Welcome solo and micro business owners
Solo Businesses
If you work on your own it can be lonely. If you find yourself thinking about, needing or craving a community to share ideas, problems or celebrate great times, MINT Business Club is the place to be.
Not only will you meet loads of like-minded self-employed solos, but you'll receive training, mentoring and 1-2-1 opportunities to develop yourself and your business.
In return for your monthly investment, you will access skills based training, 121 advice and guidance in Marketing, Business Development, Digital, Finance and importantly, your well-being; all the support you need to be successful on your terms.
Micro Businesses
MINT Business Club supports all business people in the Micro community. Once we progress from working on our own to having another or a team, this presents its own new challenges. We believe in lifetime learning and support for every step of the Micro journey.
MINT Business Club delivers networking opportunities to build your supply chain, meeting new potential customers and suppliers. The business related training will provide clarity and focus. Joining the MINT Bootcamps and Masterminding sessions will ensure you set targets and are accountable for achieving them.
The business community is MINT, full of small business owners and their teams who want their businesses to succeed.
Bootcamps
Being a member of MINT is a fantastic start to developing your own skills and finding your business tribe. Once you're ready to progress to your own next level, our MINT Business Bootcamps run as an additional 6-month training course, separate from the other membership activities.
In Bootcamp you are responsible for setting your targets, working to smash them and the small group will help you stay accountable. No excuses in Bootcamp, just raising our business bar.
Training & Drop-Ins
When we launched in January 2018, we knew we’d host at least one training session per month, after all, this was the purpose of The Club – training, learning and networking for those who work on their own.
Mid-way through 2018, we realised the wealth of talent in the members needed an outlet – many of them had expressed an interest in hosting small sessions on their area of expertise.
Since launching in January 2018, the training programme has covered topics including:
* Money – How to charge the right price
* Pitching – How to sell ourselves, our products or services,
* Marketing - Traditional and digital
* Self-development - Well-being matters
* Business Planning - We all need to do it!
* Social media training - Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN
* Selling online - Etsy and advertising
* Websites - building them, maintaining them
* Content Creation and more.
We have a team of trainers and members who deliver our training, it makes sense to us to allow members the opportunity to deliver training in their fields of expertise, as long as the other members can benefit.
Once every quarter, we host a Whole Member training and networking session, giving the entire network members the opportunity to get to know one another for the day.
Drop-In Sessions.
New to our exclusive member programme, our MINT Drop-In sessions offer members a relaxed environment in which to work together, extending their networking opportunities and giving them an opportunity to just chill out together!
At the drop-ins, each member is also offered a 15 minute 1-2-1 slot with a member of the MINT team covering a specific challenge that they are facing that month.
Grant funding is between £3,000 and £8,000 and priority given to those projects that can demonstrate significant potential for sales growth, new job creation or for new products and services.
If you’re looking for a community of like-minded business people to support you in your own business, and are based in the North East of England, you’ve come to the right place. Whether you work on your own as a self-employed solo or in a micro-business with fewer than 10 in your team, MINT Business Club offers you the bespoke training and support you need to be successful.
MINT Business Club training, Bootcamp, Masterminding, Mentoring and 1-2-1 sessions are full of energy and ideas. The MINT members are dedicated and hard-working.
Thinking of joining? These are the four easy steps to being MINT …
Step One – Apply to join and pay the fee
Step Two – Get welcomed into our Members-Only Facebook Group
Step Three – Join your new colleagues at MINT HQ in Consett, Co. Durham where we’ll show you around the website and undertake a marketing audit to give us a benchmark of how we can support you.
Step Four – Become an active #MINTmember – attend your monthly training and Time For You drop-in events, join the discussions in the group, read the blog posts, watch the training videos and contribute content to the website or lead a training session yourself.
You get what you put in. Engage in The Club and the MINT Magic will flow. #MINTbizclub
What You Get
Why should you join The MINT Business Club?
- You run your own business or are self-employed
- You run a micro-business with fewer than ten staff
- You’re excited by everyday opportunities
- You’re customer service oriented
- You want to continuously learn new skills
- You want to be part of a supportive community who get what you do
- You want to be recognised for what you’re achieving
- You want a good laugh and a chance to work ON your business
Get out of your own way
When you’re a member of a MINT, supportive community, really great things happen.
You make new business friends and have people to share your news with. You buy from one another and stay at the forefront of each other’s minds, recommending each other to people you meet along the way. You learn from one another and have a shoulder to lean on when things are tough.
MINT Business Club members are on a journey to be the best version of their business selves, pushing their boundaries to achieve business success on their own terms.
