A social enterprise dedicated to supporting the Armed Forces community explore self-employment has been awarded a grant from the ABF The Soldiers’ Charity, the National Charity of the British Army, to further support entrepreneurial Army veterans, families and reservists in 2016…

X-Forces, launched in 2013, has supported over 700 start-up businesses and offered several thousand individuals the opportunity to explore what enterprise and self-employment can offer through workshops and training. X-Forces also offers access to start-up funding through the government backed Start Up Loans Company, and ABF The Soldiers’ Charity have also offered small grants for entrepreneurs to purchase tools and equipment.

Through the grant from The Soldiers’ Charity, the social enterprise aims to promote ‘Enterprise Skills as Life Skills’ to the Armed Forces community. It will support both those that go into employment and self-employment to gain a better understanding of business and offer the opportunity to start-up business owners to network and develop their businesses alongside experts and likeminded individuals.

Ren Kapur MBE, CEO of X-Forces, said: “I am so grateful to The Soldiers’ Charity for recognising that Enterprise Skills are valuable to all and in particular to the Armed Forces Community. Enterprise Skills and Post Start-up Networking is vital to the sustainability and on-going development of a business in what is a competitive environment. Business know-how and community engagement, whether you work for someone or run your own company, need to be continually honed.

“A recurrent message from our Armed Forces workshop delegates is that the support has grown their confidence in business. For us this is a profound component of progression in the business world among other learning and knowledge exchange.”

One of X-Forces’ beneficiaries, who attended a one-day Start Up Skills workshop in Preston said: “The seminar held by X-Forces was not what I was expecting but when you digest everything given to you it is more than I ever envisaged from a workshop, a real eye opener and good feed for the brain in to business”

The Soldiers’ Charity grant will enable X-Forces to offer free support to a much larger volume of entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs including service leavers, veterans, spouses, dependants and reservists.

Brigadier (Retd) Robin Bacon, Chief of Staff ABF The Soldiers’ Charity comments: “Soldiers transitioning from the Army to civvy street may sometimes need some extra support, especially when seeking new areas of employment. X-Forces provides an excellent service in equipping those who are looking for that next step in the business world with the necessary skills to give them a head start.”

The Soldiers’ Charity provides a lifetime of support to soldiers and veterans from the British Army, and their immediate families, when they are in need, making grants to individuals through their Regiments and Corps and support a wide range of specialist charities that sustain the British Army ‘family’, both at home and around the world.

Find out more about X-Forces atwww.x-forces.com