The London New Enterprise website will be the first site of its kind that enables landlords and agents to promote special and introductory offers such as; reduced rents, waived deposits or preferential terms to new businesses in London. In effect, the website is a clearinghouse for properties that Landlords wish to let quickly.

We have over 20+ landlords involved including leading Capital Enterprise members such as London Youth Support Trust (LYST), Centa and Greater London Enterprise (GLE) and major private sector landlords such as Spacia, Work Space and Avanta promoting offers on their office, retail and workshop space.

We obviously want more landlords to take part, so if you know any property owners or agents with an empty property to let, please direct them to the site London New Enterprise Website.

Finally, this site will be the place to start if you are looking to rent affordable commercial property. Please let your clients know.

Tim Campbell, Founder of the Bright Ideas Trust

Sometimes I look enviously on the experience of enterprise support providers in American and Australia where demand for enterprise support services is higher and where self-help business books sell as well as books on cookery or gardening. In the UK, enterprise support service providers regularly suffer from “adverse selection” – the reality that demand for services (especially at start up stage) are often from those that are hardest to help and least likely to succeed. This could be a big problem for enterprise support providers if government funding bodies change their strategies to focus future programmes on supporting new and trading businesses who can create jobs for the millions people who are unemployed.

So can celebrity business people (i.e. entrepreneurs who have been on telly or entrepreneurs who started or run well-known companies) help our sector to reach out and engage with a wider cross section of entrepreneurs? Can celebrities make them listen to what we have to offer? We are about to see, for this month Capital Enterprise will launch (with its members and funds from the local council) its first enterprise fair (www.enterprisefair.com) in Islington on the 18th March.

Nick Jenkins, Founder of Moonpig.com

The unique feature of the Islington Enterprise Fair is that involves a series of Q & A panels with well-known celebrity entrepreneurs such as former apprentice winner Tim Campbell, founder of Moonpig, Nick Jenkins, and local big wig Jack Lyon whose family run the Business Design Centre. The fairs also have exhibition stands and workshops where local Capital Enterprise members such as Pre-vista, London Met University and Centa can promote their services and provide advice. But the key feature of the day is the opportunity for local business people to listen to the first hand “war stories” of successful entrepreneurs and get them to spill their “secrets”.

In the USA there seems to be a shared view that “insider knowledge”  (i.e. secrets) is the key to success. If you know what the successful know, you too could be successful in business as in life. We are about to see whether it holds true for the London Entrepreneur.

Finally, if you or anyone else you know wants to get an “insider view” on how to raise money, how to bootstrap your first venture, how to convince major buyers to take the risk on you or anything else related to making your business successful, then please get them to check out www.islingtonenterprisefair.com

(It’s important to note that if we do get a good turnout we hope to repeat the programme across London.)

Funding Opportunity for Third Sector Organisations

The Social Investment Business is the fastest growing social investor in the UK. It manages government funds totalling over £400 million, available to third sector organisations: charities, social enterprises and community groups. In particular it has business development grants of £10,000 – £20,000 to help third sector organisations to develop feasibility studies and plans for projects that eventually can be self-financing. There will also be a handful of grants of up to £75,000 for larger projects. More information is available on the Social Investment Business website.

Tender Opportunity

Media Trust is looking for an organisation with experience of working with young people and an understanding of working in the media/creative field to evaluate their youth mentoring programme. If this description fits then please review the PDF on the Media Trust website. If you fit the sector but have no in-house experience of carrying out evaluations then let me know, for I have over 20 CVs from experienced evaluators looking for work who could partner with you to deliver this project for the MEDIA Trust.

Job Opportunity

Prevista is currently recruiting for two experienced Business Advisers (SFEDI qualified) to further develop their client base in South London. They are a Capital Enterprise member who specialise in the delivery of government funded projects and supporting enterprise across London through a range of partially and fully subsidised business support and advice. The Business Advisers salary will be between £32 – £40k per annum.

Prevista would like to hear from applicants who have strong networks in south London, a good client base and have delivered on public-funded / Government funded projects. The jobs on offer are an opportunity to work more innovatively, building partnerships with businesses interested in sustainability, access to finance and green credentials specifically in the following areas:

Environmental Management - Must specialise in environmental management and/or innovative business solutions which have a positive effect on the environment. Advising SME’s to promote and integrate innovation and best practice in environmental management and performance in areas such as waste management energy and water efficiency, procurement and adapting to climate change.  

