This is Global Entrepreneurship Week and there is a host of fresh initiatives to get new businesses started and growing businesses to fulfil their potential.

It’s easy to see why the government is keen to do so, with cut backs in the public sector and big businesses stalling, getting people to start their own companies will not only provide employment for the founders but also for many more that get hired as these start-ups grow.

The Government’s economic policy objective is to achieve ‘strong, sustainable and balanced growth that is more evenly shared across the country and between industries’. What this means is less reliance on the financial sector and to spread jobs beyond the South East.

Company Partners is playing its part in this by providing a “dating site” for people who want to start a business find a business partner with complementary skills to join with them. It’s less daunting with a partner.

Of course we also provide access to Mentors and Business Angels that help with their contacts, expertise and investment. This combination of access to Business Partners, Mentors and sources of investment is unique to Company Partners, so if you haven’t already, register and have a look around.

What we do is a practical and successful way of encouraging businesses to grow. There is some criticism that many of the government initiatives are difficult to access and sometimes look better on paper than in reality. This is what’s been announced this week:

• Two entrepreneurs in residence will be recruited at BIS. They will help advise Government on small business issues, making sure that the needs of entrepreneurs are properly considered by policy makers
• Warwick and Aston Business Schools have been chosen to host a new £2.9 million enterprise research centre. Its work will help improve understanding of the drivers and barriers to growth that affect our small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)
• The launch of a new £1.1 million Entrepreneurs and Education Programme that will work with academics, researchers and students to promote enterprise, self-employment and help commercialise innovations
• A push to encourage businesses to make better use of the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) that provides generous tax benefits to SME investors
• New access to a secure web-based portal for adult prisoners that will provide opportunities for them to learn about how they can start a business when they are released.

Whether these individually make a difference can be debated, but the overall intention is right and the government’s efforts to grow small businesses creates an encouraging climate of enterprise.