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How to Start a Business in West Northamptonshire

Free start-up resources and useful local contacts.

Improve your chances of success!

How to Start a Business in West Northamptonshire

Starting a business in West Northamptonshire

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

Start Your Own Business in West Northamptonshire 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 West Northamptonshire

Local help for startups

There is plenty of help for startups in West Northamptonshire but where can it be found?

Select classification:

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!

FREE startup workshops

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.

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 West Northamptonshire

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 West Northamptonshire

Key Contacts in West Northamptonshire

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

West Northamptonshire 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.

Marketing

Simon Cox Marketing Solutions Limited
I work with companies, clubs and charities to help raise awareness of their brands through marketing, promotional products, branded clothing, print and social media. I hold business owners hands to help them develop a better business.
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Web design

Raunds Web Design
Competitively Priced Web Design At Raunds Web Design we produce sensibly priced professional looking websites that reflect your business or service. We can create quality websites from as little as ₤95 (With you supplying the text and images) we are capable to accomplish this by having very low overheads and using Wordpress as the major platform as well as using ready made websites from Elementor and Astra which are all adaptable. Ready Made Websites That Are Flexible All our ready made websites feature a variety of sections which can be totally edited with your text as well as images to create each section relevant to your business or professional service. You can even mix themes by adding a section from one theme to another so the entire method is very flexible. We are able to create high quality looking business websites that may typically cost hundreds of pounds for a fraction of the price. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) Raunds Web Design not only offer ready made websites we also carry out SEO helping your small business get seen in the search engines like Google etc. ...
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Advice

SEMLEP's Growth Hub
Set up in 2014, the Growth Hub is the business support division of the South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP). SEMLEP works to build a strong economy by tackling barriers to sustainable growth and supporting job creation for the future prosperity of communities across the South East Midlands. A key part of this is providing support to businesses across our area which includes Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes. We have a team of business advisers that provide coaching and guidance for businesses across the SEMLEP area. Our business advisers have a wealth of experience in business, many successfully running their own businesses, and all have come from working in the private sector. Their purpose and passion is to support business to succeed through whatever challenges are faced.
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Funding

Funding For Your Business
Northamptonshire County Council funds a number of projects and partners to provide support for local businesses. A range of other funding and support is also available to businesses within the county.​ The Invest to Grow programme is designed to support private sector businesses to innovate, grow and create jobs. £16m of Regional Growth Fund money is now available to businesses across the East Midlands and managed by the University of Derby. Start Up Loans is a government scheme providing funding and support for individuals looking to start or grow a business in the UK.
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Office Services

I AM Virtual Assist Limited
We are a Virtual Assistant in Northampton, working from a home-office in Crick, Northamptonshire. We specialise in Construction and WordPress websites. It’s important for us to have a personal feel to our virtual assistant service and become part of your team, supporting your business administration and building your brand with you. Our first hour is always free.
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Advice

Young Northants
Starting a new business can be both exciting and daunting. We can help with your queries and problems.
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Mentoring

Ashby Dale Ltd
Ashby Dale has over 30 years experience in helping businesses grow in both size and profitability. Our unique business building system provides a solid framework for you to build on and our experience of building
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Advice

West Northamptonshire Council
Supporting your business Find advice and support for your business in your local area. Select your local area for more information: Daventry, Northampton Borough, South Northamptonshire. You can also find information about: Business rates and support, Business rates, Business grants (COVID-19), Restart Grant, Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG), Licences and permits, Supporting your business, Regeneration, Trading Standards for residents, Trading Standards for businesses, Childcare business support, Superfast Northamptonshire, Business support in libraries, Community Renewal Fund
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Networking

Northampton Business Network
As a member of the Northampton Business Network, you will receive the following benefits: – FREE MEMBERSHIP! – A member directory listing on the NBN website including: – your company telephone number – your company logo displayed – link to your company website – Company description – Free Promotion on the Northampton Business Network Facebook page including a link to your company website – Free Promotion on the Northampton Business Network Twitter page including a link to your company website – Invites to NBN monthly business meeting – details to be announced – Potential business through networking through the Northampton Business Network from new customers
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Networking

Northamptonshire Chamber
A Chamber of Commerce for Northamptonshire was founded in 1917 in response to the concerns of boot and shoe manufacturers over exports during the first world war. Since then Chamber membership has grown significantly and now represents around 1,000 Northamptonshire businesses - who employ over one third of the county’s workforce. We enjoy the enviable reputation of being the largest business support agency in the county. The Chamber is further enhanced by being part of a worldwide network and is one of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) Accredited Chambers - the largest and most powerful network for business in the UK. The wide range of Chamber Membership benefits have been specifically designed to enable small and medium sized businesses to make the most of their potential. As part of your membership and our partnership approach there is a commitment policy that outlines what we’ll do for you.
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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

University of Northampton Support for Business
At the University of Northampton (UON) we offer a wide range of business support services to our students and staff as well as to the Northamptonshire business community. We also support social enterprise on a national scale, through the University’s Inspire2Enterprise brand. The University of Northampton Business Support team provides a gateway to business support services available throughout the county. We are a team of experienced, accredited advisers with customer-focussed support staff – providing information, advice and guidance to entrepreneurs and businesses at all stages of their development – from pre-start to scale-up. Our aim is to help clients across Northamptonshire to start and grow their business with the right solutions to meet their needs.
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Accountancy

DNG Dove Naish
DNG Dove Naish Chartered Accountants and business advisers. We are here to help - to understand your needs, to listen to your concerns and then to provide services which fit your particular circumstances. Weve been advising businesses and individuals on their financial affairs for the last 50 years so were good at what we do and we know what were talking about.
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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