Connect WM reckons that there is now a strong case for local businesses to come together and build a sponsorship funding community in order to help local business to have a viable chance of gaining access to some finance.
Having some experience through its Finance WM and Grants WM platforms, Connect WM tries to help local West Midlands-based businesses connect to available finance and grants.
However due to having grown frustrated at having no real alternative to hand in order to help the 60-70% of businesses who are unable to access any finance because they fail to meet the criteria laid down. Connect WM has been looking at viable ways where local businesses would benefit in more ways than one, through enhanced business contacts as well as seeking funding.
Connect WM which is itself a private enterprise is always looking at ways to increase the options available to local businesses, as it too faces the exact same problems which many businesses face.
As seemingly the current trend for businesses is to network many through paid events, Connect WM looked at this as a route to enable businesses to meet high volumes of business delegates which in turn could generate an alternative route to funding.
Funding by Networking was born.
Funding by Networking is a new business networking format which aims to obtain a high volume of business attendees through which sponsorship funding would be awarded to one of those attending businesses. This means that if there are 200 businesses in the meeting, there is a realistic 1 in 200 chance of being awarded sponsorship funding.
However it gets better, in an attempt to target those businesses that need to access funding, as well as make those attending business delegates more meaningful to each other, there are certain terms and conditions.
Whilst any business person can attend upon payment of a meeting fee, it is only the business owner who would be eligible for consideration of sponsorship funding; also finance companies and corporate-styled businesses are excluded – so the 1 in 200 chance may now become a 1 in a 150 or a 1 – 125 chance of being awarded the sponsorship funding.
Trevor Tierney from Connect WM said, “We have listened to businesses and have taken the time to come up with what we think is a viable, not-so-intrusive alternative to not only accessing funding but also more beneficial business networking.”
“By combining business networking which is something that businesses already undertake and actively set aside a budget for, we believe that this is something which can be worked on and moulded into a new form of alternative funding, you’ve heard of Crowdfunding and Peer to Peer Lending, well now we could be moving towards Delegate Funding.”
Funding by Networking and its undoubting benefits is something which can be driven by businesses themselves in trying to increase the amount of funding sponsorship per meeting. For instance, 300 business delegates in a meeting would result in a bigger sponsorship funding amount than say 150 business delegates would.
Connect WM are holding an event on the 8th of November 2013 in Birmingham and are trying to get a minimum of 150 paying Business Delegates.
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