12 | Aycliffe Today Business
GOAL-DEN
DREAMS
Property and financial services boss Craig Peterson tells Martin Walker about an exciting
Dragons Den-style competition that has been created on Aycliffe Business Park…
Businesses can often be guilty
of trying to mimic something
successful with very little effort
to put their own spin on it,
but a coll aboration on Aycliffe
Business Park has gone to great
lengths to create an exciting
proposition that would get even
Duncan Bannatyne saying
“I’m in”
.
One lucky North East business will bag
over £100,000 of services by winning
‘Achieve Your Dream in 2014’, a Dragons’
Den-style competition organised by The
HUB Partnership.
Open to any company of any kind –
existing or start-up – the winning firm will
net a dream package of services including
office space, marketing and social media
strategies, training, PR and mentoring
support to develop a strategic growth plan.
To begin with, companies or individuals
must make applications in a 500-word
executive summary and a 10-slide
Powerpoint Presentation in the first round
of the competition. Then, similar to the hit
TV show featuring the likes of Peter Jones
and Theo Paphitis, shortlisted candidates
will ‘pitch’ their idea to a panel of judges.
It’s the brainchild of Craig Peterson,
director of the Carlton & Co Group, which
is based at and operates HUB Workspace,
with the help of Rachel Townsend Green
from Au Fait Marketing.
Craig and Rachel have pulled together
support from other HUB residents to offer
a package that will nurture the winning
“idea” with firms including design and
,
brand specialists Echo Graphics, Harlands
Accountants, Watercooler World, Growth
Funders and Aycliffe Business Park’s only
provider of PR, Mantis Media, all chipping
in.
But my first question to Craig is, why?
What do you and other businesses get out
of giving away their services?
“We want to help talented entrepreneurs
realise their full potential, he says. “We
”
created The HUB to provide a base for
great businesses to grow and thrive. We
are delighted that many of the companies
based at The HUB have grown, increased
turnover and created much needed jobs
including apprenticeships for some very
talented young people. We now want to
roll out additional support to a business
that can demonstrate ambition to grow.
“It could be a start up company or a
more established business. The common
theme is that the business is led by an
entrepreneurial team and has high growth
potential.
“All of the businesses involved in the
project want to give something back and
help an aspiring entrepreneur on the road
to achieving something spectacular.
“What we’re already finding here at The
HUB is there’s an eco-system emerging
where companies are helping each other.
They bounce ideas off each other, share
ideas and knowledge and refer work to
each other - a real collaborative approach
which is working really well.
”
Craig says the competition has been a real
joint effort, but one which he’s confident
will prove hugely popular.
“It’s been a combination of people from
different companies getting their heads
together, to come up with a support
package that can help a great, ambitious
local business to achieve a dream, he
”
says.
“One of the key things we talked about
was that for businesses to grow and
thrive, they often need early stage support,
to crystallise an idea that is absolutely
going to take off, and that support, from a
number of experienced people, across a
number of disciplines, can be a massive
help.
“If you are considering launching a new
business, product or service then it’s
vital to carry out the financial modelling,
develop the business case together with
the sales and marketing strategy… if
you look at all of those things and put
them together, a lot of small businesses
don’t have that full range of capabilities
in-house. If they can call on partners or
advisers to help with those things, it’ll be a
huge help.
“Take for example marketing. You need
to be able to communicate with your
market effectively, and marketing comes
in all shapes and sizes… PR, social media,
digital and referral marketing combine