The Business Club for solo and micro businesses
Office Location
70 Viewpoint Consett Business Centre, Consett DH8 6BN
Email Us
MINT is there for you
Since launching The Club in January 2018, our members have attended training on topics including:
* Money – How to charge the right price and how to manage cashflow,
* Selling – How to sell ourselves, our products and services,
* The Social Media Audit - Where are you at now?
* Business Planning - We all need to do it!
* Social Media - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Canva (the tool of the design gods!),
* Etsy - How to sell online,
* Wordpress website - How to build and manage them,
* Content Planning for all our marketing.
It doesn't stop there. With Summer Socials, BBQs, Christmas parties and Sunday afternoon tea, we're a social group who enjoy spending our time together.
This year we tweaked the training format after consultation with the members. They wanted to get to know one another better and as a result, every quarter we deliver 'The Great Big MINT Membership event' providing the whole Club with the opportunity to come together for one day and learn.
With the very recent addition of the monthly drop-in, co-working sessions, we believe that MINT Business Club offers the most comprehesive business support programme for self-employed and micro-business owners in the North East of England.
Get MINT and Join Our Club!
Support from the programme leaders and support from the MINT members. One thing we can guarantee is that our members will never feel unsupported.
It is very import to the MINT team that members' well-being is supported in every aspect of our Club, and as a result, we have launched a private Mindset Facebook group, led by members for members offering a place of sanctuary and a place to find solutions to problems.
We believe that all of our members have the ability and capacity to be successful in their businesses and our Mindset is the primary factor to achieving our goals.
'You can't afford to buy cheap'.
Let’s talk about price, or as we think of it, investment in YOU and your business.
MINT Membership will ensure you :
* Stay accountable and meet your business targets,
* Gain personal and business confidence,
* Develop a brilliant network of business friends,
* Raise your business profile,
* Are likely to make sales (more than 50% of our members have bought and sold to one another),
* Have a place to share success and fears,
* Learn how to run the a successful business on your terms,
* Learn Digital Skills in person and online,
* Have the most amount of fun at work; ever.
MINT isn't a cost, it’s an investment in you and your business will thrive if you commit to it.
MINT Membership
MINT Business Club has two tiers of basic membership. It is £25 per month for self-employed solo businesses (one person in the business) and £40 per month for micro-businesses with less than 10 people.
It's important to select the right package for you when you join, because each package is tailored to meet your level of business need.
Click through to the registration page for the full breakdown of how it works.
MINT payment plan
Your membership fee is paid monthly (or as a one-off annual payment), set up via direct debit (GoCardless) and entitles you to attend one, three-hour training session each month. We host our training sessions at multiple locations (currently Consett, Blyth and North Tyneside) and have plans to launch in Newcastle and South Durham by January 2020.
When you join, you will be invited to our Welcome and Marketing Audit session in your first 3 months of membership.
Digital learning
You have access to our MINT online training materials including videos, downloadable worksheets, planners and member blogs and offers. The private Facebook groups are a hive of activity, offering almost 24-7 support!
In addition, there are on-demand bespoke training courses offered to our members at additional one-off costs (confirmed on advertising the session).
The Club respects the financial challenges of working for yourself and in a small business, so we’ve added as much value to your membership fee as we can! We’ll never hold you to a notice period if you choose to leave MINT Business Club – just let us know and cancel your membership subscription.
Convinced? JOIN NOW!
Our Team
MINT Business Club is run by Nicola Jayne Little who founded Digital Sparkles and The Savvy Solos Business Club, bringing them together to create #MINTbizclub.
Nicola is supported by a team who have joined her as members on their own journey, running their own businesses and who loved The Club's ethos and support so much, they now help steer it! Their collective knowledge and experience is just one on the reasons it's MINT!
Use the email or social media links below to contact any of the team.
The power of MINT Business Club is its members !
Nicola Jayne Little
Founder, Trainer, Mentor
Paul Smissen
Business Development, Growth and Sponsorship
Peter Surridge
IT Manager and Consultancy
Karen Goldfinch
North Tyneside Lead, Business Development and Mentoring
Suzanne Whelan
Operations and Event Manager
Michelle Rose
Marketing, Mentoring and Consultancy
Hear from some of our MINT Members
Excellent training for all levels. I’ve had a business 10 years and this membership still teaches me more and more everyday. Great team.
There is such a great community, everyone has each other’s back and you know when you pop into the group or go along to a meeting it’s not only going to be packed full of great stuff that gets you thinking but you’re going to leave feeling better than you did when you arrived. A fantastic place for solo business owners to belong and thrive in, if you’re reading this you should definitely join!
Been with this amazing group from the start, can't recommend enough. It makes a massive difference to be part of a strong likeminded group! If your a solo, join, you won't regret it