Covid-19 Business & Enterprise Support from Devon Communities Together
 As part of DCT’s focus on business recovery through the Princes Countryside Fund, we want to respond to the economic and social needs and challenges faced by Devon-wide Rural Businesses and Social Enterprises, Community buildings and organisations.This bulletin shares some of the resources found on our website, and creates themes around challenging areas that have been highlighted by businesses that have already been in touch with us. We want to be able to share further insights from you to highlight areas of need, the particular challenges you are facing and show the unmet needs of our rural communities. Sign up here to continue to receive these bulletins, which will regularly update you about support, advice and resources available to businesses during covid-19! As we want to help many businesses and enterprises, please do spread the word about these bulletins, to anyone who you think may benefit from this information! You can now get in touch with us for further support, by contacting our Covid-19 Community Local Outbreak & Recovery helpline: 0808 1963390 If you can’t find the information you are looking for and need resources for a specific need, contact: Annabelle@devoncommunities.org.uk The team at DCT look forward to hearing from you! Available Resources Here, we are exploring just some of the resources available to you, which focus on the themes of Recovery advice for businesses, Technical assistance, Training, Funding, Volunteer assistance and Marketing. To access further resources, please go to our website! Recovery Advice The Recovery Advice for Business scheme, hosted on the Enterprise Nation website, gives small firms access to free, one-to-one advice with an expert adviser to help them through the coronavirus pandemic and to prepare for long-term recovery. Thousands of expert professional and business services advisers are on hand to offer free advice, until 31st December. Small and medium sized businesses can sign up, take the diagnostic tool and access support. Advice will focus on key areas: accounting and finance people and building a team planning, strategy and pivoting marketing, PR and social media technology and digital tools. Technical Assistance The Heart of the South West Digital Skills Partnership, coordinates and delivers a digital strategy that will develop digital skills, for you and your workplace. ’Acas’ offers a wide range of advice for employees and employers, who need to know more about how they can work during this pandemic. This resource also includes information about equipment, technology and how you should check systems at this time. Access Training ‘The skills toolkit’ from the National Careers Service offers an array of courses that can help improve workplace skills, including; digital and financial skills. For those who are starting out in business, this toolkit offers introductory and intermediate courses. For those who feel they have more experience they can participate in more advanced and in-depth courses. For those who need further support to make your workplace more covid secure, ‘Better Business For All’ have developed a toolkit that will allow you to consider how you can start your business safely. Further information and access to this resource, can be found on our website. New Start Devon are offering free enterprise coaching! This webinar will focus on character strengths and will help you to apply these to your work! For more information and to sign up, please visit our website. Funding GOV.UK are offering funding and financial guidance for those who are self-employed and for small, medium and large businesses. Through this page, you can access business support grant funds, applications to schemes and much more! Volunteer Assistance GOV.UK are also providing information to those who would want to know more about supporting volunteers during covid-19. Information about volunteer rights, placements and expenses can be found here To find a volunteer who best fits your business, ‘Reach Volunteering‘ is here to help create connections. They also give further guidance on how volunteers can support workplaces, during this time! Marketing For further insights into how to adapt your marketing during covid-19, you can visit this article for step by step guidance. This useful resource will also give you more information about tools and software that can help your marketing at this time. This in-depth article gives small businesses a further insight into the marketing training and resources that are available during the pandemic. Here, you can find information about offers, connections, guidance and much more, to help the promotion of your business!   New Small Business Leadership and Problem-solving Programmes Helping Businesses to Survive and Thrive Beyond COVID. Two new leadership programmes to help small business leaders grow their companies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic have been launched. Further information about support, can be found here. • The Small Business Leadership Programme will equip business leaders with the confidence and leadership skills to plan for the future of their business, and ensure that they are in a great position to recover from the impacts of coronavirus. Find out more and apply here. • The Peer Networks Programme will focus on helping business owners improve their problem-solving skills, through a series of guided exercises. Members of the programme will be given skills in areas such as leadership and management, sales and marketing that they need to tackle these challenges head-on while growing their business. Find out more and apply here.  How Are Other Businesses Moving Forward During This Time? We have been listening to you on our Covid-19 helpline and believe it is powerful to share other organisations challenges and how they are problem solving to keep moving forward. By sharing your experience it helps other’s that may be challenged by common issues or have the same support needs. To share your experiences please fill out our new case study survey here. A Community Centre in the Blackdown Hills have shared with us, their experiences of covid-19 and how they were able to move forward during this difficult time. Find out more, here. Contact our team to let us know if any of the issues raised have struck a chord with you and why.  Free Coaching From New Start Devon Delivered in partnership with us. New Start Devon fully funded one-to-one coaching and workshops for start-ups, early stage businesses and people thinking of starting a business. Those eligible for Enterprise Coaching are people in rural towns and locations in Devon who have a great idea and are struggling to get it off the ground and also existing founders and entrepreneurs with existing micro businesses to grow. To sign up to receive this coaching, or for more information, please contact Matthew Porter, here. Watch out for a mix of events, workshops, face-to-face, telephone and online coaching, plus an e-learning resource! On the 24th, join our New Start Devon coach, Matthew Porter, for a free enterprise coaching webinar! Two new business events will also be running in the near future! To indicate initial interest in attending these, please contact info@devoncommunities.org.uk. We will then be able to contact you once dates and themes have been set! |
