It’s always great to be able to share one of our success stories.

Sushma Solanki attended Bolton Libraries’ last Ask About Business Start Up Engines event in September 2016, which coincided with the Bolton Food and Drink Festival. It was a talk by local businesswoman and food entrepreneur Franca Iaverdino. The session concentrated on “Setting up a Food and Drink Business” and was full of useful information and inspiring advice, borne of Franca’s years of experience in catering.

Sushma had been thinking about setting up a catering business and came along to find out more about the practicalities and learn from Franca’s experience. After the event, she spoke with staff from Ask Bolton Libraries and Business Bolton about how to get more information about setting up a business and where to get impartial advice.

The team at Bolton followed up by sending Sushma information on insurance, business registration, health and safety regulations and referring her to our colleagues at Business Bolton and the GM Growth Hub.

By November, Sushma was setting up her business and returned to Bolton Libraries for some essential market research information: a list of companies in Bolton to whom she could market her corporate catering for Christmas. They provided her with a list of 100 companies, compiled to her specifications.

Sushma’s business has continued to grow, and we’re pleased to say she stays in touch and regularly attends local business information and networking events at the library.  And in 2018 she was named as one of the six winners of Theo Paphitis’ Small Business Sunday contest.

You can see Sushma talking about her business at this special event on Saturday 24th August as part of Bolton Food and Drink Festival