Start-Up Advice
Business news, advice and inspiration.
Five tips for completing your business idea template
We've seen quite a few business idea templates completed here, in our time! Our advisors have come up with five tips to help you get through the whole document quickly, and without too much stress, when you're applying for a start up loan with us.
What is a business plan template?
Starting a business takes time, money and effort. A business plan is a great way of making sure you’re spending all of these resources in the right way, and gives you the best chance of seeing the results that you want.
An entrepreneur’s guide to charging and reclaiming VAT
We know, it’s never an entrepreneur’s favourite job, to spend a few hours reading articles about VAT - so we’d like to warmly welcome you to our brief guide to charging and reclaiming VAT, which has been created especially for new entrepreneurs and business owners and so covers everything from the basics to how to charge and reclaim VAT.
How much does it cost to start up a business?
Starting up a business is a daunting task, for many reasons, but often the number one thing on any budding entrepreneurs mind is ‘how much is this going to cost?’ and ‘can I really afford to do this?’
How to register as a sole trader with HM Revenue & Customs in England, Wales and Scotland
Whether you’re just thinking about becoming self employed or are ready to make things official, then you’ll probably have a few questions - and one of those questions may well be ‘how do I officially register as self-employed with HMRC?’.
Best accounting software for start-up businesses
When starting out on your journey as a new business owner, the thought that can be the most daunting is how you will manage your business finances and accounts. After all, as an entrepreneur, you have to wear all of the hats (at first, at least!) - from marketer to accountant and everything in between.
Captured Programme with Newcastle University
The Captured Programme from Newcastle University brings together experienced managers and owners from big organisations and small business owners in order to provide valuable insight, drawing on each other’s experiences.
Give it a go in 2019 with Transmit Start-Ups
When we took a look into it, we discovered that although 40% of Brits want to start their own businesses, only 15% of the population are classed as self-employed. So what’s holding so many of us back from becoming our own boss?
Starting Up in Scotland? Find Out How to Fund Your Start-Up
If you’re lucky enough to be an entrepreneur based in or near Glasgow and are thinking about starting up (or have already started up) your own business, then we have a FREE seminar that you can attend, offering first-class advice when it comes to understanding how to fund your start-up.
Enter the North East Innovation Awards 2018
Having started up in the North East ourselves, we’re passionate about this region and champion any event that shouts about the amazing local entrepreneurs and start-up businesses - so if you’re an innovative start-up based in the North East, then we’d highly recommend entering yourself and/or your business into these awards.
Banking with Tide & Transmit Startups
If you enjoy waiting in queues, filling out paperwork and organising in-house meetings with your bank - Tide is not for you. If you’d like to save yourself time and money with your business banking, read on….
Backing Entrepreneurs with Start-Up Loans – The Industry Angel Business Podcast
Commercial Director, Richard Myers, was invited onto The Industry Angel Business Podcast to discuss all things startups. From his own career path to what entrepreneurs should do when seeking finance.
GDPR
Like most companies, Transmit have been working very hard behind the scenes to ensure we’re compliant with the new EU GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in time for the 25th May deadline.
Entrepreneurs, We Need You: Become a Business Mentor With Transmit Start-Ups
Since we first started, we've backed over 3,830 entrepreneurs with £36,700,000 worth of funding - but this isn't the only way we invest in entrepreneurs. We need MORE successful business men and women to inspire the next generation of successful business owners.
Five Must-Read Tips When Deciding Whether to Franchise Your Business
Franchising your business can often be the best way to expand. It gives you wider access to unique talent, provides a minimised growth risk, relieves you of control over managers and brings with it interesting new challenges. We've pulled together 5 top tips to help you.
How to Successfully Franchise Your Business: Read ARTventurers’ Story
We catch up again with Fiona Simpson, founder of ARTventurers and recipient of a start-up loan, to discuss why she decided to franchise her business and how it came to be such a success.
GDPR Top Tips for Small Businesses
Following on from our earlier blog post about GDPR, we’ve put together some top tips for small businesses which should make data protection that little bit easier.
What is GDPR and why does it matter for small businesses?
You’ve probably heard GDPR being mentioned a lot over the past couple of months and maybe wondered what it’s all about. Well fear not my friend, we’re here to explain the basics…
Innovate and go global with EEN & RTC North
Are you an ambitious business, with new ideas, looking to grow? To expand internationally safely and successfully, Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) can help you turn your ambitions into reality with local support and global knowledge.
