Bid to bring StartUp Bus to Shrewsbury and Oswestry
A special bus that offers specialist advice to young people planning to set up a new business will be touring the UK this summer, and Shropshire people can help to ensure that it visits Shropshire.
To help increase the number of young people starting up new businesses across Shropshire, Shropshire Council has bid for StartUp Britain’s StartUp Tour Bus to visit both Shrewsbury and Oswestry this July.
As the organisers have had more applications than there are days on the tour, people are asked to vote (using Twitter) for the towns they think the bus should visit.
To vote for the bus to visit Shrewsbury and Oswestry, people can ‘cast a tweet’ at http://www.startupbritain.co/tour
The winning locations will be announced on Monday 28 May.
The double-decker StartUp Bus will carry a team of business experts, mentors, authors and entrepreneurs to get face-to-face with the increasing number of young people hoping to set up a business.
It will also deliver information and application details about the £82m Start-Up Loans scheme which was launched in May last year and lends up to £2,500 to people aged 18 to 30 wanting to start a business.
There will be an opportunity to apply for the loan on board the bus and everyone will receive a free StartUp Loans Kit with a guide on how to start a business.
Mark Pembleton, Service Manager for Business and Enterprise at Shropshire Council, said:
“Supporting businesses to start up and grow is a key activity for Shropshire Council. We’re running and supporting a range of initiatives to help both new and existing businesses, and it would be brilliant if we could get the StartUp bus to visit both Shrewsbury and Oswestry on its UK tour.”
To see a short film of the Start Up bus in action in 2012, click here.
Click here for more information about Start-Up loans.
Further information
A recent report into entrepreneurs in the UK revealed a significant rise in the number of young people aged 18 to 29 engaged in early stage entrepreneurial activity. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report showed that in 2010, 5.3% of young people aged 18 to 29 were in early stage entrepreneurial activity. That figure rose to 7.8% last year – an increase of a third in twelve months.
Shropshire Council is currently supporting a number of initiatives to help people to set up their own business.
One example is the Start Up Club for 18-30 year-olds which is being held once a month in Oswestry from October 2012 to October 2013. Supported by Shropshire Council and Oswestry Town Council , the meetings are being delivered by Shropshire Enterprise, and offer young entrepreneurs free information mentoring, advice, support and access to Start Up Loan finance. More than 30 young people have attended meetings of the club so far.
Recent figures provided by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed that self-employment is gaining popularity, with 4.2 million (14%) self-employed workers nationwide, an increase of 367,000 in four years.
The entrepreneurial climate in Oswestry is positive, with 178 companies formed in the area in 2012, a 19.5% increase compared to 2011, and a record year for company registrations in Oswestry.
Any new or existing business seeking information and support can contact Shropshire Council’s business support team on 01743 252596 or go to shropshire.gov.uk/business.nsf.
