This programme includes a series of skills development workshops, tailored business mentoring and opportunities for networking.
Belfast City Council’s High Growth Programme supports businesses with high growth potential.
Areas the programme can support your business with include:
- business planning, improvement, and efficiency
- market research and analysis of emerging market opportunities
- brand development and PR
- people and human resource management – including hiring new staff and team troubleshooting
- product or process development and commercialisation
- sales development
- securing finance and financial planning
- exporting and local trade development
Programme details
If your application for a place on the High Growth Programme is successful, you will:
- attend a series of online skills development workshops where the focus will be on providing you with both the skills and the confidence to overcome barriers to growth and to realise the full potential of your business
- be allocated an experienced business mentor who will provide one-to-one support to you to plan for the future and to begin to take the steps that you need to take to grow your business
- network with and learn from other like-minded entrepreneurs who are committed to growing their businesses locally, nationally and internationally
- learn from the experiences of highly successful business people who will share the highs and lows of their entrepreneurial journeys with you
Due to ongoing restrictions relating to travel and social interaction, all aspects of the programme will be provided virtually using Zoom software.
Eligibility
To be eligible for the programme, your business must:
- be based in the Belfast City Council area
- employ less than 50 people
- be trading for between 6 – 60 months
- have products / services that offer significant growth potential, including outside NI
- have the potential to create at least two new jobs over the next 12 months
- not be an Invest NI client (or have permission from your Client Executive to participate)
How to apply
To be considered for a place on the programme, you should register on the Belfast City Council website.
When completing the online business registration form, type ‘High Growth Business Programme’ when you are asked to ‘specify in detail how we can support your business’.
Belfast City Council will then liaise directly with you to ensure that you are eligible to apply and to assess your priority support needs in this field.
The deadline for applications is 17:00 on Thursday 30 September 2021.
This project is part-funded by Invest Northern Ireland and the European Regional Development Fund under the Investment for Growth and Jobs Northern Ireland (2014-2020) Programme.