Helping women in Chichester start their own business

Rebecca Stisted, founder of local coffee roasting business HOST, who launched her business last year as a result of her time spent as part of the last cohort of Discover Your Future

Twenty women in the district will get free support to set up their own business in a 12-week course run by Chichester Community Development Trust (CCDT).

Funded by ESF Community Grants, the three-month programme is called Discover Your Future. Designed to help those in greatest need, the project will support women in the Chichester district who are not in employment or education, coaching and training them in key skills needed to start up on their own.

Each of the 20 women who secure a place will be partnered with a mentor to support them through the three months. A programme of 12 weekly skills workshops will cover topics from confidence to marketing and accounting, alongside peer-to-peer mentoring.

The previous programme supported 20 women to build and develop business ideas that varied from coffee roasting to landscape gardening, and workshops supporting mothers and daughters.

Organisers said what proved most successful was providing the advice of experts in the field, but also creating a sense of community between the women. They shared advice and contacts, reviewed each other’s products, provided invaluable feedback and advice and were there to support each other.

Clare de Bathe, CCDT director, said: “It can be an overwhelming and lonely experience setting up your own business, and this wonderful programme helps to take away so many of the fears when going into it. The women on Discover Your Future need not feel alone or worry that they don’t have all of the skills required to launch a new business because at every step there will be somebody there to guide them.

"Everybody has had to reflect on how they would like to work in the future and many have now decided that home working, and working for themselves is the way forward. We are so excited that with this initiative we can make the dreams some have made a reality, giving them the perfect building blocks for future success.”

To get involved, either as a candidate or to become a mentor, email [email protected].

The programme is set to get underway in the week commencing October 31 so applicants or potential mentors are encouraged to get in touch as soon as possible.