Growing your business
Are you ready to grow your business and take it to the next level? If so we have put together a list of schemes and initiatives that are available to help your business grow. Below you can find resources on:
- digital marketing
- local and national business support
- innovation and development
- cyber security advice
- trade and exports
If you are thinking about setting up your own business, we have lots of useful tips on our starting a business webpage.
Digital marketing
We have put together a marketing guide [PDF, 0.1MB] full of handy tips and advice for small local businesses looking to increase their social media and online presence. This guide covers:
- websites and e-commerce
- search engine optimisation
- social media tips for Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn and Instagram
- email marketing.
Find business support
Below are some local and national resources to help grow and develop your business.
Local support:
- Allia's business support programme help businesses grow and develop
- Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) offers professional development advice, consultancy, and innovation support
- The Business and IP Centre (BIPC) Cambridgeshire and Peterborough supports entrepreneurs, inventors and small businesses. They also provide Intellectual Property and Market Research advice sessions and workshops, on a range of business support topics
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Growth Hub gives local businesses access to a wide range of support, advice, grants and events
- Get Set and Grow for businesses with ambitious plans to scale and grow, delivered through a mix of workshops and one to ones. The programme is funded by The UK Shared Prosperity Fund and is delivered by the BIPC on our behalf
- The Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge offer resources to help grow your business through its Entrepreneurship Centre. It also offers courses in business management for executives, leaders and managers
- Let’s Do Business Group provide financial advice and support, helping businesses across the South East and East of England to start-up, grow and thrive, as well as increasing employment opportunities to grow our local economies.
-
Our Small Business Grant Scheme provides free expert advice and support for entrepreneurs who are looking to start up a new business and grant funding up to £5,000 for existing businesses with up to nine employees who are looking to grow within the district.
National support:
- Amazon Small Business Accelerator supports the UK’s thriving small business community by providing a range of free-to-use resources and events to support start-ups, entrepreneurs and small businesses
- The Federation of Small Businesses provides a range of useful information and fact sheets
- Goldman Sachs' '10,000 Small Businesses' is an initiative to help entrepreneurs create jobs and economic opportunity by providing access to education, capital and business support services
- Free webinars are available from HMRC they cover topics from, trading internationally, tax advice, guidance if you are self-employed and many other helpful business support topics
- Mentorsme connects companies with mentoring organisations that can support and guide their growth
- NerdWallet support local businesses with a range of services including financial advice, and business automation
- VisitEngland’s free Business Advice Hub helps tourism businesses to grow, with free resources, advice and toolkits.
Innovation
- Innovate UK offers funds and competitions to help businesses undertake a range of tasks including feasibility testing, product creation and improvement, and research and development
- Research and Development tax reliefs corporation tax is available for projects that try to develop practical science or technology solutions
-
Enterprise Europe Network aims to help businesses innovate and grow internationally.
Trade and exports
- The Department for International Trade offers guidance for new, occasional and frequent exporters
- Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce offers a range of services to help exporters
- Open to Export a community-based business service aimed at helping small and medium-sized enterprises to export
- The EU useful one stop portal providing practical advice on how to do business in Europe.
The following websites are aimed at those businesses that trade for a social and/or environmental purpose:
Keeping your business safe
Fraud can happen to any type of business in many different ways, and no business is too small to be targeted.
Cyber-crime, also known as online fraud, affects thousands of businesses each year, resulting in increased costs, operational disruption, reputational damage and loss of revenue. Below are some resources to help your business stay safe:
- Action Fraud is the UK's national reporting centre if you have been scammed, defrauded or experienced cyber-crime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. You can also report fraud or cyber-crime by calling 0300 123 2040
- The Eastern Cyber Resilience Centre protect supply chain businesses and third sector organisations in the East of England against cyber-crime
- The National Cyber Security Centre offers a practical guide for small businesses on how to make their cyber security affordable. They also have a Small Business Guide to Response and Recovery, which provides guidance about how to plan recovery from a cyber incident.
HMRC has some useful advice to help identify tax scam phone calls, emails and text messages.
HMRC will never:
- leave a voicemail threatening legal action
- threaten arrest
- ask for personal or financial information when sending text messages.