Optimal Business Programme Announced

Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council has announced the Optimal programme, which aims to provide tailored and specialist business mentoring to support the development of a more prosperous economy.

The OPTIMAL programme aims to:

• Support the creation of new sustainable jobs in the council area.

• Refer businesses to Invest NI that are capable of accessing financial support from Invest NI.

• Strengthen the local business base by assisting businesses to become more competitive in indigenous and export markets.

• Promote business growth and innovation.

• Provide accessible, need driven business support that is tailored to business requirements.

• Engage with key business support stakeholders to develop a portfolio approach to business support in the council area, ensuring that there is no duplication of effort.

Mentors are selected based on the business needs to enable them to share appropriate advice, skills and knowledge from a range of specialisms including:

• business planning

• marketing and sales

• market research

• finance

• legal

• IT    

• process and systems    

• importing and exporting

• innovation

Businesses can avail of either one and a half days, three days or five days of free mentoring support.

The programme is open to small to medium sized businesses with a registered business address in the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council area.

Applications to the programme is available here.