AN advice service has been launched to help address the needs of the North-East's 87,000 micro businesses.
About 88 per cent of businesses in the region have a staff of four or less, and a "search engine" website has been created to allow them to access business advice available on the internet.
The Skills for Business Network has created the site - www.solutions4business.info - to save businesses time when searching for information on management and leadership issues.
Linda Florance, chief executive of Skillfast-UK, said the site had been set up with micro enterprises in mind.
She said: "Life as an owner-manager of a very small business can be pretty tough. All too often, owner-managers have to try to muddle through on their own, because they just can't afford time away from the business for formal management training.
"If we want our smaller businesses to grow, we need to support them properly."
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