Start your business - partner agencies

Start your business

Partner agencies

To make sure self-employment is right for you there is a wealth of support available across Bolton and Greater Manchester.

We work with partners and organisations that can help you to understand what’s really involved in owning your own business and can access tools that will help you realise your ideas.

They can provide you with the latest up-to-date advice and support on a practical level on everything from writing a business plan to finding out about funding and finance options for your business.

Our top local and regional organisations that can help provide guidance as a first port of call;

Business Growth Hub provide a wide range of services to help start up businesses across Greater Manchester. The team support businesses at all stages of their growth journey with a broad range of services. Offering expert one-to-one and peer-to-peer business support, events, specialist programmes, funding and much more.
Bolton Library Service is the local hub for the Build a Business programme and the Business and Intellectual Property Centre (BIPC) providing businesses with resources to suit their needs including company information, financial data and statistics, legal standards information, market research and information for start-ups, mailing lists and more. They hold events, drop-in clinics, workshops, webinars and talks. Call 01204 332853 for more information or to contact a business advisor
EnterprisingYou is a government-funded programme specially designed to support self-employed individuals, including those who work in the gig economy and small business owners in Greater Manchester. EnterprisingYou also supports people who receive work from a company or an agency but are registered as self-employed or pay their own taxes. Free advice is available in different areas, from personal skills and career development to business finance and mentoring

Funding
We know finances can be tricky when you start your own business and the right financial advice is crucial so we’ve outlined a number of resources that you may find useful for your business.