Invest wisely and see your business go from strength to strength

MARKETING

The right customers, the right product, the right price, the right place.

Marketing is the key to business success.

Understand exactly what your customers want, the price they’ll pay for it and how they’d like to buy it – once you know, tell them how your product or service fits the bill. That’s marketing in a nutshell and getting each aspect right is absolutely critical for the success of your business.

Whichever stage of the marketing cycle you’re at, whether you’re launching a new product or stuck in a bit of a sales rut, external expertise will help you to see things differently. Maybe some in-depth market and competitor research would do the trick, perhaps a full re-brand is needed or even just some support with your digital channels – whatever it is, see how our funding can help.

PEOPLE

Get the most out of the team behind everything you do

Let your people be great at what they do.

Businesses of all sizes can benefit from a range of different support for their people. In larger businesses it might be around planning for growth and analysing skills gaps or perhaps looking at succession planning for key roles. For smaller businesses, it could be simple things like setting up processes for the day to day management of your team or thinking about keeping on the right side of employment regulations.

Only bigger SME’s have the need for a dedicated member of staff to look after their people, if you don’t, make sure you get the right support at the right time – investing in the expertise of people who really know their stuff will pay for itself many times over. See how our funding could support leadership development consultants or coaching to develop your team

TECHNOLOGY

Use clever tech to make your business more efficient

The world of technology is changing fast.

The digital world is changing the way businesses work – systems and software that were out of reach for all but the largest businesses are now available to all. You could be using a bespoke CRM system to manage your customers and sales; you could be managing your stock and manufacturing processes with clever digital tools or you could be selling online with a custom ecommerce solution.

If you know what you need, a grant from us could help to make it a reality or, like so many businesses, maybe you don’t know what you need. How about using our funding to find out how technology could completly transform the way you work.

FINANCE

Understand where to make savings and where to invest

Make money work in your business.

Finance might not be the flashy, enjoyable side of running business, but it’s what underpins everything you do. Without the systems and processes in place to properly manage the money in your business, you can’t make key decisions on investment or long term strategy – or even the simple stuff like day to day running costs.

Maybe your business is growing and you need to get things more organised by going digital – or you might already have the systems in place and need advice on investing for future growth. Whatever you need, getting external, expert advice will put you on the right financial track. See how expert advisers could be funded through a grant from the North East Business Support Fund

OPERATIONS

Streamline the things you do every day for huge gains

Most businesses waste money – don’t be one of them.

If you look around any business large or small, there will be plenty of things that are done ‘the way they’ve always been done’ – but as a business grows and develops, it’s really important to look at how you work and identify ways do it more efficiently.

Whether you’re in the service, sales or manufacturing sectors, there will be things you can do to be more ‘lean’ – it might involve using new technology or just doing things differently, but a fresh view from an external specialist will point you in the right direction.