Lewes District Business Support

Small Business Support

There’s no denying that the past few months have been difficult for businesses of all sizes. Conscious of the economic impact that the Coronavirus pandemic has had, Visit Lewes have compiled some resources which may be helpful. Please do contact us to discuss your online Visit Lewes listing, too - we have 4,000 unique visitors monthly.

SELLING ONLINE

According to data released by The Office of National Statistics in April of this year, online sales reached a record high of 22.3% in the UK in March, demonstrating a huge shift to e-commerce by consumers - a direct result of the Coronavirus pandemic. 

Shopify 

Shopify is a subscription service that helps businesses to create an online web shop to sell, ship, and manage their products. Shopify is offering a 14 day free trial which at the time of writing is extendable to 90 days.

Other web shop options include:

Wix

Big Cartel

Weebly

Work with an established online sales platform

There are several national and worldwide e-commerce sites who aggregate small online and bricks-and-mortar businesses’ wares, taking commission of sales or charging a monthly fee in return for increasing sales and exposing your brand and producers to a wider audience. 

Trouva 

Trouva is a website selling unique, hard-to-find products from independent boutiques and brands around the world. Click here to find out more.

Amazon Handmade

Join Amazon’s new handmade community on Amazon to sell your goods online. Click here for more details.

Etsy

Etsy is an uncurated e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items and craft supplies. It’s free to set up an Etsy shopfront but they make a small charge for each product you list. Listings last for 4 months before expiring. 

Not On The High Street

Not On The High Street is a hub for creative producers to sell their products, with the site marketing and hosting the checkout for over 5,000 individual sellers. With 39 million unique visitors annually, it’s an opportunity to showcase your brand or product. Not On The High Street carefully curate the selection with a rigorous application form.  Click here to find out how to become a seller. 

SOCIAL MEDIA / TRAINING

A loyal social media following is key, especially in the current climate. From increasing sales to growing awareness of your business, a strong online presence is an invaluable tool. If you want to brush up on your digital skills, then check out this list of social media courses from Buffer or sign up to Future Learn’s range of courses.

Future Learn

The DfE have selected Future Learn for their The Skills Toolkit to help people to improve their digital skills. It is free to join and study most FutureLearn courses. You can join for free wherever you see the ‘join free’ button. Learners have the option to pay to upgrade a free course for some additional benefits. If you choose to take a course for free, you’ll have access for the duration of the course plus 14 days, even if you join after the course opens.

LEAP

LEAP (Local Enterprise and Apprenticeship Platform) is a Lewes District Council funded scheme for entrepreneurs and is offering free business training. 

COMMUNITY

We’re stronger when we work together. Lewes boasts several business community groups who have a wealth of resources - from hyper local market knowledge to creative business ideas and skill swaps.

Lewes High Street Traders

As a group of traders, spearheaded by Tom Reeves from Reeves Photography, the group's aim is to promote the independent shops which make our town so unique. Members range from restaurants to hairdressers to boutiques and cafes, all working together to promote what’s on offer.

Chamber of Commerce

The work of Lewes Chamber of Commerce is undertaken by its members, on a voluntary basis, The members include businesses of all types and sizes from independent shops, garden designers and architects to solicitors and accountants.

The Chamber has four key priorities:

Promoting local trade and commerce

• Protecting the interests of the local business community

• Support and advice to local business

• Engagement with the wider local community

To find out more, visit their website.

Better Business For All: The Sussex version of the Better Business For All toolkit is also now available.

This has been drafted between East Sussex County Council and Sussex Chamber of Commerce with input from Public Health and Trading Standards. 

The Lewes Pound

The Lewes Pound is a creative and practical way for local people to celebrate Lewes and to make money work for the local community. Based on a simple principle: most money spent locally stays local. Most money spent in chain stores leaves the town, leaving the local community poorer. The Lewes Pound celebrates Lewes, the diversity and richness of independent traders, producers, suppliers, retailers, trades people and other workers that many other towns around the country have lost. Most independent local traders accept Lewes Pounds. If your business doesn't already accept the Lewes Pound, contact them to discuss.

Lewes Women in Business

Lewes Women in Business is a friendly, not-for-profit group offering workshops, support, business promotion and networking opportunities. They bring together independent business women at monthly meetings in order to share resources, ideas, mentoring, networking and collaboration. 

Lewes Food Co-operative 

Lewes Food Co-operative was brought together swiftly after lockdown to help local independent food outlets survive the Coronavirus pandemic while also offering contact free home deliveries once weekly. Contact them to be added to their regular newsletter.

GOVERNMENT / COUNCIL HELP

Business East Sussex

Business East Sussex is run by East Sussex County Council with funding from the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy and the County Council. It provides local businesses with free and impartial government-funded business support across the county of East Sussex. There is a wealth of support and finance options available to help your business, and the team at Business East Sussex can help you identify relevant programmes or funding schemes. During the current Covid-19 period, the team at Business East Sussex can help businesses navigate through the range of emergency measures announced by Government, and help you find what you may be eligible for. The team can also help with supporting businesses to remain resilient, and by providing support on many areas including cashflow planning, advice on how to find finance, support with diversifying your business, and accessing support to grow. 

