This page is intended to pass on some helpful advice to early stage high growth companies, particularly those planning to raise finance.

If you have any useful links or tips, beyond the usual information given by banks and professional advisers, do let us know and we will include your suggestions here, with due acknowledgment.

To begin with, one of the best series of books about starting a new business comes from The Beermat Entrepreneur.   Besides their original bestselling book with this title, authors Mike Southon & Chris West have added new publications covering issues such as marketing, sales, finance, and networking, all full of practical advice and aimed fairly and squarely at the founders of new businesses.  The books can be obtained from the website www.beermat.biz  which is in itself a useful resource.

Investors – business angels

There are several business angel groups in the North of England, including the following:
North East –  Business Investors Group (BIG)  www.big-angels.co.uk
North West Northwest Business Angels  www.nwbusinessangels.co.uk
Yorkshire & Humber Viking Club  www.vikingclub.co.uk
The British Business Angel Association  www.bbaa.org.uk also gives some useful information.

Investors – Venture Capital (VCs)

The British Venture Capital Association www.bvca.co.uk gives much information and a directory of VC investors, but you will need to do more research to find out which VCs are actually interested in investing in your sector or indeed in the North of England.

A useful resource is the Investor Search facility www.investorsearch.info set up by the University of Manchester Intellectual Property Ltd (UMIP);  this lets you use R&D or technological terms to find which investors support which technology sectors.

And for those of you who feel that all the cards are in the hands of the investors, take a look at www.TheFunded.com, which gives feedback from investee businesses (chiefly on the US West Coast, but expanding worldwide) about their experiences with investors.