A new £2.1 million grant scheme, ‘Business Recovery Grants’, has been launched by Coast to Capital LEP to provide businesses in West Sussex, Brighton & Hove, East Surrey, Croydon, or Lewes District with funding of between £10,000 and £170,000 (for projects of £20,000 to £340,000). The programme will provide up to 50% of an expansion project for organisations that can demonstrate a clear link to COVID-19 recovery and growth. In addition, they are looking for businesses to set out plans for job creation and job retention to improve the unemployment rate in the local area.
Applicants from all sectors are eligible to apply for this funding, but they are prioritising applicants from the following sectors: Hospitality, Travel &Tourism, Sports & Leisure, Entertainment & Arts, Food & Drink, Retail & Wholesale, Aviation & Supply Chain, Advanced Engineering & Manufacturing, Horticulture & Viticulture & Health & Life Sciences.
They expect demand for this scheme to be high. Although it is not first-come-first-served, time will be a factor, as there is only a finite amount of funding available – so it would be advantageous for you to submit your completed Expression of Interest as soon as possible. To find out more about the application criteria and how to apply, visit coast2capital.org.uk/business-recovery-grants.
If you have any questions about the grant scheme and would like to speak to a member of the Growth Hub team, please complete a Request Form so that an adviser can get in touch.
Please let the Chamber know if you do apply and with what result, so that we have a handle on the response to this locally.
Wednesday’s Virtual Coffee event Restart Your Business Session 13: Don’t Splash the Cash with Derek Williamson from Titus Goddards Accountants talked about Tips and Tricks on how to manage your cashflow over the next 12 months. There was plenty of value for everyone attending. Derek has produced a book entitled 'Going for Growth' together with booklets in e-form on: 'Control Your Finances and Make it to 2022'; 'Funding your Business'; 'A Step by Step Guide to Borrowing'; 'Ten Ways to Benchmark Your Business'; and 'Key Performance Indicators', and has offered these to Members free of charge. Just email him at: derek@titusgoddards.com to obtain your copies.
Restart Your Business Session 14: More Quick Wins with Microsoft Office with Clare Batchelor from Mouse Literate will take place on Wednesday 9 September, and after the great feedback received from the first session, this will fill up quickly! Starting with tips on line and paragraph spacing in Word, and how to quickly and easily make text look consistently the same, we will then move on to looking at formulas in Excel. We will start at the beginning with a simple addition formula and will build it up to doing simple formulas between two worksheets. The session is aimed at people with minimal Excel experience. If time allows, we will also include a CountIf formula, which allows the user to count how many items are in a list that meet a criterion. E.g. how many people are in my list that live in Ashtead or how many people do I have in my list that are aged over 40. The possibilities are endless!
On Wednesday 16 September our Virtual Breakfast will take the form of a panel discussion and Q&A: “Where do we go from here?”, about how Mole Valley as a community goes forward in terms of its Covid-19 Recovery Plan and how the experience of the pandemic might change some of the thinking behind a potentially new or altered version of the Local Plan. More details to follow. We are encouraging attendance from local RAs, some Parish Councils and MVDC and Surrey Councillors, so please book your place to share your views and take part in the discussions. We are keen to have a wide geographical spread of Members and other businesses taking part, so please spread the word also!
Wednesday 23 September sees Re-start Your Business Session 15: “Making a Return on Life”. Led by Chris Webb of Corfe Wealth Management Ltd who will suggest that we start from the question, ‘What Return on Life do I want?’. ROL is defined as: ‘How well you are doing in living the life you want; with the money you have’.
With five Wednesdays again in this month our final session will be on 30 September, Time to Reflect and Move Forward. A brief look at what your Chamber has been doing, and an opportunity to discuss what you would like it to be doing moving forward! This will include 15 minutes or so on a virtual stripped-down AGM including votes on the Board and Accounts. Information will be circulated to Members shortly by email.
NB We are currently looking for a number of new Directors to join the Chamber Board and to represent businesses and disciplines across the MVDC area. If you would like to find out more about this please call me! We are also still looking for suggestions for further topics, and volunteers or nominations to lead on them! A Member survey will also be sent out shortly to canvas opinion on activity going forward.
Everyone is reminded that some of the many benefits of Chamber Membership include the ability for Members to promote their business events, news, other items of interest, situations vacant and Members Offers & Discounts via the Chamber’s Website and Weekly Update Emails – so Members, please do send details to Melodie Hunt at the Chamber office.
There are some great offers currently on the Members Offers & Discounts page on our website. Surrey Hills Community Radio has an excellent free offer for advertising at the moment, and is open to interviews with our Members too! JP Leadership Coaching is promoting an excellent group coaching programme which offers extraordinary value for a small group as opposed to individual coaching.
Finally, please do promote the benefits of joining the Chamber to your business colleagues and customers. If you have a window which needs one of our posters and a membership sticker do let us know, and we have flyers as well for anyone in a position to deliver some.
