Over 300 businesses benefit from our digital support programme

Over 300 small and medium sized businesses across east and south east London are registered to receive free support from Local London’s E-business programme which helps SMEs to develop or implement digital into their businesses.

Launched in 2021, the programme is free and open to SME businesses in all sectors who would like to receive expert advice from business and digital specialists to help them get ahead in the digital age. The programme has already been hugely successful in helping SMEs across the eight Local London boroughs.

E-business advisers work with business owners and their staff to develop a programme that suits each business’s unique needs.

E-business programme helps East London Property Company

One of the many businesses owners to benefit is Kemi Ohidan of Manna House Properties.

Manna House Properties started trading in 2021. The business which is owned by Kemi Ogidan introduces development sites that are not on the market to small to medium developers, making landowners aware of the potential for development. Manna House make it simple to locate the ideal property for a developer to buy, with or without planning permission and then facilitate the transaction.

Kemi is very excited about the e-business programme, especially the support and workshops available to help transform her business. Since first meeting with her business advisors, through South East Enterprise who deliver the programme to businesses in Bexley and Greenwich, she has made a number of changes to her site and online presence.

Nishal Deeljur, E-business advisor explains:

“Over the years Kemi has built a good network of people, especially with the developers. LinkedIn has proven to be an excellent tool for B2B networking. Kemi attended our LinkedIn webinar to optimise her profile and gain some great tips. Kemi now knows that more research is needed to understand her target audience and how to build a community where she connects more with her peripheral contacts such as builders.

We discussed the benefits of SEO to improve her search rankings. Kemi has recently added back links to the developers’ sites which is mutually beneficial. She will also be writing blog posts to demonstrate her expertise and better engage with her audience.

Kemi attended our Instagram workshop to build her brand and community. We followed up with a session on Instagram and went through a checklist and identified changes to improve performance. Kemi enjoyed the workshop and understood the channel will serve as an important tool for creating brand awareness.

Kemi will produce a digital action plan to inform her digital marketing strategy. We spoke about awareness campaigns for land and property owners to understand the financial potential and also campaigns making developers aware of her brand and services sourcing “off-market land”.

Kemi uses a bespoke CRM (Customer relationship management) system which helps her to search for off-market land. We spoke about filters and templates to use within the CRM which automate many processes and organise clients and tasks in a very effective way. She has also recently started outsourcing paperwork to a company which prints and posts it for her, this has been easily and effectively done using the CRM system. This has given her more time to focus on other areas of the business and start taking it to the next level.”

Get involved with the E-business programme

Operating across all eight of our member boroughs, our delivery partners are working closely with local authorities and stakeholders to reach businesses and are recruiting staff to expand the programme.

Find out more about the programme and E-business advisor vacancies:

• Enterprise Enfield who deliver the programme to businesses in Enfield, Redbridge and Waltham Forest.
• Newham College who deliver the programme to businesses in Barking & Dagenham, Havering and Newham.
• South East Enterprise who deliver the programme to businesses in Bexley and Greenwich.