If you are thinking about starting a business in London or would like to grow your existing business, we would love to help you.
Start Your Own Business in London 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
There is plenty of help for startups in London but where can it be found?
Select classification:
This is hardly surprising really. With a population of around 9 million people, Greater London can provide masses of potential customers even before you start to consider national and international markets. The only downside is that there are already over 1 million privately owned businesses already in existence, which means that there is plenty of competition.
This makes it all the more important to make sure that you have thoroughly thought through your idea, determined that there is likely to be sufficient demand for your new product or service and that you have a good reason why customers should buy from you rather than anyone else.
The good news is that there are a number of organisations who are keen to ensure that your new venture is a success. In the first instance, your local borough wants businesses to survive and contribute to the local economy. This could be as a tax payer, employer, occupier of commercial property or as a business ratepayer. We have created separate sections for each London Borough so you can locate the help that is available on your doorstep.
Select your local borough: Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Brent, Southwark, Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth
I am sure that you are brilliant at what you do but sadly that doesn't always mean that you are going to automatically as good at running a business doing just that.
You are undoubtedly aware that there those niggly considerations like legal structure, accounting, tax, national insurance, marketing, customer service, websites and much, much more! It is almost impossible to be an expert in all of these subjects regardless of how much time you have spent online and reading start-up books.
If there is one bit of advice that I would give to anyone starting a business is that they should seek advice! However, this does not mean that you should listen to anyone who thinks you have a great idea nor should you be put off by those who think you are mad (they may be right though!). We have tried to include details of the businesses and organisations who can offer you impartial advice, and you will be pleased to hear that much of it is FREE! Select your local area and follow the link to 'Business Advice'.
Making sure that you have sufficient resources to both start and maintain your business in the early stages is vital and running out of money is one of the most common reasons that new businesses fail.
Having said that, you don't want to saddle yourself with debt and interest unless you really have to do so. Ideally, you will have saved up enough cash already or maybe be able support yourself in the early stages with a full or part time job.
If you do need to access some start-up funding, the safest route is probably to take advantage of the Start Up Loan Fund . This is Government funded, has a fixed interest rate and applications are judged on the merit of the business. Although they have a moral obligation to try and ensure that the loan will genuinely help and cannot accept applications from anyone who is already heavily in debt or has a shocking credit history, loans are unsecured and their criteria is less stringent than if you were to apply to a bank, who would almost certainly demand some form of security.
You may also like to read our article about funding and grants.
Even if you are doing this by yourself, you don't have to be alone.
Business networking is a great way to meet like-minded people who can share their experience, offer support and may even become customers (but don't go networking with that sole aim - you will very quickly alienate everyone else in the group). A good starting point could be the London Chamber of Commerce but a search of the business networking section or your borough (see links above) will give you an idea of what is available nearby. Some London-wide networking groups are also listed in the Key Contacts section below.
If so, your logo, company details and link to your site could be here!
If you are based in in London or offer a product or service which could help existing local businesses and start-ups, we would love you to help you reach them. Our aim is to increase the chances of every new business's success by highlighting the help that is available in the area.
You are able to add a free listing or act as our recommended local partner for only £10 per year!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
'You don't know what you don't know' is a phrase that is so applicable to starting a new business.
London 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.
Accountancy
Web design
Advice
Networking
Advice
Advice
Networking
Advice
Advice
Mentoring
Education
Law
Advice
Networking
Networking
Coaching
Education
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