Member Article

Corbridge entrepreneur engineers success thanks to Ready for Business programme

John Stonehouse from Corbridge has established his own civil and structural engineering business with help from North East enterprise agency TEDCO Business Support and the Ready for Business programme.

Newcastle-based John Stonehouse Consulting Ltd offers high quality structural engineering advice to loss adjusters, insurers and other construction professionals through the provision of structural reports, investigating building defects and administrating remedial works.

John has more than 30 years experience as a civil and structural engineer, and was previously a director at a global engineering consultancy.

Ready for Business, the investment readiness start-up programme that supports new enterprises and aims to create 6,000 businesses with 10,000 new jobs, is supported by the Government’s Regional Growth Fund and Barclays and is delivered by the Cavendish Consortium, a partnership between some of England’s leading enterprise agencies together with the National Enterprise Network.

Within a few short months the business has secured a number of contracts and has employed its first member of the team with Josie Dakers joining the firm as PA.

John Stonehouse said; “There are a number of start-up support programmes out there, but after speaking with Bill it was clear that his knowledge and expertise would be extremely valuable to me. I had a clear understanding of what I needed to do – establish a business plan, develop financial forecasts and analyse the marketplace – and Bill helped keep me on the right track and made sure that I had considered all the potential angles and had everything in place.”

Ready for Business advisor Bill Hartshorne added; “Many people who are looking to establish their own venture have an awareness of what is involved but often working for yourself can be quite isolating; Ready for Business understands this and provides these individuals with guidance, support and a sounding board to enable them to set off on the right foot.

“John had an extremely viable commercial idea which capitalised upon his extensive experience in the industry and demonstrated the commitment and dedication needed to launch and develop a new enterprise. Already he has employed one member of staff and as he continues to grow the business over the coming months, he will go on to provide more much needed job opportunities for the local area.”

For more information on the Ready for Business programme or to find out more about the Barclays Get Ready for Business seminars running across the region visitwww.startupedge.co.uk or email bhartshorne@tedco.org

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .