PRIME Initiative

Anne Walsh, 53 from Manchester, went from BT operations manager to quirky craftswoman, when she applied for voluntary redundancy.

BT operations manager Anne Walsh was the breadwinner for a disabled husband and three children. Fed up with her office job, Anne promised herself she would change her life when she turned 50. Anne applied for voluntary redundancy, sold her Porsche, and bought a van. She began to make gifts for family friends, and to sell on eBay. Anne made flowers out of socks, cakes and trifles out of soap and face cloths, and large cakes out of baby’s nappies. Anne says ‘the cakes definitely started as a hobby, but more and more people wanted them, and it soon became a business.’ My Unique Gifts now caters for a wealth of occasions from births and weddings to dog and cat pampering, with products ranging from £3:95 to £55.

Research

Anne’s first idea was the ‘nappy cake’. This is a fake cake made of disposable nappies, which Anne saw on holiday in San Francisco in 2001. Anne researched the product on the Internet and found that though extremely popular in the US and Canada, the nappy cake was barely on the British market. Anne purchased a ‘teach yourself’ DVD, and began to experiment. My Unique Gifts now boasts a whole range of nappy cakes from single to five tiered, complete with 96 nappies, two bottles, a pair of baby socks, baby suit and matching hat or bib, receiving blanket, crystal keepsake, photo frame, and soft toy.

Training

When Anne registered with PRIME, she was told where to go for business advice. She attended a free HMRC Business Advice Open Day, where PRIME hosted a seminar on working for yourself. Anne then booked herself onto a free HMRC workshop on self-employment tax issues. Anne says ‘both events were extremely helpful in getting to know the basics.’ But she did leave some things to the professionals, and hired a bookkeeper to document her accounts. The rest of Anne’s training was simply trying new things and learning as she went along.

Marketing and development

An early marketing tool was to circulate an email round Manchester College. A family friend, worked at the college, and sent out pictures of Christmas cakes that were on offer. This was very successful, and large orders flooded in. Anne now keeps her own mailing list, and sends out details of new gifts, or seasonal promotions.

Anne attended a craft fair with her Daughter in the Lake District, and was thrilled by the positive feedback her gifts received. The buzz spurred her on and Anne began to go to craft fairs and farmer’s markets on a regular basis. This brought in repeat customers, and the business began to expand.

Anne is now considering larger trade markets and has applied for her first two day event, the Stars and Stripes Classic American Car Show in Cheshire. Larger markets are £25 - £60 for the pitch; more expensive than the small craft fairs Anne is used to. But they provide a great opportunity to hit a larger and more commercial audience.

When going to get a logo painted on her van, Alan, the graphic designer gave Anne a tip. He recommended investing in a 0800 number. This means that if Anne’s real number (or ghost number) changes, the business line will remain the same, and customers will not be lost. The freephone number costs Anne about £60 a year. Calls cost an extra 4p a minute, but Anne keeps costs down by using her answer machine to take messages, then phoning people back from her landline, which has free minutes.

Anne’s main marketing weapon came in the form of stepson Steven Walsh. Steven is the Director of Marketing Success Unlimited, a company which specialises in branding and marketing campaign management, with a focus on online marketing. Steven provided Anne with business cards, letterheaded paper and flyers, and crucially created her website and online shop. This made Anne’s products more visible and accessible to customers outside Manchester. It also allowed people to pay by credit or debit card, which made the transaction process easier and safer for customers.

Problems

Anne’s main problem was finding suppliers that would keep the costs down. Where the Internet had proven an invaluable research tool in other areas, a lot of old warehouses were just not online. The Internet pointed to expensive and commercial manufacturers, and Anne had to dig a lot deeper to find wholesalers that provided a cost-effective price. Word of mouth became the best resource here. Anne asked friends that worked in retail, and got some good leads. Finally she was able to get her materials at a bargain, and bring down the asking price of her own gifts.

