TBAC in business with “crucial” start-up support
A new, business mentoring service has been launched in Oxfordshire, to help start-up firms at a “crucial” stage of their development.
TBAC, which has a well established name for working with and helping develop start up and fledgling businesses in the county over many years, launched the new service for Oxfordshire in Enterprise Week (see picture).
TBAC will offer free counselling, advice and mentoring to anyone thinking of starting a business, anyone who has just started, or anyone who is an owner manager of an existing business.
The TBAC team of mentors are all experienced in running successful small businesses, some of them still do. They’ve all undergone special training for the TBAC role. TBAC itself is a not for profit company and the businesspeople it sees with the counselling and mentoring service will pay no fees.
Director Mike Jennings says: “This is a free service which people can access as many times as they would like. The directors, who are all successful businesspeople in their own right, are giving their time for free, and by keeping expenses to a minimum, we are able to make this vision become reality for Oxfordshire.”
Fellow TBAC Director, Roger Mumby-Croft, says “Many surveys have shown that new businesses which take advice at an early stage have a much better chance of success than those that don’t. This makes getting advice to businesses at this stage crucial. TBAC is a different service in that we offer continuous mentoring so that businesses will always have someone who will listen, someone to spark ideas off.”
One of the new mentors, Bob Frost, says: “It is a great opportunity for me to give something back to the business community. I am passionate about this new venture and am looking forward to working with TBAC clients.”
TBAC is also well known for the serviced office and workshop centres it runs, which offer low cost premises for small businesses around the South of the county and in Oxford. There are currently 5 centres, with a sixth opening early next year at Chalgrove, and two or three others in the pipeline. Profits from the TBAC Centres will be used exclusively to support the administrative costs of the mentoring service. For more details visit www.tbaccentres.co.uk.