MEET THE LEADER TO JOIN ‘INNOVATING FOR GROWTH’
Meet The Leader has been awarded a place on Innovating for Growth, a European Regional Development Fund programme designed to help SMEs looking to grow.
The boutique content agency, founded and led by Lysanne Currie, will now be able to take advantage of the Fund’s advisers and consultants, who will help them build the business, whether adjusting to ‘the new normal’ or finding new opportunities, in the face of a changing future.
Since being founded in 2012 the Fund and its bespoke programme has supported 540 businesses with turnovers from £100,000 to £30m, with the average being £500,000. Every three months it chooses 18 high-growth London-based businesses (with a turnover of £100,000 or more), and gives them specialist support and tailored one-to-one advice worth £10,000. Comprised of a series of eight modules, the programme includes advice on growth strategy, branding, marketing, and financial planning.
The programme will be of great benefit for Meet the Leader, whose services include copywriting, ghostwriting, website creation, design, video, brand consultancy, social media strategy and editorial consultancy. It now wants to grow its client base, the volume of work per client, and expand its international reach. “My last role helped me realise that there was a market need to help CEOs tell their inspirational and courageous stories,” said Currie, whose previous roles have included Editorial Director roles at the IoD, Sky and Hachette UK. “There are, of course many agencies providing content, but the content was often written by generalists. I saw a need for content created by specialists. I was also very aware that there were many specialist journalists and content creators not getting the work they deserved due to restrictive work practices and so we created a business model which meant our creatives could have full flexibility in which to do their work.”
The agency will also receive automatic membership to the Fund’s Growth Club, where it will have the opportunity to network with over 540 other high-growth, scale-up business owners. There will also be quarterly peer-to-peer networking events, press and PR opportunities, group mentoring, and opportunities to speak at a series of ‘Start-up Star’ events.
Says Currie, “The last 12 months have seen an accelerated pivot to digital across all sectors and this, combined with an increasing need for companies and their leadership teams to demonstrate their ethics and values, has seen a growing need for CEOs and C Suite to grow their digital profiles. A positive online profile is increasingly important for businesses in order to attract not only new customers but also the best talent and potential investors.”
Applications for Innovating for Growth: Scale-ups will reopen in February 2021