Project Title: Developing an Entrepreneurial Culture

Project Description:

Tees Valley Start Up Service - There is need for a continuation of the Start Right in Business project beyond its current end date of March 2005. The new project will enhance and extend the current project. It will remain focused on creating and sustaining new business throughout the Tees Valley. The service offers a number of support mechanisms including assistance with ideas generation and significant pre-start support to enable individuals to get to the point where they are equipped to start a viable business. Post start up, the service will offer a comprehensive business diagnostic and brokered support services for the first 12 months of trading. Direct financial support will be available in the form of wage subsidy support, equivalent to the DTI national minimum wage and expansion grants to facilitate increases in the productive capacity of businesses. The current service will be monitored on an ongoing basis during 2004/05 to ensure the continued relevance and demand for the continuation currently proposed.

Encouraging Social Enterprise - This project will be implementing the findings from Social Enterprise research undertaken during 2003/04 and funded by Single Programme and ERDF. Although the findings of the research are not yet available the overall aim of the research was to investigate the Social Enterprise sector in Tees Valley and provide information on the extent, value, impact and competence of both the Social Enterprises in the sub-region and the current business support available to them. This will be used as the basis for a strategy setting out the activity and interaction necessary to exploit the potential and improve the effectiveness of both the individual organisations and their support providers. This project is therefore submitted to secure resources to enable BLTV to create and build capacity in social enterprises and to improve the quality of support organisations.

Start A Better Business - The project will operate in parallel with the existing Build a Better Business project by assisting local SMEs to identify their relative strengths across key business processes as part of a detailed diagnostic of the business, and dependent on the need(s) identified, will prioritise actions and broker each SME to a range of suppliers who would be able to improve their business performance. It will be up to the SME to choose the most appropriate supplier from the list provided. BLTV will also act as ‘project manager’ to ensure that supplier and business clients each meet agreed terms of reference in the timescales agreed. All businesses will therefore receive a service which is tailored to their individual needs and in this way BLTV will act as an impartial and independent manner to achieve the best results for the business.

This project will complement the Start Right in Business and Build a Better Business projects approved by the Partnership during 2002/03 and 2003/04 respectively. It does this by ‘filling the gap’ in the provision of brokered services to Tees Valley SMEs. The gap which currently exists is for those businesses that may choose not to participate in a dedicated start up service, and have been trading for up to 36 months, and are therefore too young to benefit from the Build a Better Business project. In previous years these groups have been financially provided for by a combination of BLTV and ERDF funds, but as this market has grown BLTV has insufficient funds to continue to meet this growth in demand. In future BLTV funds will be used to fund those small businesses which would not be eligible for Single Programme or ERDF funds such as small retailers and those in located in transitional wards. A key feature of this approach will therefore be impartial and consistent support for all types of small businesses throughout the sub-region, leading to improved business survival rates and additional jobs created.

Build Online - This project will operate in parallel to the Start Online project, but is intended to become operational from mid - 2004 when it will replace a regional project which has been running since 2001. At the current time there are no plans to extend the regional project however clear gains have been made by small businesses as a result of participating in the project and therefore it is considered a priority that provision is continued. The project will continue to diagnose business needs in relation to ICTs and provide a specialist team with the skills necessary to broker in and project manage and/or subsidise ICT ‘projects’ on behalf of the small business who have been trading for more than 36 months.

Start Online - The project is aimed at providing ICT business support to new SMEs trading for less than 36 months within the Tees Valley. This is a new project that addresses a demand in the local marketplace which has not previously been met. This need will be achieved through a range of brokered services and events such as events to explain the benefits of ICT, the promotion of E-business, the pilot of an ICT directory and the promotion of NEPO which will encourage and increase the propensity to trade online, and access to a subsidized consultancy provision. All of the above will be accessed via a detailed diagnosis of business needs by BLTV Account Managers. The ICT directory is currently available in North Yorkshire and has proved to be an effective tool in increasing the numbers of businesses trading online. After a series of encouraging discussions it is BLTVs intention to pilot this in the Tees Valley for a two year period to test the local market response/results to this type of support.

European Legal Support Service - This is a request to extend the time frame of an existing successful project up to the end of December 2005 from its current finish date of 31 March 2004. The European Legal Support Service provides legal guidance, support and information to Tees Valley SMEs on all aspects of EU legislation and regulation (and its implementation into UK Law). Local firms require prompt reliable information on legal options and\or requirements for any form of change to their markets or products or service. This service will continue to provide this important element of business support to Tees Valley SMEs.

Lead Organisation (underlined) and Key Partners:
Business Link Tees Valley, Area Brokerage Partnership, Private Sector Consultants, NESEP, Enterprise Groups, Tees Valley Joint Strategy Unit.