All businesses, and especially those at an early stage of development, need expert help and advice.

They may not always see it this way, but the reality is that the successful development of a business is both a challenge in its own right and also has to take place within a complex legal, financial and regulatory environment.

Despite all the fine words of politicians, there is still an excessive amount of red tape tying up too much of the resources within small businesses. So they need help. And if this all sounds a bit negative, then we should also think of the many positive opportunities that are available to businesses if only they know where and how to access them.

This is where Business Links - the original "one-stop-shops" for business advice - come in.

They have had something of a chequered career since their formation and it is fair to say that their quality and performance across the country has been highly variable. We are fortunate in York and North Yorkshire to have one of the UK's best, as determined from a whole raft of independent performance measures.

Under chief executive Helen West, Business Link York and North Yorkshire has turned in a consistently good performance in providing help to our businesses (as many as 1,700 each month) and contributing in no small way to the present economic success of York and its district.

As ever, such achievements ultimately boil down to the abilities and energies of individuals and one such person in Business Link York and North Yorkshire is Roger Benson, innovation and technology adviser for the past nine years.

Roger's face has regularly accompanied Evening Press articles featuring local companies he has helped, usually by obtaining grant funding. In fact, he has now just visited his 1,000th company since joining Business Link.

During this period he has helped to raise about £4 million in grant support for local businesses, much of it from the earlier DTI SMART scheme, which has recently been much modified and has reverted to the set, periodic, application deadlines rather than the much more business-friendly system where applications were received at any time and decisions were made within four weeks.

Nevertheless, and as Roger is at pains to point out, when a young business is looking for funding it is likely to consider the chances of getting it in relation to the effort put in.

Research and development funding through DTI still remains a good bet and particularly, it seems, if you've got Roger Benson at your side.

Business Links, as well as this grant funding mechanism, now both come under the auspices of the Regional Development Agencies and it remains to be seen how well the new system will work in practice compared with the previous arrangements.

Roger is very keen to point to exemplars of businesses that have benefited from his and Business Link's input. One such is Genesis Medical Products, of Ripon, which develops medical equipment for head and neck surgery.

With Business Link's help, Genesis Medical developed a kit that dramatically improves the success of a potential 120,000 corneal transplants that are carried out across the world each year.

This has contributed to a doubling of turnover every three years since the company was formed in 1993 by managing director Anne Weston and her husband, Philip.

Innovative developments continue to contribute to what many believe to be the most comprehensive range of products in the field and Anne is quick to acknowledge the help of Roger Benson and Business Link "without whose expertise and encouragement the project may never have got off the ground".

For more information about Business Link York and North Yorkshire, see www.here4business.co.uk or phone the information centre on 01904 686000

Updated: 11:15 Thursday, September 08, 2005