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Ready to Start Newsletter - volume 4 Autumn 2008

Welcome to the fourth Ready To Start newsletter

The corks are popping here as Ready To Start celebrates its second anniversary, welcomes its one-thousandth client aboard and is nominated for a top award!

Maurice Ord meeting Ann Chaplin
It’s certainly been an exciting autumn for everyone involved in the Ready To Start programme. Our second birthday saw Maurice Ord, a drama therapist from London, become the one thousandth client to join the programme. Maurice, a trained actor and qualified drama therapist, plans to launch his business, a partnership with fellow RTS client Haydn Ford, called Heart of the Story in January 2009. Both plan to deliver drama therapy to educate people about HIV on behalf their newfound clients.

Here Maurice is seen meeting Ann Chaplin, ready to Start Regional Coordinator for London and Kent.

Then in October we received news that we are a finalist for Best Corporate Partnership category in the prestigious Third Sector Awards. This is a real achievement for a project in its middle year and we are thrilled. The awards ceremony will take place on 18th November where we will be joined by representative RTS entrepreneurs and Barclays Buddies.

These achievements are recognition of the ongoing success of the programme. At the end of September nearly 200 disabled entrepreneurs had began trading in their own businesses and a further 23 have made the decision to move into employment, further education or taken on voluntary work as a result of their experiences within the programme. That’s a 71% conversion ratio which is an excellent result; so many thanks to all our partner organisations who helped us to support the RTS entrepreneurs.

Ready To Start Blogging!

Ready to Start blog screen
The new RTS blog is here! The blog, a replacement for our old and unloved forum, promises to be a lively and exciting place to spend some online time. RTS clients can share information, showcase their businesses and quiz the expert guests that we will be lining-up over the coming months.

Buddies, mentors and other people interested in disability and entrepreneurialism can also use the blog to share information, promote regional activities and national events, float ideas and gain feedback. It is multi-media so photos, pictures and even video clips can be used. Documents and files can also be added for others to download.

There are two ways to visit the blog. You can go to the front page of the RTS website www.readytostart.org and click the link from there, or you can click here.

Lorraine Evans-Raistrick
RTS client and blogger Lorraine thinks it’s a great idea. She said “I am a firm believer in sharing our experiences with each other when facing disabilities. Over time I want to help on the blog by posting as much information as I can by pointing people in the right direction to try and overcome any obstacles that come our way.” And she’s started with the same determination and enthusiasm that she invested into starting her business, by posting plenty of helpful articles on to the blog. Find out more about Lorraine by visiting her website: www.lorreva-web-development.co.uk

Meet the mentors!

A key part of the RTS programme is the distance mentoring service which supplements the work of the buddies. Mentoring is delivered using our own in-house team of mentors and through our partner agencies, Destiny, Meganexus and Northern Pinetree Trust.

We are pleased to introduce you to two of the in-house team members.

Elaine James
Elaine James is the Mentor Co-ordinator. Following a 15-year charity sector career and considerable experience as an enterprise development manager, Elaine joined the Ready To Start team in April this year. She said, “I wanted to use the skills I had developed over the years to support people in their business development. I always wanted to work with a national charity, but working with Entrepreneurs was the appeal - I thoroughly enjoy unleashing creativity.” Over the last few months, the question she’s been most often asked is how to market a business to gain a competitive edge. She said, “There is no such thing as a closed door; there are always opportunities for people with good ideas.”

Cherry Potts
Cherry Potts has an extraordinary list of achievements. As well as a qualified NLP Master Practitioner and Coach she is a business owner, published author, artist in photography, video and computer generated imagery, trainer and an experienced senior manager. She said, “I wanted this job because it was a good match for my skills, an organisation I respect and, best of all, I can take my cat to work – a long held ambition!” The main piece of advice she would offer to any entrepreneur is to write a business plan. “No matter how micro your business, even if you don’t need financing, it really helps you to stay on track and know what you want from the business,” she says.

There was also an interesting moment when she was mentoring Chris Davis of Wicked Waists featured in the last RTS newsletter. “I was suggesting he translate his website into German and Dutch, ‘as there’s a really strong market in fetish gear there’ then wondered how I knew that… I was right though, and a weekend in Belgium made it apparent there’s a market there too!

It's enterprise week!

Monday 17th November marks the start of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2008. Check out events, debates and resources at www.enterpriseweek.org.uk

RTS - warts and all

Leonard Cheshire Disability has commissioned an independent agency, Pedantic Consulting, to conduct an in-depth evaluation of the Ready to Start programme. This innovative project has been very successful and Leonard Cheshire Disability are determined to develop and improve the scheme through understanding how and why success has occurred as well as identifying areas of improvement. The comprehensive 360° assessment will cover all aspects of this initiative and will involve collating detailed feedback (surveys and one-to-one interviews) from those who are benefiting from the scheme as well as those who deliver and fund the services.

Dominic Pinkney
During the next 2 months many of you will receive an email survey and we would be really grateful if you can complete and return it so we can learn from your experience. A smaller percentage of you may be contacted and asked whether you would like to provide more detailed feedback from your involvement with the Ready to Start programme. Pedantic Consulting’s Managing Consultant, Dominic Pinkney, said, “This evaluation is an excellent opportunity for people to give constructive feedback and outline their experiences of engaging with the Ready to Start initiative.”

If you have any questions regarding the evaluation please contact Dominic Pinkney by email: or telephone: 07725 816466.

Christmas concert

Join us at the Leonard Cheshire Disability 60th anniversary Christmas Sparkler: a dazzling gala concert to be held at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, in London on Thursday 11 December 2008.

To order tickets visit the Southbank Centre website or call 0871 663 2500.

How to contact us

Linda Holland
National Project Manager

07738 033083

Terri Wilson
National Project Assistant

07500 443731

Ann Chaplin
Regional Coordinator for London and Kent

07738 033 098

Samantha Eve
Regional Coordinator for Central Region

07738 034 115

Johnny Coleman
Regional Coordinator for South West

07738 328 997

Leonore Lord
Regional Coordinator for Essex and Suffolk

07738 329 508

Martin Moore
Regional Coordinator for Wales and West

07738 328 998

Noel Jones
Regional Coordinator for East Midlands and Peterborough

07738 033 989

Sarah Ryan
Regional Coordinator for North West

07738 034 116

Vanessa Marshall
Regional Coordinator for North East and Yorkshire

07738 033 987

Alternatively you can call Innovative Projects at Leonard Cheshire Disability on 08456 717173 or email