Train 2000 - The Centre for Women's Enterprise and Employment

Michelle Wyatt from Walton-based Village Accountancy Services was given a grant of almost £3,000 by StepClever after her Train 2000 business advisor suggested she apply for funding.

"My partner Emma Jones and I had just started up and didn't want to take out a big loan in case we couldn't pay it back," says Michelle, from Aintree.

"We were already receiving help and advice from Train 2000, when they told us about Stepclever. We had to create a basic plan which our advisor helped us quite a lot with, and after we had completed the plan StepClever wanted to see other legal documents, such as the lease of the property, our business bank account, that sort of thing. Eventually StepClever gave us a grant of £2,971.

"All in all the process of applying for and finally receiving our grant took about two to three months, but it actually would have taken a lot less time had it not been that we took quite a long time to do our business plan.

"We have also been able to qualify for another grant of £1,200 from StepClever because we are women entrepreneurs. This money is fantastic. The money we had originally pays for 45% of our start up costs. Everything was just so much more affordable because of our grant and we haven't had to go into severe debt.

"We started operating in January and the grant came through the following May. We were able to pay for other unexpected bills with the second grant.

"If it wasn't for Train 2000 we wouldn't have known about StepClever and as a result, we would really have missed out on vital funds."

Village Accountancy Services can be contacted on 07504 923915.