Is your business struggling with the effects of Brexit or Covid-19?
If so, help is at hand from the East Midlands Building Business Resilience Programme.
The three Growth Hubs covering Greater Lincolnshire and Rutland, Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire have joined forces to offer a comprehensive package of tools, information, workshops, support and guidance.
The aim is to help businesses to navigate these challenging economic times and become more resilient.
The support is offered across three projects: EU Exit, Planning for Business Recovery (RESTART), and Coronavirus.
The EU Exit programme aims to help East Midlands businesses to deal with any challenges that result from Brexit and to capitalise upon opportunities that may result. The project offers up to 24 hours of briefings, seminars, workshops, networking and one-to-one support.
The RESTART project is a package of one-to-one business recovery and webinar and workshop support for businesses across the East Midlands focused on four areas: impact, support, recovery and plan.
The support is open to all businesses across the East Midlands that may have had to scale back or cease trading during the Covid-19 pandemic but are now looking to embark on business recovery.
The Covid-19 support project offers advice and guidance on specific pandemic support initiatives.
The East Midlands Building Business Resilience Programme is fully funded at no cost and is available to businesses of all sizes located in Greater Lincolnshire and Rutland, Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Leicester and Leicestershire.
To find out more visit https://business-resilience.uk/
One businesswoman who took advantage of the free support was Claire Ransom from Nottinghamshire, who runs the plant subscription service Lazy Flora.
The company was growing rapidly but the UK’s exit from the EU was a major headache, and Claire needed urgent advice and support.
“Our advisor was Andrea Collins, who gave us all the information we needed on how to get plants in and out of the UK. We were so lucky – she was just amazing! You’re never sure with these free consultations what you’re going to get out of it, but Andrea instantly got into the detail of our business and offered helpful solutions immediately.
“And all this really high-quality advice was completely free. Andrea probably gave us four or five hours of free consultation, including several one-to-one sessions over Zoom as this was during lockdown. She wrote lengthy emails and summaries which were completely tailored to our business and not just off the shelf.
“We don’t need her help so much now but we’re still in touch with Andrea, and if we needed her advice I wouldn’t hesitate to get in contact with her. Without her help we would have floundered and I’d definitely recommend her to anyone else who’s looking for help with international trade.”
Another business that benefited from the free service was Cast Iron Welding Services in Coalville, Leicestershire.
Marie Palmer said: “Andrea really did understand the business and was able to provide us with all the relevant advice regarding obtaining a European VAT number and dealing with the new VAT situation.
“Andrea and her colleagues worked really hard to try to tell us what the situation would be after 1st January, but there were still a lot of unknowns at that time.
“I’d definitely recommend the service. It took up quite a lot of our time but it was worth it. We were a business that was already trading internationally, so you’d like to think we were well placed to deal with Brexit, but we still needed support.”
Read more case studies here: https://business-resilience.uk/project/eu-exit-building-business-resilience/#successstories
