The Government, via the Regional Business Partner Network (RBPN), put out an announcement on Monday evening 23rd March that they would be fully funding RBPN approved Business Advisors with an approved Covid-19 service up to a maximum of $5,000 plus GST to provide support in the following areas:
- HR
- Health and Wellness
- Business Continuity Planning
- Finance and Cashflow Management
Unfortunately, the Government has underestimated the uptake on this support and the Regional Partners have had to cap the funding at $2,000 to ensure that there is enough money to go around.
The Regional Partners have also advised that businesses must meet their eligibility criteria which includes being registered with the RBPN. If you are not yet registered, you can become so by clicking on the following link:
https://www.regionalbusinesspartners.co.nz/#register
Having helped a number of companies to access the Covid-19 funding via my own registered service it has come to my attention that the “Health and Wellness” support – which includes helping clients with technical issues – is probably going to take a lot more time and energy than the Government had anticipated when the fund was originally set up. This will result in there generally being not enough funding to meet most businesses’ requirements.
To compensate for the potential shortfall in funding, the RBPN have offered to incorporate Business Advisor “business as usual” services into the funding programme. This comes in the shape of the Management Capability Voucher Fund based on “business as usual” co-funded rates; that is, RBPN will provide 50% co-funding for the first three months of the “business as usual” service to a maximum dollar value as agreed by the Regional Business Partnership Growth Advisor.
I do, however, realise that in these exceptional times, even financial outlay defrayed by 50% RBPN funding can be a daunting prospect, and so I am making a special offer:
On completion of the $2,000 Covid-19 funding, you may move to my “Business Improvement Programme” which will come with a delayed payment plan for at least the first three months.
