Member Article

Business start-up campaign a success

Business Link has declared its three month business start up campaign in County Durham a success. The business support agency aimed to initiate 500 new business start ups by the end of March with its What’s Yours? campaign. People were encouraged to contact Business Link with their ideas through a series of events, activities and competitions organised throughout the county.

The campaign was launched in response to figures that showed County Durham has one of the lowest levels of entrepreneurialism in the region with only 22 business start-ups per 10,000 people. Subsequently in 2005 there were 4,505 VAT registered North East businesses - but just 910 of these were in County Durham.

Almost 200 delegates took business advice from events such as Get Set Saturday and weekly What’s Yours Wednesdays, as well as a Family’s Fortune contest where families went head to head with their business ideas at the Gala Theatre in Durham.

Edd said: “Generating 500 new businesses in three months was always going to be a challenge so we are obviously delighted to see this become a reality. “When you take into account that for every three enquiries we receive at least one business is set up, you can see how busy we have been. We hope to see this momentum continue now that the campaign has come to an end.”

“Every entrepreneur is on a different track. Some want to set up a business tomorrow, some need to wait a few years so a significant amount may not come into fruition immediately. The main thing is that we have set the wheels in motion for over 500 potential future businesses and we look forward to monitoring their progress.”

Anyone considering setting up their own business is still urged to contact Business Link on 0845 600 9006 or log onto the local website at www.whatsyoursdurham.co.uk where entrepreneurs can test their ability with the entrepreneur-o-meter.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .