Member Article

BizSmart selected to drive rollout of Government peer-to-peer support initiative across Worcestershire

A leading Worcestershire business support provider has been selected to rollout the UK Government’s peer-to-peer support initiative on a regional scale.

Founded in 2012, BizSmart® is an innovative business support provider, renowned for its success in bringing like-minded business leaders together via peer-to-peer learning and engagement.

Created by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, ‘Peer Networks’ is a Government led support initiative that encourages UK business leaders to invest in the growth and development of their business by working closely with like-minded peers.

Following the economic impact of COVID-19, Peer Networks has recruited the assistance of regional business support providers to help business owners surpass current challenges and grow their business in 2021.

As a result, BizSmart® has been awarded five different cohorts in Worcestershire and two cohorts in the neighbouring Marches, which will be co-ordinated by Worcestershire Business Central and the Marches Growth Hub and will provide the opportunity for up to 80 businesses to benefit from the free initiative.

Taking place between January – March 2021, each business owner accepted onto the peer-to-peer cohort will benefit from 18 hours of facilitated group support, together with a minimum of 3.5 hours of one-to-one support.

To ensure interested parties have full insight before committing to the program, BizSmart® will be hosting an introductory virtual event on Thursday 7th January 2021 to reveal how the Peer Networks program will work and what business leaders can expect from peer-to-peer learning. This will be supported by BBC Apprentice Winner, Mark Wright, who in addition to providing insight into his business journey, will touch on his own personal experiences of peer-to-peer support.

Kevin Brent, Founder and MD of BizSmart® explained: “2020 has certainly been an incredibly challenging year for businesses, so we are delighted that additional funding has been issued to help regional businesses rebuild during 2021 through the Peer Networks initiative.

Having delivered our own successful peer-to-peer learning programs over the last 8 years, we have seen the first hand the incredible impact it can have in helping business leaders overcome issues and create a clear and consistent strategy for growth. We now look forward to helping more businesses achieve this level of success and in welcoming our first Worcestershire cohorts under this initiative at the beginning of the year.“

Having recently completed ‘Elevate’, a BizSmart® peer-to-peer program also supported by Worcestershire Business Central, Nick Baxter, Managing Director of recruitment firm, Baxter Williams added: “The peer support was excellent and allowed business leaders to bond very quickly, enabling high levels of engagement in a trusted environment where everyone felt comfortable to share their key challenges and best practice. It was a thoroughly beneficial program which lost no impact considering we had to complete all peer-to-peer sessions remotely. I would recommend this to any business owners looking to grow, expand and develop themselves and their business.”

BizSmart® has established a leading reputation as the region’s business support provider of choice. With a clear mission to help as many business owners on their scaleup journey as possible, the firm has supported over 700 Worcestershire based businesses.

Available to business owners with 3 – 5 employees plus, the new Government funded peer-to-peer support program will commence in Worcestershire on 7th January 2021.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Jones .