#12: Leveraging Local Support & Local Funding
Today we're going offline, taking a stroll down the local high street, and getting plugged into local opportunities to fund your business.
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Whats in this edition:
💸 VR Headsets and Beauty Biz competitions
💸 Join our first Friday Funding Chat Live TODAY
💸 Local Support, for Local People
💸 Funding News & Resources
💸 Live Pitching & Networking events
This Weeks Top Opportunities
Enterprise Nation Tech Hub - Sign up to the free Tech Hub email course and you could win £250 and a VR Headset. Deadline 20th Aug.
Simply Business Grant for Young people - Simply business are offering 10 business owners, between the ages of 18-30 £5k plus 6 weeks of support with Hatch Enterprise.
Breakout Beauty UK - win a share of £350,000, plus an intensive 6 week business development course to take your beauty brand global!
These Top Opportunities were lifted from the Funding Opportunities Database, a unique listing of over 60 grants, awards, accelerators and other funding opportunities for your small business (with a focus on creatives and social & environmental impact). For full access to the database, upgrade for just £4 a month. Plus get Friday Funding Chats Live, and interviews with founders who have funded.
Funding Chats Live starts TODAY: Join us at 12.30
Today I will be Live with Daisy Harvey, founder of circular fashion app Loom. Daisy has taken an idea from MVP to pre seed investment, recently closing a £300k round. We’re going to talk about the appetite for circularity within Investment and how female founders are faring.
If you’re a paid subscriber, join us today live, or watch the replay anytime. If you’re not a paid subscriber, upgrade today for just £4 a month.
Local Support, for Local People
(That was a little League of Gentlemen reference FYI, but I realise I’m ageing myself here).
We live in a global society. I could sit online all day and not know anything about my local area. I could be collaborating with a developer in Japan, chatting to my branding agency in Australia, using software built in San Francisco but it wouldn’t occur to me to pop to my local high street for the support I need for my business.
This year, I have made it my mission to get more involved locally. I realised that whilst I was networking virtually, the majority of people I was meeting were based in London, and sometimes more specifically, South East like me. As I began to explore local networking, I uncovered Local Business support, provided by Libraries and BIPC’s across London.
What has any of this got to do with Funding I hear you ask? Well it turns out, a lot. When you get familiar with your local surroundings, you’ll discover grant and award opportunities that are a bit more niche and less over prescribed than nationally available ones. You’ll discover networking and pitching events, financial support, working groups and free software. (Ever visited your local library to ask what software licences they have?) My local Lewisham Library offers free access to AI grant finding tools. Lewisham also recently offered small Circularity grants, with plans to expand the offer later this year.
Additionally, I highly recommend Grow London Local. Grow London Local is delivered by London & Partners, the growth agency for London. Their mission is to help small and micro businesses to thrive in the capital by providing expert business support. Not only do they provide online courses, in person networking and competitions (like Black on the Square), they will pair you with a specialist freelancer or SME to support your business. And you don’t have to go rooting around locally, they have it all on their website.
Here are my top tips for leveraging your local support and grant opportunities;
Sign up to council and library or BIPC newsletters for your local areas so you can be notified of opportunities quickly.
Find your local BIPC. They are affiliated with the main hub (Business & IP Centre) in the British Library. They offer events, free advice & more. Start at your local library.
Find Local networking events. They’ll have mainlines to the local council and business support.
Tell people you are looking for Partnerships, Grants and Awards. They might be able to direct you to places where you can find them more easily.
Funding News & resources:
Raising Investment in a week?! Pull the other one! I loved this LinkedIn post by Samantha Kidjo who highlights that there is always a bigger story behind those exciting ‘one week raises’. The reality is, investment takes time, to build relationships, to agree term sheets, to find the right people. Follow Samantha for more great content like this.
The Pitch UK is back for 2026! I was a semi finalist in 2023 and loved the experience, so keep your eyes peeled for application announcements. In the meantime, their partners Seed Legals have lots of helpful resources available to help you get pitch confident.
Events
Pitch and Networking Event: Sustainability & Green Tech Startups - bringing together green tech founders, sustainability startups, impact investors, and industry experts for live pitches and purposeful networking.
19th August, London
Grow London Local Coffee Mornings - Join entrepreneurs all over London for free coffee meetups.
Startup Events London: Networking, investor relations & firesides - Hear five incredible founders share their raw stories of surviving and evolving through startup struggles. Plus networking & Q&A’s.
16th September, London
Startup Events: Tech Start Ups Founders Pitch Competition with Angel Investors - Witness some of the best startups in the UK as they pitch their businesses to a panel of FIVE seasoned investors - Three Angels and Two SEIS Funds. This event offers a unique opportunity to observe startup pitches and gain insight into what investors seek in a company.
25th September, London
Young Entrepreneurs Pop Up Market - Come down and see the youngest and brightest entrepreneurs showcase their products and services at this inspirational Youth Pop Up.
4th October, The Department Store, Brixton
Question: Whats SEIS?
Answer: SEIS stands for Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme. It’s similar to the EIS scheme, in that it makes investors eligible for up to 50% income tax relief on their investment. It was designed to de-risk investment in SME’s and drive growth in the UK.
Before You Go
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