Results Consortium Ltd, based in Essex, have been a SFEDI Awards centre for nearly 2 years and have enjoyed working with some great budding entrepreneurs in that time. They continue to support new business owners through SFEDI Awards qualifications and get great feedback as a result.

Fay Tansley attended the Results Preparing to Start Your Own Business course and graduated in September 2012 and an email recently received by Results Consortium announced that she had now gone live with her website, ww.tlcpartysolutions.co.uk.

In talking to Fay she said; “My experience with the course was very positive, I found Results Consortium through my local Job Centre. I always knew that the key to starting up a business was to start with a good solid business plan”.

Fay attended the course a few days after seeing her JCP advisor and said “I was very surprised by a full class and I met some amazing people. The knowledge provided on the course was exceptional……….I was able to put together, what I do consider to be, a very good business plan, and I still use it today”.

“At the time I started the course almost 6 months ago I didn’t even have a website, and it was the tutor,Louise, who referred me to the owner of Select IT and I have now launched my website in February 2013. It has been an overwhelming experience starting up my own business and I do feel that I have come a long way since I started this  venture last July, so I am pleased to say I am in business and looking forward to providing my customers with a good positive service for all their party needs”.

Graham Cripps from Results Consortium says,

‘Fay attended a number of markets during the run up to Christmas which got her business off to a good start. Fays passion and commitment is evident in all our dealings with her and she has also commissioned an advert in a Southend-on-Sea circular, the What’s On and Where Guide. Visit her website and see what she has to offer, if nothing else, it will brighten up your day, it has mine.’

Nic Preston, SFEDI Awards Chief Executive, had this to say,

‘We are delighted that yet another entrepreneur has been able to access high quality support through a member of our centre network receiving the knowledge and skills, underpinned by our qualifications, to ensure the best chance of success in taking hold of their future. We wish both Fay and all the entrepreneurs gaining support through our centres the best for the future in all their successes.’

If you are interested in offering SFEDI Awards qualifications and supporting entrepreneurs like Fay then please feel free to contact our Customer Service Team, on customerservices@sfediawards.com, who will be more than happy to talk through the opportunities with you.

 

In November 2011 Results Consortium Ltd, with the help of SFEDI Awards, started their first Business Planning Course. With the Level 2 Certificate in Preparing to Run Your Own Business, Results have now had 116 candidates successfully complete the programme and have now developed a one day taster session for Job Centre Plus customers to help establish whether starting their own business is a truly viable option for them.

From the very first group in Harlow, Results continue to deliver to a broad range of clients starting their own businesses in anything from book keeping, marine engineering, falconry, a Michael Jackson tribute, domestic services, building services and vehicle maintenance to counselling, hair dressing and complimentary therapy.

Results have a dedicated Facebook page for new start-ups which includes case studies and video footage of past achievers and their business ideas.

Ken Kirk attended the course in Thurrock, Essex and developed his business plan that enabled him to have the confidence to gain access to funding and was up and running within 6 weeks of completing the course. This is just one success story of many.

Graham Cripps recalls his experience of starting the programme. “When Paul Caffery, my business partner, asked if we could run this programme, we contacted SFEDI Awards to ask if they had anything that suited. They came back with Preparing to Run Your Own Business. From the beginning of the product development, SFEDI Awards have been a great source of support and ideas. When Nic Preston (SFEDI Awards CEO) first came to our offices, his advice and guidance was of real value. Nic and the rest of the team at SFEDI have continued to be very supportive, all we have to do is keep them informed of developments.  All the team are very responsive Bernie, Jenny and Kelly being our regular contacts over the past 18 months”

Since the first courses, Results have made efforts to ensure they deliver what their customer, Job Centre Plus, requires. This has included the new taster session which has just seen 15 learners complete two Level 1 Awards successfully.

• Level 1 Award in Understanding Business Planning
• Level 1 Award in Understanding Personal Enterprising Qualities

10 of these learners have gone on to enrol for the new four day course – Level 2 Certificate in Creating and Starting Your Business (QCF). Good luck to them in their new ventures.

For more information on how SFEDI Awards and Results, in partnership, have made a difference to new start-up business owners, visit the Results web site at www.resultsresults.co.uk and see some of the case studies and videos of past successful candidates.

 

Laura Lee enrolled on the Preparing to Run Your Own Business course after the company she had worked for as Finance Manager was forced to make her redundant in March 2011. She carried out research online into the various avenues that were open to her as a self-employed businesswoman and sought help from her job centre advisor before signing up for the Level 2 certificate. Laura says,

“I enjoyed the course. It provided a recap on some of the basics of business, which may have been new to some learners. But where I really benefitted was the business plan. The way the course was structured made it incredibly easy to put together. I had always thought that this was a complicated and time-consuming process but I found that I’d done it almost without realising.”

With a plan of action in place, Laura has already made huge strides with her company Laura Lee Bookkeeping. She has taken on a design company, a painter and decorator, a recording studio and retail shop as clients and, with a website on the way (www.lauraleebookkeeping.com), she hopes that she’ll be adding to that list soon:

“I’m currently speaking with a make-up artist and estate agents to add to my portfolio. Ideally, I’d like to take on more work with creative people. I enjoy working with companies who have that creative edge.”

Laura is also quick to point to the value of having the support of a mentor when setting up an enterprise:

“I have a mentor who runs her own accountancy firm. She also works from home and likes to work with similar clients so I respect the advice that a businesswoman like that can give me. Also, having someone like Emma on hand is great for networking – we can share ideas and pass recommendations each other’s way.”

It seems that Laura is now not only prepared to run her own business; she’s put it into practice and is already well on the way to making it a success.

