Fastrack to Finance Programme

Description

The ‘Fastrack to Finance’ Programme was designed to give 30 businesses a head start in sourcing the finance required to drive the development of a new business idea, by providing specialist support in assessing the viability of the concept and helping the business to access finance to progress it.

Each participating business received an Audit to fully explore their business idea and up to 4 days’ specialist one-to-one support to prepare a range of financial documents to present to appropriate finance agencies or grant bodies; and if required, further guidance to prepare for and attend meetings with finance organisations (banks, funders etc.) to help present the business case and potentially secure finance.

As with the Elevate Programme, findings from the independent evaluation showed that ‘Fastrack to Finance’ was extremely successful, illustrated by its vastly exceeding the targets it had been set, and also demonstrating that it helped to position participating business to achieve sustained growth. Outlined below are some of the programme’s achievements and also the tangible and very practical benefits it delivered for one of the participating local business.

Programme Targets

Increase turnover of participating businesses by at least £107,250
Increase (leverage) investment accessed by £156,000
Creation of 6 new jobs of a total value of £107,250

Results:

Overall increase in turnover valued at £3,063,039
Secured Investment of £821,390
26 new jobs were created at an estimated value of £430,000

Testimonials

“The Fastrack to Finance Programme was, in my view, a crucial support mechanism for any business, regardless of size. We used the support to assist the company secure funding for expansion of our manufacturing facilities.

Although we as a company regularly undertake financial projections and update our business plan and vision moving forward, having a professional Accountancy firm do this for us, not only lightened the load, but gave us the peace of mind and security that we are indeed headed in the right direction. For small businesses sometimes there simply is not the free time to sit down and create a detailed plan like this.

Cookstown Enterprise Centre promoted, delivered and monitored the programme with professionalism and efficiency. We would not hesitate to recommend this programme to any local business regardless of scale or time established.

I commend the work in general carried out by the Enterprise Centre and have had a long standing relationship with the organisation. This has not only helped my business but led us to other support programmes with other agencies.

I would urge any established or start up business to give the Enterprise Centre a call and find out what support programmes are currently available”.

Paul Creighton, Advanced Electronic Solutions Global Ltd