Support Your SMEs Through
The Cost Of Living Crisis

I run the Start-ups in London Libraries program for the London Borough of Waltham Forest. We work with the British Library and nine other London boroughs to deliver ERDF-funded workshops to pre-start-ups and early stage entrepreneurs, in the space of our lovely local libraries. It is important that we consistently seek out service providers who can inform our customers about external factors that may impact their business. Naturally Brexit was a key concern for many of our stakeholders, so we were thrilled to be able to welcome Chris and Sietske from Brexit Help during one of our core workshops. The information they presented was insightful for the 30+ participants – feedback was that it helped them to think about Brexit in a different way, to evaluate how their business might be at risk, to be aware of the Brexit support resources available to them, and to be more at ease with the ambiguity of the situation. We were grateful for the content provided, and for Chris and Sietske’s enthusiasm in sharing their knowledge.

We really appreciated the workshop you ran for us. It came at a time of great uncertainty and your advice was much appreciated. Sietske was incredibly knowledgeable, professional and communicative. She managed the crowd of concerned business owners diplomatically and delivered the workshop in a calm and personable manner. With plenty of time for one to one advice afterwards. I would highly recommend BrexitHelp [now ResilienceHelp.com] for support and assistance. They provided a useful foundation and understanding of the issues involved in Britain leaving the EU and what that meant for our business members going forward.

Chris and his team from the London Growth Hub delivered an excellent workshop on “Navigating Brexit For SMEs” for Richmond Council on 20 June 2019 which enabled us to support more local businesses through the maze of Brexit complexities!   The advance preparatory material was well thought through; the presentations were very relevant, useful and easy to understand; and the workshop follow up, including attendance certificates, was appreciated by all.  Very good team approach overall and offered good value to our local business community.   

Gian Marco and I found the [Brexit] workshop very helpful.  Everything has been organised very well, the presenter was absolutely prepared about the subject. We’ve had interesting information to prepare our business to every possible Brexit scenario.

Attendees at the Waltham Forest workshop came from a broad spectrum of sectors, sizes and stages and it was amazing to see everyone gain so much from their participation. The depth and breadth of material shared was spot on and we all came away feeling better informed and prepared, thanks to the engaging and open tone struck by the presenter. The team at BrexitHelp.net were a pleasure to work with throughout and their professionalism ensured smooth organisation throughout.

In February and May 2019, London Growth Hub visited PBC providing small and medium-sized businesses with information about Brexit and the changes will impact their activities. Maria Stammers, our Senior Business Advisor, who attended the seminars said ‘The seminar was informative. They gave up-to-date accurate information in a simple to understand format. Good advice for businesses to get ready in advance.’

We worked with Chris on delivery of a Brexit preparedness session for London based businesses. Chris and his colleagues, Sietske de Groot and Guido Reinke, were able to engage the delegates with their knowledgeable and clear delivery style. Their guidance on a topic on which there is a great deal of uncertainty but still much that can be done to prepare was perfect. Reassuring, practical and good honoured.

At Magiboards we wanted to explore if we could make use of the stellar growth of Amazon by selling some of our products in the platform; previous attempts to list and sell our products had failed and ended up costing us more than it generated. Chris MacNeil at e/Booster gave us advice on what type of products to trial, how to create listings for these, how to get inventory to Amazon and, perhaps most importantly, how to navigate the unique processes of the Amazon organisation and systems. Almost all of the pitfalls and hurdles that Chris alerted us to came onto our path, but thanks to his excellent consultancy we were able to deal with these efficiently and the trail products we launched on Amazon are now selling successfully and we are looking to add more products. I cannot recommend Chris high enough. He is there for you when you need him and either Chris or his associates will be able to answer all of your questions very clearly and efficiently.

I cannot thank BrexitHelp enough for their detailed and tailored expertise throughout all of their workshops in Camden, and indeed across London.  The SMEs have felt supported, had their questions and concerns answered, and been given important advice to help future proof their businesses.  It’s almost unprecedented to have so much change within one year – a global pandemic (COVID-19), early elections and EU negotiation push backs – but BrexitHelp have always upheld a united and informative front, which has been up-to-date and accessible for all.  Thank you.

