General Business sites

Assertiveness and confidence building

BusinessBalls.com

Business studies - Starting your own business

BusinessLink
Connexions Direct: Starting your own Business
Department for Work and Pensions

Prime Initiative
The 'Prime Initiative' is aimed at those over 50 who want to start their own business.

Start Ups
An organisation called 'Start Ups' offers assistance.

Connexions
Aimed at those under 25 and offers advice on starting a business

National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts
National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) works to transform the UK's capacity for innovation, so if you have a new invention, you might want to see what assistance is available.

The following sites also offer business startup advice and assitance; BBC, Start Ups, Starting in Business and the Food Standards Agency.

Business studies - General Business links

Free Patents Online
The site provides free searching of patent data, free PDF downloads, and free account functions to comment, share and organise documents and to get alerts on new patents of interest.

Start your own Business
Start your own Business is a free newspaper that highlights assistance that is available in your area. Get your copy from the website.

National Statistics
Any idea how big your market is? Is it growing or getting smaller? If you need some trustworthy statistics try this site.

Companies House
Interested in finding out about competitors? The Companies House website shows current, proposed, and dissolved Limited Companies. A fee is payable for anything more than a basic search - but you can find out the names of Directors, company turnover and their profit.

HM Treasury
The Treasury website shows various initiatives for business related matters.

IPO.gov.uk
To find out who owns a trademark or a patent, try the Government's Intellectual Property Office website.

Kompass
Kompass has a database of 3 million industrial and commercial businesses in over 70 countries.

Kelly's search
Kelly's gives details on over 30,000 top UK companies.

The Yellow Pages