Future

Anne’s business is steadily growing and expanding. With each request, more socks and nappies are taking over the house. On 1st June 2009, Anne opened a shop and workshop, giving her business more space and achieving her target for 2009. Free Cobwebs (information factsheets) on renting, buying and choosing business premises are available from PRIME on request.

Contacts

Anne Walsh
53B North Road
Droylsden
Tameside
Manchester
M43 6NN
Freephone no: 0800 043 7156
Website: www.myuniquegifts.co.uk

Made redundant at 52, and suffering from Myalgic Encephalopathy (ME), the Job Centre told Tony Palmer that his chances of paid employment were slim. Tony took matters into his own hands and started his own engraving business.

Crystal Mountain Glass sells engraved awards, wedding gifts, decanters, bowls, and paperweights, as well as rock tablets with multilevel carving, and Swarovski crystals. Tony bulk buys the glass from a supplier in Scotland, and engraves it in a 12ft x 15ft workshop in his back garden. Prices vary, with engraved pet tags at £5, Swarovski Suncatchers from £15, and Champions Trophies at £250.

Tony was made redundant in April 2008. He applied for jobs, but was never granted an interview. Tony suspected this was due to his age and health issues, and the Job Centre agreed with him. Tony says ‘I sat down and discussed it with my wife Marion. We chose self-employment because it was the only option’. On the 1st September 2008, the business was launched.

Starting up

Tony cashed in his pension to buy his equipment and start the business. The equipment cost around £12,000 as some of it had to be imported from America. By giving up his pension, Tony runs the risk of relying on job seekers allowance if the business is unsuccessful. Yet Tony is confident in his ability, and so far, all is going well.

Tony’s first step to becoming self-employed was to ‘get advice’. Tony attended free HMRC workshops on tax returns and VAT. This helped Tony decide whether to be VAT registered or not, and helped him understand about accounts and bookkeeping. Tony is now thinking of taking on an accountant to save time, but is clued up enough to know what is what.

Tony took part in Business Link workshops, which focused on starting in business, and creating a website. He plans to attend a further course on increasing website traffic, and has requested an information factsheet (or Cobweb) on the same, from PRIME. Tony’s main tip in becoming self-employed is ‘Get as much advice as possible. It is free and always valuable’. You can find details of free workshops in your area by going to www.primebusinessclub.com/category/events.

Marketing

Tony and Marion attend craft fairs each month. A pitch can cost anything between £70 and £170 for a 6 foot area. The fairs are a way of spreading the word, and can often bring in large orders a few months down the line. Tony says ‘people will talk to us at an event, then a sports day or award ceremony will pop up, and they’ll remember and give us a call’.

Tony wanted to employ a website designer, but every quote was four figures so he did it himself instead. Tony went to www.123-reg.co.uk and bought a domain name. It was then about £70 for a software package, which allowed Tony to upload information via already formatted templates.

When looking for a glass supplier, Tony made a shrewd move with The Glass Scribe International in Scotland. As well as getting a good deal on wholesale glass, Tony became sole distributor for The Glass Scribe in London. This meant that Tony got a free listing as a stockist on The Glass Scribe’s website, as well as being able to show off his collection to those picking up orders.

Networking

Tony attends a small business club, once a month, in Thurrock. ‘It is good to mix with businesses that are in different stages of development’ says Tony. People share knowledge and tips, and it is also a good chance to gain contacts, and talk about your own product.

Problems

Tony suffers from Myalgic Encephalopathy (ME). ME can cause severe fatigue and malaise after mental or physical activity. Tony’s old job demanded long periods of working at a computer screen - about 60 per cent of the time. Tony would be able to keep this up for several weeks - but would then have to take time off to recover. Now his own boss, Tony can have what his specialist calls ‘a modified living style’. He brakes up his time in front of the computer, interchanging it with other aspects of the business. As a result, Tony’s ME becomes more manageable.

Seven months after Crystal Mountain Glass began, the business is now beginning to fund itself. But work is sporadic, and Tony and Marion sometimes have to dip into their bank account to keep the cash flow going. This is a temporary solution, until orders become more regular.

