Business Start-up
Help and support for students and graduates

Having a successful business can allow you to be your own boss and make your own decisions, it lets you be creative and make a future out of something you love.

Have you got what it takes? Are you motivated and willing to take risks? Are you prepared to listen to advice and act upon it? With these qualities and skills and our help you could join the 100 + successful businesses we have helped create.

Business Start-up is a government funded project which aims to raise awareness of entrepreneurship and provide practical support services to students and graduates who are considering self employment as a future career.

To find out more about our support and how we can help you and your business check out the Start Up Kit sections of our website or contact us.

Funding Opportunities
UnLtd and Shell LiveWire funding

The HE Social Entrepreneurship Awards programme from UnLtd and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) provides financial and non-financial support across Higher Education Institutions (HEI's) in England to develop their expertise, skills, knowledge base and business support structures in social entrepreneurship and social enterprise activity.

If you are a member of staff or student within a HEI supported by HEFCE (which includes Leeds Metropolitan University) and want support to develop entrepreneurial solutions to social problems that demonstrate a connection to the Higher Education sector, you can apply for one of over 200 awards available.

As this scheme is intended to encourage social entrepreneurs from HEI's, it is required that one of your referees must be a responsible member of staff at the HEI where you study/work e.g. Head of department or Head of school.

Potential applicants can apply as an individual or informal group for one of the Catalyst or Development awards. Catalyst awards are available to early stage projects / pre-start-ups and applicants have the opportunity to receive up to £5000. The development awards are available to projects which have already been running for at least a year and are already generating income of over £20,000 per annum. Through the development awards applicants can receive up to £15,000. 

For more information or to apply to an award, please visit www.se-awards.org.uk.

 

£1,000 Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Awards

If you're aged 16-30 and need funding to get your new business idea or project off the ground, the Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Awards offer up to to 5 x £1,000 prizes each month to the most innovative or unusual ideas submitted by new businesses in their first 12 months of trading.

10,000 Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award
The Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award of £10,000 recognises and celebrates the achievements of the UK's finest young entrepreneurs, and will open again for entries in late June 2010 with an award final to be held in October
For more information or to apply for these awards, please visit www.shell-livewire.org/awards