Phil Barnard, co-founder and operation director, DA Techs
We are a national alloy wheel refurbishment specialist our business is quite capital intensive and we’re growing.
Our starting point with Boost was connecting into Access to Finance. When Covid hit we were a young and expanding business and we got solid advice from someone who understood our growth plans.
Phil Barnard
We transformed our business with their help and support, which included applying for a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan and we’ve since gone on to borrow more, including a recovery loan. We’re in a
really good place and we’re very grateful for that support.
We were in a strong position. We just couldn’t carry out the growth we wanted to. There was a swell of demand towards the back end of 2020 and it was important to make the most of that. We also put a 120kW solar system on our roof when it became clear that energy prices were going to become a challenge for us and we were pointed in the right direction to get a grant by Boost.
We’ve been on Boost funded peer-to-peer network programmes and masterclasses and we’re on with an AI project with UCLan. Our next plan is to franchise what we do. Once you’re in this eco-system, the difficult bit is making the time to take yourself out of your business so you can work on it. But once you’re in that eco-system you are off and running.
Craig Fishwick, head of the finance team, Brysdales
I’ve attended the masterclasses and it was just great just to see like-minded businesses in the area that really want to tap into their peers and see everybody on this growth curve.
There’s another thing that Boost helps with and that is management development. Everybody in this room has probably benefitted from the management skills that come with these networking events and the masterclasses.
That’s what I found when I went to them. Craig Fishwick
The only constant, as they say, is change and making sure that you have the right
management infrastructure is so important. We’ve all got great facilities but you have to have the right people in them to form the bedrock for growth. I hadn’t really had much involvement with government funded programmes like these, so it was quite refreshing to get involved. In reality there are wider benefits to be gained.
It’s not just about getting a little bit of funding, it’s about wider networking, peer group support, things like that, people connecting through the Boost programme which ends in doing some business with them. The next phase for us will probably be around senior leadership development. I’d like to see how far we can take the journey with Boost.
Sue Denver, Boost Business Lancashire advisor
When I go to see a client the first question I ask is ‘what is your biggest challenge today?’ and then I help them address that challenge. It could be looking for financial support, putting a management team together, putting a strategic plan together, sales or marketing. We work right across the board.
We also stay with them as well; we keep in touch and they know that we’re here. We take them on a journey and stick with them on that journey.
It’s a journey that might have begun when
people were just starting the business and it continues. I’m working with a business that has £100m turnover.
Under the Boost programmes we have something for everybody. There are three core programmes: the startup programme, growth catalyst and scale to thrive. People don’t realise the breadth of what we offer until they make that first point of contact.
The advisors are split into local authority areas because they have all got different grants and programmes and we need to know what their offer is as well as the Boost service.
Sue Denver It’s
just been a great journey. We’re still on it and will be in years to come.
Raf Perussi
Raf Perussi, founder and owner of Beurre Patisserie
I’ve been working on my business for the last six months and will be opening in St Annes in the next few weeks.
Boost was my first contact with the business world. I had all the publicity of being a finalist on Channel 4’s Bake Off: The Professionals and I knew I wanted to do something. This was my dream.
I had some savings and I was living in St Annes. I said I want to invest here and I want to start here and that’s where it began.
At the first meeting with Boost, I was asked what my five-year business plan was. I said, ‘I can only think a year ahead’.
I was told you have to think that far ahead: where you want to be, how much you want to achieve, your pension and questions like, ‘Are you going to buy a warehouse when you’re big enough?’ It’s all those little things that you never think about, like liability insurance.
Boost have built the foundations so far. It’s now up to me how it will work. Another strong point they made was, ‘Make sure you define your business, are you going to be customer based or B2B?’
I said I wanted to do 50/50 and Boost told me to make sure the physical space is big enough. We’ll see in a couple of months if that will work or not.
Without Boost I’d probably not be in the position I am now in terms of opening a patisserie I actually want to open and working in one of the best kitchens in the country.
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