A giant industry has grown up to service the needs of people starting up in business. Various agencies are falling over themselves and each other in order to give you advice and support, and if you’re patient, grants and loans.

You could sack all the pen-pushers and return the billions saved straight back to the people. But the Countryside Agency does point out that new businesses stand a better chance of succeeding if they’ve received professional advice first. Many agencies are also working to dispel the idea that the rural economy is only about farming, food and tourism, leaving everyone else to battle on alone. So perhaps it’s money well spent after all.

The many groups, bodies and organisations are funded in different ways, but almost all get their money from the government, Europe, local authorities or the private sector, or any combination of those. Some work behind the scenes formulating policy and you’ll probably never have to deal with them. Others provide the upfront services and deal directly with the public.

It’s impossible to compile a definitive list of organisations that can help you. Names and aims change almost daily and new ones spring up all the time. There are national, regional and local organisations. But the following should at least provide you with a starting point.

ORGANISATIONS THAT HELP YOU DIRECTLY

Business Link – England

If you want any advice, information or help, one of your first calls should probably be to Business Link. It says it can either answer all your questions about starting up or will find you someone who can. It’s partly funded by the Department of Trade and Industry and partly self-financed. There are about 50 Business Link offices in England, basically one per county or pair of counties which are often linked together.

There are several advantages to Business Link:

• Its network of offices (known as operators) around the country mean its staff have local knowledge and can offer relevant local advice.
• Its services are usually free.

• Because Business Link operators have no affiliations, they offer impartial advice and have no commercial axe to grind.
• Business Link offices have up-to-date lists of grants available in your local area.

Business Link grants

The lists provided aren’t definitive because they only include government-funded grants but they do give a good idea of what’s around. As examples, here are three plucked at random from the Devon Business Link list of November 2004:

• Community Services Grant. Available to anyone who provides the sole shop, pub or garage in a rural settlement unless there are two enterprises clearly doing different things, e.g. butcher and baker, in which case they can both apply. Grants of up to 50 per cent, or £500 to £25,000, are available. The grant money has to be spent on things like improving access to the premises, modernising the sales area or buying essential equipment.
• RABBIT – Remote Area Broadband Inclusion Trial. This promotes the use of broadband internet in areas not covered by ADSL or cable. The small business or trader can apply for £700 or the fees for the first 12 months, whichever is the lower.
• Sub Post Office Start Up Scheme. A fund that can provide up to £20,000 if alternative funding isn’t available. The proposed sub post office must be in a community of less than 10,000 people, where a sub post office has closed in the last 18 months or is likely to do so in the next six months.

The Business Link offices around the country are autonomous and don’t always provide the same services. It’s worth asking if they offer a personalised grant search facility. Devon does, and charges a reasonable £50 plus VAT for it.

To contact your local Business Link office, log onto the website www.businesslink.gov.uk and enter your post code (top left of the page) to show the area you’re in.

Scotland

Lowland Scotland

In Lowland Scotland the Business Link equivalent is called Business Gateway. It provides help and advice for people starting up in business and for those who’re already up and running. Its website is clear, comprehensive and easy to follow. There are sections on financing your business, tax, VAT and national insurance, building the right team, growth and so on. It also offers seminars, workshops and business health checks.

Website: www.bgateway.com
Tel: 0845 609 6611

Highlands and Islands

Here you talk to Highlands and Islands Enterprise. There are already about 19,000 existing businesses in the Highlands and Islands so there’s obviously business potential. HIE offers business support and advice, training programmes, help for community projects and so on. The services are usually filtered through the ten Local Enterprise Companies (LECs), which once again is good because local is almost always best. This is another clear, well-run and apparently up-to-date site.

Website: www.hie.co.uk
Tel: 01463 234171

Wales

In Wales the organisation to talk to is Business Eye.

Website: www.businesseye.org.uk
Tel: 08457 969798

Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland it’s called Invest Northern Ireland.

Website: www.investni.com
Tel: 028 9023 9090

Enterprise agencies

Enterprise agencies cover much of the same work as Business Link but they say their local agencies act (even) more independently and can offer more specific advice relevant to your local area. The help and expertise offered in Cornwall, for example, would be very different to that provided in Watford or east London.

There is a network of enterprise agencies across England. The co-ordinating organisation is the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies. The brief is to encourage economic regeneration. In 2003 (the last available figures), enterprise agencies say they helped more than 20,000 new businesses start up.

Enterprise agencies specifically target small businesses that are preparing to start trading, offering them advice, information, counselling and training on the best way to begin, and how to sustain and grow the business once it’s underway. Usefully there’s also a mentoring service which pairs up experienced business people with novices. Some local enterprise agencies also have loan funds and access to other financial backing. Check directly with your own local agency.

Website: www.nfea.com

J4B

This is an excellent website which allows you to do your own search for grants. It’s remarkably clearly laid-out and easy to follow. Its database contains details of government and European grants available for small and medium sized businesses. The site is one of the main alternatives if you don’t want to use an agency.

