Notice Board - Federation of Small Businesses - FSB - UK small business support organisation

Noteworthy news items from across the region

John Allan FSB

John hits the heights!

Many congratulations to the Merseyside, West Cheshire & Wigan Regional Chairman, John Allan, who has been elected FSB National Vice Chairman at the FSB annual conference, held in March in Scarborough. John has been FSB Regional Chairman for the last three years, and will now be involved in the FSB's national lobbying and business support services.

John said, "I am extremely honoured to have been elected by my fellow members and thank all of those who supported me. In particular it has been wonderful to have such strong support from members across Merseyside, West Cheshire & Wigan, and I will be making sure that some of thesuccess we have experienced with our campaigns and events locally is now carried through to help members nationally.

The FSB is the UK's biggest business support organisation because it puts the needs of small businesses first, and we need to make sure our lobbying activities are focused on Government doing the same".

10,000 Small Business programme recruiting now!

The 10,000 Small Businesses Programme is targeted at small businesses and social enterprises with clear ambitions to expand. The goal of the programme is to equip participants with tools to help them overcome a range of obstacles and lay the foundation for long-term sustainable growth and job creation in their communities.

The 10,000 Small Businesses programme will be of interest to ambitious North West business leaders who run a business or commercially-focused social enterprise that has been trading for at least 12 months, employ between five to 40 staff and run a mission-driven business that is scalable and poised for growth.

Participants will:

receive approximately 100 hours of high quality, practically-focused business and management curriculum, delivered over 12 sessions between September 2012 and February 2013 in Manchester.

receive comprehensive, one-on-one business advisory services that help business owners develop and implement tailored growth plans.

complete the programme with a personalised growth plan tailored to their business.

be provided with access to technical assistance and mentors to help business owners focus on their most critical business issues and increase capacity.

Find out more or register for preview events

Regional Growth Fund bid under consideration

Chester Renaissance/Ellesmere Port Development Board, in association with Cheshire West and Chester Council is considering submitting a Regional Growth Fund, (RGF), programme bid for Chester/Ellesmere Port in association with a number of private organisations. RGF is a £2.4 billion discretionary fund launched by the government in its 2010 budget (£1.4bn already allocated)

RGF will provide funding in the form of grants, loans and/or loan guarantees.

Do you have growth aspirations and funding requirements that would benefit from funding support?

Do you have any projects that may be eligible for RGF support that could be included within a programme bid for Chester or Ellesmere Port?

Key considerations…

Project must lead to additional economic activity and sustainable private sector job growth

Project must demonstrate value for money (the additional jobs that they will create/safeguard and the amount of private sector investment they will attract)

Project must be compatible with UK State Aid regulations

Retail projects will not be funded and residential projects are unlikely to be

Must be able to demonstrate that the project is not viable without RGF ie the government funding would make the project feasible.

Funding can be sought for basic infrastructure which unlocks business investment that leads to job creation. The fund is flexible to allow for individual projects, packages of projects and programme bids, but with a minimum applicant threshold of £1m (please note that projects identified as part of a programme bid can be less than £1m)

For more information contact Matthew Spillsbury on matthew.spilsbury@gva.co.uk or telephone 0161 956 4327

North West Fund working well for Cheshire firms

Cheshire entrepreneurs have snapped up more than £5.7m of funding from the North West Fund since its launch.

The county is the second most active area in the North West region for investments by the fund.

New statistics from the North West Fund show Cheshire is second only to Merseyside which is earmarked for 40 per cent of the fund.

The county secured £5.77m of investment in 26 businesses, representing a share of 28 per cent of total investments by the North West Fund at the end of April 2012.

Recent investments include equity funding in Sandbach-based bioenergy supplier Imperative Energy, £500,000 investment into Crewe-based optical coatings manufacturer Power Vision and a £340,000 investment into Holmes Chapel-based Tyres on the Drive.

Visit the North West Fund website for further information and details of what they can offer

£6.6m boost to help 1,000 new business start ups across Merseyside

More than £6m has been earmarked to help boost businesses and jobs across Merseyside over the next two years.

The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and 17 other groups have provided £6.6m with the aim of creating nearly 1,000 new ventures and more than 850 jobs, as well as safeguarding a further 300 jobs and growing the economy by £4.3m. Central to the strategy is a commitment to involve communities in some of the most deprived areas to encourage people to set up their own businesses. Start-ups will get intensive support and advice, and expert one-to-one mentoring.

SENW chief executive Val Jones said: "This is an extremely exciting programme to create real employment and businesses in the most deprived areas of Merseyside."

Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd, welcomed the campaign and said: "This initiative will create real and tangible jobs and vibrant small businesses that will drive forward the economy of Merseyside. "The programme is looking to engage with, and inspire, people in communities across Merseyside who have the ideas, the talent and the drive to become successful entrepreneurs but don't yet know it."