Start up support still open for business

The November 2015 Spending Review saw some surprise news that funding from the department for Business Innovation and Skills which funds some of the business support sector was to receive some severe cuts and the popular Growth Accelerator scheme along with the Manufacturing Advisory Service was some of the casualties.

By Jo Fulthorpe, Business Enterprise Trust

This has prompted a number of people contacting me to see if the Start Up Loans programme of support is going to continue.  I am pleased to say we are still able to offer support and access to finance to Start Up businesses.

The very nature of the programme being a loan which will be repaid means the funding lent out when repaid, gets recycled back into the local area to lend again. We have already lent £62,500 to 14 new businesses within the Lancashire area.

A recent update from the Start Up Loans Company advises that nationally the scheme has assisted over 35,000 businesses with over £1.9m worth of funding and 24 businesses getting backed nationally each day.

With an average loan size of £5,500 we can help any business in any sector, as long as it’s legal!

We hope to have some good news in 2016; at present we are able to support businesses up to 2 years trading, we can already extend this to three years trading and we are hoping to have a further extension to help even more small businesses.

If you are a start up or have been trading for only a few years, or indeed you are working with a start up then contact me to see if you are eligible for the advice, support, mentoring and the funding on offer. Let’s get Lancashire businesses supported in 2016!