Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Last chance to apply for 2017 Business Advantage Awards
Now in its third year, the Business Advantage Awards offer a support package of mentoring and/or legal support worth £25,000 to small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Five awards will be presented and at least two of these will be allocated to students or graduates (within five years of graduation) of Leeds Beckett. The awards are also open to business clients of Leeds Beckett’s Enterprise and Innovation Hub. Each award provides up to 50 hours of mentoring and/or legal support; and the support given through each award is worth up to £5,000.
The support package includes one-to-one enterprise mentoring from a solicitor with expertise in a relevant field, such as IP (Internet Protocol) protection, employment terms, premises legal support, business structure and taxation advice; as well as valuable industry introductions and specialist expertise.
To apply, applicants are asked to submit a brief business plan to the Enterprise and Innovation Hub by the deadline of Tuesday 14 February. Shortlisted applicants will then be asked to give a 10 minute presentation on their business to a panel on 8 March.
After the awards have been presented, support will commence for a period of 12 months from March 2017.
For more information, and to download the business plan template, please visit the Enterprise and Innovation Hub website. Applications, and any queries, should be emailed to eiahub@leedsbeckett.ac.uk.
Award winners from the 2015 and 2016 competitions were recently invited to join Lupton Fawcett and Leeds Beckett to celebrate the awards at a special lunch at Lupton Fawcett’s offices.
At the event, the 2016 award winners reported on the progress of their business a year on from receiving the award.
Enterprise and Innovation Hub clients, and Leeds Beckett graduates, Zainah Khan of Chakra Corporate and Tam Owen of Nutrition 2 Go, have greatly benefited from the Awards.
Zainah completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Counselling and Psychotherapy at Leeds Beckett in May 2016 and launched her private therapy practice and corporate mental strength training programme in July. Zainah's business, Chakra Corporate Mental Strength Ltd, is designed to increase resilience to stress and destigmatise mental health issues in corporate workplaces using psychotherapy tools.
Zainah said: “Receiving the award has been of huge significance in relation to the progress of Chakra Corporate Mental Strength Ltd. Primarily, the award money has been massively useful in understanding and working through the legal issues involved with the business. Aside from registering the business as a Limited Company, I have been able to gain understanding of trademarking and completed the terms of business for my clients, including legalities involved with my website. This would have been costly and time-consuming had I done it without the support of Lupton Fawcett”.
Zainah presented her business to Lupton Fawcett Director-level staff which gave her the confidence boost she needed to help secure a successful contract delivering training to a large corporate firm in Yorkshire in December.
Tam Owen completed his BA (Hons) International Business degree in 2015 and launched his business Nutrition 2 Go in May of the same year. The business supplies healthy snack vending machines. Tam now has units installed at 18 sites including Leeds Beckett, Leeds City Council and Anytime Fitness. He was concerned by the number of unhealthy products in the vending market and wanted to create a concept which would help improve the nation’s health and fitness in their snack choices. The company reinvests 10% of their profits into funding community programs which tackle this growing concern. They are currently developing a free mobile app which delivers fitness training programmes.
Tam said: “We all like a treat but it’s good to have a healthy choice available as well hence the idea to create healthy vending machine options. I was delighted to successfully win a Lupton Fawcett Business Advantage Award in 2015. The support I received from Lupton Fawcett was an enormous help, particularly in the early days, and helped me to transform and structure my idea into a successful business.”
Jonathan Oxley, Director at Lupton Fawcett’s Leeds-based corporate team and Mentor for the scheme, added: “We are proud to be into our third year of sponsorship of the Leeds Beckett Business Advantage Awards. The University is developing a great track record of mentoring and launching innovative and creative new businesses and we are delighted to be able to play our part in supporting them. Great quality legal advice is something many early stage businesses have difficulty accessing and we are able to make it available through these awards. These are the types of businesses that will play a key role in the future success of the economy and it is important that they be given the best support in the early stages of growth.”
The Enterprise and Innovation Hub offers a range of affordable office services for start-up and growing businesses, as well as access to a thriving business community and wider University services. It is currently home to over 200 businesses across Leeds and Headingley.
Students and graduates of Leeds Beckett are advised to contact the Enterprise and Innovation Academy for Students on eiastudents@leedsbeckett.ac.uk or call 0113 812 1752 before submitting their application. The team can provide support with business advice and planning. There may also be other funds available to support your business.