Launched in 2022, the British Library’s Get Ready for Business Growth is a direct continuation of the Innovating for Growth (I4G) programme – the British Library’s flagship scale-up offering, with a much larger national reach. 

The three-month programme provides tailored support for scaling businesses in the arts and culture sector across England and Scotland. Designed and delivered by the British Library’s Business & Intellectual Property Centre (BIPC) in collaboration with private sector partners, the programme is funded by Arts Council England and harnesses the extensive capabilities of the BIPC National Network. This network includes 22 Business & IP Centres across the UK and an additional 86 satellite services delivered through town libraries, ensuring that businesses from across the country can access high-quality scaleup support.

The programme retains I4G’s proven course structure while integrating key learnings to enhance its effectiveness. These include the introduction of dedicated Relationship Managers to provide tailored guidance and an increased focus on leveraging the British Library’s world-class collections for customised business research. The programme consists of three distinct streams: Get Ready for Business Growth: Scale-ups, Get Ready for Business Growth: Mentoring, and Get Ready for Business Growth: Start-ups. Delivered entirely virtually, it ensures accessibility for scaling creative businesses regardless of location.

Each cohort, comprising approximately 25 creative business leaders, benefits from a structured yet flexible programme that includes eight workshops and eight one-to-one bespoke sessions, amounting to 32 hours of tailored support. Participants receive expert guidance in strategic development, fundraising, product testing and launch, intellectual property protection, and competitor research. Every business is paired with a dedicated Relationship Manager who oversees their engagement, provides mentorship, and connects them to relevant resources and support networks. Additionally, each participant receives a personalised research report, drawing on the Library’s extensive collections and training in the use of BIPC’s market research tools, equipping them with vital insights to drive their business forward.

Beyond the structured programme, graduates gain access to the Growth Club, an established peer network of over 700 business leaders first developed as part of I4G. Ongoing engagement with Relationship Managers enables continued tracking of business progress, ensuring participants can measure their outcomes and access long-term support. This sustained involvement helps creative entrepreneurs refine their strategies, expand their networks, and build resilience as they scale.

So far, the ‘Get Ready for Business Growth: Scale-ups’ stream has helped 203 creative scaling businesses, creating 192 more jobs across including part-time employees. Businesses have developed and implemented 245 new products, processes, or services as a direct result of the programme. In addition, 93 graduate mentees and 60 graduate mentors have been trained, with mentorship accreditation provided by the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM). Additionally, 14 scaleups have started exporting within the last 12 months, demonstrating the programme’s role in opening new market opportunities. Participants also benefited from extensive market research support, with one-to-one sessions and tailored reports signposting them to key databases providing intelligence on business rental opportunities. The programme has also contributed to enhancing diversity within the creative business community, with 59.6% of participants identifying as female and 13.3% from an ethnic minority background. Phase I of the programme closed in September 2024, while Phase II is scheduled to launch in April 2025 and will run for a year till March 2026. This Phase will see a return to the programme’s roots, being sector agnostic and remaining national in scope.

“…The business ermerged organically and none of the directors have any expertise in the nuts and bolts of growing. The course enabled us to invest in correcting that and from the three months of support we have made changes to how we work, our strategy for the future, and how we invest in other people to help us along the journey. I loved that there was such a varied cohort on the programme as it reflects the kind of ecosystem that creative practice works in. It has helped me to better understand the kinds of collaborators we work with.” – Alex, Flow Associates

“This has been the best thing I have ever done for our business. […]  It may sound dramatic but every element of our business has been whipped into shape and what’s even better is it has translated into more revenue and profit. […] I cannot rave about this program more – it is a bootcamp for business, the best MOT and roadmap I could have asked for from people who are at the top of their game and incredibly good at what they do. It has just been phenomenal and I’ve personally gone from feeling overwhelmed and panicked to in control and ready to ramp things up.” – Amelia, Cool Crutches

British Library: Get Ready for Business Growth website