Joining Connect Yorkshire has been a fantastic way to network, learn and tap into the knowledge of entrepreneurs with a proven track record for business success. I have benefited from an invaluable springboard mentoring session with Jonathan Straight. Jonathan was very generous with his time, highly engaging and his questions,  observations and thought leadership have really helped broaden my thinking on how to grow and market my interior design business.  The insightful discussion has given me pragmatic ideas that I am already putting into action. Thank you Jonathan!

As part of my Connect Yorkshire membership, I had a free mentoring session from one their ‘Entrepreneurs in Residence’, Vincent Ford. I found the session extremely useful as Vincent willingly shared his experience and business insight. His approach was relaxed but engaged, asking me challenging questions. He gave me real food for thought and his pragmatic advice has left me a list of things I need to do. Overall, it was a really useful sessions, leaving me with a real desire to get on and get things done. Thank you Vincent.

I met with Martin on 1st February this year. Martin was very generous with his time and very hospitable. We had an interesting exchange of ideas and I learned some useful tips from Martin’s very different approach to his businesses. As always, a worthwhile session and one of the key reasons I am a member of Connect Yorkshire.

I recently visited John McArthur at the Tracsis offices in Leeds for a springboard mentoring session. I found the session extremely useful, the opportunity to discuss a range of topics with someone who’s had similar experiences was immensely valuable. John’s pragmatic advice and challenging questions have given me plenty of food for thought. To top it off, he’s a really nice guy who was both engaging and interested, which made it a positive experience from our initial phone call right through the afternoon’s mentoring session.  Thanks to John for his time and Connect Yorkshire for facilitating.

I would like to say many thanks to Graham Royle for taking time out to see us at Manrochem. Both Andrew and I found the meeting useful and have noted down various learning points. We are going to implement and address the changes proposed and will get back in touch with Graham for any further input.

I met with one of Connect Yorkshire’s ‘Entrepreneurs In Residence’, Chris Henry, as part of the membership benefits on offer. I chose Chris as he had been very successful in my industry and I wanted to gain insight into how he had built such a fantastic business, everything from winning the high-profile clients in the Intermarketing portfolio, to the challenges he faced on the journey and how he overcame them. I wasn’t disappointed – not only was he friendly, approachable and more than happy to share his knowledge, but he also cast his very experienced eye over my business and offered invaluable advice that I have since adopted with great results. I left feeling incredibly inspired and motivated with a huge injection of confidence that I too can build a successful marketing agency. Chris and I have stayed in touch and I hope that we will work together in the future to achieve my goals, a relationship that would not have been possible without the introduction from Connect Yorkshire.

We had a session with Jonathan Sands. It was enormously beneficial to discuss business with such an experienced, and well respected, leader in our sector.We have already started to implement ideas generated in our meeting. We are thankful for the opportunity to work so closely with another exceptional agency.

Richard Jackson came to see us on site to offer his advice and answer any questions we had with regards to the running and growth of our business.

We found his knowledge and advice very useful and he is still in contact with us moving forwards to check how we are progressing and with any other information.

Thank you for the introduction and we look forward to working with Richard continually in the near future.

I met Alan Halsall, formerly of Silver Cross, for our 1 to 1 mentoring session in January 2018 and having talked him through what Little Islands is doing, it became clear that we needed to recruit somebody to focus purely on Little Islands and not partly on our residential supplies business. So we have recruited somebody who has had an immediate and major effect and we are now attending exhibitions and recruiting a sales person to drive the business forward.

Headoffice3 would like to thank Edward Ziff of Town Centre Securities and Connect Yorkshire for our mentoring session. It was very informative and an exceptional experience to discuss processes which have proven successful within our market place and how we can integrate them here at Headoffice3. Edward gave us some good constructive advice which will be acted on.