Newsletter from the North – July 2012

 

A snapshot of July

July has been a fantastic month for The Prince’s Initiative in the North. We completed our “Preparing to Run Your Own Business” courses in Burnley, Newcastle and Manchester, as well as starting two more courses in Bradford and Sheffield. Furthermore, we hosted two glamorous networking events in Manchester and Leeds, where Clients had the opportunity to mingle with other new entrepreneurs, local business owners, mentors and friends of the Charity, as well as our key note speakers.

 

Events

Our two networking events this month were a great success. The first event took place in Manchester on Tuesday 10th July at Manchester 235 and the second in Leeds at the Alea Casino on Wednesday 18th July.

During both networking events, we also held an award ceremony for our Clients who had passed their “Preparing to Run Your Own Business” course. This is a brilliant achievement and we wish our Clients luck on their enterprising ventures.

Our Manchester Clients had the privilege of listening to female entrepreneur, Janet Harrison, talk about her journey into self-employment. With a background in business and arts, Janet set up Bag Lady Productions in 2008 in order to showcase the talents of more mature actors and has more recently created Cofilmic – a new comedy film showcase, festival and talent development programme. With such a creative and comedic flair, Janet certainly provided some excellent advice to budding entrepreneurs as well as giving us all a few laughs along the way.

Our Leeds Clients were also treated to an inspiring talk from star of The Secret Millionaire and Director of Joblink Solutions, Carl Hopkins. With marketing experience spanning over 25 years, Carl provided some fantastic advice for our Clients who are interested in self-employment, business and enterprise.

 

A special congratulations also goes out to Elizabeth Heather, Maggie Joan Haggas, and Dianne Tew who won the Forward Ladies Membership for their businesses. Elizabeth’s older ladies bra fitting service business,Maggie’s 3rd Age Hostel and Housing business and Dianne’s ‘Believe it possible’ business are certainly all innovative and exciting ideas.

A huge thank you to London Clubs International for providing both venues and to our keynote speakers, Janet Harrison and Carl Hopkins.

We hope that everyone enjoyed themselves and felt inspired by the evening.

 

North Update

A warm welcome to Lindsay Cameron, our new volunteer Mentor Co-ordinator for the North of England

With over 30 years of expertise within the Civil Service and leadership and management development, Lindsay is well equipped to help with our mentoring programme. Her responsibilities will include contacting all of our mentors and assessing how The Prince’s Initiative can better support them.

 

Congratulations 

The following Clients received The Prince’s Initiative’s £250 “Will it work?” grants:

St Helens – Dave Cotterall for “Dr Bike”

Manchester – Gina Frost for “Ghosts in the Machine”

Leeds – Tracey Marshall for “Thread Squirrel”

Newcastle – Mary Kennedy & Dot Owston for “People Inspiring People”

 

The following Clients received free Forward Ladies 12 month memberships for their business ideas:

Liz Heather for “Elizabeth Heather”

Maggie Joan Haggas for “3rd Age Hostelling and Housing”

Dianne Tew for “Believe it possible”

 

West Yorkshire business, “Handcart media” generously donated a prize of 5000 free design and print leaflets, which was awarded to:

Kate Herbert for “Healing and Massages in Hebden Bridge”

A huge thank you to our supporters

The Prince’s Initiative could not deliver services to help the over 50s into self-employment in the North without support of various people and organisations.
 
This month a special thanks goes out to:

The Prince’s Trust for accommodation in Burnley

Optima Legal in Bradford for providing a venue and refreshments for our course

DWP for providing a venue in Sheffield

DWF for providing a venue in Leeds

 

We would also like to thank members of the business community in the North, who have generously donated their time to help the over 50 entrepreneur by discussing the highs and lows of running a business at our “Preparing to Run Your Own Business” courses:

Dave Barthorpe of Partners in Performance

Ilyas Mohamed of Total IT Consulting