The Growth Hub is here to help your business maximise its potential.
Whether it's sourcing funding, developing your team or breaking into new markets; our experts are on-hand to consult, connect and collaborate.
We find the funding, the contacts, and the opportunities, so you don’t have to.
We are a team of people across six hubs in each district of the county, with a mission to leave none of your questions unanswered. We are independent and impartial, with no agenda besides helping your business grow.
You are a strong, curious, and ambitious business owner with big plans in mind. You are imaginative and inventive, individual and impassioned, with impact in mind.
You live in Gloucestershire, you have a great business, and you want the world to know.
There’s so much out there, that knowing which direction to take can be enough to stop you from starting in the first place. We can point you in the right direction, and make the right introductions, to save you time and energy. When you need specialist advice, or a long-term business partner, we work with you at a deeper level. We consult our networks, leverage connections, and help solve your complex challenges.
We also run workshops - every time a question gets asked enough, we stop making referrals and find an expert to run workshops on the topic. If they’re important to you, they’re important to us. Upskill yourself or your team, for free.
What it costs? Nothing! Nada. Not a penny. Well, not to you anyway. The Growth Hub is funded and supported by partners and organisations who all want Gloucestershire to shine.
We’re passionate about making Gloucestershire a better and brighter place to live and work. The way to get there is to have more businesses, more jobs, and more money flowing through the county. Like your own growth, it would happen without us. But we’re here to speed things up.
So, where do you start? Apply for free support, sign-up for an event, or visit our business directory. Or if you'd like to chat, drop us an email.
Discover more about our specialist team of Business Navigators and Business Guides, the experts on-hand to help your business grow.
Callum Franklin-Bailey
Andy Kime
Tina Paton
Agata Seabright
Holly Sweet
Stephen Meyer
Richard Peers
Chris Hill
Andrew McKenzie
Paul Spenley
Stacey Wheeler
Olivia Mayo
Katie Power
Cameron Carter
We are expanding across the county to make support accessible to your business, no matter where in Gloucestershire it's based.
The Growth Hub is a Gloucestershire-wide network of business centres, where you can get free help and support to help your business grow. As well as direct consultancy and advice from our expert teams, we also offer events, co-working, office space and much more.
Find out more about our spaces across Gloucestershire here.
Nothing! Nada. Not a penny. Well, not to you anyway. The Growth Hub is funded and supported by partners and organisations who all want Gloucestershire to shine, including the government, the European Regional Development Fund, and partner organisations across Gloucestershire.
Apply for your free support today.
We have expert consultants who can help your Gloucestershire business to thrive. Who you see depends on what growth stage your business is at:
Business Navigators:
If you’re in the first few years of trading and experiencing healthy growth, you can tap into the expertise of one of our Business Navigators. This team of highly-connected and experienced advisors are able to make the introductions and referrals that can change the direction of your business.
Business Guides:
If you’re a larger, or more rapidly growing business, then it’s onto one of our Business Guides. Having been there and done that themselves, our Guides are extremely experienced consultants who have worked with thousands of businesses over 20+ years. They bring their insight of big business to your boardroom table, and directly support you in projects, plans and strategies to help you scale up.
We also run a full events programme run by local experts to help you fast-track your learning in specific areas of business. From social media to cash flow, and HR Law to strategy, there’s a workshop or 1-2-1 to help you break down barriers to growth. And remember, it doesn't have to be you that attends these events. You can send your teams on them to help upskill them and accellerate growth in your business.
Everything starts with a simple application form. 15 quick questions, you can even complete it on your phone it's that easy. With a few details about your business, we can establish which of our support services are best suited for your growth stage. You can apply for support here.
If you need any support completing the form we're happy to help. Just give us a call on 01242 715400 and we'll do what we can to make it easier.
We’re here to help you solve the challenges you tell us about, find the ones you don’t know about, and pick up the bill at the end. There are enough barriers to your growth without you not knowing where to turn for support, or not being able to afford it.
Bring us your questions, and we’ll find your answers.
Every Growth Hub is different, but they’re all home to co-working spaces to help you get away from the hustle and bustle. Some of them are free to use, some of them are on a paid membership basis. We recommend you find the Hub you're most interested in and give them a call ahead of your visit.
Each Growth Hub has a selection of meeting rooms available for you to use. Whether these be intimate spaces for a 1-to-1 or interview, an AV room for conference or video calls, or a larger office for your board meeting; you’ll find something suitable for your meeting. Some Growth Hubs offer these rooms for free, some of them are rented by the hour, half-day, or day.
Again, give the team at the Hub you're interested in a quick call and they will be happy to help.
All of our events and workshops are free-of-charge like the rest of our business support. If you haven’t used your funded hours yet, then you’ll be guaranteed a space (as long as you’re fast enough!) If you have used all of your hours, then don’t worry, we’ll still add you to the waiting list and offer you a free place if it doesn’t fill up. More often than not, you’ll be able to get a space.
And remember, your team can attend these events, too. A great chance for them to upskill, without you having to find the budget for funding. See all our upcoming events here.
Wrong! We’re here for every single Gloucestershire business, from solo entrepreneurs, to start-ups, to multi-million-pound firms. But we’re really here for those businesses which are going to grow, create jobs, and help the county prosper.
We have relationships with all of the local and national funding providers and we often hear about opportunities before the market does. If you’re one of our clients, you’ll be the first to find out. But we don't have a cheque book to offer funding directly.
You will never need to pay for a Growth Hub event. If you’ve used all of your funded hours, you can still apply for our events and you’ll be added to the waiting list. If the event doesn’t fill up with business leaders who haven’t used their funded hours, we’ll offer you a place. More often than not, you’ll be able to get in.
GFirst LEP is the Local Enterprise Partnership for Gloucestershire. Set up by UK Government in 2011, LEPs are designed to create opportunities and drive economic growth in their home county. We are lucky to have an extremely active and successful LEP in Gloucestershire, which manages a wide range of projects including developing road and transport infrastructure, building training and education facilities, and, of course, keeping The Growth Hub lights on.
Whilst we share a building, and work very closely together, The Growth Hub and Start and Grow Enterprise are two different projects. Start and Grow Enterprise specialise in supporting pre-start and early stage businesses, whilst The Growth Hub mainly supports established and high-growth firms.
There’s a Growth Hub for every business in England, but we’re just for Gloucestershire companies. To find your local Growth Hub, visit https://www.lepnetwork.net/growth-hubs/
If the stage of business growth you're currently at means you’re eligible for Business Navigator support, then you’re guaranteed a minimum of 3 hours. If you’re eligible for Business Guide support, then you’re guaranteed a minimum of 12 hours. Of course, most businesses will receive much more than this, in the form of free attendance at events and workshops, or ad-hoc meetings and calls with your Navigator or Guide even after you’ve finished. We will never cut you off.
Great, we’re working on that now. Within the next couple of days, we’ll be in touch to discuss the options available to you. Hold tight, we get a lot of applications!
You can continue to take advantage of the productivity and networking opportunities of our co-working spaces, along with applying for our events and workshops. They are primarily for businesses which haven’t used their allocated hours, but there are normally spaces for those who have.
The time you’re entitled to is based on the time it takes for a Navigator or Guide to support you. This includes the time they spend researching solutions for you, answering your questions on phone calls, registering you for free events and, of course, face-to-face meetings.
Don’t be disheartened when you sign off your support plan though, we’ll never cut you off from future support. You can still use our co-working spaces when they reopen, you can still attend online events, and you can always pick up the phone to talk to us.