Manjit has set up her own community micro-enterprise – The Gold Care – supporting people to live at home, offering support with admin, light housework, shopping, befriending and accompanying to appointments. She has a wealth of knowledge and experience of working in the local community in Central Bedfordshire, to support older people and people with learning and physical disabilities.
Manjit wanted to give customers a good life and more choice:
“I have been working in the care sector for over 20 years and I felt that I could offer a good reliable, flexible service to local people who needed it. I offer a variety of support for people in their homes and can also support with taking shopping, leisure activities in the community, and being a friend. I saw a gap in the area for this type of support, and knew people wanted more flexibility and control over the support they wanted to live their lives.
I can speak four languages: English, Punjabi, Urdu and Hindi, which means I can connect with people in my community on their level.”
The local Catalyst from the Central Bedfordshire Community Micro-Enterprise Project helped Manjit to gain the confidence to set out on her own and to see that she could get her enterprise up and running offering the best care and support.
“When I considered setting up my community micro-enterprise, I was re-evaluating my life choices and decided to take the leap. After my first meeting with the local Catalyst, I knew this was the right decision for me. We worked together on my promotional leaflet and I started working through the Doing It Right standards.
My local Catalyst helped me with getting the correct policies in place, and we worked through the Development Programme together, so I would be confident that I had everything in place before I started. I didn’t realise that there was so much to do, but I have learned a lot. The Catalyst has been a constant support, helping me to promote my enterprise and giving me ideas where to do so. She has also given me confidence and encouragement to go forward.”
It wasn’t long before Manjit was up and running supporting local people and the move has been positive for her:
“I soon completed the development programme and took on my first customer, providing 3 hours of help per week, including help with shopping.
I really enjoy working for myself and am looking forward to supporting more people.”
You can find The Gold Care and other local community enterprises on the Central Bedfordshire Small Good Stuff directory.