Business.gov.uk exists, it's reasonably useful, and most small business owners have never looked at it. Here's what's on it and what isn't.
If you've ever tried to find government support for your small business, you'll know the experience: a dozen different websites, overlapping schemes, eligibility criteria that seem designed to exclude you, and a phone number that goes to a call centre that refers you back to the website. Business.gov.uk is the government's attempt to fix that — and most small business owners have never used it.
What's actually on it
The site covers four main areas. Starting a business: company registration, choosing a legal structure, registering for VAT and PAYE, getting a business bank account. If you're in the early stages, this section is genuinely comprehensive. Running a business: employment law, health and safety, data protection, licensing — useful as a reference. Growing a business: the Business Growth Service, delivered through a network of local Growth Hubs, offers free or subsidised business advice, mentoring and access to finance. Eligibility varies by region and sector. Finance and support: a signposting tool that routes you to relevant grants, loans and equity finance based on your business type, location and stage.
The Start Up Loans programme
The most consistently useful thing on the site for early-stage businesses is the Start Up Loans programme, delivered by the British Business Bank. It offers loans of £500–£25,000 at a fixed rate of 7.5% per annum, with free mentoring included. There's no application fee and repayment terms are one to five years. It's not free money, and 7.5% is not cheap — but it's accessible to businesses that wouldn't qualify for a conventional bank loan, and the mentoring is genuinely useful. The programme has lent over £1 billion to more than 120,000 businesses since its launch in 2012, according to the British Business Bank's own published figures.
What's still missing
Business.gov.uk is better signposting. It isn't new money. Most of the substantive support — grants, subsidised advice, match funding — is in regional programmes with different eligibility criteria, and whether you can access anything still depends heavily on where you are and what sector you're in. The site also doesn't tell you what you don't qualify for, which means you can spend time exploring options that turn out not to apply to you.
What to do
If you're actively looking for funding or support: go to business.gov.uk and use the finance finder tool. It takes about ten minutes. If you're in the first five years of trading and need capital, look specifically at the Start Up Loans programme at british-business-bank.co.uk. If you're not actively looking: bookmark it. The regulatory guidance sections are genuinely useful when you need them.
What can a small business learn from this?
Business.gov.uk is worth ten minutes of your time if you've never looked at it. The Start Up Loans programme — 7.5% fixed, £500–£25,000, free mentoring included — is the most accessible route to capital for early-stage businesses and is consistently underused. The rest of the site is useful as a reference, less useful as a source of significant funding.
Useful next step
If you're in the early stages of starting a business, our self-employment registration guide walks you through exactly what you need to do with HMRC.
From Business Handbook
