“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming after all is a form of planning” – Gloria Steinem.

We are so privileged to work with so many entrepreneurs who ‘dream big’, and it has been wonderful to work with so many amazing fast growth businesses over the last three years at Sussex Innovation and at such an extraordinary time of business challenges – from Brexit, through the pandemic and now into the many ongoing ripples of post-Covid recovery.

But whilst we call ourselves an Innovation Centre, the reality is that much of the innovation is self-generated by the companies we host and nurture through our coaching. Generally led by consultants who have ‘walked the walk’ themselves – who know the sleepless nights of not being able to pay their staff or know where the next funding round is coming from – our work is often much more practical and mundane. Everything from financial forecasting to robust sales and marketing strategies, to grounded, solid and measurable approaches to PR or social media outreach.

Admittedly these areas of business are much less sexy than running after every shiny great new idea and implementing new things all the time, but these are the things that can make the difference between a fledgling company going under or surviving, or moving from surviving to thriving.

The things we are asked for more than anything else are financial planning support, sources of funding, preparing pitch materials, sales and marketing plans and staff attraction and retention.

Recently we have been making our ‘Sussex Pioneers’ edutainment series across East Sussex to help businesses find insight and inspiration to help them recover from Covid, and the approaches of entrepreneurs to managing risk WHILST fostering their innovation dreams were many and varied. They might well offer great lessons for your business – if you’d like to join us for an exclusive Sussex Innovation preview of the show please do so here.

My love of working with business owners of all sizes to help the realise their big visions, create success and manage failure has never been greater – just as well as the challenges of post-Covid supply chains, currency fluctuation, inflation and employee attraction and retention remain present for businesses of all sizes. For at least the near future they will require deft handling alongside new ideas and dreams. I feel strongly that it is through collaboration and sharing both big dreams and solid processes that we will successfully weather the storms ahead.

To talk to me about your business needs, and the funded packages we have to support you, book a meeting HERE.