A thriving business centre in Hampshire is laying on special information events for a record 39 businesses on site.
Ocean Village Innovation Centre (OVIC) in Southampton, run by innovation centres specialist Oxford Innovation, has kicked off the new year by teaming up with HR and marketing specialists to provide valuable insights for customers.
Centre manager Rob Greenberg said: “We have a strong culture of supporting entrepreneurs with added-value events. This is one of the ways in which we can facilitate professional guidance for start-ups and early-stage firms.
“A fair amount of handholding is required for businesses in their infancy – they may have a brilliant service, product or process but may lack valuable insights into the essentials, such as marketing and human resources.
“Start-ups that don’t proactively promote themselves, or make costly employment mistakes through benign or willful ignorance, enter the fiercely competitive market place at their peril.”
OVIC has a record occupancy rate of 93% from February 1st, with 67 serviced offices. As well as the 39 businesses on site, there are 33 virtual office customers.
Stellamar, founded by OVIC-based HR recruitment specialist Adam Myers 14 months ago, is providing HR drop-in clinics, looking at inventive ways to engage and reward employees.
He said: “It is a common misconception that many workers think HR professionals are there just for transactional work, such as pay, holiday and recruitment.
“However, strategic benefits are brought into the mix as well, such as training and reward schemes that engage and motivate employees. We’re about giving attendees an idea of what’s out there without having to break the bank.”
Stellamar is also flagging up the financial and compliance implications of auto-enrolment, the low-cost workplace pension scheme which must be phased in by an estimated 1.8 million employers – large and small – over the next three years.
All Star Marketing Club, newly founded with a mission to help entrepreneurs learn and implement formidable marketing, is run by lifelong marketers Victoria Vickery and Rebecca Paterson. They are providing Marketing Lift-Off workshops.
Victoria, from Southampton, said: “Marketing is the oxygen of all businesses and making money becomes a lot harder without a marketing plan. Yet you’d be surprised how many respectable businesses wing this.
“We show attendees how to devise successful marketing strategies and techniques that can be used straight away on a limited budget, to skyrocket their business growth.
“The customers from OVIC who have attended tell us they’ve come away invigorated, inspired and informed.”
All Star Marketing Club’s events also take place at Oxford Innovation’s two other centres in the Solent region – Fareham Innovation Centre and Portsmouth Technopole – in February and March.
Rob said: “Stellamar and All Star Marketing are great examples themselves of Britain’s entrepreneurial culture – there are a record 5.4m businesses, of which 99% are small-to-medium enterprises employing 13 million people between them.”
Other occupiers at OVIC include tugs company Svitzer Towage, Project Kudos, the international asset-backed investment specialist, business organisation Business South, The Training Room, a full-service careers provider, marine software provider iXBlue, legal firm Rowe Sparkes Partnership, quantity surveyor PBQS, energy sector recruiter Nine Twenty Energy and video production specialist Southpoint Films.
Tomorrow (Tuesday, January 26), from 6-8pm, a free networking event at OVIC is also being held with Southern Entrepreneurs. The get-together of small business owners is to take place once a month.
