Get on your Bike and Go Dutch!

When GJ Baan, arrived in London from the 'land of cycling', the Netherlands, 13 years ago, one of the first things he noticed was the number of cyclists around London's streets. When he started noticing more Dutch-style bicycles, he realised that some people wanted the genuine article - and his website, www.anddutch.co.uk selling authentic Dutch bicycles, was born.

When he first arrived in London, GJ was working within the creative industry however he always harboured an ambition to launch his own business. After redundancy from his role job as a Creative Project Manager for 2entertain/BBC WorldWide he decided to grab the opportunity to become his own boss.

But first, he needed some help. GJ enrolled on a self employment programme with InBiz, in Brixton. InBiz is a national organisation dedicated to the promotion and development of self employment and entrepreneurship, and each year helps around 657 people across London to launch their own business.

At InBiz, GJ was assigned a personal senior business adviser, Nana Appiah, who took him through every stage of launching and running a business including marketing, tax, stock, website design, insurance and access to funding to help him get started. In order to get his business off the ground and for design, InBiz awarded GJ £1,150.

GJ has now launched his business, running www.anddutch.co.uk from his home in Stockwell, exclusively selling a huge variety of high quality and Dutch designed bicycles and accessories, as well as providing various other services (partnerships) like ETA Bicycle Insurance, Charity called Re-Cycle, a famous Bicycle Repair Centre in London and the Government incentive - Bike2work Scheme. He is also about to launch a dedicated US/CAN site for his products.

GJ commented on his success, "Launching my own business has given me the opportunity to be my own boss, at the same time has allowed me to focus on something I'm passionate about. The support and advice I received from InBiz was extremely valuable as it provided me with a great resource in terms of finance, business advice, and overall Support. Without it, "bringing well-made, quality Dutch bicycles to the cyclists of London and the rest of the UK", would have been a much more of a daunting task."

Nana Appiah, Personal Senior Business Adviser, at InBiz said, "GJ's success is a great example of the work that InBiz does to help people in London start their own business. He knew what he wanted to do, and he knew he would be good at it, but he needed some advice getting the business off the ground, which is where InBiz came in. His Business Adviser helped to fill in the gaps in his business knowledge, offer support and ensured regular meetings to keep him on track, so he never lost motivation while getting to grips with entrepreneurship. Now his business is up and running, I'm looking forward to seeing more Dutch cycles around London."