Search Start Up Loans
Popular Search placeholder

Essential Guide to Marketing launched by Start Up Loans Programme for Budding Entrepreneurs

Press release 28 November 2024

Start Up Loans today launches Start Up Loans Essential Guide to Marketing, a new, free, interactive resource for aspiring business owners. The guide provides useful and jargon-free guidance to help small business owners increase their knowledge of this vital business skillset.

Aimed at anyone who doesn’t know their PPC from their CTR, this new resource contains a step-by-step guide for launching a business and covers 10 key topics in a simple and easily digestible format. There’s also a jargon-busting glossary for business owners to reference.

The topics include:

  • how to conduct market research
  • understanding marketing channels
  • creating marketing plan
  • setting up a website
  • social media marketing
  • email marketing
  • how to avoid greenwashing

As well as the above, the new guide provides some lesser-known gems that can help businesses more easily and cost-effectively navigate their early stages – such as the LEED rating system can help startups get their buildings accredited for environmental performance, on a scale from certified to platinum, or that a basic website can be created for free and costs just a few pounds a month for online hosting.

Richard Bearman, Managing Director of Small Business Lending, British Business Bank, said:

I am a strong believer that anyone can be a business owner, no matter what their background or experience – they just need the right support and guidance to get started. Our new marketing guide is designed to do just that.

Starting a business is scary, full of new experiences and challenges and it is well-documented and reported that most startups don’t survive. This guide may just help some of those entrepreneurs succeed, especially if they are first-time business owners or have little or no marketing experience.

Startups that want to get a firmer grasp on marketing can download the Start Up Loans Essential Guide to Marketing.

Through a network of Business Support Partner organisations, the Start Up Loans programme provides access to pre-and-post loan support to help applicants develop a business plan; fixed-interest 6% personal loans of up to £25,000 to help recipients to start or grow their business; and mentoring support to help loan recipients with everything from cash flow to marketing.

Further Information

If you are a journalist and have a media enquiry, please contact [email protected].

Notes to editors

About Start Up Loans

The Start Up Loans programme is operated by The Start-Up Loans Company, a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales, registration number 08117656, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ.

The Start-Up Loans Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of British Business Bank plc. 
British Business Bank plc is a development bank wholly government-owned by DBT and is not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The British Business Bank and its subsidiary entities are not banking institutions and do not operate as such.

Free guides on a range of subjects related to starting a business are available on the Start Up Loans website. You can find recent media press releases here.

The British Business Bank makes finance markets for smaller businesses work better, helping the sector to prosper, to grow and to build economic activity.

Key Statistics

  • Since its inception in 2012, the Start Up Loans programme has delivered over 115,000 loans, providing more than £1.13bn of funding.
  • In the financial year 2023/24, the scheme provided 9,759 loans with a total value of approximately £125m. 
  • The economic benefits of the Start Up Loans programme are almost six (5.7) times its economic costs.
  • Since 2012, 31% of loans went to people formerly unemployed or economically inactive. 40% of loan recipients were women and 20% were from ethnic minority groups (not including white minorities).

Aside from the return-on-investment numbers these statistics are gross estimates and based on Start Up Loans CRM along with externally commissioned research undertaken by SQW Ltd, with support from BMG Research.

Quick links

Latest news