Case Studies from July 2026

Sector: Medical Devices

Location: Bassetlaw

(Please note: the content below contains references to miscarriage.)

Dignity Care was launched on 30 May 2025 and is based in Retford, Bassetlaw. The business design and supply medical devices to manage miscarriages both at home and in hospitals.

The team of three is led by Managing Director, Laura Corcoran who started Dignity Care following her own tragic miscarriage and the care or lack of, at this time.

Laura covers her personal story on the business’ website. She says: “No one should have to go through what I went through. Miscarriage care should be compassionate, dignified and supportive, no matter where or when it happens.

This experience showed me just how broken the system is, and I am determined to make sure other women are treated with the respect they deserve during such a painful time.”

The business has grown quickly since inception, and its products are already used in 30 NHS hospitals and across Europe, including Ireland and Germany.

Challenges faced

Like other healthcare systems across the world, Dignity Care has found that the NHS has been extremely slow moving and each hospital has its own systems and funding, which has hindered growth.

Though there is a desire to expand, the investment required in staff to scale is substantial, so growth has been approached cautiously and sustainably.

Solution – Support Given

Dignity Care has been working with Innovation and Growth Specialist, Paul Bennett who has provided 1-to-1 advice on strategy and growth. He also connected the business with a Research Technology Organisation (RTO) collaboration to build data and demonstrate the impact of the product to the NHS. This work was funded through a £15,000 Innovate UK RTO grant.

Paul also supported product development, creation of a road map for the future around understanding the value proposition, engagement with the NHS and international growth.

Dignity Care has also been helped by East Midlands Chamber’s Head of Business Support Services, Paul Stuart. Paul supported the business with a business diagnostic and guidance on the EMCCA Export Accelerator grant application.

Dignity Care was successfully awarded £8,000 towards the cost of attending two midwifery conferences in Canada and the USA to help them launch their products abroad.

Laura commented: “What we do is deeply personal – we supply medical devices for miscarriage. Having the in-person conversations help develop relationships that materialise into sales.”

Impact - The Difference it’s Made

The support has had a major impact on the business. As a result of attending the conferences, Dignity Care has connected with new clients and secured sales in the USA. There's also research areas materialising in partnership with US hospitals to evaluate the quality of genetic samples to identify causes of miscarriage.

Support has helped productivity by fast-tracking the business’ entry into new international markets and facilitated engagement with key stakeholders in a short space of time.
It has also helped the business create a new part-time role and safeguard current roles.

Laura continued: “More sales, continued revenue and expansion into new markets, strengthens the business and allows us to take research and development into other areas of expansion. The benefits of the support have been felt and is very encouraging.”

“Exceptional, the support and investment from the Chamber have been fantastic. They really seek to understand the problem and help in any way they can.”

- Laura Corcoran, Managing Director

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Sector: Consultancy

Location: Derby

Unheard Voice, based in Derby, was established in February 2018 by Marsha Ramroop. It is a specialist organisational inclusion strategist and culture change consultancy.

Marsha explains on the website: “I help organisations understand how their everyday behaviours shape who’s allowed in, who progresses, and ultimately, what gets built.”

This is done by using: 'Cultural Intelligence (CQ)' as a practical framework to help individuals and organisations recognise bias, slow down decision-making, and act inclusively in real situations like recruitment, leadership, design, procurement and collaboration.

Challenges faced

As the business has grown, one of the biggest challenges has been creating a more consistent pipeline of consultancy work while protecting Marsha’s time and balancing client delivery with business development. Building confidence around pricing, strengthening cash flow forecasting and establishing the right legal foundations for the business have also been key priorities.

Plans to expand into Australia, where the built environment is further ahead in its cultural shift, were significantly impacted by rising international travel costs, making this important market inaccessible.

In addition, the political narrative surrounding workplace culture can make it difficult to communicate the value of the work, while investment in this area is often one of the first budgets to be reduced. Despite these challenges, Marsha has remained committed to implementing new ideas and taking positive action to strengthen and grow the business.

