Duo Check Out Winning Business Academy

Duo are a creative business with boundless ideas and energy, However, our growth over the past four years seemed to lack something. As in the case of many businesses, we never really took enough time to stand back and look at the bigger picture. We lacked focus and planning. Being based in One Central Park, we are only a corridor away from Winning Pitch, the founders of the Winning Business Academy; so when the offer came to enrol and take part, we felt it was worth a look.

To say we weren't disappointed is an understatement.  One of our directors here at Duo, has attended so-called sales courses in the past; more often than not, their content centered solely on telesales techniques, and how to close a deal. Winning Pitch's course is on an entirely different level.

Their 3 day sessions are based on looking directly at your business, and giving you really practical and easy to use business tools and techniques, which enable you to realise your company's orientation, and the direction in which you want it to go. They explain how other companies have achieved growth, and how their lessons can be applied to your business and it's future success. 

The energy with which Winning Pitch explain many of these concepts can't help but motivate, and you can easily begin to implement the techniques that have been discussed and explored during the course. We found that combining the Winning Business Academy sessions along with three one-on-one consultations with Dave Adamson ( their expert advisor ), proved invaluable in getting Winning Pitch's techniques to work on our business model.

Since completing the Academy's course in December, we have seen a real impact on our business. Winning Pitch's techniques have brought clarity and focus to our business planning, and for the first time we actually have a four year plan of growth in place. We know how much we want to turnover, the number of staff we need to employ, and what we expect to pay them. From our fourth year objective, we have worked back through to this year, and have a monthly income target which we're already exceeding. In addition, after implementing a planning meeting on a weekly basis, we're not only getting plenty more work in, we're also still hitting the deadlines. Our most critical change is not just having lots of work to do, but having the right work to do. We're no longer underpaid workaholics, and if the year continues on a similar track, we could realistically almost double last year's turnover.

Hopefully the Academy will go from strength to strength, with more and more businesses reaping the benefits from the experience and energy of the Winning Pitch Team.

The Winning Business Academy is a joint venture between Winning Pitch and the University of Manchester Incubator Company (UMIC). It's aim is to provide high quality business support to companies that have a desire for growth. More information can be found at Winning Pitch's new website ( oddly enough, designed by Duo )