Devon Create Growth Programme
- Does your business have creativity at its heart?
- Do you work in any of the following sub sectors? design, fashion, architecture, film, broadcast, createch, gaming, immersive, publishing, music, theatre, art, heritage, craft, media
- Are you operating in Devon?
- Is your business a Ltd Company, CIC or Charity?
- As a founder, do you need help building your confidence to make decisions on investment, IP, business structures and growth plans?
Grow Your Business Stage 1 & 2
Grow Your Business is designed to help creative businesses like yours. The programme will support you to develop the skills to secure investment so that you can achieve your ambitions for your company to grow. It is tailored to the needs of different creative disciplines, their respective markets, governance and distribution models.
Stage 1
This programme is designed to give creative businesses the knowledge and confidence to grow their commercial models and explore investment opportunities.
Coaching and Diagnostic: Businesses will be offered a mentoring session at the beginning and midway through the programme with the aim of defining and refining their ambitions for investment. At the end of the programme businesses will undertake a diagnostic with a panel of investment mentors who will provide individual feedback and referrals for future activity.
Ethical Equity Simulator: A six-month subscription to a unique piece of software that enables users to learn about the different types of investment from a practical point of view. The Simulator encourages founders to put themselves in an investors’ shoes and experience commercial investment from their perspective. This is an enjoyable way of learning and can provide invaluable insight in preparation for pitching, networking and negotiating within the investment community.
Cohort Workshops: Businesses will take part in a series of in person and online workshops that are designed to unlock their commercial capacity and describe routes to investment and growth. Content covered will include:
- Creative Minds Bootcamp: Discovering and exploiting your Intellectual Property with Erica Wolfe Murray over 2 days of in person training.
- Investment 101: An overview of different types of investment and how they might impact your company structure with our Lead Investment Mentor
- Commercial Business Models and Legal Advice for Creative Sub Sectors
- Deep dive days on how to access networks and make sales e.g commercial touring or making your building work for you.
- Sustainability: Environmental and financial advice.
Stage 2
Stage 2 is a 9 month investment readiness programme for businesses who are ambitious about commercial models, growth and investment.
- Diagnostic meetings with investment mentors will precede your application and will support you to dig deeper into your business plans and finances to look at what scaling up might offer you and how investment can help. These are individual diagnostic meetings with one business / applicant at a time.
- Online and in person workshops, events, and talks that provide overarching business skills and tools, sector specific advice and resources.
- Peer to Peer Learning Sessions that will give you a regular place to share experiences, explore challenges as a wider team and consider your place in the wider creative industry ecology in Devon.
- One to One Mentorship that provides 27 hrs bespoke advice and coaching to clarify your vision, business model and ask. The sub sector specialist matched you as an investment mentor will support you to write business plans, proposals, investment pitches and applications ready for an investment process.
- Events to network, practice your pitch, meet investors and showcase your business.
Stage 1
This programme is designed to give creative businesses the knowledge and confidence to grow their commercial models and explore investment opportunities.
Coaching and Diagnostic: Businesses will be offered a mentoring session at the beginning and midway through the programme with the aim of defining and refining their ambitions for investment. At the end of the programme businesses will undertake a diagnostic with a panel of investment mentors who will provide individual feedback and referrals for future activity.
Ethical Equity Simulator: A six-month subscription to a unique piece of software that enables users to learn about the different types of investment from a practical point of view. The Simulator encourages founders to put themselves in an investors’ shoes and experience commercial investment from their perspective. This is an enjoyable way of learning and can provide invaluable insight in preparation for pitching, networking and negotiating within the investment community.
Cohort Workshops: Businesses will take part in a series of in person and online workshops that are designed to unlock their commercial capacity and describe routes to investment and growth. Content covered will include:
- Creative Minds Bootcamp: Discovering and exploiting your Intellectual Property with Erica Wolfe Murray over 2 days of in person training.
- Investment 101: An overview of different types of investment and how they might impact your company structure with our Lead Investment Mentor
- Commercial Business Models and Legal Advice for Creative Sub Sectors
- Deep dive days on how to access networks and make sales e.g commercial touring or making your building work for you.
- Sustainability: Environmental and financial advice.
Stage 2
Stage 2 is a 9 month investment readiness programme for businesses who are ambitious about commercial models, growth and investment.
- Diagnostic meetings with investment mentors will precede your application and will support you to dig deeper into your business plans and finances to look at what scaling up might offer you and how investment can help. These are individual diagnostic meetings with one business / applicant at a time.
- Online and in person workshops, events, and talks that provide overarching business skills and tools, sector specific advice and resources.
- Peer to Peer Learning Sessions that will give you a regular place to share experiences, explore challenges as a wider team and consider your place in the wider creative industry ecology in Devon.
- One to One Mentorship that provides 27 hrs bespoke advice and coaching to clarify your vision, business model and ask. The sub sector specialist matched you as an investment mentor will support you to write business plans, proposals, investment pitches and applications ready for an investment process.
- Events to network, practice your pitch, meet investors and showcase your business.