Our services
We’re here to pick up the business development aspects of your enterprise which you either don’t enjoy or can’t find the time to do.
This means you can focus on what you love doing knowing your business is in the safe hands of a supportive partner.
Business Growth Collaborations
We work with social enterprises and ethical businesses over the long-term as a business growth partner. Because our team has so many talents, we can flex support to meet your needs. Typically, we support clients with business strategy, project management, income generation, direct sales, bid writing, brand and marketing.
We can often find seed funding to start working with us and will then build a plan to secure the revenue to keep collaborating over the long-term.
“The support we have received over the past few months has been invaluable. It has given us the time to stop, reflect and progress our business ideas and plans for the future. The fact that Kris has an in depth understanding of the community sector and the work we do enables us to work together to achieve our aims whilst sticking firmly to the ethos of our organisation’ Vicky, Artful
Take a look at our recent case study setting out how we supported Rotherham based social enterprise Artful - Make it Happen to grow their business.
Business Coaching and Mentoring
Running a small business can feel lonely and overwhelming at times. It can be hard to find the time to step out of the doing to focus on strategy and growth.
Business Coaching and Mentoring helps you assess the performance of your business and set short, medium and long-term goals for success. This is time for you to develop as a leader. It’s also a safe space to explore new ideas and get things off your chest.
"Coaching helped me to clarify the areas of my business which needed to be worked on and to put my thoughts in order. This enabled me to make positive decisions about both long term goals and practical short term steps. I felt that my business moved forward more quickly and with a surer direction than we would have done alone." Olivia, Jack’s Theatre School.
Kris is also a Specialist Advisor and Peer Mentor for the Social Enterprise Growth Accelerator (SEGA), led by the Sheffield Social Enterprise Network.
Get in touch to find out more about our support packages.
Co-design and Customer Insight
We’re passionate about co-designing and co-evaluating products and services with the people they are for. We also know that by investing in customer and stakeholder insight you’ll unlock more ideas, develop great partnerships and identify new opportunities. This makes people feel valued, services more effective and projects more ambitious whilst also increasing your chances of securing grant funding or raising investment.
Here's some examples of our recent work:
The Artivist - we led a stakeholder engagement consultation with partners and young people in Rotherham to explore how organisations could use creativity to tackle climate change and support nature recovery.
Here’s a link to our supporting statement for a successfully awarded Arts Council bid to create a giant climate activity puppet for the town.
The Together Fund Action Learning Series - Yorkshire Sport Foundation commissioned us to deliver a series of action learning sessions with community groups who had benefitted from the Together Fund Programme. This fund supported projects enabling people from diverse and underserved communities to get active.
Click here to take a look at the report.
Customer Insight report for the Sheffield Social Enterprise Network
In 2023, Sheffield Social Enterprise Network set themselves a challenge to improve their membership and network offer to both benefit the sector and make their organisation more sustainable. They commissioned us to undertake a series of customer insight conversations to better understand the pain points and desired outcomes for the sector.
Product Design and Business Modelling
Got a new business idea you want to bring to life but just can’t find the time?
There’s nothing our managing director Kris likes better than problem solving and designing effective products, services and businesses to solve social issues.
Our amazing team have all the skills needed to carry out customer insight, undertake market research and analysis, create detailed financial models, recommend brand and market positioning, write business cases and support you to identify and secure funding.
“Kris and the team at Growing Circles were fantastic. She took what was in our heads and turned it into a clearly structured business plan. It was really valuable having an independent perspective on our fledgling venture. The final business plan was really accessible but also comprehensive and has enabled us to go for social investment to unlock the funding we need to give our new venture the best chance of success.” John, Skills Street CIC.
Social Value and Placemaking
At Growing Circles, we understand that successful places work for people and planet. We believe that creating a fairer, more sustainable and vibrant economy is possible and we’re committed to playing a role in realising this vision.
We are one of the core delivery partners of 360 Degree Society: a shared mission between Well North Enterprises and Prospect Business Consulting. Growing Circles leads on their placemaking offer in Yorkshire and beyond as well as taking a national lead on corporate social value partnerships and business development.
Take a look at our 360 Degree Placemaking brochure to find out more or read our case study to explore how we’ve been working in Rotherham to raise aspirations and connect young people to businesses and future career opportunities.
