More than 1100 businesses engaged with Accelerator business support

A business support project being run by the East Midlands Chamber has demonstrated positive results.

The Accelerator scheme has been evaluated and has identified that over 1,100 businesses have been engaged and are working with a business advisor to boost growth.

The project, which is funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), was established in the autumn and is being deployed across Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire.

Alongside one-to-one support from a business adviser, the project has so far also delivered growth vouchers worth £2,000 towards introducing digital technology and green measures, 300 workshops and webinars to over 7,000 delegates and 50 energy saving and improving audit approvals to help businesses create an action plan to save money.

Businesses signing up to the project have also been introduced to the wealth of additional support available from other regional and national sources. For innovative SMEs, this includes growth and scale-up support from Innovate UK Business Growth. Manufacturing micro and small businesses can also benefit from Made Smarter support on how to switch to advanced and automated technologies.

East Midlands Chamber Deputy Chief Executive Diane Beresford said: “From our launch events onwards, we’ve listened to what businesses want in terms of what, where, when and how they would like to access Accelerator support.  Chamber and D2N2 Growth Hub support is undoubtedly at its best when businesses are given a helping hand to apply for support from other sources, including grant funding and pitching for investor support.

“The Accelerator project has some challenging targets including the creation and safeguarding of jobs, creating new enterprises, accessing new technologies or processes and engagement in knowledge transfer activity. We’re certainly on the right trajectory to achieve that and for any business yet to sign up, I would urge them to seize the opportunity before the project ends in March of next year.”

Businesses can learn more by clicking here.