Search for your local area to find free business advice, networking groups, funding and local grants.
Search for your local area to find free business advice, networking groups, funding and local grants.
Keeping it going profitably is an entirely different matter.
Start Your Own Business is designed to help anyone running their own business or thinking of doing so. The aim is to increase your chances of success by providing a selection of FREE start-up resources and to highlight the support that is available in each area.
It is a common trait amongst entrepreneurs to just want to 'get on with it'.
However, if you want to maximise your chances of success, it is worth putting in time and effort before you start to ensure that you have set-up correctly. This collection of resources has been put together to make the process as straight-forward as possible but also to ensure that you do not miss anything important.
If you are thinking about starting a business in the United Kingdom, you are not alone. Small businesses make up a large percentage and extremely important part of the UK economy.
Total UK Population: 66 million
UK businesses: 5.9 million
With 1-49 employees: 5.82 million
With no employees: 4.47 million
This means that almost three quarters of all UK businesses are individuals trading by themselves.
We would love to help you join them!
To find help and support in your local area, please either find your location by using the search box above.
We also have sections dedicated to each country:
If you are thinking about starting a business, our FREE three-hour ONLINE workshop is definitely for you!
Open to everyone, our sole aim is to increase your chances of success. We do that by explaining:
The reality of running a business; the most common pitfalls and how to avoid them; which legal status is likely to be most suitable; funding, grants and managing your money; business planning and cashflow forecasting; finding and keeping customers.
100's of free startup articles
We have created a collection of 100s of startup articles to help anyone with whatever stage they are on with their business journey. Hundreds of thousands of people have gone before you and we can learn from what they got right and avoid the things that have been proved not to work so well.
You can see the full list of 'articles' at: How to start a business
We are delighted to promote suitable businesses and organisations completely FREE of charge. Your coverage can contain: logo, company name, brief description, special offers, telephone number and link to your website.
If you can help new business start-ups in your area, we would be delighted to let them know.
One of the aims of SYOB is to raise awareness of the support that is available in each area. Not only does this mean that the new business owner is more likely to succeed, it will also benefit the local economy! Add your free listing
You don't know what you don't know!
The prospect of starting a new business can be incredibly exciting but should be approached with care. You have probably heard scary stories about how many start-ups fail in the early stages. You can make sure that you are not one of them by learning as much as possible before you launch. Over the years, we have collected lots of articles which will show you what has worked well for other start-ups and the putfalls to avoid.