Natascha Duske set up her own community micro-enterprise – Natascha Duske Care – offering care and support to people in the Northern Fells area of Cumbria in 2022. She was supported by her local Community Catalyst as part of the ‘Community Micro-Enterprise Project’ funded by Cumberland County Council.
The local Community Catalyst supported Natascha to meet the ‘Doing it Right’ Standards which are designed to help local enterprise leaders to provide a great quality sustainable service that local people can trust.
Here Natasha talks about the difference it made to have the support of Community Catalysts:
“This whole experience with…Community Catalysts has been a very positive one. Going through the Doing it Right Standards was easy but very informative and it has really helped to bump up my confidence. Knowing that I have all the documents in place is very reassuring.
My invoices are more professional now as I was doing handwritten ones before. The local Catalyst also advised me in relation to pricing my service fairly so I am very grateful for that. I was also accepted for a grant which helped me to pay for my initial set up costs.”
Community micro-enterprise leaders like Natascha who have been supported to meet the ‘Doing it Right’ Standards are able to list their services for free on the local Cumbria Small Good Stuff directory run by Community Catalysts. This proved to be a helpful way for Natascha to promote her business:
“After listing my enterprise on Community Catalysts’ directory, I immediately got an enquiry from a potential customer.”
Natascha’s listing gives people a sense of who she is, explains why she is well-suited to her work and the enjoyment she gets from what she does:
“I’m friendly, compassionate, empathetic and a very good listener. I love my job; I love making connections with people and am happy to help you in any way I can.”
Overall, the help and guidance from Community Catalysts and the peer-to-peer links that joining the development programme gave Natascha have made a positive difference to her journey, and added to the enjoyment she gains from the work:
“My local Catalyst has been really amazing, has the patience of a saint and is such a lovely person to work with. I was also invited to the WhatsApp group and to a coffee morning to meet the other community micro-enterprises which was great fun. It’s been a real pleasure working with Community Catalysts!”