The new Business Support Directory

Start-up Croydon is a charity whose remit it to support the local economy and relieve the stress of unemployment. We deliver on this through inspiring, educating and supporting early-stage businesses and by creating opportunities for growth and connection through networking and making relevant introductions where we can. We are a small team with big ambitions, but we cannot do it all on our own.

We are very well connected and have many professional friends in the borough, so have now developed a directory of experts in different fields across our borough.

As we evolve our enterprise resource for businesses in the borough, we wish to expand our services, and although technology has created many advances in business, we believe strongly in the power of a circular economy and encourage local businesses to spend locally and employ locally, which will, in turn, bring more opportunities to local people. Saffron Saunders, our CEO, is part of a steering group for a project called CRYSTALISR, whose ambition is to develop a community wealth building project across South London by influencing local anchor employers to procure services and people locally.

This is a proven strategy for improving outcomes in a local area. The most powerful example of this is the Preston project which was a huge success making life improvements in a poverty-stricken area of the UK. Croydon Council has previously pushed their Good Employer Charter, but with depleted staff in our council, we as a community need to take the lead with initiatives like these.

Our directory is therefore a resource of local businesses doing business in and out of the borough, or even in and out of the country, but our focus is to support them and you and ultimately our economy by doing business locally.

If you’d like to join our business community, you’ll need to be based in Croydon or the surrounding boroughs, be known to the staff of Startup Croydon, and have a business website and social presence. Please get in touch by completing our directory application form.