Business Support Programmes
There are a range of business support programmes available to help businesses in Northern Ireland. The range of support can be confusing so the following is an attempt to summarise:
Invest Northern Ireland
To become a client of Invest NI, your business must be in the manufacturing or tradeable services sectors and must have potential to turnover £100,000 within 3 years of starting trading, with at 25% of sales being outside of Northern Ireland.
Invest NI also offers free advice and information on a wide range of business related topics.
For further information please see the following web sites-
www.investni.com
and
www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk
Enterprise Northern Ireland
Enterprise NI deliver 3 important initiatives for businesses through its local Enterprise Agency partners. The Enterprise Development Programme provides free training, advice, and business planning for anyone considering self-employment. Tradelinks is a programme offering businesses with under 10 employees the opportunity to research the potential of cross border markets through assessment, market entry plan and mentoring. The Enterprise Loan Fund offers unsecured loans for start up and existing businesses who otherwise may have difficulty accessing support.
For further information please see-
www.enterpriseni.com and www.tradelinks2.com
You can also contact your Local Enterprise Agency (LEDCOM) www.ledcom.org
Intertrade Ireland
Intertrade Ireland runs a number of cross border trade programmes including Acumen (a sales and marketing programme ) Fusion (technology transfer) Innova (Collaborative research and development ) Equity Network (Venture Capital) and Go 2 tender (workshops for companies wishing to focus on public sector tender opportunities)
For further details see- www.intertradeireland.com
Department Of Employment And Learning (DEL)
DEL offer a wide range of capability building programmes aimed at businesses employing over 10 people who are generally not Invest NI clients.
For further information see- www.delni.gov.uk
