So, over the last few months we’ve been introducing our team of business advisers to you – allowing you to find out a bit more about the support they can offer to your business.
We’re taking a break from profiles this month and thought it would be a good idea to share with you the sectors and specialisms the whole adviser team can offer.
All of our business advisers are business owners in their own right and subcontract to the Chamber to deliver our business support programmes. Some have many years of experience while others are fairly new to the process – all of them have a great deal to offer and between them a significant amount of experience assisting businesses just like yours!
Sector specialisms include but are not limited to: manufacturing, tourism/hospitality, food & drink, retail, health & safety, customer service, social enterprises/charities, education, civil engineering, wholesale, farming, digital & creative……
As well as offering general business advice, adviser specialisms include but are not limited to: marketing, digital marketing, E-commerce, buying and merchandising, access to finance, bookkeeping including Sage and Xero, continuous improvement, innovation, new product development and launching, corporate social responsibility, HR, funding and applications, investment, skills, net zero (Cumbria Chamber and the wider Chamber network also have access to net zero resources and tools), bidding/tendering, business planning and strategy, sales and pricing, supply chain, coaching and mentoring (including Special Education Needs).
Support areas offered cover general advice, marketing, digital marketing, ICT, finance & bookkeeping, sales & pricing, people and productivity through people, funding & applications, supply chain, and business planning.
We also signpost to other business support programmes delivered outside of Chamber support. We work closely with Digital Tech Cumbria, FW Capital, Made Smarter, Eco-I NW, CUSP and many others to ensure businesses can tap into the right support at the right time for their business.
The support programmes we currently offer are:
- Cumbria Business Growth Hub
- Business Start-Up Support programme
- New Enterprise Allowance scheme
- Department of International Trade contract – linking in new and experienced exporters into support on offer through DIT
- Peer networks – 4 cohorts still with availability
- Allerdale Borough Council funded business support programme for COVID recovery
- 3hrs & 12hrs business assists – a business review/diagnostic with chance to access further one to one support if eligible
We also have some funding from Eden District Council to give away 50 free Chamber memberships to businesses in the Eden area that haven’t received any other support – get in touch if you’d be interested in this offer.
We can support any business at any stage in any area of the county operating in any sector – if we can’t we’ll pass you over to someone who can so please get in touch today at lesleyr@cumbriachamber.co.uk.