Member Article

360 Accountants participate in Government ‘Growth Voucher’ scheme to aid SME development

East-Yorkshire based 360 Chartered Accountants is the first accountancy firm in the region to receive approval for the Government’s new ‘Growth Voucher’ scheme, launched this week.

The initiative, championed by Lord Young, David Cameron’s enterprise adviser, was set up as part of the Government’s pledge to provide more additional support for small businesses across the UK.

As part of the Growth Voucher pilot scheme, 20,000 SMEs have the opportunity to receive £2,000 worth of expertise and advice. The format is set to see business people matched with relevant mentors to help them grow, through a marketplace-style website.

The funding must be matched by the business so a £4,000 project will cost the business £2,000.

360 Chartered Accountants can assist local SMEs with finance and cashflow expertise.

The services include financial healthchecks, cashflow and credit management, business planning for debt finance, business planning and evaluation for equity finance and Strategic management accounting. Said Andy Steele:

Andy Steele, Director at 360 Chartered Accountants based in Melton, said: “We are delighted that 360 is the first firm of accountants in the region to be accepted as part of the fantastic scheme which will help us to help even more SMEs in the region grow and develop.

“There is a pot of £30m available and we are urging Hull and East Yorkshire businesses to claim their share.” Growth Vouchers can be used to part pay for consultancy fees in the following areas - expanding your workforce, IT and web, leadership and management, marketing and customer service and finance and cashflow.

“There are certain criteria that businesses need to have to be able to apply for the scheme. So we’re calling for businesses that have 49 employees or less, must be registered in England, have been trading for at least one year, have not paid for business advice in the last three years and are independent, to come forward and discuss what support we can offer.”

Details of how to apply for Growth Vouchers can be found here: https://marketplace.enterprisenation.com/about

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .