e-factor

We do have a lot of support from Enterprise Coaches and Business advisors who can support you in looking at all your funding options, but we don't have grants. If you are interested in loans, a Business advisor can discuss our small business loans and other funding options with you (including how to make a start without needing too much money). Most organisations do not provide grants for business start ups.

If you're looking at starting a business and have an idea in mind, we can book you (and a friend if you like) a place on our 2 hour introductory session called "Getting Started" (these run every week). This is a group session, but because everyone is different, and every idea is different, we take it from there with you individually. After this session, if you have started to put pen to paper and write some ideas down, you can book an individual appointment with an Enterprise Coach. When you have a business plan together and are about ready to start, we can book an appointment with a Business Advisor for more specific support on starting up.

We are here to support you on self-employment, whatever your situation. If you are interested in finding out more about self-employment in general or are considering all your options, we run a fantastic "Explore Enterprise" 3 hour session each month

It depends – on your circumstances, your business idea but also on things like whether you want loans or premises, any licences or certificates you need, and things in your personal life that may affect how quickly you can start your business (like debts). Everyone is different, and our Enterprise Coaches and Business Advisors will work with you to support you whether it's going to take a month or a year, or longer. We will always do our best to help you set up a sustainable business, and sometimes that means taking a bit longer to think it through and plan properly.

Our Enterprise Coaches are here to introduce our support to you, inspire you, help you to start thinking your idea through and act as a sounding board. Your Enterprise Coach will ask you questions, get to know you, make suggestions and provide information and contacts to help you in getting your idea together, as well as working with you to set goals to keep you going. They will also support you with anything in any area of your life that might prevent you starting up a sustainable business.

Your Enterprise Coach will also support you in completing the first part of a Business Plan so that you can decide whether the idea is viable and whether it is the right time for you.

An Enterprise Coach and Business Advisor can support you in planning all the things you need to do before starting up, but whatever your idea, it's really down to you and you will need;

• a basic command of the English language (including written)
• some experience relevant to your idea (e.g. working in a shop if you want to open a shop)
• to start addressing debts by making regular payments to any debtors
• to check that any convictions aren't a barrier to starting up in your chosen field or local area.

There are things you'll need to do once you start looking into your idea such as researching your competitors, pricing, your potential customers and finding out about any legal implications and getting a written plan together.

We touch on a few of these things on the "Getting Started" sessions and an Enterprise Coach can discuss these with you in more depth one-to-one and support you in getting past any sticking points.

Business Advisor can advise you on registering, and all the other things you need to stay the right side of the law before you start.

Once you have your idea together, a Business Advisor will help you decide the best way to set up your business when you are getting ready to start.

We always advise that you wait until you have your plans together before looking at premises, but if you decide you do want to look at e-factor's "easy in-easy out" premises, or any other premises, we will bring in a Business Advisor to give you the right advice and arrange to see any of our own units.

The "Getting Started" sessions are our starting point for anyone new to us who has a business idea, but we understand that there are people who, for whatever reason, just can't get to them at the times we run them.

We are happy to book one to one appointments with an Enterprise Coach if you have put pen to paper on a business idea that you would like to look into, and really can't make any of the weekly sessions we run. If you could attend a Getting Started session, but you prefer not to for some reason, we'd really like to encourage you to take the plunge and come anyway, no matter what you are worried about. Everyone can book a friend or partner on to the session too.