”It was 17th April 2003 and we were driving back up to Coventry from Kent, while negotiating the motorway junctions we were idly chatting about life, family, work – the usual. The conversation progressed to our once-upon-a-time plan we had about setting up our own business, we both looked at each other and made a pact that from the next day on we would start to make long term plans to do so.”

Lisa
“It just all seemed to make sense. I had a steady job as an Internet Customer Services Advisor, but there were no career prospects, on top of that I was working inconvenient hours in respect to childcare and actually spending time with my children. So I thought if I am going to take a risk anyway and change jobs, I am going to do in on my terms and develop a career for myself that I can progress at and control at my own pace and inline with my life style.

Leigh-Anne 
“It’s just how Lisa says, but I was actually unemployed at the time and was worried where my whole career was heading. I could no longer go for the managerial jobs that I am qualified to get because of my disability. My arthritis determines whether I can get out of bed in the morning, this is a far cry from managing Weatherspoon Pubs! Obviously I had to take a step back and re-assess not just what I wanted to do but what I felt I was capable of doing and the prospect of sitting behind a desk day in and day out did not fill be with joy.”

Our decision to enter self employment was based on both our different circumstances needing a flexible, rewarding career that could fit in with us and where we wanted to go. So we did it, and five months down the line here we are; our own premises, solid client base, healthy bank balance and prospects of expansion – no problem. Yeah right! If only it was that easy!

Neither of us had any idea about business. All we knew was that we had £6,900 and we needed triple that amount to set up our business vision of a children’s indoor play area and eatery, where parents can let their kids run riot while they take five, relax and enjoy a cuppa.

We didn’t know where to look for premises, we had no idea about marketing and worse still we were finding it increasingly hard to get people to take us seriously. We felt we were out of our depth and our business idea was perhaps a bit too insignificant for the people from whom we needed help.

Of course now, we know that’s not the case and we know our company is a viable and lucrative business venture that has tremendous prospects, but at the time it’s easy to start to feel like little fishes trying to survive in a massive ocean. Some people are just more helpful than others – for whatever reason, we’ve still not figured it out, and funnily enough now we are successful business women, be it only five months, there is a definite turn around in people’s attitudes.

Having more enthusiasm than money, we sought professional business advice. We made contact with Business Link who then referred us to The Women’s Business Development Agency and we wasted no time and accessed their free services immediately. The whole experience has been invaluable and having our own advisor and mentor was just fantastic.

Our business advisor told us our idea was possible and it would work but it would involve a lot of hard graft – this we were not scared of; to us that was the easy bit. Being told this was like a breath of fresh air. I don’t think people understand the difference that can be made to people’s lives through self employment, from where we were standing this was to be everything – our livelihood, our careers, our happiness and our long term goal. So that was it, there was no stopping us; we could actually start to make structured plans now as nobody else had actually told us if we were flogging a dead horse or not.

So much has been achieved in such a short space of time that we honestly don’t think it would have been possible without the team at WBDA. We have accessed training, Inland Revenue courses and on our business advisor’s recommendation we applied for a grant and loan from the Prince’s Trust, we were successful and everything else seemed to fit into place. We found premises in Nuneaton and negotiated a lease with the Co-op which also entitled us to benefit from their marketing activity.

We started trading in October 2003, and we are already reaping the financial rewards which are rare in the first 18 months of the business’ life. We absolutely work our socks off but at the same time take a flexible approach to work. The kids can come to work with us and not be bored and we get to spend a lot more time with them.

At present we are looking at the possibilities of expansion and have created our own trading association with other businesses on our street (Abbey Street Trading Association), we are looking strategically now, and the development of this association will enable all of us to have a good holding on the future of our businesses.

Leigh-Anne Kirby & Lisa Tedds
Tel: 02476 345678