Your Council creating new earning opportunities for you

Working mum

If you're thinking of starting your own business, help is at hand from Hull City Council and its partners

Lucy Pepper with husband Gary (far right) and and Arrival staff member Chris Nicholson

Lucy Pepper knows all about the stresses and strains of starting a business from scratch.
Renting an office, buying equipment, recruiting staff, finding customers and making it all work is hard going.
In Lucy's case, Hull City Council and its partners provided support in turning her business dream into a reality.
This – and massive help from husband Gary – has helped ensure her company is thriving.

Help at hand

Lucy founded her design agency – Arrival Design, based on High Street, in the heart of the Old Town – around five years ago.
In that time it's grown from having just four clients to 150.
They include property companies, law firms and manufacturers, and provide a solid workload for five full-time staff and two freelancers.
As well as hard work and professionalism from Lucy and her team, the company's growth has been helped by two separate grants from the council's Acorn Fund (administered by Hull Chamber of Commerce), which supports business development in the city.
Arrival Design has also benefited from having premises in one of the council's managed workspace centres, which do not require a formal lease and in certain instances can provide subsidised terms.
"When you're starting up your own business you need as much help as possible," says Lucy
"The Acorn Fund helped us buy computer hardware and not having to sign a lease agreement was also a real help – because when you first start a business you're never quite sure if it will be a success or a failure."
Being in a managed workspace also gives Arrival shared reception and parking facilities, and means there are no separate bills for utilities.

A family affair

Lucy also received advice from Business Link, the government's support service for businesses, and was given the chance to have one-to-one support from a Business Link adviser in order to reduce risks, avoid pitfalls and learn from the mistakes of others.
But the biggest support has been from her husband Gary.
When she became pregnant with twin boys around three years ago, the timing was perfect for Gary to leave his job with a chain of health clubs, and he has continued with Arrival ever since.
"It was a lot to give up because his salary was our safety net," says Lucy.
"But there's no-one you can trust more than your family to take the reins."

The Hull Deal

Arrival Design is just one of more than 600 small-to-medium-sized businesses in Hull which have been helped by the Acorn Fund.
The fund provides one-off grants of up to £2,500, and loans of up to £15,000, to businesses within the postcode areas of HU1 to HU9 (subject to certain conditions).
There are also more than 170 tenants in a total of eight managed workspace centres across the city, which include offices, small starter workshops and industrial units.
All of this support is part of a wider package for businesses known as the 'Hull Deal,' which includes everything from helping would-be entrepreneurs to come up with an initial business idea to researching it, testing the market, applying for funding, launching and beyond.
Other support under Hull Deal includes:

• help with recruitment and training of new staff
• help towards staff wage costs through the Local Work Guarantee Scheme (which pays £75 per week per employee for 36 weeks, if the employee was formerly claiming Jobseeker's Allowance or Incapacity Benefit and if training is provided)
• access to training and higher skills opportunities through the University of Hull, Hull College and other training providers
• access to leading expertise, including in product development and consultancy, through the University of Hull
• links to global business with support from the World Trade Centre Hull & Humber.
  This gives expert advice and practical support to help your business exploit overseas market opportunities access to events, including networking opportunities and workshops, on subjects including preparing tenders for public sector contracts

info

For more information call Hull City Council's regional development section on 300300, call Business Link on 08456 048048, visit www.businesslinkyorkshire.co.uk or email info@businesslinkyorkshire.co.uk The partners involved in Hull Deal include Hull City Council, Yorkshire Forward, Business Link Yorkshire and ONE HULL, a partnership of public and private sector organisations working together to create a better city.