Positive Pathways

Positive Pathways is a business start-up and employability skills programme specifically designed to support refugees and their starting business ambitions run by Polly Hargreaves.

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Start-Up Membership

Our Start-Up Chamber Membership is tailored to businesses who have been trading for less than year.

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The Kickstart Scheme

As part of the Chancellor’s Plan for Jobs in response to increasing job insecurity and the climbing rates of unemployment, the £2billion Kickstart Scheme is underway helping people get back into work.

Young people have been one of the demographics hit hardest by the Coronavirus, with around 8,500 young people in Staffordshire currently on Universal Credit.

If you can offer new, 6-month placements to help young people aged 16-24 develop new skills and experience, the Government will cover 100 percent of employment costs.  

Employers will be paid the National Minimum Wage for 25 hours of work per week, plus National Insurance and Auto Enrolment Pension contributions. There is also a £1,500 grant per placement to help with set up and providing training to your placement.

Open to any size business, this is your opportunity to identify talent and work with them at no cost to your business!

Click here for more information.

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The Information Technology Business Enhancement Programme

What is the ITBEP?                                                                                         

The Information Technology Business Enhancement Programme (ITBEP) is aimed at Small and Medium enterprises, including Sole Traders, based in Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent. These businesses will receive advice and information on using Information Technology to become more efficient and productive. Businesses will be supported to maximise their digital potential and competitiveness, enabling sustainable growth.

Who is running ITBEP?

The ITBEP will be delivered in partnership by Staffordshire County Council and the Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce. The Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce will employ two Digital Advisors through this programme.

How is it funded?

The project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund until March 2023.

How will it work?

When a business has signed up for the programme a Digital Advisor will visit them at their place of work (or virtually) and carry out an audit of how they are using Information Technology. This will include website, social media, software and cloud services, as well as other areas. Following the audit, a report will be produced detailing recommendations of how the business could better use Information Technology, the business will receive a copy and the County Council will receive a copy to assist with evaluation purposes.

The Digital Advisor will have a follow up meeting with the business to check on progress and to offer support. The timescales for the follow up meetings will be discussed with the business at the initial meeting. The advisors will be available before and after the follow up meeting to support the business.

If there is a lack of Broadband available, the business will be signposted to the Superfast Broadband project at Staffordshire County Council, to see if there are any Government or commercial options to have the infrastructure installed.

How does this fit in with the bigger picture?

The ITBEP proposal aligns positively with the objectives and priorities of the National Industrial Strategy and the emerging Local Industrial Strategy for the Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Local Enterprise Partnership area.

This is reflected further in the government’s UK Digital Strategy which seeks to help every UK based business be more productive through the adoption of digital technologies, by maximising existing support programmes and identifying gaps in provision and overcoming barriers to adopting digital methods. 

Specialist Digital Advisors: Alan Bloomfield Tel: 07593 528607 Email: alan.bloomfield@staffordshirechambers.co.uk

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GROWTHmapper® Recovery

Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire Growth Hub has invested in a cutting-edge online business diagnostic tool, GROWTHmapper® Recovery, in order to support small-to-medium businesses across Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire with recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

What is GROWTHmapper® Recovery?

The purpose-built diagnostic and planning tool was created by Oxford Innovation, supported by the Enterprise Research Centre. GROWTHmapper® Recovery is designed to minimise the risk of business failure by identifying the particular key priorities for each business, highlighting any necessary tactical approaches to creating stability.

How does it work?

Each member of the management team within the business undertakes the GROWTHmapper® recovery online questionnaire. Taking just 15 minutes to complete, it examines 6 key areas: cash-flow, finance, market, demand capability, human resources and personal resilience.

The GROWTHmapper® Recovery report contains a series of charts that highlight relative strengths and weaknesses. This, together with a fully-funded 1-2-1 Diagnostic with an Accredited Business Advisor from Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Growth Hub, allows a leadership team to check for consistency in their understanding of the challenges to agree priorities for action. The Business Advisor uses the report to facilitate a discussion that focuses attention on key actions and recovery planning, all adjusted to reflect the relative levels of crisis or resilience in each area of operations.

GROWTHmapper® Recovery uses a unique intervention matrix, which provides specific options for each business dependent upon their relative position on the pathway to recovery. These are created through analysis of each operational area in the context of the impact of Covid19 on the business.

For more information please contact Richard Brace on 01782 202222 or email richard.brace@staffordshirechambers.co.uk

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Start-up Loan

A Start Up Loan is a government-backed personal loan available to individuals looking to start or grow a business in the UK. In addition to finance, successful applicants receive 12-months of free mentoring and exclusive business offers to help them succeed. The loan is unsecured, so there’s no need to put forward any assets or guarantors to support an application. All owners or partners in a business can individually apply for up to £25,000 each, with a maximum of £100,000 available per business.

For more information please call 01782 202222 or click the banner below.

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Insight 6

Keep in touch with your employee and customer satisfaction using business tools from Insight6.

The Team Safety and Customer Confidence Portal is an exclusive Chamber member benefit. This online survey tool gives you instant access to know how safe your employees feel at work and how confident your customers are in interacting with your premises or representatives safely. Developed to scale for businesses in any size or sector, the Team Safety and Customer Confidence Portal instantly notifies a designed member of your management team if a colleague or customer has concerns about their health and safety in the workplace.

Insight6 are customer experience specialists, providing support in customer journeys, mystery shopping, online feedback and more. Using their knowledge, they have developed the Team Safety and Customer Confidence Portal to respond to the challenging business and social environment currently facing our members in Staffordshire and beyond.

Have confidence in your ability to provide an environment that makes your employees and customers feel safe with the real-time surveys and feedback of the Insight6 business tools. Your Insight6 portal can be up and running within 48 hours, and you’ll receive full implementation training and ongoing support during your license period.

Email info@staffordshirechambers.co.uk to submit your details and access exclusive pricing for Chamber members.

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Business Mentoring

Is your business stuck in a rut or do you have plans to expand and take your business in a totally different direction?

Our free mentoring scheme – Let’s do Mentoring – is just what you need. We will match your business to one of our many experienced business mentors who will act as adviser and coach to put your business on track to where you want it to go.

Specialisms include sales & marketing; leadership and management; finance & funding; business development; business planning and social media. The service is free with Chamber members getting an additional bonus of four hours.

To find out more call 01782 202222 or email: mentoring@staffordshirechambers.co.uk

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Start-up Advisor

All the advice and practical help you need to start a business is available for free with our team of business start-up advisers. The service takes you through business planning, cash forecasting, marketing and market research, legal and financial requirements.

There is ongoing help and mentoring available as your business grows and you expand and employ staff. There are also discounted membership deals for new start-up businesses.

Call 01782 20222 to speak to an advisor.

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Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Growth Hub

A free diagnostic service covering all aspects of your business whatever stage you are at.

The Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire Growth Hub encourages different business support partners to work together to ensure that they put the needs of the client business first. As part of the Growth Hub service, experts from the Chamber are available to provide face-to-face advice to local businesses and to signpost them to specialised support such as HR, finance and funding, marketing, growth and starting a business.

As part of the Growth Hub service, experts from the Chamber are available to provide face-to-face advice to local businesses and to signpost them to specialised support such as HR, finance and funding, marketing, growth and starting a business.

Call 0300 111 8002 or visit www.stokestaffsgrowthhub.co.uk

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