Advantage House is the base for the new Business Link West Midlands (BLWM) service and is located on Quinton Business Park – a great strategic location, which is close to the motorways and within easy reach of Birmingham and most parts of the region.
BLWM employs 254 staff and provides the information, advice and support needed to start, maintain and grow businesses.
In April 2007, the new regional Business Link service started, which led to the closure of five sub-regional Business Links, some of which operated from a number of buildings. BLWM is now delivered by two providers – West Midlands Brokerage Services and Gateway West Midlands. One of the key aims of the move from five to two providers was to make a reduction in the overhead costs of providing support services from an estimated 40 per cent to circa 20 per cent. This results in more money being spent in direct services to businesses in our region.
In its first year the new BLWM service has been very successful in helping:
- 2,009 new businesses to start up (610 of which are run by business people from ethnic minorities),
- providing just over 67,000 businesses with information and support, of which 8,738 businesses undertook a diagnostic and were assisted to find specialist suppliers to address their business issues (2,177 more than the previous year),
- and providing guidance and support to just over 18,000 prospective entrepreneurs seeking expert advice to help them develop their plans to start a business.
An example of the type of intensive support provided to businesses is the leadership and management programme. This service focuses on helping to build the capacity of senior management teams and improving the skills of more than 1,100 leaders and managers.
Another example of support is in direct response to challenging economic conditions being faced by business. BLWM are working to support businesses on the implications of the tightening credit conditions.
BLWM is the responsibility of Advantage West Midlands (AWM) and is the single largest project it supports, accounting for approximately 10 per cent of the Agency’s annual budget. BLWM is also supported by other government departments, agencies and local authorities.