It is critical that new recruitment agencies are given access to face-to-face support when starting up, according to Anna Drobycz-Maher, director at commercial recruiter A&L Recruit.

Last June, business minister Mark Prisk announced the government would be shutting down the Business Link network, which helps small and medium businesses.

While Business Link is not being scrapped altogether (its website is being retained), the local groups that provided face-to-face contact for business owners will no longer exist by the end of the year.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister David Cameron launched StartUp Britain, aimed at helping entrepreneurs with a number of big businesses offering help to new firms.

Among the pledges, AXA will offer 10% off business insurance, BlackBerry will offer 1,000 free StartUp Guides, while Microsoft will train 5,000 start-ups in how to use technology to drive their business and marketing activities, including free technology resources worth up to £400 per company.

But Drobycz-Maher, who, following redundancy, set up her business with Lisa Jarvis last month, told Recruiter it was the face-to-face contact provided by Business Link’s mentors in the last year that had been invaluable to her business.

“We were quite lucky when we started up. We got innovation vouchers from Business Link. The body that I worked with is part of the Chamber of Commerce and is being scrapped on the 31 March. They got me funding for my website. I got £3,000 from Business Link and that paid for a management consultant. Although we are good at recruitment, we had no experience of running a business.

“As I received my funding during this period, I still have my funding and access to my mentors and free courses. I am going on one this afternoon on using Twitter — it’s all free.

“It will make it more difficult for new start-ups. You need the funding, support and help — someone who will mentor you and point you in the right direction. We could not have afforded to set up our website without the help of Business Link — they even helped us write it.”

Chris Tinson, director at Veritas Recruitment Solutions, which also launched last month, adds: “I call the StartUp scheme more of a promotion. The government says it is looking to provide £1,500 worth of resources but in reality, as a start-up, to benefit from the full range of offers, you would have to have a hell of a lot of money behind you. From a cost saving point of view, I don’t think it will have that much impact.

“When you’re starting up, everything is open to negotiation. As a budding entrepreneur, you should be able to negotiate a discount on these kinds of things yourselves.

“What the StartUp site does do is bring together all the information, which is really good — it’s all in one place, it’s easy to navigate. I think that’s how it should have been promoted — as a knowledge and resource hub, because it’s definitely not something that will ease the financial burden of trying to start up a business in some of the most challenging economic times we have faced.”