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Figures Without Fear: Free Small Business Training Day
Build a business that attracts the right customers, makes more profit and pays you properly
You started your business to create a better income and a better life.
You probably did not start it so you could work all the hours, worry about where the next customer is coming from and pay yourself whatever happens to be left at the end of the month.
But for many small business owners, that is exactly what happens.
The business makes sales.
Money comes in.
The owner stays busy.
Yet their own payday remains unpredictable.
If that sounds familiar, join me for Figures Without Fear, a practical, in-person training day created for local start-ups, sole traders and small business owners.
During the day, I will help you understand how to:
- Build the amount you want to be paid into your business model
- Work out what your business needs to generate
- Improve your pricing and profit
- Attract better-fit customers
- Make your marketing clearer
- Follow up and sell with more confidence
- Identify the practical actions that could make the biggest difference
This will not be a day of complicated spreadsheets, marketing jargon or vague motivational advice.
It will be a practical working day designed to help you make better decisions and leave with a clearer plan.
Event details at a glance
Event: Figures Without Fear: Free Small Business Training Day
Date: Friday 2 October 2026
Time: 9:30am–2:30pm
Venue: St Andrews Town Hotel, Droitwich, Worcestershire
Cost: Free
Deposit: £30, fully refunded when you attend
Included: Training, lunch, tea, coffee and free parking
Best for: Local start-ups, sole traders and small business owners
What would change if your business paid you properly?
Many business owners are told to pay the bills first and take whatever is left.
I think that is terrible advice.
Most of the time, particularly while a business is growing, there is very little left.
Sometimes there is nothing left at all.
The owner becomes the last person to be paid, despite being the person taking the risks, finding the customers, doing the work and making the decisions.
That is not a sustainable business model.
I believe you should decide what you want and need to be paid, then build a business that can support it.
In my world, the business owner should not be an unpaid employee in their own business.
A real business needs a payday — and that includes yours.
During this free training day, we will look at the numbers, offers, customers and marketing activity that need to work together to make that possible.
This training day is for you if…
You may find the day particularly useful if:
- Your income changes dramatically from one month to the next
- You pay yourself randomly rather than having a planned payday
- You make sales but do not see enough profit
- You are unsure whether your prices are high enough
- You feel busy but do not seem to be moving forward
- You attract enquiries from people who do not value what you offer
- You feel uncomfortable talking about your prices
- Your marketing feels inconsistent or ineffective
- You rely too heavily on referrals or word of mouth
- You struggle to follow up because you do not want to seem pushy
- You avoid looking at your numbers
- You want a practical plan you can begin using immediately
You do not need perfect accounts.
You do not need a detailed spreadsheet.
And you definitely do not need to be “good with numbers”.
Come with an open mind, a willingness to look honestly at your business and a commitment to making some changes.
What we will cover during the day
Build your payday into your business model
Instead of waiting to see what is left at the end of the month, you will learn how to work backwards from the amount you want to be paid.
We will look at:
- How much you want to earn from your business
- What your business costs to run
- The profit your business needs to make
- How your pricing affects your payday
- Your average order value
- How many customers or sales you actually need and how to get them
- Whether your current model can realistically support your goals
You will begin to see the actual shape of the business you need to build.
No more crossing your fingers and hoping you have had a “good month”.
You will have numbers to work towards and decisions you can make.
Understand your figures without the fear
You don’t need to become an accountant to run a successful business.
But you do need to understand the figures that influence your prices, profit and personal pay.
We will make those numbers easier to understand so you can use them to make better business decisions.
You will begin to understand:
- Which figures matter most
- What those figures are telling you
- Whether your prices are sustainable
- Which offers are helping the business
- Where money may be leaking away
- What needs to improve for you to earn more
That is what Figures Without Fear is all about.
Stop chasing turnover and start building profit
Turnover might sound impressive, but turnover does not pay your mortgage.
You can have plenty of customers and money coming into your bank account while still having very little available to pay yourself.
More sales do not automatically mean more money for you.
During the training, we will explore:
- Why busy does not always mean profitable
- Why selling more of the wrong offer can make things worse
- How to identify your most profitable work
- Why your costs and capacity matter
- How to make sales decisions based on profit rather than vanity
Because profit is where your payday lives.
The Me First Method
- Decide what you want the business to pay you
- Understand the costs of running it
- Set the profit the business needs to make
- Identify the right offers and prices
- Calculate how many customers you need
- Build your sales and marketing plan around those targets
Stop leaving your own pay until last.
