Businesses start-ups in North Somerset rose by more than a third in the final quarter of 2012 compared with the same period the previous year, figures from North Somerset Enterprise Agency show.
The 38 new companies, launched with the help of the agency, created 48 jobs. In the final thre
e months of 2011 some 28 businesses were launched of which 22 are still trading one year on.
The figures also compare favourably with three years ago when 31 companies were formed – 21 of which are still trading, having survived the all-important first three years, the period in which businesses are most likely to fail.
Weston-super-Mare-based North Somerset Enterprise Agency – a not-for-profit organisation that provides free or low-cost advice, information and training to start-up and growing businesses through its team of local business advisors – supported new enterprises across a wide range of sectors in the period, ranging from a costume hire business to an architectural design business and a clock repair service to a bistro.
Interest from would-be entrepreneurs has been so high that the agency has also joined forces with North Somerset Council’s Economic Development team to run two extra Starting In Business three-day courses in January and February.
Agency chief executive Angela Hicks said: “Our latest statistics reflect, as Prime Minister David Cameron spoke of last week, record numbers of new businesses starting.
“While this is a difficult time for many larger commercial organisations it is equally a time of new business opportunities.
“Our role is to ensure that businesses in our area have the help, advice and support they need to start-up and grow successfully – and it is rewarding to see a high success rate among those who have sought our help. Our advice to all new businesses or those with an early stage business idea is to come along and see how we can help their enterprise to flourish.”
North Somerset Enterprise Agency is launching a new business development centre which will allow small businesses to start-up and grow by providing flexible office space with on-site business support services including advice, training and networking.
The new centre, the first in North Somerset to include on-site impartial business support, will be a low-carbon managed office scheme with incubator space. The Hive, as the development will be known, is being built and will be managed by North Somerset Enterprise Agency on Weston Park, the site of the former Weston Airfield.
For further details visit www.northsomersetenterpriseagency.co.uk or contact Hazel Wintle on 01934 418118 or by e-mail to hazel.wintle@nsea.biz.
