On July 19th 2012, I made my way to Hillsborough Jobcentre to begin PRIME's Preparing to Run Your Own Business course. I entered the building and found myself in a room full of women. I don't know what this says about mature male* entrepreneurs in Sheffield, but for Look-in-the-Bag, it was a great piece of luck.
* I know quite a few women who would say there's no such thing.
Having done courses at Business Link and at Sheffield Enterprise, I was familiar with much of the material (though on PRIME's course it was covered in more depth and eventually led to a Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative (SFEDI) accredited Level 2 Certificate). As far as I was concerned though, the main advantage of the PRIME course was that it brought me into contact with a fascinating group of women willing to share a wide range of experience and some extremely useful insights. Many of the insights were relevant to business in general, but as far as LitB was concerned, we hit a rich seam of advice and ideas when it came to potential customers for fashion accessories.
* I know quite a few women who would say there's no such thing.