New challenges ahead for business support as 30 year anniversary is celebrated by former York Business Advice Centre

It won't take long to find a business in or around York that at some point has received assistance from Business Support York or North Yorkshire, either under its current title, or one of its previous guises over the past 30 years.

The support service has worked with numerous local authorities and Government agencies to encourage and develop business start-ups as well guiding individual entrepreneurs through the necessary steps in launching a business venture.

The organisation was formed in the mid 1980's amid a new trend for enterprise agencies, which were being set up to replace a Government initiative called the Small Firms Service, and instead work with local authorities who wanted to be seen to encourage new businesses.

York's enterprise agency, now operating at Business Supported York and North Yorkshire (BSYNY), was officially founded on January 24, 1986 as York Enterprise Ltd, an independent not-for-profit agency trading as York Business Advice Centre.

It was set up at the instigation of the then lord mayor councillor Ken Cooper, and in the first instance was financed from voluntary contributions. Established businesses were encouraged to support this new initiative by becoming members, and variable contributions came in from the city's accountants, solicitors and bank with the major sponsors Rowntrees as it was then and Shepherds both contributing significant sums on an annual basis.

Operating from the City of York Council's economic development office in Davygate, early board members consisted of local councillors, bankers, representatives from the Department of Employment (now DWP) and included Geoff Sherwin and Richard Foster of HSBC, Christine Tolson from the Department of Employment, and Norman Whyte, who joined from Natwest in 1991 and became the chief executive before retiring in March last year.

Mr Whyte said: "Over the years we have played our role and influenced the shaping of regional and government support through our membership in The Institute of Business Advisers and perhaps in that vein our desire has never wavered from putting first the needs of the new and existing businesses we have been involved with – I wish BSYNY every success in continuing that tradition."

One business to have worked with BSYNY is event management company Mosaic Events. Based for a time at BSYNY's office accommodation York Eco Centre, at Clifton Moor, before moving to Askham Bryan three years ago, Mosaic has grown from a start-up business in 2003 to handling events for between five and 5,000 people for national associations, with access to more than 13,000 venues in the UK.

Having developed its own project management system, Mosaic Events has now been shortlisted in this year's Association Excellence Awards in the Best Association Event Managed by an Agency category in recognition for its work with the National Association for the Teaching of English.

Founder Sarah Byrne, picutred above, who herself served a stint on the BSYNY board, said: "When I first founded the business it was just me. We built up to five of us in the first five to six years, but then the recession came along and we went back down to just two of us.

"At that time we significantly changed our offering. We are quite specialised now, we do income generation for associations and membership management, and we're now back up to a team of five.

"When I first set up the business I used Norman Whyte's support services. I used their advice services and did workshops helping me put together a business plan.

"We had our offices with them, and stayed with them there for about ten years.

"In terms of the support they gave our business in the early days, they were very supportive, and especially when we had that down period. They have always been very supportive of the business, and are still there for us now in an informal manner."

Another York business to have accessed support from BSYNY is Tech Tyres in Osbaldwick, which originally began trading in 2001 as a tyre dealer servicing commercial fleets.

Due to expanding to larger premises within the last five years the business has grown to provide a complete auto-care service, adding servicing exhausts, brakes, mechanical repairs, fault finding and diagnostics to the business.

Tech Tyres continues to service commercial fleets and local businesses as well as taking on retail customers, and has increased its number of fitting bays from 4 to 10 and now employs 12 staff.

Director Debbie Smith, who launched the business with her husband Vic, said: "We started with BSYNY in 2001 as a brand new business. Vic was made redundant so he started out as one man and a van.

"The company he worked for had shut down so it had left a gap in the market for him for some commercial work. We started with a single lock up, and now we have a big depot.

"We did some of the courses provided by BSYNY as a start up, and used their business advice service.

"Even today they do our payroll, and we still go to their seminars when there's updates on pension schemes or employment law.

"They have been fantastic in the legal help they've given us. In the beginning having them there was great, we were a start-up and we didn't have a clue. We aren't in touch with them as much now we are established but they are always in the background if we ever need them, which is good to know."

Jon Harbisher, founder of Home Brew Online, also used BSYNY to help grow his business, revisiting the services on offer when he changed his York-based venture from gadget retail to specialising in beer brewing kits.

Mr Harbisher said: "I started working with BSYNY in 2005. I was unemployed, I'd been to the jobcentre to try and get help stating a business and they put me in touch with Mike Everitt.

"We had one to one consultations with business advisers. I had a series of one hour appointments to formulate a business plan and establish cash flows. We applied for funding through them too.

"Even now I still keep in touch with Mike, he's always there if the business goes through difficult periods.

"In 2008 we went through quite a dramatic change. Between 2005 and 2008 we worked on the first company we set up, which was selling gadgets, particularly remote controlled helicopters. It was an online retail business called Crazy Fruit Bat.

"One of the product ranges was a home brew kit, which proved very popular.

"Someone came along and wanted to buy the original company so we set up a new company just selling beer brewing equipment.

"Demand from customers lead to us opening a shop in York as there is a reasonable customer base in the area.

"The business has expanded year on year and that is expected to continue. We are currently going through the next expansion phase of moving to larger premises. We're moving to a 6,000 sq ft warehouse in Elvington in March, which is nearly three times the size of where we are now."

Business across the region have access supported from BSYNY under it many different working titles.

From being launched as York Business Advice Centre, the name was later changed to York Business Development, however that ceased to have a remit when Business Link came along.

In 2001 the new company of York, Selby and Malton Business Advice Centre was formed to better describe what the organisation offered at that time and to reflect the three local authorities served.

In 2007 the organisation transferred residual funds to form the Whyte Knight Loan Fund which continues to provide low-cost beneficial loans to many business owners contributing to their success and creating many jobs.

The original fund was formed as a collaboration between City of York Council, Aviva PLC and York Professionals.

Now named Business Support York and North Yorkshire, the organisation continues to operate the Whyte Knight Fund, and offers a variety of programmes to help businesses in the region.

Now headed by chief executive Mike Everitt, who joined in 2006 from Enterprise South Devon, BSYNY is preparing to launch a number of new initiatives as it faces new challenges in its anniversary year surrounding funding.

Mr Everitt said: "Over the years BSYNY in all its incarnations has continued to be a pillar of the local community offering quality support in an easy to understand, non-nonsense way and we often have not courted the limelight with the many success stories and the achievements of our clients.

"With recent significant reductions in Government funding to support businesses, BSYNY will continue to provide support services with a funded element where possible, however we are also a small business and have to look to the future to survive.

"It will be quite a task but we have to develop both culturally and practically and adapt if we are to continue in business.

"We must therefore evolve by creating new commercial products and services that will add value to our clients and their businesses.

"Furthermore it is likely in the future that all businesses and those individuals that consider self-employment will have to make a part or full contribution towards obtaining business support where funding doesn’t exist. However we continue to be creative, while focussed on maintaining the fantastic reputation we have achieved and remain committed to offering quality results, whilst offering excellent value for money.

"For our anniversary year we are championing our ‘Build a Better Business’ campaign to encourage business owners and managers to think about how their business makes a difference and how it could be improved and we have a range of business training to complement that outcome.

"We have a supportive board of directors that include small businesses and are acknowledged by and continue to work with a range of partners and consortia including City of York Council & Make It York and as a member of the National Enterprise Network are able to take advantage of collaborative national initiatives as well as local authorities the Skills Service, LEP’s and other groups - I hope the community will also continue to support us."