What Tony really wants is enough profit to support a showroom or a shop. That way people could peruse the collection first hand, just like they do at the craft fairs.

Contact

Crystal Mountain Glass
23 Somerset Gardens
Basildon
Essex
SS13 3JJ
Tel: 07504 779038
E-mail: tony.palmer@crystalmountainglass.co.uk
Website: www.crystalmountainglass.co.uk

Back in November 2006 we published a case study on the web about Norma, who had set up a business making and teaching people about mosaics.

Now Reuters have interviewed her. Here’s the clip. It also features Laurie South of PRIME.

“Services are falling away thick and fast. There are fewer post offices, fewer bus services. Villagers were in danger of becoming isolated from one another.” This was the thought
process that sparked Ann Davidson into creating My Village News, a local magazine which is attempting to bring her community back together.

After being made redundant from her job in newspaper advertising, Ann, 57, saw a need for a magazine in rural Cheshire where she lives. What started as a small idea is now well on the way to becoming a big success story. The monthly magazine My Village News has just celebrated its first anniversary, with 12 issues published.

“We started modestly in May last year with 24 pages”, says Ann, “and delivered to two-and-a-half thousand homes and businesses. Now we are averaging about 50 pages - and we deliver to over 5,200 homes”.

Ann and her husband John deliver all the issues themselves, which takes about eight days a month to do. What makes the task more arduous is that My Village News is aimed at a rural readership. In rural communities houses aren’t always easy to reach. Indeed, many free newspaper teams don’t bother to find the more difficult country addresses, but Ann and her husband feel it’s important to deliver to everybody. They laugh about the trials of finding the elusive letterboxes and the long drive-ways. “We’ve got to know the dogs - and which ones are friendly and which to avoid!”

Local advertisers fund the magazine. Ann believes one reason the magazine is doing so well is that people are moving away from buying from large chains, preferring instead to put their trust in local retailers and produce. As long as people are happy to support their local advertisers, Ann is confident the magazine will be well funded.

However, My Village News isn’t all about business. It also contains free listings for local events such as fetes, proms and charity events, reviews of local pubs and eateries and editorial features. Ann and her husband write and produce the magazine entirely themselves, sending the final disk
to the printers in nearby Nantwich.

Ann’s advice to others thinking of starting a business is to do plenty of research first. For example, Ann came to the conclusion that delivery had to be a high priority, to make sure enough readers were genuinely receiving copies. This would then increase the chance of advertisers getting a good response - which is what drives the long-term commercial viability of the business.

Ann turned to PRIME for encouragement after a friend suggested them. “We went to see PRIME within our first three months. I wanted some advice about the insurance I’d need to cover my business. I used PRIME to discuss ideas and thoughts, and used them as a sounding board. They are very approachable, and always returned my calls.”

Ann suggests making full use of your own experience. “After being made redundant, your first instinct might be to do something completely different. But consider the experience that you have gained in the workplace, and think about going with something you are familiar with. Selling advertising is second nature to me.”

Compared to Ann’s old office routine working on a newspaper, the hours that she works now suit her much better. She can fit magazine work around looking after her grandchild.

Garry Stephenson, 55, has set up an innovative photography company just months after being made redundant.

Garry, from Cannock in the West Midlands, was made redundant at Christmas from his job inspecting motor homes for a large local vehicle importer. His company SkyHiFotos.co.uk offers photography from an unusual angle – taken from the top of a special 50-foot mast.

Garry himself stays on the ground, controlling the camera from a laptop which shows the precise view being photographed. The Canon digital camera is attached to a motorised tilt-and-swivel head tilt he can control with his mouse. Garry is fully insured and is using professional equipment designed for this application – the extensible aluminium mast has wide legs and can be secured with guy ropes and pegs for extra stability when fully extended.

