19th April 2024
Thank you to everyone who joined us for Small Business Talks at TN partner Old Auction House on Thursday - our business workshop series for the TN community, with tickets free for both our members and directory partners. It was wonderful to see so many new faces and our heartfelt thanks to our four speakers who made it such an impactful, honest and insightful evening.
Nat Sharp of new TN partner Sharp Thinking opened the event with a talk on ten marketing mistakes often made by small businesses and how to avoid them. Sharp Thinking specialises in the fundamental building blocks of sales and marketing planning, catering to busy small and medium-sized business owners with recent expansion into the corporate market. From defining our audience and analysing reach to the importance of blogs, SEO and refining our social media platforms, Nat delivered some important lessons on how to gain precision and clarity in our marketing strategy.
We then spoke to Jenny Kitchen, CEO at brand and digital marketing agency Yoyo Design, and co-founder of amplifi. Jen shared with us her own journey in sustainability, from Extinction Rebellion questioning how she did business and Yoyo gaining B Corp Certification, to working wtih Pete Kenyon at Cripps to launch amplifi earlier this year. Amplifi is local initiative aiming to amplify environmentally-conscious business and support the community, with a sector specific approach, and is open to all businesses large and small in Tunbridge Wells and surrounding towns. The TN card co-leads the retail group alongside Childrensalon. Find out more about how you can get involved here.
After a short break for networking, we handed over to Nick Lima at TN partner Rankfresh. Rankfresh is an award-winning digital marketing agency that specialises in SEO. Nick gave a short talk on how spending just a couple of hours a month on search engine optimisation can get our businesses on the first page of a web search - setting us apart from our competitors, driving more traffic to our sites and ultimately help us sell more products / services.
Our friend Donna Marshall at TN partner Stampede closed the evening with a powerful talk about not only her experiences in opening a shop on Camden Road, but how she's managing as a mum and business owner with Parkinson's, and how the disease affects her on a daily basis. She received a standing ovation from everyone in the room for being so brave and honest, not only with her talk but in sharing a video of a recent hospital appointment. Parkinson's disease is a condition that affects the brain and it causes problems like shaking and stiffness that get worse over time. Her friend Pete is currently fundraising for Parkinson's UK research by participating in the RIDE London to Essex event - to donate please click here.
Our next Small Business Talks will be held at Old Auction House on Wednesday 17th July. To see our speaker line up and to book your free ticket, click here.