Raising Finance - The position involves assisting businesses to access and raise finance. The job demands that the advisor has a firm grasp of financial management, knowledge of different types of finance (including Venture Capital, Business Angels, Equity and Mezzanine) and procurement expertise. Ideally you will have a good track record of success in raising finance for a small business.

Successful applicants will benefit from Prevista’s corporate bonus scheme, accredited development and optional pension scheme.

If you are interested and would like to know more please forward your CV and covering letter to HR@prevista.co.uk

Freelance Opportunity

A host of Capital Enterprise members are in need of experienced business advisers to work on a freelance basis to advise individuals wishing to start a business. The day rate is not good but the work is very rewarding. So, if you are a qualified advisor or an experienced entrepreneur looking to become an advisor please send your CV to me and I will pass it on to the appropriate member.

After all, they remain the single largest source of funding for ‘Enterprise Support’ in London, and so with apologies to the wider, saner world but today’s blog will be of sole interest to Capital Enterprise members because it concerns some very interesting news from the LDA. For anyone else who has tripped over this article you are well advised to stop reading or undertake the certain risk of being very, very bored.

For first time readers, I should clarify again that in this blog ‘Market Intelligence’ is a combination of on-the-record correspondence sent to this author by a reputable authority – the FACT – and a second hand un-attributed report by a member repeating a conversation they had, in this case with the LDA, that I am now about to share with the world via this blog.

Firstly, the fact

I received today an e-mail from Rob Knott, the recently appointed interim Director of Contract Management for Business Support and Promotion at the LDA. Rob and Kate Pender are leading for the LDA on the development and contracting out of the Business Link Successor service in London. As most of you no doubt know, the tendering procedure was suddenly halted by the LDA in December. This left SERCO, the present delivery agent of the Business Link service in London, to deliver the service until the contact ends at the end of next month. Rather than summarise what Rob Knott said in his e-mail, I thought I would just lift a direct quote. So here goes:

“We [the LDA] have now taken the decision to put the programme [tendering of the ‘Business Link Successor’ service] on hold while we undertake a more comprehensive review, covering our strategy and approach, the overall scope required, the service specification and related budget (existing and future) and a range of other key external factors, such as the upcoming general election. This, understandably, includes the Competitive Dialogue procurement, which has also been put on hold. The scope of the review incorporates our existing delivery partners and it is our intention to complete this work by early April, when we will be in a position to communicate our next steps. Our aim is also to ensure the review is aligned to the Mayor’s new Economic Development Strategy for London and the LDA’s Investment Strategy.

There are two potential outcomes from this stage of the review:

• we may elect to procure a successor contract, likely to be through a Restricted Procedure
• we may elect to extend the existing contracts (within specific parameters) to continue working with our existing delivery partners, potentially, up until March 2012

We do appreciate your forbearance over the last few weeks, but I am sure you will appreciate this is a significant undertaking and we are working to achieve an optimal outcome.”

I will leave you all to ponder what the above passage means, but the reference to the impact of the upcoming election may be a reference to the Mark Prisk article in the Sunday Times.

Secondly, the unconfirmed

If this piece of news is, according to my definition, a ‘fact’, then the next piece of news on the LDA plans is an unconfirmed, un-attributed, interesting only to us, rumour on the LDA plans for European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under-spend.

At a recent meeting between a member and the LDA ERDF team, our source was told by the LDA that it is very unlikely there will be another open tendering round for the remainder of the unspent ERDF for London. This had not yet been confirmed by the LDA, despite my repeated calls, but I can confirm senior managers at the LDA have told me, that from now on, open tendering rounds are, when feasible, to be replaced by commissioning. In the case of ERDF, this means that the LDA will decide the exact service they want to see delivered under the various ERDF priorities, and once the specification and budget is settled, the LDA will subsequently place this service contract out to tender through the CompeteFor website.

As it stands the LDA have told my source that they have different plans for the different ERDF priorities. The unconfirmed intelligence is as follows:

Priority 1: “ Innovation Support-Knowledge Transfer” – In this priority area there is an estimated unspent allocation of between £12-14m. Discussions are underway at the LDA to match this pot and for the LDA to use this fund to support relevant ‘Solutions for Business’ products. Although there may be some small projects commissioned by the LDA in June, my source reports that the bulk of the funds will be commissioned after the Autumn.

Priority 2: “Increasing SME’s Access to Finance” – The LDA have up to £20m from the ERDF pot to spend on this priority and apparently they are likely to put this money into a Venture Capital Loan fund in collaboration with the European Investment Bank.

