One-to-one advice

Oxfordshire Business Enterprises' one-to-one advice for business start-ups is our core service. It is free and confidential and held at venues across the county. (See 'About Us').

Initial meetings

The advice for business start-ups begins at the pre-start stage and continues until your business is firmly established. This is a bespoke service entirely for your benefit. You can discuss anything that concerns you and ask for advice on any aspect of starting and running a new business.

“Great to have face-to-face contact with a really knowledgeable person, not a book or a web site.”

- Jon Barton, Clarify Communications. www.clarifycommunications.co.uk

Some people use the advisor as a sounding board for their ideas while others want to discuss specific aspects such as finding premises, pricing or whether to set up as a sole trader, partnership or a limited company. You might wish to have repeat meetings to develop a relationship with your advisor that will be very supportive and confidence-boosting.

The meetings can be used to:

• talk through your initial ideas and check their viability
• help you construct or review your business plan
• discuss market research and marketing
• advise on areas specific to your business
• establish an action plan
• book a follow-up meeting

You can ask to speak to someone about a specialist subject such as bookkeeping, taxation or marketing.

The business advice meetings, which are on an appointment basis, usually last about an hour and a half. We confirm your meetings and suggest how you can prepare beforehand so you can obtain the maximum benefit from them.

All Oxfordshire Business Enterprises advisors have considerable experience in the business world and undertake their duties on a voluntary basis to help you start your own business.

Oxfordshire Business Enterprises also has hundreds of profiles of business types and business information fact sheets that are available to you to help with your planning. We also have excellent business relations with the local Inland Revenue support team and with all types of professional service providers.

Click here to book an appointment