Business Bootcamp Meet-up – 21^stFebruary- 6-9pm @02 Centre Tottenham Court Road.

The next Business Bootcamp Alumni meet-up will feature short presentations and a Q&A session with a number of London entrepreneurs who have recently raised investment funding from Angels and VC’s. If you have not been before and enjoyed the drinks, nibbles and good company then please check up out here. http://www.meetup.com/BB-Lounge/

Next Generation of Finance Launch Event 17th Feb 10am – 12pm @ UCL

Capital Enterprise, Angel Capital, Crowd Cube, People Fund it, CDFA and North London Community Finance have all come together to launch a series of events that will give you the insider know-how and fast track routes to finding non- traditional bank finance to fund your entrepreneurial venture. Not to be missed so to get your invite please email  carly@capitalenterprise.org or keep an eye on our website.

Angel Funding:  13^th Feb        4pm-7pm            @ The British Library Conference Centre

The British Business Angel Association in partnership with Capital Enterprise will be running through why now more than ever is a good time to look at Angel Finance to fund growth-http://www.bl.uk/bipc/workevents/angelfun.html

We will look at the how the Government’s new Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) initiative will work in real life When launched in April this year SEIS will offer angel investors up to 50% tax breaks for a total of £100k invested in start-ups and each start-up that meets the criteria can receive up £150k equity investment under this scheme. There will be also an opportunity to question Angels on what they look for, how best to approach them and how they value an early stage business.

There were 464 companies in the UK that received early stage investment from Angel and VC organisations in 2011 and courtesy of UK Funders we know exactly who they are. We only have unlimited access to the wonderful UK Funders database for another month. So we intend to use it (along with our own sources) to put together a definitive guide to growth and start-up finance in London that we can offer to all members to co-brand and distribute.

If anyone is interested in a copy of the guide please let me know or would like us to prepare a customized version for their organisations client group, then please let me know.

Our CF Partner Portobello Business Centre (PBC) has found a new home. Please make note:

Canalside House

Office 6 & 7

383 Ladbroke Grove

London

W10 5AA

Tel: 020 7460 5050

Fax: 020 7460 5054

 www.pbc.co.uk

Date: 22 February 2012
Time: 1 – 2pm
Location: RHS Centre, LCF, John Princes Street. W1G 0BJ

An interactive workshop preparing you to present and pitch to a variety of contacts, including employers, potential customers, freelancers and collaborators. You will look at different styles and ways of adapting your presentation or pitch to suit the situation. This will enable you to understand your audience more effectively and therefore communicate your ideas successfully.

Book now

Image by Maggie Li, Zombie Collective

Have you got a great idea? Do you want to help it grow with up to £5,000 from SEE?

We have set up the SEED Fund for UAL students, graduates and staff to give you the opportunity to develop your creative idea into a sustainable business or practice.

On top of the financial grant, successful applicants will also get access to a special business and intellectual property support programme. You don’t have to have a track-record in developing projects – we just want to find people with some good ideas and help them flourish. If you want to find out more or want help applying, book a place on one of our regular workshops.

The first deadline for applications is on 14 March 2012, with further deadlines every 6-8 weeks.

Read more

Image from design studio VAL

From time to time, LCF runs training sessions for both applicants and grantees. All details of upcoming training sessions are posted here.

You can also download our resource packs covering topics such as developing a set of rules/constitution, safeguarding (child protection), and guidelines on paying volunteering expenses.

Training Sessions

All our training sessions are FREE and lunch is also included for full day sessions.

To book your place please ensure you complete the booking form and return to LCF along with a refundable deposit of £25 for each course as early as possible prior to your course date. This means that if you book onto two courses you will need to send two £25 deposit cheques. Please note, you may cancel your booking up to one week prior to the course, otherwise you will lose your deposit.

Here is the website to read all about the courses:

http://www.londoncf.org.uk/grants/training-and-resources.aspx

From the StartUp Britain Website:

StartUp Britain is a new campaign by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, launched on 28th March 2011. Designed to celebrate, inspire and accelerate enterprise in the UK, it has the full backing of the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and HM Government.

This is a response from the private sector to the Government’s call for an ‘enterprise-led’ recovery.

For media enquiries, please email press@startupbritain.org
For all other enquiries please contact us at info@StartUpbritain.org

From what I can gather this website seems to aggregate a litany of different business support offerings some of the Britain’s leading and well established business. There tools and resources are intended to help both business just starting up as well as help established businesses continue to grow.

Here are some of the new features to be rolled out this year:

This portal will be a living market place for the wide range of enterprise support that is already available. The aim is not to replace current provision, but to give it a higher profile, and complement existing provision with further offers of support.

StartUp Britain began with 2 platform services: a catalogue of links to great web resources, and a bucketload of offers from our corporate supporters. Our ideas for extending this free-market, open-source approach to the provision of enterprise support and promotion include:

• Mentor Marketplace: Find or become a mentor
• Masterclass Platform: Deliver or sign up for a masterclass near you
• Pledge matchmaker: Step up to invest your resources in other organisations’ enterprise initiatives
• Best of the web: a database of StartUp content, apps, videos and case studies curated from the web
• A calendar of enterprise related events, into which you can suggest your own event, or just keep up to date with what’s going on.

From all of us at Creative Futures we are wishing you the very best for you and your business in 2012.  We be posting more articles and resources to help your business grow. In addition, we will highlight some of the business we have helped through the Creative Futures programme thus far.