A former Royal Naval Aircraft Mechanic has swapped his overalls for a shirt and tie to set up a successful mobile event bar and refreshments business, thanks to help from Business Link’s ‘Start your Business’ events programme.

Stephen Russell, 28 from Stockton-on-Tees, was inspired to change career after a job working with military aircrafts in Sydney, Australia, fell through and he landed a role catering for a wide range of high-class events including the Sydney Motor Show, the Sydney Fashion Show and the Melbourne Cup.

After deciding to bring this standard of mobile event catering back to Teesside, he headed home and   attended a Business Link ‘Start Your Business’ event.  Stephen went on to set up Russelled UP in August 2010 and secured high-profile clients such as Mini UK, BMW, Barclays and the North East Chamber of Commerce in the first three months of trading.

Commenting on his success, Stephen said: “When I attended the Business Link event, I didn’t even have a business plan. I was a total newcomer to business with nothing but an idea in my head just bursting to get out. I gained invaluable information from creating a professional business plan to marketing and finding out about the funding available to help me get started.”

Stephen also won a free logo design from graphic design and brand communications agency, Urban Giants, who ran a competition at the event.  Michael Thompson, owner and creative director at the agency delivered a creative marketing seminar at the event and will once again be on-hand with other business experts at this year’s events to advise budding entrepreneurs.

Michael added: “Last year we provided many companies with free creative advice on branding, brand protection, social media campaigns, marketing and promotional strategies.
Urban Giants are passionate about supporting new businesses, which is why we are delighted to be part of the 2010/2011 series of ‘Start Your Business’ events and we are looking forward to inspiring and supporting more people to realise their dream of being their own boss.”

The ‘Start Your Business’ events provide an opportunity for anyone who is thinking of starting a business to get face-to-face advice from business experts on a range of specialist topics from finance and marketing to planning and law. Delegates can also take part in interactive workshops and seminars, and access a series of free guides which are packed with practical information on how to start a business.

The first event takes place at Darlington College on Saturday 6 November, followed by 5 other events which will take place at the following locations: Newcastle, Peterlee, Alnwick, Middlesbrough and Sunderland. Visit www.eventsnortheast.co.uk/start or call 0191 281 5777 for a full list of dates, more information and to register.

A North East company has won its first major contract, worth £1million, after its business director attended a series of free Business Link finance workshops aimed at helping SMEs improve their financial understanding in challenging economic circumstances. 

Daniel McKenzie is business director at I Want A Computer Ltd based at The International Business Centre in Gateshead. He attended all five Understanding Finance workshops, funded through Solutions for Business and ERDF, which resulted in his graduation with a Skillsfirst Level 3 Business Finance accreditation.

Mr. McKenzie first heard about the workshops through Newcastle University Enterprise Centre. The series of five free modules cover basic finance, through to raising finance, money management, financial understanding and growing your business.

He said; “I’m someone who is quite good with numbers, but I didn’t know enough to be able to run business accounts and understand the full terminology, so I went on the course to gain a better understanding of finance. I wanted to try and pick up ideas for running my business and the sessions were really good and certainly helped me achieve this.

“Finance and accounts can be a really dry subject matter and there were people who had different levels of understanding and experience taking part. The course trainers were able to communicate effectively with everyone in an interactive way, as well as making it fun and interesting – it’s not often you can say that about this type of workshop.

Since attending the course Daniel has applied his learning from Understanding Finance to develop his growing computer business. He said; “I used the experience to help me set up an accounts system for the business. It’s meant that we’re operating more securely than we would have been. Our business signed its first major contract in July, worth £1million, and I would say that taking part in the workshop has certainly played a helping hand in this. Because I now have the foundation of knowledge learned on the sessions, it’s given me the confidence and capability to be able to handle much bigger contracts.

Daniel says he would definitely recommend the course to other SME owners. He continues; “It’s a fantastic course and any entrepreneur running their own business should definitely take part because you need to be able to fully understand cash flow. Even if you have an accountant to do this for you, you need to be able to understand what your accountant is telling you.”

Julie Spowart, events manager for Business Link, said: “Daniel’s achievements are a great example of how the Understanding Finance workshops can contribute towards business growth and profitability.

“The Understanding Finance course has been designed to increase the financial knowledge of business people through highly engaging sessions. In this particular economic climate there has never been a more important time for businesses to manage their money well in order to maximise their profits – this course gives them just the tools to do so. Delegates are also given the opportunity to engage online after each workshop by also putting their learning into practice through our interactive e-learning facility.

“These interactive workshops are proving to be incredibly popular with business people across the region and I look forward to seeing many more attend, apply the knowledge to their own organisations and reap the rewards.”

Free Understanding Finance workshops are running throughout the year across the North East. For more information or to register visit www.eventsnortheast.co.uk/finance or call 0191 261 3812.