How to find and employ IT developers

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, shares his advice for finding and employing IT developers for your small business.

I'm a <a href='http://www.danmartinuk.com'>freelance content creator and event host</a> who helps small businesses and the organisations that support them. I have 18 years of experience as a small business journalist having interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs from billionaires like Sir Richard Branson to the founders behind brand new start-ups. I've worked for a range of leading small business publications and support groups, most recently as head of content at Enterprise Nation where I was responsible for the prolific output of content on the company's blog and social media. I'm based in Bristol where I run and host regular events with the local small business community and have strong connections to major business organisations in the south west region. In total, I've hosted over 50 events; from intimate meet-ups to conferences with an audience of hundreds including events for international brands like Facebook and Xero. I'm also a big fan of podcasts having hosted Enterprise Nation's Small Business Sessions as well as lots of online events including Facebook Live interviews, webinars and three live web chats from inside 10 Downing Street. With my partner, I co-run Lifestyle District, a lifestyle blog focused on culture, art, theatre and photography.

I'm here to help. I'm volunteering free advice calls of up to an hour as part of the Recovery Advice for Business scheme, over the next 6 months. Please get in touch to see how I can help your business.&nbsp;

Freelance content creator & event host

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As Enterprise Nation's small business community manager, my role is to guide our members through every stage of their user journey, developing and improving their experience within the Enterprise Nation community, and arming them with the knowledge and resources they need to start and grow their business.&nbsp;&nbsp;

I have over 20 years of experience working in customer and B2B support. Having also managed a small business for many years, I understand the struggles that they face am passionate about helping them grow. I love to hear member success stories, particularly those in the food and drink sector.&nbsp;

Small Business Community Manager

New to the Enterprise Nation community

This is a group for new members of the Enterprise Nation community to connect with likeminded businesses and the Enterprise Nation team. Use this space to meet other businesses who might be on a similar journey or looking to grow their network. Join and introduce yourself! Welcome to the community.

&lt;p&gt;Hey there!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am a fashion business strategy consultant, coach and mentor. I help entrepreneurs looking to change career and enter the fashion industry to develop their idea into a solid product or service.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I also assist and work with&amp;nbsp;fashion entrepreneurs who already have a business but feel like something is missing, that the brand/business&amp;nbsp;is not growing the way they thought it would, making the money and profits they should or wondering how to scale it bigger.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After graduating with a Fashion degree many moons ago, I worked for some 15years within British&amp;nbsp;luxury brands small and large (you can see my resume on Linked In here:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dessytsolova/"&gt;https://www.linkedin.com/in/dessytsolova/&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;) across apparel and&amp;nbsp;accessories. There isn&amp;#39;t much as a product that I haven&amp;#39;t at some point worked on.&amp;nbsp; For most of this time, I managed the creative teams and oversaw the process from Idea to Finished product and more often than not I then took that knowledge to the PR, marketing and retail shop floor.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After leaving the last company I was employed by, I set up an online fashion manufacturing portal with the mission to demystify and simplify the fashion manufacturing process. Whilst growing the platform and working on the development of software to automate a largely hands-on process I came to the realisation that while so many competitors were jumping on this &amp;quot;trend&amp;quot; to create what they saw as just a &amp;quot;directory&amp;quot; the industry was not getting any more transparent or functional. The problem I saw&amp;nbsp;was hiding in&amp;nbsp;the lack of proper practical and honest educational support to the new influx of entrepreneurs in the industry AND support for independent brand overlooked by the governmental trade bodies.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This determination to share my experience and knowledge with fashion entrepreneurs worldwide led me to exit the platform I spent over 6 years creating and launch Fashion Insiders &amp;amp; Co. An online education and support platform and community for fashion entrepreneurs looking to launch, grow or scale their businesses.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Through our platform, we offer many FREE resources as well as online courses, in-person (via the magic of online meetings) consulting and coaching packages and soon to launch community coaching and accountability incubator.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;


&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://fashioninsi&lt;p&gt;Online fashion educational and mentoring platform helping&amp;nbsp;fashion entrepreneurs build and grow profitable fashion brands.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We specialise in helping entrepreneurs:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;- strategise how to launch new product or service based fashion business;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;- idea development from initial development and sourcing&amp;nbsp;stages to bulk manufacturing;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;- business strategy, pricing and target setting&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;- growth mindset&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Support is offered via 1:1 work, tailored to your project needs as well as offering online courses and masterclasses to consume at your own pace and time.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

Business support for fashion brands - 1-2-1 mentoring

Real transformation happens over a longer period of time... 
Over the course of&nbsp;a 6-month period I will give you personalised 1 to 1 fashion business mentoring (that just happens to come with lots of great training as well). Whilst the statistic that 90% of fashion startups will fail is very true... it doesn't have to be true for you and your business!

How to find and employ IT developers

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