NEW PROGRAMME STARTING 1ST JULY 2026
Businesses in Blackpool and Wyre are eligible for workshop support – however if you have attended workshops with us previously we would need to ascertain how this was implemented before offering further sessions.
It is an expectation of the programme, that by attending a funded workshop you are committed to implementing the skills learned in the session and this will be monitored by the project team. For this reason you may only book a maximum of TWO workshops.
ELIGIBILITY
- A business (or individual if you are not yet trading) that is based within the boundaries of Blackpool or Wyre Council (Fylde Council is NOT eligible – but you can pay to attend privately)
- If you have received fully funded support from us in the past, you may be eligible again if your business has continued to grow
August 2026
Suitable for: Pre Start or early stage businesses
10am til 12pm
This workshop will cover all the financial management of your new business
- What accounts you need to file and when
- What taxes you need to pay and when
- How you manage your basic book keeping
- Cashflow planning and forecasting
- How to pay yourself (legally!!)
- How to make sure you don’t run out of money
Suitable for: Growth or Scale up businesses
10am til 1pm – in person at Peel House, Peel Road, FY4 5JX
This session is designed for growing businesses, who want to scale, are demonstrating growth but feel that their are either:
- Busy fools – always busy but this isn’t reflecting in the profits / personal earnings
- Always ‘in’ the business – you fear taking a holiday, and when you do, your phone is glued to your fingertips!
- You’re exhausted from fire fighting one problem after another – staff messing up, clients unhappy, projects derailed…
If one or more of the above applies to you – this session is a must.
It’s a practical, no nonsense attack on the biggest areas in your business relating to Sales, People and Money! You will leave with a better grasp, an understanding of how to create systems, and a clear vision of how to get more personal benefit from your business.
This is not a ‘motivational’ session – it’s about attacking common problems with real systems.
September 2026
This session is in person at Peel House 10am until 2pm and is for scaling businesses with AT LEAST 2 employees.
During this session you will learn:
- The different between a leader and a manager
- Different management styles and understanding what your own is (and how you can adapt it in different situations or for different personalities to get the best out of people)
- Getting the best performance out of your team and what attributes are important / less important
- Handling difficult conversations, conflict and dispute resolution with employees and stakeholders
This is a collaborative, hand on, high level leadership coaching session delivered by John Woodruffe of Turnkey Solutions, a highly sought after specialist in leadership, lean and Six Sigma Blackbelt
Suitable for: Growth and Scale Up Businesses
10am til 12pm held on Zoom
This workshop will cover:
- Understanding which organisations procure by tender and why
- What does a tender process look like
- How are tenders evaluated / awarded
- Need to knows around compliance and governance
- Why your bids may have scored poorly
- Why you should not use Ai to write your bid!
This session is ideal for any businesses thinking about tendering for work, or have previously done so and want to understand how to improve their bid next time.
This is relatively entry level and designed for bid of up to £200k not millions
Suitable for: All trading businesses
10am until 1pm at Wyre Civic Centre
10am – 12pm
Search is changing faster than ever and the rules that worked two years ago won’t get you found today. In this focused, 2-hour online session, you’ll get a clear, practical roadmap for ranking in a landscape now shaped as much by AI as by traditional search engines.
What we’ll cover:
- Keyword research that works today: how to uncover the terms your audience actually searches for, focusing on intent over raw volume, and the tools that make the job easier
- On-site SEO best practice: optimising your content, page structure, headings, metadata, and internal linking so search engines understand and reward your pages
- Technical foundations: the behind-the-scenes signals that affect ranking, from site speed and mobile-friendliness to crawlability and indexing
- Off-site SEO and authority building: how backlinks, reputation, and external signals boost your credibility and rankings, plus practical ways to earn them
- AI-driven search methodology: how AI Overviews, answer engines, and chat-based search are changing the game, and what it means for how you’re found
- Optimising to be cited, not just clicked: practical tactics for staying visible when AI summarises answers directly in the results
- Future-proofing your strategy: how to adapt as search continues to evolve, so your approach stays effective beyond today’s trends
You’ll leave with actionable tactics you can apply immediately and a clearer understanding of where search is heading next.
Perfect for: You will already be implementing SEO, but want a clear, up-to-date framework that aligns with AI advances.
Suitable for: Growth or Scale up businesses
10am til 1pm – in person at The Robinson, Blackpool
This is the second session in the two-part series, with the first identifying Ai opportunities and this one in how to implement these changes:
- How to train Ai agents
- How to create automations and workflows
This is a practical session, and you should have attended Part 1 as we need to know ahead of this session which processes / opportunities you want to work on
Lunch is provided. This session is limited to 10 people – sorry we can only allow one person per business for this session to enable Nicola to be able to help everyone
St
Suitable for: Pre Starts and Early Stage businesses (less than 12 months trading)
10am until 1pm at Blackpool Enterprise Centre, Lytham Rd, Blackpool
This workshop will cover all the essentials of starting a business – whether you’re planning to start a business, or have already done so, but now feel you skipped past some of the important stuff such as:
- Business structures (sole trader, limited company, CIC etc)
- Legalities (insurance, licencing, etc)
- Financial compliance (tax returns, self assessment, book keeping)
- Business and budget planning
- Personal survival – how will you afford to live before it makes money?
- Funding – do you need to borrow money?
- How will you reach your market (sales / marketing etc)
This session includes a light lunch and refreshments.
October 2026
Suitable for: Growth and Scale Up businesses who are already managing social media pages competently
10am until 1pm at Wyre Civic Centre, Poulton
This workshop is for business owners and marketers wanting to take their skills to the next level beyond simply posting content to their pages:
- Understanding what the algorithm wants from you
- Growing your audience and measuring impact
- Monetisation of your pages and audiences
- Creating scroll-stopping content and Reels
- What’s new in 2026
This session includes a light lunch and refreshments.
Suitable for: Growth businesses with £75k+ turnover
10am til 1pm at Peel House, FY4 5JX with Nikki Hesford
Suitable for: Pre Start or early stage businesses
10am til 12pm at The Robinson Building
This workshop will cover all the financial management of your new business
- What accounts you need to file and when
- What taxes you need to pay and when
- How you manage your basic book keeping
- Cashflow planning and forecasting
- How to pay yourself (legally!!)
- How to make sure you don’t run out of money
Suitable for: Pre Start or early stage businesses
Wed 21st Oct | 10am til 12pm held on Zoom with Nikki Hesford
This workshop is designed for businesses who are moving to a cloud based book keeping system such as Quickbooks for the first time. Leave this session having a good understanding of:
- How to set it up for the first time (linking to the Gov Gateway)
- Understanding what it can/cannot do and how it will save you time and money in the long run
- Creating Invoices and getting paid
- Reconciling daily transactions
- Running basic reports and understanding what those reports mean
Workshop Booking Form
Please complete all fields in the form. If you have any issues please email: bookings@thesmallbusinessacademy.co.uk.