In addition to taking high shots made possible by this equipment Garry will also take ground level and interior shots to offer a full service. “I’d like to specialise in aerial photography”, he says. “But when you are first starting out you’ve got to do what you can – and go where the money is.” That said, he is keen to get work that allows him to develop his speciality – hence the Sky Hi name he has chosen for his business.

He first got the idea from the Internet. “I saw a pole advertised, then looked into what types there were, what they could do and what they cost. I found that I could get something suitable for not much more than buying a good fishing rod and all the kit.”

“For me it ticked all the boxes. Firstly something I could start almost as a hobby, but then secondly something I could work with as a business. And then thirdly something I could keep doing into retirement.”

Garry had always been a keen amateur photography. And indeed, over the years he had done some weddings for friends.

But aerial photography is what got him seriously interested in taking up photography as a means of making a living. It gave him what marketers would call his “unique selling point”.

“I could be a wedding photographer – along with about 200,000 others”, Garry explains. “Or I could be an aerial photographer – and one of about probably 50 maximum in the UK.”

Garry got little warning of the redundancy from his previous job. He heard in November that his employer was thinking about redundancies and then got his notice at Christmas. He received the basic statutory redundancy package (see below) rather than an enhanced package, so he needed to start earning again soon.

“At 55 it’s very difficult to get a job unless you want to be stacking shelves at Tesco or Asda. That’s not what I am. I was already thinking I could be doing something in photography. But when the redundancy came along it pushed me into it faster.”

Garry did get some advice on turning his hobby into a business from the Institute for Innovation and Enterprise, based at Wolverhampton University. He got a total 10 hours one-to-one business mentoring spread over a number of sessions.

“It was useful in that it took me in directions I would not normally have gone – it opened my eyes to other possibilities. By yourself you tend to get into a fixed frame of mind. If that doesn’t work you sort of fall flat on your face. With mentoring your thoughts open up to more possibilities. So eventually you do find your own niche.”

Garry’s advice to others is to get your business underway whilst still in a regular job if at all possible. “Get a couple of contracts in place fast to get the money flowing in. Work it around your existing job if you can, before deciding to go fully self-employed. It’s easier if you are already in work. I wasn’t quite ready when I was made redundant.”

Contacts:

Garry Stephenson sales@skyhifotos.co.uk
Tel: 01543 425753, 07523 897968 (mob)

Innovation and Enterprise
University of Wolverhampton University
Tel: 01902 518960
Email: innovation@wbs.wlv.ac.uk

More about redundancy pay and notice

How much notice you get and the amount of redundancy pay you are entitled may be written in your contract of employment. But there are legal minimums which you are entitled to anyway, and these depend on your age and how long you have been working for that employer. Legally you are entitled to one week’s notice for each complete year (up to a maximum of 12) if you’ve been continuously employed for two or more years after the age of 41.

The rules are fairly involved. There’s a useful calculator at the Direct Gov site.

If you are faced with redundancy it is also worth checking out the independent site Armchair Advice.

On Friday the 8th of February 2008 at 7pm BBC 2 is showing “Too Young to Retire” - a special edition of The Money Programme about people who are building successful businesses in their 60s and 70s.

Valerie: Britain has never had such an elderly and healthy population, with almost 13 million of us over 60.Presenter Valerie Singleton also talks to sisters Penny Walker and Annabel Rhodes, who set up their own natural cosmetics business Rhodes to Heaven in their sixties. They are shown taking their products to the next stage, selling them into an upmarket High Street chain.

Laurie South: We need to capture those people and actually help them to fulfil their dreams, because there are some amazing ideas out there.

Valerie: We meet the 60-somethings who have decided there’s a working alternative to 20 years of gentle retirement

One of the older entrepreneurs featured is chartered accountant Dick Pyle, who set up a truffle farm in France using an innovative adopt-a-truffle-tree business model. Customers pay £149 per tree - and then get all the produce from it. You can also visit your tree, or give trees as presents. He was just coming up to 60 and about to retire when he came up with this scheme.

