Consultancy voucher available to help businesses survive

A voucher worth up to €2,500 in third party consultancy costs can be used by companies and sole traders in County Sligo to develop shortterm and long-term strategies to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The new Business Continuity Voucher is available through Local Enterprise Office Sligo and is open to sole traders and companies across every business sector locally that employ up to 50 people.

The goal is to help business owners make informed decisions about what immediate measures and actions should be taken to protect staff and sales.

To apply, companies or sole traders fill out a short application form and submit it directly to Local Enterprise Office Sligo by e-mail. When a company is issued with a voucher for third party consultancy, they begin working directly with a qualified expert, selected from existing Local Enterprise Office and Enterprise Ireland panels.

John Reilly with Local Enterprise Office Sligo in Sligo County County said: “For a huge number of small businesses, survival is the over-riding objective at this time so making the right decisions is crucial. There is where the new Business Continuity Voucher can help.”

He added: “The kind of areas that the voucher will help will vary, depending on the needs of each local business, but it will include very important measures such as preparing a business case for application to emergency funding, developing a business continuity plan, reducing variable costs or implementing remote working procedures.” To apply for the Business Continuity Voucher, companies can submit a short application form to Local Enterprise Office Sligo by e-mail to localenterprise.ie/sligo. Application forms are available to download from www. LocalEnterprise.ie/Response

Details of other business supports available from the Department of Enterprise, Business and Innovation can be found at https://dbei. gov.ie/en/