Small Business Charter awarded funding to support microbusinesses

by Startacus Admin

Microbusinesses in England take note - this one's for you. Government funding provided to the Small Business Charter to in turn support microbusinesses in England to engage with technology.

Good news for microbusinesses with the announcement that the Small Business Charter (SBC) has been awarded funding to support over 700 such enterprises to engage with technology to boost their productivity. The funding has been made available through the government’s £9m Business Basics Programme run by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Innovate UK.

The ‘Leading to Grow Programme’ will be offered at no cost to microbusinesses across England. The programme will be delivered by a consortium of business schools accredited by the Small Business Charter for their expertise in supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Anne Kiem, Executive Director of the Small Business Charter and Chief Executive of the Chartered Association of Business Schools, said:

"We are excited to be working with business schools to help improve the productivity of a range of microbusinesses. The pace of technological advances means that today’s small firms who embrace innovation will be tomorrow’s success stories”.

Businesses that employ up to nine people will be able to apply to take part in workshops around how to utilise existing technologies to improve efficiency and profitability.

Due to the small size and the dispersed nature of microbusinesses, they have not generally received intervention of this sort by government agencies. However, the government is now proactively targeting this type of business due to their potential and readiness to scale-up.

This is the first time that a programme like this has been coordinated across the country and with so many areas being covered, it is hoped that it will help a significant number of microbusinesses and support economic growth in a number of regions.

The UK’s 1.1 million microbusinesses employ over 4 million people and contribute £533bn to the UK economy. The business schools, the Small Business Charter and the government therefore hope to make a real impact on this important part of the economy.

If you're interested in applying, simply visit the Leading to Grow site and contact your local business school.

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• #technology
• #england
• #microbusiness

Published on: 9th January 2020