Partner Article

LocalRus secure NBSL funding for growth

Funding and support has helped a Tees Valley company to expand their workforce and grow their business.

Web design and business support providers LocalRus, based at Stockton Business Centre, have been meeting the needs of Tees Valley businesses since 2002 by providing a full branding and design content service, websites that really work and more recently social media seminars too.

A desire to grow the business yet further led to the company approaching NBSL for support as they had heard that funding might be available to help them with the costs of mentoring to develop the company’s leadership and management capabilities.

NBSL, a D-BIS (Department of Business, Innovation and Skills) approved and regulated Local Enterprise Agency has delivered the North East’s Leadership & Management Advisory Service since 2004, funded by D-BIS’s Skills Funding Agency. Funding is available to assist North East private sector businesses employing between 2 – 249 employees, and grant support of up to £1,000 can be provided for eligible businesses that need coaching for growth.

SJG Consulting of Northallerton put together a project proposal to assist LocalRus following the completion of a brief diagnostic by an NBSL Leadership & Management Specialist Adviser. The mentoring comprised both one to one coaching and also workshops to enable Stuart Davies a Director of LocalRus, to develop his capabilities to effectively communicate with his team, prioritise tasks and time management, engage with people on procedures and quality issues and delegate to, and empower staff to develop the business capability.

The desired business impacts included increasing turnover and profit as well as the number of staff employed from six up to 25 within three years.

As a result of the mentoring and coaching Stuart developed his own management style and promoted a sense of ownership amongst employees. New team leaders and additional staff were appointed and the company is looking at recruiting new sales staff too. The project has therefore enabled the company to carry out the core work leading to the sustainability of the business and increasing profitability.

NBSL still has limited funding available to support businesses, so if you would like to benefit from grant funding of up to £1,000 towards the cost of developing a strategy for your business, and get your business on the road to growth, contact NBSL now on 01670 813322 or apply online at www.nbsl.org.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Phil Langton .