Looking back at #StartUpSeptember 2024
The #StartUpSeptember 2024 campaign has come to an end, making it another successful year for Let’s Do Business Group and making a positive impact on business communities across the South East and East of England.
The 2024 #StartUpSeptember campaign has concluded for another year, marking a new milestone in the widening of awareness of support for new and start up businesses across the South East and England. A first for the campaign from Let’s Do Business Group, #StartUpSeptember 2024 brought a new approach of partnering with a number of business support organisations and district councils across the region to highlight available resources, support and opportunities for ambitious and budding business owners to support them in taking their next steps in launching and growing their new businesses.
The month-long initiative, aimed at supporting early-stage startups, provided founders and aspiring entrepreneurs with resources, networking opportunities, skills workshops and access to mentoring to accelerate their growth. The 2024 campaign drew participation from over 40 start ups, and a huge £654,700 in Start Up Loans approved by Let’s Do Business Finance to help new businesses on their journey to launching.
Start Up September 2024 Highlights:
Amazing participation: Let’s Do Business Group and our partners engaged with 43 new clients to give them support for their new business. Forming these relationships allowed us to begin working with these new business owners to both launch and grow their businesses – spanning the counties of East Sussex, Kent and Essex.
18 new business owners learned new skills by attending our Start Up Business workshops: We provide start up business support across many communities in the South East and East of England, including Hastings under the RISE Hastings project and districts in North Essex through the North Essex Economic Support. Under these projects we delivered Start Up Business workshops during our 2024 Start Up September campaign, including Starting a New Business in Hastings Town Centre and Start My Biz, a 3-day virtual workshop programme for businesses based in the North Essex districts of Braintree, Chelmsford, Colchester, Maldon and Tendring!
An increased number of Start Up Loan enquiries for Let’s Do Business Finance: The finance arm of Let’s Do Business Group, Let’s Do Business Finance, saw a whopping 341 applications come through to the team in September! This was a marked increase compared to the summer months of 2024.
£654,700 in funding approved and lent by Let’s Do Business Finance under the Start Up Loan Scheme – helping 53 businesses to get moving! During the month of September, our team at Let’s Do Business Finance were able to approve and lend a massive £654,700 in funding to new businesses under the Government-backed Start Up Loan Scheme. As an official Business Support Partner of the Start Up Loan Company, Let’s Do Business Finance can provide Start Up Loans to businesses across Sussex, Surrey, Kent, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.
Free consultations offered through the ‘Ask the Experts’ campaign, which was new for 2024: A spin on the Free Consultations offered through Start Up September in previous years, ‘Ask the Expert’ brought about a new widened approach to offering free advice and signposting for Start Up September 2024. We partnered with several local business support organisations, such as Edeal in Eastbourne and Business East Sussex, to provide the audience of Start Up September with the ability to find support they were eligible for in their area. This saw Let’s Do Business Group and other organisations working together for a common cause for Start up September 2024 – and is something we hope to make even bigger next year!
A showcase of support
Alongside the free consultations, events and support on offer, Start Up September aimed to showcase the wide range and availability of support for new and aspiring business owners across not just the communities that Let’s Do Business Group covers, but also across the whole region. Taking place throughout September was also our social media campaign which featured helpful resources and tools, testimonials and inspiring stories of other business owners who took the leap to start their own enterprise, as well as the signposting of where to find more support from specialised and area-specific organisations.
Start Up September may have now ended for 2024, but all at Let’s Do Business Group and our partner organisations are looking ahead to find even more ways to support new and future business owners on their journey and build momentum for the campaign year on year. Thinking ahead to 2025 and beyond, Let’s Do Business Group aims to partner with even more business support organisations next year to make sure that all aspiring and new business owners know that support is out there and waiting for them.
