New businesses given a helping hand: Jobless people refused credit by their banks can get help to start up their own businesses thanks to a new £60,000 fund. The Fredericks Foundation charity was set up in 2001 as a social enterprise to help young people who had made bad decisions to get back on track. Because of the credit crunch, with banks less willing to lend to small businesses, it has branched out to help existing companies rejected by their banks, as well as lending to the long-term unemployed. Now it has received £60,000 from a Government scheme, through Oxfordshire County Council, to spread the initiative to the county.
One of its first clients was Harwell window cleaner Dominic Greenough, who received a loan to buy a van and equipment after being made redundant. The banks did not consider him credit-worthy, but his business is now flourishing and he hopes to pay off his Fredericks loan next year. He explained: “The Jobcentre put me on to Fredericks. They gave me an interview and I explained our situation. “They were only interested in the business we have got and the drive behind it.”
His company, DG Professional Cleaning Services, uses a water-fed pole to clean windows, as well as offering pressure washing and carpet cleaning. He said business had grown by word of mouth, despite the recession. The Fredericks Foundation was set up by computing millionaire Paul Barry-Walsh, founder of SafetyNet, now Guardian IT. As well as Mr Barry-Walsh’s money, the foundation is also funded by the European Union’s European Social Fund and the Government’s Phoenix Fund. Affiliated businesses give one per cent of their profits each year, as well as giving up some of their time to support the charity’s work. One of its supporters is Mike Jennings, of Monument Business Park, in Chalgrove, who has offered office space to the charity’s new Oxfordshire representative, former bank manager Tim King. Mr King said: “The foundation was set up because Paul Barry-Walsh wanted to give something back, helping disadvantaged people to start up in business. “Over the years that has widened from the unemployed and ex-offenders to helping single operators – people who would not be able to save up the money needed. We help anyone who cannot get traditional bank finance.”
Clients are referred by advice services such as Business Link, as well as Jobcentres. Decisions on loan applications are made by a panel of business experts. Mr King said: “The panel interview is more like Dragon’s Den than The Apprentice. It’s a friendly interview.”
One of its first clients was Harwell window cleaner Dominic Greenough, who received a loan to buy a van and equipment after being made redundant. The banks did not consider him credit-worthy, but his business is now flourishing and he hopes to pay off his Fredericks loan next year. He explained: “The Jobcentre put me on to Fredericks. They gave me an interview and I explained our situation. “They were only interested in the business we have got and the drive behind it.”
His company, DG Professional Cleaning Services, uses a water-fed pole to clean windows, as well as offering pressure washing and carpet cleaning. He said business had grown by word of mouth, despite the recession. The Fredericks Foundation was set up by computing millionaire Paul Barry-Walsh, founder of SafetyNet, now Guardian IT. As well as Mr Barry-Walsh’s money, the foundation is also funded by the European Union’s European Social Fund and the Government’s Phoenix Fund. Affiliated businesses give one per cent of their profits each year, as well as giving up some of their time to support the charity’s work. One of its supporters is Mike Jennings, of Monument Business Park, in Chalgrove, who has offered office space to the charity’s new Oxfordshire representative, former bank manager Tim King. Mr King said: “The foundation was set up because Paul Barry-Walsh wanted to give something back, helping disadvantaged people to start up in business. “Over the years that has widened from the unemployed and ex-offenders to helping single operators – people who would not be able to save up the money needed. We help anyone who cannot get traditional bank finance.”
Clients are referred by advice services such as Business Link, as well as Jobcentres. Decisions on loan applications are made by a panel of business experts. Mr King said: “The panel interview is more like Dragon’s Den than The Apprentice. It’s a friendly interview.”
Seth Brown Panes & Drains Inc. Liberty - In 1990, Seth Brown was a sophomore at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., when he began cleaning windows for Northland homeowners in the summer. “I was just a one-man operation with my supplies in the back of a truck,” Brown said. He did windows every summer until he graduated in 1994, then landed a “real job” in sales and moved to St. Louis.
In 1998, Brown moved back to Liberty and continued working 40 to 50 hours a week in sales. But requests by customers from his college days prompted Brown to begin cleaning windows again on weekends in 2000. Brown discovered that he was making as much in two days as he was working five days during the week. “From there, I just decided to hang out my shingle and clean windows full time,” Brown said. “I was very informal. I had no cards, no invoices.”
To the panes of window cleaning, Brown added the drains of gutter cleaning, and Panes & Drains was born. “At first it was more of a courtesy because I was already up there cleaning the windows,” Brown said. “Then I realized people would pay to have their gutters cleaned.” Brown, now 40, became an accidental entrepreneur in June of 2002 and has been operating his business from a home office since then. He has a payroll of three full-time and three part-time employees. His business has grown so much that Brown is preparing to move to a commercial location later this year.
How the VAT rise will affect families in South Wales: Mathew Davies spent much of 2010 balancing being a first-time dad and business owner, after opening his window cleaning firm Simply Pure in September. The VAT rise will affect the cost of the specialist equipment Mathew uses as well as the transport involved. The 38-year-old of Pentwyn, Cardiff, dad to 10-month-old Tabetha, said: “Obviously the business is quite new and we are expanding. I am not overly concerned when it comes to the shopping side of it. My concerns are with regard to the business supplies that I need with equipment and that side of it. When you are talking big amounts, it’s going to have an impact on that.
“The fuel price rise is going to have much more of an impact with two vehicles which are constantly being used, that’s going to be a bit of a struggle. With regard to clothes, that’s going to be a little bit of a pinch but I suppose you need to watch your budget a bit more and reassess it at the end of the first month and see what impact it has had at that point. “I am not in a position to be VAT registered so I am going to hold my prices for as long as I can to make sure I keep attracting more business.” Wife Johanna, 30, works part-time at Barclays. She said: “It’s just going to be another expense that’s going to make things more expensive. I think petrol is the main one that’s going to have a knock-on effect. With a baby I don’t pay VAT on most of the things we buy for her anyway because it’s all exempt.”
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