Starting a business
Start-Up.
A three-stage start-up programme for anyone launching a business — from the idea through to trading.
Open to the wider business community.CostFreeEligibilityPre-start and new businessesFunded byStoke-on-Trent City Council and Staffordshire County Council
What's involved
What you get.
Most start-up support is either a leaflet or a twelve-week course. This is three stages you move through at your own pace, with an adviser who stays with you from the first idea to your first invoice.
Stage one — the idea
Testing whether it works: the market, the numbers, and whether you actually want the life it creates.
Stage two — the plan
Structure, registration, pricing, and a business plan good enough to take to a bank or a landlord.
Stage three — trading
First customers, cashflow and the practical mess of the first year, with your adviser still on the end of the phone.
Next steps
How to get started.
Register your interest by phone or through the contact form. You will be matched with a start-up adviser, usually within a week.