New Enterprise Allowance scheme - My story

Ziggy_Stardust

Yes there's very little information, I did find this earlier on today
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=h1eM2gzrzM0C&pg=PA201&lpg=PA201&dq=new+enterprise+allowance+business+plan+template&source=bl&ots=UPPw2jHE4p&sig=iK00Qv9jy7oy59iGjpXb4Acc5zA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dNZrUejLL8THPcWugeAN&ved=0CIcBEOgBMAg4FA#v=onepage&q=new%20enterprise%20allowance%20business%20plan%20template&f=false but its a bit of pain to read through.

stevenmiller_2

Hi Ziggy as I said in previous post I am one of the business advisors with Business Gateway so I have had to read through this many times already lol.

have you applied for NEA yet?

Ziggy_Stardust

stevenmiller wrote: »

Hi Ziggy as I said in previous post I am one of the business advisors with Business Gateway so I have had to read through this many times already lol.

have you applied for NEA yet?

Ah good well we've got someone who knows his stuff, we won't let you go you know :rotfl:.

Yes my husband is getting it at the moment, he's been on it a few weeks, I'm his unpaid PA :rotfl:

stevenmiller_2

Ziggy_Stardust wrote: »

Ah good well we've got someone who knows his stuff, we won't let you go you know :rotfl:.

Yes my husband is getting it at the moment, he's been on it a few weeks, I'm his unpaid PA :rotfl:

How many weeks has he been on NEA and how is the business coming along?

Ziggy_Stardust

stevenmiller wrote: »

How many weeks has he been on NEA and how is the business coming along?

A few weeks and not so bad, I must say its very good of you to come along and offer your help.

sun_shine_2

Hi
Has anyone else had a telephone interview with a mentor before being accepted on this scheme? Thanks.

andyscott

sun_shine wrote: »

Hi
Has anyone else had a telephone interview with a mentor before being accepted on this scheme? Thanks.

Are you looking to see if the advisor thinks you have a good idea before arranging to actualy meet with them?

Do you have a business plan?

pinkypoopydoo

andyscott wrote: »

Thats good at least you feel it was positive. What did she advice you to do for your market research?

She advised me about getting the business listed on places like yell.com, about how to seek out networking opportunities (advice which I promptly followed, and have been asked for a quote already, within 8 hours of getting out the meeting!), about the usefulness of flyers, where to target flyers, business cards etc. We discussed the usefulness of things which I had discounted already, such as magnets for the car etc. In all, it's been a positive day - a useful meeting with BG, which has re-ignited the confidence I had in my business plan and my own skills, I have tied up some loose ends with a client who is looking for a regular 10+ hours a week, the starting of which will coincide beautifully with the sign off from JSA to NEA and then this request for a quote this evening. All in all, I'm a happy Pinky this evening! :T

BigAl127

stevenmiller wrote: »

Hi my name is Steven and im a businessman, I offer my time been an NEA advisor through Business Gateway. I have been scouring the net looking to see how people in other parts of the country are finding NEA both positive and negative.

If anyone needs any information on it then do ask as one thing I have learned in the past couple of days is that there is very little info out there regarding the NEA.

I asked my Jobcentre advisor on the 6th Dec 2102 about the NEA and she arranged a meeting with my mentor for the following week on the 13th. I met with my advisor, discussed my ideas and was subsequently enrolled onto a 7 week course starting January 2013.

The course I was on was SFEDI - Certificate in Creating and Starting Your Business. I had to attend 7 workshops with a Business Support Advisor. During the workshops we completed activities in a workbook, which we kept at the end of the course. After successfully completing the worksheets, we will achieve a Level 2 Qualification (equivalent to 5 O levels/GCSE, Grades A*-C) in Preparing to Run Your Own Business. The workshops ran 1 day per week from 9:30am - 4:30pm. Plus we had to complete over 100hrs of homework and further study. This enabled us to write our business plans.

As well as the course, I also had access to my mentor, if I had any problems along the way. Not that mine was of much use, but that's by the by.

On week 7, I handed my business plan to my mentor, and had a 15 minute meeting with him the following, where he approved me for the NEA scheme.

I then had 2 further meetings with my Jobcentre advisor. I was told in the first of these that I had 13 weeks in which to get my business up & running, which was by the 29th May 2013.

On the 2nd meeting on the 21st March, I signed my NEA 2 to start self employment on the 25th March. plus I rang the JSA Fast Closure team on the 21st to end my JSA from the 25th

Since then, I've not received a penny of my final JSA payment nor any NEA payments. Despite several phone calls by myself and promises of call backs, I took the bull by the horns today, visited the Jobcentre, to be told my JSA claim has been closed as of today and was given the phone no. for NEA Customer Helpline, who told me there's absolutely nothing on their system about my NEA.

So this is the 4th week of my self employment, and I am now waiting for a Senior Manager to ring me to sort out the mess created by someone else. I was given this advice by the NEA Helpline to refer it to a manager, as their concern is, my NEA won't get backdated.

I'm not trying to put anyone off, just prefer to forewarn people, there's some incapable people/systems working against you, in some areas. By the way, this is in Nottinghamshire.

Lady_strange

BigAl, sounds to me as if this is a problem with your JC+ office. This is what I was most nervous of about the whole signing off thing, as my JC were useless, infact useless is the understatement of the year. Speak to your mentor, as they will be able to sort the NEA stuff out for you, now that your claim has been closed, it is down to the job center to move you on to NEA, but your mentor may be able to speed things up for you.