Mind your own business to create your success

Mar 25 2008 By The Journal

EMPLOYED but wanting a change? Unemployed and wanting something more? A mum at home, looking after children? 16+ and don’t know what to do? Perhaps retired, but want to keep active?

Northumberland Business Service (NBSL) may have the solution. It offers flexible business start-up services ranging from free workshops to help you generate business ideas, to free one-to-one advice and practical help from business advisers to develop ideas into viable businesses.

Based across Northumberland, NBSL’s six business advice centres are on the high streets of Alnwick, Berwick, Blyth, Morpeth, Hexham and Ashington.

Its ethos is to bring business support services to you, rather than you having to find them. Each of its business advice centres has a dedicated team to help you when starting up and running your business.

At no cost to you, it can provide business start-up advice, source useful information, and steer you and your new business in the right direction.

Your first step to self-employment is to make contact with NBSL, and it will help you to complete its short self-assessment.

The start-up action plan will help you to identify the strong areas of your idea and areas where it could be improved, and will provide ideas on how to develop these areas.

You can access this free, no-obligation, confidential assessment online through its website at www.n-bs.org. Alternatively one of its staff can guide you through the questionnaire on a one-to-one basis or over the telephone. You will receive your personalised action plan which you can ‘save’ and / or print it out, review it at your leisure, or use it as a basis for a meeting with one of its business start-up advisers.

The action plan may, for example, suggest useful events to attend, where to search for more information, and about how NBSL can help you to access funding and other start-up assistance.

Its dedicated team of business advisers are themselves self-employed, so they can relate with the issues and questions you may have. A full suite of free business start-up workshops are available at the centres, covering the fundamental principles of starting out in business, including marketing, finance and business planning.

Case study – Sharon and Karen live their dream

BEST friends Sharon Cowans and Karen Wilkinson were tired of having no money and no real daily challenge. They wanted to do something to help themselves. They had no idea what, but in idle chat one day they decided to approach NBSL’s business advice centre to see if they could help with some ideas. Karen said: “We called in, and after an initial discussion with Doreen and Val at the business advice centre over a cup of coffee, the best way forward for us was to join a couple of free workshops to help us to generate and develop some ideas. It became obvious that we both enjoyed cleaning, and went on to learn that there was a market place out there for a domestic service. The workshops and our business adviser, Alan Grieves, helped us identify our individual strengths and how to combine them – I’m better at researching our market and developing marketing ideas, whilst Sharon’s quite skilled in book-keeping.”

The girls went on to complete a start-up action plan to identify strengths of their idea, and focus on areas that could be developed further. Being quick to take advantage of some extra start-up workshops available at the centre to develop their business plan, they realised a need for set-up funding and worked with Alan to apply for and draw in grant and loan funding.

Scrubbers, a domestic cleaning company based in Ashington, Northumberland, is now growing by the day giving Sharon and Karen a different kind of mission. They aim to continue building their customer base, growing the company to take on more staff and vans to cover additional geographic areas – something they are confident of achieving within the next two years.

“It’s amazing how quickly we have been able to develop and progress our idea, and how swiftly the business has taken off. We can’t thank the staff at Northumberland Business Service and their partners enough for their help and encouragement, and recommend to anyone thinking of starting their own business to get in touch with their local business advice centre.

“These centres are geared up to help people like us, they work with you to find out what will help, then source and bring the right assistance to you to help turn your ideas into business reality, and all for free,” said Karen.

Contact Scrubbers, tel: (01670) 851455.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information on NBSL’s services, contact tel:
(01670) 844555, atwww.n-bs.org or ring your nearest NBSL Business Advice Centre –

Alnwick: 50 – 52 Bondgate Within, on 0844 873-1341.

Berwick: 45 Castlegate, on 0844 873-1343.

Blyth: 8 Bridge Street, on 0844 873-1345.

Hexham: 3 Cattle Market, on 0844 873-1347.

Morpeth: 35 Newgate Street, on 0844 873-1349.

Wansbeck: The Hirst, Woodhorn Road, on 0844 873-1351.