Here is a summary of resources available to entrepreneurs and the type of assistance they may provide:

Seeing the benefits of entrepreneurship to the economy, governments around the world are stepping up their efforts to support entrepreneurship. On the national level, various institutions and initiatives may provide assistance:

• Chambers of Commerce – usually independent bodies representing given country’s businesses at city, regional, country and international levels. They often provide networking opportunities via events and working spaces they provide, represent interests of businesses in the government and internationally, provide information about markets, sectors, industries and doing business internationally. Foreign Chambers of Commerce (e.g. French Chambers of Commerce in Spain) assist foreign businesses wishing to do business in their countries;
• Trade and Investment Agencies – government bodies helping domestic and international businesses establish trade links, providing information about doing business and investing in other countries, promoting domestic markets as attractive investment options, providing assistance to foreign investors;
• Business and Innovation Agencies – government bodies aiming to improve and support overall business environment and provide assistance to domestic businesses. They offer market and industry analysis and information, funding for innovation, grants and assistance for businesses, internationalisation support, education and training. On the other hand, they work with the government to improve general business environment and infrastructure, for instance, supporting provision of high speed internet across the country, supporting improvement of public roads and railway services to ease movement of goods and connect major business hubs.  
• Universities – usually independent institutions funded by the government or a mixture of government funding and tuition fees. Universities provide business and entrepreneurship degrees but also entrepreneurship related courses open to all students and sometimes even the public. Often, they organise events such as networking events and guest lectures to provide exposure and practical education to the students. Increasingly, universities also provide dynamic world-class incubation facilities. 
• Public training and education initiatives – entrepreneurship and business training offered through universities, schools, on-line, local governments and various public bodies discussed above;
• Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Technological Parks – specific government initiatives assigning areas within a country special business and trade laws with an aim to promote development of business and commerce (economic zones). Techno parks, like SEZs, are selected areas that aim to promote innovation. They support university-industry and government collaboration with the intent of advancing knowledge and promoting technological and economic developments.
• European Union Resources – resources common to all countries are listed in the table above, however, EU grants funds to each member country for tailored initiatives including education, grants, events etc

“Incubation is a unique and highly flexible combination of business development processes, infrastructure and people, designed to nurture and grow new and small businesses by supporting them through the early stages of development and change." (UKBI, 2007). There are several organisations that offer young businesses incubation opportunities.

• Business incubators support start-ups, businesses at early stage and established businesses wishing to develop new products and ideas (new ventures). On the other hand, start-up labs support individuals with early stage business ideas allowing them to develop and test their ideas. Incubators and labs can be public or private. Recently, universities are developing incubation facilities particularly for companies started by students and staff (see academic entrepreneurship in Fiche 1). Incubators and labs provide work spaces ranging from hot-desks to small units, mentorship, training, access to financial support and networking opportunities through sharing the working space and outside opportunities. Start-up labs additionally provide further training in business planning, personal development and research support. Both, incubators and labs are selective which means that only the best and most interesting projects and ideas are usually selected. Some incubators offer free services, in others companies may have to pay rent or fees or it may have to give up some equity in exchange for the assistance provided. The length companies stay in incubators varies widely too, with some incubators imposing limits of one year and others allowing companies to stay as long as they like.

• Business accelerators work in a similar way to incubators in that they provide mentorship, advice and often funding. However, the incubation period is very short and intense with a more structured programme. They aim to turn ideas into prototypes and products ready to be marketed in a matter of months.

• Co-working and managed work spaces such as Regus are essentially managed offices and hot-desking facilities where entrepreneurs can base their companies. Entrepreneurs benefit from networking opportunities and provision of meeting and office spaces on pay-as-you-use and membership terms. However, they tend not provide any assistance and are more interested that the office space is occupied than in the development of the companies that occupy the spaces.

Advantages and benefits of incubators, labs and accelerators include:

• Helping young companies overcome problems usually faced at early stages improving growth prospects and survival rates;
• Provision of expertise, mentorship and access to investors and specialists;
• Boosting credibility, reputation, visibility and exposure of new businesses;
• Providing linkages with industry and academia and promoting commercialisation of research;

Entrepreneurs often come together and create organisations that provide support to their members. These can be general such as Business Clubs or industry specific such as Guilds.

• Business Clubs are private membership only organisations associating entrepreneurs and business persons of all trades. Their goal is to provide information, networks and often represent entrepreneurs and business people in the public debate.
• Guilds are traditional associations of artisans or merchants who control the practice of their craft in a particular locality. Only artisans and merchants who are members of guilds have a right to practice their trade. More recently, the regulatory powers of some guilds are being relaxed in that tradesman do not need to have an approval of the guild to practice their trade. Also, guild like organisations (often called boards or chartered institutes) were created to organise and regulate members of other professions including architects, engineers, pharmacists etc.
• Industry or trade fairs are large usually industry specific exhibitions where companies showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services. They provide a networking opportunity as firms can meet with industry partners and customers. They can also examine the competition, learn about latest trends and opportunities. Most fairs are open to companies only with only small minority open to the public. It can be very costly for to participate in the fairs as the attendance and exhibition costs can be high. Companies wishing to exhibit their products and services incur costs of hiring the exhibition space, cleaning, internet etc. Some countries offer grants for small businesses to participate in trade fairs.

Entrepreneurs can benefit from the support of financial industry. Financial resources available may range from loans and investments to raising finance by listing on a stock exchange for smaller fast growing companies such as AIM (Alternative Investment Market) – a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange.

• Financial institutions such as banks provide financing including loans, lines of credit and credit card facilities. They may provide further financial planning advice and guidance.
• Business angels are usually wealthy individuals who invest their personal capital in start-up companies in return for equity. Business angels usually do not get involved in the running of the business.
• Venture capitalists are individual or corporate investors who provide financing for high growth start-ups. They usually get involved in the running of the business in order to grow it fast and sell or list on a stock exchange at the end of the investment period. 
• Crowdfunding initiatives are recently gaining momentum as an alternative finance option. Crowdfunding is a way of rising finance from a large number of sponsors, each of whom contributes relatively small amount. It is opposite to traditional financing where few major investors invest large amount of money. Crowdfunding is usually used by start-ups, social and cultural enterprises. It activates communities and helps to foster feelings of shared ownership of the project. There are three types of crowdfunding:

• Donation – people invest because they believe in the cause (e.g. www.justgiving.com)
• Debt – also called peer-to-peer lending – investors get their investment back with interest (e.g. www.abundancegeneration.com)
• Equity – investment is exchanged for shares or small stake in the business (e.g. www.angelsden.com)

Crowdfunding may have following benefits to entrepreneurs:

• Raising awareness, marketing and PR

• Testing of ideas and customers’ moods and preferences

• Informing about positioning and potential sustainability

• Informing about demand

There is an abundance of online resources for entrepreneurial hopefuls and many of them for free. Fiche 2 lists useful resources for skills and personal development. Crucially, the internet provides:

• Networking opportunities through online platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Individuals can approach potential clients, investors, experts and get them interested in their project or idea.
• Opportunity to connect with a wider audience through participation in discussion forums. You can discuss your problems and ideas in detail. However, one pitfall of such open communication is that ideas can easily be stolen.
• Opportunity to perform product and market analysis by reading news and looking at sales volumes and reviews of specific products and services.
• Visibility, cheap PR and marketing resource.
• Opportunity to operate your company online without any physical outlet.
• Opportunity to reach customers in other countries and continents without a need to use any intermediaries.