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A unique job creation opportunity that helped nearly 3,000 people develop new business skills in 2019 is now being made available across Kent – for free.
The five-day business course, which encourages people to use their existing skills to make money by doing something they love, takes a unique ‘no red tape’ approach to the challenge of setting up a new business – with considerable success.
Research shows that in 2019, PopUp’s 37 UK events contributed £19.2m to the local economy, including benefits savings of nearly £8m as people turned their hobbies and interests into business ventures. With the Covid-19 pandemic putting an end to physical gatherings for the foreseeable future, PopUp has now set up a Kent-wide ‘virtual’ course that will follow exactly the same pattern but will be held online for five days from Monday 3 August. Joanna, who kept costs down by setting up her business in a summer house in her garden, said the advice to “start small, get help from friends and contacts and don’t run up big debts” was spot on. PopUp’s philosophy is firmly against people borrowing large amounts of money or worrying too much about business plans. “Our courses are aimed at people who dream of making money from something they love,” explained PopUp's Chief Operations Officer Henry Nicholson. “We inspire them to have a go and help them develop the skills they need, but we don’t encourage them to get into debt.” That advice has proved invaluable during the Covid-19 pandemic. “If I had borrowed lots of money to set up, I really would have been struggling to pay my debts by now,” Joanna explained. “Because I set things up simply, I coped with the crisis and now the lockdown is easing I am fully booked for several weeks ahead.” The online PopUp will run in the same way as the physical events, with sessions on all aspects of business, from sales, social media and networking through to setting up a free website and marketing. “We cover topics like tax and business structure, too, but we leave those until the end of the week because it’s more important to focus on your dream than on the technical issues,” Henry added. “We will have the same level of engagement via the online platform and we will even be able to set up break out ‘rooms’ for group discussions,” he said. “It will be exactly the same as attending a physical event but without any travel costs or childcare concerns." “As a society, we’ve had a tremendous challenge over the past few months with our small businesses and communities feeling the brunt of it. Now is the most important time to be helping, supporting and empowering people to keep going and build something incredible." “If you have ever dreamed of setting up your own business – and we know that Covid-19 has had a big impact on the workforce – then this is the course for you. Bring that dream along and we will show you how to turn it into a business.” The online event is part of an £8.6m, cross-channel project called Increase Valorisation Sociale (Increase VS), which is using European cash to deliver free workshops aimed at kick-starting small businesses and creating jobs. It is being sponsored by West Kent Housing Association, Orbit Housing, Southern Housing Group, Town & Country Housing, Swale Borough Council, Hyde Housing and Optivo. For more information or to book a free place, visit: www.popupbusinessschool.co.uk/kent Notes to editors:
Contact: Henry Nicholson Email: henry@popupbusinessschool.co.uk Tel: 07971938676 Website: www.popupbusinessschool.co.uk Twitter: @popupbusiness Background: The event will be livestreamed online and runs every day from 3rd – 7th August between 10am – 3pm. PopUp Business School was founded in 2012 by Alan Donegan and Simon Paine and helps people from all walks of life to start their own businesses. Its mission is to change the way entrepreneurship is taught across the world. It has educated over 7000 people in seven different countries through free events and helped launch 967 businesses in 2019 alone. Its work has been backed by organisations including Google, Henley Business School and the Department for Work and Pensions. The PopUp Business School is the best business advice that money can't buy - all of its events are free.
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 Today's Daily PopUp is two for the price of one! We have two of our BIGGEST PopUp Business Schools happening at the same time. PopUp Brent Cross and PopUp Bristol are coming from the 5th - 16th December thanks to Microsoft and Hammerson. Click each trailer to find out more!
