Employment charity Work Avenue is recruiting for its second Business Accelerator cohort in a climate it describes as the “most challenging for new businesses in a long time”.

A free, intensive six-week boot camp — popularised by the likes of Google, Airbnb and Dropbox — it is geared to help entrepreneurs navigate the early stages of growing a business, a period which is often fraught with difficulty.

Training modules are led by experts, including Work Avenue’s business team. Guest speakers will come from the worlds of accountancy, innovation, strategy, marketing, digital media and brand-building.

The programme also incorporates a Dragons’ Den-style competition, with participants pitching their plans to a panel of experts. The winner will receive a £10,000 grant for business support and investment.

The inaugural Business Accelerator helped the development of new firms in the events, education and property sectors.

Based on feedback, Work Avenue is increasing the time the group work together for peer-to-peer support and embedding the output from expert-led sessions.

“Those early stages of setting up a business — where someone is aiming to turn their idea, hobby or side hustle into a primary income — can be challenging, time consuming and isolating,” Work Avenue CEO Debbie Lebrett told the JC.

“The Business Accelerator aims to kick-start the process through intensive weekly sessions and building a close-knit group of like-minded business owners. This will cut down set-up time, provide support and make the whole thing that little less lonely.”

Lebrett added that the charity was finding that business clients who needed to import goods, travel frequently or have high fuel usage were particularly hard-hit at the moment.

But there were always opportunities, whether through “changing trends opening up new markets or technology and social media making it easier for business owners to complete tasks and reach new audiences.

“We hope inflation and energy costs will start to decrease in the second half of this year, which will make things easier for businesses and mean better times ahead.”

Applications for the Business Accelerator open on April 17, with the course beginning on June 1.

theworkavenue.org.uk/accelerator