Boosting the Local Economy

March 30, 2011 - PRLog -- As the demographic of Northamptonshire changed with the influx of Eastern European communities, particularly from Poland, the need to engage effectively with these people and make them aware of the full range of support and help available to start their own business became increasingly clear.

Stephen Smith CEO of EMB Ltd said “The challenge was to directly engage with these communities. A strong relationship based on trust had to be created in order to get people involved.”

Team work

To help develop trusting relationships, these individuals were teamed with local business advisers and EMB’s own Community Engagement Manager. Each adviser used their network of contacts and local knowledge to identify existing contacts they had within the Polish community.  These then provided that all important link between the Polish community, EMB and its partners. This approach enabled the new arrivals to access the vital business help and support they needed.

One such introduction resulted in the Community Engagement Manager meeting with a local Polish Accountant, Dorota Haden, who had herself worked with one of EMB’s advisers. Dorota runs her own business targeting the Polish community across the Midlands Region so she is well connected within each local area.  

Phoebe Edwards, Business Development Director at EMB added “We wanted to proactively help these communities overcome barriers that existed in helping them to start a business or take one forward.  We explored ways in which business services could support people from the Polish community, helping them to consider self employment and also helping existing Polish businesses to develop and grow.”

New initiatives

As a result of the discussions, two initial activities were developed to raise awareness of local business services. A two-page article about business support services in Polish, was published in the local Polish magazine – Kurier. And a workshop on self employment was developed and delivered at the Polish Club by the business Start-up Manager, translated into Polish by Dorota.  

The Kurier article resulted in a healthy number of enquiries and over 45 people attended the initial workshop.  A topic considered particularly helpful was the explanation of the various legal structures available when starting a business.  Ongoing interest in other topics such as marketing and financial management have led to more events being held.

Dorota Haden continues to provide a valuable link between EMB and the local Polish community and future activities being considered include more articles in the Kurier magazine and exploring specific support for existing Polish businesses.

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EMB is a young, vibrant, enterprise development company. We specialise in delivering public sector contracts which improve the prospects of individuals and businesses, maximising their contribution to the economy.