The final round of the fully-funded support programme gets under way next month
Budding businesses are urged to sign up for the final round of a programme designed to turn creative ideas into commercial successes. More than 70 businesses have already taken part in the Creative Growth Hull & East Yorkshire project. And it is now targeting a wider range of participant, by broadening the criteria for its final round.
The seventh and final cohort will be launched on Tuesday, January 13 at the University of Hull Business School. The initiative gives business owners and their leadership teams the chance to learn from experts and from each other, about how to use ideas to generate increased investment and business expansion.
HEY Business, Growth and Skills Hub is delivering the fully funded support programme in partnership with Hull City Council, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, and the University of Hull. The organisation has introduced more flexible criteria for the last round in response to feedback from people who have completed the sessions.
As before, the Creative Growth Programme is only open to candidates operating profitably in a recognised creative industry sector, with a trading address in Hull or East Yorkshire. However the previous requirement of having traded for two years has now been reduced to one year. The condition of supporting at least two full-time equivalent jobs has also now been lowered to one, together with a commitment to create a further post within 12 months.
Andrew Richardson, the Creative Growth programme manager at the HEY Business, Growth and Skills Hub, said: “The programme helps creative businesses reconsider their growth plans, with a view to helping firms become investment ready and geared up for growth.
“It’s specifically tailored for local business founders who are looking to grow their creative businesses, and it recognises that businesses often have to manage conflicting business commitments and daily operational pressures, whilst at the same time engaging with the process of business growth.
“By using the advice, resources and learnings provided via the programme, and by sharing business experiences with other business leaders via peer learning, local creative business founders are supported to re-examine how they can develop their capacity and confidence to grow.”
The programme will close on Tuesday, March 31 2026, and is open to freelancers and businesses working in advertising, marketing and PR, architecture, crafts, design and fashion, film, TV, video and photography, radio, IT, software, apps and video games, museums, galleries and libraries, music, visual and performing arts, and publishing and translation services.
People who took part in the recent cohort included business owners operating in photography, web design, textiles, museums, music and software development.
Chloe Lammiman, owner of Luminous Photography & Events Ltd, said: “It helped that everybody in the room knows people and when I hear their feedback it’s almost like hearing the client’s perspective.”
Steve Plater, owner of the Dinostar Museum in Hull, added: “It’s interesting to take a step back because you tend to stagnate after a while, You tend to do what you have always done so it’s good to look at things from a different angle.”
Businesses that enrol in the final cohort will get the chance to exhibit at a regional creative showcase event in March. They will also be able to apply for an exclusive and fully funded exhibitor package at the Creative UK Big Creative UK Summit in London in February 2026.
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