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About Us
First Enterprise Business Agency (FEBA) was established
in 1989 to meet the challenges faced by the ethic
minority community. The agency was established following
an expressed need from the local community for an
agency that would bridge the gap of accessibility
of support and provide a confidential and culturally
sensitive business support service.
This was highlighted in research commissioned in
1985 and 1987 respectively, undertaken by Nottinghamshire
County Council and Nottingham Taskforce following
the early and mid 1980 inner city disturbances.
The research’s overall conclusion was that ethnic
minority individuals and businesses were inappropriately
serviced by mainstream business support agencies
and recommended the formation of an Agency to specifically
serve this sector of SMEs in Nottingham. The agency
was established under the auspices of Nottingham
City Council and partly funded by the Home Office
Section 11 Funding.
FEBA is a non-profit-making organisation, which
registered as a company limited by guarantee in
May 1993 after it gained independence from the Nottingham
City Council. Our members or board of directors
are from diverse backgrounds as are the clients
we serve. They represent the Indian Community Centre,
the Union of Pakistani Organisations, Nottingham
African-Caribbean Convention, Nottingham City Council
and local businesses.
The first mission statement for the agency was drawn
up during 1988 to 1989 and stated that the purpose
of the agency was “to assist in the development
of black businesses and help promote employment
prospects within the black communities”. By 1995
the agency’s scope was broadened to include all
the ethnic minority communities living in Nottingham.
The role of First Enterprise Business Agency (FEBA)
is to help people from disadvantaged communities
to create and sustain economic advantage through
self-employment by providing pre and post-start
up support in many forms. Our clients can access
FREE services, including business advice and counselling,
training, access to funding, and support with research
at our offices on Radford Road and a number of satellite
offices across the East Midlands. We are able to
offer our services for free because our work is
funded by Government-led contracts. FEBA is more
than a business support agency, it is a vital link
and resource for the communities around it, providing
services that can aid business growth, job creation,
skills and labour force development and community
relations. It also serves as a bridge, which enables
the ‘mainstream’ service providers to have a direct
route into sections of the business community that
had previously been excluded.
With an established client base of businesses ranging
from the small to the very prominent, FEBA has now
built extensive expertise and grass-roots knowledge
of the business support needs of the Black and Minority
Ethnic (BME) community. This knowledge base is backed
with in-house research that enables us to deliver
relevant training and support and achieve measurable
results amongst the businesses we serve. As a result
we are the primary agency with specialist understanding
of working with deprived communities and are therefore
ideally placed to design and deliver appropriate
services for this group.
FEBA is now a leading Enterprise Agency in the East
Midlands Region with a specialist remit to serve
the ethnic minority community, but not exclusively.
About 20% of its client group consists of people
from the wider community.
First Enterprise is a member of the following organisations:
- DTI Approved Enterprise Agency
- Full member of the National Federation of
Enterprise Agencies (NFEA)
- Member of Community Development Finance
Association (CDFA)
- Licensed by the Office of Fair Trading under
the Consumer Credit Act 1974, license number
381033
- Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce
membership number 369975
- Meets the requirements of the National
Standard for effective Investment in People
- Registered for BS EN ISO 9001:2000
certificate number 19088
- Accredited by the Customer First Framework
certificate number 1490
- Committed to Business in the Community’s
Community Mark
First Enterprise Business Agency Limited is a company
registered in England and Wales, company number
2817451. Our Registered Offices are at 90 Radford
Road, Nottingham NG7 5FU.
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