Member Article

New small business network for north Liverpool

A group of business owners have pooled resources to create a networking club for small firms and micro businesses in the Alt Valley area of Liverpool.

The network – AVBN, Alt Valley Business Network – is a legacy of the Making Business Work project, a Merseyside-wide ERDF funded business support project that concludes at the end of 2014. The network is managed by The Alt Valley Community Trust with a partnership of local businesses.

It covers districts in north-east Liverpool including Croxteth, Norris Green, Clubmoor and Fazakerley. The economic downturn has hit areas such as these hard, yet they have no shortage of small businesses and sole traders.

The new group, launched by Council Cabinet Member for Employment & Skills, Nick Small, provides an informal monthly breakfast meeting for local businesses of any type and size, offering a very local low-cost opportunity for any firm to raise profile, create connections, keep informed and make introductions.

Network Co-ordinator Roy Meredith said: “The idea of the network is to give a voice to small and micro businesses in the Alt Valley area,” said Mr Meredith.

“There are quite a lot of businesses, particularly micro businesses, who have never done any kind of networking.

“In some cases, they might feel networking would benefit them but have been put off because they feel existing groups might be too formal. A whole range of small and micro businesses in the area could benefit from this.

“We have people such as plumbers and electricians and well as more white-collar business people, including business advisors and independent financial advisors”.

Given the profile of AVBN’s target audience, the group has initially decided to offer annual membership for a one-off payment of £35 for the whole year – which includes a monthly breakfast sandwich with tea/coffee.

The membership fee has been kept low through the support and sponsorship of one of Alt Valley’s best known small firms – Frank Bird Roofing – and some ERDF funding.

Mr Meredith said: “We will be charging a very low annual membership fee to encourage people in the area to join and give them the opportunity to see how networking can benefit them”.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .