Success Stories
The New Enterprise Incentive Scheme has helped over 100,000 people start their own business in the 20 years it has been in operation.
These people have come from a variety of backgrounds and circumstances which have led to them being eligible for the program.
On these pages you will find a selection of Success Stories - the majority of these businesses have been nominated for awards in the past few years - and the majority attribute their business success to the support they received from NEIS.
We hope their stories will encourage and inspire you to start your own business.
The 2011 Awards will open soon, and more success stories will be told...
Our success story for July 2011 is SMART Car Repairs GC
Shannon Thomas is a qualified mechanic who was made redundant from his last mechanical position, and although he applied for many mechanical jobs they offered long hours without bonuses or overtime, involved Saturday work and minimum wages he had no success. With three young children, Shannon and his wife Pamela were not enjoying being on the dole, and were just surviving. They sat down and made a list of their experience, qualifications and knowledge, with the aim of working out how they could make enough money to live comfortably, to give their children everything they needed and have a balanced lifestyle which put their family first.
The answer hit them - a mobile mechanic! With the help of the NEIS program through ETC on the Gold Coast, just 17 months later Shannon and Pamela have achieved their goals!
"In the beginning, just having someone believe in your business idea and to accept you into the NEIS program was a huge thing for us," Shannon said. "Knowing that we were going to have the support from our business facilitator for the next 12 months as well as the financial support was what gave us the confidence in ourselves to get started and to keep going."
"The group NEIS sessions were the perfect networking setting for us that allowed us to share our successes with fellow NEIS participants and in turn not only did we gain an additional 13 new clients, we were able to team up with other small businesses and work together to provide additional services to out clients," added Pamela. "For example, we now purchase our balleries from another NEIS small business and in turn, they continue to refer us to their customers and we do all the servicing and repairs on their personal and business vehicles."
Part of the key to SMART (which incidentally stands for "Shannon's Mobile Automotive Repair Technicians") Car Repairs is that they educate their clients about their vehicle and aim to empower clients, so they reduce their risk of being ripped off or overcharged, which unfortunately many in the industry still do. They also have a unique Lifetime Rewards Program, where customers who refer new paying customers to them are rewarded with a discount on the full range of services for life.
They also support a number of charities, and believe that Small Business doesn't mean that they are small - as they, like so many other businesses have big hearts. As NEIS has helped SMART Car Repairs GC along the way, they are now using their business to give a hand to others too.