Support for your business

Oct 10 2012 by Staff Reporter, Heswall News

TODAY we are launching a second year of our Local Business Accelerators (LBA) campaign.

The initiative is led by business champion and Dragons’ Den star Deborah Meaden and follows the inaugural campaign that supported small business all over the country as part of a drive by local newspapers, through the Newspaper Society.

The competition is worth a staggering £15m in free advertising and mentoring for regional and national winners of the venture, which supports the growth of fledgling and existing small businesses.

New research has revealed that Britain’s young and growing businesses are positive about prospects for growth, despite tough economic times, but they still need advice and support.

The LBA campaign, supported by the Government and private sector’s Business in You campaign and backed by the Prime Minister David Cameron as well as the Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King, involves more than 500 newspapers across the UK.

Businesses aged between one and five-years-old can enter LBA for the chance to win a free advertising campaign in their local paper plus mentoring support from local business leaders.

The most promising businesses will go forward to the national stage of the competition to win a year’s mentoring from Deborah Meaden and a local advertising campaign devised by a top London creative ad agency.

LBA national ambassador Deborah Meaden said: “With last year’s LBA having demonstrated the unique power of local and regional press to provide a meaningful boost to promising young businesses, I am delighted to be supporting the initiative once again.”

John Cridland, director general of employers’ organisation the CBI, backed the first LBA competition and has added his support for the latest package of assistance for the small business sector.

Businesses that have been in existence for between one and five years are eligible to enter LBA.

For more information and to fill out the online entry form before the closing date of November 16, entrants are asked to visit the LBA hub which is available at www.accelerateme.co.uk

Coinciding with this year’s LBA campaign is the Government’s Business in You initiative which aims to inspire more people to start or grow their business, backed by a range of existing business support services provided by the public and private sectors.

For more information on Business in You visit www.businessinyou.bis.gov.uk