Retox Digital are a registered provider for NBSL’s North East Business Support Fund.                                                                                                                                               
We have a number of clients who have found this very useful and accessed up to 40%, maximum of £1400 towards web design, development, seo and creative branding. To date our clients have only been able access funds as (B2B) organisations.
 
The Fund is now offering further flexibility to offer funding to B2C organisations.
 
North East Business Support Fund are aiming to help 3,270 businesses over the next 2 years and up to 20% of this total can now be B2C organisations.
 
The demand for support from B2C organisations is expected to be high so they have introduced a new process that allows them to support the best applications that will provide a good return on investment for the ERDF funders and the region as a whole.
 
Here is the agreed eligibility criteria and assessment process below for managing this flexibility and they are able to accept B2C applications with immediate effect

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA – SUPPLIED BY NBSL

The focus of the European Regional Development Fund is to make the North East more economically competitive. Therefore the criteria we will be applying will be based around:

• Levels of proposed increases in turnover, profit and employee levels (as well as the credibility of these projections)
• Current and proposed % of turnover derived form the North East / Rest of the UK/ Rest of  the World
• Current and proposed % of turnover derived from B2B v B2C

This is in addition to the standard criteria regarding being an actively trading North East based SME with growth aspirations.
 
There will not be a pre-determined level around the criteria above which guarantees approval – each month’s applications will be judged on a cohort basis i.e. the best applications each month will be supported.

ASSESSMENT PROCESS – SUPPLIED BY NBSL 

• Receive applications – if judged to be B2B the normal process applies. If judged to be B2C then they will:
• Collate applications up to the end of each month (clients will be emailed to advise them that their application will be assessed at the beginning of the following month)
• Identify the number of B2C applications they can support in that month – this will be a  maximum of 20% of the total successful B2B applications in that month
• Assess the cohort of applications against the Eligibility Criteria above (Where there are more eligible B2C applications than they can support in that particular month they will select based on those that provide the best return on investment)
• Decide which will be approved / rejected and communicate this to the applicant (where an application is eligible and provides good return on investment but was not selected in that month they will be offered the opportunity to be assessed again the following month

This does mean that, depending on the date the application is made, the process for approving B2C applications is likely to be longer than that for B2B applications due to the extra process of cohort assessment / selection.
 
This is a new process for NBSL so if they feel further changes are required they will inform Retox Digital as one of their Registered Providers and we would of course communicate immediately to our clients.
 
For all enquiries regarding B2C and B2B please contact:
 
Julie Charlton
Retox Digital, Tel. 01670 785 786
Email: Julie.charlton@retoxdigital.com 
 
We are a “Registered Provider for the North East Business Support Fund”