For most, starting a business from scratch is a terrifying leap in the dark - especially if it means giving up a secure job.

Pursuing an idea you trust will pay the bills and hope will make you rich takes a lot of courage and not a little self-belief.

But there is no reason the whole process should not be made easier, allowing the true spirit of entrepreneurship to flourish.

One of the problems facing start-up companies is finding office space that is neither prohibitively expensive nor shabby and cramped.

It is a recurring complaint among small businesses in Brighton and Hove, a hotbed of creative industry.

Bizvizion is trying to change things by providing a supportive, secure and stable environment for entrepreneurs to start in.

Based at the Media Centre in Middle Street, Bizvizion gives you a desk, free telephone rental, free broadband internet access and someone to field your calls.

Rent is also relatively cheap and tenants are given flexible lease agreements with get-out clauses so they can feel more confident in the early stages.

But Barclay Thompson, who founded the company last year with business partner Ian Elwick, hopes it provides a bit more than the nuts and bolts.

He says: "It's about self-worth, about having the feeling that what you are doing is important. And it is about getting away from the spare room or the barking dog."

Demystifying business and allowing projects to grow at their own speed is a guiding principle behind Bizvizion. It's not all about becoming the next Richard Branson.

Barclay adds: "There are a lot of these government schemes that have lots of criteria attached to them, like 'you can't come in here until you have a business plan'.

"There is so much emphasis on growth, which is understandable because it is a clear marker of success and they are handing out public money.

"But that is not really how these clusters work. You may get a photographer who will never employ anyone but they work for somebody else who does.

"For want of another word, you have got to create an organic structure, a cluster where people use each others' services and help one another.

"We have structured it so they only have one cheque to worry about every month, so it is hardly strenuous book-keeping."

There are 14 companies at Bizvizion occupying 1,000 square feet of open-plan office space which allows for a degree of cross-fertilisation.

The idea is journalists sit next to photographers who mingle with web-designers who chat to the landscape architects in the pub after work.

Gus Mark runs Mark Design, a graphic design company he launched at Bizvizion in April 2003. At 36, he had spent more than a decade working for big design companies in London before moving to Brighton to raise a family.

It was an ideal opportunity to start his own business and Bizvizion was the second place he came across when he was looking to locate.

He said: "The important thing for me was just having a nice environment to work in. I think working in isolation would have been very hard.

"I have also made use of the business advice service they have here - they pointed me in the right direction on marketing and pricing."

Alex Cowell, 27, director of Cubeworks internet software company, which is forging research and database links between universities and businesses, said: "Companies are always using each other here and recommending each other to clients which is great.

"It helps that it's open plan. Everyone is in the same boat."

Clare Mansfield, 31, runs Ecographic, an environmentally-minded design company which has done work for the likes of the World Wildlife Fund.

She said: "I worked from home for a year and then moved into Bizvizion in October 2003 partly because the Brighton Media Centre was such a good address.

"But it is also a friendly place to work. There is a nice atmosphere."

Thursday July 08, 2004