Solution – Support Given

Unheard Voice® has been supported by East Midlands Chamber Business Adviser, Lisa Baggott. Marsha has been working with Lisa through monthly meetings, on a 1-to-1 basis, for the past nine months.

Marsha comments: “What sets Lisa apart is how practical and specific her advice is. She doesn’t deal in generalities. Every session leaves me with clear priorities and pertinent next steps, and when I action them, they consistently lead to tangible opportunities. Her coaching has also grown my confidence as a business owner in a way that's hard to overstate.”

With guidance on the grant application from Lisa, the business successfully secured funding from the EMCCA Export Accelerator project which enabled Marsha to attend the WSBE26 (World Sustainable Built Environment) Conference in Melbourne, Australia, where she was able to make meaningful connections with those working on these areas. She also presented a talk on CQ-Cultural Intelligence, and the opportunity to bring meaningful behaviour and culture change to the Built Environment, to industry professionals at a global architecture firm, thanks to local contacts, where she sold out of her book: Building Inclusion

Impact - The Difference it’s Made

The impact of support on the business has been ‘transformative’.

Marsha says: "The Export Grant allowed me to push at an open door, where the construction sector in Australia is already pursuing an approach to culture change, and this directly aligns with my work. Being able to meet directly with people and discuss these matters has meant I have been more able to make an impression for business growth purposes, and follow ups are already happening.”

Though it’s difficult to put a monetary value to support Marsha reports that her turnover this financial year has been 50% higher than the same period last year. She also expects to be actively working in Australia this time next year.

“Lisa helped me access an Export Grant that enabled me to travel to Melbourne to explore growth opportunities in Australia. It proved a genuinely fruitful trip that simply wouldn't have happened without her guidance.

If you have the opportunity to work with Lisa, take it. She is an exceptional business adviser, and I recommend her without reservation.”

- Marsha Ramroop, Founder

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Sector: Creative/Digital

Location: Derby

Bloc Digital is a Derby based business employing around 70 people in the UK. The business supports the aerospace, space and defence sectors with custom solutions for marketing & events, training & support together with digital transformation.

Bloc Digital helps clients to work smarter, be more connected and have a greater impact on them with digital twins, immersive training, data visualisation and Industrial IoT (Internet of Things) to name a few.

The business is proud to call multinational and blue-chip organisations like Airbus, Eurofighter Typhoon, Leonardo, Rolls-Royce, BAE, Boeing and Textron as its clients.

Challenges faced

Bloc Digital face a few barriers to growth (or learning curves):
Historically the business has grown organically by word of mouth and client recommendation. This has seen growth year-on-year for the past 26 years (excluding Covid). Recently Bloc Digital has started more outbound business development for the first time, reaching out to new companies. This is a new function for them and the team are learning how best – and how not to – do this.

• Bloc Digital has been investing in creating three SaaS (software as a service) products to complement its existing service offerings. These products are about to be launched, however the business has no experience of product selling, so again this will be a steep learning curve, and possibly a barrier to growth if they don’t get it right.
• Innovate UK internationalisation support enabled the business to visit the US market, gain knowledge, market information and business leads. This activity led to the opening of two US offices in Ohio and Kansas. Following further international support from Innovate UK the business also has plans to open an office in Singapore in 2027. A huge opportunity for business growth in the Asian Market.

Solution – Support Given

Prior to East Midlands Chamber’s support, the business was working for several years with Innovate UK Business Growth and received innovation funding and internationalisation support to help the growth strategy from Paul Humphreys and Neil McCluskey.

Bloc Digital has also been supported by Chamber Business Adviser, Lisa Baggott and the EMCCA Export Accelerator project. Lisa conducted a business diagnostic, which highlighted its growth ambitions. This included the desire to explore the US space technology sector and the California/West Coast space and aerospace ecosystems, which are new markets for the business.