Call Business East Sussex on 01273 335878 to speak to an adviser, or email at info@businesseastsussex.org.uk to book an appointment. For information on local national business support, on upcoming events and webinars, and on the Business East Sussex service, visit the Business East Sussex website https://southeastbusiness.org.uk/east-sussex/

Lewes and Eastbourne help for businesses

The Government has made available a full range of business support measures during this time. For all the latest up-to-date government guidance on coronavirus support for businesses, please visit the Business Support page. 

These measures include:

            •           A Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

            •           Deferring VAT and Income Tax payments

            •           A Statutory Sick Pay relief package for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs)

            •           A 12-month business rates holiday for all retail, hospitality, leisure and nursery businesses in England

            •           Small business grant funding of £10,000 for all business in receipt of small business rate relief or rural rate relief

            •           Grant funding of £25,000 for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with property with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000

            •           The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme offering loans of up to £5 million for SMEs through the British Business Bank

            •           A new lending facility from the Bank of England to help support liquidity among larger firms, helping them bridge coronavirus disruption to their cash flows through loans

            •           The HMRC Time To Pay Scheme

FUNDING

The information below was prepared by Wealden District Council.

Art Fund

Art Fund has announced new funding to support Covid-19 recovery.

The Art Fund is providing Respond and Reimagine grants to help museums, galleries and cultural organisations respond to immediate challenges connected to the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, and offer support to adapt and reimagine ways of working for the longer-term future.  These grants can provide practical support to fund what applicants need now. If an organisation is experiencing an immediate crisis with no alternative sources of funding, The Art Fund can consider offering emergency support to help organisations manage during this difficult period.  Applicants are encouraged to let The Art Fund know what support will be most helpful, such as costs connected to re-opening:

            • Staffing

            • Equipment

            • Training

            • Planning for future activities.

All public museums, galleries, historic houses, libraries and archives in the UK are eligible to apply. Organisations that are a visual arts agency or festival are eligible to apply providing they can meet the above criteria and have a strong visual arts focus.  Grants from £10,000 to £50,000 are available. The Art Fund will consider offering 100% funding. The next deadline for applications is 6 July 2020. You can also apply for costs to help your organisation re-open and recover - Artfund have expanded their £50million Heritage Emergency Fund criteria to help heritage organisations safely reopen in line with Government guidelines. Artfund are now accepting applications for costs associated with safely re-opening in line with Government guidelines.

This could include:

            • additional staff to help manage queues or additional cleaning

            • Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for staff and volunteers

            • implementing contactless payment methods

            • erecting temporary structures to help manage visitors such as shelter for queues or additional toilets

Please be aware that Government guidelines on how and when to reopen may vary across the UK.

Costs essential to preparing for recovery

This could include:

            • strategic reviews of business models, operating plans and business plans

            • investment to enable digital delivery of services

The deadline to apply has also been extended to 12noon on Friday 31 July.

EU Funding Available for Cinemas as Innovation Hubs for Local Communities

The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply affected the cinemas and has changed the cinema going experience in a dramatic way. This preparatory action will continue the support to cinema in creating innovative cultural hubs around cinema theatres, notably in areas where there is limited cinema and cultural infrastructure and where the crisis has had a very strong impact.

The action will test new cinema-going experiences, while taking into account local audiences’ needs, and will focus on:

            • Rethinking the cinema experience in the aftermath of the pandemic crisis with a view of creating innovative cultural venues in particular with cooperation between cinemas and VOD (view on demand) platforms.

            • Audience development and building communities through interactive experiences (offering a wide range of cultural and educational activities).

The following types of activities are eligible:

            • Cross-border cooperation projects among cinema operators, as well as between cinemas, VOD platforms or other cultural organisations.

            • Curated and diverse cinema programming of at least 60% of European content (mainly from EU countries) from different genres and formats, embodying European cultural diversity; the programming should present a strong cultural value and might include among others: feature films, TV series, animation, documentaries, heritage films, short formats or innovative content like VR).

            • Education activities (including debates or creative workshops also in online environment) on topics such as cinema, new audiovisual technologies (VR, cross media etc.) and other cultural activities or performing arts.

            • Innovative actions that take into account the effects of the pandemic crisis and revitalising the cinema experience both in real and virtual dimension (ie collaboration with VOD platforms).

            • Promotion and communication activities related to the action.

            • Actions aiming at the creation and improvement of networks, exchanges of good practices.

            • Financial support to third parties.

Proposals must be submitted by a consortium composed of legal entities of which at least one is a cinema operator. The minimum number of partners is three, coming from at least three different EU Member States. Partners can be cinema exhibitors or cultural organisations established in EU Member States and the UK.

The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects under this call for proposals is estimated at €1.5 million. The Commission expects to finance up to four/five projects with a maximum of €500,000 grant per project. The EU co-financing is limited to a maximum co-funding rate of 70% of the total eligible costs.

The proposed start date is between November 2020 and March 2021. The proposed maximum duration of the project is 18 months.

Proposals can be submitted until 7 August 2020 (23:59 CEST).