Coach helped Stephen to turn his life around (From The Northern Echo)

Coach helped Stephen to turn his life around

9:29am Tuesday 16th September 2008 in

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A MAN who went from being unemployed to setting up a business in less than two years is winning clients all over the country.

Stephen Ashworth turned his life around, from being out of work 20 months ago, to now having about 70 clients with his design company, 1079 Graphics.

The Teesside company works on accounts across the country, and will soon join forces with another business to create Comiteq, which will offer custom-made design for print and the internet, as well as email marketing, networking installation and web hosting.

Mr Ashworth, from Acklam, near Middlesbrough, had long harboured a dream of running a business, and his original attempt at getting his own venture off the ground failed.

After receiving help from welfare-towork organisation Pertemps and employment coach Andrea Fourie, he was able to establish 1079 Graphics.

“I was very close to giving up on the idea of setting up my own business, due to being unemployed for so long,” said Mr Ashworth.

“When the Jobcentre asked if I wanted to visit Pertemps I was wary, because I didn’t know what to expect.

When I got there, Andrea talked to me in great detail about my plans for employment or whether I could re-launch my business, which immediately put me at ease.

“This really helped me rebuild my vision for 1079 Graphics, as Pertemps not only gave me the funding and knowledge I needed at the time, but the team there also gave me back my confidence and drive, which was equally as important.

“I now work with clients from all over the UK and my new company Comiteq will launch soon, which is very exciting. I’m not sure I would be where I am today if I didn’t go to Pertemps and I can not thank them enough,”

Pertemps has been running Employment Zone in Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland for nearly four years, during which time more than 5,500 people have secured jobs.

Ms Fourie said: “It was very clear Stephen had the vision and talent to be a great graphic designer, but he was struggling to get his own business to work.

“He was initially down-hearted that it wouldn’t be possible to achieve his aim, but seemed to quickly get his drive back when we started to get things in place.

“Now he is living his dream and it sounds like the business has really taken off.”