Fund101 is on hold. If you follow Enterprise Nation on Facebook or Twitter, you've probably already picked that up from our messages over the last few week...

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Enterprise Nation has helped thousands of people start and grow their businesses. Led by founder, Emma Jones CBE, Enterprise Nation connects you to the resources and expertise to help you succeed.

Fund101: an update

What's happening with Fund101? Here's a quick update from Enterprise Nation editor Simon Wicks.

Fund101 is on hold. If you follow Enterprise Nation on Facebook or Twitter, you've probably already picked that up from our messages over the last few weeks. When we started the Fund back in September last year, it was with a fixed sum of Â£35,000 very generously supplied by PayPal and Intuit (who we'd like to thank profusely for backing the endeavour and showing their commitment to small enterprises). We're still hoping to find a sponsor to supply more funds to give away, but we've yet to find someone to back a second phase of funding. Understandably, it's a risk for a donor, because we're giving the money away rather than lending it. But we'd love to get the Fund up and running again and you'll be the first to know if we get more funds in place to give away!

We're not standing still in the meantime, but getting involved in another very significant funding project for small businesses - the 

 launched by the Government on Monday to provide low-cost loans of up to Â£2,500 to young entrepreneurs aged 18 to 24. Speaking at the launch on Monday, Lord Young - the driving force behind the scheme - said he hoped that if the programme is a success it might be extended to business-owners beyond the present age threshold. Let's hope so, because new businesses are appearing at a rate not seen for decades and their owners are from all age groups. But, for now, let's applaud the Government's commitment to supporting an alternative option for the one million young people who are presently out of work. Incidentally, we've produced the practical 

 that all loan recipients will receive to help direct them as they go through the process of getting their enterprise off the ground. We're very proud to be involved.

Where else can you get funding for your small enterprise?

 that we'll add to as time goes on. We'd love you to add your ideas and suggestions, too. 

What have we learned from Fund101 so far?

We've crunched the numbers from applicants and it's given us some strong clues about what small enterprises want to give their business a boost. 

Here's what we've learned from Fund101 so far

As the Business Growth &amp; Happiness Coach I help you run a successful business that gives you the money and the lifestyle that you want.&nbsp;

Services offered: 
* Business Growth Coaching&nbsp; 
* DISC profiling&nbsp; 
* Team performance training&nbsp; 
* Career Coaching&nbsp; 
* Sales &amp; Marketing support&nbsp;

Business Growth Coach

Inge Dowden: How I helped a reflexology entrepreneur optimise her business

The Bristol-based business coach shares a very impressive story.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;I'm here to help. Please get in touch to see how I can help your business.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;An FCA and CTA with over 30 years in the accounting profession and a private employee owned&amp;nbsp;group&amp;nbsp;provides a unique blend of practice and commercial experience great for advising clients and providing a quality, cost effective accounting franchise.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Understanding and working within commercial business constraints enables&amp;nbsp;you to benefit from practical, technical advice on tax, year end, accounts and business issues.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Using&amp;nbsp;jargon-free explanations to help&amp;nbsp;you understand your finances and grow your business successfully.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

CEO and Founder

Small business finance – tax cashflow

This group is for small businesses from any sector to discuss the best way to improve their tax cashflow or to better understand their tax cashflow.

&lt;p&gt;Hey there!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am a fashion business strategy consultant, coach and mentor. I help entrepreneurs looking to change career and enter the fashion industry to develop their idea into a solid product or service.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I also assist and work with&amp;nbsp;fashion entrepreneurs who already have a business but feel like something is missing, that the brand/business&amp;nbsp;is not growing the way they thought it would, making the money and profits they should or wondering how to scale it bigger.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After graduating with a Fashion degree many moons ago, I worked for some 15years within British&amp;nbsp;luxury brands small and large (you can see my resume on Linked In here:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dessytsolova/"&gt;https://www.linkedin.com/in/dessytsolova/&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;) across apparel and&amp;nbsp;accessories. There isn&amp;#39;t much as a product that I haven&amp;#39;t at some point worked on.&amp;nbsp; For most of this time, I managed the creative teams and oversaw the process from Idea to Finished product and more often than not I then took that knowledge to the PR, marketing and retail shop floor.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After leaving the last company I was employed by, I set up an online fashion manufacturing portal with the mission to demystify and simplify the fashion manufacturing process. Whilst growing the platform and working on the development of software to automate a largely hands-on process I came to the realisation that while so many competitors were jumping on this &amp;quot;trend&amp;quot; to create what they saw as just a &amp;quot;directory&amp;quot; the industry was not getting any more transparent or functional. The problem I saw&amp;nbsp;was hiding in&amp;nbsp;the lack of proper practical and honest educational support to the new influx of entrepreneurs in the industry AND support for independent brand overlooked by the governmental trade bodies.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This determination to share my experience and knowledge with fashion entrepreneurs worldwide led me to exit the platform I spent over 6 years creating and launch Fashion Insiders &amp;amp; Co. An online education and support platform and community for fashion entrepreneurs looking to launch, grow or scale their businesses.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Through our platform, we offer many FREE resources as well as online courses, in-person (via the magic of online meetings) consulting and coaching packages and soon to launch community coaching and accountability incubator.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;


&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://fashioninsi&lt;p&gt;Online fashion educational and mentoring platform helping&amp;nbsp;fashion entrepreneurs build and grow profitable fashion brands.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We specialise in helping entrepreneurs:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;- strategise how to launch new product or service based fashion business;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;- idea development from initial development and sourcing&amp;nbsp;stages to bulk manufacturing;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;- business strategy, pricing and target setting&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;- growth mindset&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Support is offered via 1:1 work, tailored to your project needs as well as offering online courses and masterclasses to consume at your own pace and time.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

Business support for fashion brands - 1-2-1 mentoring

Real transformation happens over a longer period of time... 
Over the course of&nbsp;a 6-month period I will give you personalised 1 to 1 fashion business mentoring (that just happens to come with lots of great training as well). Whilst the statistic that 90% of fashion startups will fail is very true... it doesn't have to be true for you and your business!

I am the Co-Founder Jampot Business support. We work with entrepreneurs, small businesses and startups supporting them with everything from EA to HR, Marketing to Finance/Accountancy, Web & Graphic Design to Legal Consultancy and all on a here-when-you-need-us basis.

Fund101: an update

What's happening with Fund101? Here's a quick update from Enterprise Nation editor Simon Wicks.

Check out what else we're up to...

Where else can you get funding for your small enterprise?

What have we learned from Fund101 so far?

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