Started your own business or thinking about setting one up?

Build A Business is an innovative new project aimed at small businesses, entrepreneurs and anyone thinking of starting their own business.

We offer free, tailored support to new businesses and entrepreneurs through workshops and events. Our SME Champion will provide one to one support and create a business information plan specific to you.

Get the skills and confidence you need to succeed

The workshops we deliver are specifically designed to support new businesses, people who are in the process of setting up a business or just have a business idea. The four workshops are:

Business Basics: Getting started – Build a Business is back with our new workshop on the nuts and bolts of getting started! Join Wendy Breakell, entrepreneur and named one of the top 50 business advisors in the Northwest, for this three-hour workshop covering the practicalities of starting and growing your business. This workshop covers the essential ‘nuts and bolts’ of starting up and running a successful enterprise, including:

  • Legal structures – self-employed, limited company etc.
  • Business planning & Business Model Canvas
  • Start up business model
  • Costs, Cashflow, Finance and Tax
  • Pricing

And more…

Marketing: The Essentials – Join Rachel Craig and Karen Macwee from Ruche Marketing who’ll be delivering Build a Business’s all new marketing workshop  on the core essentials of marketing to get you started. Rachel and Karen combined have almost 40 years of marketing experience and have designed this workshop to help give you the skills, knowledge, and confidence to market your business successfully. The workshop will cover:

  • Understanding your customers/customer segmentation
  • Building an effective marketing strategy
  • Planning marketing campaigns
  • Building a brand through consistent marketing
  • Simple search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques
  • Creating effective social media content
  • Understanding PPC and display advertising.

They’ll also be on hand to answer any specific marketing questions about your business.

Know Your Customer: Get Competitive! – Giving valuable insights into unlocking the Business & IP Centre Manchester’s £5 million collection of UK and global business databases (including market research and company and financial information) to assess market potential and develop a viable business plan, upskilling you to ‘know your market’.

Intellectual Property: Protect Your Assets – Find out the basics of Intellectual Property (IP) and how it can be important to a new business. Make sure your product, service, website, and brand are protected from would be copycats or do not infringe others’ rights.

You will also be able to access a wide range of support and information from the Business and Intellectual Property Centre as well as drop in to our monthly coffee mornings or book onto one of our 1-2-1 slots.

Book an event →

For more information, and events, please see the Build A Business website.

Please note: Attendees are advised to book onto all modules of Build A Business.

Unable to see an event in your area or would like more information? Please contact Eccles.library@scll.co.uk or Karen.yates@scll.co.uk.

Business information resources

You will also have access to over £5million worth of industry standard business information. This includes market research, details of latest trends, details of grants, loans and awards available for application as well as guides on starting a business. For information on resources available in Salford libraries, please see our Business information databases web page.

Build a Business in GM Libraries is part funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and managed by Manchester City Council. The project will run from October 2023 to March 2025 .