Free business mentoring on offer for businesses in Copeland Cumbria Business Growth Hub through the Help into Mentoring Programme are looking to support 50 individuals thinking about or looking to start their own business or young businesses in the early stages of trading. There’s a fantastic range of support available through the programme including:

• 20 hrs of one to one mentoring support provided by one of our mentors
• Personalised client journey
• Introduction to self-employment workshop covering: Reasons to start a business; anyone can be self-employed and benefits of being your own boss; pitfalls of self-employment; key attributes required for self-employment; why write a business plan? What to include?; market research; legal status; registering with HMRC, VAT, record keeping; home working or business premises?; legislation; start-up costs and financing; forecasting; contingency planning; credit control
• Free training on topics such as business planning, personal resilience, branding, marketing, social media channels, sales & pricing…..
• Access to a four day business start-up course covering topics including business planning, sales & pricing, marketing & social media, record-keeping, cashflow forecasting, profit & loss, sustainability, business bank accounts
• Free webinars covering relevant topics
• A network of peer support from like-minded individuals
• Free online resources
• Signposting to other business support programmes and available funding

Lesley Robinson, Head of Business Support says “We’re delighted to have successfully bid to deliver this two-year mentoring programme. From our extensive experience we know the real value working with a mentor can offer to those at the very start of the self-employment journey or in those early years of trading. “Working with a mentor provides a sounding board, a critical friend who provides ongoing, personalised guidance and removes the feelings of isolation experienced by many small business owners. Our team of mentors are ready and waiting to provide support, we’ll also be offering a great range of free training running alongside mentor support with business planning and personal resilience already booked in!”

Anyone interested please email Lesley Robinson – lesleyr@cumbriachamber.co.uk with the following information:

• Business idea/activity
• Postcode (funding restrictions apply)
• How working with a mentor would benefit you/your business
• Any particular areas of support our mentors could provide