Group Marketing Director of Hillyer McKeown volunteers for Government’s new Enterprise Allowance Scheme

Jul 21 2011 Chester Chronicle

A CHESTER marketing director is helping people kick start their own businesses.

Debbie Edwards, who works for Chester-based law firm Hillyer McKeown, has volunteered as a mentor for the Government’s new Enterprise Allowance Scheme (EAS), which is being piloted across Merseyside.

The scheme is available to those who have been unemployed for a period of time and who want to start their own businesses.

For the past five weeks, Debbie has been mentoring web designer Paul Taylor, as he strives to launch his own design business, ‘pixelface’.

Debbie said: “I was excited the EAS was being piloted in Merseyside as I benefited from the original scheme 20 years ago.

“I wanted to make a difference to someone else starting out in business, so signing up as a mentor was an opportunity for me to get involved and give something back.

“Having had my own business and advised others as a Business Link adviser, I’d gained lots of experience in marketing and business development. Although marketing and web design are my areas of expertise, this in itself provided its own challenge.”

Paul added: “I had no idea what to expect when I signed up for the EAS, so my journey has been full of surprises. Working with Debbie has kept me focused, encouraged me to challenge my opinions and given me confidence to believe in my ability.”

However, Debbie feels the scheme still has a lot of changes to make before it rolls out nationally.

“The scheme is in desperate need of modernisation, in many ways it hasn’t moved on from when I was on the scheme. The business world is changing at a fast pace. If there’s to be a place for programmes such as this then they need to collaborate more with key bodies and businesses and not operate in isolation.”