Through 2019, dozens of Hackney-based businesses attended sessions of the London Growth Hub’s “Navigating Brexit for SMEs” (which was delivered by BrexitHelp.net) Sietske de Groot and Rosina Robson delivered a number of detailed information sessions which provided Brexit context and support to our SMEs across a wide range of business sectors. They provided quality advice, helping our businesses identify challenges, and indeed some opportunities. The BrexitHelp team had a detailed and clear action plan, which was accessible to all businesses and highlighted the importance of preparation in order to stay resilient.  These are personal, bespoke and professional workshops, that I’d highly recommend.

Sietske’s talk was excellent and exactly what was needed given the timing of Pure London’s AW20/21 edition. The session provided essential business insights to help both brands and buyers navigate the changing trade landscapes both pre and post-Brexit, a political situation that none of us have ever experienced before. An incredibly valuable addition to the Pure London speaker line-up that was both topical and informative.

The Brexit workshop delivered was extremely well received by our clients who found it informative, easy to follow and a huge help to them and their business. Thank you for all your continued support!

The Brexit Help team delivered a How to prepare for Brexit workshop, for Wandsworth Council in July 2019.

The session was well attended and really well received.  Guido – the presenter – was great and incredibly knowledgeable.

He pitched his talk perfectly and was extremely generous with his time – staying for ages afterwards to talk to business owners about their concerns. The feedback after the event was really positive. It was a pleasure working with Chris and his team, who I cannot recommend highly enough.

LB Brent were delighted to host two ‘Navigating Brexit for SMEs’ sessions to help prepare businesses ahead of the UK exiting the EU. The presenters were extremely knowledgeable in this area and pitched information to attendees at the right level. Business owners went away with a greater understanding of how to future proof their business and make them more resilient to the impacts of Brexit.

In late November, we ran a session in tandem with the London Growth Hub and Brexithelp.net.  It was an insightful and engaging session, presented by Sietske de Groot. Despite the uncertainty surrounding this situation and defining what Brexit means, Sietske gave great clarity to businesses in how to prepare, taking the time to go into the detail and even support specific sector focused questions. Those in attendance found the session useful, with some practical takeaways in preparation for Brexit. The team did well to avoid bias and look at the opportunities to support small businesses and start ups. Chris was great at supporting the session, getting everything organised and set up!

Thank you very much to the London Growth Hub and Sietske de Groot for delivering the Brexit Resilience Workshop to the entrepreneurs of the Prince’s Trust Enterprise programme. The workshop was able to exaggerate the need for SME’s to continuously monitor the progress of Brexit talks using certain resources available in order to best prepare for possible impacts. It also highlighted key talking points for both product based and service based businesses, which proved valuable. There are clearly still masses of questions to be answered but this workshop is very important for keeping enterprises engaged and informed.

WorldFirst had the pleasure of hosting BrexitHelp at our London HQ for a free workshop offering SMEs training in how to successfully plan for the impact Brexit could have. Despite various Brexit developments during the planning of the workshops, BrexitHelp produced a well-organised and engaging workshop featuring key speakers such as our Chief Economist. The BrexitHelp team proactively supported our Social Media Manager in the promotion of the event across our channels, providing branded materials and suggested copy for tailoring. Overall, it was deemed to be a successful day!

Sietske’s presentation was really good, very informative which the other attendees really enjoyed and found very useful. She explained the different sections really clearly and put simply which made it easier for the audience to understand. The attendees all gave great feedback on the day and some of them emailed us after saying that it was a great event and the topic was very interesting and helpful.  Some also advised us that they’d visited the websites provided to have a read through in their own time which shows the presentation must have stuck with them. Sietske’s presentation was also very helpful for us in the branch as we are also able to better understand the issues our clients may be facing, which helps us to speak to them about how we can try help too.

We have had the pleasure to host the Brexit seminar twice at the City Business Library, with speakers Dr Guido Reinke and Sietske de Groot. The seminar is of great practical use for any business already trading or looking to trade internationally.  The presenter for each seminar gave a very informative overview of potential impacts of leaving the EU, and there was time for specific questions on different industries. Totally recommend it.

Kingston Chamber of Commerce were very pleased to be able to work with brexithelp.net to deliver information and support to our members.  We worked with them to deliver seminars and one to one advice sessions both at our business expo and at a networking breakfast and found them very knowledgeable and approachable at all times.  The information they provided was clear and easy to understand for all audiences and overall the feedback was very good from our attendees.