 
 As the Happy Monday's lyrics go, we've 'got golden plans' for our visit to Manchester on 20th June. The lovely people at One Manchester have arranged for us to visit the world's first industrial city and bring our unique brand of business advice to the people of South Manchester. Famously, Manchester already has it's University and Business School, so what makes us different? Well, there's a few things that set us apart from traditional business education institutions. Firstly, there are no fees. Yes, you heard that right. The PopUp Business School is completely FREE for you to attend. It doesn't cost you anything, other than investing your time and energy with us. Secondly, we don't believe you need to write a 50 page business plan to justify to anyone why you should be allowed to start your own business or to be able to apply to a bank to get money to start your business. Simon always says that we've never met anyone who's ever said to us "a business plan changed my life". We believe you can start a business in the week you spend with us, with little planning and without pandering to anyone else. Thirdly, we don't believe you need a loan or finance to start your business. Business should be all about making money, not starting your new venture in debt to a bank. Why give your hard-earned profit back to a bank to pay off finance and interest? Why not start today, earning money without owing money? We'll show you how. So if you want to get the knowledge, skills and confidence to test your business ideas and get started in a completely supportive environment then we 100% guarantee that our workshops will be fun, inspiring and full of useful information for you. If you want to build a completely free website, learn how to use social media to find customers and start selling in the week you spend with us, then this course is for you. We'll be in the Z-arts centre in Hume, Manchester for the whole week from 20th June. To find out more about how we can help you, what other people say about us and how to book your FREE tickets, just click here. For those people looking for actual fire you're going to be disappointed! Yes it's a metaphor folks (shock) - these are the incredible people working hard on their business ideas in Thamesmead, London. With Peabody Housing Association and Trust Thamesmead we are running a two week workshop helping people to start businesses and make money doing what they love! See the highlights of day 1 below: During the two weeks we will be covering:
We are in Thamesmead from the Monday 9th of May until Friday 20th of May 2016. if you want to come along then book a ticket now and drop in.
The PopUp Business School have travelled to hundreds of locations, all over the UK; the latest one was in Newport, Wales with Newport City Homes! Newport was full of talent, creativity and enthusiasm and we helped our participants to bring that out and start selling it! With a comfortable 24 unique interactions over the 3 days, we were able to create a buzz and a working community that support each other to become more successful and love what they do!
 Sally Geldard - Picture by Malcolm Triggs While many mums would see looking after a poorly four year-old as a good excuse to get out of attending a business course, Sally Geldard was determined not to miss a single day of the PopUp Business School workshop in Ramsgate! Her enthusiasm for the Pop Up Business School (PUBS) event held in Ramsgate, funded by housing association charity West Kent Extra (WKE), meant that a beautifully behaved Sorrel sat at a table with her colouring book while mum learned more vital skills to further her business. Sally, who has set up her own business as a personal assistant for company bosses who need occasional help, had attended the first four days of the week-long course and was determined not to miss anything.  Group photo from the Ramsgate PUBS event - Photo by Malcolm Triggs The Pop Up Business School prides itself on taking the mystery out of the business process and inspiring people to ‘have a go’ rather than stifling their ideas by pointing out all the red tape they might encounter down the line.
“Most people think you need a business plan and funding to get an idea off the ground,” said co-founder Alan Donegan. “Our approach is to show people how to start with no money, be confident about their idea and then get out there and find some customers.” It was that kind of no-nonsense advice that so inspired Sally that she felt she couldn’t miss day five of the free course, held at the Oak Hotel and attended by around 20 or so people. “I have learned so much about business and how to turn my idea into a successful enterprise,” she said. “I have picked up lots or useful sales and marketing advice, gained confidence in what I want to do and, above all, discovered a real passion for making it work. “Sorrel was under the weather this morning and not well enough to go to school but I was determined to get to the last day of a course that really has been an eye-opener for me. “I came here on Monday with a fledgling business that wasn’t quite firing on all cylinders. Next Monday I will be going out there with renewed confidence, lots of great business ideas and a passion to succeed.” Sally’s business – MinerVA – offers PA skills to companies on a one-off basis, perhaps when they need to arrange an overseas business trip. “I worked as a PA in London before starting a family and I want to help local firms who can’t afford a full time PA but still need help with specific projects,” she said. “They get the right level of expert support but only pay for as much time as they need.” WKE, the community development arm of housing provider West Kent, has already worked with PUBS in Swanley and in Chatham, and achieved significant success in both places. At least two new businesses set up following the Swanley are still going strong, while the more recent event for prospective Medway entrepreneurs inspired many of those attending to take the first steps towards self-employment. WKE’s aim is to encourage and inspire local people with a business idea to set up on their own as part of its determination to support communities across the county in those areas where West Kent has homes. In Ramsgate those people included 42 year-old Mark Moreton, who picked up five days of useful advice on everything from accounting to tax and marketing in order to boost his new furniture restoration business Flippin’ Furniture. “This seemed like a great opportunity to strengthen my business knowledge and that’s what it turned out to be,” said Mark. “I have picked up a huge amount of information – and all for free.” “It’s been a great week,” added Alan Donegan. “Our aim is always to inspire potential entrepreneurs, give them the basic information they need and make sure they think about the important things – their ideas and their customers.”
