advice on grants

red_devil

Do the jobcentre have any info on help/grants available to start a business and anyone know the criteria?

princessamy86

Hi Red Devil
I've been looking into this loads as the OH is thinking of setting a business up with his redundancy payment. Basically the grants available depend which area you are in as they come from the council-check the business section of their website, this should have details and if not just give them a quick call. There's a great section on www.businesslink.gov.uk entitled finance and grants, this has loads of info on what is available to you and also a handy grant checker that brings up details of grants which you might be able to claim. The other thing I would say is check what sort of business rate relief might be available for small businesses in your area, in ours some qualify for a 25% reduction if their turnover is under a certain threshold. Again loads of info on business link. Hope that helps!

red_devil

i phoned them am waiting for reply. Do the jobcentre have access to anything else that BL dont?

princessamy86

I don't think so no, from what I've been looking into it doesn't really look like the Job Centre are geared up to help with business start ups, however OH got a nice 1 hour free appt with the business advisor at Barclays who has since said he will be happy to look over business plans before they are submitted (to the bank, for business loan) which is really helpful as this is our first go at anything like this! Might be worth a look at the JC, you just never know.