All through her life, Diane Drysdale from Stockton has always been in and around horses, events and shows.
With a career in blue chip companies, she thought her job prospects were reasonably secure until the recession hit and she found herself out of work.
Having had a previous spell in self employment she started to research possible ideas for launching a new venture based around supplying event performance wear and accessories to competitors taking part in equestrian events. She came to the conclusion that there was a business opportunity as no-one else in the North East was doing this.
During September 2010, Diane’s Job Centre Advisor suggested she contact Five Lamps for some help with a business plan and free business support. Chris Butler, Five Lamps’ Senior Business Development Officer signposted Diane onto Stockton’s Enterprise Gateway programme.
Over the next couple of months Diane met Chris on a regular basis, developing and fine tuning her business model. Chris helped Diane to access funding from Stockton Council’s Communities Fund and free training and business support through Five Lamps Enterprise Gateway workshops.
In December 2010, she started trading as ‘EQUESTRIENNE d’ELEGANCE’ and since then the business has grown steadily as more and more people in the horse and pony showing world get to know about her.
Calling in to Five Lamps in late June 2011, she told Chris
“I’m really enjoying the flexibility of being self employed especially as it allows me to be creative and give my customers beautiful performance wear and accessories – it’s a real buzz”.
Five Lamps run Communities Fund on behalf of Stockton Council to support people who are unemployed. The Enterprise Gateway is delivered by Five Lamps on behalf of Stockton Borough Council.
The Enterprise Gateway project is part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), managed by the Department for Communities and Local Government, securing £380,643 ERDF investment. The ERDF Competitiveness Programme 2007-2013 is bringing over £300m into the North East to support innovation, enterprise and business support across the region.