Encouraging business opportunities (From The Northern Echo)
Send us your pictures, video, news and views by texting NORTHERN ECHO to 80360 or email us
Encouraging business opportunities
9:59am Thursday 7th January 2010 in North-East Business News
A £1.6m project to help encourage entrepreneurship has been launched.
The Enterprise Coaching initiative will support the development of an entrepreneurial culture. There will be training and mentoring provision and opportunities to research and test out ideas.
The initiative is a joint venture funded by South Tyneside Council and the European Union’s ERDF Competitiveness Programme, through regional development agency One North East.
One-to-one pre-business start-up enterprise coaching will assist 1,500 people with commercial ideas over the next two years and ensure that at least 500 of these progress to mainstream North-East Business Link support services.
It will also help people develop and explore appropriate business venues, which might include franchise opportunities, part-time business models, home-based businesses or social enterprise.
Tim Pain, One North East’s head of business, enterprise and skills, said: “Coaches will work within targeted communities to find potential entrepreneurs and inspire and help them access mainstream business support services.”