 We destroy the old-fashioned approach to starting a small business. We show how confidence and a customer is the best way to get going and how to use free tools to make money. But you don’t have to take our word for it. We will show you how, by making money in 120 minutes and starting a business together in the room with you. We will share the secrets behind building small businesses without borrowing money and getting into debt. We will be covering:
Check out the events page to book your ticket for the Ellesmere Port event or any of the other events that we have coming up shortly! Got any questions? Ask us in the comments below, Tweet us at @popUPbusiness, join our Facebook Support Group or send us an enquiry! We are excited to Announce that in Partnership with the South Kilburn Trust we are on our way to run a series of 4 short PopUp Business School events form the South Kilburn Studios! For full details click here:
If you want to know more tweet us your questions @popupbusiness or to @alandonegan
For the Kilburn Trust you can find them on Facebook here or on Twitter here The full page on the website with links to the EventBrite to get your tickets is here. We are very excited to announce that we are partnering with EOS who are one of the Prime providers of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Welfare to work programme to bring Pop-Up Business School to Aston, Birmingham from the 21st of October 2013 
To find out more about the Birmingham event go to the event page here
We have been totally inspired by the entrepreneurs in Watford and their energy!
At the bottom of this is a challenge for all Entrepreneurs and start-ups that will help your business get to the next level! Read on for the challenge!
The Entrepreneurs Challenge
When every entrepreneur starts out in business they are scared that they won't get enough customers so when we given them the advice that they have to chose a market and niche down they are instinctively reluctant and want to say "I can sell anything to anyone!"
The Entrepreneurs Curse: "I can sell anything to Anyone"!
If you start this mantra then you will fall into the same trap that Alan (co-founder of the Pop-Up Business School) fell into when he started his business and you WON'T SELL ANYTHING to ANYONE!
The challenge is to get specific
Your challenge is to get as specific as possible and to tweet us (this is on purpose to restrict you to 140 characters!) the answer to this question: "what do you sell and who are you selling it to!
Be as specific as you can and Mark, Alan, Simon and the Pop-Up Business School team will support you in refining your statement!
See you there for a short session from Alan & Mark and lots of networking!  Click on the picture for a google map of the venue!
See you there on Saturday at 14:30 The Harebreaks Community Hub The Square Watford WD24 6NJ We are really looking forward to our forthcoming visit in October at Poplar HARCA and it is has been wonderful to have so much support and enthusiasm: Thank you. We are really excited to announce Tony Pass: Retail Expert. Tony will be running new workshops in Poplar for us! We are delighted to have Tony Pass who was a student of our first ever Pop-up Business School which was held in Weston-super-Mare last October. Tony was unable to attend the 2nd week of the course. Why? Because he spent the whole weekend at the end of the first week putting into practice what he had learned and he was awarded with a contract straight away! Can you imagine the energy that was felt in the room? Everyone (including us!) was so excited and thrilled that:
Tony has over 20 years experience of working in the retail sector – however, as we all know, a lot has changed over the last 20 years. Tony admitted that he was on the verge of giving up his business and getting a “proper job” as he was struggling to pay the bills. Tony said “Coming on the Pop-up Course was my one last ditch attempt...the course gave me confidence and showed me how to build my own website and direct traffic to it. People have found me through my website and I am now having to turn work down!” Tony is delighted to be sharing his knowledge with you on Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th October. Be sure to book your FREE tickets to this event, we promise it will be fun and engaging...you will not be disappointed. For more information about our forthcoming Poplar event click here Why not say Hi to Tony on Twitter! @TheRetailOp
6 months after our first event in Weston-Super-Mare we went back to the participants and asked them what has happened since! This infographic shows you the impact of that 2 week workshop we did with 46 people back in October 2012  Weston Super Mare Pop-Up Business School 6 month report We are so happy that so many people started businesses, made money and increased their confidence and happiness. Alliance Homes and Knightstone Housing are thrilled too! So much so we are coming back to Weston-Super-Mare this November to run another event. For more information about the Weston Super Mare event November 2013 click here
If you want to start a business, build your confidence, make money or even grow your existing business even further come along and let's do it together.
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