A Lincolnshire entrepreneur has become one of the first people in the county to receive funding from EnterpriseLoans East Midlands to develop his aerial photography business.
John Nowell has run Stamford based Zodiac Publishing with his wife since 1997. A retired RAF pilot and aerial photographer for more than 30 years, John also uses his photography skills and love of taking to the air to create and produce his own range of “coffee table” books of photographs from different regions of the world, from Lincolnshire to Dubai.
Established by East Midlands Development Agency (emda) and managed by the First Enterprise Business Agency (FEBA), EnterpriseLoans East Midlands provides businesses and entrepreneurs with loans of between £3,000 and £20,000 and has awarded more than a quarter of a million pounds to 22 East Midlands’ businesses in its first six months.
“We are delighted with the Enterprise Loan. It will help us to speed up the production and printing of five more of our own books,” said John. “We have already published ‘A Day Above Rutland’ and ‘A Day Above Lincolnshire’, which won an award from HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The new books will include aerial photography and narrative of the other East Midlands counties.
“I started the publishing business 11 years ago, and although our own range of 14 books was developed on a part-time basis, with the family all helping to sell them, I hope that with the market potential of these local interest books, we can expand the business and even create job opportunities to help with graphic design and delivery.”
John is one of a number of entrepreneurs across the East Midlands who has received funding through EnterpriseLoans East Midlands. Speaking about the scheme, John O’Reilly, emda’s Business Support Director, said: “John is an example of the kind of person we want to support through the EnterpriseLoans fund.
“We want people with commitment, vision and solid propositions, like John, to be given an opportunity to develop their viable ideas or current businesses. I am sure that there are many other budding entrepreneurs in Lincolnshire who could also benefit from this fund and be given an opportunity to start or develop their own business.
“EnterpriseLoans East Midlands is a sustainable source of funding which addresses the difficulties of accessing finance and can help people in the East Midlands to realise their ambitions.”
Quamar Zaman, Chief Executive of FEBA, which administers the EnterpriseLoans East Midlands fund said: “Given the credit crunch, traditional sources of funding such as banks are now much more selective about which business proposals they will support.
“We are receiving a steady flow of enquiries, including those from people who have a poor credit rating or who have been declined funding in the past. I would encourage more people to contact the Business Link and find out about the range of business support services available to them.”
For more details about EnterpriseLoans East Midlands, telephone 0845 602 7355 or visit www.enterpriseloanseastmidlands.co.uk
Existing entrepreneurs or individuals who are thinking of starting up in business should contact Business Link on 0845 058 6644 or visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/eastmidlands to find out about the support that is available to them.
ENDS
Issued on behalf of emda by lava. For further information please contact Matt or Louise at lava on 01522 842 800 / 07870 567 968 or matt@lavapr.co.uk / louise@lavapr.co.uk
Notes to Editors:
About emda
• East Midlands Development Agency (emda) is one of nine Regional Development Agencies in England, set up in 1999 to bring a regional focus to economic development.
• Working in partnership with public, private and voluntary organisations the aim is to deliver the 2006 Regional Economic Strategy (RES) ‘A Flourishing Region’, which sets out regional priorities until 2020.
• The RES, coordinated by emda, highlights the themes of productivity, sustainability and equality and builds on the previous two strategies; ‘Prosperity Through People’ and ‘Destination 2010’.
• In early 2007 the National Audit Office announced emda had received the highest possible grade of ‘performing strongly’ in an independent assessment of our work – scoring 22 out of 24.
• For more details visit www.emda.org.uk.
About First Enterprise Business Agency (FEBA)
• First Enterprise Business Agency (FEBA) was established in 1989 to meet the challenges faced by the ethic minority community by bridging the gap of accessibility of support and provide a confidential and culturally sensitive business support service.
• FEBA is a non-profit-making organisation, which registered as a company limited by guarantee in May 1993 after it gained independence from the Nottingham City Council.
• First Enterprise Business Agency’s (FEBA’s) role is to help people from disadvantaged communities to create and sustain economic advantage through self-employment by providing pre and post start-up support in many forms.
• FEBA is an Enterprise Agency in the East Midlands region with a specialist remit to serve the ethnic minority community, and the disadvantaged groups.
• First Enterprise is a member of the following organisations:
o BERR Approved Enterprise Agency
o Full member of the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies (NFEA)
o Member of Community Development Finance Association (CDFA)
o Licensed by the Office of Fair Trading under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, license number 381033
o Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce membership number 369975
o Meets the requirements of the National Standard for Effective Investment in People
o Registered for BS EN ISO 9001:2000 certificate number 19088
o Accredited by the Customer First Framework certificate number 1490
Committed to Business in the Community’s Community Mark
