IA2462 Get Started Services for Start up Businesses

Staffordshire County Council is bidding for up to £0.5M funding from the Government's UK Community Renewal Fund (CRF), which will provide £220M of funding in 2021/22 to help priority places across the UK to prepare for the introduction of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. To level up and create opportunity across the UK for people and places, the government has identified 100 priority places based on an index of economic resilience.

One element of this bid is a bolt-on to the current Staffordshire Start-up scheme which offers both mentoring and interest-free loans to new start-up businesses.

There are around 190 start-up businesses registered on the Staffordshire start-up scheme, although not all have taken their first steps into self-employment for numerous reasons; some are awaiting the end of the furlough scheme to establish the position with their employers, others are simply nervous about taking their first steps into self-employment, especially given the financial impact that they have already suffered from the pandemic. The proposed activity within the bid, and that which is referenced within this tender specification, is intended to mitigate the latter.

Existing applicants to the Staffordshire start-up scheme who are yet to launch their business will be offered the choice of one of two free services: