Local businesses are invited to access free, bespoke advice from the Business Essex, Southend and Thurrock (BEST) Growth Hub.
The Growth Hub is delivered by Colbea and acts as a single point of access to local, regional and national business support. The service is open to new and existing businesses across Greater Essex.
It offers advice on:
- business rates clarification
- VAT registration
- applying for and securing grant funding
- HMRC, accounting and returns
- marketing and website development
- recruitment
- finding work premises
- exporting goods
Between August and December last year over 215 businesses were supported.
Brentwood-based start-up, ECOEdge, accessed support via the BEST Growth Hub. Co-founder, Matt Carr, said:
Having recently launched a new business, we reached out to the Best Growth Hub for advice on how to grow and prioritise our to-do list.
One of their Business Advisors put us in touch with Innovate UK EDGE, the government’s national innovation and growth service for start-ups. Soon after, we were successfully onboarded onto the Innovate UK EDGE Programme.
At the end of 2023, we were also thrilled to hear we were one of the winners of the Growth Hub’s Elevate competition. We now have access to an incredible package of tools to help us thrive.
We are enormously grateful for the support we’ve received from the BEST Growth Hub. The huge boost for our business would not have been possible without their advice and guidance!"
Looking to start or grow a business? Get support from the BEST Growth Hub.