Hydraulics Online: Peer Networks Case Study
Case Study
Growth Hub
Peer Networks
21/06/2021
Helen Tonks shares her peer networks experience
Helen Tonks is co-founder and director at Hydraulics Online, an award-winning hydraulic equipment and systems provider based in Alsager.
Last year Helen attended the Peer Networks programme, a national, fully funded programme for SME owners and leaders who want to grow and develop their organisations. Delivered locally by Cheshire and Warrington Growth Hub, we create diverse groups of individuals to collaboratively work through common business issues.
Helen shares her experience of taking part in the Peer Networks programme:
"I have often been heard to say that the best thing about having your own business is simultaneously the worst: there is nobody telling you what to do. It can be really lonely at times, even in a family business where heightened emotional dynamics can also be at play.
The Peer Networks Programme was a great opportunity to connect with a group of diverse, but ultimately like-minded, business owners and leaders, who I would probably never otherwise have crossed paths with, in a really ‘safe’ and supportive environment. I found it hugely rewarding to be part of the process of helping somebody to have a ‘lightbulb moment’ where they could finally see the proverbial wood for the trees and a way through a problem that had often, quite literally, been keeping them awake at night.
Best of all, we have stayed in touch as a cohort and have continued to act as sounding boards for one another. On a lighter note we’re all arranging to meet up and kick back and relax soon! It can’t be all work and no play, can it?”
To find out more about the 2021 Peer Networks programme click here
To find out more about Hydraulics Online click here