CFE were commissioned by the Greater Nottingham Partnership (GNP) to explore the feasibility of providing enhanced business start-up support in response to Greater Nottingham having a new enterprise birth rate of 12% below the national average.
The research was designed to provide advice on the strategic direction of business start-up support in GNP’s most deprived areas and to provide recommendations to inform future decisions on additional start-up investment.
CFE used a mixed method research approach which included; qualitative interviews with East Midlands Development Agency (emda), Nottingham Business Ventures (NBV) and end users of the service; and quantitative analysis of emda management information and profiling of local enterprise and deprivation statistics.
The research found that:
CFE developed several actionable and practical recommendations for providing enhanced business start-up support based on the research findings, including:
Increased Outreach Activity
Allocating a dedicated funding stream particularly to engage with the oluntary sector and community groups.
Enhanced start-up offer
Allocating funds to increase business advisor support capacity (particularly in providing skills checks, signposting of provision and on-going support) and increase the amount of tutor time for one-to-one support and the number of mentor sessions available.
Improve management information
Introducing ‘sharper’ classifications to more effectively measure the impact of any enhanced service.