Many businesses are struggling with costs, finding customers, finding and keeping staff or simply managing day to to day.

Local Resources

We are lucky in Cheltenham to have access to a wide range of free or very low-cost sources of training and business advice that could help. From marketing and finance to HR and legal, here are a few with links – in blue – to more information.

There is the Growth Hub of course, with its training events and mentoring, while CyNam has useful tech oriented events and white papers. For Chamber Members,  Cheltenham BID Training is free or available at special rates.

Cheltenham Borough Council website has a useful page of support links as does FSB. The Business West Quarterly survey is a great source for keeping track of business sentiment, although unsurprisingly  the latest data isn’t terribly optimistic.

British Business Bank also has a wealth of guidance, for example this piece on grants and support from Innovate UK for which Business West are delivery partners.

Online Sources and AI

Obviously, there is a huge amount of information available on the web. There are endless YouTube videos, although we are a bit sceptical of those that promise to transform your business by lunchtime.

Using AI (Chat GPT), you can compress huge amounts of information and the right prompts can help you analyse market trends or find competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Search online for prompt templates or check out the one from our last AI for Business Event.

As ever, be cautious with AI outputs, they can be very plausible and useful but are prone to error. Double-check anything that’s informing key business decisions!

There is a surprising amount of consumer data on trends across all kinds of industries. Nielsen IQ is one example, IPSOS Mori is another.

“Talent Imitates, Genius Steals” (T S Eliot)

Something AI might miss is inspiration from other areas. Case studies can be hugely helpful here and we thought this link was full of ideas that might get you thinking about how to stand out from competitors.

Make the Most of Chamber Membership  

Of course, a key benefit of being a Chamber Member is sharing experiences and advice with others. We are very grateful to the many Members who host webinars or events and post them for our events calendar and newsletters. The Chamber Board have a wealth of experience they are happy to share and don’t forget our free Legal and Financial Helplines.