East Midlands Development Agency (emda), has today announced
that is seeking 50 potential high growth businesses from across the
East Midlands to take part in its new support programme for high
growth businesses, called Coaching for High Growth.
Funded by emda and the European Regional Development Fund
(ERDF), Coaching for High Growth is part of Government's Solutions
for Business portfolio, a suite of highly targeted, publicly funded
products and services offering solutions to real business
needs.
Coaching for High Growth provides participating businesses an
intensive and bespoke package of support over a 12 month period, to
help them unlock their high growth potential.
Demand for places on Coaching for High Growth is expected to be
high, so businesses with ambitious growth plans for 2010 and beyond
are encouraged to apply early.
The support provided to each company is based around 1-2-1
coaching, with the programme carefully matching the needs of each
business with a specialist and knowledgable growth coach, who will
then work with the business to pin-point barriers to growth and put
in place a clear growth strategy.
Alongside the coaching, each business has access to a programme
of masterclasses, which provide further support to help the
business and senior managers to prepare their business for growth
using the latest tools and techniques.
The support offered will help business to:
• Put in place a clear vision and growth strategy
• Ensure the management structure and processes are right
to facilitate sustainable high growth
• Increase sales and new routes to market
• Develop their competitive edge.
In total, the support is worth at least £20,000 to each
business and participating businesses are required to provide just
£2,000 to contribute towards the costs.
The support offered by Coaching for High Growth is client led,
with the coach working with each business based around their own
needs and priorities. Previous participants in emda's high growth
programmes have reported that the support has had an overall
positive influence on long term growth prospects, resulted in new
business opportunities, increased teamwork and had an impact on
bottom line performance.
To be eligible, businesses must have fewer than 250 employees,
turnover between £500,000 and £40 million in their last
financial year and the potential to increase sales by 20% per annum
per year for the next three years.
Coaching for High Growth builds on emda's successful High Growth
East Midlands programme, which has supported nearly 170 businesses
since it was launched in early 2008. Over 1,000 jobs have been
created or safeguarded and collectively businesses on the programme
are forecast to increase their Gross Value Added (GVA) by £60
million.
emda's Executive Director of Business Services, Michael Carr,
said: "Coaching for High Growth continues our investment to support
the region's potential high growth business. The intensive and
bespoke package of support is based on a proven formula to help
businesses unlock their growth potential and can have a real impact
on business performance.
"This programme of support can help businesses to maximise their
high growth potential and I would strongly encourage all ambitious
businesses to come forward and applying."
Coaching for High Growth is funded by emda and the European
Regional Development Fund (ERDF).