Member Article

North East business advisor launches own support startup

North East training professional Gillian Middleton has taken an entrepreneurial leap to start her own business.

A specialist in business support, Gillian has spent many years advising people on how to grow businesses of their own. However, after her employment came to an end in September last year, the Gateshead resident has decided to go it on her own, with new business support startup Branch Business Services.

Gillian, who had worked as a business adviser for around 10 years, made the move after taking advice from one of Gateshead Council’s Business Advisors.

She soon attended the Council’s free ‘Enterprise for you?’ workshop, which provides information on all aspects of becoming self-employed such as business structures, tax and dealing with HMRC, regulation and business planning.

Following this, Gillian found she qualified for the New Enterprise Allowance programme, which supportsunemployed people to set up a business and offers a financial allowance for up to 26 weeks, providing a cushion while she got her business off the ground.

Gillian said: “Self-employment has been better than I expected so far. After a lot of years working for employers in training and business support, the time was right for me to take the plunge into working for myself. I’d like to develop my work with individual SMEs to help them grow.

“I work with businesses, offering a free initial meeting to discuss issues that may be a barrier to growth. We will create a bespoke project plan between us that will help them improve performance, develop products and staff. I have links with lots of other organisations and services and I can bring in other expertise, such as HR and recruitment, as it’s needed.

“I got some valuable help from the Job Centre and from David, my business adviser at the council. We have bounced ideas off one another and he has challenged and encouraged me. We are still meeting up for regular reviews and I like this support.”

David added: “Although Gillian had a lot of experience as a business adviser, she appreciated talking through her self-employment ideas and was happy listen to advice. It has been very satisfying to help her develop her ideas into a business.”

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