From the BBC press release:

Former Money Programme presenter Valerie Singleton sets out on a journey around Britain to meet some of the oldest entrepreneurs in Britain. She examines if age is a hindrance or help to a new business career and hears the experiences of those men and women who have decided it’s never too late to start.

Statistics show that those who are over fifty and find themselves out of work have only a one in ten chance of being re-employed. So the option of starting up on your own is very attractive and may even be essential.

Valerie Singleton meets a variety of entrepreneurs who are finding success in new fields. There are the sisters in their sixties who started a range of organic beauty products and are working to get high street distribution for them. Then there is the illustrator who has built up a highly successful online greeting card business. There is also the sky-diving septuagenarian who has set up a children’s charity. Finally she meets a retired PR executive who is now trading in truffles.

She also seeks the advice of the UK’s oldest employee and employer - who are both still going strong despite being over one hundred years old.

With expert input on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur from “The Apprentice” star Sir Alan Sugar, and Peter Jones from Dragons’ Den the programme examines just what are the advantages and disadvantages in being an older entrepreneur.

Watch extra interviews not transmitted.

Accompnanying BBC news story

“After the contract for the job I was doing ended I suddenly found myself retired at 59. A quick look at my bank balance convinced me I couldn’t stop working completely – and anyway I just didn’t feel old enough.”

Liz Friedrich, now 63, whose garden design business is profiled in Women & Home magazine.

Having already done a design course and been a keen gardener, Liz started in a small way working for friends of friends. But AFTER she had already completed several projects for paying customers she decided she needed more business expertise.

So she enrolled on PRIME partner London Metropolitan University’s Forward at 50 course. (There’s a new London Met course aimed at women setting up health and care businesses just starting up).

Liz’s new business acumen is paying off with a business venture based on feedback she was getting from her customers.

Many of her garden design clients were asking for gorgeous gardens that wouldn’t require them to do any work. Liz’s initial reaction was to patiently explain that that was just not possible. But they still kept asking.

So she’s now launching a Plant Box service with a fellow garden designer. They will sell fully-planted up containers for balconies and patios - and then come round and replant them in the spring and autumn.

Elizabeth King, 51, and Vanessa Payne, 39, run a new car wash service in Cheshire. The business is based on Vanessa’s professional expertise in car valeting and Liz’s hands-on approach and willingness to learn something entirely new.

The two women were friends before deciding to run a business together. “We are both horsey and we actually met when I bought an Arab mare from Vanessa, who was then living in Cumbria,” explains Liz.

When Vanessa subsequently moved to Cheshire, the two women realised there was a potential business opportunity for them in the local area. Vanessa had several years’ experience in car valeting, while Liz had noticed the growth in car traffic and realised there was a gap in the market.

It has taken Liz and Vanessa almost two years to get their business up and running. Finding the right premises was a particular challenge. But they have now launched Arclid Car Wash, based in the village of Arclid, between Sandbach and Congleton, not far from the M6 motorway.

“We have done a lot of local research on valeting and car wash services and we are in a good spot here to capture trade,” says Liz. “We did start to look for premises nearly two years ago, and at one point we were waiting for some new units that looked promising. But then these premises [in a former garage] came up and they are better because we now have a workshop, with the pits, as well as offices and a waiting room area.”

While Vanessa has a professional background in car valeting, this is a new business area for Liz, whose main experience is in design.

Read the rest of this entry »

Linda March, who is over 50, is currently setting up a rather unusual business. Called Court Support, it provides a service to witnesses attending a Court of Law or similar hearing.

Linda attends Court with the witness. She supports them throughout the experience by explaining the court process, helping with their testimony or statement and dealing with resulting press queries.

Linda previously worked for a public sector organisation and delivered a similar court support service for the staff. This service was well received by both staff and their managers. There seemed plenty of demand for this rather specialised area of public relations.

