Hear from some of the businesses who have benefitted from the Meet the Expert Business Support Programme.

Barton Wykes

“The project has had an extremely positive effect as we have been able to access high-quality professional support. I feel the opportunity to have the Meet the Expert grant has made a vital contribution in helping us grow the business. The grant made sure we chose the right company to do the work rather than just on a cost-alone basis”.

Max Strelling, Owner, Barton Wykes

Plymouth Design Forum

“Support from the Meet the Expert ERDF funded programme has been crucial in getting our project off the ground. The team were very helpful in processing our grant application and we are very confident that the new website that was created from the grant will have an enormous impact. In fact at an event we held in March, we attracted a number of new people, many of whom had said that the new website had been one of the key reasons that they attended”.

Darren Foley, Director, Plymouth Design Forum 

Amanda West

“I have enjoyed working with the Meet The Expert Team and having a grant has enabled me to have a more professional client-faced approach on my website”

Amanda West, Owner 

Fishtek Marine

“The team at Meet the Expert have been very helpful in providing us with marketing/consultancy support, an area which we do not have the capacity to do this in-house. This support has been invaluable to us as a business”.

Lydia Tivenan, Bycatch Mitigation Assistant, Fishtek Marine 

Oatway Design

“This grant has allowed and given me the confidence and knowledge to allow our company to grow, develop and plan an achievable roadmap to meet our aspirations for future development in the South West”.

Stephan Oatway, Managing Director, Oatway Design

Millfields Trust

“The Millfields Trust offers high-quality rental of office and workshop space in central Plymouth, we are social enterprise Landlords offering over 21 years of experience and knowledge to start-ups, SMEs and the third sector.  Our flexible leases and on-site support are a great attraction to our premises as well as the informal support and networking amongst our 70-plus tenants.

We sought help from Emily and her team after attending a digital marketing workshop led by Al Joynes, Dogs Creative, part of the “Meet the Expert” programme.  The workshop enabled us to seek further opportunities in the digital marketing world to support our resident tenants to promote their services and products and enhance inter-trading and PR amongst them all, which also supports our tenants. The idea social value policy is to promote shop local and will enable tenants to offer discounts to each other.

The application process was so simple and seamless, Emily and her team communicated the whole way and provided friendly assistance when needed.  This grant has not only assisted with our customer service to tenants but has also increased our profile and awareness in the digital world, tapping into the knowledge from experts, thank you!”

Mandy Toze, Business Development Manager, Millfields Trust

Pebbles

“Pebbles is South Devon’s leading property management services company for private second homes, holiday homes and estates. We are a family-run company and over the last 16 years we have grown to include a dedicated combined team of nearly 100 full-time and part-time staff as well as a trusted network of local partner specialists.

Operating from our offices in Salcombe, we offer a range of services including property management, housekeeping, gardening, laundry and maintenance services. We also have two subsidiary companies – Refurb by Pebbles, which offers a complete project management service for property refurbishments of all sizes, as well as HolidayHost – a support service that helps property owners to manage self-let holiday homes effectively.

Pebbles is always looking for ways it can continue to develop its service in order to meet the ever-changing needs of the market. This year, we have welcomed the support of the ‘Meet the Expert’ programme, which enabled us to secure a £1,000 grant to assist with our strategic growth targets both in terms of providing that investment money and also by giving us free access to informative and interactive consultant-led advice workshops. Having found enormous value in the experience, knowledge and perspective provided to us, I would highly recommend that other local businesses in Devon sign up for the programme if they are looking to develop and grow their organisations. No matter how long you have been in your industry, there are always new things to learn and benefits to be gained from different perspectives.”

James Spencer, Managing Director, Pebbles of Salcombe

Health Mind Body

“The process mapping workshop delivered by Craig Willis of Skore was informative and just at the right pace.  It was definitely food for thought, specifically where I could make cost and time savings through using and creating new processes, as a result I have implemented two processes, one in time recording for an employee and the other are customer service templates. He is a skilled presenter and seems like a nice chap.”

Mina Marmolejo, Founder & Creative Director, Health Mind Body Ltd