Seeing a few threads advocating advice giving organisations, I thought my experience may help some people when starting a venture.

Having started two ventures from scratch, I found there was an awful lot of organisations offering advice. There are several government organisations, some regional, and there are also several offering proffessional advice for a fee. There are breakfast clubs, dinner clubs evening clubs etc. etc. If you want finance, there exists organisations that have set themselves up as middlemen between you and a V.C. or Business Angel, for a fee of course. And the fee? typically around £500 to £5,000! And the success rate once you have parted with your cash? around 4%! (I have never paid to gain access to these individuals).

From my perspective as a designer/manufacturer, I found too many people/organisations offered me nothing other than increased cost. I chased too many dead ends and found too many businesses at these various meetings and clubs were solely out to gain business from those sat around them. Never once in my experience was anything tangible brought to the table from outside the immediately seated! All in all, I found them to be a waste of my time and money.

This obviously is not true for everyone. If you are a printer for example, then these meetings offer excellent potential.

My experience, and the reason for writing this thread, is that I found everything I needed regarding information and advice here on the internet and through contacts I already had and went on to make.

For those of you starting out, we are in the age of the internet and the world of FREE information, its just a case of knowing how and where to look and being persistant. Where there is absolutely no alternative but to pay for what you need, shop around.

Many documents exist free on line than can be suitably tailored to suit your needs.

Remember, you are starting out, you cannot afford to gamble on a consultant who will walk away being thanked and paid by you regardless of the quality or relevance of the the service you receive.

By far one of the best sources of advice and help will be websites such as this, where a group of like minded individuals with relevant experience will gladly point you in the right direction and usually for no fee at all.

Many organisations want to charge you for their advice/membership, you should always question the value of that advice for afterall, if its that good, why are they selling it and not using it themselves.

Remember this when starting out, use your own judgement and common sense, question everything, do your own initial research using free resources such as the internet and local library, and look to be active on websites like this one, and with a bit of luck, you will keep your wallet in your pocket for longer and have a better chance of survival because a start up requires an awful lot more DIY that some realise.