Around 4,000 companies went bust in the second quarter of this year, most of them small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Yet a survey has revealed that 82% of such companies do not believe they need professional help.

The government wants to convince more of the country\'s 3.7million small businesses that they could be better off if they did seek professional advice through Business Link (Tel: 0845 600 9006 to get the number of your local office) and have introduced a raft of initiatives to try to persuade them to get it.

One stone specialist that has used Business Link is Marble Arch in London. Talking to NSS earlier this year, managing director Rob Merry attributed a 60% increase in turnover in a year to £1.7million to the scheme.

Most of the Business Link consultancy services are free. Indeed, part of the advice offered regards grants available. However, there are charges for some activities and Merry calculated that using the service had cost him £2,000 a year.

To try to encourage small businesses to use Business Link the Government has embarked on a £2.7million advertising campaign to promote the service to small businesses.

The promotion is being run by the Small Business Service, launched in April last year to provide a single point within government that is dedicated to a sector that creates more than half the wealth of the country but, because of its disparate nature, has little political influence.

Another initiative from the Small Business Service has made £75million available for the creation of \'incubator schemes\', which are sets of units for start-up businesses that include services to help small businesses, such as links to research establishments or larger companies.

A new directory of such incubator schemes is supposed to be coming on line at the web address below, although it was not yet there when NSS checked. It can be obtained from UK Business Incubation at the postal address given below.

There are subscription charges to belonging to UK Business Incubation, although the Government says 75% of business that start up in businesses incubation projects are still in business after five years compared with only 33% of businesses without such support.

And if you do get into trouble, another initiative from the Small Business Service could help you get out of it.

Company \'doctors\' will put together rescue packages for firms in trouble, concentrating on long term debt management and realistic assessment of businesses. This is supposed to complement insolvency reform proposed in the Enterprise Bill (see August NSS).

Small Firms Minister David Irwin said: I want to change the way the business community behaves towards small firms that experience a cash-flow crisis.

More information is available on the SBS Enquiry Line. Tel: 020 7215 5363.