Who we are

Oxfordshire Business Enterprises is the enterprise service for Oxfordshire and the surrounding area. Its role is to provide the right advice to help people start and run a business, so if you want to learn more about how to start your own business, you have come to the right place.

Oxfordshire Business Enterprises was formed in 2003 by combining two previous enterprise agencies, NORBIS and TBAC, to produce one agency to provide business startup services to the whole of Oxfordshire and the surrounding area.

We are a non-profit making organisation supported by Oxfordshire's local authorities and co-ordinated from Cherwell District Council's offices in Banbury.

View our information leaflet

“They helped us turn an idea into a business and talked us through things like rates, rent and the competition. The advice we received was very good quality and we were amazed it was free; it would normally cost a fortune.”

- Robin Burford, RJ’s, Banbury www.rjsbarbershop.co.uk

Our mission

• To give advice on how to start your own business in the Oxfordshire area
• To help people start and run new businesses and to increase their chances of success.
• To contribute to the employment creation, new business generation and wealth of the Oxfordshire area.

The free advice service

Oxfordshire Business Enterprises' core service of providing business advice on a one-to-one basis is free, confidential and available to anyone. This includes general advice on starting a business as well as specialist advice on topics such as finance, VAT, sales or marketing. Considerable thanks go to the following for providing venues for the service:

• Banbury - Cherwell District Council
• Berinsfield - Employment Action Group
• Bicester - Clark Howes and Sadler Talbot
• Faringdon - The Faringdon Business Centre
• Oxford - TBAC
• Summertown - The MGroup
• Wantage - The Advice Centre
• Witney - West Oxfordshire District Council

How our service works

Typically you would start by contacting us to register your interest in receiving help and advice from Oxfordshire Business Enterprises. We would then suggest you have a free, initial one-to-one meeting with one of our advisors to discuss your business idea and to identify how our business startup services can best help you.

You are entitled to as many free one-to-one meetings with an advisor as you wish. A few weeks after your meetings we will contact you again to suggest a further meeting to review progress.