An Enterprise Club success story
An Enterprise Club success story
When Ryan Kelly was made redundant after the closure of the packaging factory he worked in for 32 years he did not waste time in building a new life for himself.
Two years after the demise of Neath’s “Metal Box” (Crown Packaging) factory, he is now the boss of two successful businesses – Neath Cleaning Solutions and Ryan Kelly Tree and Garden Services.
And his two new businesses are growing, both being twice as busy this year as they were in their first year – the extra customer traffic being helped by Britain’s summer heatwave which meant people wanted to spruce up their patios and gardens.
Ryan, now 49, who lives in Bryncoch, had always envisaged going into business on his own and looked on his redundancy settlement as a means of realising his dream.
But he needed help.
He attended Neath Port Talbot Council’s Enterprise Club, based at Port Talbot’s Sandfields Business Centre, where he received a start-up information pack and got support with business planning and funding.
Ryan had the vision to start two different companies and to help him on his way he received an innov8 grant of £1,000 to help with start-up costs and a £500 UK Steel Enterprise-NPTCBC grant funding support to help with other costs.
Ryan said: “I ploughed my own redundancy settlement into a van and I also bought equipment for high-reach pure water cleaning and jet-washing with those funds and with the help of the innov8 start-up grant.
“I’m extremely grateful for the help I received at Sandfields Business Centre. This included business ideas and advice given there by staff on what to do and what not to do, the people I met in similar situations to me who had gone on to set up businesses and general advice on how to plan and handle the finance side of things.”
“It’s onwards and upwards from here on.”