Go Furness

Chelsea Peters...

Chelsea Peters shares her experiences of a summer job placement at Furness Enterprise.

I have lived in Barrow all my life and last year I started University in Liverpool, studying towards a law degree. I realised I would have to get a job over the summer holidays, being a student you quickly realise money is hard to come across!

So the search began, and I started by handing my C.V into BAE systems for their summer placement scheme. I was too late and all the vacancies had been filled. The manager of the programme kindly offered to take a copy of my CV and pass it round some of his local business contacts. It was a good idea, especially as I received a phone call from Furness Enterprise offering me an interview for a summer job placement.

I nervously attended the interview and the same day I was offered the position! I was very happy with this and the prospect of a new challenge was exciting.

The project at Furness Enterprise was the production of a brochure, called ‘First in Furness’. It is a brochure which is put together to showcase businesses which have been assisted by Furness Enterprise. This could either be in the form of funding or just business advice.

My job was to collect information from business start ups from 2006. I did so by phoning them and conducting a short questionnaire, to establish whether they were still trading, and to see how helpful they found Furness Enterprise.

The next Step was to start making appointments with the businesses that were going to appear in the brochure. There were 24 overall, I would make the appointment and then go and visit their business premises to conduct a short ‘interview’ with them. I was being helped along by Chris Thorp of ‘Mobius’ design.

Chris is a designer and has been assisting Furness Enterprise with the project. He accompanied me on all the visits and helped with the interviews. He also took some pictures of the client and their business; these were to be included in the brochure.

Once the visits were over, I used my notes from the interviews to write a short narrative about the businesses. These will be put together, along with the research, to make the brochure.

I have helped out in a number of different ways as well as being involved with the brochure. I have been included in attending master classes and seminars, meetings between staff and clients and involvement in other brochures. I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Furness Enterprise, it has been an excellent opportunity and I have learnt a lot along the way.

Additional Notes…

Chris Thorp a designer has helped out with the project. He came into Furness Enterprise to discuss the criteria of the brochure and we decided we would have to visit 24 businesses, but that only 18 would appear in the brochure. There was a wide spread of businesses and an even mix of men and women owners.

We have visited:

• Fortis Mechanical Design
• Activate!
• Working Class Heroes
• The Ulverston Brewing Company
• Liam Doran designs
• Gillam’s Tearooms
• The Canteen (Northern Riviera Productions)
• LMB Design
• Showing Off Limited
• Ian Salmon Painter & Decorator
• Signal Films
• GAP Scaffolding
• Earthly Matters
• Speed Of Sound car audios
• Michael Slaney Design
• Victory Laundry Services
• Insideout Soccer Schools
• NSH Training
• Kingfisher Seafood
• Your Safe Planet

However, we did not get a chance to see;

• Just Tasty
• Nicholson Shotblasting
• James Anthony Cross Men’s Barbers

As we were working to a tight schedule. Gavin Boardman of BP Communications declined the offer to appear in the brochure.

We interviewed all the businesses and established a number of points:

• When/Why they started up their business
• Successes
• Number of employees etc
• What assistance they have had from F.E
• What were their plans for the future-expansion etc?

Chris helped with the interviews to start off with, as I was unsure of what to ask. Whilst we were there he took pictures of the people/business and then something to do with the business for example at Michael Slaney Design he took pictures of Michael and then of his Tools; saws. Hammers, work benches etc.

Every time we went on a visit I took down a set of notes. This was to make things easier for myself once I came round to writing the narrative. After visits I would start to write the narrative whilst the interview was fresh in my mind. It would be a much more detailed version of my notes, just using the relevant points. (Some businesses gave me leaflets or publications about themselves which helped as it was additional information.)

The finished copy will include research, a narrative, pictures and an index of new businesses.

I have been involved with a number of different things at Furness Enterprise. I lent a hand at the “Talent Magnets” Master class, which Matthew Mayvers of ‘Caterkwick’ and David Williams of ‘Impact’ training were guest Speakers.

I have also prepared work to help with Furness Enterprises Annual report and ILM brochure.

Posted by Phil Powell on 28th August 2008