No images? Click here Happy August to you all! Welcome to our August edition. See some of the exciting news, activities and opportunities that we have for you this month. IMPORTANT NOTICE: Our start-up needs survey is still running. Please take a few minutes to complete it here: START-UP SUPPORT NEEDS SURVEY. It will take you about 2 minutes to complete the survey. We encourage you to follow us on our social media platforms and keep updated about our news, activities, opportunities and events. Get in touch: myidea@coventry.ac.uk 1. Collaborate to Train 2023: Programme about to close - Take action now A Student Opportunity To Get Involved Our Collaborate To Train programme will be closing at the end of September 2023! if you are interested in being part of this useful programme, please reach out to us before 15 September 2023, and we will pair you with an SME that will help you to gain work experience, and also help you to sharpen your skill-set. For those who missed it, this is how the programme works: SMEs within Coventry and Warwickshire that have a specific need request Coventry University to identify students with the required skill-set to help satisfy the need. In the process, while the SMEs get their needs addressed, students gain valuable on-the-job experience in working with real businesses. Contact CUSE via our myidea@coventry.ac.uk so that we connect you with the right SME. Alternatively, you can scan the QR Code below to complete a short Collaborate To Train application form. Participation in this project is free of cost for both SMEs and students. 2. The importance of websites: Information for Start-Ups For a start-up to gain brand awareness and business growth, it’s likely they’ll need to be present in the digital world. This includes creating a company website and keeping it up-to-date. Today, we want to share the importance of a website to your business. The face of your business Your website is often the first point of call where any potential client will go to find more information about your business or check if it exists at all. This makes your website the face of your business, so it should always wear its best attire. You’ll want to show who you are, your mission, culture, and values. The personalities of your team members should also be discernible in the website. Your website should be simple to navigate too, enticing your viewers to stay and learn more about the products or services you offer. What should your website include? As you develop and update your website, ensure you answer the following questions: 1. Who are you? Be clear about your identity and brand. 2. What goods and/or services do you offer? Make use of clear, concise, and attractive language and visuals to communicate this to your website visitors. 3. Who are your audience? You should do prior research of your target audience/clients. Be sure to use words and phrases that are not only understood by your audiences, but resonate with them too. While doing so, clarify the boundary markers that define your audience and avoid generic terms. 4. Where else can people find you? This should be made prominent on your website. What’s the best way to reach out if someone is interested in your services? How can they get more information about what you offer which is not available on the website? You also need to signpost your other contact points such as your social media. This will also help to provide a sense of assurance for visitors that you are a genuine business. Provide a great user experience 1. Ensure that your website is mobile/tablet friendly. 2. Create a simple, responsive, and easy-to-use navigation menu. Use clear, uncluttered titles to avoid creating confusion for your website visitors. 3. With your web content, try to avoid overwhelming your visitors with information. Make use of short paragraphs and concise headings that will help a potential client to quickly find what they’re looking for without having to browse your entire website. 4. Provide a way to capture feedback, comments and even the frustrations of your website visitors and acknowledge their feedback. This gives you an opportunity to establish direct engagements with potential clients while improving their user experience. 5. Monitor website engagement through tools like Google Analytics to better understand how your visitors are interacting with your website and where it can be improved. Above all, ensure that your website is functional all the time. You never know when your best customer will visit! Please give us feedback if this section was helpful to you. Click here 3. Connect2 Project: How can we be of help? Connect2 is a project based at CUSE that can offer you free one-to-one support towards starting your own business or social enterprise. You can also be supported to find work or further training. To be eligible for Connect2, you must be aged 16+, have the right to live and work in the UK, be unemployed or economically inactive (e.g. full-time study) and live in a CV1 – CV6 postcode. Please contact Steve on SCrump@cueltd.co.uk for more information and to register. 4. LAUNCH Training: Sessions to start soon We will soon be sharing dates for our next Launch Training cohorts for the new University year. These dates will be shared via this newsletter and our social media platforms as well as our website. Keep an eye on these platforms to ensure that you don't miss the opportunity to be part of the training and mentoring. You can also send us an email to myidea@coventry.ac.uk to let us know that you are interested in the training opportunities once dates have been fixed. You can also contact us via this email for any other question that you might have about our Launch Programme. The programme is offered free of cost to Coventry University students, graduates and staff. 5. Start-Ups of the Month Learn More About these Start-Ups In this section, we shine light on selected Start-Ups that CUSE works with. We share briefly who they are, what business they are into, and how you can contact them for any collaborations or to procure their services. a. CarryBags Limited Introducing CarryBags LTD The CarryBags LTD App will change the way we shop in-store! Carrybags Limited was co-founded in 2019 by two Coventry University graduates, Hirali Soni and Yash Vegad who both came to the UK from India to study at Coventry University. The two were supported by Coventry University Social Enterprise to get their business off the ground. CarryBags is a business that helps you to enjoy the traditional in-store shopping experience alongside perks of online shopping comfort, where your purchases are delivered to your doorstep. CarryBags has now partnered with more than 2000 stores across the UK and Europe’s favourite destinations for Fashion and lifestyle shopping, such as London, Birmingham, West Midlands, Manchester, Paris, Cannes, Monaco, Switzerland, Spain, Saint Tropez and many more. With the Carrybags App, you can enjoy the shopping experience during your holidays without worrying about how hard and stressful it is to get your shopping home. CarryBags will deliver them for you. The App is going to be live by September 2023, and the journey will begin with stores in Coventry and the West Midlands area. Thereafter, it will move on to cover other places across UK and Europe. This is an innovation that will not only support the local business to grow, but will also help to reduce carbon emissions. At its launch CarryBags will run a special launch-offer for its specially-abled customers through delivering their purchases free of charge. Get ready to enjoy a new experience in shopping. You can find further updates about this start-up from their website www.wecarrybags.co.uk You can also follow CarryBags LTD on their social media platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook b. Tvisi Motors Introducing Tvisi Motors Tvisi Motors is a start-Up business in the automotive sector founded by Swapnil Sawant. It was registered as a business in July 2023. His business idea involves retrofitting petrol and diesel vehicles with hydrogen powered engines. Sawant enrolled at Coventry University in 2019, studying an MSc course in Automotive Engineering. This was also the year when he first had contact with CUSE through the Evolve Training programme. In 2020, he graduated from his MSc Automotive Engineering course and then returned to India. In 2021, he started receiving mentoring from Coventry University, and in 2023, returned to England to start his business. In August 2023, he attended his first induction session at CUSE. Ongoing opportunities for him include the Collaborate to Train project, where Tvisi Motors will benefit from Coventry University students, who will help to market the start-up, while also going work experience. Tvisi Motors is going to contribute massively to clean futures since the technology will be based on clean energy. For more information, visit Tvisi Motors website at: https://tvisimotors.com/ The image below shows Sawant and CUSE Projects Officer Andy Mccall finalising Tvisi Motors enrollment into the Collaborate to Train project. For any other questions or information about this section, or how you can collaborate with CUSE, contact us via this email 6. Have Your Say: Start-up Support Needs Survey Complete our Startup Support Needs Survey CUSE is conducting a short, voluntary survey on startup support needs to help shape our future services. Have your say! Use the link or QR code below to complete the survey. It is not a long survey. It will take only 2 minutes of your time to complete. More news and updates in our July edition. Keep well for now! |