Bella Howse joined the Help into Mentoring scheme in November 2024. She is currently being supported by experienced mentor, Collette Butterworth, who is providing her with assistance in starting her own Personal Trainer business.
Bella has been going through a very traumatic time personally, and as a result has been unable to work.
In order to assist her to ‘get back on her feet’ and regain her confidence, she approached the Chamber of Commerce for some business support. She’d had experience of running enterprises previously. However, with her confidence being so low, she needed encouragement and guidance and thought the Help into Mentoring scheme would provide this.
With support from Collette, and other mentors on the scheme, Bella has been assisted in: attending network events to help build confidence, developing branding for her new business, obtaining relevant qualifications (Personal Training - Level 3), creating a website, developing a social media strategy, and understanding business finances and submit tax returns.
One of the things Collette has been able to steer Bella towards is the Programme’s Employability Fund. In order to develop her business proposal Bella required access to digital equipment and to improve her personal digital skills.
"Having a new, lightweight laptop makes all the difference to my world.... and to my personal development. I've been in a caring role for many years and my IT skills have fallen behind and my confidence has been eroded. I've been trying to do everything on my mobile phone as I had no computer nor printer at home. I can also access Teams from home which means I can now get access to the course curriculum that I've recently signed up for with Kendal College.” “I am extremely grateful for the grant funding and support from all the agencies/organisations involved.”
