SOUTH WEST BUSINESS NEWS inform
Grants will put your foot on the growth accelerator
By Jennifer Rollason, Marketing Executive, Business West Enterprise Services
Business West is inviting applications from ambitious businesses with at least two years of sustained growth, who would benefit from a £5,000 grant to work with a coach to accelerate their business. Building on the success of the Scale-Up Coaching Grant scheme, delivered in partnership with Enterprising West of England, Business West is launching a new High Impact Scale-Up Coaching Grants programme, designed to help both West of England businesses on the cusp of becoming scale-ups and fully- fledged scale-ups overcome the key challenges to growth. With 84,162 people in the West
of England employed by scale-ups, the continued creation and growth of these businesses is crucial to the sustainability of the local economy, yet 47% of UK scale-ups said they felt there was little support available to help businesses like theirs.
The High Impact Scale-Up Coaching Grant programme aims to remedy this situation by helping businesses access the training they need, with a coach of their choice. The 2017 Scale-Up Review found
that the key barriers to growth for small and medium enterprises are: • Access to talent • Access to home and international markets
• Building leadership capacity • Finance • Infrastructure
Further to this, 65% of UK scale-up companies said access to leadership development and training will be vital to their continued growth. The High Impact Scale-Up Coaching Grant programme has been developed to support businesses to overcome these barriers through intensive and strategic coaching, with a coach or trainer of the business owner’s choice.
The programme will be exclusively available to SMEs in the West of England who have the potential to become fully-fledged scale-up companies. Scale-up businesses are defined
as either growing by more than 20% per year by turnover growth, employee growth, or both, for at least three years. Business West is particularly keen to speak to those with the potential to become scale- ups; these businesses generally have at least two years of sustained growth, the aspiration to continue their growth, and the willingness to make time and financial investments in the growth of their business. Tara Gillam, head of enterprise at
Business West, said: “The programme will support high growth businesses who need leadership and management development at this stage to ensure growth continues and to help take their business to the next level.” In addition to the grants, a new scale-up advisor has joined the
Enterprise team at Business West to help businesses in the West of England achieve their growth potential. Victoria Matthews, scale- up advisor, will be supporting businesses throughout the grant application process and beyond. Both the Enterprising West of England Scale-Up programme and Business West’s new High Impact Scale-Up Grant coaching programme are supported by the European Regional Development Fund. Interested businesses should
contact Business West to receive a grant application form. Grant payments will be made to successful applicants investing a minimum of £20,000 (excluding VAT) in leadership development and management coaching.
E:
scaleup@businesswest.co.uk W:
www.businesswest.co.uk/ high-impact-grants
JULY/AUGUST 2018 insight 9
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