Top 5 Tips to Become a More Organised Entrepreneur
As an entrepreneur, you need to wear many hats. You’re the MD, the accountant, the marketing department and your very own office secretary, so inevitably life can become quite hectic - filled with long days at the office, never ending to-do lists and an ever-growing repertoire of responsibilities.
Big Youth Accelerator launches as part of the Big Youth Group (BYG.)
The Big Youth Accelerator (BYA) has launched as part of the Big Youth Group (BYG). This new scheme has great potential to help young people into employment - so we wanted to shout about the initiative and explain more about what it is and how young entrepreneurs can benefit.
Mega Milestones: Award-winning ARTventurers Celebrates 25 Branches
How did founder and Managing Director Fiona turn ARTventurers from a start-up into a successful franchise business with over 25 happy franchisees? We caught up with her to find out.
Transmit Start-Ups Launch Fast-Track Application Process for Small Business Loans
If your maximum borrowing requirement is £5,000, then we can now fast-track your application to ensure you receive the funds as quickly as possible.
5 Facts: 5 Inspirational Films for Entrepreneurs
From time to time as an entrepreneur, you can feel downtrodden, hopeless and lacking in motivation. But this doesn’t mean that it’s time to give up - it just means it’s time for a change of scene or a bit of inspiration that will amp up those motivation levels.
5 Facts: 5 ways to Unwind & Destress as an Entrepreneur
It’s true that there is no freedom quite like being your own boss and working your own hours, but equally those that are self-employed work on average for longer hours and for less money than employees of a company. These long hours combined with the pressure of making enough money to at least pay your bills can quickly send stress levels soaring, so we’ve compiled our 5 top-tips to de-stress yourself as an entrepreneur.
Newcastle’s Favourite Small Business to be Revealed
The people of Newcastle have been voting for their favourite small business in the Small Business Saturday poll, in association with Newcastle City Council. The six businesses shortlisted for the prestigious award are listed here.
National Mentoring Day – Become a Transmit Start-Ups Mentor!
To date, we’ve helped over 2,000 entrepreneurs through our start-up loans scheme and professional mentoring programme – with our mentoring services proving invaluable to many of our loan recipients. If you’re one of those entrepreneurs that has received a start-up loan from us and feel you are now in a position to offer mentoring and advice to applicants, then we’d love to hear from you.
Pros and Cons of Bootstrapping Your Startup
Bootstrapping, or self-financing, is one of the earliest forms of funding coming from personal investments of entrepreneurs and business founders. When done right, it opens far bigger possibilities. If you’re looking into bootstrapping your startup, then this article is for you. Let’s weigh in on the pros and cons of bootstrapping and help you decide if it’s right for your business.
Essential Advice for Startup Recruitment
As a startup, recruitment drives can be daunting. Not only are they expensive but they’re time consuming too. If you make a poor judgement, there could be some serious financial repercussions. The team you hire will play a major role in the success or failure of your company. Innovate UK have some essential advice for startup recruitment. If you follow these simple tips, you’ll be on the right track.
Are Take-Away Apps a Good Marketing Option for Your Restaurant?
Online food ordering apps have revolutionised the takeaway scene in nearly every major city around the world. Are take-away apps a good marketing option for your restaurant? And what are the alternatives? To find out, we’ve compared the costs of using a take-away app to traditional printed flyers and distribution.
Essential Advice for Startup Recruitment
As a startup, recruitment drives can be daunting. Not only are they expensive but they’re time consuming too. If you make a poor judgement, there could be some serious financial repercussions. The team you hire will play a major role in the success or failure of your company. Innovate UK have some essential advice for startup recruitment. If you follow these simple tips, you’ll be on the right track.
Realistic ways a startup can successfully implement OKRs
A startup’s flat hierarchy implies that employees have to self-monitor their own performance and there is usually no hawk-eyed manager watching your every step. But, many a times judging your performance objectively can be hard and such judgements can be quite distorted too. This is why setting a system to help employees to objectively monitor their own performance can be quite helpful. OKR system (Objectives and Key Results) is a great option here. It will help define and track objectives within a company, especially on an individual level.
