Following the Government’s announcement in the Autumn Review that it will be winding down its business growth service, world-leading business coaching franchise ActionCOACH has taken up the gauntlet to help businesses in the Solent region.
Launched in 2012, Growth Accelerator was a £200-million scheme designed to help up to 26,000 small UK businesses to grow. It has helped thousands of business with increases in sales and profits, and encouraged them to take on new employees.
Kevin Stansfield, managing director of ActionCOACH Solent, was shocked by news of the Government’s decision: “Growth Accelerator was a scheme that many businesses in our area chose to take up, giving them access to subsidised business advisers and coaches.
“It was not so much the stopping of the funding that was a surprise, as the fact that there was no notice given. It can take months to show business owners the benefit of taking on outside help, and the grant was a good way to encourage them to give it a try.
"By removing support the Government has passed the gauntlet to those in the private sector to take over helping local businesses with improvement and growth."
This is not the first time we’ve seen a cut of this nature; the Labour government did the same in 2006 when it abolished Business Link, and Stansfield says it was partly this that led him to become a business coach.
“My passion has always been helping owner-managed businesses. 98% of the UK’s Limited companies are run by their owners and they employ 10 people each on average. So if each one were to employ just one more person, the UK would have zero unemployment.
"ActionCOACH has organised a number of events and coaching programmes to fill the gap left by Growth Accelerator, so that business coaching and training can be affordable to every business in the UK."
Stansfield’s team in Southampton has been hard at work creating a 12-month coaching programme that, even without funding, will give participants the tools they need to grow their business in 2016.
For further information, call Stansfield on 023-8056-0833 or email: info@abc-solent.co.uk
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