Fast-growing and ambitious businesses are being offered a helping hand to step up to the next level.
The D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) – the private sector-led partnership promoting economic and jobs growth across Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire – is offering financial assistance and coaching to firms keen to ‘scale up’. The ScaleUp Service is being marketed and funded by the LEP’s D2N2 Growth Hub.
Firms qualifying for the D2N2 Growth Hub ScaleUp Service will be small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which have achieved some or all of the following criteria, or demonstrate the ambition and potential to do so in future:
- employ ten or more people at the start of the qualifying period;
- have a turnover of between one million and £15m a year;
- have consistent annual growth of at least 20% for the past three years.
The D2N2 Growth Hub – which works closely with SMEs in the LEP area to help them grow – has identified almost 200 companies across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire which could qualify for support under the ScaleUp Service. It is being delivered in partnership with Nottingham Trent University’s Nottingham Business School, the Professional Coaching Alliance, the Centre for Management & Business Development (CMBD) and East Midlands Chamber (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire).
Places on the exclusive D2N2 Growth Hub ScaleUp Service are limited. Firms wanting to access the Service should, in the first instance, contact it via its web link www.d2n2growthhub.co.uk/scaleup, or email info@d2n2growthhub.co.uk , or call the Growth Hub helpline on 0333 006 9178.
Businesses meeting the eligibility criteria will initially receive a free comprehensive review of their scale up challenges, to explore the specific issues related to rapid business growth and to develop a bespoke action plan.
Those selected to take part will receive high-quality coaching to help address their identified priority areas and leadership and management development, access to workshops focusing on identifying potential markets, advice on sales and marketing, and access to finance and bespoke support through an executive peer-to-peer network.
SMEs will be able to reclaim, through a grant scheme, a proportion of the cost of the business support package to help them reach the next level of growth.
Lindsay Allen, D2N2 Senior Programme Manager (Sector Development) and lead officer for the D2N2 Growth Hub, said: “D2N2’s Growth Hub works with start-ups and SMEs at all levels, but we identified a need for extra assistance for those companies already doing well but with high ambitions.
“Through the ScaleUp Service we and our delivery partners will be providing expert guidance and assistance to get these companies to the next level of growth.”
Scott Knowles, Chief Executive of East Midlands Chamber, added: “It’s all too easy for firms to grow quickly and then plateau because they don’t know how to take the next step, or don’t have the time or resources to do it. The D2N2 Growth Hub ScaleUp Service is all about helping SMEs take that next step.
“And the beauty of the programme is that it completes a virtuous circle where Government, through D2N2, encourages and assists firms to take that next step which, it is proven, then creates more jobs and more wealth which boosts the economy.”
Julie Holland – Head of Executive Education and Corporate Relations, College of Business Law & Social Sciences at Nottingham Trent University’s Business School – said: “Fast growth can be just as challenging to businesses as lack of opportunity.
“Having the chance to work with some of the region’s fastest growing firms, to support their long-term sustainability, will help us to support managers now and in the future with their scale-up challenges and will provide career opportunities for our talented graduates.”
Mike Epton, Managing Director at CMBD, added: “We have been helping businesses in the D2N2 area realise their growth ambitions for nearly 15 years and, with our partners, intend to deliver a truly integrated programme of support to meet the specific needs of individual businesses as well as creating a community of growth for D2N2 focused around our Growth Hub.”
John Collins, Coaching Director at the Professional Coaching Alliance, added: “Our coaches have achieved some fantastic results with high-growth businesses over the past 12 years and we are excited to be involved in delivering the new Growth Hub ScaleUp Service with our partners.”
Firms wanting to take part in the programme can contact www.d2n2growthhub.co.uk/scaleup, email info@d2n2growthhub.co.uk or call 0333 006 9178.
For more information about this media release, please contact Sarah McLeod, Press Officer at Nottingham Trent University, on email sarah.mcleod@ntu.ac.uk or 0115 848 8751; or Andy Hibberd, Media and Communications Manager at East Midlands Chamber, on 0333 320 0333 (ext 2007) or 07764 431028, or andy.hibberd@emc-dnl.co.uk
Or contact Lynn Oxborrow, Principal Lecturer and ScaleUp consortium partner, at Nottingham Trent University Business School, on email lynn.oxborrow@ntu.ac.uk or 0115 848 6028.
