support
Business Support
YOUR BUSINESS
Support for your business is out there, but which one is best for you?
As well as a huge amount of career support available to the military, there are also many not for profit organisations providing business support for military partners, but which one is right for you and your business?
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As well as forces specific resources listed below, we believe it is important to look outside of the military community to the huge amount of support and advice available to entrepreneurs, so we have included some of these in our guide as well.
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So, which of statement best describes your current situation? Click on the link to see what support is out there for you, or take a look at the whole selection by scrolling down.
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I want to start a business and I have an idea; I'd like some help getting started.
Supporting the Unsung Hero is a 4 day Business Start-Up Course, held around the country, and currently online, designed specifically for military partners.
The course is then supported by a 10 month Business Start-Up Programme of 1 to 1 mentoring with experienced business consultants.
The Women's Business Centre is a great resource funded by Women's Enterprise Scotland.
It is aimed at people at the beginning of their start up journey, but has lots of useful information on pitching, business jargon, business structures and much more. They are particularly passionate about sharing ideas on how women can fund their businesses, and have a section of the site dedicated to the subject.
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Also check out their Check List: Are you start up ready? - a really practical guide that walks you through all the steps of setting up a business.
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This resource is not specific to the military community.
I need help taking my business to the next level.
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Heroprenuers offer a Dragons Den style business support (but they’re a lot less scary!) – you pitch your idea, they give you unbiased advice, and if they think you’re onto a winner you they will provide you with a large support package that is designed in consultation with you to strengthen and develop your business.
This can include up to 12 months of support from a business mentor from their very impressive network of successful entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders such as Goldman Sachs.
Ingenuity is a business programme run by the University of Nottingham, in conjunction with other universities around the country, to support start ups that aim to have a sustainable social impact on the world we live in.
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Their online programme takes place in East Midlands, West Midlands, the West of England and across the South Coast, and helps you to build your business plan and culminates in pitching to potential investors.
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This resource is not specific to the military community.
I want to improve my social media skills to help build my business.
The BFBS Academy run a free 12 week online course for partners, #smspouses, aimed at training the potential social media managers of the future. The course covers all the main platforms, taking you through both strategy and content creation, so it's perfect for business owners.
BFBS also run a paid version of this course, The Digital Cult, which funds BFBS being able to make it free for partners, so if you know any non military friends that would be interested please help them spread the word as it will mean more free places for us!
If you can’t wait for a space on their free course, military families also receive a 25% discount on the paid course, The Digital Cult.
I can’t really put a finger on what is wrong, but I don’t feel confident enough to push my business forward. I sometimes feel overwhelmed by life.
The Warrior Programme is another one that was started for serving personnel and has now had funding to open it up to partners as it has been so successful and had such great outcomes.
In their words “our programme enables individuals to manage their emotions and to develop the resilience, focus and motivation to succeed in today's world”.
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The course is perfect for partners of any age who want to learn techniques and strategies for getting the most out of life, and feeling more on top of it all.