EMPOWERING LOCAL SUCCESS: A VIBRANT YEAR OF SMALL BUSINESS WORKSHOPS AND BEYOND IN THE ISLE OF MAN

Business Isle of Man have been supporting and running Small Business Workshops since 2019. In line with our programme for the 2023 year we have continued to roll out this support with 12 events held this year that included a range of topics such as social media advertising and an introduction to VAT. The first series of workshops welcomed over 300 attendees with 83% of attendees saying that the topics were valuable as they could relate them to their day-to-day business operations.

The final event in the series for this year was held on November 2nd at St Ninian's Church and was a trial of a brand new format that which provided us with very useful feedback and thoughts from attendees which will help shape the next instalment of workshops. For 2024 we are looking at continuing this support as it is a key method of helping our local small businesses adapt to a changing economic environment and providing them with the tools to capitalise on their opportunities.

The focus on these workshops is to help local businesses have access to the key information and guidance they need, use the sessions to actively apply this to their business plans and connect with other local businesses. An expressions of interest for speakers to be involved with this program will be released shortly via our social-media channels.

In addition to the Small Business Workshops additional support is being put in place for small businesses by way of the current outreach program as promoted on our social media pages. An officer from Business Isle of Man is currently visiting 12 locations around the Island throughout November to hold drop-in sessions for local business owners to come forward with their feedback, challenges and opportunities.

The purpose of the drop-ins is to increase the level of communication and support that Business Isle of Man can offer businesses. For updates and more information on the above, please feel free to email the Business Isle of Man Team directly at: contact-business@gov.im.