Jo Baker, University of Birmingham alumni, on setting up her own business
Video transcript
"The sort of steps I had to take in order to get the business off the ground, obviously, first of all, coming up with the idea in the concept of what I wanted to do.
"Initially, I got advice from friends and family and really just following my instinct of what I thought would make money and be enjoyable. I then got put in touch with an excellent project called "Balancing Business", which is funded by the European Social Fund. That helped me to look at doing a business plan for the first time. The structure of the company and whether I wanted to be a sole trader or a Limited Company and all those sorts of things, which I'd never come across before. It wasn't something I'd covered in my degree doing Sports Science; it was very useful.
"After starting the business in August 2006, I then traded for about a year before turning it into a Limited Company and, at that point, I received further help from the Women's Business Development Agency. They helped me. I went on a three day course called "Imagining Growth", which looked at really moving things forward and becoming a larger organisation than I was at the time and looking to a sort of future planning."
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