Sewing the seeds of success for Liz

Lizie Nellie, which opened on Main Street last week, benefited from the council’s Bricks and Clicks retail business start-up Programme.

The shop will offer a range of traditional Irish linens and textiles as well as offering sewing and craft classes for people with a range of abilities.

The Bricks and Clicks Programme was a council funded Local Economic Development Programme which ran from November 2015 to the end of March 2016.

The programme sought to support 10 individuals with a business idea and guide them through their business start-up journey.

The participants each had a retail business idea with both traditional retail businesses (‘bricks’) and online retail businesses (‘clicks’) being eligible.

Liz Corrigan, proprietor of Lizie Nellie, said: “This programme has helped me to make a long-standing ambition a reality.

“I’m very grateful to the Council for the support that they’ve given me and I can’t wait to welcome customers to Lizie Nellie.”

Councillor Thomas Hogg, Mayor of Antrim and Newtownabbey, said: “This Programme is just one example of support that the Council offers to local businesses.

“The Council supports business start-up through a number of initiatives and this one has direct benefits to the Borough as a whole.”

He added: “We’ve seen two commercial premises occupied in our local towns and we have eight new businesses trading within the Borough. I wish Liz and all of the other participants in the Bricks and Clicks Programme the very best of luck in their new venture.”

The Programme offered a combination of specialist business start-up workshops and focussed one-to-one mentoring from expert business consultants working on behalf of the council.

Participants were able to avail of market test-trading where they were given the opportunity to trial their products and service before launching their business.

They also engaged in best-practice visits to successful retail businesses to observe and learn from experienced business owners.

The 10 participants involved in the programme came from across the new borough of Antrim and Newtownabbey with half of the businesses being from the former Antrim borough area and half of the businesses coming from the former Newtownabbey borough area.

Additionally, half of the business ideas were online retail business ideas and half were traditional bricks and mortar style business ideas.

For details of the different support initiatives that Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council offer to those with a business idea and those who are already established in business visit www.antrimandnewtownabbey.gov.uk/Business