Draft Table Outlining Independent Business Mentoring Services in Oxfordshire That Are Free
Independent BUSINESS SUPPORT SERVICESfor pre-start and small businesses in the Vale (free unless otherwise stated)
PTO for definitions
Organisation / Core service / Target market / typical customer / Additional information / Access and locations / Formal programmes / other servicesOxfordshire Business Enterprises
Contact: Lynette Riley
T: 01295 227082
E:
W: / Advice and counselling / Pre-start and early stage businesses and self-employed, any sector. / 21 volunteer advisers. Local authority funded and hosted, with in-kind support from venues and others.
NFEA member. / Oxon districts: Banbury, Berinsfield, Bicester (2 venues), Chipping Norton, Faringdon, Harwell, Oxford (Summertown and Woodside), Wantage, Witney.
TBAC Mentoring
Contact: Louise Goldsack
T: 01865 893305
E:
W: / Mentoring / Established businesses (more than 1 year in business), any sector / Five volunteer mentors, all are business owners. Funded by profits from TBAC Centres / sponsors. / Mentors’ business premises around Oxfordshire / Business premises,
Business Link
Contact: Customer Service Team
T: 01844 210430
E:
W: / Advice / Any SME. Any sector / 17 advisors offering information, diagnostic and brokerage service, intensive assistance and business action planning. / Customer premises, Business Link offices and other venues as required. / Events.
National Business Link services via website
Oxfordshire Enterprise Hub / SEEDA IGT
Contact: Placi O’Neill-Espejo
T: 01869 238088
E:
W: / Mentoring / Knowledge –based businesses with high growth potential or a unique proposition in their sector. / Up to six meetings with mentor without charge. SEEDA funded.
Transfer from Hub to IGT by October 2009. / Cherwell Innovation Centre, Harwell Innovation Centre, plus 10 other locations for meetings and hot desks in Oxon. / Enterprise Hub Mentoring Scheme. High Growth Mentoring Scheme.
Business incubation space
Enterprise Gateway
Contact: Paul Griffiths
T: 01908 679859
E: / Advice, counselling, peer mentoring / Deprived areas, specific demographic groups including women, BME and young people. / Focus on encouraging self-employment or business start-up. / Outreach workers focusing on Banbury and Oxford (Blackbird Leys) but responding to Business Link referrals county-wide.
Prince’s Trust
Contact: Calvin Silvester
T: 01753 502302
E:
W: / Advice, counselling, mentoring and workshops / 18-30 year olds, unemployed or working less than 16 hours per week / Mentor assigned from pre-start for up to three years. / 2009 – public venues close to individual clients’ homes.
2010 – four-day workshops in Oxford and possibly Banbury / Pre-start workshops for sales, marketing and money.
Loans and funding advice.
Discounted business services.
Science Oxford Networks
Contact: Richard Mercer
T: 01865 810008
E:
W: / Peer mentoring / High-technology start-up, early stage and established businesses / Closed groups of 8-10 members, nominal charge of £10 per member per meeting.
Self-funded / Oxford (other Oxfordshire locations being explored / developed on demand) / Women’s peer mentoring.
Experience Exchange.
Venturefest Technology Showcase.
4ICT.
PLATO: Sustain
Contact: Luke Faulkner
T: 01844 210477
E:
W: / Peer mentoring / Established businesses, any sector, typically 10+ employees and c. £1m+ turnover. / PLATO: Sustain is a closed group programme with a ‘green’ focus, starting in October 2009 and running for two years. ERDF funded. / Host company premises in the county (large companies that facilitate the programme) or other locations as determined by group members.
Business Link
Contact: Customer Service Team
T: 01844 210430
E:
W: / Workshops / Pre-start, any sector. / Pre-start workshops including business planning, winning and retaining customers and managing money. / Banbury and Oxford
Ethnic Minority Business Service
Contact: Dr Shaila Srinivasan
T: 01865 727015
E:
W: / Workshops / Pre-start, any sector.
If ethnic minority, must have been in UK for minimum 3 years or be married to a Briton / Workshops including business start-up skills and book-keeping.
LSC funded but delegates are charged £25 each / Banbury and Oxford / Book-keeping course
Service definitions(thanks to Kim Hills-Spedding via Mike Jennings at TBAC):
Counselling is helping people to explore all their options, thereby enabling them to discover for themselves the optimum solutions and encouraging them to take ownership of the actions they then take.
Advice is the provision of sound and impartial information based upon substantial business experience and knowledge of currently related factors, in order that the client may benefit from that advice in their subsequent actions.
Mentoring is the development of a relationship with a business client, through a combination of counselling and advice, within which the joint skills, experience and expertise can be applied to enable the business to benefit.
Peer mentoring is the development of relationships for the exchange of information, ideas and advice between SME executives in a structured, closed group environment, often facilitated by expert business mentors.
Workshops are formal training events delivered by a trainer to multiple delegates.
Business definitions
SME – Small and Medium-sized Enterprise. The current EU definition categorises enterprises (businesses) with fewer than 10 employees and less than €2m annual turnover as ‘micro’, those with fewer than 50 employees and less than €10m annual turnover as ‘small’, and those with fewer than 250 employees and less than €50m annual turnover as ‘medium-sized’. See for more details. Oxfordshire’s economy has a significant proportion of micro businesses and small businesses and these form the majority of businesses served by the organisations in this table.
Pre-start – a potential business or self-employed person who has not yet incurred any business costs or issued an invoice to a customer.
Start-up – a business or self-employed person who has incurred business costs and / or issued an invoice to a customer.
Draft business support service table – v4 3/9/09page 1 of 2