When her job came to an end Linda thought that this was an idea she might be able to turn into a free-standing Court Support business. It would give her the chance to put her energies into something new.
Read the rest of this entry »

Being Scottish, Eleanor Dowds, 53, probably appreciates the well-known words of Burns about the best-laid schemes of mice and men “going aft agley”.

Having worked for more than 30 years as a nurse, Eleanor, who is based in Cheshire, has been planning a move into self-employment for her middle years – but her plans have had to be put on hold for the time being.

“I had planned to take early retirement, which is possible in the NHS at 55, and that would free me up to have a career diversion, into building up a business,” explains Eleanor.

The new career that Eleanor has been planning is in the home-staging business, making homes more appealing to potential buyers. Eleanor and her husband have direct experience of enhancing homes, not only through having renovated two houses in which they have lived themselves, but also through having bought and renovated two properties to rent out.

Using a combination of workmen and their own efforts, Eleanor and her husband have carried out a wide range of renovations, including installing central heating, rewiring, plastering, installing new bathroom and decorating. This has been possible, explains Eleanor, because until recently, she was working only three days a week in her job as a nurse in a local hospital operating theatre, giving her the time she needed to work on her house project.

Two years ago, the couple moved into the house in which they now live and carried out extensive renovation. “It was as we finished that work that I realised that I could probably develop this as a business,” Eleanor says.

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Harry Dennis set up his own business in October 2005, when he was 51. Based in Stockport, Harry has worked in the chemical industry his entire career and has now built on his experience by setting up an environmental consultancy, Dennis Environmental Ltd, which specialises in waste management, in particular waste minimisation and hazardous waste for the chemical industry.

“I was working for a company in Manchester that was transferring a lot of production over to India and China,” explains Harry. “Eventually, the company announced that the site where I worked would close and I decided to leave almost immediately. I had no plans to take early retirement.”

Instead, Harry decided to capitalise on the skills he had learned most recently in employment.

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Brenda El-Leithy, 59, is a good example of someone who has had to re-learn skills in a changing market place. Her business, Mind2Mind, provides hypnotherapy and personal development workshops.

Brenda had run her own personal development business for several years before personal circumstances required a move to Wales, away from her base in Sutton, Surrey. When she returned to Sutton several years later, restarting her business meant learning new skills.

“When I came back, the whole business scene had changed,” explains Brenda. “The whole environment is now very different and I have had to look at different approaches.”

As part of her re-skilling, Brenda attended the London Metropolitan University’s Forward at 50 course for women setting up their own businesses, and found it very useful in giving her new ideas.

In the past, Brenda used to advertise her personal development workshops and services in glossy magazines. “This time, networking is the key,” she says. “It was emphasised on the course - and I have certainly discovered that networking is absolutely vital. Now, I advertise in the local paper every two weeks, but the rest of my business comes from personal recommendation and networking.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Mike Lloyd has demonstrated that business ideas can sometimes come from unexpected places. After a career advising other people on how to set up their own businesses, Mike has now, at 60, found himself running his own business, delivering flowers.

“I committed a cardinal sin,” comments Mike. “I went into something that I knew nothing at all about. It meant I really had to hit the ground running and learning about this new business has been hard work.”

Mike has set up Flying Flowers Network, a delivery service for florists in the North Somerset area. It is not something he had expected to be doing. For many years, Mike was a business advisor. He has worked for PRIME, and his most recent job was working as a regional development manager for the InBiz organisation. “It was an interesting job, working with socially disadvantaged clients and helping them into self-employment,” he explains. That job came to an end when he was made redundant, following funding cuts. “It was a purely financial decision and entirely amicable,” he says.

Initially, Mike was not too concerned about his change in circumstances and intended to get another permanent job. But it was harder than he anticipated. “I had lots of experience and first-hand knowledge in a management role, supervising staff, so I thought I would apply for a similar job in the south west,” he says. “So I started applying for jobs, but got nothing. Then, one Sunday, my wife and I were at a garden centre and I saw an ad from a new florist, wanting a driver and I thought that would that would do me until something else came along.” A week later, Mike had begun his new job, as a van driver.