For more information on the Level 2 Certificate in Preparing to Run Your Own Business, or any of the other SFEDI qualifications available see the SFEDI qualifications page.

Jason Major completed the SFEDI Awards Level 2 Certificate in Preparing To Run Your Own Business at The Sheffield College in November 2011.

Jason worked in the USA for ten years as a graphic designer for many industries particularly Local Government, Healthcare, charities and small businesses before returning to the UK to have a go at setting up his own graphic design business in his hometown of Sheffield.

He found out about the course by seeing an advert in the Sheffield Star and thought it would be great way for him to understand the processes involved in setting up a business. He says, “The course is fantastic and covers everything you need to know to get up and running”.

When asked how the course had changed the way he felt about setting up a business, he says, “I feel a lot more confident about setting up the business now. The course lets you see if your business idea is viable before you even start. The course teaches you the formula of starting up a new business and how to ensure it is successful”.

Jason’s business, Major Major, has now launched and already has an impressive portfolio.

Lauren Hart completed the SFEDI Awards Level 2 Certificate in Preparing To Run Your Own Business at The Sheffield College.

Another arts based business to come out of the course is from Lauren, aged 26. Lauren has had the idea for her business for a long time, but felt she was lacking the skills and confidence to take the leap. When she saw the Preparing to Run Your Own Business course on The Sheffield College’s website¸ she knew this could help to develop her idea.

Lauren was working part time in a pub whilst also performing unpaid in a local community theatre production at the Crucible Theatre when she first started work on setting up her own theatre company called (For) As Long As Love Lasts. The company aims to work as an ensemble that will create performances collaboratively from scratch.

The work will be presented both at professional venues and non traditional performance spaces throughout the UK and internationally. She explained: “I am passionate and motivated by using theatre as a tool to change society. I have loved theatre since my first drama lesson when I was 11. I went onto studying performing arts at college, a drama degree at university and a masters in contemporary theatre at drama school. I decided after working as actor for other theatre companies that I wanted to share my own ideas with the world and I want to change society in a fundamental way. I aim to do outreach work alongside my performances in order to use my skills to help others.”

The course has helped Lauren get a better understanding of the areas she’s less interested in like book keeping and she still want aims to get more training from the Inland Revenue so she can assess how it will work financially. When asked if she would have started a business without this training, she said: “No, I think I would have always needed to be guided in certain aspects of business in order to know how to set it up. The advice from the tutor and other students has been a great help to me.”

Ally Makin completed the SFEDI Awards Level 2 Certificate in Preparing To Run Your Own Business at The Sheffield College.

Single mother-of-three Ally, 45, found out about the course from Jobcentre Plus after she had been on benefits for 36 months. Ally said:

“I was running my business on a trial basis with support from the job centre and I thought that I was ready to go it alone and get off benefits completely.

“They told me about the course and it sounded perfect, and with free childcare at the college available for my three-year-old, I knew that it could become a reality. It really gave me the tools to succeed, improved my confidence and introduced
me to lots of other people in the same position.”

Now Ally is aiming to optimise her website www.allysgiftshop.co.uk and further develop the gift shop parties side of the business, which she launched to bring the products direct to the customer.

She added: “The training has meant the difference between the business succeeding or not. It’s helped me gain the knowledge and confidence to make it a success. I really wanted my children to see that there was more to their mum
than someone at home on benefits. My 16-year-old daughter is aiming to go to university to train to be an architect. Now I really feel I can support her goals and inspire her to succeed.”

Lesley Hollingworth completed the SFEDI Awards Level 2 Certificate in Preparing To Run Your Own Business at The Sheffield College.

When asked what life was like before the course, Lesley, 43, said: “I was sick in bed! A serious back problem meant that I had lost my previous job of 10 years, after over two years off sick. I had been working under the Government’s ‘Permitted Work Scheme’ for 10 hours a week as a freelance artist.”

She added: “I knew the course would be perfect as, although I had the ideas, I needed the real knowledge to apply to my ideas. Also, as I have mild learning disabilities, I felt the extra support I would get in a college environment would help me that much more.”

Lesley runs a mobile art and craft gallery targeted at the mainstream Christian market. Following the course, she is taking her business to all of the market’s major events throughout the UK in 2012 and developing an online shop. She’s also launched a mobile temporary tattoo and nail art bar that goes to local events, festivals and children’s parties.

Lesley started the business, she explained, as part of her therapy and received great feedback about her work. She added: “Due to my circumstances, I knew I could not return to a normal pattern of work, so I took a long hard look at what else I could achieve. The arts have always been my passion and as someone involved in the Christian community I noticed that there seemed to be a gap in the market for a fresh modern approach to the creative arts.”

Lesley thinks she still would have given the business a go without the training, but she admitted: “It would have been flawed by my weaknesses and the fear may well have got to me. The eight-week course has helped me look at my idea from every angle and now I feel confident that I am being realistic about it and not just getting carried away with a nice idea. The combination of material and tutor training was invaluable.”

Louise Reader completed the SFEDI Awards Level 2 Certificate in Preparing To Run Your Own Business at The Sheffield College.

Full time mum, Louise, 31, joined the course when she saw it advertised in her
local paper. She was interested in starting a hair and beauty salon with a small coffee
shop, childcare facilities and pamper parties, but didn’t know where to start until she
joined the course.

She said: “The course has given me more knowledge and insight into the things
involved when running your own business. I also have support available to me at the
college from business mentor Joe Bolton.” When asked whether she would have
progressed her idea without the course she added: “I don’t think so. I feel that without the help of this course I would have remained stagnant. After finishing the course I will try to concentrate on the most important things I need to do to get my business up and running.”