A series of free workshops for companies in the wards of Anfield, Everton, County, Kirkdale, Linacre and Derby which are part of the Stepclever initiative.

The workshops are to be held at both Liverpool Football Club, Anfield and Aintree Racecourse, and aim to aid companies in understanding the process of making a bid for important public and private sector contracts.

The public sector alone is worth £500 billion each year in contracts. The forthcoming workshops will give companies the skills and information to tender successfully and win new contracts.

Each event will run from 9am to 4pm and will include refreshments and lunch.

A brief overview of each event follows:

Expressions of Interest and Pre-Qualification Questionnaires
16 October 2008 - Liverpool Football Club, Anfield
An opportunity for companies to develop expressions of interest in a contract, understand PQQs and admittance to approved supplier lists, how to respond to the PQQ, understand the value of developing a strong business relationship with clients.
Also there is a marketing tools & presentation skills session built into the programme which will ‘arm’ companies with all the right bullets!

Successful Tender Submission and Management
23 October 2008 - Liverpool Football Club, Anfield
An opportunity to decide whether to bid, pricing considerations, e-capability, contractual issues, bid planning, bid submissions, bid follow-up.

Understanding Business Finance
29 October 2008 - Aintree Racecourse
For companies, understanding the finances of a business is key to success, particularly for sole traders, partners and directors.
This programme introduces companies not only to the documentation and how to analyse it but also to look at the key business ratios that affect that information and what external users see when they look at financials.

For further information contact June Davies on 0151 224 1891 or email june.davies@liverpoolchamber.org.uk

Beer, Beer, Lovely Beer

Question: What’s better than one of Liverpool Chamber’s famous platform lunches, featuring lovely grub, networking and presentations from some of the city’s most interesting businesses?

Answer: All of that, plus beer!

Don’t miss this unique business lunch event taking place at The Beer Festival At Liverpool Cricket Club. Situated on Aigburth Road, the festival will feature the country’s finest cask conditioned beers, draught and bottled lagers and ciders.

If that doesn’t sound like a legitimate excuse for a boozy working lunch, I don’t know what does.

Book your place online here.

Last week we introduced some tips from Freedom Coaching on how to protect your business from these economic hard times. This week, in part two, we get tips on how to focus on profit, attacking it from both sides - reducing costs and improving sales value.

Step 2

Focus of profit. The name of the game is to improve profit by attacking it at both ends, reducing costs and improving sales value.

Who are your most profitable customers, who are your least profitable customers?

• What are your most and least profitable markets?
• Which of your products and services are the most profitable, which are the least profitable?
• Who are your most and least profitable employees?
• What cost can we drive out of the business?
• How can we improve our gross margin?

Use your answers to the above questions to make the necessary changes to increase profit and reduce outgoings.
Read the rest of this entry »