Business consultants’ book is helping to drive entrepreneur success 

A book written by two Staffordshire business advisors has helped hundreds of budding entrepreneurs and start-ups to kickstart their new ventures. 

Sandra Brookes and Peter Ball who run Bluebell Business published Start A Small UK Business, supported by Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce. 

The expert pair wanted to write a business educational guide to act as a support resource for start-ups – and also to complement the mentoring work they provide at the Chamber and other organisations like Staffordshire University.  

Since being published two years ago, Start A Small UK Business has been widely used within business mentoring sessions and hundreds of books have been delivered. 
 
“It was a big decision to publish the book,” said Sandra. 
 
“There is no complicated language used in the book, which is really a guide, and we were adamant we wanted to offer useful tools which would be used for the right reasons to help others on their journey. 
 
“Working within the corporate world ourselves and also starting our own business – both myself and Peter fully understand and appreciate the complexities of going alone and we just want to help as much as we can.” 
 
Tom Nadin, Head of Projects and Business at Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce, said: “Staffordshire Chambers is proud to have supported both Sandra and Pete with the launch of their Start A Small UK Business book. 
 
“Over the last two years we have rolled the book out, alongside a number of our existing start-up programmes, to support individuals who are considering starting and growing their own businesses. 
 
“This fantastic resource complements our workshops and provides delegates with a range of additional support, advice and templates that they can access for years to come.

“Feedback has been fantastic from delegates as well as our wider stakeholders and we are excited to continue to work with them both in the future.” 
 
The paperback and digital book has also been used to help entrepreneurs on the Peter Coates MSc in Entrepreneurship at Staffordshire University – which launched in January 2023.