East Midlands Development Agency (emda) is looking for 35 businesses with high growth potential to take part in its final Coaching for High Growth programme. 

Coaching for High Growth provides participating businesses with an intensive and bespoke package of support over a six month period, to help them unlock their high growth potential. 

Funded by emda and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Coaching for High Growth is part of the Government's Solutions for Business portfolio, a suite of highly targeted, publicly funded products and services offering solutions to real business needs. This will be the last year of emda's Coaching for High Growth programme, following the Government's announcement that the Regional Development Agencies will be closing by March 2012. 

The support provided to each company is based around one to one coaching, with the programme carefully matching the needs of each business with a specialist and knowledgeable growth coach. The coach will then work with the business to pinpoint barriers to growth and put in place a clear, tailored growth strategy. 

Alongside the coaching, each business has access to financial benchmarking and a programme of five 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 masterclasses will help each business to put in place a growth strategy, find new routes to market and develop its competitive edge, leading to increased sales. 

In total, the comprehensive package of support is worth at least £13,000 to each business, with participating businesses contributing just £1,500 towards the costs. Demand for places on the first year of Coaching for High Growth was very high, so businesses with ambitious growth plans for 2011 and beyond are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. 

The support offered by Coaching for High Growth is client led, with the coach working with each business based on its own needs and priorities. Previous participants in emda's High Growth programmes have reported that the support has resulted in new business opportunities, increased teamwork and had an impact on bottom line performance. emda's previous high growth support programmes have supported almost 200 businesses since early 2008 and over 1,000 jobs have been created or safeguarded. Collectively, businesses on the programme are forecast to increase their Gross Value Added (GVA) by £100 million. 

To be eligible, businesses must have fewer than 250 employees, turnover of between £500,000 and £40 million in their last financial year and the potential to increase sales by 20% per annum for the next three years. 

For further details on Coaching for High Growth and to apply call 0845 644 6963.