Business Support

ROCHDALE COUNCIL
FREE BUSINESS SUPPORT
WINTER TRAINING PROGRAMME

Don’t miss out on this exciting package of FREE business training courses running throughout February and March designed to help your business thrive and grow.
All courses are free of charge to Rochdale borough businesses only (employing less than 250 staff). For businesses outside of the borough or more than 250 staff, a small charge of £25 per course is applied. Places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment.
To book any of the courses please contact Lucy Pinto on Tel: 01706 926641
or email: lucy.pinto@rochdale.gov.uk

Access to Finance – delivered by So Business Solutions (NEW)
Wednesday 01 February, 9am – 12pm, Denehurst Suite,
Rochdale AFC
So, your business needs finance? If the answer is yes
then come along to this 3 hour seminar and find out about
the types of business finance available, how to apply,
and understand what investors are looking for in your
application.

RMBC Business Breakfast Thursday 02 February, 8am – 9.30am,
Heywood Sports Village
Join us for Breakfast and meet the Chief Executive of
Rochdale Council, get your questions answered and
network with other businesses around the Borough.

Business Planning – delivered by Prosper Associates (NEW)
Monday 06 February, 9.30am – 4.30pm,
Castlemere Community Centre
Monday 05 March, 9.30am – 4.30pm, Keytech Lounge,
Rochdale AFC
Every successful business has to regularly review its
business plan to ensure it continues to meet its needs
and responds to variations in the market such as the
economy, its customer base and competition. Reviewing
your business plan on a regular basis will aid the process
for identifying the most likely strategies for growing your
business.

Enhancing Customer Care – delivered by Training Works
Tuesday 07 February, 9am – 1pm, Keytech Lounge,
Rochdale AFC
Tuesday 06 March, 9am – 1pm, Keytech Lounge,
Rochdale AFC
Suitable for any member of staff within your organisation
dealing with customers. This highly interactive training
module will give you an insight into the importance of every
single interaction with a customer and give delegates the
skills to be able to deal with customers confidently in a
warm and professional way, conduct excellent telephone
behaviour, and build effective relationships with your
customers.

Finance for Non Financial Managers – delivered by 5TM
Wednesday 08 February, 9am – 1pm, Castlemere
Community Centre
Wednesday 21 March, 9am – 1pm, Keytech Lounge,
Rochdale AFC
Need help understanding your business accounts? This
course will enable you to produce your own cashflow
statements and forecasts, understand what your Profit
& Loss Account and Balance Sheet actually means and
help you budget better and keep cash in your business for
longer!

Wind: The Business Opportunity! – delivered by Envirolink (NEW)
Thursday 09 February, 8am – 12.30pm,
Hopwood Hall College, Middleton Campus
The offshore and onshore wind sector is set to grow
significantly. The opportunities cover a broad range of
technologies and services from environmental assessment
to heavy fabrication. This event will provide an up-to-date
briefing on the scale of opportunity, industry requirements
and support available to Rochdale borough businesses.
If your business is in the manufacturing, engineering or
maintenance industries, this event is for you.

Databases & Direct Marketing – delivered by Charter Solutions (NEW)
Monday 13 February, 9am – 1pm,
Unique Enterprise Centre
Monday 19 March, 9am – 1pm, Unique Enterprise Centre
Databases and direct marketing activities are cost effective
and proven effective marketing tools that will help grow
your business. This half-day, hands-on workshop using a
PC will give information and practical advice on building a
database, how to manage it to ensure it is kept up-to-date,
how to design and write eye catching direct mail literature
and how to combine these two elements through the use of
mail merge.

Marketing – delivered by So Business Solutions
Wednesday 15 February, 9am – 12pm, Denehurst Suite,
Rochdale AFC
Wednesday 14 March, 9am – 12pm, Keytech Lounge,
Rochdale AFC
A highly recommended training course suitable for small
business owners or more senior members of staff within
your organisation who carry out marketing activities.
During this 3 hour session you will learn 4 x marketing
modules including marketing strategy, branding, the
marketing mix and marketing communications.

Time Management – delivered by Prosper Associates (NEW)
Thursday 16 February, 9.30am – 4.30pm,
Castlemere Community Centre
Monday 12 March, 9.30am – 4.30pm, Keytech Lounge,
Rochdale AFC
Take control of your time, be more efficient in your work
and happier in your life! This workshop will focus on
managing time, managing your workload, delegation,
achieving results and improving the effectiveness and
efficiency of tasks.

