Help to Grow: Digital Scheme receives a boost

More than a million businesses can now benefit from Help to Grow as the eligibility criteria has been expanded to cover businesses with at least one employee.

In real terms, this means up to 1.2 million businesses could benefit from this expansion.

What is the Help to Grow scheme?

The Help to Grow scheme is designed to provide Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) leaders with free information and support to help them adopt and implement new software solutions.

The scheme provides tech support and allows eligible businesses to apply for grants which cover up to 50 per cent of the costs of cutting-edge software for customer relationship management (CRM), eCommerce, and digital accounting.

The software must be approved and worth up to £5,000.

What does this mean for SMEs?

The expansion of this scheme, which came into effect on 25 July 2022, will see a huge boost in productivity and the growth of the UK’s small businesses not previously covered by the scheme.

Advanced CRM software, generally speaking, has been proven to boost productivity by around 18 per cent.

The scheme now also covers eCommerce software to help businesses increase sales of their products and services online.

The scope of the eCommerce software reaches inventory management, taking payments, and key insights into customer habits and behaviour to open new avenues of sales.

It is well documented that businesses which adopt eCommerce software see a 7.5 per cent increase in employee-to-customer sales over three years on average.

Does my business qualify?

To qualify for the financial discount, businesses must meet all of the following criteria:

• Be based in the UK and registered with Companies House or be a registered society on the Financial Conduct Authorities Mutual Register
• Employ at least one individual who is not the owner, up to a maximum of 249 individuals
• Actively trading for over 12 months and have an incorporation date of at least 365 days before applying
• Be buying the approved software for the first time.

As the catchment for the Help to Grow Scheme has expanded, it is worth looking into whether your business qualifies.

More information on the scheme and the application process can be found here.

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