Transform your business with ‘The Retail Champion’ and attract more shoppers to Lincolnshire

Do you want to access £1,000 worth of business support, and the opportunity to work with one of the UK's leading retail and business consultants? Well, good news - this is your chance.

We are collaborating with Clare Bailey - The Retail Champion - to bring visitor economy businesses working in retail, hospitality, leisure and visitor attractions, across West Lindsey, Boston and East Lindsey some extra business support. And we're inviting you to register your interest now, so you can tap into Clare’s 10 Step Action Plan.

Clare’s plan will show you how to better market your business, tackle social media, manage stock control, sell to your ideal customer, dress your shop windows, generate kerb appeal, build a more resilient business – and so much more!

Once you’re feeling more business confident we’ll then develop joint shopping/leisure marketing campaigns, and invite you to work with like-minded businesses to attract more people into your destination – be that your village, market square or town centre.

While the focus of this work is on retail and consumer-facing sectors, Clare will be adopting a place-based approach, ensuring the aims we have for Greater Lincolnshire are encompassed within her work, and strengthening the visitor economy in a wider sense.

Clare says: "I'm very much looking forward to working alongside Destination Lincolnshire. For me, this is about the whole offering of a place. What 'makes' a destination is as much about the locals who visit daily as well as those visiting from further afield. Encouraging collaboration between local businesses across retail, hospitality, leisure, personal care, and attractions, is what enables more exciting and curated experiences to be developed, giving people a more compelling reason to choose to visit one place over another.

"I’ve seen it in action, first-hand, when I previously was delivering business support for West Lindsey. Businesses like Thorganby Hall, Nice and Naughty Bistro, Indian Curry Pot, Seven Districts Coffee and Elysian & Caim, to name a few, considered how, by working with each other and others such as accommodation providers in their locality they could deliver unique experiences. Some examples included a weekend learning how to cook Indian food, themed restaurant nights, coffee roasting, blending and tasting tours, and pampering spa retreats!

"Typically only larger organisations can deliver such experiences, but by encouraging these fantastic businesses to combine their skills and offering, they could present something much more appealing to visitors. That's exactly what we'll be looking at doing over the coming months, and in so doing the aim is to boost trade for all by delivering greater visitor attraction, boosting footfall, and creating a real buzz about our beautiful county."

Clare is the best-selling author of The Retail Champion: 10 Steps to Retail Success and a leading retail and business consultant in the UK. Using Covid recovery funding, Clare will help you set and achieve your business goals. One of the most well-known and respected retail experts in the UK, Clare is a leading authority on the sector, a regular TV news guest - featuring on the BBC, Talk TV, Sky, Ch4 and ITV. She speaks at conferences worldwide and through the pandemic supported 1000s of independent and high street businesses to transform, adapting to the “new normal” and the dramatically changed consumer behaviours. You can find out more via www.retailchampion.co.uk

So, why retail and the visitor economy?

The role of retail within the wider visitor economy is critical. Shops and independent businesses are the heartbeat of Lincolnshire’s economy and together they make Lincolnshire distinctive as a place to live and visit through the experiences they offer, the products they sell – and most importantly the shopkeepers and business owners who add personality and passion to town centres, markets, and villages.

It is because of this unique and vital offering that we have reached out to Clare, so that together we can provide specialist 1-2-1 support, reconnect with businesses, advise on recommendations in regard to marketing and development in line with the wider vision we hold, provide an action plan which focuses on retail marketing campaigns (awareness building), business engagement (collaboration) and best practice (training) so that you can deliver the resulting outcomes effectively.

The bigger strategic picture

Take a second, to look at the bigger picture. The work Clare is championing now will help you, us (Destination Lincolnshire) and district councils set up and grow new business clusters in ways that will underpin future collaboration and marketing – meaning that we can do more things like this in the future. Funding for this project means we have to focus work in West Lindsey, East Lindsey and Boston, but we will include everything in the wider visitor programme of Destination Lincolnshire and share Clare’s webinars across all of our digital platforms - including here – meaning that you can still benefit from this project.

With thanks to our founding council partners East Lindsey District Council, West Lindsey District Council and Boston Borough Council for thinking innovatively and share this with all our visitor economy.

How do you get involved?

It's simple. Fill out our online form or drop Clare and email at support@destinationlincolnshire.co.uk to get booked in.