A Devon charity which supports small businesses is celebrating the centenary of one of their projects.

Saturday, December 3 marks the 10th anniversary of Small Business Saturday – a campaign to support and draw attention to the country’s millions of small businesses.

One Devon charity is backing this campaign and encouraging small business owners to come forward and register for its free enterprise support programme.

Devon Communities Together supports hundreds of these new start-ups and small businesses through the Devon Social Enterprise Network and its New Start Devon programme, which receives funding from the European Regional Development Fund to provide free advice and coaching to start-ups and other micro businesses.

Last year the number of registered companies in Devon rose to 60,022, up from 57,278 in 20201. The small business landscape is increasingly tough, with rising energy and material costs, as well as belt-tightening as a result of the cost-of-living crisis, eating into profits. Yet nationally, the 800,000 businesses started during 2020 and 2021, have the potential to add £20bn to the UK economy if they succeed, with the right support.2 Project Manager Hannah Reynolds said: "The pandemic and uncertainty around jobs has, led to people looking at alternative career routes. Lots of us have ideas that have been brewing in the backs of our minds for a little while and the lockdown gave some people the time and space to develop these ideas further and begin small businesses. The fallout from the pandemic and the current cost of living crisis has also created opportunities for community interest companies (CICs) and social enterprises that provide services to support people in their communities.

“Our New Start Devon programme provides a minimum of 12 hours’ of completely free support to anyone who has an idea for an enterprise, or existing small business owners who aren’t sure about their next steps. We provide a mix of one-to-one coaching, an online ‘bootcamp’ and tailored workshops with experts to help people develop their ideas and businesses. We aim to create a really open, supportive environment where people can feel inspired and upskilled to achieve their goals.”

So far, since the programme started in 2019, over 200 businesses and entrepreneurs have benefitted from New Start Devon programme ethical clothing company The B Shirt, coaches Snow Limits Coaching and Sion Kemp Health Coaching, wellbeing business The Academy of Wide-hearted Living, charity The Buturi Project and many more.

Mark Brownbill, Project Manager and Enterprise Coach from Devon Communities Together, added: “The support offered from Devon Communities is designed to help people take their first steps into running a business and really helps give people that initial boost to the skills needed to take a professional approach.”

To find out more about New Start Devon visit https://devoncommunities.org.uk/projects/enterprise-coaching-new-start-devon.