Sarah Steel was one of the first people to enrol on the business support programme. And in less than three years, the progress made by her "Old Station Nursery" business has been little short of spectacular.

"Although we started from scratch we now employ around 200 people within what we think of as a group of 11 nurseries, rather than a chain", explains the ex-Army officer.

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Welcome to Business for Starters

Let's be honest: there's an astonishing amount of business information currently available. And so wouldn't it be really useful if someone could come up with a common sense approach that set out all of the essential stuff that you need to know, presented in a logical sequence?

Perhaps by bringing together a team of experts including accountants and lawyers etc, bank managers and experienced business owners? And then, what if all of that material was validated by a University Business School? Better still, how about testing that material weekly with around 150 businesses over their first year of trading? We thought that would be a good idea. So we did it. And it worked: business sustainability was improved dramatically and the business owners gave the programme a 95% approval rating.

Business for Starters combines easy-to-understand educational material with mentoring and feedback on important documents such as your business plan and cash flow forecast. And the programme can also lead to a qualification: the Certificate in Small Business Management from Oxford Brookes University.

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