1. www.venturenavigator.co.uk/business-communities
Business Communities
VentureNavigator Business Communities offer Local Authorities their own geographically focused online
business support community, complete with news, events, discussions, resources and assessments. The
VentureNavigator team has developed a clear understanding of the responsibilities of Local Authorities to
support entrepreneurs and small businesses, including the requirement to provide accessible business support
and to gather metrics that inform economic development.
An Accessible Business Resource –
Any local business or entrepreneur in
your area will be able to join your
community online to access business
support and resources.
A Forum for Feedback – You can
gather feedback on any issue or topic,
using the discussion (Q&A) area or by
creating a questionnaire or
assessment.
A Voice in the Community – By posting
and responding to comments, you will
have a voice in the local business
community. By posting news or
Launched In 2009, VentureNavigator Business emailing the community, you can instantly share your
Communities, is a new service to help Local views on important local issues.
Authorities support entrepreneurship and business
growth. Once set up, each community acts as a hub A Network of Businesses – As more businesses join
for local business advice and resources, attracting the community, you will be able to build up your
new members and making outreach to hard-to-contact database of local business contacts, with detailed
groups, such as sole traders, much more cost- information about each one.
effective.
Statistics and Reports – By providing an online busi-
Local Authorities can collect detailed information about ness network, you will have access to statistics and
each business and email all of their community reports, based on usage, preferences and feedback.
members. With the inclusion of community
management tools, meaningful metrics and About VentureNavigator
downloadable reports, VentureNavigator Business VentureNavigator (www.venturenavigator.co.uk) is
Communities provides a simple, off-the-shelf solution one of the UK’s leading online support communities
to a potentially complex and expensive challenge. for entrepreneurs and small businesses. With
thousands of active members and many more
VentureNavigator Business Communities deliver:
joining every week, VentureNavigator offers a blend
An Instant Community – Your VentureNavigator of high-quality resources, news, discussion and
Business community will be up and running in a interactive business assessments. Launched in
couple of days and, as part of the setup, we can invite 2007, VentureNavigator has earned a reputation as
existing VentureNavigator members in your area to a source of reliable, impartial business advice and
join your community. has helped thousands of small businesses to grow
and succeed.

2. Community homepage: Your own community Questionnaires: Get more detailed information about
Features
homepage with a unique web address. This page your members, their businesses and their needs. We
shows the latest activity in your community including can set up a Questionnaire for them to answer when
your News and Events. they join your community.
Community Manager Dashboard: As a Community Member Upload: When you start your community,
Manager you will have access to your own we can pre-load it with your existing contacts.
Community Manager Dashboard. This enables you to
administer multiple communities. Assessments: Once your community is up and
running, we can set up Assessments for them.
Assessments are intelligent questionnaires that
signpost members to local resources.
Competitions: Business Plan Competitions are one
of the best ways of gathering information about your
local business community and generating buzz. Our
Competition feature enables you to set up sophisti-
cated business plan competitions quickly and efficiently.
Community Manager Dashboard
News and Event Updates: Using your
VentureNavigator Community Manager Dashboard,
you can post regular news and events to the
members of your community.
Profiles: Each of your members will have their own
personal Profile on VentureNavigator. Competition Management
Group Messaging: Send a message to all of your Community Management Training: Whilst setting
Community members. This is a great way of keeping up your community is important, you need to manage
your members up-to-date with news, upcoming it effectively to get the best results. To help get you
events and opportunities. started we offer a non-technical training session that
covers community planning, community management
Private Messaging: Private messaging between and marketing.
members is one of the most popular features on
Facebook and other social networks and helps build Prices
community cohesion. VentureNavigator Business Communities are
inherently cost-effective. By using the internet we
Reporting & Statistics: VentureNavigator will are able to both reduce the cost of access to
provide an administration interface that enables the services and dramatically increase returns,
Community Manager to view and download reports. especially in terms of data and reporting. By using
User statistics can be enhanced by implementing a our existing platform, we are able to offer low-cost
community questionnaire which helps to identify and implementation and provide our customers with
target businesses that can benefit from local the additional benefit of an existing member
business support services. database.
Leverage our Existing Community: Once we have Prices are based on the population size of the
created your community, every new Authority and are available on request.
VentureNavigator member that lives in your area will
automatically be invited to join your community. We
sign up thousands of new members every year, so For More Information
you will benefit from our growing network. For more information or to arrange a
demonstration, please contact Emma Hewett,
Widgets: Our widgets enable you to embed Business Development Manager
community news, events and discussions within your Tel: 07785 925065
own website. We can also enable your members to
Email: emma@venturenavigator.co.uk
log into VentureNavigator directly from your site.
www.venturenavigator.co.uk/business-communities