Application Deadline Extended- Grow Your Business with Aston Programme for Small Business Growth
The Aston Programme for Small Business Growth has been developed to support early stage business leaders, to achieve sustainable growth through a series of workshops, one-to-one support and networking. It is fully funded by Aston University and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
The six-month programme provides practical workshops taught by experts in SME leadership and management and one-to-one support from an experienced mentor. It is for SMEs who have an operational address within the Black Country, Coventry and Warwickshire, Greater Birmingham and Solihull or The Marches (transitional area only) LEP regions.
Open to SMEs and Social Enterprises, 28 business leaders from a range of sectors will complete the programme together, sharing their experiences and strategies, building a supportive network and working with an experienced business mentor to tackle any issues or challenges SMEs face as they grow.
We are now searching for SMEs and Social Enterprises who have been trading for at least 12-months and have at least one FTE employee (this can include yourself). The programme is suitable for business that are in their early-stage with identifiable growth potential.
APPLY NOW: WWW.ASTON.AC.UK/SMALLBUSINESSGROWTH
Application Deadline: 12th June 2017
Cohort 2, will commence in September 2017 until February 2018 where you will attend 9 workshops over the duration of 6 months.
The dates confirmed for core workshops taking place in cohort 2 are as follows: (Cohort 2 September 2017 to February 2018)
- September: Wednesday 27th: Introduction
- October: Wednesday 4th: 1 Growth & Goals
- October: Wednesday 11th: 2 Opportunities and Innovations
- November Wednesday 1st 3 Leadership
- November Thursday 23rd 4 Finance for the Business leader
- November Thursday 30th 5 Marketing
- January Tuesday 9th 6 People and Culture
- January Wednesday 24th 7 Operations
- February Tuesday 6th 8 External finance options
- February Tuesday 27th 9 Presentations
Eligibility requires that you are present at each workshop if enrolled onto the programme.
If you are interested in applying please, respond to this email with a really short message to let me know; so that I can inform the team that we need to make a space for your application in the shortlisting process.
(If you are not available for all dates in cohort 2 and would like to be a part of the programme still please, respond to this email to inform me and I will see that you are updated nearer the time for when we begin to accept applications for a future cohort).
You will start working on your business straight away and will finish the programme with a growth strategy that you have written for your own business that will provide you with an action plan to achieve your growth goals
Find out more and to learn if you are eligible for this programme, click here.
Alternatively; you can contact the team by email or telephone for further discussions on 0121 204 3225.
Just to let you know …
All of the 2015 participants surveyed after completing the programme are anticipating significant growth in turnover with 60% expecting turnover growth in excess of 200% and 48% also projecting employee numbers to grow in excess of 200% by 2018. You can read some of the case studies here.
We are very proud of our programme and look forward to working with our next cohort of businesses and entrepreneurs in September and watching their business grow.
If you have any questions feel free to email me (v.hogan@aston.ac.uk) or give me a call on 0121 204 5023.
Email centreforgrowth@aston.ac.uk Tel. 0121 204 3225
