It's Easy Being Green
Both Neil and Abbe Coulton had enjoyed successful careers in the city but wanted to work for themselves. Neil had started businesses in the past and Abbe has a history of entrepreneurship in her family. It was whilst working in London that they found that everyone complained about the cost of toner cartridges. One solution is to buy remanufactured cartridges. Neil was aware of remanufactured cartridges and their reputation as poor quality and a false economy. They had however learnt of a method of producing quality remanufactured cartridges, but found no company doing this in the UK. This was an opportunity to start their own business and founded Green Cartridges in January 2005.
Neil and Abbe were recommended to visit Business Development Services for advice. They attended an appointment with advisor David Brown who suggested they take the Business Planning Course run by BDS. According to Abbey the course was extremely useful ‘everything we were taught was very good, I still keep all my course notes and refer back to them even 4 years later.’
Despite their experience working in big businesses, Abbe and Neil found the advice from David essential to starting their business. From general initial advice on cash flow and marketing he now gives them more tailored advice on issues such as staffing, legal issues, and managing growth. David meets with the couple every few months and they regularly come into the BDS office for a quick talk with the staff ‘We are in a constant two way conversation with BDS, they often ring us about courses or with advice they think would benefit us, we never feel we are truly alone because they are always in the background.’
Neil and Abbe are confident of the future success of their business, which has blossomed despite the current economic climate. They have experienced huge growth with an increase in turnover of over 400%. The partners expect continued growth and hope to increase turnover to over three times its current level. This will leave several expansion options open to company both through natural growth and franchising.
Green Cartridges have won several awards for their environmental work. They use each cartridge up to 15 times enabling companies to cut costs without lowering quality. It is also important for both Abbe and Neil that they help people and put something back into the community. They endeavour to employ a spectrum of staff from different backgrounds and ages and £1 of each sale is donated to charity.
When asked what advice they would have for new entrepreneurs they replied ‘a lot, but mainly to go and see BDS, they would be an integral part of the success of any new business.’
www.greencartridges.com
Or contact them by phone on
01376 324222
abbe@greencartridges.com
Market Place