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About Us
MSG Business Elevate was organised around the simple idea that when we collaborate together, we’re at our best. Helping each other through open, warm conversations, offering insight and experiences in business to resolve challenges - we can grow in confidence, understanding, resilience and strategy.
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Ultimately, as humans, we want to feel secure and content in our lives. Helping each other to develop our business relationships and establish ourselves further is a means to just that. And an added bonus? We're boosting our local economies, a domino effect of growth and security for others.
If you’d like to take the opportunity to join us, just book a ticket! Everyone is welcome, whether you're a startup, sole trader, CEO, or employee, and you don't have to live or work in the village to be part of our community.
Organisers
Katharine founded her own business, The Absolute Word​ in 2014 whilst on a sabbatical from teaching Secondary English. Needing to fund a Master's degree, she fell into freelance copywriting, and continued it until returning to education in 2016.
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Then came the pandemic, when she was a few months pregnant with her first child. Isolating for the whole of her maternity leave, she had the chance to reevaluate and reprioritise, so she started up the business again. Going full-time freelance from November 2021, everything was still online, so she networked from home.
In 2023, however, with a second baby in the mix, Katharine decided now was the time to start getting out to in-person events and growing her local network. She joined Darlington Business Club and went to a number of other events, starting to see familiar faces and feel part of something.
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Wanting to share that feeling of community, human connection, and energised growth, she decided to start up MSG Business Elevate in Middleton St George, to complement and collaborate with other networking organisations and help local businesses grow in turn.
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"Having the chance to leap into my own business, be much more present with my young children and husband, and do something that's just mine is a privilege I'm very conscious of. So, it's important to me not to take it for granted. If I can help others develop their own businesses through useful, positive professional relationships and learning from others in different sectors, I feel like I'm making the most of this opportunity. We are recharged through human energy, the support of others, and joy - so I try to build that into all of my events. Hopefully, it creates a chain reaction."