Innovate funding to help small businesses grow
Most small businesses awarded Innovate UK funding from January 2015 will automatically receive business support to help them grow faster. The new growth support offers small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) the chance to:
- participate in a growth workshop
- complete an online diagnostic of their business
- discuss their business needs with a growth expert to develop a growth plan
Based on the results, SMEs will gain opportunities to get:
- coaching
- mentoring
- entrepreneurial skills training
This will cover areas such as:
- developing a business model
- sales
- strategic marketing
- access to finance
- leadership
- change management
Innovate UK will meet the costs of this SME growth support. It will be provided by different organisations depending on where the SME is based:
- in Scotland Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise
This growth support is being offered after a successful pilot project showed that businesses that combined our funding with additional business support were able to grow their businesses more quickly.
SMEs that combined funding from Innovate with business coaching:
- saw an average 26% increase in turnover
- created an average 4.6 new jobs
Mentoring and training in business skills also helped businesses to gain confidence and to make the most of their potential.
One of the companies that took part in the pilot was Bolton-based Bindatex, an innovative small business that is set to more than treble it’s turnover after receiving funding support from Innovate UK and business coaching.
Founder Chris Lever (pictured above) said: “It helped to take me out of the day-to-day production and think more strategically about how I was going to continue moving the business forward. I now have a clearer picture of where I want the business to go.”
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