Business support

Coventry and Warwickshire Enterprise and Business Growth package

This project presents a cohesive package of business support tailored to meet the specific needs of Coventry and Warwickshire business growth dynamics.
It will help to establish new businesses and create new jobs by working with established firms with potential for growth, assisting them to invest, exploit new markets, and to develop local supply chain opportunities.

Through these activities the project is aiming to:

• Develop an enterprising culture within disadvantaged areas of Coventry, Nuneaton and Bedworth, addressing the perceived barriers to starting a business and providing role models to inspire other potential entrepreneurs in these areas.
• Support SMEs to exploit their potential for accelerated growth, resulting in new sales, investment, job creation and carbon reductions.
• Form networks and collaborations within emerging growth sectors (environmental technologies, low carbon transport, digital technologies), resulting in new investment, local supply chain development, skills development and new jobs within the sub region.
• Support investment within growing start up and SME businesses, assisting sustainability, innovation, diversification and growth within the local economy.

The Coventry and Warwickshire Enterprise and Business Growth Package will deliver a coordinated programme of activity that will seek to increase the rate of new business formation, help existing businesses to grow more quickly, develop networks of businesses in growing sectors and help businesses to access finance for growth.

The package will deliver four strands of support:

• Start up support
• Business support
• Sector development
• Access to finance

Start up support

This strand will be delivered across the whole of Coventry, Nuneaton and Bedworth and will provide one to one start up support from Enterprise Coaches in order to encourage people to set up their own business.

Business support

Will provide one to one support for established SMEs with the potential for "accelerated growth"

This strand will use the following indicators for accelerated growth:

• New businesses with the potential to achieve £350k turnover or employ four or more staff in their first three years of trading.
• Existing businesses with 1 - 9 employees with the potential to increase turnover by £350k over three years.
• Existing businesses with 10 or more employees with the potential to increase annual turnover or employment by 5 - 10% over three years.

This strand will also provide much needed one to one resource efficiency support for Coventry and Warwickshire businesses.

Enabling Innovation and Growth

Will support growth, investment and job creation in emerging business sectors.

This strand of the package will:

• Engage with local SMEs, profiling the opportunities and potential of growing sectors
• Introduce and create new markets and develop sector networks and associations that bring together groups of businesses to collaborate, exploit the market and to form new models of service delivery.
• Support SMEs to develop realistic supply chain propositions for these growing markets.
• Work with employment support and skills providers to establish employment and skills strategies for growing sectors, ensuring that local people can establish the necessary skills to take advantage of new job opportunities.

Access to finance

This will support start up enterprises and existing businesses to secure investment, enabling innovation, growth and job creation.

Both the start up and access to finance grants will only be offered when the business is working with an Enterprise Coach, Business Coach, Resource Efficiency Consultant or Sector Advisor.

This strand of the package will:

• Support start ups and established SMEs to develop robust financial plans and support approaches to banks and equity investors.
• Provide small scale start up grants ranging from £500 to £2000, offered at a 40% intervention rate. Grants will help with initial start up costs including equipment, tools, marketing, IT.
• Provide access to finance for established businesses looking to invest and grow. Grants up to a maximum of £100,000 will be available at different intervention rates ( 10 - 30% ) depending upon size and location of business. Grants will help with investments in: premises, machinery and resource measures, purchases of land, however, are not eligible for grant support.