We at STEAMhouse are aware there will be different pressures for everyone following COVID-19 but we wanted to remind you, as hard as it may be at times, to spend some time focusing on the below areas:
· Wellbeing
We cannot reiterate how important it is for everyone to stay safe during COVID-19 but also to remind you to look after yourself physically, as well as emotionally and financially, wherever possible.
We are aware there will be financial ramifications for many of our members and other businesses and therefore some of you will need to have challenging conversations with family members, friends, funders, bankers, suppliers, partners etc which cannot be delayed. We therefore just wanted to remind you that your wellbeing is the most important thing. None of us can predict how long this is going to last for but we feel that we can all try to do something by supporting one another by either making that phone call or sending a text or email to avoid feeling alone during these uncertain times.
· Research
It is fair to say that none of us could have predicted the impact or challenges COVID-19 could have made. Whilst it may not be business as usual for the majority of us, we all need to try and survive through this period and use the time we do have to reflect and look at ways in which we can improve or even change our business ideas.
We understand it might be impossible to properly plan for things at the moment but it might be a useful period to look at where you are now. The world is not going to stop and we think we all know things will not be the same going forward. Therefore, there will also be opportunities further down the line, so spending some more time looking at your business in more detail might be really useful, so that you are prepared for when we come out of this at the other end.
· Learning new skills
We are pleased to announce that Birmingham City University will also be organising several webinar courses over the next six weeks, starting off with ‘Planning for the unexpected’, in addition to the other external webinar events below. If you are interested in finding out more about future Birmingham City University webinar events, please check out BCU Advantage.
Planning for the unexpected
Wednesday 8th April
11am – 12pm
In this one hour webinar, we will:
Evaluate what constitutes a crisis, and knowing when to implement crisis protocols. Look at how to manage key messaging and what steps should be taken to immediately protect your organisation. Review tools that can be used to monitor traffic and public discussion around your brand. Discuss the application of crisis communications to the current Covid-19 pandemic, and what alterations need to be made to existing strategies. Register here.
Additional external events around wellbeing and business seminars
We received great feedback from some of our members regarding previous webinar links sent out and so we thought the ones below would also be useful.
Festival of Enterprise Webinars
How to manage the crisis – Piers Linney.
Piers Linney offers 76 courses free via this link.
Corona Virus – Small business grants explained.
Enterprise Lab
Remote working
BT skills for tomorrow
Collaborative Tools to Support Remote Working.
Knowing your customer
Improve your online business protection.
In the meantime, the STEAMhouse team will be available via email as usual but we wanted to wish you and your friends and families all the best, especially anyone close to you who may have been affected by the virus
Please all continue to stay safe, look after your wellbeing and take any necessary precautions recommended to help keep those around you safe as well.
Discover more about our new offer by sending us an e-mail to: steamhouse@bcu.ac.uk
or by sending us an enquiry via our get in touch page here.
Follow STEAMhouse on:
Twitter @STEAMhouseUK,
Instagram steamhouse_uk,
Facebook @STEAMhouseUK
LinkedIn @STEAMhouse
Feature image: Photo by Emma Matthews Digital Content Production on Unsplash
