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Additional sources of help
There are a number of further sources of support that are external to the University of Edinburgh. Below you will find those that we particularly recommend.
Local enterprise trusts
These trusts offer free business training advice, contacts and, in some cases, funding. The trusts in Edinburgh are:
Student and graduate focussed support
Entrepreneur First - a programme enabling participants to build a tech start-up. Open to final year students and recent graduates (up to 2 years), from any discipline.
Shell LiveWIRE helps 16-30 year olds start and develop their own business and hosts a national competition for new business start-ups.
If you are 18-25 years old, the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust offers specialist advice and possibly grants of up to £1,000.
Support in Scotland
The Cultural Enterprise Office offers advice sessions, an information and enquiry service, a professional development programme and a series of useful factsheets for creative practitioners.
Scottish Enterprise provides news, events, information and advice for start-ups.
Scottishbusinesswomen is a website aimed at encouraging and assisting women in Scotland to establish their own businesses.
Entrepreneurial Exchange is a site that gives you the opportunity to network with other entrepreneurs.
Support with franchising
The British Franchise Association is the regulatory body for franchising companies. The site includes a definition of franchising plus lists of franchise members, franchise opportunities, training advice and case studies.
Venture Capital Associations
Business Angels are high net worth individuals who invest in high growth businesses. In addition to money, business angels often make their own skills, experience and contacts available to the company.
The British Venture Capital Association website includes a searchable database for sourcing funding.
National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) is an organisation dedicated to transforming the UK's capacity for innovation. They have endowed funds of over £300 million.
This article was published on Dec 12, 2012