When Joanne Upton found herself redundant from her job while on maternity leave she decided it was time to take the plunge into self-employment so that she could continue in the work she loved.
“I am not a natural entrepreneur; it was never on my ‘things I must do in my life’ list”, she said, “but to cut a long story short I was struggling to find a job I actually wanted without having to undertake a huge commute every day and with a number of self-employed friends encouraging me it was a case of nothing ventured nothing gained.”
Joanne has worked in the environmental sector since graduating with an MSc in Environmental Management in 2004.
She has assisted businesses across a range of sectors, including construction and manufacturing, and has now used her expertise to launch ‘Eco Outsource’ through the Outset Cornwall programme.
“Eco Outsource offers specialist support to help businesses boost their returns by cutting carbon emissions, saving energy, reducing waste and ensuring compliance with environmental legislation. There is plenty of competition out there but I know it is a growing market. I love my job, it’s what I’m good at, and the only way I could keep doing it was to set up my own company, so I took the plunge. Every now and again I have to pinch myself because I can quite believe I’ve started my own business.”
This enthusiastic, friendly new mum who adores her family was advised to contact Outset Cornwall by the Job Centre, and after the very first session, Joanne was hooked.
She smiled: “I am not sure what happened but I skipped back home and decided I was going to set up my own business, now was as good as time as any, even during a recession. If I hadn’t started going along to the workshops I’m sure I would have started up Eco Outsource on a wing and a prayer. It made me really think of it as a business and attending the weekly meetings was the pick-me-up I needed to start believing, “Yes, I can do this”.”
The early days are her most memorable parts because she had so many ideas during the workshops she would walk home with her mind buzzing about the business model.
“Outset Cornwall gave me the confidence to move forward and I’m not sure I actually would have set up without them. My business advisor was fantastic and after the very first workshop my decision was made, and that is where Eco Outsource started.”
Although Joanne can’t yet imagine where her business will be by 2020 she knows that energy prices are going to continue to rise and coupled with an ever-increasing amount of environmental legislation many businesses need support from experts just to stay on top.
She has now become a member of Cornwall Enterprising Women, a female entrepreneur support network, and has been accepted on to the Unlocking Cornish Potential Graduate Start-Up scheme to will help her develop her business even more.
“My number one aim is that Eco Outsource becomes a viable Cornish environmental consultancy and gains a reputation of providing excellent environmental support to businesses”, she concluded.
And despite her claim not to be a “natural entrepreneur” she has shown she most definitely has a natural aptitude for being just that.
