TRADERS and business owners in Winchester are being offered access to expertise and advice as part of a new collaboration between Southern Entrepreneurs and Winchester City Council.

The business support service is free to join and provides accessible support for local businesses to network and grow offering one-to-one sessions.

It includes subsidised training programmes, free business and networking events, executive club membership and a free subscription to a monthly magazine.

Winchester City Council leader, Cllr Rob Humby, said: “We are delighted to support the provision of this service in the Winchester area. The Southern Entrepreneurs service is one of many business support initiatives introduced by my administration to help business in the Winchester District to thrive and prosper.

“We also offer a package of grants for businesses and employees entering the work place, support for the district's market towns and signposting to various services, support and advice organisations.”

Rob Grover, from the Winchester-based business Yuno Media, added: “Southern Entrepreneurs is where we started as a business. We were looking for free networking events, which seemed to be hard to come across. As a start-up company we had a very limited budget for any marketing. Their team helped us out a huge amount with their great knowledge and experience in business.

“The guest speakers have all been fantastic and from a start-up point of view, we have learned so much, from marketing to motivation. Within two months of networking with Southern Entrepreneurs we moved into our first office space as we had the confidence that we had the start of a brilliant brand.”