Priority 3: “Sustainable Places for Business” – This priority has £6m of capital funding which is to be matched with JESSICA funding on “god knows” what. Any news would be welcomed, but I expect it will be spent on something to do with the Olympics.

Priority 4: “Technical Assistance” – The LDA has £5m to spend on so called ‘Technical Assistance’ but from personal experience the LDA’s definition on what this money can be spent on is so tight that it is almost impossible for them or anyone else to spend. If I get a clear steer from the LDA that Technical Assistance funds can be spent on measures, such as capacity building organisations or processes to deliver present and future innovation focused programmes, then Capital Enterprise would be very much interested in assembling a consortium of members to approach the LDA. If you are interested and have match funding please let me know.

Finally, a bit of funding-related news

I spent two days this week in Edinburgh trying to bolt Capital Enterprise, and at least two members, into an Edinburgh Council led bid for Transnational European Intereg 4C funding to support innovation. I think it went well and if things go to plan we will be part of a large bid with partners in Edinburgh, Dublin, Normandy, Germany, Belgium and Somerset.

There are other European Funding bids coming up and if you are interested in finding out more then do not forget to contact Abigail Freeman – Capital Enterprise European Funding consultant.

So here ends, what for anyone not interested in delivering publicly funded enterprise support programmes in London, must be the most boring blog ever posted on the web. You were warned.

Audience with the Shadow Minister for Business

Firstly, on Tuesday the 2nd March we have “An Audience with Mark Prisk – Shadow Minister for Business”. This great opportunity to hear what a Conservative Government plans for our sector and is exclusively for Capital Enterprise Members and Partners. It is being hosted by Capital Enterprise member, University College London at their campus in Central London. If you have not already booked your place, please do so now by e-mailing che@capitalenterprise.org.

New to London

Secondly, on the morning of the 12th March, Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, will be launching the New To London empty property on-line clearing house at the Oval. The service, developed by Capital Enterprise in partnership with the Mayor of London office, Workspace Group PLC and the British Property Federation, will provide an opportunity for Capital Enterprise members and property owners across London to list and promote a space or property that is offered on favourable terms to new entrepreneurs and businesses. We will be sending out more information next week on how you can get involved, but yet again, it is a high profile event involving Capital Enterprise and participating members.

Enterprise Fair in Islington

Thirdly, Capital Enterprise, in partnership with members such as Bright Ideas Trust, Centa, Prevista and The National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs (NACUE), have been involved in organising and sourcing funding from the local council to run an Enterprise Fair in Islington on the 18th March.

The publicity for this event goes live on Monday, but you can have a sneak preview.

If the event goes well we will be looking to stage a series of similar events with willing partners in willing boroughs across London.

Knowledge and Skills Workshops

Finally, Capital Enterprise will next week be launching a series of half-day workshops for members, staff and associates to improve their knowledge and skills in key enterprise support areas such as using social media, innovation development and sales pitching. These workshops will be free to members and delivered by some of the leading lights in their fields including Central School of Speech and Drama, lbdesign and Happen, the creative innovation agency.

A very busy month, and that’s not withstanding that we have it on good authority that their will be a new round of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to be announced in early March. I can therefore only hope that you believe me when I write, it is just a coincidence that March is also the month that we send out our membership renewal forms. I hope it turns out to be an interesting one.

This two-day conference will provide business advisers, higher education academics, technology transfer managers, professional advisers, creative businesses and IP lawyers with a platform for debate on present and future government policies. The conference will also focus on the effect of digital technology on conventional business models and new trends in IP development and management.

Seminars, plenary sessions and workshops will enable members to close knowledge gaps and address communication issues with clients and entrepreneurs. Attendees will also discuss sector specific IP issues, as well as generic problems that are relevant throughout the creative industry.

The University of Arts have organised a varied programme of workshops that enables you to be flexible and attend sessions on both days or on just one.

Two-day tickets:
(include breakfast, lunch and refreshments on both days)

Early bird: £100 + VAT (£117.50) until 15 February 2010
After this: £140 + VAT (£164.50)

One-day tickets:

Early bird: £60 + VAT (£70.50) until 15 February 2010
After this: £80 + VAT (£94)

Places are limited. For further information, regular programme updates and to book your place please visit:

http://www.own-it.org/events/

Women’s Enterprise:

European Network of Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors

An exciting opportunity to promote Women’s Enterprise in the UK and across the EU has been launched by the European Commission’s Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation, with a deadline of 12 March 2010. The proposal must be presented by a national consortium made of partner organisations from the same country.