“The first job I did was a delivery to a local undertaker. When I arrived, three separate florists’ vans were also delivering flowers,” says Mike. “I could see at once how inefficient that was, so I suggested to the florist employing me that if I invoiced him, rather than working directly for him, I could do deliveries not just for them but for all the local florists and that way, I could help them to reduce all their costs.”

Having had this idea, Mike did an outline of his business plans and spent three months researching the market. “I needed to see if anyone else was doing this, and no-one was,” he says.

The chief objection to Mike’s new delivery service was one he anticipated: all the florists he approached said they already had their own delivery van. “So I had to go away and regroup,” he explains. Researching the market further, Mike discovered that all the local florists belonged to different telephone ordering services. By delivering these orders himself, he could save the florists money. In order to make this business viable, Mike has had to discover a great deal, very quickly, about the flower business and how it operates. “The florists have been very good,” he says. “They tell me about the way things work.” But it has still been a challenge. It’s been a vertical learning curve,” he admits. “But I now work for nine florists and have three part-time workers.”

In four months, Mike has trebled his turnover and the business is now self-sufficient. “I haven’t had to put any money into the business,” he explains. “The trick is not to spend too much in the first year and not to borrow if at all possible.”

Mike is now anticipating a rush in the run up to Christmas, and then a quiet period afterwards, in which he wants to get a website up and running and get uniforms made for his staff.

“The challenges have been the same as for any new business, except that I have had to learn about a completely new subject,” he points out. Mike feels his background, which includes 26 years in the police, has helped him in different ways. “I know a lot of former police officers, many of whom are now self-employed and who are willing to help out with the odd afternoon or day, so I can turn that on and off as demand ebbs and flows,” he says.

Setting up the business has been demanding and involves long working hours. “My first delivery is at 8am and the trick in this is to develop a circle of routes, so I can move round one and then another,” explains Mike. “I’ve generally finished by 5pm, so it’s not a bad working day, but of course the downside is that I have to work on Saturdays. In fact, I have suggested Sunday morning deliveries, at a premium, so I now also work about one Sunday each month.”

Mike has delved deep into this market and now knows a great deal about flower selling in the UK. “I keep things simple and I keep asking questions,” he says. “I’ve learned things I knew nothing about, in double-quick time. It is really exciting.”

While it may seem to have put Mike under pressure to start a business in a completely new market, his reaction to the experience is different. “My previous job was a highly-pressured job,” he says. “I was earning a good salary, but I was having to travel constantly. Now, I think I could do this job for another 10 years. The other morning, for instance, I had just made a delivery and had a spare 35 minutes, so parked by the sea, had a double espresso, read the paper and thought - this is the life.”

Mike may be enjoying his new life, but he believes it is important to keep one’s business feet firmly on the ground. “If you spot an opportunity, you must rationalise it,” he advises. “You need to do the research and development. Then you need to incorporate all that into a plan and stick to the plan. If that doesn’t work, you need to write a new plan - and then stick to that.”

He also believes it is a mistake to expand too fast. “I think it’s a good idea to move on steadily, rather than rush on,” he says.

Norma Vondee, 54, is an artist. She creates mosaics and mosaic sculptures and has run her own mosaics business, Norma Vondee Mosaics, for the past five years. Her biggest struggle continues to be the contrast between the business side of the work and the artistic side.

“I still find it difficult that I have to spend two days a week trying to get the work and only three days a week making the work,” comments Norma. “I’d really like to be spending five days a week making the work.”

Nonetheless, Norma has managed to move successfully from being a teacher into the world of running her own business, by finding out how to talk the language of commerce. “I was an art teacher for 18 years and did some part-time commissions, so I didn’t go into this all at once,” she explains. When her son, who is now 14, was born, Norma took time out to look after him in the pre-school years and then took an MA in Art in Architecture.

