These beekeepers found the right help through Grow London Local

Meet Katie and Dan, the owners of Bee Connection – a playground for adults and children alike trying to reconnect with nature and learn more about beekeeping.

Located between Crouch End and Highgate, Bee Connection is bringing the power of nature to north Londoners, with both leisure and educational programmes.

Bee Connection is committed to keeping the biodiversity of London by preserving its main pollinators. But that's not all: this small business is particularly keen on using profits for good, by supporting refugees and survivors while helping to protect the bees and the role they play in the wider ecosystem.

Watch the video to hear the founders' story and how Grow London Local has supported them with their marketing.

Transcript

Tell us about your business.

My name is Katie, and this is Dan, and we created a beekeeping company called Bee Connection.

We welcome school visits and therapeutic visits, like green prescribing. And we also welcome people who want to try a new hobby or want to experience calmness with bees in nature.

What are the challenges you face as business owners?

The main challenge is balancing our educational and environmental aims with financial sustainability. We have charitable aims, and we also have services that we charge for.

And obviously we want to focus a lot on our charitable aims because that's where our passions are.

How did you first hear about Grow London Local?

I searched online for Grow London Local, and it had a very wide range of support available to us, which we loved.

We enjoyed our mentor Geoff so much. He's been great. He came to our apiary, and he introduced us to third parties who have been very useful.

How has Grow London Local helped your business so far?

We were struggling with marketing in particular and Geoff was able to point us in the right direction to have a consultation with an expert in marketing.

Going forward, what would you like to get from Grow London Local?

What we'd like is a good continuation of the bespoke support offering really. It's being able to ask our mentor just about anything and he'll point us in the direction we need to go. And it's a tremendous source of comfort really, if nothing else, to have that level of support.

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