Richard Carter, 30 from Thornaby and Daniel Stephenson, 24 from Norton first came to Five Lamps’ Enterprise Team in November 2010 after visiting the Launchpad on Stockton High Street.
Both Richard and Daniel had been recently made redundant from a national building company. They completed Five Lamps’ Enterprise Gateway programme. Following this, they moved into Intensive Start-Up Support, working with Simon Coe, Five Lamps’ Business Development Officer to develop a business plan and finalise the financial forecasts.
By developing a good financial plan they were able to access a suite of support that, alongside their own redundancy money and grants from Five Lamps and Stockton Council, enabled them to start ‘Pipeworks’ in February 2011.
Despite having never been self-employed before, they worked incredibly hard to learn the key skills and now love self-employment. Richard said
“Working with Five Lamps took the worry away from self-employment and made starting our business a much easier proposition”
Daniel added
“We’ve already recommended a few people to speak to Five Lamps about starting up in business. If anyone is thinking about self-employment, I’d definitely say ‘get in touch’”
The Enterprise Gateway is delivered by Five Lamps on behalf of Stockton Council. Project part funded by the European Union.