Norma, who is based in east London, has built up her business gradually, renting out a room in her flat to pay for a studio where she could work. She then realised she needed to make a greater commitment to the business. “The crunch came when I was 51,” she comments. “The business was dragging its heels. It was under-financed and under-publicised.”

Norma took action. She achieved greater publicity when she won a contest run by CIDA, the East London agency that supports local creative arts and she also went on the Forward at 50 course run by London Metropolitan University. “It was great meeting other people in a similar situation, but from very different backgrounds,” says Norma. “Some of the speakers on the course were inspirational, particularly on the topic of taking risks – risks with finances, with mortgages and with life. It’s all about that idea of taking that leap before you are ready for it.”

Norma even found inspiration in the less-good speakers. “They made me realise that I was ready to take on corporate presentations,” she says. “I’d always found it different to talk to corporate clients, but I realised it’s just about doing the corporate speak. It isn’t rocket science.”

Armed with greater confidence and knowledge about how to develop her business, Norma went about financing her next move, which was setting up a website. “That was going to be a major investment of money, but in fact, it ended up being a major investment of my time,” she explains.

Norma’s studio is in Trinity Buoy Wharf, where other creative firms are based, one of which gained a grant to provide training for artists to create their own websites. Using this funding, Norma was able to work on creating her own website (www.normavondeemosaics.com). “It has taken a large amount of time and of course in that time, I haven’t been doing other things, like selling my work, so it has had a knock-on effect,” she says. “I’m now having to catch up. My next step is to do more advertising.”

Norma has found that regular exhibitions of her work have helped promote her business and she has also done some leafleting and has listed herself in various professional publications. “But the best publicity is my website and word of mouth,” she says.

Norma already uses part-time assistants and aims to develop the business to the point where she can take on a full-time assistant and also employ an agent, to carry out more of the administrative and sales side of the business. She is continuing to develop the business, in her own way. “I don’t have a written business plan,” she says. “I know I should have one, but the plan is in my head.”

Norma finds the most challenging aspect of running a business the constant need for different skills. “I’m constantly wearing different hats,” she comments. “This is certainly not a nine-to-five job, where you go in in the morning and know exactly what you will be doing. You have to be both pro-active and reactive, and I find it exhausting.” Time management can be a challenge, in these circumstances, particularly for those, like Norma, also involved in family life. “It is not easy to find family time,” she acknowledges. “I am now trying find to be a bit more sociable, but it can be difficult. My son is away at school, which helps a lot, but when he is home, it is all pretty full on.”

Some of the key lessons Norma has discovered from the process of setting up her own business is the need to take risks. “The statistics show that women tend to under-invest in their businesses and ask for less help,” she comments. Although Norma talked to her bank about financing her business and found that encouraging – “I realised that they were willing to bend over backwards to help businesses get started,” she says – she has taken her own risks in re-mortgaging her property to invest in her business.

She has also had to do a lot of market research, to locate potential customers. She now takes on commercial commissions, as well as commissions from private customers, and her work includes commissions from clients as wide-ranging as an estate agents in Hackney, to film actresses.

As a creative person, Norma’s real passion is for her work itself and she does find it difficult to handle the more commercial aspects of the business. Initially, for instance, she found pricing the works quite a challenge, although she has overcome this barrier by taking greater control when negotiating with clients and gaining a better idea of the price of works of fellow artists. But it can still be daunting to handle these kinds of financial matters. But Norma’s determination has paid off as her business continues to build up and she is now working to achieve her goals, including her aim of being able to put greater effort into her own creative work.

Graham Siggs is 61. He started his own electrical testing service two years ago and intends to keep his business going for quite some time yet.

“I have a quality product that I intend to sell as long as I can, and then sell as a going concern,” Graham comments.

Graham is based in Somersham, near Cambridge, and his business, HuntsPAT, is a testing service for portable electrical devices. It’s a business that Graham finds easy to run and that fits in well with his substantial experience and his desire to continue working after the age at which he was forced to retire from the civil service.

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