Working with partners such as FSB and Women In Business, Designated Associates are planning a series of lunch, breakfast time and early evening learning opportunities for businesses in Wirral, St Helens and Halton.

Elaine Owen Managing Director of Designated Associates said

“We are delighted to have been selected by Google as their chosen partner for the delivery of Google Juice Bar training sessions in Wirral, Halton and St Helens. Our team have received some fabulous training from Google themselves and we are excited and happy to share the top tips and easy ways to get the best from the internet.”

For more information on any of the Google events please contact Laura Upton on 0151 653 3338, or email laura.upton@designatedassociates.com

Designated Associates have also been selected as one of the only 2 technical training provides in the Merseyside area to continue to support local SMEs with social media Google related training and support.

Source: Metro

That is according to research by daily deals site Huddlebuy.co.uk, which spoke to 1,000 small business owners in the UK.

The results are in contrast to the initiatives announced by the government this year, such as Project Merlin, which claimed to boost bank lending to small businesses.

The research also revealed distinct disillusionment among young entrepreneurs – with almost three quarters of 18-34 year old start-up owners saying they saw no option but to seek alternative funding channels in 2012.

Craig Hamer, joint managing director of Dews Motor Group, said: “The banks are now the last place many businesses think about for investment and funding.

“They’re not lending like they used to, and the situation’s only going to get worse in the coming months.”

Saurav Chopra, CEO of Huddlebuy.co.uk, added: “Bank lending for UK small businesses has gone from bad to worse. The coalition government and banks talk a good game but talk is all it is.

“The reality is that businesses know they can no longer rely on banks. But at least entrepreneurs are fighting back to help fellow businesses find the finance they need.”

Source: StartUps

The data revealed that a total of 301,000 people were unemployed in the region between August and October, 19,000 more than in the previous quarter. The region's unemployment rate was 8.7 per cent.

Darrell Matthews, regional director of IoD North West, said: "This is another grim month for jobs, with private sector companies still reluctant to hire. Young people are suffering the most, with more than one in five out of work.

"The ongoing failure to resolve the euro crisis is likely to mean that unemployment in the North West rises still further over the winter. Many of the region's businesses are still watching and waiting."

At a national level, unemployment reached a 17-year high after another 128,000 joined the jobless ranks, taking the total to 2.64 million.

Source: Insider Media Limited

The initiative, launched by Matt Brittin, the managing director of the internet giant's UK operations, was the first of its kind in the UK and provided access to free access to one-on-one digital support, including a pop-up 'juice bar' and free e-skills workshops. "There is a lot of untapped potential for small businesses on the internet and we hope that our project in Liverpool has demonstrated how a wide variety of industries can benefit from having an online presence," said Emma Thorn, project manager of Getting Liverpool Business Online at Google UK.

"It's clear from the people we’ve spoken to during our Getting Liverpool Business Online programme that there is huge potential for online growth in the city. We hope that the work we've done and events we've held help the hundreds of businesses we’ve met to grow and become successful online, and in turn help boost Liverpool’s economy."

Google partnered with six business organisations – Liverpool Vision, Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Liverpool in Business, Liverpool’s Federation for Small Businesses, Women in Business and Business Link North West – to help run the events.

The company selected Liverpool to host the pilot as it "lags behind" many rival cities in its use of the internet for business, including Manchester, London, Leeds and Bristol.

Google said its juice bars have proved most popular with the retail sector, with almost 200 retailers seizing the opportunity to receive online advice. It added that there was almost an equal split of male and female entrepreneurs who sought e-skills advice.

Lisa Collins, Merseyside Woman of the Year 2011, has only just discovered the Google Tools available to businesses, and was excited to take advantage of the Juice Bar. “I’ve got a few ideas of how I want to expand my existing business and I think Google Analytics can help me to learn about my current customers and find out what they want.”

Lisa also wanted to learn how to use Google to improve communication between staff and customers; “Google Docs will be a brilliant tool for consultation with our parent led policy group too”.

Google said the Getting Business Online programme had proven to be a "clear success" in Liverpool and now hopes to launch the initiative in other UK towns and cities.

And it showed that the number of young directors aged between 16-25 in the North West rose by 24% in the same period, the third highest in the UK behind the East Midlands and London.

But the figures also reveal that almost half (45%) of young start-ups fail within 2½ years, but the survival rate increases when a young director teams up with someone aged 26 or older, and survival rates soar when a young director joins forces with more than one older director, demonstrating the advantages of tapping into experience.

The research by Experian has also revealed that areas that have a high level of unemployment have seen higher levels of start-ups, which may be because those who are unemployed see fewer options other than to set up on their own.

Source: The Liverpool Daily Post

New research from Business Link, the support organisation which recently launched new services, shows that a quarter of employees believe there are good opportunities for starting a business but fear prevents one in three from setting up their own company.

If they all actually did it, the research claimed, the economy would benefit significantly and here are some facts and figures to explain the results:

- A quarter of the working population believe there are good start-up opportunities where they live.

