In July the government announced £20m in grants for small businesses to access new technology and other equipment as well as professional, legal, financial or other advice to help them get back on track. The small business grants are expected to be between £1,000 – £5,000 per business.
What can you spend the small business grants on?
The money is available to businesses to access specialist professional advice such as HR, accountants, legal, financial, IT and digital, and to purchase minor equipment to adapt or adopt new technology in order to continue to deliver business activity or diversify.
When will the grant be available?
Depending on the region, expressions of interest applications are / have opened at different times. For example, expressions of interest in the Enterprise M3 region can now be made from Tuesday 15th September. Please refer to your local growth hub for the latest (see the Enterprise Nation link for a list of regional hubs).
How do you apply for the small business grant?
The funding being provided to businesses is supported by the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The funding has been allocated to Growth Hubs within each LEP area. Each area has been granted a minimum of £250,000.
Growth Hubs work across the country with local and national, public and private sector partners. These include Chambers of Commerce, FSB, universities, Enterprise Zones and banks, co-ordinating local business support and connecting businesses to the right help for their needs. They are locally driven and locally owned.
Once the scheme officially opens, grants will be available via local Growth Hubs. Our partner, Enterprise Nation has produced a handy spreadsheet of the regional hubs so you can sign up for alerts in your specific area as to when the small business grants will be available.
Which HR services could you use with a small business grant?
We offer everything from advice and guidance on recruitment to redundancy. Some of the common issues the SMEs we work with face include:
- Redundancy
- Performance management and grievances
- HR policies and procedures
- Training and retention
- Recruitment
- Reward and recognition
- Resolving conflict
- HR healthchecks
You can book a free 15 min consultation to find out how we can help or what services you may require here.