Our Top Marketing Tips for Introverts
50.7% of us would describe ourselves as introverts – does that mean we can’t be as successful because we don’t fit the stereotype? – Absolutely not! Rather than force yourself out of your comfort zone or worse, avoid marketing and self-promotion at all costs in case you wind up in unfamiliar territory, here are our top tips on how introverts can market themselves and their business.
SEO For New Websites: 7 Ways to Set Yourself Up for Success
For many new business, driving new customer acquisition through Google is make or break and therefore, SEO should be a huge consideration from the beginning. We have complied this guide to help you ensure your website is setup for success. No complicated theory, just plain old common sense and surprisingly actionable steps, which will lay the foundation for SEO successes.
Startup Graveyard: Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Following on from my update on LinkedIn about Startup Graveyard recently, I was reading about Exec, a house cleaning service that users could book from their iPhone or the web (it was closed then bought by Handy for $10 million). This next content about Exec is taken from Startup Graveyard.
Infographic: 10 Mistakes to Avoid When Making Your Business Plan
When you start a business, there are 1,001 things on your to-do list. At this point, you’re not quite sure if you’re good at multitasking, or bad at concentrating… So where does making a business plan come on your to-do list? If the answer is ‘somewhere near the bottom’, then making it a priority is a good idea and here’s why:
Why is Professional Photography Important to Your Business?
There are many ways that you can go about marketing your business, including social media and press releases, however take in to account that a block of text is never going to captivate your audience. You need to get some really great photography to supplement your social media and press releases.
Birmingham Start-Up? Here’s How You Can Co-Locate with Industry Giants
Innovation Birmingham has announced it has launched its application process for its upcoming Serendip Smart Cities Incubator programme. The programme will be housed in the new £8 million iCentrum building which opened March 2017 (sounds fancy – and it is!).
Apps & Tools to Increase Your Productivity (and Sanity)
A while ago we posted an article about tools that we use on a regular basis to make us more productive and organised in our work lives. As entrepreneurs we are always incredibly busy so any web or mobile apps that help us save time and increase productivity are always going to be a good investment. In addition to tools that we originally wrote about, we have a few more that will increase your productivity (and sanity).
How To Start A Clothing Brand
The fashion industry is worth a huge £43.2 billion annually in the UK alone and £411 billion in Europe. It's no wonder then that it is an attractive prospect for an entrepreneur looking to start up their own business, especially for those who are creatively minded and who have a passion for clothing.
We’re looking for a start-up Business Adviser
Transmit Start-Ups is looking for a start-up Business Adviser, to work out of our head office in Gateshead. We are a national delivery partner of the Government-backed Start Up Loans programme, covering the UK. We provide clients with business planning assistance and help with their Start Up Loans applications.
5 Facts: 5 Common Reasons Start-Ups Fail (and how to overcome them)
We’ve compiled a list of five common reasons startup businesses fail and how you can overcome each of them to give your business its best chance to succeed.
Capsule: The Best CRM System for a Start-up Business?
As your business grows, the need for a suitable CRM (customer relationship management) system will become more and more apparent. Keeping up to date information on your customers and prospects. Using and sharing this information internally ensures effective communication, both internally and externally.
Strength in Numbers with FSB
You probably have already heard of Federation of Small Business (FSB) but are unsure what it is and how it could help your business. Established in 1974, it is a membership organisation for small businesses across the UK and currently has around 150,000 members.
New #TeamNEN Campaign
NEN are a unique membership body, offering support and advice to (mostly) not-for-profit enterprise organisations throughout England. Believing members to be crucial to economic growth throughout the country, NEN support its members by representing their interests, promoting their results and providing connections to opportunities for further success.
30 Day Marketing Challenge: Marketing Checklist for New Entrepreneurs
If you’ve just started a new business, then it’s likely that you have a never-ending to-do list. With our partner, Shopify, we’ve pulled together this checklist of marketing activities to complete within 30 days that will help you to pull in traffic to your website and, your first sale.
The Power of PR with Journolink
PR, or Public Relations, is one of the most powerful forms of marketing for your small business, particularly if you are working to a tight budget (aren't we all?). “If I only had two dollars left, I’d spend one dollar on PR.” – Bill Gates
The Secret to Defining Your Brand’s USP
Everyone in business understands how essential a USP really is. It’s often one of the first considerations any startup makes. The truth is, despite being fundamental to success, it’s actually often skipped over. Whether you’re a brand looking to further define and secure their unique selling point or a startup getting ready to take the world by storm, these tips from Innovate UK will help.