The scheme lets companies get help in various business disciplines by underwriting half the fees of approved consultants, up to £4,500.

To be frank, I've never actually put a project through the scheme, only because I've not taken the time to market the opportunity properly and in fact, I actually almost forgot about it altogether.

That was until last week when the people behind the BSS invited all the approved consultants to a breakfast briefing at the International Business School to update us on the scheme's progress and several new aspects of eligibility.

For Isle of Man businesses, their involvement with the programme starts with a consultation with a DTI BSS business development consultant designed to discuss the needs of the business, by taking a look at where it is now, and where it should be going.

Then the relationship continues with up to three hours of mentoring which provides flexible support and guidance to assist the company's progression.

Three recent success stories include projects in ISO 9000 accreditation, energy efficiency and, most importantly for readers of this page, e-business categories.

Any company, regardless of industry sector, can qualify for a government grant to pursue an ebusiness strategy. The BSS has quite a broad definition for e-business.

Yes, it's about how to take advantage of e-commerce, but it's not limited to creating the opportunity to transact sales online.

It includes how a company can utilise Internet technologies to improve customer service, streamline business processes, increase sales and reduce costs.

So if you are thinking about creating an online channel that is not just a product catalogue, your company will likely still qualify.

The grants also cover budgets for SEO (search engine optimisation) campaigns and search engine marketing.

So even if you already have a website you are happy with, the BSS could lend some support to making sure that potential customers can actually find it, which could open up global markets for your company.

When the BSS talks about online transactions, they don't just mean having sales transacted online.

It covers a wide range of online activity.

So yes, BSS does support the creating of online shopping features, but also the creation of customer support sites.

The example they give is an architect sharing blueprints with clients online.

This could also work for many service oriented businesses such as accountancy, the law, tax advisers and marketing consultancies.

There are some interesting statistics for the business support scheme.

In the last year there have been 60 applications for support in all.
Of those, 35% were for e-business projects.

A further 43% supported IT/IS implementations (that covers hardware, software and consulting services).

Now, the BSS would like to broaden that scope to cover environmental efficiency, quality, finance, business and strategic planning projects.

The scheme boasts some pretty impressive results.

They recently conducted a survey of the people behind 291 projects, and found that 44% had increased profits as a direct result of the BSS supported project.

That's a pretty impressive benchmark.

In addition, 22% of these firms had grown in terms of staff size, 33% had increased overseas sales and 58% improved working practices.

So it seems that the BSS provides a solid framework for success.

In the next year, the scheme has a budget of £400,000 set aside with the goal of helping 100 projects.

Last year, almost a third of the annual budget was left unspent!

Mike Corkhill, the development executive for the DTI's Economic Development Group, said there are just not enough applicants to the scheme.

He feels that many that would qualify are either unaware of the scheme, they think they are too large to qualify or they think it's too much hassle to get involved.

But the scheme is not just limited to small companies and the process has been streamlined to eliminate much of the administrative overheads often involved in government grant programmes.

Hopefully this column will help towards the awareness issue.

Find out more at gov.im/dti/grants/bss


>>Sherrilynne Starkie is the managing partner of Strive Public Relations, a strategic communications consultancy serving the Isle of Man. Visit her business blog, Strive Notes for frequent updates www.strivepr.com/wordpress or follow her on twitter.com/sherrilynne