Attract the right customers
You do not need everybody to become your customer.
You need the right people.
People who:
- Have a genuine need for what you offer
- Understand the value of solving their problem
- Are a good fit for your way of working
- Are willing and able to pay an appropriate price
During the day, we will look at:
- Who you are trying to attract
- What those people really need
- Which problems they are prepared to pay to solve
- Why they should choose you
- How to communicate your value more clearly
Clearer marketing helps the right people recognise that your business is for them.
Improve your sales and marketing
Marketing should not feel like throwing random posts onto social media and hoping someone notices.
Sales should not feel like awkwardly persuading people to buy something they do not need.
Your marketing should help the right people discover you.
Your sales process should help them decide whether your offer is right for them.
You will learn how to:
- Create clearer marketing messages
- Talk about your offer with more confidence
- Show people the value of working with you
- Follow up without feeling pushy
- Ask for the sale more comfortably
- Make it easier for potential customers to take the next step
- Focus on activities that are most likely to produce results
The aim is not simply to attract more people.
It is to attract the right people, at the right price.
What will you leave with?
My aim is not for you to spend the day listening, take pages of notes and then put them in a drawer when you get home.
I want you to leave with greater clarity about:
- What you want your business to pay you
- What the business needs to generate to make that possible
- Whether your current prices support your goals
- Which offers deserve more of your attention
- Who your most valuable customers are
- How to improve your marketing message
- What needs to change in your sales process
- Which actions to focus on next
You should leave feeling more confident about your figures, your marketing and the business you are trying to build.
More importantly, you should leave with a practical direction rather than another collection of disconnected ideas.
By the end of the day, you should have:
- A clearer personal pay target
- A better understanding of your business costs
- A realistic profit target
- Greater clarity about your pricing
- A clearer picture of the customers you need
- Stronger sales and marketing messages
- Practical actions to take next
- More confidence in your business decisions
This is a practical working day
This is not a conference where you sit quietly while somebody talks at you for five hours.
It is a working training day.
There will be explanations, examples and practical exercises to help you apply the learning to your own business.
You will have time to:
- Reflect on your current business model
- Work through your own figures privately
- Identify gaps in your pricing or offers
- Review your current customers
- Improve your marketing message
- Decide what actions to take next
- Ask questions
You will not be required to share private financial information with the room.
You can work through your own figures without publicly disclosing anything you would prefer to keep confidential.
This is not about working longer hours
You will not be told that the answer is to wake up earlier, work every weekend or spend every evening trying to create another seven social media posts.
You will not be told to chase turnover simply so you can say the business is growing.
And you will not be told to keep buying more courses, coaching or marketing without first understanding what the business genuinely needs.
Instead, I will help you identify the practical changes that could make your existing time, offers and marketing work harder for you.
A business that pays you properly is not necessarily a business that requires you to work more.
It is a business that has been built more deliberately.
Why attend this training with me?
Hi, I’m Lynne Thomas — The Business Builder
I train and mentor start-ups and small business owners, helping them build businesses that support them rather than businesses that demand everything from them.
Since delivering my first free workshops in 2013, I have helped thousands of business owners understand their numbers, improve their sales and marketing, increase their profit and make more confident decisions.
But I didn’t become The Business Builder because I got everything right from day one.
Far from it.
For years, I followed the advice that I should pay all the bills and take whatever was left.
The problem was that there was rarely very much left.
I worked hard.
The business generated sales.
My turnover grew.
But my own pay remained an afterthought.
That experience led me to develop the Me First Method: a way of building your desired pay into the business model rather than hoping it will happen eventually.
I am also the host of the Figures Without Fear podcast, where I help small business owners understand the figures that drive their business without complicated explanations or unnecessary jargon.
My approach is friendly, honest and practical.
I won’t make you feel silly for not knowing something.
I will not drown you in spreadsheets.
And I will not pretend one motivational quote or a quick affirmation each morning will fix your cash flow.
We will look at what is happening, what the numbers are telling you and what you can practically do next.
Why I am running this training for free
I want more local small business owners to understand that being busy is not the same as being profitable.
Too many new and small businesses are failing (around 95% of them won’t last 3 years).
Too many brilliant people are working extremely hard while paying themselves too little.
Too much really bad advice is being given to small business owners which is holding them back rather than moving them forward.
They may be excellent at delivering their product or service, but nobody has shown them how the numbers, pricing, sales and marketing fit together.
“Everyone is always telling me what I should do, but this is the first time anyone has explained “Why” I should be doing it” – Katie Jones
This day gives you the opportunity to step away from the daily noise and look properly at the business you are building.
