Entrepreneurs and small firms are being offered extra help from the New Anglia Local Enterprise partnership to gain business advice with a revamped website.

New Anglia has worked with Norwich-based Computer Service Centre to give its bizinfoportal website a fresh look aimed at making it more user friendly.

The bizinfoportal aims to fill a gap left by the government's often criticised decision to axe the Business Link service, by offering an online facility to point firms towards help they need.

Business Link, which provided business advisors, training and information for Small and Medium Sized businesses across the region and country now only provides a help line. The ending of the regional Business Link service meant that it was increasingly hard for people to find their way to the right form of business support for them.

With 60,000 businesses in Norfolk and Suffolk it is aiming to sign up 10pc of those in the next 12 months.

As part of the changes, users will be asked to register to use the site and give details of their business, with the hope being that this will enable them to be pointed more specifically towards the relevant advice and information that they need.

Andy Wood, New Anglia chairman, said the portal would be a 'powerful tool to help them grow'.

'Businesses simply don't have the time to trawl through different websites, which means that they are missing out on the help that is out there,' he said.

'The new, enhanced Business Information Portal is free. It pulls together hundreds of different sources of local information and provision alongside national sources of information and helps users find what they really need.'

The portal helps businesses and individuals access information on a wide range of subjects ranging from finance to exporting, from resource efficiency to contract opportunities. Users are provided with information tailored to their local area and focused on topics they select from the easy-to-use menu.

The Business Information Portal also has a comprehensive business events page, including webinars, and registered users can choose to receive a weekly or monthly email showing what has most recently been added to the portal, which is relevant to their business, and unique to them.

Access the site by logging on to www.bizinfoportal.co.uk