What happens when passion meets precision – but growth stalls? Business Owner Alan Coles pivoted his business and found his niche through support from the Group2Grow Programme, allowing him to take a step back, refocus and reshape Optimal Automotive into a specialist brand with a clear direction and renewed purpose.

Introducing ‘The Coval’, Chelmsford’s newest coworking and serviced office space designed with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in mind.

Nicola Coulson, founder of ‘Virtual Assist by Nicola’ transformed the setback of redundancy into the realisation of a dream and the launchpad for her own business. Through help from peer network programme Group2Grow she has found reassurance and renewed confidence to achieve her business growth ambitions.

Transforming Creativity into a Thriving Business with support from The North Essex Economic Board.

Luke Morton, widely known as "The Juice Guy," founded Juicing with Luke in April 2021. Recognising the need to take his business to the next level, Luke joined Blueprint for Business for structured guidance.

Backing Essex Business, a leading business support programme in the county, is delighted to be sponsoring the Business of the Year award at the 2025 Uttlesford Business Awards.

Backing Essex Business is delighted to announce that Wendy Maslen from The King Edmund School has been named Apprentice of the Year at the Rochford Business Awards 2025.

To grow the business and expand her connections, Helen found support from a range of business support organisations in her home county of Essex including the Federation of Small Businesses, Launchpad Southend and Backing Essex Business.

Backing Essex Business are Proud Sponsors at the Rochford Business Awards 2025

Backing Essex Business and Essex County Council is thrilled to announce the return of the highly successful Group2Grow Peer Network Programme in Early 2025, marking its fourth consecutive year of empowering business owners across Essex.

Finding her footing back into employment after raising two children, Annie Jones, Founder of Rayleigh Marketing, launched her own business in 2015 to help other businesses get the most out of social media. With the support from the Group2Grow Peer Networking Programme, she has been able to build on her confidence, as well as make connections with other business leaders within her cohort.

In this post, we highlight some of the start-ups making an impact in Essex, showcasing businesses that are fuelling local growth, setting trends, and reshaping industries.

Caryl Lynzy, from Colchester, created her business Butterfly Home & Pet Sitters in early 2023 after falling in love with the flexible lifestyle that home and pet sitting offered. Quickly building up her own customer base, she established her own company – and found support from the Group 2 Grow Peer Network Programme from Backing Essex Business to create a business that thrived.

Jo Hall, from Chelmsford, gained expert support and guidance for her new resilience coaching business Let’s Get On With It through the free Group2Grow Peer Network programme from Backing Essex Business, which enabled her to develop her own confidence and business mindset

Supporting St Helena Hospice Through Ethical Enterprise Total Clean, in support of St Helena a commercial cleaning business based in Colchester, talks about how it ‘provides a service, whilst giving back’ and how it was able put in motion its plan for the future thanks to support from a business support programme funded by the North Essex Economic Board.

After leaving her previous job at the NHS to raise her children, mum of two, Amy, founded her own business to allow flexibility around her personal life. With the support through the Group2Grow Programme, she has been able to gain a clear understanding of the intricacies of running her own business.

The get set grow programme is open to businesses at any stage, whether start-up or established, located within the Rochford district or Brentwood borough.

We spoke to Ryan Dhindsa, Managing Director of Tuffking, a safety footwear manufacturer based in Loughton, Essex on the growth of the business in both the UK and abroad, and the importance of innovation in the safety footwear sector.

“Investment is traditionally defined as the ‘commitment of resources to achieve later benefits’”. Over the last few years, Essex has received a ton of investment to support both businesses and the wider community to thrive.

Creators of the quickly growing in popularity children’s magazine ‘POPIN’, Kids Active Media are on a mission to make early learning fun for children and prepare them for school – and got support from the Backing Essex Business team and the Create South East programme to create a plan for sustainable growth