The training, venue, lunch and refreshments are being provided without charge.
The only amount you pay is a fully refundable deposit to secure your place.
Why is there a £30 deposit?
The training day is completely free to attend.
There is no charge for:
- The training
- The venue
- Lunch
- Tea and coffee
- Parking
However, every booked place has a real cost attached to it which I am covering.
Places are limited, and a place reserved by somebody who doesn’t attend prevents another business owner from joining us.
The £30 deposit helps ensure that places are booked by people who genuinely intend to attend.
When you attend the training day, your £30 deposit will be fully refunded through Eventbrite, subject to its terms and processing arrangements.
Please only reserve a place if you are confident that you can attend on Friday 2 October 2026.
Event details
Figures Without Fear: Free Small Business Training Day
Friday 2 October 2026
9:30am–2:30pm
St Andrews Town Hotel
Droitwich, Worcestershire
Cost: Free
Refundable deposit: £30
Included: Lunch, tea, coffee and free parking
Booking: Advance reservation through Eventbrite is essential
Frequently asked questions
Is the training genuinely free?
Yes.
There is no charge for the training, venue, lunch, tea, coffee or parking.
You will pay a £30 deposit when reserving your place. This will be fully refunded when you attend the training day, subject to Eventbrite’s normal processing arrangements and terms.
Why do I need to pay a deposit?
Every person who books has a real cost attached to their place. I have to pay for the food and drink for everyone who books and so if you don’t then attend I have covered my cost to the venue.
The refundable deposit helps prevent places being reserved by people who have no firm intention of attending.
It means the limited spaces are more likely to go to business owners who genuinely want to take part.
Do I need to be good with numbers?
Absolutely not.
The purpose of Figures Without Fear is to help you understand your business numbers without making them frightening or unnecessarily complicated.
Everything will be explained in straightforward language.
Will I need to share my financial information?
No.
You may be invited to work privately through some of your own figures, but you will not be required to disclose sensitive financial information to the room.
Is the training suitable for someone who hasn't started trading yet?
es.
Understanding your business model, customers, costs, pricing and sales targets early can save you a great deal of time, money and frustration later.
You don’t need to have started trading yet, although you should have a reasonably clear business idea.
Is it suitable for an established business?
Yes.
It will be particularly useful if your business is generating sales but your profit, income or personal pay is not where you would like it to be.
It can also help if your marketing feels inconsistent or you are unsure which offers deserve more attention.
Is the event only for Worcestershire based businesses?
No
Although the day is aimed primarily at start-ups and small business owners from Worcestershire and the surrounding West Midlands area you may still attend if you are based farther away and are able to travel to Droitwich.
Will lunch be provided?
Yes.
Lunch, tea and coffee will be provided free of charge.
Please provide any dietary requirements during the booking process where requested.
Is parking available at the venue?
Yes.
Free parking is available at the venue.
What should I bring?
Bring something to write with, a calculator or mobile phone and any basic figures you already have about your prices, costs and sales.
Feel free to bring your laptops or tablets although they are not necessary
Don’t worry if your information is incomplete, or non-existant if you haven’t started trading yet. You will still be able to take part.
Will I be sold to during the day?
The purpose of the day is to provide useful, practical business training.
I will explain who I am and the ways I support businesses, but this will not be a day built around a prolonged or high-pressure sales pitch, that is not something I do or recommend others do.
How do I reserve my place?
Use the Eventbrite booking link and pay the £30 refundable deposit.
Your place is not confirmed until the Eventbrite booking has been completed.
Ready to build a business that pays you properly?
You can keep hoping there will be enough money left at the end of the month.
You can keep chasing more turnover, attracting the wrong customers and wondering why being busy is not creating a better payday.
Or you can take one day to step back, understand what your business needs and begin building a model that works for you.
This training day will help you understand:
- How your business makes money
- What it needs to generate
- How to improve your profit
- How to attract better-fit customers
- How your sales and marketing can work together
- What you need to focus on next
You deserve to be paid properly for the value, effort and experience you bring to your business.
Let’s start building a business that makes that possible.
Stop chasing turnover. Start building profit. Because profit is where your payday lives.
Friday 2 October 2026 | 9:30am–2:30pm
St Andrews Town Hotel, Droitwich, Worcestershire
A £30 fully refundable deposit is required to secure your place.
Eventbrite booking link:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/figures-without-fear-free-training-tickets-1994409472420?aff=oddtdtcreator