Bowthorpe BizFizz

The East of England regional winner of the Enterprising Britain 2006 competition was BizFizz.

Bizfizz was recognised for its success in creating an all-inclusive strategy for enterprise. BizFizz has successfully encouraged and supported people to develop their business ideas and stimulated an entrepreneurial culture in the deprived area of Bowthorpe, Norwich.

Traditionally, Bowthorpe has struggled with unemployment. Just under 10,000 people live there, and 11% of its adults are lone parents. Only 70 per cent of Bowthorpe's working age population are economically active and 27 per cent are long term unemployed. Almost half of Bowthorpe's working age population have no qualifications and the basic skill levels are lower than average. What's more, despite the close proximity to the University of East Anglia, just 2.5 per cent of 18-25 year olds living in Bowthorpe go on to higher education, compared to a national average of 5.7 per cent .

The people who live in Bowthorpe face a wide range of barriers to starting a business. These could be as diverse as being long-term unemployed and caught in 'the benefits trap'; fear of risk; lack of access to networks and resources; low levels of confidence, aspirations and basic skills; poor credit history, debt and lack of access to finance; and practical bureaucratic barriers. What businesses that do exist are at a disadvantage because local markets are not very strong and the local infrastructure is poor.

The team behind the concept of BizFizz, Norwich City Council, NEF, the Civic Trust and the East of England Development Agency, decided that the best way to break this cycle was to look beyond the unemployment and social barriers and look towards the people within Bowthorpe who have ideas and passions that could be turned into viable businesses, engaging the local community with enterprise.

BizFizz's aim is to help the people with the entrepreneurial drive to create new enterprises; it encourages local people to think in an entrepreneurial way and supports them in turning their business ideas into reality. It also supports existing businesses, which could be achieving greater potential.

Central to the success of the scheme was getting buy-in from the local community and so BizFizz is all about being led by the local entrepreneurial community, and its methods reflect this. Two of the key scheme initiatives were the introduction of a business coach and the establishing of a local panel. The business coach, Anne Francis, was located within the community itself and made accessible to local people, to provide them with free, confidential advice tailored to their needs. The local panel works alongside the business coach and is made up of local residents, professionals and business owners, acting as a key network for the budding entrepreneurs, providing them with valuable information and contacts. Each panel member also introduces Anne to ten additional contacts, thus helping her widen her contact with potential entrepreneurs.

Another key priority of BizFizz is to complement the work done across the region by existing enterprise agency services, through offering a community-based approach to reach people who may not access mainstream services. The community is central to all of BizFizz's initiatives, and through this community commitment they have managed to create a service that is trusted and respected by the members of Bowthorpe. Moreover, through its work, BizFizz has actively benefited Bowthorpe by building economic and social capital within the community.

Since BizFizz began two years ago, it has achieved transformational results in the community. The project has over 70 clients, 88% of whom went to BizFizz to start up a new business. Many of the enterprises started through the project are capable of being developed into businesses, which provide good levels of employment for others. One strong testament of the satisfaction with the BizFizz service is the level of client-to-client networking: nearly a third of clients have been referred by other clients. Moreover, the Bowthorpe BizFizz is proving to be a good model, which is capable of replication in other parts of Norwich and across the County.

Sharon Quantrell, Bowthorpe BizFizz Board Member, sums it up best:

"Our success in the Enterprising Britain 2006 competition reflects our achievements encouraging enterprise over the past two years. The increase in entrepreneurial activity is living proof of the quality, support and encouragement that BizFizz provides to the people of Bowthorpe, and the buy-in of the community as a whole. We're delighted to have been chosen as the East of England regional winner."