A young marketing professional is sharpening his own skills and supporting the expansion of his employer’s range of services after making the most of a training boost from a global manufacturing giant.
Connor Docherty, the marketing manager at business services provider Bell4Business, was able to embark on an advanced digital marketing apprenticeship after Ideal Heating – part of Groupe Atlantic – released part of its apprenticeship levy to fund his training.
The HEY Growth Hub played a key part in bringing Bell4Business and Ideal Heating together, and Connor followed up by delivering his first ever business presentation at a conference about AI for small businesses that was organised by the Growth Hub.
Connor, who joined Bell4Business six years ago at the age of 16, earned rave reviews from the 75-strong audience for the calibre and clarity of his presentation – and there was also a direct business benefit on the day. Louise Bell, owner and founder of Bell4Business, said “We picked up a new client at the event and are now helping them to organise their office duties.” Louise has been self-employed for more than 20 years and has a wealth of experience across industries ranging from property, plumbing and heating to agricultural, therapy and recruitment. Bell4Business is in its tenth year and admin assistant Charli Marsh completes the team of three based at Dunston House in Hessle.
The trio provide outsourced office support for business coaching, accounts admin, credit control, social media management, telephone answering, CRM implementation and bespoke clerical services for customers across Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and as far afield as Northern Ireland. The support from Ideal Heating and the HEY Growth Hub is helping Bell4Business
at a time when Connor is being mentored for a future directorship. He said: “I’m really enjoying the course and I’m learning new things every week that I can use in my role here – all sorts of things around website development that can lead to further services for us to offer. “It’s also helped my confidence. I understand more about why I am doing what I do, and I also find it easier to explain things to clients because I have more background knowledge.”
Louise added that Connor’s progress throughout the time he has worked with the company has led directly to the business’ growth by signing up many new clients, with further success expected as new services are launched. “We have just added business coaching to our services for two clients and we will be offering training in everything from customer service to credit control and diary management, telephone answering – all the skills that businesses need but don’t have time to cover the basics themselves. “These are roles that we already provide for businesses and we have moved into training by being good at what we do. We are diligent and knowledgeable across many different sectors and as the business becomes stronger we can take on more work.”