Having spent five years studying Sports and Exercise Science at Teesside University and being awarded a 1st class Honours degree, Middlesbrough based Rose decided to start up her own mobile personal training business.
Being passionate about the benefits of fitness and health, the idea of being self employed combined, the job satisfaction coming from seeing her clients progress, with the flexibility to schedule her work alongside her other commitments.
Rose got in touch with Five Lamps in mid-2018 and had an initial meeting with Chris Butler, one of the Five Lamps Enterprise Advisors, where they discussed her business model, the help she thought she might need and what Five Lamps could offer as part of their ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) and NEA (New Enterprise Allowance) contracts.
These contracts gave her free access to training workshops with additional one to one support to develop her initial ideas into a clear business plan to take forward and one to one support from a Business Advisor.
As Rose had family members who were self employed she had a reasonable working knowledge of the main issues around setting up and managing a business but she was less sure about financial and legislation type areas such as tax, insurance, VAT, company structures etc.
Over the coming few weeks she worked with Chris Butler, to investigate all of these issues and incorporate that knowledge into her business plan, cash flow and systems for managing her business.
The NEA (New Enterprise Allowance) programme includes ongoing support from start up to the end of the first year and so Rose continued to work with Chris during her first year on her, marketing, books and tax return.
Despite some early minor hiccups that most new businesses experience, nearly one year on Rose’s client base is growing steadily and they, and she, are seeing clear results from her approach to personal training which uses Science based practice in a supportive environment to encourage and help her customers to achieve their personal goals.
Rose is very keen to contribute to the wider local community and has donated raffle prizes and free sessions to a number of local charities including, Zoe’s Hospice, Epilepsy charities and St. Francis School, with more planned over the coming months.
Rose said
“Some teething troubles were to be expected but having Five Lamps support there gave me the confidence and believe in myself and my business. Now one year down the line, things are going really well and I’m even more convinced that starting my own business was the correct decision.”
The New Enterprise Allowance is a DWP contract for people on Job Seekers Allowance, Employment Support Allowance or lone parent income support.
Five Lamps are a Delivery Partner within the Business Compass Start Up 2 project. This is a business startup project being delivered across Tees Valley to assist potential entrepreneurs to become enterprise ready and ultimately self-employed. This is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund.
To find out more about starting a business, please speak to Five Lamps Enterprise team on, 01642 608316.
Rose can be contacted on Facebook- @twrpersonaltraining, Instagram- @twrpersonaltraining or by visiting her website- www.twrpersonaltraining.co.uk