Pictured above: (l-r) Allan Wood (UK Steel Enterprise) with
Mark Rogers (Demonchalks)
Over 200 new businesses have been established in the Black
Country over the last 18 months with financial help from Tata Steel
subsidiary UK Steel Enterprise.
As their Kickstart grant and loan scheme winds down, local
business advisors were full of praise for the initiative providing
small grants to help new entrepreneurs launch their
businesses.
"It has been a wonderful scheme," commented head of Black
Country Enterprise Chris Cooper. "These grants have been a
tremendous help to each recipient giving them a better start to
their new self employment. In the last three months alone 68 people
have become self employed including an HG driving instructor, a
chocolate maker, someone running drama workshops and a consultant
on diabetes working with the NHS."
Altogether 205 businesses have received funding from UK Steel
Enterprise with typical grants of £500 being used for all
sorts of start-up costs. Loan funding has been provided to other
more established firms.
A large number of new hairdressers and beauticians have set up
and the number of various home services- plumbers, electricians,
builders, window cleaners, painters and decorators and gardeners -
has swelled across the region.
Catering of various sorts has proved a popular new enterprise
with sandwich shops, cafes, and cake makers all getting grants
towards their new outlets. And several new fitness trainers and
cycling coaches are keeping the public on their toes!
Financial consultants, private investigators and photographers
are among other services started up, and manufacturing entrepreneur
Mark Rogers, of pool chalk holder Demonchalks, bought much-needed
equipment to help get his business rolling.
UK Steel Enterprise regional manager Keith Williams said, "We
hoped when we started this scheme that it would be successful, but
we did not envisage how successful!
"There was so much demand from new entrepreneurs in the Black
Country that we decided to rapidly boost our initial investment so
that we could help more businesses. In total new enterprises here
have benefited from £82,000 and another £35,000 has
gone to established small firms who needed development funds to
take their business to the next level.
"Our core business is development finance for established
companies which might need up to £750,000 to help with
growth plans, so providing small amounts of cash to help new
businesses get off the ground has proved not just a sound
investment but has also been very encouraging and rewarding. We
hope these new businesses will, in time, grow, and even if they all
just employed one person, then that job creation would be
significant.
"The credit crunch has meant the usual sources of finance for
start-ups and small companies generally had more or less dried up.
We recognised this and decided to do something about it to help the
local economy. It seems our plan has worked! We wish all the grant
recipients well in their new ventures."