Until now, the UK has not been eligible for this funding – this is a follow-up to a call last year, and extends coverage of the ‘European Network of Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors’ to those countries where it is not yet established, including the UK.

The funding is intended for UK organisations that foster, promote and/or support entrepreneurship. The aim is to set up a UK partnership that will join the existing European Network in bringing together successful female entrepreneurs across the EU to act as ‘Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors’. These inspiring women business leaders will work locally and nationally to act as role models, to motivate and encourage other women to consider becoming an entrepreneur as an attractive career option. The idea is that they will highlight the role that women can play in creating jobs and promoting competitiveness.

The Commission is looking to fund about 10 projects across Europe, each to receive about €50,000 in funding, which will represent 50% of the total project cost (the remaining 50% must be cash match)

Capital Enterprise will be bringing this item to the Board meeting of the NFEA/Prowess on the 16 February, so please do get in touch before then if you’re interested in being involved in a potential UK consortium.

We’ve assembled a list of relevant documents and links:

• View the call document (PDF)
• Guidance notes
• Useful European Commission studies and resources on women’s entrepreneurship
  

Inspiring Innovation:

Interreg IVB Northwest Europe Programme

A number of Capital Enterprise partners are taking up the opportunity to meet with a potential Interreg IVb project currently being developed in the field of Innovation and Technology Transfer. The ‘Inspiring Innovation’ project will be led by Edinburgh’s Enterprise and Innovation partnership which includes the City Council, University, Enterprise Agencies and Innovation Centres, with 9 other partners from across the North West of Europe. It aims to inspire and stimulate an ‘innovation culture’ in partner organisations and build their capacity to maximise the economic potential of the research/technology base. It will enhance knowledge transfer commercialisation and improve sector competitiveness transnationally.

With Innovation as one of its main themes, Interreg IVb could be suitable for a number of Capital Enterprise members and the opportunity is there to proactively develop projects and shape them to suit your organisation’s priorities and objectives. (Please note that Interreg IVb projects usually benefit from the Local Authority being involved too.)

I would urge you not only to be reactive to immediate funding opportunities, but also to look to the longer term and take a proactive approach to developing new projects. With over €98.5 million still left in the pot to allocate, (over half of the original budget) Interreg IVb is very likely to launch another call in late 2010 and further calls in 2011.

Interreg IVb Innovation projects should aim to produce transnational partnerships across the eligible area (see map below) which can enhance the region’s capacity to innovate and facilitate the development of knowledge-based activities. Preference will be given to projects which can develop cross-sectoral synergies and facilitate the creation, demonstration and above all, the application of knowledge.

Project activities should be clearly linked to territorial development and not solely focus on networking within the specific scientific/business sector. The Programme will not support research and development or academic networking which is not linked to actions or demonstration projects.

Projects must include partners from at least 2 of the eligible countries to receive funding (see map).

More information about this funding is available on the Interreg IVb website; or contact Capital Enterprise.

A quick follow-up to last month’s announcement about the Interreg IVc partner search from Praha University – the University decided to pull the plug on their project at the last minute!

I am putting that one down to practice – it always pays to ensure the Lead Partner shows commitment to the project before they start to bring others on board!

Lifelong Learning Programme

2010 calls for proposals still open

Both individuals and organisations in the field of school and higher education, vocational training and adult learning can apply for the numerous activities supported by the programme, which includes the Comenius, Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci and Grundtvig sub-programmes.

A number of deadlines are still open – for details, see page 2 of this call for proposals or contact us for more info.

One of the Lifelong Learning programmes that may be of particular interest to Capital Enterprise members is the ‘Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs’ scheme. It is intended to match a New Entrepreneur, i.e. someone who is planning to set up their own business or is a recent start-up, with a Host Entrepreneur, who should be an experienced business person owning or managing an SME in the EU.  New Entrepreneurs will gain experience from shadowing the senior Host Entrepreneur, while at the same time contributing to the business through their work, new ideas and fresh views.

The role for Capital Enterprise members could be as Intermediary Organisations: The matching of New with Host Entrepreneurs is carried out with the help of over 100 intermediary organisations (IOs) competent in business support (e.g. Chambers of Commerce, incubators, start-up centres, etc.) all across the EU.  The IOs’ activities are coordinated by EUROCHAMBRES, the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry, which acts as Support Office for the programme.

