Fully Funded Essex Business Support

Backing Essex Business provides expert business advice, guidance on accessing finance, free training and skills assessments for your business, helping your business succeed and navigate challenges.

Supporting Essex Businesses with:

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Free Business Support and Advice

We help small-to-medium-sized businesses to grow, providing 12 hours of free professional advice on strategy, finance, marketing, recruitment, operations and more.

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Accessing Business Finance

We can provide business finance for growth and starting-up. We also deliver the government-backed Growth Guarantee Scheme up to £150k to support businesses to grow.

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Group2Grow Peer Network Programme

Group2Grow peer groups bring together cohorts of business professionals to learn, grow, and solve common problems with the support and 1:1 mentoring of a Business Coach.

Indentifying Skills Gaps and Upskilling Staff

Identify skills gaps within your team, and gain support, knowledge and signposting on how to solve them.

Events and Training

We offer a range of free workshops and training tailored to the needs of Essex businesses. From developing leadership skills to mastering the latest industry tools, our training workshops are designed to give you a competitive edge.

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Support by area

We can provide business support to businesses in the districts of Basildon, Braintree, Brentwood, Castlepoint, Chelmsford, Colchester, Epping Forest, Harlow, Maldon, Rochford, Southend-On-Sea, Tendring, and Uttlesford.

There are a series of programmes available across Essex. For more information select your district below.

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12 hours of free business support

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Free events and training

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Tailored support to enable growth

Latest News and Case Studies

Featured
Optimal Automotive
Optimal Automotive

What happens when passion meets precision – but growth stalls? Business Owner Alan Coles pivoted his business and found his niche through support from the Group2Grow Programme, allowing him to take a step back, refocus and reshape Optimal Automotive into a specialist brand with a clear direction and renewed purpose.

Introducing The Coval
Introducing The Coval

Introducing ‘The Coval’, Chelmsford’s newest coworking and serviced office space designed with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in mind.

Virtual Assist by Nicola
Virtual Assist by Nicola

Nicola Coulson, founder of ‘Virtual Assist by Nicola’ transformed the setback of redundancy into the realisation of a dream and the launchpad for her own business. Through help from peer network programme Group2Grow she has found reassurance and renewed confidence to achieve her business growth ambitions.

Rock the Day
Rock the Day

Transforming Creativity into a Thriving Business with support from The North Essex Economic Board.

The Juice Guy
The Juice Guy

Luke Morton, widely known as "The Juice Guy," founded Juicing with Luke in April 2021. Recognising the need to take his business to the next level, Luke joined Blueprint for Business for structured guidance.