Sales – delivered by the University of Bolton
Monday 20 February, 9.30am – 1pm, Denehurst Suite,
Rochdale AFC
A highly recommended course aimed at business owners
/ managers wanting to improve sales performance. You
will learn a new concept in sales performance and how to
guarantee selling success!

Guerrilla Marketing – delivered by Great Marketing Works
Tuesday 21 February, 10am – 1pm, Denehurst Suite,
Rochdale AFC
Wednesday 07 March, 10am – 1pm, Keytech Lounge,
Rochdale AFC
If you are looking for a completely new learning style and
want to see results fast within your business at low cost,
this course is for you!
A highly interactive session ideal to follow on from our
Marketing course, this workshop will provide you with
inspiration and guerrilla marketing tactics you can deploy
that won’t cost you a fortune and will produce results.

Social Media Marketing for Beginners - delivered by Why Not Change? (NEW)
Wednesday 22 February, 9.30am – 4.30pm,
Unique Enterprise Centre
Thursday 15 March, 9.30am – 4.30pm,
Unique Enterprise Centre
A practical full day workshop which enables businesses
with little or no experience of social media to understand
what social media is and how it can be used to grow their
own business. Aimed at beginners, participants will leave
with three main social media profiles set up, be able to
post relevant engaging content, and be able to deal with
feedback. Please note: Due to the limited spaces available on
this course we recommend you book early to avoid
disappointment. Participants are required to have a good
understanding of using the PC / internet.

Get Social Media Savvy – delivered by SO Business Solutions
Wednesday 29 February, 9.30am – 12.30pm,
Denehurst Suite, Rochdale AFC
Wednesday 28 March, 9.30am – 12.30pm,
Keytech Lounge, Rochdale AFC
This advanced course is for regular social media users who
want to see more results from successful social media
campaigns. This 3-hour module will teach you how to use
social media for your business, how to engage with your
audience effectively, promote best practice, top tips and
lead to bottom line results.

e-Marketing – delivered by Great Marketing Works
Tuesday 28 February, 10am – 4pm,
Unique Enterprise Centre
Thursday 29 March, 10am – 4pm,
Unique Enterprise Centre
This full day course will give you an insight on how to
improve your presence on the world wide web, offer you
lots of ideas for digital marketing, learn about search
engine optimisation, analytics and everything you need to
know about e-marketing!

Telesales – delivered by Charter Solutions
Tuesday 13 March, 9am – 1pm, Keytech Lounge,
Rochdale AFC
This training module is designed for anybody in business
who wants to sell successfully over the phone. You will
learn how to prepare for a call, develop your elevator pitch,
learn how to handle the ‘blockers’, persistence techniques,
questioning skills, presenting your product or service,
objection handling and closing that sale!

Sell, Pitch & Present – delivered by So Business Solutions
Tuesday 20 March, 9am – 12pm, Denehurst Suite,
Rochdale AFC
A highly recommended course for business owners /
managers wanting to improve presentation skills and
techniques.
You will learn how to overcome your fears of selling, how to
communicate effectively, the do’s and don’ts of Powerpoint,
fine tune your presenting skills and, if you are brave
enough, deliver your own presentation pitch!

Credit Control – delivered by So Business Solutions (NEW)
Thursday 22 March, 9am – 12pm, Keytech Lounge,
Rochdale AFC
A 3-hour workshop to improve the cash position of a
growing business by addressing the cost of credit and
looking at effective recovery solutions.

DISCLAIMER:
These training courses are aimed at established Rochdale
borough based businesses (employing less than 250
employees) and are designed to support and facilitate their
growth and contribution to the local economy. (Please note:
They are not intended for individuals proposing to start up
in business).

Although there is no charge for attending these training
courses, attendees will be required to provide some
basic business and financial data relating to their
business upon registration, and to commit to providing
feedback to Rochdale MBC relating to any improvements
/ developments in the company’s economic and financial
performance in the subsequent 6-12 months.

This information collected may contribute to justify further
investment in additional training courses at later dates
and could also be beneficial in generating publicity and
promotional activity of business achievements where
appropriate.

Many of the training courses may involve attendees
developing actions that they propose to undertake as
a result of attending the workshops to improve their
individual and business performan