THE StartUp Britain enterprise initiative is coming to the North East this week as it begins a bus tour of the UK in an attempt to inspire people to launch their own businesses.
A bus will bring experts, mentors, entrepreneurs and small business authors to Sunderland on Thursday to meet students and those looking to become their own boss.
Among the 14 locations on the national tour, the bus will visit the eVolve Technology Centre from 9am-noon and North East Business Innovation Centre from noon-4pm.
Emma Jones, co-founder and interim chief executive of StartUp Britain, said: “Thanks to help and support from our local StartUp champions, this tour allows us to take StartUp Britain across Britain. The bus will travel from north to south and east to west, loaded with business experts, start-up advice and valuable offers.
“We will be meeting with students and helping them turn ideas into ventures and we'll be visiting people moving from employment into self-employment. I look forward to welcoming hundreds of start-ups and small businesses on board.”
The StartUp Britain campaign shines a spotlight on the vast array of business support that is available online.
The organisation is backed by a number of companies who have pledged their support to Britain’s budding entrepreneurs and small business owners.
The tour will be joined by StartUp Britain’s founding sponsors AXA, Barclays, Dell, Intel, Intuit, Microsoft, MITIE and PayPal, who will each be giving specialist business advice and discounts to entrepreneurs across the UK.
Sally Revell, head of marketing at Intuit UK, said: “Small businesses form the backbone of Britain and what better way of supporting and encouraging these entrepreneurs than by providing our expert advice on how they can best manage their finances.
“Not only will this tour give vital help to start-ups and small businesses up and down the country, it will spur them on to give the UK the economic boost that it needs.”
Di Mayze, founder of start-up business BuggyTug and a local ambassador of StartUp Britain, said: “Working by yourself at home, like I and many other start-ups do, can be quite lonely and it's brilliant to not only bring start-ups together, but more importantly offer them much needed support and advice.”
The bus will be visiting regional enterprise and innovation centres as well as schools and universities across Britain. Once on board the bus, entrepreneurs will receive mentoring, business advice and take part in speed networking sessions from successful entrepreneurs and business leaders.
For more details visit www.startupbritain.org/summerbustour/