Obviously, the beer, mulled wine and bratwurst combo has its part to play. Ditto the festive atmosphere, married to stalls of unique gifts made just for you by small businesses from across Europe that, each year, bet on their own commercial success by providing Manchester with its Christmas spirit.
But small businesses (unlike Christmas) don’t just appear once a year. Our city is built on them and each one of them is there to provide you with a service or product that you can’t get a better version of anywhere else.
Manchester is full of start-ups and scale ups – companies with a new product or idea that have started to capture the attention of customers and investors – so let’s give them some support.
Manchester is the home of invention and innovation, and here’s just a few ways you can start your own innovation journey:
Are you organising an event? Who better than Fatsoma to help you do that. The fast-growing Northern Quarter company is fixing the broken world of event promotion, helping you connect your event to people and facilitating those connections through technology.
What about chasing debtors and managing cash flow? It’s an absolute must for any successful business large or small, and another acclaimed Manchester startup, DueCourse, has a neat way to manage everything with tech at its core. The company just raised a cool £1.6 million from some top backers, so expect big things in 2017.
Want to find great IT and digital candidates fast, and without the hassle of meeting 100s of independent recruitment agencies? Find and manage them from one platform with Hiring Hub. You set the fee you’re willing to pay upfront and agencies you approve submit their best candidates. With an average time-to-hire of just 16 days it’s transforming the way companies recruit.
Manchester even has the perfect solution for finding tickets for that hot gig without getting ripped off by a ticket tout through Vibe . You want to exchange tickets with fans, not corporations or touts that take their margin, and Vibe facilitates this in a safe, easy, and free environment.
Small businesses add huge value to the Manchester economy, attracting millions of pounds worth of investment, creating hundreds of jobs, and helping us place Manchester on the map as a top five destination for start-ups and scale-ups globally. So if you have an opportunity to support one of the above – or others – please do, and shop local.
Now get out to the markets for a beer and bratwurst … Merry Christmas!
