B2B Services Tenders and Contracts

B2B services procurement covers business support for companies: SME support programmes, growth hub delivery, one-to-one advice, start-up support, mentoring, export support and high street business programmes.

Stotles brings together business support tenders and contracts from 100+ portals into one search, so you do not have to check each portal separately, and you can set alerts for new opportunities across the UK and Ireland.

If you want to search the government portals directly, Find a Tender carries higher-value contracts across the UK and Contracts Finder carries lower-value contracts in England. Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI cover Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Ireland's eTenders covers Irish public bodies, and many councils, NHS bodies and housing associations publish on their own e-tendering portals such as ProContract. Business support programmes are often procured in bursts tied to funding rounds, and Irish Local Enterprise Offices publish their programmes on eTenders.

Business support tenders are scored on delivery approach, outcomes such as businesses supported and jobs created, the advisers' experience, local knowledge and price. Many councils appoint panels of advisers, so getting onto the panel comes before winning individual assignments.

Programmes funded by public grants must meet the funder's eligibility, subsidy control and reporting rules, and advisers handling business data must comply with UK data protection law. Tenders usually set minimum insurance cover, check financial standing and ask for evidence of similar programmes at selection stage. Under the Procurement Act 2023, suppliers can be excluded for certain criminal convictions, insolvency or failure to pay tax.

District and borough councils, combined authorities and national enterprise agencies buy most business support services. Most business support contracts are programme work aimed at small businesses: SME support programmes, high street and town centre business support, growth hub delivery, business mentoring and peer networks, and panels of consultants that a council draws down against per assignment.

Read economic development and growth strategies, funding round announcements and expiry dates for existing business support programmes, which show business support work coming due ahead of a notice. On Stotles you can track those signals and the buyers behind them, then follow a notice from pre-tender through to award.

The codes that turn up most often on business support notices are 79400000 (Business and management consultancy and related services), 79411100 (Business development consultancy services) and 79900000 (Miscellaneous business and business-related services). Coding is patchy on this category. Plenty of on-intent notices carry no code at all, or a construction or training code inherited from the sector the programme serves.