Since last week’s launch, more than 100 Merseyside small businesses have made their bid for a slice of the Regional Growth Fund allocated to the Liverpool Echo and called the "Business Booster".
It aims to boost small firms and create jobs across Merseyside. Cash for the fund, being run in partnership with Liverpool Vision, has come from the Government’s £2.4bn Regional Growth Fund. The Echo fund is to be shared with Western Mail another Trinity Mirror organisation based in the South.
Applications are being invited from small and medium-sized firms across Merseyside for cash grants of between £10,000 and £100,000. The emphasis of the Business Booster is on job creation and any money given from the fund must be matched by the business itself.
From the initial applications received they will select the best ideas and ask them to submit more detailed business plans.
Applications to the Business Booster fund must be submitted no later than Wednesday, February 29, and can be made by logging onto www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/onemillion
Final decisions on funding will be made by an expert panel made up of business leaders and entrepreneurs. The Judges Panel includes Echo editor ALASTAIR MACHRAY, Liverpool Vision chief executive MAX STEINBERG, ASIF HAMID founder of The Contact Company, TONY CALDEIRA entrepreneur, PROFESSOR STEVEN BROOMHEAD and JACK STOPFORTH of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, and SUE WEIR chief executive of Liverpool-based health cash plan provider, Medicash.
