Youth charity The King’s Trust has today announced the Scotland roll-out of Business Advance, a programme designed and developed in partnership with LDC, to help young entrepreneurs sustain and grow their businesses through the first three years of trading.

Business Advance is an extension of The King’s Trust’s Enterprise programme, which helps young people from all walks of life, including disadvantaged communities, to launch their own businesses by equipping them with the confidence, skills and funding they need to do so.

It is a package of support designed to increase the help available to young entrepreneurs as they navigate the early years of running their business, and provides access to a designated mentor, structured business reviews to track progress against targets and ambition, workshops and networking opportunities.

The Scotland roll-out of Business Advance follows a successful pilot in the Midlands in England, in which more than 100 young people took part, with 90% confirming it helped to increase their business confidence.

LDC first partnered with The King’s Trust in 2019 to support the Enterprise programme and has so far ‘helped more than 4,400 young people to turn their dreams into reality’. Business Advance is funded through the multi-million-pound partnership and has been created with the support of an advisory board consisting of LDC’s employees.

Gareth Marshall, partner and head of Scotland and the North East of England at LDC, said: “Young entrepreneurs play a vital role in the economy, both here in Scotland and across the UK. They inject fresh ideas and perspectives into the market, create job opportunities and help to drive economic growth.

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“To help them grow and sustain their businesses, it’s important that we give them the tools, skills and funding to achieve this, and being able to extend Business Advance to help young entrepreneurs across Scotland is something we’re incredibly proud of.

“At LDC, we have more than 40 years of experience in helping management teams across the UK to drive growth and realise their ambitions, and our partnership with The King’s Trust is an important part of extending that commitment to young entrepreneurs from different backgrounds.”