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"Did you have to create projections or approach anyone to source advice, funding or finance?"
Sara Phillips – Rituals Beauty "I started by doing research, looking for
premises and then looking for funding as well, because in beauty there is a lot outlay to
start off with. First off I went to see the bank, had a chat with her and she gave me
a couple of contacts, so I got onto a company called Enterprise Made Simple and they give
details of part of Entrust called Fin and it turns out my husband used to work with
a lady who worked there and she gave us good feedback, so I got in contact with them and
they were really, really helpful, offered lots of advice and help with the application
of the grant and we sat and wrote the business plan as the application went through, so it
turned out the business plan and then they gave me lots of advice and I used Sage Planning
for Business as well and used that as a way of working out steps I needed to take such
as VAT and that then links to the various websites."
Mark Louth – Mark Anthony Signs "I encouraged people to start so it was a
no brainer in that sense. I had a trade and like most tradesmen you just naturally evolve
into starting your own business. As far as help goes, there was a young business organisation
around at the time that gave you access to the Princes Trust which is still going today
and that was very helpful in buying tools to get the job underway. So it is there, but
sometimes it’s difficult to find if you don’t know where to look, but it’s just
a matter of getting in touch with one of the bigger organisations like Business Link as
they know where everything is and your local Council knows where most of the funding it."
Sara Phillips – Ritual Beauty "As I went to Enterprise Made Simple to start
off with and they are a privately owned company, but I’d already been talking to Fin, she
said they they’ll already be doing those applications, it’ll be going via them anyway
and because we were in discussions with them, they said we may as well carry on with them,
but it was really quick and I was quite surprised at how quick it was and how knowledgeable
he was. I was quite lucky because my husband has a business degree and he could help me
with all of the application and he also put me in touch with people for training also,
in my industry for beauty therapy you have to hold the certificate yourself whereas a
lot of beauty therapy companies will train you in-house, which means you’re covered
then, but when you go on your own you then have to do the training all over again in
order 1 to get insurance and 2 to buy the products as well, but I got help with that
training money as well via Fin."