The Small Business Academy and psd group back Red Rose Awards

Two more local businesses have been announced as sponsors of the Red Rose Awards, the UK’s biggest regional business awards.

The event, which takes place this Thursday at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens, will see the best Lancashire businesses honoured across 22 awards.

The Small Business Academy has been announced as the bar sponsor for the event.

The organisation was originally founded by Nikki Hesford to provide training for smaller firms that might not have the budget to hire expertise to run their marketing projects. Demand was so high that Nikki quickly took on dedicated premises in Blackpool that allows the academy to offer additional services such as a professional address, office space, meeting room hire, business advice and online and offline training.

In 2021 The Small Business Academy successfully tendered to deliver the Boost Growth Mentoring Programme. Now the business advisory and training service will utilise the Red Rose Awards to connect with even more Lancashire SMEs who may want to develop their own skills or those of their team.

Nikki Hesford said: “I’m a big advocate of reputable awards, I encourage my clients to enter the Red Rose Awards and I nearly always attend when I can because I find it to be some of the best networking of the year, while also having fun! 

Nikki added: “Who wouldn’t want to expose their business and brand to a room full of the very best business owners in Lancashire?

“And because I’m known to be very social, and it’s a bit of a joke that I can always be found in close proximity of the bar, it seemed appropriate that I ought to be sponsoring it!”

In addition, psd group is sponsoring the drinks reception, where more than 1,000 guests will be welcomed at the Winter Gardens Blackpool to start the evening’s entertainment.

psd is an executive recruitment consultant, employing a team of more than 50 who bring together a broad range of commercial sectors, specialist practices and services With a client roster that ranges from local start-ups to global corporations, psd recruits senior executives across more industries, in more countries, at more levels, and in more ways, than any other consultancy.

Stephen Bolton, managing director of Lancashire Business View which organises the Red Rose Awards, said: “Our team is grateful to have the support of The Small Business Academy and psd group. It’s only with the backing of our sponsors that we are able to host our hugely popular awards programme.

“These two organisations specialise in helping other businesses to achieve more and are a perfect fit for everything that the Red Rose Awards is about - working together to support Lancashire’s entrepreneurs and businesses.”