Unemployment translates into opportunity for Surbiton local

Surbiton’s newest entrepreneur launches translation service with help from InBiz in Mitcham

Noelle Ho, 43, from Surbiton, has made the leap from unemployment to entrepreneurship with help from InBiz in Croydon. InBiz is as organisation dedicated to the promotion and development of self employment and entrepreneurship that has helped 641 Londoners into self employment in the last year.

Noelle had been unemployed for 10 months, and despite trying, was unable to find work. Frustrated at the lack of vacancies, she decided she would use her talents to create her own employment opportunity.

Noelle’s first language is Cantonese, and she had experience of translating from voluntary work she had done in the past. She thought setting up her own translation and interpretation service would be the perfect career option, but she didn’t know how to get a business up and running.

She sought advice from InBiz, where she was assigned a personal business adviser, Jyo Patel. Working with Jyo, Noelle learned how to do her own bookkeeping, tax and learned the basics of marketing. She drafted a comprehensive business plan, and was soon able to officially launch her new business.

Noelle is now earning a living providing a Cantonese and Mandarin translation and interpreting service. Her clients include local community, schools, hospitals, doctors and social services.

Her self-named business is going well, and she is hopeful about the future.

She said, "Setting up my own business through InBiz gave me all the help and skills I needed to launch, and continue to grow, my business. Being financially independent is important to me, and I am so proud of what I have achieved so far. I am hoping to grow my business and extend the translation services I can offer."

Richie Hamden, Business Manager at InBiz said, "Noelle is a good example of the work that InBiz does in Surbiton. Noelle had the language skills she needed to run a translation and interpreting business, but we helped her to develop the business skills that she needed to come off benefits and into entrepreneurship."

InBiz Preess Release