With guidance from Lisa on the grant application, Bloc Digital successfully secured funding to attend the Space Tech Expo USA 2026 in Anaheim, California. This enabled the business to meet potential customers, partners, supplies and sector contacts. It also allowed the business to test and refine its proposition directly with relevant US organisations.

As a Chamber member and neighbour to East Midlands Chamber, located in the Enterprise Centre in Derby, Bloc Digital have independently supported East Midlands Manufacturing Network (EMMN) members. In January 2026, at the request of Derby members, the business shared an inspiring peer presentation on their growth journey and gave EMMN members the opportunity to go behind the scenes and see how they are helping manufacturers and inspiring the industry with digitalisation.

The business has also won a number of awards in recent years including the Commitment to People Development at the Derbyshire Business Awards 2026.

Impact - The Difference it’s Made

Accelerator support has enabled Bloc Digital to research demand and understand customer requirements and assess routes to a new market in the US.

Director and founder Keith Cox commented: “As a result of the support we expect to be able to grow our client base, both here in the UK and internationally. This will enable us to grow the business and achieve the next round of investment into Bloc which will see us have accelerated growth and employ new staff.”

The event was only a few weeks ago, so the business is busy working on leads to move across to meetings. However, they’ve already had four new requests, two of which are for its new marketing product, even though it’s at the pre-launch stage.

Keith adds: “Already we are seeing a great ROI for this trip, just a week after going, which is very encouraging.”

“This has been an amazing opportunity for Bloc Digital. We are already seeing benefits from this support.”

- Keith Cox, Director & Founder

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Sector: Beauty, Education & Training

Location: Derby

Perfect Technique Aesthetics and Training is based in Derby city centre and was set up in 2020 by Lauren Pedley.

It provides accredited aesthetics training for both medical and non-medical professionals, alongside advanced aesthetic treatments.

Perfect Technique Aesthetics became a limited company in 2022 and has a growing team of three who provide support across sales, administration and business operations. The business offers a comprehensive learning experience that combines theory, practical training, ongoing mentoring and business support. This helps students gain the confidence, skills and support they need to build a successful career in aesthetics.

Challenges faced

As the business began to grow one of the biggest challenges was managing every aspect of it while continuing to deliver high quality training. Like many business owners, Lauren was responsible for everything from teaching and marketing to administration, sales and day to day operations. As demand increased it became clear that Lauren had to build the right team, improve business systems and develop a clear strategy for growth – without compromising the personalised training and support the academy was known for.

Solution – Support Given

Perfect Technique Aesthetics has been supported by East Midlands Chamber Business Adviser, Sonny Lakhani and the EMCCA High Growth Accelerator. Sonny has provided 1-to-1 business advice and helped Lauren take a more strategic approach to growing the business. It was over the course of a number of these diagnostic meetings and intensive support that action plans were put into place for short, medium and long-term growth.

They also identified that specialist consultants in branding, marketing and finance were needed which gave the business access to expertise it wouldn’t otherwise have had. Lauren has also had meetings focused on improving her financial systems and processes helping her build stronger foundations to support the continued growth of the academy.

Impact - The Difference it’s Made

Lauren commented: “The support has given me greater confidence to make strategic decisions that will support the long-term growth of my business. It reinforced the importance of implementing strong financial systems, improving processes and building the right team to support future expansion.

“As a result, I’m creating a more structured and scalable business, which will allow us to continue growing while maintaining the high standards of training and support we are known for.”

The support has reinforced the importance of investing in the right systems and team to build growth. As a result, the business has expanded by recruiting two new team members and is implementing new financial systems and processes to improve efficiency, support future growth and create a stronger foundation for long-term success.

“Having access to experienced advisers has been invaluable and has helped me build a stronger, more sustainable business.”

- Lauren Pedley, Director

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Sector: Retail

Location: High Peak

High Peak Tech & Hobbies is a tech repair and sales business based in Chapel-en-le-Frith.

