Startup Support UK - Organisations That Can Help You get started: Part Two

by Startacus Admin

Did you read Part One of our Startup Support UK Feature? In it, we featured some unique organisations that can help you get to grips with the world of business and explore the world of self employment. Some of these organisations included The Prince’s Trust, Tech City and Young Enterprise. 

We hope that it was informative and you were able to take something away from it, and if you did, the good news is that we have even more to share with you! Like last week, all of the organisations that are listed aim to help you develop your ideas and give you the support that you need. So have a looksie and see what you think!

The third and final part of this feature can be viewed here!

YENA

A newish, grassroots organisation - we wanted to give credit to one of the “new kids on the block”. The Young Entrepreneurs Network Association is here to help create an effective and helpful networking environment for entrepreneurs aged 15-30. They believe that budding entrepreneurs of a younger age do not have the same opportunities as those who are older. In order to dispel these limits of growth of these businesses, YENA provides an environment where like-minded people who have the same interest in business can share their experiences and offer a solid support system.

They connect young people in order to encourage development and inspiration. Ultimately, they hope to pave the way to successes for young entrepreneurs. If you’re aged 15-30 and want to connect with like-minded people, you can do so by visiting their website. Here, you can get involved and share your story with YENA and other members, whether it be about your education, starting a new business or about a difficulty that you are facing, they’re all ears! As well as this, you can become a member of a team and attend local events so that you can give your CV a boost, work with a great team and meet with different speakers.

NACUE

The National Association of College and University Entrepreneurs wishes to engage students in enterprise. They offer various different programmes and benefits for members. As a member you will gain access to the largest enterprise network in the UK. The Enterprise Society Programme is a year-long programme offered to schools in order to help students develop their skills and increase the growth of enterprise.
Their Design Make Sell programme is also something that brings students and various different companies together so that they can gain business experience that will help them develop an idea from scratch. If you are part of an institution or know of one that could benefit from NACUE’s help, you can visit their website and you can find them on Twitter!

Nominet Trust

If you have a new business and are just trying to make your mark, Nominet may be able to help you out. Nominet is a domain registry service for the UK. It is a non-profit company where anybody can become a member and according to their website they provide ‘a trusted online home for millions of British businesses.’ But what are they doing on this list? 

Well, proceeds of Nominet go towards Nominet Trust, which is an independent charitable foundation which aims to invest in and support various different projects which help harness the positive power of the internet - incidentally they are the largest social tech funder in the UK. So of course well worth a look if you feel you have a business venture that is aiming to use technology to make a real social difference.

The Business & IP Centre

Much like UnLtd, the Business & IP Centre wish to provide resources and advice to small businesses across the UK so that they can grow and develop. The resources that they offer are free and available to anyone who wants to use them. They also have various different workshops and events on offer to anyone who is interested. You can attend these events in the Centre itself, which is located at St. Pancras in London.

You can find out more about what’s on offer at the Centre, by visiting their website. Here, you can also book a place for any workshops or events.

Startup Now

Startup Now are an organisation that specialise in providing support to both offenders and ex-offenders within the UK. Over two thirds of the 80,000 prisoners that are released from prison will re-offend within 2 years. There are many factors which contribute to this, and naturally, a run-in with the criminal justice system can have a negative impact on their chances of finding employment.

In order to help, Startup Now provide a lot of different support, ranging from ‘Startupnow Days’ hosted in prisons, inviting clients to present their ideas to a panel of business experts, access to their central database of business information and regular workshops, drop in clinics and meetings with peers in order to facilitate peer support. This is just some of the support that is available, and you can find out what else is on offer by visiting their website here. It is also important to note that Startupnow work with their clients while they are in prison and continue to do so for at least a year after they have become self-employed in order offer a concrete support system and reduce re-offending.

UnLtd

The folks over at UnLtd are a very social bunch – they’re here for all of the Social Entrepreneurs out there! If you’re a person who wants to effect social change or you want to establish an enterprise which aims to tackle social problems, UnLtd want to help. How do they plan on helping? Well, unlike most of the organisations we’ve discussed previously, UnLtd invest in you and can offer you a bunch of different resources, such as funding, advice and support. The reason for this is because they believe that by investing in the individual directly rather than their ventures, they are able to make a bigger impact.

They help thousands of people every year with their own ideas and as a result, have been able to create an exciting and friendly network for Social Entrepreneurs within the UK. They also work with numerous different partners to make sure they can support a variety of different entrepreneurs. They are looking for funders, mentors or people who are willing to create research in order to support entrepreneurs.

There you have it, the second part of our Startup Support UK feature. We hope you’ve enjoyed it so far and that we have helped point you in the right direction if you’re looking for help with your business. Of course, there are lot of other fab organisations out there that can help you make your mark, so don’t be afraid to let us know if you think any others deserve a mention; comment below or tweet us!  We’ll be sure to include them next week, so stay tuned for the third and final installment of this feature!

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• #princes trust
• #entrepreneur
• #tech city
• #young enterprise
• #yena
• #nacue
• #nominet
• #unltd
• #the business & ip centre

Published on: 23rd March 2015