Website: www.j4b.co.uk

Chambers of Commerce

These have largely reinvented themselves over the last few years, shedding their stuffy and conservative (small c) image. They’ve taken on both a campaigning and a training role. According to the chambers’ collective website, they are ‘the premier commercial provider of skills and work force development training to business, delivering to tens of thousands of employees each year’. And it goes on: ‘They are also one of the largest government funded training providers in Great Britain, training more than 13,000 youth and adult trainees during the last contract year’. The chambers emphasise their training is designed to reflect local needs, for example the production of leather goods in the Midlands, glass manufacturing in Lancashire or working on the land or with animals in rural areas.

So take them at their word. Contact your local chamber of commerce and see what it can do for you. As an added incentive, the chambers say that if you become a member you get access to good deals on things like car and health insurance and save more cash than the price of your membership fee.

You may think they’re not really for you, especially if you’re in arts or crafts, but don’t automatically dismiss them. What ever you’re doing it’s still about running a business and your local chamber of commerce will have many members who have a lifetime’s experience in that. It’s also a good opportunity for a bit of networking.

Website: www.chamberonline.co.uk

Federation of Small Businesses

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) offers a wide range of services and support to its 185,000 members. Even if you’re not a natural joiner it’s still worth looking at its website.

The FSB is non-profit-making and non-party political. It doesn’t offer detailed advice, training and information in the same way as Business Link or the enterprise agencies do: instead it provides a more general range of services. One of the big benefits is the FSB’s legal help line which operates 24 hours a day. According to its website the help line took more than 100,000 calls in 2003 (the last available figures), the majority on employment issues. If you’re going into anything contentious the help line alone could justify your membership fee.

Via membership you also get access to good deals on things like financial planning and medical and travel insurance. And there could be other one-off benefits. During 2001, the FSB distributed half a million pounds in interest-free loans to members who were in financial difficulties because of the Foot and Mouth outbreak.

The FSB is also a vigorous campaigner and lobbyist on behalf of small businesses everywhere so it’s generally a good organisation to support.

Website: www.fsb.org.uk

Rural Community Councils

Rural Community Councils (RCCs) offer a wide range of services, including the administering of various grants, to anyone living in the countryside. There’s basically one per county. Check the internet or the phone book for your local council. Check particularly for their resource centres which are often good places to hear first about the best local grants and loans around and the best people to approach for support and advice.

Local and regional bodies

There are many purely local or regional groups. Your local Business Link or enterprise agency should point you in the right direction, otherwise look in the phone book, phone your local authority or do an internet search.

The Herefordshire Partnership is a good example of what’s around at the local level. Funded by the local unitary authority, regional development agency and European money, it covers just what it says in the name and isn’t stretched to cover its obvious twin of Worcestershire. The Herefordshire Partnership, whose unofficial mantra is ‘local and lovely’, says its success is down to knowing who’s who locally and understanding how things work.

It’s a signposting organisation so it listens to what people have to say and then puts them in touch with groups who can help, either with advice or grants. As well as all the usual links, the Partnership also has contacts with similar groups in neighbouring Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Shropshire and Wales, as well as with organisations like the Forestry Commission. It helps around 500 start-up and young businesses every year, publishes a funding directory and runs a website. The service is free.

Tel: 01432 261792
Email: projectdevelopment@herefordshire.gov.uk

The Prince’s Trust

Unfortunately you have to be under 30 to benefit from the Prince’s Trust. But if you are it is worth getting in touch. The emphasis is on helping people who’ve been disadvantaged in some way, but it also takes on the long-term unemployed. The Trust offers training, personal development, business start-up support, mentoring and advice.

Grants and loans

• The Prince’s Trust offers up to £500 to help the applicant get more education and training.
• There are cash grants for groups working on community projects.
• Low interest loans, grants and other business start-up support are available. Mostly it goes to the unemployed who’ve been refused funding elsewhere. It’s slightly different in Scotland: check the Prince’s Trust website.

Website: www.princes-trust.org.uk/

WiRE – Women in Rural Enterprise

WiRE is a business membership club for women. This is an excellent service with a clear and informative website: it’s just a shame if you’re a man. It was founded by Izzy Warren Smith, a lecturer at the rural-leaning Harper Adams University in Shropshire, after she conducted research and realised that many existing support organisations were too man-orientated and didn’t allow time for carers’ duties that many women have. She identified several particular problems facing women who were having to diversify because of falling farm incomes:

• lack of access to finance
• lack of confidence
• not being taken seriously
• rural isolation
• lack of rural business support.

WiRE helps members find grants, provides a mentoring service and has negotiated favourable rates with one of the high street banks. It organises events and talks: ‘Making the most of your website’ is typical and sounds particularly useful. And its own website has a good county-based directory which anyone can look at. It also provides good and sensible general business tips on employee legislation, planning, health and safety, insurance, equality and so on.

Website: www.wireuk.org