Business Support

Business Support

We believe that we do not have to deliver work on our own, at times we offer our services as part of programmes of support being delivered across the country. Working together with other consultants we either run the project or help deliver the support, normally taking the form of 1:2:1 support or running workshops, masterclasses and webinars. The 1:2:1 support can also be 1:many, working with teams, directors or management groups to provide advice, guidance, reports, research or being a critical friend.  

Who we have worked with

From May 2013 until March 2019, we were part of an ERDF funded programme of business support for tourism businesses in Staffordshire. Led by Destination Staffordshire we worked with programme managers Winning Moves to deliver the 1:2:1 support. The programme ran across 2 funding programmes, each programme supported around 250 businesses with between 12-24 hours support. Our delivery included identifying the businesses who needed support, ensure they completed the relevant forms. A lot of the businesses worked with were identified via word and mouth from previous clients. In addition to the 1:2:1 business support, we worked with the programme manager for the business support programme to develop a cluster approach to working with themed businesses and we delivered workshops and masterclasses. As a group we developed an “Academy” of support. We held monthly update meetings and identified how to engage more businesses and deliver the outputs
In July 2019 we signed up to work with Creative United on their Prosper North Programme. This project provides 8 hours 1:2:1 business support for organisations in the Arts, Culture and Heritage sectors in the North of England, run over 3 cohorts. As a consultant we were allocated 2 businesses each cohort and have 5 months to deliver the support. As part of the delivery, we must complete - Session Notes; Business Development Goals with proof of achievement; And a timetable to delivery.
In Cohort 1 we worked with a Guild located in York, to support their consultation with their board to help develop their business plan. We suggested also engaging their staff in the process.  We sent the board members and team a premeeting questionnaire to get people thinking about the future and their vision. Traveling to York we ran a morning session with the staff (and afternoon with the board), we got them to think about the current time, success and failure, the customer and financials. We then looked to the future, the vision, the targets, why they chose those targets and how they thought they could get there. From that meeting we put together a report for the CEO and she wrote her business plan. Although we have written many business plans for other clients, there wasn’t time in the 8 hours to include that. 

 Related Projects

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What our Clients say...


'The reason we asked for assistance was specifically to have an external person work with the staff and the Board to ascertain and test their views prior to preparing the next Business Plan and to reassure me that we are on the right track and haven't missed anything important from our direction of travel.

 

Emma prepared and researched in advance of meetings, she also sent the teams a questionnaire to complete in preparation for the meeting. In advance of the meeting Emma sent me an outline plan of the activities.

 

Emma met with staff and trustees separately and worked through a set of pre prepared questions, adapting her approach as necessary based on the information being offered. Emma had a friendly and business like approach and everyone warmed to her and seemed to be open when speaking to her. Emma managed to draw out valuable information, thoughts and insights which we will now incorporate into the plan. I intend to send the plan to her to review and comment upon, before we produce the final version. It was an extremely useful activity and I am extremely grateful for her time and expertise."


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