News
23 October 2006
Award to agencies that empower the capital's entrepreneurs to start and run thriving new businesses
The achievement of Capital Enterprise members in helping Londoners in the poorer parts of the capital to become their own boss is honoured today.
This follows the success of the 23 London-based agencies that are members of Capital Enterprise. These agencies operate in all 33 of the capital’s boroughs, helping Londoners to start and run thriving new businesses.
The agencies’ achievement has been recognised by the award to London of the Barclays’ Let’s Talk Business Award for Best Region for Customer Service at the 13th Annual National Federation of Enterprise Agencies (NFEA) Conference.
Presented by Fraser MacKay, Head of Commercial Marketing at Barclays Local Business, the award reflects the 98 per cent positive satisfaction rate with the work of Capital Enterprise’s member-agencies as expressed by delegates.
Vijit Singh, Executive Director of Capital Enterprise, the London agencies’ representative body said:
“This honour endorses London’s collaborative working, public-private partnerships, the quality of our programme management and delivery functions and, above all, customer satisfaction.”
Mark Bower, Barclays Regional Business Director, Local Business for Inner London, said:
“I am delighted that the high quality of the training that Capital Enterprise and its member agencies deliver in conjunction with the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies is recognised by the most important people in the enterprise equation, the potential business-owners themselves.”
Capital Enterprise’s Vijit Singh explained:
“We are running 90 events this year aimed at those thinking of starting in business and those that are imminently starting-up, to help facilitate entrepreneurship in the capital. These are attended by an average of 15 businesses per event, which suggests that Capital Enterprise member agencies are enabling more than five Londoners a day to become their own boss.”
He continued:
“The Capital Enterprise network has sprung to national recognition from small beginnings and our London initiatives are now widely used elsewhere. For example, we developed a half day seminar, piloting it at Harrow in Business and at HBV Enterprise in Hackney, and this seminar is now being adopted as a model by other agencies up and down the country.”
Although the Barclays Let’s Talk Business award honours all 23 Capital Enterprise member agencies, Vijit paid particular tribute to 14 London-region enterprise support organisations and nine individuals:
- Business Extra
- Centa Business Services
- Croydon Business Venture
- East London Small Business Centre
- Enterprise Enfield
- Harrow in Business
- HBV Enterprise
- KIS Training
- Merton Chamber of Commerce
- oneLondon
- Portobello Business Centre
- South East Enterprise
- Tottenham Green Enterprise Centre
- TNG/InBiz
Regional Trainers:
- Alan Goodall
- Cliff Maxen
- Graham Jordan
- James Walsh
- Ken Sheppard
- Michael Locke
- Norman Pierce
- Vince Waldron
Consultant:
- John Spindler, JSA Solutions