Who Should Apply?

The 10,000 Small Businesses programme will be of interest
and benefit to ambitious Midlands business leaders who:

• Own a small business or are the most senior
  decision maker of a social enterprise
• Run a business or social enterprise that has
  been operating for at least a year
• Generate significant trading revenues and
  already employ people
• Want to grow their business or social enterprise.

Applications are welcomed from small business leaders from all backgrounds and from all business sectors.

The programme runs twice a year in the Midlands and each time is offered on a fully-funded basis to 25 to 30 small business owners and social enterprise leaders.

Criteria for the individual who is applying:

• You must be the main owner (or main co-owner) of the business, or the most senior decision-maker if the business does not have share capital
• You must be seeking to grow the business
• You should not already have extensive recent management education (e.g. MBA or equivalent)

Criteria for the business or social enterprise:

• The business must have been operating for at least a year, must be generating significant trading revenues and must already have employees (other than the applicant)
• The organisation must be capable of growing and generating additional employment

Social enterprise applicants must be commercially operated (irrespective of legal structure) and must seek to achieve their social purpose primarily through trading and not through grant funding.

Participating businesses and social enterprises typically have between five and 40 employees, though applications will be considered from businesses with fewer or more employees that demonstrate strong growth potential and who could benefit significantly from the programme.

Applications are particularly welcomed from businesses operating in or on behalf of disadvantaged communities or regeneration areas.

Please note that programme is not intended for start-up businesses, sole traders or organisations that are not seeking to grow.

Programme participants to date have represented an exceptionally wide range of business sectors and business backgrounds. Participants tell us that the programme gives them access to a diversity of perspectives from which they might not otherwise benefit. The average age of participants is approximately 40 though a wide range of ages have represented and approximately a third of participants are female. Typically, around 15% of our participants run a social enterprise, while most lead "for dividend" small businesses.

One of the programme's key benefits is the sharing of ideas, learning from experiences and networking with other small business leaders as you move through the modules together. Interested to know more about the kind of people you could be working with? The profiles below give you some background information on participant businesses to date.