ED - ASK Programme 2013

Tender description

Programme Overview The ASK Programme is a business support initiative offered to both start-up (trading greater than 3 months) and existing businesses located within the Newtownabbey Borough Council area. The support is open to SMEs in all business sectors, on condition they operate from a business address registered within the Newtownabbey Borough Council Boundary. The programme offers local businesses up to a total of 10 hours of mentoring support with a specialist adviser to address a specific business need as identified by the business owner. Businesses will apply to the Economic Development Section of the Council submitting an application form requesting assistance. Following a review of the business needs by the Economic Development staff, they may be assigned a specialist adviser, identified as being most suitable to carry out mentoring support, based on their specialist expertise in that requested field. Alternatively, the business may be signposted to other business support organisations such as Invest Northern Ireland, IntertradeIreland etc as necessary, to avoid duplication of service provision available to SMEs in the borough. Timeframe The ASK Programme is a pilot initiative that will be delivered within the following timeframe: 12 September 2013 – 30 March 2014. The Economic Development Section of Council aims to appoint suitable advisers to mentor a Newtownabbey business within 5 working days from the initial request for support. The appointments will be made to the specified individual mentors and not consultancy organisations as a whole, therefore applications will be accepted per each individual mentor as opposed to a collective consultancy group.