Earlier this month, Eventbrite teamed up with the Manchester Evening News and some of the city’s finest business folk to hold a roundtable discussion on Manchester’s role in the Northern Powerhouse agenda.

Ten experts – from entrepreneurs and business advisors, to trade associations and company directors – came together to speak about what small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the city are doing to help fuel growth, both their own and their peers.

There has already been much discussion about the Northern Powerhouse, which is a Government initiative to bring together major cities across the North – from Manchester, to Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield – and redress the country’s economic balance. Manchester has been tipped to be the focus of the region, but we wanted to know what the city’s key business folk thought about this idea, and what SMEs, startups and the wider business community should be doing to be their own powerhouses.

Here are five tips from our expert panel:

Al Mackin, Founder of Formisimo: “Find a good mentor and the impact can be huge. They can answer that question that you’ve been trying to answer for weeks or months in a word, when you might have got it wrong.”

Richard Brooks, Tunafish Media: “I don’t think you can ever beat that personal aspect, meeting face-to-face and building relationships with new clients. A lot of our work comes from networking events – for us it’s viable to make those contacts and relationships.”

Katie Gallagher, MD at Manchester Digital: “It’s about moving people around and retaining talent. HS3 is awesome because we can access talent from northern cities and Manchester can benefit greatly from that.”

Jonathan Bowers, MD UKFast: “Developing people around you is one of the most important things you can do. We set up a mentoring scheme in UKFast and you have to be in a different team, if you’re in the same team it won’t work. There’s a wealth of experience in Manchester and we should do more to find ways to mentor others.”

Steve Kuncewicz, Media Lawyer at Bermans: “If you want to have good relationships and be successful, you have got to put some work in. It’s about investing time in relationships that sometimes lead to friendships, and that creates a halo effect.”

What do you think? Do you have any tips for budding Manchester businesses? Post your advice on our Twitter conversation, #BriteTipsMCR.