BUSINESS LINK ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS
According to the media all is doom and gloom on the business front; what help is there for business? Can that help be explained simply because it all seems so very confusing?&
In a nutshell yes!
Our role
Our job at Business Link is to understand what help your business needs and to check out all the possible help available to your business and to help you get access to it so you can achieve your objectives. This is a free service so make use of it.
I and my other business adviser colleagues need to find out about your business in terms of where it is now strategically and where you want it to be, so that we can find you the right support; we will work with you over the long-term as your business grows and your need for support and help changes.
Here is just some of the help that is available.
Free Business Advice:
- One-to-one, free and impartial business advice from an experienced Business Link business adviser.
- Impartial financial performance review. This is not just for businesses that are in financial difficulties, we will help you identify the financial strengths, weaknesses and risks in the business; but if you wait until things are getting difficult it could be too late.
- Free help and advice from a number of specialist Business Link advisers, which apart from finance above includes retail, IT, environment, rural businesses, community and social enterprises and more.
- Your adviser may decide that you need specialist help from other support organisations such as the Manufacturing Advisory Service for help with production, or UK Trade & Industry if you are looking to grow your business as an exporter or are considering international trade, for the first time, as a possible route to market.
Training and Development:
There is help for companies to train their staff. One such scheme, Train to Gain offers full funding for accredited courses for employees. Train to Gain employs training specialists who can advise you on the most suitable training and where to find it. There are a number of criteria and conditions applied, but we will explain and advise on these and then we will find you a Train to Gain specialist.
There is a fairly new training grant in the Eastern Region called Beyond 2010; this is targeted at 10 key business sectors that are recognized as being important to the region: Automotive & High-tech Manufacture; Creative Sector; Financial Services; Food and drink processing; Life Sciences and Healthcare; Low carbon and sustainable technologies; Social Enterprise; Sustainable Communities and the Built Environment; Tourism and Olympics 2012; and Transport Gateways. I know one or two of these sound a bit vague, but we will find out if your business would qualify for funding. This grant helps to pay for more advanced training whereas Train to Gain funds introductory and intermediary type training courses. Beyond 2010 offers up to 50% (maximum £2,500 per company) of training costs.
For companies with more than 10 employees there is funding for senior managers to undergo training that would help to strategically move the business forward - this is available under the Train to Gain scheme.
There is some support if you're looking to achieve Investors in People accreditation in the form of funding for free help and advice from an Investors in People specialist.
New schemes and improvements to existing ones:
At the same time there are a number of UK government and European Union initiatives being worked on that will help businesses. Some are already active and I and my colleagues are getting access to these on behalf of our customers where needed.
Help for Innovators:
There is funding also for all you inventors out there; a number of grants and schemes are offered by EEDA through Business Link advisers.
Capital projects:
There is also a capital grant for large projects i.e. the smallest project would need to have at least a £55,000 capital cost, in which case you could apply for a grant of between 10% & 15%.
There is help and advice available for you if you need to attract external funding into the business.
Ok so there is help around, but I'm no less confused!
That's natural, but our job as business Link advisers is to save you the job of researching all of this by us understanding your plans for the business and helping you to get the right support and advice in order to achieve your goals.
Our advisers work with our customers to ensure they get access to the right help at the right time.
That's all for this month.
Peter Mulhall
Business Adviser
tel: 07717 290309
p.mulhall@businesslinkeast.org.uk
Business Link - the place to go for business support
Online: www.businesslink.gov.uk/east
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