If you are a new or existing business local to Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire or Powys, we can help.

The Cymorth Busnes Lleol : Local Business Support team can help with signposting, training and developing your business. We also support those with start-up ideas and early-stage businesses access grants, including Ceredigion County Council’s Anchor projects, Carmarthenshire County Council’s business grants and Welsh Government funding from Business Wales. 

We currently have FOUR town centre retail premises located in Aberystwyth, Cardigan, Newcastle Emlyn and Newtown, providing start-up support and outreach activities in these areas. 

The shops provide a venue for training workshops and in-person business advice, as well as providing a low-risk trading opportunity for local businesses not yet on the high street.

Are you thinking of starting a business or have you recently become self-employed?

We offer a test trade retail space alongside expert advisors who will provide one-to-one advice around market research, setting prices and establishing demand.  If you are thinking about starting self-employment, our funded workshops include: 

• Presenting the product – visual merchandising  
• Customer rights and trading standards 
• Customer service  
• Skills assessment  
• Record keeping  

 Additional workshops for recently started businesses include:  

• Personal income needs – how much money do you need to make?
• How to price your products/services to make a profit 
• Understanding the true cost of production 
• Understanding customers and feedback. 
• Using local marketing techniques  
• Using Welsh in your business 

Already self-employed or have a business?

For existing businesses, our experienced Business Advisors can support you with advice, developing action plans to address challenges, access to the workshops above and one-to-one professional support.

Further workshops will be available covering:

• Carbon reduction, reducing waste and improving sustainability.  
• Recruitment and  Employment  
• Digital Marketing  
• Digitisation 

Are you In retail or hospitality?

We recognise that existing traders/businesses in retail or hospitality are struggling with current trading conditions so we will offer tailored support including around: 

• Developing a low-carbon strategy including managing energy costs. 
• Developing a digital marketing strategy to extend market reach. 
• Staff recruitment and retention. 
• Managing debt burdens  
• Managing costs 
• Closing sales. 
• IT adoption. 

To enable retail and hospitality businesses to access support we will be flexible with delivery hours and workshop timings 

All businesses and Potential Businesses

We will also provide support around the use of IT.

For those who have difficulty accessing IT equipment and data, we will have a bank of Chromebooks and Data dongles available for loan to help you gain valuable IT skills and progress your business or business idea. We can support you in using Word, Excel, emails and digital meeting tools as appropriate as well as developing skills around digital marketing and digital business tools. 

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‘Cymorth Busnes Lleol | Local Business Support’ Locations:

Aberystwyth: The Old Post Office, Great Darkgate Street, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion

Newcastle Emlyn: 2 Cawdor Terrace, Newcastle Emlyn, Carmarthenshire

Cardigan: 43 Pendre, Cardigan, Ceredigion

Newtown: 3A Bear Lanes, Newtown, Powys.

For more information, please contact the Local Business Support team on 01239 712 312 or email [email protected].