Youth charity The King’s Trust has today announced the North East roll-out of Business Advance, a programme designed and developed in partnership with LDC, to help young entrepreneurs sustain and grow their businesses through the first three years of trading.
Business Advance is an extension of The King’s Trust’s Enterprise programme, which helps young people from all walks of life, including disadvantaged communities, to launch their own businesses by equipping them with the confidence, skills and funding they need to do so.
It is a comprehensive package of support designed to increase the help available to young entrepreneurs as they navigate the early years of running their business, and provides access to a designated mentor, structured business reviews to track progress against targets and ambition, workshops and networking opportunities.
The North East roll-out of Business Advance follows a successful pilot in the Midlands, in which more than 100 young people took part, with 90 per cent confirming it helped to increase their business confidence.
It will help young entrepreneurs like North Tyneside-based Samantha Landells and Jacob Kennedy to grow their business. Earlier this year, Samantha and Jacob launched Studio GOOOS, selling unique merchandise featuring their lovable mascots Gwokoli the Duck and Greg the Angy Freg, with the help of The King’s Trust. Studio GOOOS operates across Tynemouth Market and Wallsend, and through its online website has cemented a presence internationally.
Commenting on the launch of Business Advance, Samantha said: “Before joining the Enterprise programme, we struggled to find a starting point for Studio GOOOS and lacked a clear roadmap to success. It provided invaluable support, workshops and opportunities to help us access and apply for the resources that were vital to the growth of our business.”
Jake added: “With the support of The King’s Trust and our business mentor we have managed to overcome various challenges whilst improving our own confidence in sharing our beloved mascots with the world! Throughout this programme we have developed our skill sets allowing us to create and apply much more manageable targets and structure to our work, which in turn has enabled us to form steady and achievable progress within our business.”
LDC first partnered with The King’s Trust in 2019 to support the Enterprise programme and has so far helped more than 4,400 young people to turn their dreams into reality. Business Advance is funded through the multi-million-pound partnership and has been created with the support of an advisory board consisting of LDC’s employees.
Gareth Marshall, Partner and Head of North East and Scotland at LDC said: “Young entrepreneurs play a vital role in the economy, both here in the North East and across the UK. They inject fresh ideas and perspectives into the market, create job opportunities and help to drive economic growth. To help them grow and sustain their businesses, it’s important that we give them the tools, skills and funding to achieve this, and being able to extend Business Advance to help young entrepreneurs across the North East is something we’re incredibly proud of.
“At LDC, we have more than 40 years of experience in helping management teams across the UK to drive growth and realise their ambitions, and our partnership with The King’s Trust is an important part of extending that commitment to young entrepreneurs from different backgrounds.”
Jonathan Townsend, UK Chief Executive of The King’s Trust, added: “Since 1983, we’ve helped more than 91,000 young people to start their own businesses and the UK-wide roll-out of Business Advance takes the support we can offer even further. It’s a flexible, broad-ranging programme that will help young entrepreneurs to go on and grow their businesses in those crucial early years after launching.
“It wouldn’t have been possible without the support and expertise of LDC. They are one of our biggest supporters at The King’s Trust and together we’re excited to help more young entrepreneurs to maximise the potential of their businesses.”
LDC is the leading supporter of The King’s Trust Enterprise programme and its partnership is designed to inspire the next generation of UK entrepreneurs. It has contributed towards a more diverse group of future business leaders, as a quarter of the young entrepreneurs supported to-date are from ethnic minority backgrounds and more than half are female.