NatWest Enterprise, East Midlands & East of England Community Newsletter November 2023

You'd be right in thinking 'I don't recall seeing a September or October newsletter from Debbie' Honestly! I despair. A wise chap once said to me- "when you reach capacity, and you say yes to extra, you are essentially saying no to something else'' and never has it been more true than for the last twelve weeks. I'm not feeling burned out, but I am feeling like there are a few dropped plates in the proverial spinning analogy. My newsletter (and ever growing inbox) are just two examples. So I'm practising saying no for the rest of the year in an attempt to finish all the things that I've started.

This week is #globalentrepreneurshipweek (or #GEW2023 which is much less of a mouthful) and we are delighted to be bringing back MoneyFest TOMORROW that we launched last year so successfully. It will again be taking place in #MiltonKeynes and #Birmingham.

#MoneyFest is a festival of all things funding and finance. Every which way to access funds to grow and scale; it's about upskilling, educating and empowering you, not people trying to sell you anything. The best time to consider accessing money to grow your business is well before you need it, and certainly long before you are desperate for it, so we hope that you'll come along and have a mooch around the exhibition room at MK:U and meet the various representatives including UK Export Finance , Innovate UK East , Medilink Midlands and many more, but also sign up for the speaker sessions taking place throughout the day.

The speakers will be covering:

Exploring the entire options landscape ( Bukky M. Babajide )

Grants (@ruth roan and the team at South Midlands Growth Hub along with Julian Bowrey at Innovate UK )

How to be more successful with applications ( Rachel Hayward at ASK THE CHAMELEON LTD )

Why lenders say no - a panel discussion inc Lewis Stringer representing British Business Bank , Asy Ho for NatWest Business and the team at Aureum Finance to name a few.

Why investors money can be worth more with Rob Purdie of Central Arc Angels and Claire Banwell Spencer, MBA from Cranfield University .

Its free to attend, but you do need to book a ticket.

Also Asy Ho has his monthly #BoostBreakfast networking 8:30-10am before we kick off (over at the centre:mk NatWest Business event space)

Leicester Business Festival and British Finance Week have been a highlight of this month already across my patch and we are delighted to support both The Sir Thomas White Loan Charity with a panel session (including Mark Taft) and the 'Activating Inclusive Growth' event at University of Leicester School of Business where Rajinder Bhuhi ?? revealed the women in business taskforce event launch we have been working collaboratively on all year. More details to follow.

Next week we celebrate #InternationalMensDay with a fantastic session at our NatWest Business Event Space in centre:mk . Join us on 21st Nov at 3pm where we will kick off with a keynote from The Man Cave UK founder Scott and a spotlight on local mens charities including Mind BLMK (Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes) . We have a panel discussion with ?? Jono Poon - Simon Nichols - Sunny Singh talking all things resilience, recovery, inspiration and purpose.

Every year on International Womens Day, at least one fella says to me' do you do this for mens day?' to which I reply 'for sure' - and yet it remains the lowest attended awareness event in the calendar. Come on guys! Let's get together (theres beer and pizza! inc alcohol free) People like Steven Bartlett have done a phenomenal job at humanising the male entrepreneurial journey and encouraging candor and reflection, but theres still so much work to do creating a safe space and network for men to feel able to show vulnerability and share. Alumni of our programme will know that's close to our hearts, but I've never seen it done better than at the Man Cave MK held at Aiimi on a Monday night, come and meet the team at our event.

Heidi Franklin and I are already revving up for January with a New Year Business ReBoot event hosted by Norfolk Public Library (thanks Peter Golland !) If you are based in or near #Norfolk please do join us and spread the word.

Ricke Williams has nurtured a terrific #WIBTribe in #Cambridge and has his monthly speakers and networking event next week, tickets are free, get them here .

We collectively launched a new 'pre-accelerator' for business owners not yet ready for our renowened Accelerator - a course called 'Setting Up for Success' and it seems it was a hit! We are looking at rolling out more of these short 6 week turbo boosting series across the patch from January. Keep your eyes peeled! (and follow our local enterprise managers eventbrites!)

East Midlands | East Anglia | South East Midlands | East Coast

We have tonnes of government backed 'Help to Grow' Management activity taking place across the patch with Help to Grow Management, University of East Anglia , Anglia Ruskin University , Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurship , University of Hertfordshire Business Zone and more!

And finally, I'm delighted to reveal the #WIB taskforce co ordinated event series taking place in Jan & Feb 2024. 4 webinars to introduce funding and investment followed by an exclusive #angelmixer where attendees of the webinars can meet and match with local investors, investor networks and educators to give them the best chance of success when it comes to raising investment to grow.

As always, our event is free of charge and open to all. Save the date and sign up.

Thanks to Lewis Stringer - British Business Bank , Rajinder Bhuhi ?? - Leicester Startups , Kylie Anderson - Iconic Wealth for Women , Bukky M. Babajide - Female Techpreneur , Yvette Lamidey - Central Arc Angels , Laura Mallaburn - Lincolnshire Business Angels & Haris Khawaja, MSc - Lincoln Science & Innovation Park , John O'Donnell - Nottingham City Council & D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership , Salma Manzoor LLEP . We are also very grateful to our venue hosts University of Leicester School of Business , Allia , Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University , Lincoln Science & Innovation Park and NatWest Business .

I'm looking forward to a busy couple of weeks in November but then a very mellow and social December with lots of downtime to recharge my batteries.

Purposefully no newsletter next month- see you on the otherside!

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas!