The successful Local London E-business programme that helped around 3,000 micro, small and medium-sized businesses in our nine boroughs to become more digitally-savvy and resilient has now been extended across London.
Born in Greenwich, we supported the programme to grow across our sub-region. Now, with UKSPF funding, two of the delivery partners in the successful Local London E-business programme are using their expertise to help even more businesses.
Enterprise Enfield and South East Enterprise are part of a consortium of seven business support organisations making the free business-saving programme available across the whole of London.
Launched in October 2024, the new LONDON E-Business Support Programme will continue to provide free expert advice to SMEs to help them make better use of online marketing and digital tools and technology to reduce costs and increase business growth.
Helping local artisan craft content as beautiful as her jewels
Eunice, founder of Woolwich-based Meitam, which creates rare one-off handcrafted jewellery and art pieces has attended social media workshops with South East Enterprise as well as training in SEO, content creation, video production, and digital marketing.
Totally essential for any small business
E-business support from South East Enterprise has helped Eunice develop a strong online presence and a more robust business. Armed with a better understanding of digital tools and their use, Eunice is driving her business forward.
She said “If it wasn’t for South East Enterprise I would not have any social media presence at all. I have learnt so much from their courses and my one-to-one sessions. The E-Business Programme is invaluable and totally essential for any small business.”
Find out more: www.businessforlondon.co.uk
Read more news about the Local London E-business Programme.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills. For more information, visit UK Shared Prosperity Fund
Across our boroughs small and medium sized enterprises are successfully developing their digital capabilities to grow their businesses.
With over 1,100 SMEs signed up, our E-business programme is proving bespoke digital training that has created £10 million increase in business turnover across our boroughs and safeguarded over 750 jobs.
North and south of the river, business owners are discovering how to use online software and technology to their enterprises and reach new audiences thanks to expert advisors at South East Enterprise, Enterprise Enfield and Newham College.
Helping SMEs in Enfield, Redbridge and Waltham Forest
Working with SMEs in Enfield, Redbridge and Waltham Forest, Enterprise Enfield has been actively engaging with local businesses. As well as building relationships with local businesses, and creating an online library of Events, Workshops, Webinars and Online Tutorials, Enterprise Enfield have been reaching out directly to businesses which has resulted in around 200 SMEs getting on board.
One of the SME’s they have helped is The Music Place, in Wanstead, Redbridge, where people to learn instruments and engage with music.
Business owner, Liliana, approached Enterprise Enfield looking to expand the reach of the business and to develop a marketing plan that connected The Music Place to its local community.
After conducting a digital audit of The Music Place, Enterprise Enfield’s experts advised Liliana on how to upgrade the website; implement a CRM system and create new digital marketing campaigns to attract adults to music lessons.
Taking on board both the Digital Adviser’s and Business Advisers’ guidance, The Music Place engaged a design company to help rebrand, develop public communications, and create a new website with a pupil’s and teachers’ account offering online Zoom music lessons through a ‘music education portal’. Liliana received guidance on making the most of social media – with better ways to plan and schedule posts using digital tools – and financial forecasting advice and systems to manage finances in real time.
E-business programme successes are music to our ears
Liliana said:
”Our organisation was very fortunate to have been a part of the E-Business Programme. The one-on-one sessions and live webinars with my mentors were invaluable. Their support and guidance helped us launch a brand-new digital marketing campaign, develop an online music lesson portal, and improve our bottom line.”
The Music Place has already reaped the benefits and seen a significant impact – with an 18% increase in turnover since embarking on the E-business programme. Liliana has ambitious goals for the future and will be expanding ways to partner with local schools to offer online tuition and community circles to provide more music therapy workshops to residents.
Discover the E-business programme in your borough
Local London have appointed 3 expert providers to deliver the programme:
Enfield, Redbridge and Waltham Forest – Enterprise Enfield.
Find out more.
Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Newham – Newham College of Further Education.
Find out more.
Bexley and Greenwich – South East Enterprise.
Find out more.
Latest news:
⇒ Read more news about the E-business programme and the local businesses we’re helping.
Our E-business programme is helping ever more businesses across our boroughs north and south of the river.
Free to business owners, our fully-funded programme is designed to help SMEs grasp online software and technology to help grow their enterprises.
From simply getting online to delving into the intricacies of improving how you rank in online searches (SEO), the programme delivered by South East Enterprise, Enterprise Enfield and Newham College is helping hundreds of small businesses get stronger and reach more customers.
To date it over 1,100 businesses have signed up to the programme, which has safeguarded over 750 local jobs, in fashion, translation and photography businesses to cafes and more.
Digital caffeine-shot for Bob’s Your Uncle Coffee
One of the businesses helped by South East Enterprise is Greenwich-based Bob’s Your Uncle Coffee, an independent coffee shop with a branch in Eltham and one in Croydon. Owned by partners Andy and Adrien, Bob’s serves top-notch coffee, delicious brunches and other quality dishes alongside sweet treats which are hard to resist.
The pair were helped to improve the café’s online presence using social media and website marketing. A key element was showing Adrien what to do to get the website appearing in online searches, the site was instantly picked up by Google. This allowed people to find the website which now ranks organically on search engines.
Adrien also attended one of South East Enterprise’s workshops to learn how to better engage with the local community and build a brand presence as well as a Wix website workshop.
Co-owner Adrien said “The support we received from South East Enterprise has been very useful and helped us understand how having a strong online presence can help our customers find us and really boost our business.”
Thanks to the programme, Bob’s your Uncle Coffee has created 11 jobs and safeguarded another 29.
The owners now have a digital action plan and a clear idea of the way forward. Search engine ranking and building online communities is now properly enabled and the job of developing the business can start in earnest.
Discover the E-business programme near you
Local London have appointed 3 expert providers to deliver the programme:
Enterprise Enfield deliver our e-business programme for businesses in Enfield, Redbridge and Waltham Forest.
Find out more.
Newham College of Further Education run our e-business programme for businesses in Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Newham.
Find out more.
South East Enterprise support businesses with the E-business programme in Bexley and Greenwich.
Find out more.
Latest news:
Read more news about the E-business programme and the local businesses we’re helping.
Businesses in the Local London sub-region will benefit from a new service to help them capitalise on the power of digital.
Local London – a partnership of eight councils in the North East and South East of London – has been awarded £5.62 million from the Strategic Investment Pot to develop and deliver an e-Business for Growth service for three years.
The emergence of digital marketing and other technologies is rapidly becoming more important to businesses to reach new and existing customers, engage with them and generate sales however some owners lack the knowledge and skills to capitalise effectively, and are unaware of the risks posed by threats and cybercrime.
The programme will be available to 6,000 small and medium-sized businesses in Redbridge, Enfield, Newham, Bexley, Greenwich, Havering, Waltham Forest and Barking & Dagenham.
It will be based upon a successful model piloted by the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Activities are projected to generate short and long-term positive economic impacts at local, borough and sub-regional levels worth more than £106 million over the life of the programme and beyond.
The service is currently in development and will be launched in Spring 2020.
The Strategic Investment Pot is a fund supporting business growth in London and is made up of business rates income re-distributed to the Mayor of London from Government.