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How to Start a Business in Croydon Borough

Free start-up resources and useful local contacts.

Improve your chances of success!

How to Start a Business in Croydon Borough

Starting a business in Croydon Borough

If you are thinking about starting a business in Croydon Borough or would like to grow your existing business, we would love to help you.

Start Your Own Business in Croydon Borough contains resources and the information that will help give your venture the best chance of success. It also highlights organisations who offer friendly advice and the services that you are likely to need as a new startup or local business owner.

Grants | Networking groups | Business advice | Mentoring | Co-working spaces

Starting a business in Croydon Borough

Local help for startups

There is plenty of help for startups in Croydon Borough but where can it be found?

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Local partners

We are happy to promote anyone who is prepared to offer friendly support to local start-ups.

Our local partners have been kind enough to help us and are keen to help you too.

Free Startup Resources

Getting it right from the start can help to prevent problems later.

To help you with this we have created a vast selection of resources and they are all completely free!

Latest articles

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.

Free Startup Guide

Start Your Own Business in 2021

Download the 2024 edition of our Free Start Your Own Business guide

An interactive step-by-step guide which also includes all of the most important subjects covered in an easy-to-read way with links to useful online articles and relevant contacts.

The idea of starting your own business can be incredibly exciting and who can blame you for being tempted?

However, the sad truth is that far too many new enterprises fail in the early stages. Our aim is to make sure that you don't become one of them.

This guide explains the key start-up subjects in simple English.

There is also plenty of help available in the area and much of it is free - please do make the most of it.

Read more about what our Free guide contains and how you can download it.
Starting a business in Croydon Borough

Key Contacts in Croydon Borough

'You don't know what you don't know' is a phrase that is so applicable to starting a new business.

Croydon Borough is a great place for start-ups but your chances of success are dramatically improved if you make the most of the support that is available locally. Click on logos to visit their websites.

Web design

WESH UK
WESH UK are a 5* Website and I.T Support company covering the whole of the UK and Europe only. We cater especially to new business startups and startups who need an I.T department at their disposal inclusive in the cost of their website hosting and domain names.
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Networking

First Friday Network (Croydon)
Businesses of all sizes are welcome, we meet to make connections, talk about our businesses and find ways of helping each other. Its a great opportunity to meet like minded people in an informal, friendly atmosphere. Come along, do some networking, and have some fun! If you understand the value of face to face networking - come along - if you havent yet experienced it - come along - its informal, friendly and people do business! There is no prior booking, no registration, no fees and no pressure! Please pass these details on to anyone who you feel will benefit from our great networking groups. Everybody is welcome! Bring plenty of business cards and some promotional material and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of this unstructured networking group. Contact: Ian Harris Utilities Consultant 07870 568189 ian@5012.net Venue: Weatherill House Business Centre 23 Whitestone Way, Croydon, Surrey, CR0 4WF
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Opportunities

National Driving Centre
The only government approved DVSA test centre in London, providing LGV/HGV driver training, PCV bus driver training, paramedic ambulance driver training, minibus driver training and HIAB lorry loader training. You can test where you train because we have our own extensive fleet of vehicles and our own test centre. Our courses are all-inclusive with no extra costs. We have been providing commercial driver training courses for over 40 years, giving licences to thousands of new LGV/HGV and PCV drivers.
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Advice

Sussex Innovation Centre
Sussex Innovation is a business incubation network for entrepreneurs, start-ups, scale-ups and corporate innovators. Its members are ambitious companies who are innovators in their field - solving important problems in new ways. Memberships range from support-only and virtual office packages, all the way through to full tenancy at one of the organisations hubs across the South East.
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Networking

The Lonely Middle Club - From Startup Hive
Starting a business is exciting, and succeeding is rewarding, but what about the bit between? You know, that bit that’s full of self-doubt, endless repetition and feelings of being out of your comfort zone? We call it ‘The Lonely Middle’ and it’s one of the hardest parts of creating a successful business. We know, we’ve been there. So, we created The Lonely Middle Club to help you through it. Each month you get exclusive content to help give you the knowledge and inspiration to succeed. Plus, you get access to a private members-only Facebook group where you can get advice and network with small business owners who are going through similar challenges to you. If you want even more, you can download our 51 worksheets, guides, and journals all designed to do one thing, and one thing only… help you get through ‘The Lonely Middle’ and achieve your business goals. Visit our website today to join the club and benefit from our members price lock and full no questions asked money-back guarantee.
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Advice

Coast to Capital LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership)
The Coast to Capital LEP vision is straightforward and exciting. It places international growth and entrepreneurship at its very heart. It aims to transform business and economic performance so that its region can compete in any international marketplace.
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Advice

Merton Chamber of Commerce
Contact us for a range of business support services available for all size businesses including workshops, advice, helpdesk, full diagnostics, mentoring, links to professional experts, Greening and Membership service. Visit our website or call for further information.
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Advice

Croydon Business Venture
Croydon Business Venture Limited helps those wanting to start their own business through a range of free services including a weekly half-day business seminar, a monthly three-day seminar and 1-1 business support. We also provide high quality affordable office accommodation and virtual office services including mail and messaging services.
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Advice

Croydon - Starting or growing your business
nformation and support is available for anyone looking to start or grow their business. A range of organisations offer advice, information and support designed to support start and scale up business growth.
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Advice

Start Up Croydon
As the accredited Enterprise Agency for Croydon, StartUp Croydon is a member of the National Enterprise Network. Over thirty years of successfully supporting entrepreneurs puts us in the perfect position to help you turn your great idea into a viable and fully functioning business. We can help you achieve your goals through training, mentoring and providing cost-effective, flexible office accommodation at both Weatherill House Business Centre and Park House Central in Croydon. Our all inclusive packages are available for a fixed monthly charge with no long-term obligation.
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Advice

Croydon Business Venture
With careful planning & thorough research, your chances of survival in business could double... CBV, at our Enterprise Centre near East Croydon Station, offers support to the aspiring entrepreneur through a program of FREE training, advice & counseling. If you need a home for your business, CBVs Managed Accommodation in Acorn House might be the answer, or if you simply need a postal address and forwarding service, CBVs Office Services might be for you.
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Networking

Shaking Hands - The Home of SMEs in Croydon
What we offer through the Shaking Hands Interactive Partnership is a platform for well-run small-medium businesses in Croydon to communicate, collaborate, and shape the future of good business in Croydon. Rather than navigating a harsh business world alone, Shaking Hands is providing a platform for small-medium businesses to stay updated, stay in the know (keep out of hot water!), share their expertise, minimise overheads, get well connected locally, and optimise the smooth-running of their business.
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Networking

Croydon Chamber of Commerce
Croydon Chamber of Commerce, opens the door to new business opportunities by providing networking, training and marketing opportunities.
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Start-up articles

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