather than medical cause, reflecting the strong link between social and economic hardship and poor health.

A significant number of Liverpool residents live in areas of high deprivation – the city was ranked as the fourth most deprived authority on the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2015.

The evaluation found that nearly 57% of people referred to the service had a monthly household income below £800, and 62% of referrals came from the most deprived areas of the city.

Advice on Prescription reports high levels of satisfaction with both those using the service and GPs who refer people into it: 77% of patients reported an increase in their capacity to manage their own physical and/or mental health, and 23% reported an increase in their capacity to maintain somewhere to live and avoid eviction.

Dr Fiona Lemmens, a Liverpool GP and Chair of NHS Liverpool CCG, said:

“There are many non-medical factors which can impact on a person’s health. As GPs we regularly see patients whose problems are rooted in things happening in other areas of their life, including those struggling with money or housing problems. The strain created by these type of issues increases the risk of developing conditions such as depression and anxiety.

“The Advice on Prescription service gives GPs and other health and care professionals a clear route to help patients who might need practical advice and support. This is good for individuals as it creates an opportunity for them to tackle problems which are having a negative effect on their health, while also reducing pressure on GP practices.

“We’ve very proud of the service and the positive impact it’s having. It demonstrates how we need to recognise the wider issues that impact on physical and mental wellbeing, and the importance of addressing the cause of problems rather than simply treating the symptoms.”  

Debbie Nolan, Project Manager, South Liverpool Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) said:

“Citizens Advice Liverpool are pleased to be the third sector delivery partners on the Advice on Prescription programme, and that is it making such a real difference to the lives and health of so many people in Liverpool. 

“Advice on Prescription is an excellent example of collective and partnership working which is providing help and support to people with a range of non-medical issues such as debt, housing and loneliness and isolation in conjunction with local GP and their teams.”

You can read a full copy of the report here.