StartUp Croydon is shortlisted for Best Charity in Croydon
We are delighted to announce that StartUp Croydon has been shortlisted as Best Charity in the Croydon Business Awards for 2022.
This award, in our humble opinion, is very well deserved this year as we have been making waves across the borough with new and exciting programmes.
One such project is our collaboration with BOXPARK Croydon to offer one local entrepreneur the opportunity to win up to three months running their own pop-up unit at BOXPARK Croydon completely free of charge. Our team has pulled together an amazing group of mentors to work directly with all successful candidates, and will be providing their expertise and time, also free of charge. The shared vision of a stronger economy across Croydon is the motivation for everyone involved in the project.
StartUp Croydon’s Project manager, Geoff Ranson, has worked hard to deliver the BOXPARK project by using our vast contact to cultivate and impressive group of mentors and delegates, and our impressive panel of Trustees were able to persuade BOXPARK that this enterprising venture would be of great benefit to everyone involved.
The candidates are thrilled to have the opportunity to fulfil their dream to run their own site, but only one company will ultimately win this year.
Winning Best Charity in the Croydon Business Awards would make all the difference to future campaigns like this pilot BOXPARK project as it would give us local recognition and support our funding ambitions to help us to deliver additional enterprise activities in the borough.
One of our more recent success stories comes from the support we have given to Winston Douglas, who set up his own business, Urban Logs, as a direct result of his involvement with StartUp Croydon and the Business Incubator programme.
Recently retired from the Fire Service, Winston found us in January this year (2022) whilst in the process of setting up his own business. He came across StartUp Croydon when looking for support in relation to business rates. Winston threw himself into our training programme and excelled as his knowledge and business confidence increased throughout the process, resulting in the successful launch of Urban Logs Ltd.
Aside from winning our Spring 2022 incubator programme, Winston’s most significant achievement is taking on a storage solution with preferential rates which he negotiated hard for. It has been incredibly rewarding to watch him grow since beginning the programme.
“I had started putting together a business plan, but definitely needed some support and guidance in this area and also getting to grips with various modern-day aspects of planning for a successful business start-up” – Winston Douglas.
We are not limited to offering support to any particular sector, but we are all about location. Our business connections are vast and our support varied, and our mentoring and training courses include a variety of delegates who self-refer. These include recently retired professionals to long-term corporate employees who have been made redundant.
We also take referrals from the probation service and charities such as Evolve and Crisis. Our delegates come from all parts of the world too, and from many different circumstances, but 95% of them reside in Croydon.
Our cohorts are always supportive and inclusive and we love delivering this training for local people and adding to the strong community of Croydon by delivering opportunities for people to connect.
Your vote for StartUp Croydon will increase the opportunity for us to win Best Charity, and winning will make a huge difference to both recognition of our work, the impact it has on the local community, and allow us to deliver more enterprise initiatives in the future.
It is an honour to be nominated and shortlisted for Best Charity in 2022. We have entered this with the intention of spreading the word about what we can do to help aspiring entrepreneurs and that we are here to support all of their aims and objectives.
We do this by offering training and workshops to support future entrepreneurs, and co-working spaces to provide a working environment with no distractions, allowing our clients to be fully engaged and motivated to complete their work.
Our team works extremely hard to ensure our clients’ expectations are met, and we always want our customers to feel satisfied with the services we provide to them.
Below are some comments from our clients:
The enterprise centre is always conducive to a positive, inspiring environment to work in.
All the staff and managers at StartUp Croydon are very professional, helpful, friendly, hard-working and courteous and will go the extra mile to help you
With access to StartUp Croydon’s training and networking events, we are exposed to opportunities that benefit our business.
We appreciate the warm feedback from all our clients regarding their experience using the services we offer at StartUp Croydon, and we aim for every client to have this level of satisfaction with our services.