BUDDING Plymouth entrepreneurs are to be given free advice on how to set themselves up in business at a special session in the city.

The workshop is particularly aimed at young business brains who want to start a firm, people who want to turn their hobbies into money-spinning enterprises and anyone who may have lost their job because of the recession.

Chartered accountancy firm Bishop Fleming is hosting the event, which is being staged as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, at its offices in Cobourg House, Mayflower Street, on November 17, from 1pm to 2pm.

Because places are limited, up to 30 budding entrepreneurs will be 'invited' to take part, but effectively it is open to anyone who applies via the Bishop Fleming website.

They could also come through organisations such as Business Link or the University of Plymouth, or from Bishop Fleming's own network of business connections.

The hour-long session will deal with how to set up in business, delivered in 'easy-to- understand language', and will focus on areas under headings such as Passion Into Profit, for people wanting to develop hobbies, and Take Control Today.

Organisers are hoping to attract a special guest, likely to be an entrepreneur who has appeared on TV's Dragons' Den.

Bishop Fleming chief executive Brian Payne said: "We are strong believers in promoting entrepreneurship; that's what we're here for."

He said the seminar was 'for anyone out there thinking, "Where do I start in terms of running a business?"

"It's both theory and practice, in terms of how to evaluate your idea, planning a strategy and implementing it," he said.

"The reason we're so keen to help is that we cover the whole South West peninsula as an advisory business and a huge number of working people in the South West are self-employed and micro-entrepreneurs.

"Forty-one per cent of the working population west of Bristol are self-employed. On that basis we have a thriving entrepreneur community and are keen to make that grow.

"If we can encourage a few more people to start companies we feel we'll have done a good job."

After the workshop ended the businesses involved would not be abandoned, but would be followed with monthly online 'webinars' – seminars on the web.

The Plymouth workshop will be the first of several run across the West Country.

Global Entrepreneurship Week has incorporated what was formerly known as Enterprise Week into its global movement to champion enterprise and entrepreneurship.

The week-long event is organised by Enterprise UK, an organisation founded in 2004, as Enterprise Insight, by the British Chamber of Commerce, Confederation of British Industry, Institute of Directors and Federation of Small Businesses, funded mostly by what is now called the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

To register to take part in the workshop either visit the Bishop Fleming website www.bishopfleming.co.uk, or email office manager Graham Shaw at gshaw@bishopfleming.co.uk.