Business support and advice
We provide support and help for businesses in a variety of ways.
More and more businesses save time and effort by looking online first for business information and advice.
The Business Link services are now available online via the Business Link national website.
About businesslink.gov.uk
This is the first place to go to access essential information, support and services for your business.
You can access all the necessary government services such as paying your VAT, PAYE or registering a business with Companies House.
By registering online, you can get information tailored and regular updates to the specific needs of your business and industry.
You can search for public sector procurement opportunities using www.businesslink.gov.uk/contractsfinder (opens in a new window)
And there's a wealth of information and guidance available on regulations which affect your business to ensure you can manage your business risks and stay the right side of the line.
The Business Link website has been updated to provide easy-to-use, tailored information to help you start up, improve or grow your business, with new on line services:
A new 'growth and improvement' service giving you access to the information you need to make your business work better; including tools to help you diagnose and solve business problems, a business support finder, tutorials and video case studies, information on events in your area and links to business discussions and other services.
If you are looking to start a business, or know someone who is, a whole new area of the BusinessLink website called 'My New Business' offers comprehensive information and guidance to those looking to start a business, including personalised checklists, video tutorials and step by step guidesTo find out more and keep up-to-date with important business information such as changes to regulations, register with the Business Link website and sign up to their e-newsletter.
You can find out further details about these services at Business Link (opens in a new window)
Specific support for small and medium sized manufacturers is available through the new Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS). Businesses interested in finding out more about the programme should visit http://www.mymas.org (opens in a new window) or call an advisor on 0845 658 9600.
Businesses who do well often have outside help. If you think you could benefit from talking to someone with a lot of business experience, you can find a business mentor at www.mentorsme.co.uk (opens in a new window)
Mentorsme.co.uk will put you in touch with mentoring organisations across the UK who can help you find the kind of mentor that suits you.
Plus there's lots of advice on what to look for in a mentor.
If you would like to be a mentor and share your experience with a less experienced business person, the mentoring portal can help you find an organisation which can help.
Why have the services changed?
More and more businesses save time and money using online services to find the information and guidance they need to run their businesses .
We know that businesses who take advice do better, so we are transforming the information and advice available online to make it easier for you to find what you need quickly and from sources you can trust.
This is also a cost effective and efficient way for us to provide the information and advice you need.
Businesses have also told us that they most value support and advice from other businesses so we've built features into our new services to enable you to find this quickly and effectively.
We're focussing our support on helping businesses to start up, develop and grow.
The documents in the related documents section provide information and guidnace on a variety of topics to support business. For example, cashflow, business planning and negotiating with banks.
These presentations follow on from the successful 'Is your business fit for finance?' events delivered in partnership by us and Business Link across Derbyshire.
Related documents
The following documents are in Portable Document Format (PDF). You can download the PDF software for free from the Adobe website (opens in a new window)
- Alan Walters - business planning (394KB)
- Angus Jones - cash flow forecasting (4047KB)
- Business Link presentation (340KB)
- Derbyshire County Council winning public business (635KB)
- Lloyds - negotiating with banks (62KB)
- Natwest (157KB)
- TBAT - cash flow forecasting (180KB)
- Yorkshire Bank (67KB)