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Case studies and Testimonials from Black Country Enterprise clients

Case Studies

Recruitersite.co.uk


 Mark Jones, 39 and Scott Taylor, 35 were both senior directors of a notional recruitment company when they took the decision to start their own business. After exploring a number of options, they identified an opportunity to offer a revolutionary service to small, independent recruitment agencies. The service, Recruitersite, which will be launching in July, offers the means for an independent agency to find the right candidate as quickly as possible by enabling up to 10 jobs to be posted to a selection of job boards in under 5 minutes. The directors believe that the service can, on average, save a firm £25,000 a year in costs. Bob Howard of Black Country Enterprise and Moore Stephens provided support in areas of business planning and marketing. Mark and Scott also have some exciting developments in the next few months and they look forward to the future with anticipation.

Mi-Zone

Phil Jarrett, 41, with over 20 years commercial experience at senior level in the scanning and mobile computing sectors has invented an innovative and ground breaking technology platform. His concept ensures the security and safety of personal assets and loved ones using mobile phone technology. With the assistance of Bob Howard of Black Country Enterprise and Business Link West Midlands, he has managed to secure from Advantage West Midlands £30,000 for the proof of concept of his technology idea. SCAAT (Stay Close At All Times), the platform that Mi-Zone aim to bring to market has already garnered significant industry interest. Phil believes the technology will have a positive impact on the safety of children, crime reduction and could lead to spin-off applications in the future.
www.mi-zone.co.uk

Alpha Design Ltd

Alpha Design Ltd was a new startup Architectural business in August 2004. Based in Kingswinford, its core business of Planning and building regulation applications together with contract and job management allowed the company to stabilise over a short time. But with regulation changes happening quickly Alpha Design Ltd needed to develop further in order to service the heavy demands on construction projects that were forthcoming over the next 12 to 18 months.

Mark Godson, of Business Link, provided a mechanism for Alpha Design Ltd to develop core skills, advance its services and add value to clients requirements. Through a grant of £10000, Alpha Design Ltd has been able to add CDM Co-ordination, SBEM and EPC energy assessments for non domestic buildings, Health and safety consultancy for construction projects and now is looking forward to BREEAM in use and BREEAM Commercial assessor status. The grant secured personal development of staff as well as the company overall.

Business link enabled Alpha Design Ltd to break into new markets that were previously not possible. The grant enabled to company to develop where previously the company could not support at such an early stage.  
www.alphadesignltd.co.uk

Crumbs and Crusts

Crumbs and Crusts based on Brownhills High Street, was set up as a partnership by Craig Ballard & Emma Jones to offer freshly made sandwiches, baguettes, and other "healthy eating" cold snack items.

Craig had previously been employed as a Kitchen Manager for a local pub chain; Emma had worked as a Restaurant Supervisor  however, neither partner had ever run their own business before, so they turned to Black Country Enterprise Ltd for assistance. Their business adviser, Ian Race assisted them with formulating a business plan and a set of financial forecasts to present to their funders.

Emma commented that "we could never have started our venture without the assistance of Black Country Enterprise, their business planning advice was invaluable, and Ian made the cash-flow figures very straightforward, since our business opened one of our major competitors closed down due to adverse publicity, in addition another café/hot-food outlet 2 doors away from us, closed down, and we've taken over the lease for this business too, we intend to run both businesses in parallel , we also expect to take on 1 or possibly 2 employees when we open the new café." Emma further commented, "When we started this venture less than 6 months ago, we never dreamed that we would be running 2 business and employing staff". Craig remarked "It's hard work, but nothing worth having ever comes easily."

Their new business - Crumbs & Crust Kitchen opened for business on the 11^th June.

Testimonials