- Fear prevents 1 in 3 UK workers from starting their own business.

- If only 5% overcame their fear and started businesses which made a profit of only £1,000 the UK economy would receive a boost of £163M and if 100% also did the same the economy would see a staggering boost of £3.25M.

Source: Business Zone

The Towards Maturity Benchmark Study, the UK’s largest learning technology benchmark study has revealed how organisations are increasing their investment in learning technologies to help them respond faster to changing business conditions and build talent.

The report found that 77 per cent of companies believe learning technologies will help them respond to business conditions, an 11 per cent increase on 2010's figures.

It also found that learning technologies are now helping organisations reduce proven competency time by 35 per cent.

Training was also used to rollout new IT systems faster and improve product and processes changes by a third.

Laura Overton, managing director of Towards Maturity, said:

"Despite the growing investment in learning technologies, a shocking percentage of organisations are not using their learning technologies to their full potential."

The study also highlighted that over half of organisations agree that face-to-face classroom courses are no longer the only option for improving skills and performance in the workplace.

Source: Towards Maturity

The event is part of the build-up to the GEC, which will be held in Liverpool in March. More than 3,000 delegates from 120 countries are expected to come to the city for the event.

GEW in Liverpool starts with a conference, organised by Downtown Liverpool in Business, showcasing the city’s “enterprise culture”. Speakers will include Steve Morgan, chairman of Redrow, journalist and commentator Toby Young, and Paul Levy, chief executive of Philadelphia Business Improvement District.

Other events will include the second round of Liverpool’s Great Enterprise Challenge. All schools are eligible to set up a project, focusing on enterprise, with £100 of council money.

GEW in the UK is organised by Youth Business International. Its chief executive Andrew Devenport said: “The map is a great way in which we can find out more about what aspiring entrepreneurs need and what support is available for start-ups in Liverpool.

“I hope to see the conversation build up further, with entrepreneurs giving really specific suggestions on what help they need and support organisations responding with concrete offers, like being willing to mentor a business in their sector or holding a free workshop.”

Read More: Liverpool Daily Post

Keynote speakers at the event will include Alexis Giles, Principal, New Business Development, Google Inc.

Alexis is part of an elite special deal making team at Google that incubates and launches new products. She joined Google in 2005 as a lawyer in London, played an early role in developing partnerships for Google Maps and Google Earth, and following Google's acquisition of YouTube in 2006, she led the YouTube commercial legal team for 4 years where she focused on closing major broadcast and music deals.

In 2010, Alexis moved to San Francisco to work for the New Business Development team, developing strategic relationships for Google and incubating new Google products and services, including outreach and partnerships with the entrepreneurial and startup community.

Prior to Google, Alexis worked on the legal team at AOL in the UK where she developed and launched AOL Talk; and before that at Taylor Wessing, a law firm, in London advising startups and tech businesses.

Alexis holds various postgraduate qualifications in Computer, Internet and Copyright law, and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Newcastle University. She has worked, lived and travelled in various countries across the world: in a mangrove swamp in Nigeria, in a ski resort in France, near a bullring in Spain, Luxembourg, London, and now San Francisco. She likes to DJ, surf and snowboard and continues to seek out people, places and things that inspire her.

and Deepak Jayaraman,
Head of Goldman Sachs’ Office of Corporate Engagement (OCE)
for Europe, Middle East and Africa

Deepak serves as head of Goldman Sachs’ Office of Corporate Engagement (OCE) for Europe, Middle East and Africa and joined the firm as Executive Director in 2010. The OCE works to co-ordinate the firm’s global social investing efforts, including its signature 10,000 Small Businesses and 10,000 Women programmes, each multi year initiatives to offer business and management education to small business leaders around the world.

Previously, Deepak served as (i) Vice President of the India focused SME Enterprise Fund of a major Singapore based private investment firm, (ii) an investment banker at J.P. Morgan and (iii) a private equity and M&A lawyer at the law firm of Mintz Levin in Boston. Deepak holds dual MBAs from the Columbia and London Business Schools and a Juris Doctorate from the George Washington University Law School in Washington DC.

The WOW event is taking place on Wednesday 30th November at the Imperial War Museum North, it will encourage people to look at their organisations in a totally different way. Our speakers will share their philosophy of doing business, including building successful companies in the entrepreneurial capital of the world - Silicon Valley.

This event will really challenge people to think:

• Could I be growing faster?
• Have I created a culture where innovation and creativity are encouraged?
• How do I create a more engaging customer experience?
• Could I build greater value in my business?
• How do I become a more effective leader?
• Can thinking global foster new business opportunities?
• What can I learn from the global successes of Silicon Valley?

For times, booking information and event agenda visit the website.

Event Contacts:

Carla Moores - 0161 918 6785, c.moores@winning-pitch.co.uk

Vikki Greenhalgh - 0161 918 6785, v.greenhalgh@winning-pitch.co.uk