Roya Jacoby

Having been blessed with an independent mind, as well as a colourful and inventive spirit, I nonetheless never had the means to gain real financial independence, which caused me at times serious headaches and self-doubts.

In early 2004, during a particularly depressing stretch of finding yet again an unloved job (meaning a job that would earn me money but wouldn't do anything for me in terms of a long term plan) someone well-meaning directed me towards the idea of setting up my own business. My own business? How could I? Possibly?

I found the idea worth considering and after some local research I found HBV Enterprise which took me straight into their New Entrepreneur Scholarship Programme (NES), with the aim of providing me with the intellectual as well as financial tools to get started with things. It was one of the best moves in my life.

The programme helped me to evaluate my personal and professional aims, my strengths and my weaknesses and to develop a viable strategy for my business. I could eventually clearly identify that the strength of my business is based on my unique expertise, which lies more than anything in the innovation arena. No surprise then that I was so unhappy working in fancy and trendy designer environments. After all - at heart I never ceased to be a female nerd. NES helped me to gradually develop a well-centred understanding of my potentials and to lay out a valuable business idea in my business plan.

I also met plenty of other people in a similar position like myself, with different business ideas. There was a woman who commercialised her recipe for yummy lemonade, another woman who set up a knitting supply business, people like myself who are from the creative industries and need to gain more realism in order to make a living, travel specialists, fashion people, party and wedding planners, a sausage seller. Meeting all these people, many of them fighting against the odds to make their potential real, was incredibly inspiring and one of the best things about the whole programme. It made me feel like I have a home in London, and in particular in Hackney, and that I too have things of value to contribute to this city.

In Spring 2005 I got my business plan approved by the NES panel, which provided me with a grant that enabled me to buy various much needed equipment and to get started with my marketing and the every day running of my business.

Owning my own business is an every day challenge, but I enjoy every moment. I love being independent, to continuously learn and develop, and the fact that I have a much greater know-how of how to do business. Most of all I love doing the job itself, talking to people and working with them for better and improved products.

I would never have believed it, but running my own business suits my personality down to the ground. I always thought of business people as an over worked, grey and somewhat slightly disturbed breed of people (that’s what 10 years of working in offices and design studios does to you). How wrong I was. In the end it’s all down to the individual and their outlook to make a difference. And making a difference is always worth it.