There is due to be a call very soon, so we will keep you posted when that comes up …

In the meantime, if you have any specific funding requirements, please contact us to arrange a scoping meeting. Several Capital Enterprise members have now given us their priorities and ideas for European projects – their ‘funding wish-list’ – so we can better keep an eye out for suitable opportunities, funds or partner searches on their behalf.

Please do take advantage of your Capital Enterprise membership and contact us with similar information on your funding needs. The more we understand about your requirements, the more we can look out for opportunities to suit you.

Until next month!

A prime example is the 2010 Immersion Programme run by University of the Arts London and delivered by Central Saint Martins Innovation. This part-time six week programme helps graduates accelerate their career progression within the creative industries. It enables them to explore ways to exploit their creative potential and develop the personal and professional skills necessary to translate their creative vision into a viable business or career. The Immersion Programme is led by professional coaches, creative specialists and creative trade insiders who are used to working for well known ‘blue chip’ clients. Those who progress through the programme and go on to start a creative business also receive an opportunity to be mentored by an industry expert.

Capital Enterprise has secured a number of places on the Immersion Programme for pre-start entrepreneurs who have been referred or sourced from Capital Enterprise members. The Immersion Programme is not funded by the London Development Agency, so there will be no funding or output issues for members who refer suitable clients from the Business London Programme or from those who have previously been on a “Fashion” or “Creative” training courses.

So if you do have any clients who want to get the opportunity to get supported by Europe’s leading and best connected arts based university, then please ask them to complete an application form.

Capital Enterprise’s university members have recently been awarded by Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), funding to train, place and fund over 1000 graduates to take up 8-12 week internship in SME’s in London. These programmes run from February to September 2010 and the universities involved include UCL, University of the Arts, London South Bank, London Metropolitan, University of East London, University of Westminster and Royal Veterinary College.

The interns are paid by the university whilst the employer will only be asked to make a very small contribution (a few hundred pounds) to the cost of employing a good quality and pre-trained intern for 8-12 weeks. Also, the employer will get the chance to interview and select candidates for the internship position prior to appointment. If they are not suitable you do not need to take them.

Consequently, there are three things that we are asking Capital Enterprise members and partners to consider if they want to be involved in these programmes:

1. Do you want an intern? If so please let me know, remembering that you need to be a SME and the better the project or task you want the intern to do the better the quality of intern you will attract.
2. Are you interested in partnering with a university to offer interns to your SME clients? It could be very good way of adding value to the services a Capital Enterprise member offers their SME clients. If you are interested please let me know and I will arrange the introductions.
3. Can you refer unemployed graduates who are interested in paid internships to the universities? It may only be me thinking aloud, but I think it would be great if we could give graduates who want to start their own business, an opportunity to work with and for a real world entrepreneur. I understand their will be commercial confidentiality issues that we will need to overcome, but is there a better way to understand how to set-up and run a business than first hand experience? If you are interested in setting up an internship programme for unemployed graduates who want to become entrepreneurs then please let me know.

Finally, there are also a number of other programmes and opportunities for graduates who want to become entrepreneurs that I will be announcing on this blog in the next few weeks. So please, if you have clients or people you know who may be interested then, get them to check out this blog.

Of course the future for Capital Enterprise is closely tied up with the future for public sector funded enterprise support in London and will be dependent on whether our members can adapt and prosper in the new world that will arrive after the election. If our members do badly, we will also suffer.

We may get a better idea of what the next government has in store for our niche industry on the 2^nd March when Mark Prisk, the Tory shadow minister for business, will address an audience of Capital Enterprise members and invited partners at a specially convened event held at University College London. We also intend to invite senior representatives from the Mayor of London Office and the London Development Agency to join Mark Prisk on a panel to answer questions from members and partners. If you want to find out more or reserve a place then please contact me.

Until we find out more, from my point of view, the pressing issues that I would like to see debated by members are:

1. Are the members are happy with the present services provided by Capital Enterprise? – Should we change, do less or, heaven forbid, do more?
2. What should the priority be for Capital Enterprise? – How best can we assist and aid members to adapt and prosper in these changing times?
3. Who should be a member of Capital Enterprise? – Should Capital Enterprise continue to broaden and increase its membership?
4. How do we generate more income and improve the long-term viability of Capital Enterprise?

All these topics I hope to get members to debate at the Winter Capital Enterprise meeting on the 22^nd January at 11pm at the B&IP centre at the British Library. Please do not miss out on a chance to have your say.