Since 2020 Oliver George and his wife Jade have owned this small independent business which serves customers in the town and surrounding communities. It provides device repairs, advice and technology products including phones, tablets and laptops.

What makes this business somewhat different is that alongside the tech support, it also serves the hobby and miniature gaming community, with a particular focus on Warhammer and tabletop modelling.

Oliver and Jade are very much hands-on in the business and are proud to be part of the high street, offering a friendly, approachable service. Their vision is to create a place people can come for practical help with technology, and also browse hobby products, talk about gaming and connect with others who have the same interests.

Challenges faced

One of the key challenges has been around rising energy costs and general overheads which has created additional pressure. For a small retail business with premises, even relatively small increases can have a high impact on margins. At the same time, inflation has affected the cost of products, materials and day-to-day business expenses, as well as the reduced disposable income of customers.

Being a two-person business, capacity is also a challenge. Oliver and Jade have plenty of great ideas to boost business growth – especially around marketing – but finding the time and skills to do things consistently can be difficult alongside dealing with repairs, customers, stock, sales and other business demands.

Despite knowing that business visibility is very important, marketing is often pushed back when more pressing day-to-day demands take over. However, there was also a need to bring more people through the door to help the business grow.

Solution – Support Given

High Peak Tech & Hobbies has been supported by East Midlands Chamber Business Adviser, Steve Phillips and the Accelerator project. Steve has provided advice, guidance and encouragement enabling Oliver and Jade to look at the business more clearly, talk through challenges and identify practical ways to move forward.

Support has given the couple a chance to step back from the business and look at it from a different perspective. Oliver said:

“When you’re running a small business every day, it can be difficult to find the time to properly review what is working, what could be improved and where support could have the biggest impact.”

Accelerator support has been particularly useful around marketing and visibility. Jade added:

“We talked about how the business presents itself, how we can make better use of social media and how we can show the shop’s personality more. That’s important as its not just tech repairs and sales, we’ve got this whole Warhammer and hobby side, which makes us more distinctive.”

The business successfully applied for a Growth Voucher which provided £1,520 funding towards a social media manager session and video team. This consultancy support helped to create new content which better explained what High Peak Tech & Hobbies do, showcase its range of services and products, and bring the business to life online.

Jade and Oliver also attended the funded Accelerator workshop ‘Practical Guide to Marketing’ to help enhance business skills.

Impact - The Difference it’s Made

Oliver and Jade report they have already seen more footfall into the business, which has been very encouraging. This allows them to have more conversations, more enquiries and more opportunities to build relationships with customers. Importantly it also gives them a chance to help people understand their unique set up of tech repair, hobby products and tabletop gaming.

Steve has also helped them set up a new podcast which has had a good response and brought in new customers already.

Accelerator support has given the team access to expertise and experience which they may not have been able to bring into the business themselves, and move ideas into practical actions, particularly around marketing and raising the visibility of the business.Oliver said:

“The support has also helped us feel more confident about how we promote the business. We now have a clearer understanding of the importance of showing what we do rather than assuming people already know. The content support should help us communicate the full range of the business more effectively, including repairs, sales and the Warhammer side.

It’s also helped us feel less isolated as business owners. Having someone to speak to, ask questions and talk through ideas has been valuable. It’s helped us focus on realistic actions that fit the size and capacity of our business.”

It’s early days to measure the full impact but the increase in footfall indicates that better visibility and more focused marketing can bring in new and existing customers to the shop. For High Peak Tech & Hobbies this helps safeguard the business by strengthening its local presence and reminding people that there’s an independent business they can visit locally.

“I would like to say a huge thank you to Steve and the Derbyshire Accelerator project for the support.

Steve has supported us every step of the way, answered our questions and helped us understand the support available. It has been reassuring to have someone who takes the time to listen, understand the business and suggest practical steps that feel achievable for a small independent business like ours.

Overall, it has made a positive difference and helped us think more clearly about how we continue to grow the business."

- Oliver & Jade George, Directors

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