Business advice northumberland
  • Business advice in Northumberland and the North East

    NBSL (Northumberland Business Service Ltd) is an Enterprise Agency based in Northumberland. We operate across the county and the North East of England and have just celebrated our eleventh anniversary. Our strength is in our team who have experience working with local, regional and national partners to build our customers a bespoke package of assistance. If you're looking for business support funding or help with starting a business in the North East, just get in touch and see how we can help.

  • We help businesses to develop

    The North East Business Support Fund is a grant available to north east businesses who are looking to grow their turnover or staff levels. The fund offers up to £1400 towards the cost of a project that will help to develop various aspects of a business such as strategy, quality management, marketing and process improvement. Find out exactly what we can support, the eligibility criteria and then apply online by following the link below.

    Find out more and apply online
  • We help people to start businesses

    Starting a business can be one of the most frightening, challenging but rewarding decisions that you can make. NBSL has an excellent reputation for working with people to help develop the skills they need to take the next step towards starting up their business. If you'd like to find out more about how we can help, just follow the link below.

    Find out more about starting a business
  • Some of the people we've helped

    Krystle Barwick is the mother of three young children and wanted to rejoin the workforce after spending time as a home maker. Previously a pharmacy technician and dispenser, Krystle had struggled to find suitable employment that fitted around her busy life as a mother so she decided to consider re -training and came to NBSL for support. Krystle is one of the many people we've supported in starting their own business - you can read about more of them and also some of the existing businesses we've helped to flourish.

    Read our new business case studies
  • We're looking for business mentors

    Using your experience to help someone in business is one of the most rewarding aspects of becoming a business mentor. We're looking for people who can give up a little bit of their time to help - if you've got hands-on experience of running a business, we'd love to hear from you.

    Find out more about getting involved
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Facet Solutions start and grow with NBSL support

Facet Solutions (www.facet-solutions.co.uk) is a successful business coaching and training consultancy with a very interesting story. Most unusually owner David Steel has worked with Enterprise Agency NBSL both as one of their start up clients and more recently as a respected provider of consultancy services to other NBSL clients whose coaching support has been funded by the regional Leadership and Management (L & M) Advisory Service that NBSL has managed since 2004.

The story began when after working in Senior Management and Director positions for over 20 years David Steel saw an opportunity to establish a business coaching and training consultancy.  However before starting up David’s first port of call was NBSL’s Business Advice Centre in Morpeth where he had a number of meetings with Business Adviser Steve Peart, who helped him to consider all the steps he needed to take to get the consultancy established.

David commented “without this valuable support in the initial stages where Steve was able to focus me on the key issues in establishing Facet Solutions, the start up phase would not have been as efficient and productive as it was. Steve was great support and sounding board”.

Once Facet Solutions was up and running David engaged with clients, both business owners and Senior Management Teams, and utilised the NBSL Leadership and Management Advisory Service to support his clients in funding the development work he was undertaking with them.  The funding package which is quick and easy to access, provides a grant of up to £1,000 (matched by the business) to enable engagement with professional consultants who can support businesses to grow and develop.

David said “by utilising the L&M funding stream it enables my clients to get financial support to allow them to achieve their personal and business goals, and it is normal for my clients to realistically see between a three and ten fold return on their investment within a programme.” 

David works with his clients to understand the current reality and their aspirations and goals for their business and their employees, as well as their personal aspirations, and then supports them through this development.  This is undertaken through seven bespoke client focused programmes ranging from ‘Bridge the Gap’ (moving your company to the next level) through ‘Leading from the Front’ (Leadership Development) and ‘Emerging Manager’ (Management Development) to ‘Building Business Winners’ (Building on your strengths to deliver the results to match your ambitions).  

Facet Solutions also works with clients to allow them to understand behaviours (both their own and others) and this is the foundation of establishing high performing habits, both personally and for their business.

During the last year David has also engaged with key strategic partners and has developed two further partnership companies. CoAssure provides a unique package of services carefully designed to protect and develop businesses at one fixed cost, whilst NMS Associates is a national team of coaches, advisors and mentors to the dental industry. The core of their unique approach is to develop ordinary dental practices into extraordinary practices through supporting dental practice owners and management teams across the key areas of business and people development.

David has also engaged with the L&M development programme himself. This has allowed him to engage with outside support to ensure that the strategy for developing all three businesses (and the tactics required to develop) are clearly understood and embedded to ensure success is achieved.

David comments, “The overall package of support which NBSL offers has been of immense benefit to me, Facet Solutions and my client base. The NBSL staff and their open approach are truly refreshing, they really do want to make the process work for you and other clients.”

Business support funding

Improve your business with the North East Business Support Fund - up to £1400 towards the cost of developing your business strategy, processes and a range of other related projects.

Find out more and apply now >>

Starting a business?

We've helped hundreds of people to start their own successful businesses. Writing business plans, developing your idea -  our team can help you on your way.

Find out more about our start-up services >> 

Knowledge Bank Logo

We know that starting up and running a business can be difficult. We also know that sometimes you might just need a bit of advice about what you need to do, or how to approach something new. Our advisers are always on hand to help you through, but if you're looking for some general business advice, we might be able to help you right here. Knowledge Bank is our growing collection of business articles that cover some of the main aspects of starting or running a business.

Pick a category to get started

Tea - the cup of life

Peppermint Tearooms imageThat’s what Christine Appleby and Claire Nixon are offering at the Peppermint Tearooms situated in the Northumberland Market town of Morpeth.

Christine and Claire had both spent a considerable amount of their working life employed in the Care Sector and felt they were ready for a change of career.  They decided that working as a Partnership they would like to explore the idea of Self Employmen...

Read more

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