A new start for our Business Support Service

Our City’s business community had shown brilliant resilience over the past ten years. In that time, according to the Office for National Statistics, we have seen a 24% growth in the number of businesses registered in Portsmouth from a base of 6,305 in 2013 to a position of 7,810 at the end of 2022. This is a remarkable achievement and a testament to the leadership of all those business owners. We in part are delighted that one of our longest running programmes in this area has played a part in this success.

But we must ensure that we continue to look at what the start ups need, and how they then progress towards a sustainable business for the future. As with all of our philosophy, we cannot do it alone and we must leverage the partners we have in this area, and we will be doing so.

With the cooperation of Portsmouth City Council, we are looking at how we can transform the offerings and make the Portsmouth Business Support Service, the new branding for our business programmes, the best in class in the UK. We will be finalising these plans in the next few weeks and will update you all on this exciting project.

Shaping’s CEO, Stef Nienaltowski said “The continuous growth of our business sector is truly incredible despite some of the harshest economic and social conditions they have had to face. The success of our, and our partners, offerings have helped this and I am determined to build on the years of programme support we, and our wonderful volunteers, have given and transform the current programme into a best-in-class service. Do look out for this major announcement in September”