Heather Wilkinson
Heather started Striding Out with a £5,000 loan from her parents. It's a pioneering support network that provides business help and training to young entrepreneurs and provides consultancy to government and academia on enterprise and social enterprise.
Do you think there are enough role models of young people who have set up their own businesses? Who if anyone has inspired you?
I think there is a need to raise the profile of young entrepreneurs operating in the marketplace. Through Striding Out I meet many young people who have great enterprising ambitions and work hard to achieve their dreams, and their courage and determination inspire me greatly.
Within the Striding Out Community, our inspiring ambassadors include Bethanie Lunn founder of www.hugepromotions.co.uk and Lucy Hutchings founder of www.marmaladya.com, Tom Savage, founder of www.blueventures.com and Rob Geheraty, founder of www.languagesatlunch.co.uk
How did you get your first break?
Winning the Social Enterprise Mentor of the Year Award in the Edge Upstart Awards was one of my first breaks. Social Enterprise London approached me, to ask if they could nominate me for the award which was really unexpected and rewarding.
Has this been an important part of getting you where you are now?
Winning the award has helped to build our reputation and profile in the social enterprise arena. As a result it has helped us to secure contracts with local agencies and academia to deliver training and coaching for budding social entrepreneurs.
Who is the one person who has been most influential in your success?
My parents have been the most influential people in my success. They are both my mentors, as they have both run businesses themselves. They have offered guidance and support in finance, marketing, IT etc. I can run past ideas, issues and challenges with them and they help me come to a conclusion.
Have you ever been a part of a network which has helped your business (E.g. MySpace, Bebo, a networking club, informal peer network)?
I find face to face networking to be the best approach to building relationships, and it is the ethos that is behind Striding Out. I have attended Beermat Mondays and Sister Snog Events, and I have also used online networks such as Soflow and CSR Chicks to meet new clients.
Through Striding Out, we have attracted a committed group of young entrepreneurs who actively engage in the community to build quality relationships and connections. The success of this face to face peer support attracts more people into it and the network is growing by word of mouth.
How did your idea become a reality? Was it a passion which turned into a business idea?
Having set up first part-time business at the age of 23, alongside my full-time job, I found it difficult to find a group of like-minded people who were about my age and toying with ideas.
I didn’t class myself as an entrepreneur at this stage, and I didn’t know if I wanted to do it full time, it was more of a hobby business.
Considering I worked in the area of economic development and was aware of most of the business support agencies on the ground, none of them really met my needs in terms of offering a friendly social network for young entrepreneurs to connect with each other and offer a softer support service of career or business coaching.
As a result of this gap in the market, I used my industry knowledge and contacts within economic development to turn this idea into a reality.
How did you get access to finance (E.g. Friends and family/ banks/ other)?
My parents gave me a £5,000 loan to start up the company which allowed me to finish work and concentrate on it full-time, this was a break that really let it happen.
If I had continued to work full time I don’t think I would be at the same point as I’m at now. I have also secured £10,000 from UnLtd to support the foundation costs of launching Striding Out.
Have you ever worked for someone else?
I have worked for the public, private and voluntary sector previously in the area of economic development and regeneration. Across these consultancy jobs, I have found it difficult to be entrepreneurial and creative in the workplace, and as a younger member of staff I have always felt undervalued.
However the experience I gained from the work has been invaluable in terms of industry knowledge and contacts to help launch my business.
What would your advice be to someone thinking about setting up their own business? How would you encourage someone to ‘take the plunge’ and overcome a fear of failure?
I think it’s really important to be realistic and to make sure you have all your bases covered. Finance is essential to launch any business, so access to this is of up-most importance.
Undertaking your market research and understanding the needs of your market and client base, will provide you with the confidence to keep going as you will know how to create a product/service that will sell.
Maintaining a big vision alongside the small steps is essential, as you can’t do everything at once. Breaking the business down into manageable chunks and focussing on the areas that will help you to generate income is key to the long term sustainability of the business.
Was the business set up as a social enterprise hand ow did that come about?
I have been passionate about social enterprise for the past eight years, and I always wanted to set one up of my own. It is important that my clients know that I run Striding Out for the entrepreneurial community, and not for my own financial gain.
How would you describe a social enterprise?
A social enterprise, is a business where the profit is re-invested to further it’s social aims and objectives, rather than being re-distributed amongst share-holders.
How do you think you could encourage more young people to set up social enterprises? What are the assumed barriers, if any?
Balancing business and social objectives is key to setting up a social enterprise. Through the training I deliver to young people, I actively at look at the social needs to be addressed and present case studies of how these issues are being tackled through entrepreneurial approaches.
A focus is placed on how to grow the commercial side of the business to add value and energy to achieving the long term social mission.