FOCUS FEATURE
GROWING YOUR BUSINESS
A detailed cashflow is essential for any business
SKILLS FOR GROWTH The development of skills is essential throughout all phases of business growth. For start-ups, business owners are challenged with
learning a multitude of skills including managing their finances, sales and marketing, employment law, negotiation, purchasing and operational processes. Programmes such as the as the D2 Business Starter Project in Derbyshire and the NBV Starting in Business Programme offer a range of fully-funded workshops to help new business start-ups acquire and develop business skills as well as exploring their potential business growth. Once the business starts to grow, business owners or managers need to develop skills to source and recruit the right talent to enable growth. They also need to learn how to delegate tasks, share and communicate business objectives, develop mechanisms for communication, define processes, manage performance, coach to improve, develop a team ethos and encourage individuals to work autonomously. Managing, unlocking and developing the talents and
abilities of the workforce is key to establishing, maintaining and growing your competitive advantage and being able to move with your customers’ key demands. Universities offer a variety of internship and graduate
placement programmes that can help businesses get a fresh perspective on growth challenges and secure specialist support in areas such as research, digital marketing, engineering and project management. Some also offer grants towards the cost of employing an intern. The Skills Advice service, through the D2N2 Growth Hub,
can support your efforts to unlock and develop the talents of the workforce. The service will assess where you are now, where you would like to be and support your needs whether it’s sourcing training, graduate support or recruiting new staff. Lucie Andrews, who heads up the service, believes that
understanding and improving the skills and talents of your workforce is key to meeting growth challenges. She said: “Successful business growth at any level is
always down to people, whether at senior management level or on the shop floor. “The Skills Advice service is here to support employers
to realise growth potential by assessing where you are now, where you would like to be and then to signpost and source the relevant solution, whether it’s training, apprenticeships, graduate support or recruitment of new staff.”
48 business network February 2019
The D2N2 Growth Hub is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.
FINANCING GROWTH Sound financial planning is fundamental to any business growth strategy. You need to establish how much investment is required to fund the venture, the timescales involved, plus how soon you will be able to repay. A detailed cashflow forecast is essential, not least because outgoings will probably rise quicker than income is generated. The options of finance are numerous - from your traditional bank loans to crowd funding and equity finance to private investors in the form of business angels. John O’Donnell, Business Finance Manager at the D2N2
Growth Hub, gives specialist advice to SMEs that are planning to grow and to those struggling to cope with existing growth demands. He said: “It can be overwhelming for a business owner to
decide on which finance option is best suited for their growth plans. By taking some external, third party advice from your local Growth Hub adviser a clearer, impartial view can be given and the business can have confidence in making the right choice for whatever stage of growth they are experiencing.”
LONG TERM GROWTH BENEFITS Business leaders and employees’ aspirations are changing. Businesses are being built to sell and employees are looking to their employer to be flexible and meet their personal ambition for success, wealth and values. A business that can clearly demonstrate its growth plan, and has the resources to deliver this, has the opportunity to become that employer of choice - to attract the very best people and retain them, to be market leaders and to provide an environment where its people can thrive.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT YOUR LOCAL GROWTH HUB: D2N2 Growth Hub (Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire) Tel: 0333 006 9178, E:
info@d2n2growthhub.co.uk W:
www.d2n2growthhub.co.uk
LLEP Business Gateway (Leicester and Leicestershire) Tel: 0116 366 8487. E:
bizgateway@llep.org.uk. W:
www.llepbizgateway.org.uk
John O’Donnell, D2N2 Growth Hub’s Business Finance Manager
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72
