The Governments ‘Help to Grow: Digital’ scheme. Great in spirit but lacking in diversity.
The UK Government aims to boost the growth of small businesses with their Help to Grow: Digital scheme.
What is Help to Grow: Digital?
Help to Grow: Digital is a UK-wide scheme, providing advice and guidance to small businesses on how to use digital platforms to enhance their performance and productivity.
Eligible businesses will also have access to a discount of up to 50% on approved software, worth up to £5000.
There are currently two categories of software available:
- Client Relationship Management (CRM): Software used to manage interactions with current and prospective customers. A CRM system helps businesses nurture relationships with their customers and streamline their processes to increase sales, improve customer service and ultimately, enhance profitability.
- Accounting: Allowing business owners to process accounting transactions and manage their accounts.
And in the future, they hope to extend their offering to a third:
- E-Commerce: empowering business owners to sell products, manage inventory, accept and process payments and handle fulfillment.
Who can benefit from the Help to Grow: Digital scheme?
All businesses can access the free advice and guidance available online.
Software discounts are available to UK businesses that:
- Have a registered office in the UK and are registered at the relevant Companies House or are a registered society listed on the Financial Conduct Authority’s Mutuals Register.
- Have been actively trading for over 12 months prior to the date of application and have an incorporation date of, at minimum, 365 days prior to the date of application.
- Have a total of between 5 and 249 employees.
- Are purchasing the approved software for the first time.
Visit their website for up-to-date information.
Why go digital?
At first glance, the Help to Grow: Digital scheme appears to be a great initiative and much needed; the business landscape is changing dramatically. Businesses are under increasing pressure to embrace digital, and for good reason! By embracing digital transformation early, building digital processes, and integrating with technology, companies can stay ahead of the curve. They can increase their competitiveness, improve targeting and customer satisfaction through customer data analysis, and open themselves up to new revenue channels. Technology increases flexibility and reduces operational costs by optimising business performance and efficiency. The benefits are tenfold.
Digital entrepreneurs and tech-savvy start-ups may not need a hand to hold, but for traditional businesses or non-digital natives, embracing digital can be incredibly daunting, and whom the Help to Grow: Digital Initiative is likely to benefit the most.
Is the Help to Grow: Digital scheme enough?
It’s a great start! We explored the software available, and while limited, the Help to Grow: Digital initiative provides essential platforms from categories that will benefit most businesses. The choice is limited, though, and many of the approved CRM platforms are likely to be financially unattainable for many small businesses, even with the discount. Additionally, at the time of writing, there only appeared to be approved platforms for CRM and Accounting.
We hope that the number of approved platforms will grow and perhaps extend to other categories essential to growth, such as marketing. And forgive us if we’ve missed it; they appear to have neglected a crucial factor when choosing digital platforms to integrate into your business; how well they work together. Blindly choosing programs for different areas of your business can create much duplication and, frankly, land you in a sorry mess – the opposite of enhanced efficiency. And whilst the approved CRM platforms are great, there are a plethora of more affordable and relevant options out there if you know where to look.
In summary, the Help to Grow: Digital initiative is worth exploring, but don’t assume that the platforms on offer are right for you – do your research! If you’re a small business in the South West, and you’d like help researching and/or implementing a new digital platform into your business, get in touch.
